Analyzing The Balance of Character Variations. (July 2020)

Below is a list of characters that I personally believe have variations that can be justified to play, as well as variations that do little to justify playing them. Please note: this list does not focus on a character's universal struggles, and instead is ment to analyze which character variations are lacking or not lacking in terms of what they offer.

The characters are placed in their respective categories based on the following:

1. The amount of play a variation receives, including casual and high level.
2. Playing a particular variation does not put the player at extreme disadvantage for choosing it.
3. The chosen variation offers an effective if not more effective way to play the character.

Spoiler: Complete Characters

Complete: Character has three variations where each of them can be justified being played

-Jacqui​

-Liu Kang​

-Geras​

-Joker​

-Sindel​

-Scorpion​

-Kabal​

-Cassie Cage​

-Kano​

-Frost​

Sheeva​

- Baraka​

-Erron Black​

- Jax​

- Skarlet​

- Kollector​

- Kitana​

- Cetrion​

Spoiler: Somewhat Lacking

Somewhat Lacking: Character has only two variations that can be justified being played
- Shang Tsung (Spellmaster, while improved, has too much startup and recovery on it's special moves. The jar of souls can also disappear off screen without the shang player knowing)

- Spawn (From Hell lacks safety, and loses arguably Spawn's most valuable tool: his projectile)

- Shao Kahn (True Kahn offers a powerful restand but the taunts have far too long of startup to ever be used)

- Johnny Cage (Shock Jock's parry finds little use and has a very impractical KB, while Caged Rage is very reactable high hit & offers little on hit or block)

- Kotal Kahn (Totemic 's Tecuani Maul and Pounce (cat specials) being safe on amp is a good start, however, the blood totems have little to no reason to be used in this variation, whereas in Buluc they do).

- Nightwolf (Ancestral's high cmd grab always side switches which would be fine, however, it has little to no reason to be amplified, and easily avoided since there are not many tick throw options with it).

- Noob Saibot (PItch Black offers the ability to combo off Noob's best string via Sickle Snag but Sickle Toss is a slow overhead zoning tool with a tight window to combo up close and little reason to AMP it anywhere past mid-screen. This special can't be comboed into either.)

- Raiden (Truth and Light has whiffing issues on hit with Jo push, loses electric fly, and lacks the safety that his other variations give him. This is easily the worst variation in the game.)

-Kung Lao (Order of Light offers a stance with new zoning options, cancels, but at the cost of losing confirms off most of his strings since his spin is replaced.)

- Sub Zero (Thin Ice gains Air Polar Axe toss which is an effective zoning tool. However, Frigid Storm is a slow mid projectile that has little to no use when Ice Ball exists. Death-Cicle Barrage is extremely punishable on block, has a limited hitbox instead of acting as a projectile, and remains neutral on hit. This move's only use is to chip out the opponent but due to Sub Zero moving backward, some portions of this attack may whiff and leave Sub punishable.)

-Jade (untamable sacrifices Jade's glow which is already a huge disadvantage. Additionally, a slow teleport that requires a bar, and exclusive normals/strings with several gaps make this variation lacking. Other than meterburning her parry to reflect multiple projectiles, the launching hit has no purpose as Jade can't combo into it, and is easily interrupted from a blockstring.)

- Terminator (Final Judgement switches Terminator's Shotgun out for grenades that unfortunately go away on hit/block. He has the option to disable the opponent's meter as well but this sacrifices damage and uses up one of Terminator's grenade slots. Meaning if you do get a hit after the incapacitator, you can confirm into a full combo.)

- D'vorah (Kreepy Krawler replaces Oviposter Rush for Flipping out which takes away her main option to stay safe. Additionally, Bombardier Beetle without being amp'd has a short range with no option to control it and it goes away on hit which immediately takes away all the value compared to Buzzed. Her flight requires full commitment and can't be cancelled early, making it very easy to shut down. Overall this variation is high risk, low reward.)

- Fujin (Cyclone has a combo starter off only one string, and a zoning tool that requires meter to do damage. This variation does provide safety via Wind Push, however, it is a zoning variation that put frankly, can't zone when a trade puts him at an immediate disadvantage. His combo ability and damage as a whole is severely let down by the tools this variation offers.)

Spoiler: Lacking

Lacking: Character only has one variation that can be justified being played.
- Sonya (No Holds Barred offers parried with very impractical KBs since low parries are extremely rare to pull off. Sonya also doesn't have many flawless block gaps in most of her strings as well so using a parry to punish a flawless block isn't even an option. Ten-Hut is ment to enhance Sonya's zoning but requires lots of setup and has slow startup. The special moves from the K.A.T. can be used to gain plus frames up close but the mixups can be reacted to and sonya doesn't have a far reaching mid to take advantage of them midscreen. Ringmaster offers everything that Ten-Hut does but better, giving more reliable zoning tools via K.A.T. Orbital Drop and Energy Ring Cancels for combo extensions that lead to massive damage in the corner.

- Robocop (OCP's Finest offers a powerful cmd grab with nice corner carry, however, this cmd grab has very small range and knocks the opponent fullscreen in a variation where Robocop struggles against zoning. The cancels off of his straight projectile are extremely negative and are a gimmick since the projectile is a high when released, and with no option to keep it safe on block. The enhanced shoulder canon bombs go away on block and have no way to be combo'd into, making them basically useless. On Patrol gives Robocop solid round close options with a safe armor break. The only problem is Robocop can't even use it after all of his launching options, outside of a jump kick. Cheval Trap has a very small hitbox and long startup, preventing any setup possibilities. If that wasn't enough, the move is also bugged as specials like Jade's glow make her immune to the stun state. Prime Directive, as the name suggests, is the primary variation and the only one worth playing.)

Spoiler: Conclusion

Conclusion:
Looking at MK11 from specifically from its variations, only two characters lack at least 2 playable variations, only 13 contain one variation that does not compete with the others, and 18 characters have all of their variations in a good position. If NRS can look into the characters who have a variation(s) that are flawed, the variety in which the player can experience the game will reach it's height, and as shown in the previous patch notes, NRS is already on the right track! Of course, this is my own analysis of the game's variations, and should not be viewed as a fact. Please feel free to give your own thoughts as which character variations could use a bit of love and thank you for reading!

 

Agree with your assessment of Sub-Zero. Thin Ice was actually pretty useful before Avalanche was added. The projectiles are fucking dog shit embarrassing to the point that NRS should feel bad, axe is fine sometimes, but slide and the slide crushing blow is the actual variation move for Thin Ice. Slide is so good that it made it worth using as a compliment to DoW. Then Avalanche came out, has slide, and is better than both variations. DoW still kicks ass though especially if you feel like you won't get much out of slide or feel like you're really good at reading projectiles.

 

I like your reasoning , but I can't fully agree with your complete character list. Frost-byte , Clean Cut , and New Era, offer no competetive advantage over Artic Anarchy , The Spins and Eternal. Frost byte gives up sure damage for potential damage and the worst overhead in the game. Clean cut and New Era have the exact same gameplan as The Spins and Eternal , except they're worse in every way.

 

Agree with most of this but pretty sure that Fujin variation you’re talking about is Cyclone

 

You listed Sub Zero Thin Ice as lacking, you had me until that.

 

You listed Sub Zero Thin Ice as lacking, you had me until that.

It very much is. His grounded projectiles are both awul due to their trashy speed and one of them is just an oki / blockstring gimmick that works maybe once in a set. His air axe is ok, but it's also pretty damn slow. Only good part is that any air projectile is inherently powerful.

As Dankster said, the only reason why Thin Ice had a place before was because the third variations didn't exist. It having Slide while DoW didn't set it apart in a notable way. Avalanche is just strictly better now.

As for the OP, I'd like to talk about the viable variation issue as a whole. Assuming all your assessments are valid, your total number of unviable / totally useless variations is 17. Out of 102 variations, that's ~16-17% of the total available competitive variations that just are not worth picking. Nearly a fifth. Considering the whole point of the variation system is to give individual characters different options between matchups (patching holes in the kit, focusing on key strengths, opening up entirely new options, etc.), are we honestly ok with a fifth of the total options in the game not being worth picking?

Personally, I'm not ok with it at all (especially considering some third variations which were introduced long after launch have received buffs to be viable while some release variations have been left to rot). I'm thoroughly grateful that NRS is taking a cautious approach to balance instead of remaking the game every patch like they did with MKX, but holy shit do I find it borderline unacceptable that variations like Shock Jock and True Kahn are still in a shit state since release. It's been over a year.

 

It very much is. His grounded projectiles are both awul due to their trashy speed and one of them is just an oki / blockstring gimmick that works maybe once in a set. His air axe is ok, but it's also pretty damn slow. Only good part is that any air projectile is inherently powerful.

As Dankster said, the only reason why Thin Ice had a place before was because the third variations didn't exist. It having Slide while DoW didn't set it apart in a notable way. Avalanche is just strictly better now.

As for the OP, I'd like to talk about the viable variation issue as a whole. Assuming all your assessments are valid, your total number of unviable / totally useless variations is 17. Out of 102 variations, that's ~16-17% of the total available competitive variations that just are not worth picking. Nearly a fifth. Considering the whole point of the variation system is to give individual characters different options between matchups (patching holes in the kit, focusing on key strengths, opening up entirely new options, etc.), are we honestly ok with a fifth of the total options in the game not being worth picking?

Personally, I'm not ok with it at all (especially considering some third variations which were introduced long after launch have received buffs to be viable while some release variations have been left to rot). I'm thoroughly grateful that NRS is taking a cautious approach to balance instead of remaking the game every patch like they did with MKX, but holy shit do I find it borderline unacceptable that variations like Shock Jock and True Kahn are still in a shit state since release. It's been over a year.

Struggling shock jock main here. That variation will forever be dead. NRS is in no rush to give Johnny any buffs since the successful witch hunt put on him when V3 dropped. His forceballs already whiffed on like half the galaxy and now if they work they’re negative ? Lol and he still has whiffing issues that’ll never be fixed. I’m in the minority but I don’t like the variation system. It always seems fleshed out in the beginning until players discover the dirt, then things get nerfed but it also has the chance of making another variation useless. I’m cool with 124 and 34u3 being only +1 now because outtake didn’t need all that with how strong his kit was. They make a good nerf there to tone down v3 a little bit it ends up fucking V1 and V2 over more. I’d rather them just have more fleshed out characters and dig deep into balancing those said moves cause NRS can’t balance a whole game with different variations of characters for the long haul. Something always gets hit which ends up nerfing something else

 

Struggling shock jock main here. That variation will forever be dead. NRS is in no rush to give Johnny any buffs since the successful witch hunt put on him when V3 dropped. His forceballs already whiffed on like half the galaxy and now if they work they’re negative ? Lol and he still has whiffing issues that’ll never be fixed. I’m in the minority but I don’t like the variation system. It always seems fleshed out in the beginning until players discover the dirt, then things get nerfed but it also has the chance of making another variation useless. I’m cool with 124 and 34u3 being only +1 now because outtake didn’t need all that with how strong his kit was. They make a good nerf there to tone down v3 a little bit it ends up fucking V1 and V2 over more. I’d rather them just have more fleshed out characters and dig deep into balancing those said moves cause NRS can’t balance a whole game with different variations of characters for the long haul. Something always gets hit which ends up nerfing something else

Can you believe people STILL want nerfs for that character, shit is surreal lol.

 

I'd like to oppose having kitana in the "Complete character" mainly due to fanfare. That variation has so many problems.
To begin with, royal protection which has been altered TWICE is still either completely useless or partly because of it's awful recovery and thus can't be used properly because of the risk of getting punished.
Fan flutter, the pressure it gives you is gimmicky and can easily be avoided by simply backwashing or uppercutting.
Not to mention that ground war should have been BASE to kitanas kit and is exclusive to fanfare. Overall it's a badly designed variation.

 

I think ancestral gifts command grab has plenty reason to be amplified, +70 oki and the most optimal damage he can get if used as a combo ender.

im sure when you were mentioning fujin you were referring to V3 cyclone, downburst is V1 and has plenty of combo routes.

 

I'd like to oppose having kitana in the "Complete character" mainly due to fanfare. That variation has so many problems.
To begin with, royal protection which has been altered TWICE is still either completely useless or partly because of it's awful recovery and thus can't be used properly because of the risk of getting punished.
Fan flutter, the pressure it gives you is gimmicky and can easily be avoided by simply backwashing or uppercutting.
Not to mention that ground war should have been BASE to kitanas kit and is exclusive to fanfare. Overall it's a badly designed variation.

Na man Ass being an armor breaker helped fanfare a lot. I truly think it’s the best armor breaker in the game.
She’s guaranteed damage off of any string since lift can’t be broken away from anymore. This sets up a HUGE meta in which the opponent has to choose on whether to eat the damage, or break and eat the damage. Either way, she’s scoring good damage every single time she touches you.

Yea highborn is still better, yea she has one combo route, yea the strings are still pretty meh when it comes to frames, but that ass breaker saved that variation. I actually stopped using that variation until the buff.

 

Na man Ass being an armor breaker helped fanfare a lot. I truly think it’s the best armor breaker in the game.
She’s guaranteed damage off of any string since lift can’t be broken away from anymore. This sets up a HUGE meta in which the opponent has to choose on whether to eat the damage, or break and eat the damage. Either way, she’s scoring good damage every single time she touches you.

Yea highborn is still better, yea she has one combo route, yea the strings are still pretty meh when it comes to frames, but that ass breaker saved that variation. I actually stopped using that variation until the buff.

Yes, you are absolutely right. To me however, the armor breaker doesnt justify all the other "tools" she has, that are barely working.

 

To begin with, royal protection which has been altered TWICE is still either completely useless or partly because of it's awful recovery and thus can't be used properly because of the risk of getting punished.

I mean, yeah, you can't use it right in your oppo's face, but is that really a parry situation that comes up a lot? (Edit: I guess there are a few toons who use amp'd projectiles up close that have a gap big enough to parry (like Sonya), so ok, reflect parries win there, but that's a pretty small subset of zoning situations.)

In every other way, it might be the best parry in the game, imo. Fastest startup out of all parries, meaning you can parry things on reaction that would eat up other characters. Works on low projectiles (unlike say Spawn, Robocop, Kollector, etc), works on most projectiles that can't be reflected (Nightwolf, Jade), and gives Kitana a long-lasting real damage buff that actually hurts. And trying to keep her out with more zoning only makes her buff stronger.

Not a high-level player here, but it's my favorite parry in the game by a mile.

 

Yes, you are absolutely right. To me however, the armor breaker doesnt justify all the other "tools" she has, that are barely working.

Yea I agree with that too. That’s why I said Highborn is still better. That armor breaker alone really makes fan fare stand out tho imo. Fix that variation’s other issues and it’ll be a dream come true

 

I mean, yeah, you can't use it right in your oppo's face, but is that really a parry situation that comes up a lot?

In every other way, it might be the best parry in the game, imo. Fastest startup out of all parries, meaning you can parry things on reaction that would eat up other characters. Works on low projectiles (unlike say Spawn, Robocop, Kollector, etc), works on most projectiles that can't be reflected (Nightwolf, Jade), and gives Kitana a long-lasting real damage buff that actually hurts. And trying to keep her out with more zoning only makes her buff stronger.

Not a high-level player here, but it's my favorite parry in the game by a mile.

The startup is amazing. It’s the recovery tho. It’s pretty bad. Some characters can throw a projectile, kitana absorbs it and she’ll get hit by the next projectile because of how bad the recovery is. That’s one of the main reasons why I don’t use fan fare against Sonya or cetrion. Successful parry just to get punished lol

 

The startup is amazing. It’s the recovery tho. It’s pretty bad. Some characters can throw a projectile, kitana absorbs it and she’ll get hit by the next projectile because of how bad the recovery is. That’s one of the main reasons why I don’t use fan fare against Sonya or cetrion. Successful parry just to get punished lol

Yeah, true. It's a trade-off though. Parries that can soak up multiple projectiles (Terminator, Robocop) do nothing for you other than avoid chip damage and push back. No parries that give an offensive advantage can soak up multiple hits. It's not like this is a Kitana thing.

For Sonya at least tho, when she shoots double rings, Kitana is more than fast enough to duck the first and parry the second. It's a cool thing to pull off in a match actually.

 

I like the intent of this kind of thread. I'm inclined to agree on Baraka and Jade's analysis.

I think currently speaking, Jade's Emerald Defender and Jaded give her unique play styles that offer viable applications in many different match ups. Untameable...not so much.

The core issue being that it gives you nothing to compensate any of her actual flaws and gives you more to worry about for her. The variation just lacks coherency whatsoever. You lose glow, plus frames, zoning etc for a so-so parry, special with a flawless block gap that is FCP when flawless blocked (like one of her current tools of that calibur). The teleport is easy to stuff and you spend a bar for no damage really.

The extra strings are all highs and many on block end at at -7 and since they all come from highs, it's hard to really justify them over doing her actual mid, reliable back 3,4,3. Even the "mix ups" this variation has are purely parlor tricks as there are gaps all over the place you can interrupt with a full combo, pokes, flawless block, jumping out etc. It's a variation that is great against people who don't know the match up, but is laughable when they do.


Then there's Baraka where every variation is multifaceted, fun and allows Baraka to have very different play styles, means of opening the opponent up and effectiveness. Every variation specific move makes sense in some way as well. People promoted a narrative of just Marauder applicability, but thankfully Biohazard and others show what Bone Picker is and the crazy part is it was even wilder when you could cancel jump kicks on block into command grab. Those mix ups were so dirty lol. if I commit to a jab string you eat a full combo or go straight into throw so it's a co


I think people complain a lot about variations, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of controversy that most characters have at least two that are worth using.

 

Yeah, true. It's a trade-off though. Parries that can soak up multiple projectiles (Terminator, Robocop) do nothing for you other than avoid chip damage and push back. No parries that give an offensive advantage can soak up multiple hits. It's not like this is a Kitana thing.

For Sonya at least tho, when she shoots double rings, Kitana is more than fast enough to duck the first and parry the second. It's a cool thing to pull off in a match actually.

No Sonya can shoot one projectile and shoot another one and it’ll punish kitana during the recovery of the parry lol

 

Scorpion only has Reborn as far as I am concerned.
Burning Spectre is all gimmicks with no real pressure and whiffing issues on top of that, and Searing Rage is all risk no reward since f24 has a 6f jab interruptible and flawless blockable gap and is unsafe so his only safe low option is d3 into jedi master jailing because Scorp's pokes have shitty hit advantage.

Yeah you might see all variations online, but that's just because half the casual player base plays Scorpion and I know there's a good Burning Spectre competitive player in those online tournaments, but that guy would be more successful too if he ran Reborn or a character with real mixups.

 

Johnny shock jock is seriously terrible. Sad because it is the most fun variation to play but the knuckles and parry are worthless and the new frames on 124 and 34u3 and force balls just adds to the misery. He already had no fast mids and force ball winning issues and a almost pointless cage rage move then plus frame reduction? Give this variation some love nrs!! Its classic johnny cage!!

 

No Sonya can shoot one projectile and shoot another one and it’ll punish kitana during the recovery of the parry lol

Gotcha. Yeah Sonya has crazy fast recovery and startup on her onion rings. Hopefully it's not wrong to say that isn't a common MU problem for Kitana.

Below is a list of characters that I personally believe have variations that can be justified to play, as well as variations that do little to justify playing them.

This is a nice analysis. My only suggestion is that in creating the "tiers", it's worth distinguishing between variations that are truly unviable (or barely viable) and those that are decent but get outshined. Right now they'll all lumped together.

For example, Truth & Light Raiden and Spellmaster Shang Tsung are truly unviable. They both lose key base kit moves in exchange for abilities that are much worse. Their abilities don't work well and their kits have no synergy. You'd be better off playing a variationless character.

That's not the same as, say, Ancestral Gift Nightwolf, which is outshined by the much better Shaman and Matoka Warrior, but is still very solid and playable, has some good things going for it, and can be a justifiable fit to someone who wants to play NW as more of a grappler.

 

Scorpion only has Reborn as far as I am concerned.
Burning Spectre is all gimmicks with no real pressure and whiffing issues on top of that, and Searing Rage is all risk no reward since f24 has a 6f jab interruptible and flawless blockable gap and is unsafe so his only safe low option is d3 into jedi master jailing because Scorp's pokes have shitty hit advantage.

Yeah you might see all variations online, but that's just because half the casual player base plays Scorpion and I know there's a good Burning Spectre competitive player in those online tournaments, but that guy would be more successful too if he ran Reborn or a character with real mixups.

You should watch SayinImNice. He plays Burning Specter against high level comp and does fantastically. People are doing well with it against the premier competition so I'm a bit skeptical.

 

Really appreciate the kind words in this thread, as I did a lot of research (didnt even know Avirk occasionally plays Burning Spectre), labbing (variation specific combos, setups, gimmicks), and reviewing community discussions (especially for Raiden and Shang).

And thanks for pointing out the wrong variation name for Fujin, OP is fixed.

 

Neat thread, nice work! As @Error404 said though, not sure I agree with Frost.

I’ve always said v1 is better than trash – which plenty of other v1 users disagree with – but even I agree there’s almost no reason (besides fun/preference) not to use v2/v3 instead.

The only mu v1 is ‘better’ that comes to mind is Joker with the lowshots (possibly there’s others I’m forgetting rn). V2/v3 struggle in that mu imo and v1’s headbomb is a decent counter to amp lowshot zoning. Maybe that qualifies as justifiable, idk... but I suspect the same outliers are true of other “unjustifiable” vars tbh.

Frankly, v1’s best tool is mu unfamiliarity.

Either way, eh, still nice work!

 

Yeah, true. It's a trade-off though. Parries that can soak up multiple projectiles (Terminator, Robocop) do nothing for you other than avoid chip damage and push back. No parries that give an offensive advantage can soak up multiple hits. It's not like this is a Kitana thing.

For Sonya at least tho, when she shoots double rings, Kitana is more than fast enough to duck the first and parry the second. It's a cool thing to pull off in a match actually.

Kitana can absorb Jade’s glaive and that green bitch has enough time to dash forward and punish her with a shadow kick. The recovery is atrocious and needs adjusted. You can’t even absorb multiple projectiles because, for the most part, it doesn’t last long enough.

Edit: And while we’re on the subject of variations being designed to allow different play styles to flourish per character, I feel the need to remind people that this game wasn’t designed like MKX’s set variations from the get-go.

People loved the beta because it allowed us to create the character we love how we saw fit. Fast forward to release, and we’re stuck with the 3 “variations” that NRS felt are competitive by throwing whatever mix of moves they deemed necessary out of their grab-bag of specials. Certain things still don’t make any sense.

Giving Kitana Edenian Twist tied to yet another useless KB requirement without Ground War. Giving Sindel float as a staple with literally nothing to do from it. Making any “zoning” variation just an amalgamation of every projectile special they made for the character.

IMO, the whole system is just a hot ass mess.