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Best Variation of each character (My opinions)

Youphemism

Gunslinger since pre patch (sh/out to The Farmer)
Lol your reasoning for Cybernetic being the best shows me you don't really understand Kano as a whole.
 

Tweedy

Champion
Just read the OP. I'm sure someone already said it, but Inferno is not the best lol. Ninjutsu and Hellfire are both better for sure.
 

VOR

Apprentice
Cassie- Spec ops> Hollywood. The missile/ex missile setups after knockdowns, even at neutral on a read, canceling strings into it is better than having to land the Hollywood mixup after ding dong. P Instant air guns aren't that great, good/decent, not great. Missile can assist in stuffing certain reversals, wake ups, movement mistakes etc. Safer, better for more matchups than Hollywood. Hollywood still kicks ass though.
 

Genei Jin

Mortal
I agree with most of it except:

Jax: Wrestler might be better. I think his command grab has more uses than run cancels. Still not 100% sure which his best variation is.

Kitana: Mournful is definitely better now due to the huge damage nerf she received for her other variations. she has a 50/50 with mournful variation and better wake up attacks.

Scorpion: Any variation is better than Inferno. Hellfire has better specials but Ninjutsu has probably the best footsie tool in the game.

Kenshi: Kenjutsu over Posessed because of better mixups and slightly better normals.

Mileena: Ethereal edges out Piercing slightly. ex fade is a game changer. piercing does better vs sub zero and have better footsies though.

Kung Jin: Shaolin is definitely better now. Biggest lost is the ex armored bo launcher but his zoning game gets much much better.

Kano: Cutthroat is slightly better overall but 10x harder to use. Cutthroat has better mixups and damage but a weaker knife toss (although its still one of the better projectiles in the game). Cybernetic Kano has to play perfectly because his mix ups are non-existent.

Erron Black: I'm gonna be biased and say Marksman is the best variation. Outlaw has better wake ups (ex pocket sand) and momentum (stab). Marksman does better damage and safe offense strings because of gun cancels. It has better zoning than outlaw also but not as good as gunslinger.

Kotal Kahn: War God is still the best variation overall because of the mixups and all of his sword swinging moves have armor when exed. sun god still doesn't solve his biggest weakness; holes in his strings.

Reptile: Deceptive is definitely better now due to ex invisibility.
 

Nu-Skoool

Feel the nerf of despair
In my opinion you could throw any one of Mileenas variations up there and have a sound argument for both.

Ethereal: Safe pressure and it's been shown you don't need to be over reliant overhead/low mix ups to be effective, decent damage, ex fade is a fantastic get off me move that addresses the issue with her not having a decent check while being pressured. It's meter dependent, however she has the means to build meter and do it safely.

Piercing: B12 directly addresses Mileenas lack of a safe, quick, and far reaching normal in neutral that's easily hit confirmable. Excellent meterless damage, low sai is a great zoning tool seeing as it slows forward advances, low pros a lot of projectiles, forces you to jump and lose footing in the zoning game or potentially AA'd, overextend yourself, or block. Can even be used as pseudo mixup. Overall it's a solid zoning/footsie variation.

Ravenous: While she lacks tick strings into low pounce, pressuring with d3/4 cancels into low pounces can help open up opponents, that then allows you to be more successful with her f44. As well as low pounce tick off her standing 2 due to 21 ending with a low. High pounce can be used to make unsafe strings safer and extend combos for 1-3% more damage than piercing. Her b121+3 string as we know replenishes health. A great rush down variation.
 

Samsara

Resident Cynic
Well when you have an explanation as to why you have these specific variations chosen and not others with some match up numbers and an assessment of their tools let me know... there's not much in this thread worth sticking around for.

 

n1kosh

Train harder
Jason: Relentless
Kung Lao: Tempest
Jax: Heavy Weapons
Sonya: Covert Ops
Kenshi: Possessed
Kitana: Royal Storm
Scorpion: Inferno
Sub-Zero: Grandmaster
Mileena: Piercing
Takeda: Ronin
Cassie: Hollywood
Jacqui: Full Auto
Kung Jin: Bojutsu
Tanya: Kobu Jutsu
Predator: Hish Qu-Ten
Shinnok: Bone Shaper
Kano: Cybernetic
Johnny Cage: A-List
Erron Black: Gunslinger
Liu Kang: Dragon Fire
Ermac: Master Of Souls
Kotal Kahn: Sun God
Reptile: Noxious
Ferra/Torr: Ruthless
D'Vorah: Swarm Queen
Raiden: Thunder God
Quan Chi: Summoner
Goro: Tigrar Fire
Tremor: Metallic
Sonya Demolition (Big meterless combos, easy), Liu Dualist in Future...(need more time to all)
 

MrProfDrPepper

NRS, Guilty Gear, and KI, the holy trinity
Shirai wont get zoned out like lasher or jedi, jedi variation lost the block infinite, shirai hasa nice teleport.
there is a vastly under utilized move in takedas arsenal, and that is BF4, it is a great tool to get in especially since it is safe, and the reason why ronin was good wasnt because of the pseudo block infinite he had on around 6 or 7 members of the cast, ronins pressure is still insanely good, not to mention ronin does have a reflect move for counter zoning and blade drop to make the opponent afraid of throwing anything out, shirai in my eyes only has mobility with a teleport which IMO isnt even very goodand there is not to many actually good zoners in the game anyways, hell lasher doesnt have that bad of a time against quan chi from my experience.
 

bdizzle2700

gotta stay sharp!
Okay. Well, I disagree on Kano's behalf. I think Cutthroat should be his go to variation. It has safe 50/50s, higher damage, and he can use Charge Up (ex) off a mid hitting, advancing block strings to set up a 50/50 attempt. On top of this, he has almost all the strengths that Cybernetic has with the exception of mid-hitting knives (that do low damage).

After the latest patch, UpBall has great anti-air priority, on top of his already great D2, Kano-Ball Cancel, and anti-airing normals. Jumping in on a good Kano is as about as juicy a proposition as jumping in on Lao. Cybernetic's up-laser, even buffed, doesn't much add to his overall strength.

So really, when you're talking Cyber versus Cutthroat, you're talking trading mid-knives for safe, though short-ranged 50/50s, mainly. Weighing those options, I would think the 50/50s should out-weigh the knives in most match-ups?
Too meter dependent. You dont get to attempt a 50-50 after an ex buff save maybe the corner. Cyber has a better aa normal with b1 and up laser beats those jump ins like lao and kk. I say cyber does more consistent damage while ct does better burst damage. Also cyber can punish things more consistently than ct. Things that 112 wont reach and f4 is too slow. Cyber b1 will usually be able to punish.
 
Honestly. It may suck but were #freetobelieve what we want. Hell only CDJr seems tobelieve Mournful is Kitty's best variation like me. Everyone looks at me like I just love Mournful or something.
*insert Doge here*
Safe mid projectile, crazy pressure strings, insane meter build, and safe full screen shadow kick. She is the best. This community is just to closed minded to believe anything is viable until it does something in tourney. The only thing rs has over it is slightly more damage and better stray hit conversions. No real way to open anyone up, no pressure or mixup.
 

Youphemism

Gunslinger since pre patch (sh/out to The Farmer)
Too meter dependent. You dont get to attempt a 50-50 after an ex buff save maybe the corner. Cyber has a better aa normal with b1 and up laser beats those jump ins like lao and kk. I say cyber does more consistent damage while ct does better burst damage. Also cyber can punish things more consistently than ct. Things that 112 wont reach and f4 is too slow. Cyber b1 will usually be able to punish.
Cyber is more meter dependent than Cutthroat... At least Cutthroat has F212 which is a safe meterless launcher, something Cyber doesn't have. Who cares if Cyber has a better anti-air normal? Kano has a bunch of great anti-airs anyway, never mind better jump attacks in Cutthroat for air-to-airs.
 
I disagree with EB:
IMO marksman is the best variation, he has an awesome damage (45% 1 bar and 40% no bars in the corner 42% mid 1 bar with a low and overhead starter) also he has gun cancels for meter and damage. Great zoning and a nice anti air (db3)
IMO marksman is the 2nd or 1st variation
 
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THTB

Arez | Booya | Riu48 - Rest Easy, Friends
I'll show you a "hidden missile".


..... It involves my ding dong.
Dead.

Deceptive is Reptile's best variation. Noxious is weak due to the lack of any meaningful addition to Reptile as a character. Deceptive adds things that affect the match for more than just the last few pixels of life. A general 2% increase in damage doesn't sound better than plus frames and more opportunities to combo and apply pressure. Also, invisibility on its own is total horseshit lmao.
 

bdizzle2700

gotta stay sharp!
Cyber is more meter dependent than Cutthroat... At least Cutthroat has F212 which is a safe meterless launcher, something Cyber doesn't have. Who cares if Cyber has a better anti-air normal? Kano has a bunch of great anti-airs anyway, never mind better jump attacks in Cutthroat for air-to-airs.
F212 isnt safe. F21 is. If your gunna say well its hit confirmable then i can retort saying you can hit confirm every string into eyelaser and it extends combos. You dont need a pop up do to damage. And jump back 1 in cyber is good for air to airs. We dont need to go back through this haha. Cuttbill will be a bill for me.
 

ragnar0kz28

Warrior
there is a vastly under utilized move in takedas arsenal, and that is BF4, it is a great tool to get in especially since it is safe, and the reason why ronin was good wasnt because of the pseudo block infinite he had on around 6 or 7 members of the cast, ronins pressure is still insanely good, not to mention ronin does have a reflect move for counter zoning and blade drop to make the opponent afraid of throwing anything out, shirai in my eyes only has mobility with a teleport which IMO isnt even very goodand there is not to many actually good zoners in the game anyways, hell lasher doesnt have that bad of a time against quan chi from my experience.
Well when Jedi Takeda had the block infinite vs Kitana she still destroyed him up close, with her good normals, bf4 is -6 throw and block setups can still be done on him, from the view of a Kitana player: Takeda is more of a thread.
 

MrProfDrPepper

NRS, Guilty Gear, and KI, the holy trinity
Well when Jedi Takeda had the block infinite vs Kitana she still destroyed him up close, with her good normals, bf4 is -6 throw and block setups can still be done on him, from the view of a Kitana player: Takeda is more of a thread.
I don't think you have played against someone that actually knows what they are doing with ronin. If utilized correctly his pressure is insane, his Normals reach fairly far and fast, like a median between the other Takedas range, and the rest of the casts speed. The only category in which Kitana beats ronins Normals is in how safe they are, and even then ronin can make everything he has safe save for exbf4. Which is actually quite handy against zoning since if you try to throw an air fan Takeda can armor through it and with lasher at least you can get I believe 28% off of it. Not sure about the other variations since I haven't tinkered around with exbf4 with the others.