Basically thats the thing though, many characters are stuck with half ass tournament variations. Thats a big deal to me and other competitors who like MK.
Play as Kung Lao. Something is missing. Air Teleport is a fucking gear move. Anything but just regular hat toss is locked to the Z Hat variation, with air teleport, and its just the version where you can guide it slightly up or down. On top of this many strings leave you in a spot where spin whiffs ON HIT. Only logical follow up if youre playing the deemed “good” preset, Lotus Fist, is Orbiting hat. Which will also whiff on hit and block on certain strings. And its minus 7 on block. Lao, the two game strong pressure character, has no pressure. His best stagger is 3 highs that can be d2 crushing blow on reaction. Besides play lame and stupid passive, how do I play him? Footsies and neutral? His best mid is punishable and every option out of it ends his turn. Second best mid requires at minimum a bar to get more than 9 damage. One preset gives you three versions of one move, the other gives you Z Hat, which may need more exploring, air teleport which is aids bad in this game, and the fucking useless up or down hat. Im not saying he is definitely low tier or bad, because the game is BRAND NEW. However, I feel like my favorite character to play is a hollow version of himself from other iterations.
Same is true for other characters, Lao just happens to be my usual main. There are some who feel incomplete while also feeling very strong, Sub Zero for example. One preset literally has 2 specials. And guess what? Thats the good one.
What is there to explain? Since MKX we have began accepting watered down characters in favor of balance, thus revealing NRS isnt capable nor pressed to make a balanced game that is fun at the same time. It was never about playing a char the way YOU want, and always about well its hard to balance a character with too many moves, so split it up.
