REO
Undead
We're all aware of how the Frozen Aura (D,B+3) negates any chip damage Sub-Zero will take while he is blocking. But did you know it also had another hidden and most likely unknown feature? Below is a video that demonstrates this: See if you can spot a change or notice anything different with Sub-Zero's Frozen Aura each time the game is reset:
Sub-Zero was recorded to quickly perform his D,B+3 special and then crouch block until the duration wore off, and then IMMEDIATELY reactivate the aura once again. If you paid careful attention then you have noticed that as each game reset went by, Sub-Zero's Frozen Aura duration was increased progressively after each segment until the very end.
In the video, there's four different examples. The first example is Liu Kang walking forward and doing nothing just to show how long the Frozen Aura lasts and that Sub-Zero will immediately reactivate it once it wears off. The second example is Liu Kang forcing Sub-Zero to block a plethora of strings until he stops right before the activation should wear off. During this time Sub-Zero is still coated in the Frozen Aura and goes to perform the D,B+3 motion (you can see it in the input display) to reactivate the aura but gets a B+3 instead. In the third example I make Liu Kang do quite possibly some of the longest amount of multiple hits to rack up the instances of attacks that Sub-Zero will have to block during the duration of his aura. I stop when I think the duration will wear off and now you see Sub-Zero perform the same B+3 attack before but now he's coated in the Frozen Aura far longer than before. In the fourth example I only show Sub-Zero getting hit while he has the aura on and not blocking. Notice how there's no difference and that's because this only works if Sub-Zero has blocked any attacks.
My theory as to why this works is because MKX has a block stop feature that adds one extra frame of block stun for both the attacking player and defending player only when an attack is blocked. An example for observing this is by doing Liu Kan'g Windmill Punches on hit, and then doing it on block. You can visually see that there is a bit more lag and extended work on block than on hit. This can make punishing very fast attacks on block a bit easier or make you attentive to what is happening when blocking. That is the purpose of block stop usually.
Now how could this idea possibly be the cause of this "bug" or secret perk for the Frozen Aura? I believe it could be one of these two conclusions. (1) It could be because every frame of block stop that Sub-Zero goes through will either add one extra duration frame to Frozen Aura OR (2) every time Sub-Zero blocks an attack while the aura is active, that precise frame of block stop does not count towards that one frame of duration for the Frozen Aura. Which basically means it's almost like freezing time for a split second and then delaying the duration progression by one frame. I tried this with other chip reducing buffs such as Kotal's Defense Totem but his didn't change regardless of blocking or anything. So this could believe me to think it could be (3) a possible bug where the specific animation of ice breaking off Sub-Zero while Frozen Aura is active somehow interferes with the same frame that an attack is colliding on his block and something gets delayed or pushed back by a frame. Or maybe it's just cool intentional design. Either way the only reason I think it has something to do with the block stop is because it doesn't happen any other way or on hit.
Anyway, I know this won't suddenly sky rocket Unbreakable up the tiers but it's some good hidden game knowledge to know. I hope this was a help to the few Unbreakable players out there that may or may not know about this.
Sub-Zero was recorded to quickly perform his D,B+3 special and then crouch block until the duration wore off, and then IMMEDIATELY reactivate the aura once again. If you paid careful attention then you have noticed that as each game reset went by, Sub-Zero's Frozen Aura duration was increased progressively after each segment until the very end.
In the video, there's four different examples. The first example is Liu Kang walking forward and doing nothing just to show how long the Frozen Aura lasts and that Sub-Zero will immediately reactivate it once it wears off. The second example is Liu Kang forcing Sub-Zero to block a plethora of strings until he stops right before the activation should wear off. During this time Sub-Zero is still coated in the Frozen Aura and goes to perform the D,B+3 motion (you can see it in the input display) to reactivate the aura but gets a B+3 instead. In the third example I make Liu Kang do quite possibly some of the longest amount of multiple hits to rack up the instances of attacks that Sub-Zero will have to block during the duration of his aura. I stop when I think the duration will wear off and now you see Sub-Zero perform the same B+3 attack before but now he's coated in the Frozen Aura far longer than before. In the fourth example I only show Sub-Zero getting hit while he has the aura on and not blocking. Notice how there's no difference and that's because this only works if Sub-Zero has blocked any attacks.
My theory as to why this works is because MKX has a block stop feature that adds one extra frame of block stun for both the attacking player and defending player only when an attack is blocked. An example for observing this is by doing Liu Kan'g Windmill Punches on hit, and then doing it on block. You can visually see that there is a bit more lag and extended work on block than on hit. This can make punishing very fast attacks on block a bit easier or make you attentive to what is happening when blocking. That is the purpose of block stop usually.
Now how could this idea possibly be the cause of this "bug" or secret perk for the Frozen Aura? I believe it could be one of these two conclusions. (1) It could be because every frame of block stop that Sub-Zero goes through will either add one extra duration frame to Frozen Aura OR (2) every time Sub-Zero blocks an attack while the aura is active, that precise frame of block stop does not count towards that one frame of duration for the Frozen Aura. Which basically means it's almost like freezing time for a split second and then delaying the duration progression by one frame. I tried this with other chip reducing buffs such as Kotal's Defense Totem but his didn't change regardless of blocking or anything. So this could believe me to think it could be (3) a possible bug where the specific animation of ice breaking off Sub-Zero while Frozen Aura is active somehow interferes with the same frame that an attack is colliding on his block and something gets delayed or pushed back by a frame. Or maybe it's just cool intentional design. Either way the only reason I think it has something to do with the block stop is because it doesn't happen any other way or on hit.
Anyway, I know this won't suddenly sky rocket Unbreakable up the tiers but it's some good hidden game knowledge to know. I hope this was a help to the few Unbreakable players out there that may or may not know about this.
