Baraka General Discussion

[Felipe_Gewehr]

I'd say he is top 10, but sitting just at the tenth spot. He is just very solid, safe (with the right kameos) and does decent damage. I do think his effectiveness is largely dependant on B3 actually hitting and mixing B3/21/212 with throws.

 

[ReD WolF]

There is something to be said about a solid character with a straight forward gameplan and well rounded tools. You're just going to beat up on anyone that's not a better player than you, and that feels great. I haven't played a character like that since MK9 Jax.

Also like MK9 Jax, He does lose some of his power vs people that know the MU. But he has ways of adjusting.

I don't think Baraka is in conversation for best character in the game but the separation isn't big enough to be concerned about.

DUDE. You read my mind! I was just comparing him to MK9 JAX to a friend of mine the other day lol. I completely agree. Yea he's definitely not the best. Not even close. I think he's probably high mid tier list wise and in the top 10 "conversation." The disparity between the bottom and the top in this game is not very wide IMO.

 

[Fatality o]

Genuinely curious if this team has a bad matchup or a counter other than just outplaying.

• safe amazing d4 also mindgames into baraka barrage
• so scary to neutral duck because of all barakas options
• safe jump oki with Stryker on knockdown
• can’t zone him out really because he has the jump spin move into Stryker to get in and a far reaching armor move
• insane b3 that breaks armor, is mid-low and safe to stagger because of pushback. Most players are not going b31 anymore and opting for b3 enhanced barrage-stryker so it can’t be punished
• safe overhead that beats all low pokes and has somewhat decent range (albeit reactable for the most part)
• very fast projectile
• great d2
• 21 is a great stagger
• amazing chip sequences
• Stryker jails into everything basically and can be like +8, sometimes you can d2 punish between Stryker but if you are playing an elite player there will not be a gap to punish
• standing 444 crazy chip out, fast, hard to neutral duck punish
• great jump 2 which has crazy range and is hard to aa

anything I missed? lol anybody know any hard counters to this team other than ashrahs armor? I guess trying to stay outside of his d4 range?

 

[LEGEND]

Idk if a character hard counters them.

Anyone that can wiff punish his D4 for a full combo is decent (Mileena's Ball is annoying).

Being able to flawless block consistently and armor his gaps is a must. . . So any team that has an armored launcher is good.

 

[ReD WolF]

I have trouble with Kitana-Kung lao/Jax pretty regularly. That very well be my own anecdotal experience however. A good Kitana whiff punishes my low pokes all the time. It's obnoxious. I'm not saying its a universally bad matchup, just something I consistently struggle against.

 

[Fatality o]

Idk if a character hard counters them.

Anyone that can wiff punish his D4 for a full combo is decent (Mileena's Ball is annoying).

Being able to flawless block consistently and armor his gaps is a must. . . So any team that has an armored launcher is good.

I have trouble with Kitana-Kung lao/Jax pretty regularly. That very well be my own anecdotal experience however. A good Kitana whiff punishes my low pokes all the time. It's obnoxious. I'm not saying its a universally bad matchup, just something I consistently struggle against.

Yeah thinking along these lines of a character with a good ranged mid that can punish his d4 ala kitana, Tanya, maybe shao. Or a character with a fast special move to whiff punish that’s mid or launches like mileena.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Sindel and Johnny have better normals, synergize with much more kameos, and their damage output is higher. I'd say Kenshi is an honorable mention. The rest is pretty much even (save for perhaps ashrah) or in Baraka's favour.

 

[Fatality o]

Sindel and Johnny have better normals, synergize with much more kameos, and their damage output is higher. I'd say Kenshi is an honorable mention. The rest is pretty much even (save for perhaps ashrah) or in Baraka's favour.

Yeah not a tier list discussion just curious who beats baraka if anyone. Kenshi sure with sento, johnny has the parry which counters most of barakas options but it can be baited and his armored shadow kick doesn’t lead to any real dmg. I guess if you can keep baraka from running his gauntlet on you and keep him guessing on knockdown but johnnys normals are way more predictable and easy to block and react to imo even with Stryker or goro. Maybe I just have more exp against Johnny. His movement is definitely better than baraka.

Sindel I may agree with because of her air presence and superior zoning esp with Lao hat. Any character who plays linear I feel gets eaten by Baraka Stryker.

 

[Felipe_Gewehr]

Yeah not a tier list discussion just curious who beats baraka if anyone. Kenshi sure with sento, johnny has the parry which counters most of barakas options but it can be baited and his armored shadow kick doesn’t lead to any real dmg. I guess if you can keep baraka from running his gauntlet on you and keep him guessing on knockdown but johnnys normals are way more predictable and easy to block and react to imo even with Stryker or goro. Maybe I just have more exp against Johnny. His movement is definitely better than baraka.

Sindel I may agree with because of her air presence and superior zoning esp with Lao hat. Any character who plays linear I feel gets eaten by Baraka Stryker.

I agree. But Johnny, although predictable, has quite fast normals, and the fastest poke in the game (6f). It boils down to the players, but I still think Johnny and Sindel, if we would run a simulation based on the exact same skill level bot vs Baraka-Stryker, would won more consistently.

 

[ticklebandit!]

I'm confused, isn't Mileena a hard counter to Baraka/stryker? Ball roll low profiles the grenades for huge damage. Without grenade pressure Baraka is honest as fuck with low damage outside of the corner. There are other moves that low profile grenades but this is the best example.

I also feel like Sindel, Reiko, Raiden, Ashrah, Kenshi and probably Johhny are all 4-6 MU's for Baraka. I'd say Lui Kang, Tanya, and possibly Kung Lao could be added to that list as well.

I also don't think it's fair to say a character HAS to have a direct counter to grenade pressure in order to beat Baraka/stryker. Sindel doesn't as far as I know but she is for sure the better character and would come out on top the majority of matches.

 

[Immortal]

When i still played MK1 i did run sets with Hourglassofrain and he beat the living crap out of me with Mileena to the point i switched back to Ashrah coz without Stryker Baraka is just well below mediocre imo. Mileena imo is a pretty hard counter to Baraka/Stryker.

I also think that several other top tier characters with Stryker or other top tier kameos win vs Baraka/Stryker. The thing with Baraka/Stryker is.... once they get going its pretty hard to stop them and obviously in a hands of someone like Tekken Master, Unjust, Ninja etc... Baraka/Stryker duo will look godlike...but they really aren't, imo.

 

[Arqwart]

I have trouble with Kitana-Kung lao/Jax pretty regularly. That very well be my own anecdotal experience however. A good Kitana whiff punishes my low pokes all the time. It's obnoxious. I'm not saying its a universally bad matchup, just something I consistently struggle against.

Was coming in here to say this. Kitana can hold her ground exceptionally well against Baraka, opt to have her combos send him fullscreen for her to reset zoning, punish / chase his staggers, and run away exceptionally well with any ambush to cover her.

Additionally, she's got an amazing D2 to help against Baraka's incessant "unsafe move into grenades" shenanigans AND to anti-air his insane jump normals. She can also pretty efficiently keep him out of the air to shut down air charge neutral skipping.

Kitana aside, I highly recommend picking up Sub kameo as a backup pick for this matchup no matter who you play. Ice Armor doesnt go away on block which very often causes Barakas I fight to doubt themselves as their autopiloting in pressure breaks apart.

 

[BKV2]

Nope no bad matchups