Character types and your 3

[Flagg]

I'm currently listening to the latest KTP Podcast with REO and I think he's right, I think people are going to have to start taking mini teams to tournies to do well.

What's got me thinking though, is what character types are there. For instance, we have rush down characters, zoners, then what? Like what kind of character is Jade, CSZ, Nightwolf, Raiden or Quan Chi? Are there characters that dont excel in rushing or zoning but are a little bit good at both like Kano? Perhaps a list should be compiled of character type, and what each character belongs to. For instance we all know Sonya and Cage are primarily rush down, and characters like Noob and Freddy are primarily zoners.

Scorpion:
Sub Zero:
Reptile:
Ermac:
Noob Saibot: Zoner
Smoke:
Rain:
Mileena:
Kitana:
Jade:
Skarlet:
Sektor: All round
Cyrax: All round
Cyber Sub Zero: Rushdown
Kenshi: All round?
Freddy: Zoner
Sindel: Zoner
Sonya: Rushdown
Jax: All round
Cage: Rushdown
Stryker:
Lui Kang:
Kung Lao:
Kano: All round
Nightwolf:
Kabal: Rushdown
Baraka: Corner specialist
Shang Tsung:
Quan Chi: Rushdown
Raiden: Corner specialist
Sheeva:
Kratos:

If everyone is going to have a team of 3, then it would stand to reason that everyone needs a rushdown, a zoner and someone else like a good all rounder.

 

[RampaginDragon]

Specialist! But dude, CSZ is rushdown.

The only 3 fighters I use lol.

CSZ
Sektor
ShangTsung

EDIT: Sektor is totally the type of fighter your talking about. Not rushdown, not zoner. Specialist.

 

[Smarrgasm]

The only team you are going to need is Cage and Kenshi until people figure out how to fight them correctly. But the other chracters can be Counter characters like smoke or sub. They are just able to counter certain playstyles and wait for the opponent to mess up.
My 3 are Rain, Sonya, and if i could actually learn either Kenshi or Smoke.

 

[xenogorgeous]

- Rushdown characters
- Zoners
- Corner specialists

For me, the MK9 characters fit in one, two or all gameplay types above, more or less

And, plus, some characters have anti-zoning features, so, it's how the shit works, hehe

 

[Flagg]

So we have rushdowns, zoners, all rounders and corner specialists? 4 types?

I mean Baraka is arguably a rushdown AND a corner specialist.

 

[salvificblood]

Sub-Zero isn't a counter character.

 

[SunnyD]

Screw balancing your team out to specific qualities. Play the chars that you know best and fit your style. Most people find that a strong zoner and a strong rushdown char will naturally become part of your roster. Worked for me. Look at other people too, they usually have a rushdown character then a zoner back-up or the other way around.

Look at Pig: Kenshi, Mileena and CSZ. I very much doubt that he thought "okay so i need a rushdown a zoner and someone in between". Most likely it was because he related to their playstyle.

I realize that alot of people are taking this game super seriously now. Im telling you not to dissect this game completely. With everyone analyzing this game to its most basic fundamentals, we are eventually going to come up with a concrete tier list that tells it how it is, that tells us some characters are worse than other characters, and some are better.

But you know what, fuck that. Play who you want to play goddammit, if you want to play a B tier character like Noob, dont be all like "but he goes 7-3 with Raiden" or "but i already play a zoner character". Screw that, play who you want to play. Im tired of all these people dropping thier mains to play high tier characters because Curbo got top 4 with Cage or crap like that.

Play to win, but play to have fun as well. I realize tournie players forgo "fun" for money and reputation, but for the majority of MK9 players, dissecting the game will ruin the fun in it, and why the hell are you playing this game if youre not having fun or making money off it.

# 2 cents

 

[Flagg]

You have to remember that not everyone can play Jax or Kabal or Cage, but they might feel more natural playing other types of rushdown or zoners or other all rounders.

For instance until Crazy Dominican, Kitana was thought of as a zoner, but I think she's a solid all rounder as she has a decent rushdown as well.

 

[xenogorgeous]

Liu Kang, Sonya, Cage : Rushdown
Jax, Baraka, Raiden : Corner Specialist
Noob, Kenshi, Freddy : zoners

Rushdown characters with strong anti-zone tools : Kung Lao and Smoke

 

[RampaginDragon]

Scorpion: All around
Sub Zero: Spacer
Reptile: All around
Ermac: Spacer
Noob Saibot: Zoner
Smoke: All around
Rain: Rush down
Mileena: A special and a dream
Kitana: Zoner
Jade: Spacer
Skarlet: Rush down
Sektor: All round
Cyrax: Net and a dream
Cyber Sub Zero:
Kenshi: Zoner lol
Freddy: Zoner
Sindel: Zoner
Sonya: Rushdown
Jax: All around
Cage: Rushdown
Stryker: Zoner
Lui Kang: Broken
Kung Lao: Rush down
Kano: All round
Nightwolf: Spacer
Kabal: All around
Baraka: Rushdown
Shang Tsung: All around
Quan Chi: Cheezy
Raiden: ?
Sheeva: Attempt to rush down
Kratos: I play teh xbox

If everyone is going to have a team of 3, then it would stand to reason that everyone needs a rushdown, a zoner and someone else like a good all rounder.

I filled in the rest with my own opinions
This shows that there need to be atleast 5 diffrent type's of fighter rolls available, because how it is now, some fighters just dont have a labal.

 

[Gesture Required Ahead]

The Reptile
The God
The Monk

 

[Flagg]

I filled in the rest with my own opinions
This shows that there need to be atleast 5 diffrent type's of fighter rolls available, because how it is now, some fighters just dont have a labal.

I agree that some people should just play the characters they like, but maybe a poll should be made in each character forum on what kind of character said character is.

I mean I used CSZ as my best main. But I recognise he has bad match ups. So I go to Kano to handle the Kitanas because Kano is a fairly decent all rounder but I dont really have a zoner as I find JC's really, really hard for my characters. And hahaha, I really dont think I could use Kabal. I find it hard enough to play Skarlet at a semi decent level, let alone Kabal.

 

[Z-911-Z]

What if we have more than three? How about an entire Power Ranger group? I have...

Cyrax/Cyblax - The Leader
Kung Lao - The Lancer
Ermac - The Smart Guy
Jax - The Big Guy
Sub-Zero - The Chick
Kano - The Sixth Ranger

 

[NogunYesknife]

Rushdown characters,
Zoning characters,
and Mobile Characters.

jax is rushdown btw.

 

[PND OmegaK]

Jax of all trades

Jax fits into all categories, hes good at them all but excels at none.

 

[xenogorgeous]

The point is :

- Rushdown characters : can input pressure, in any area of screen, and not, necessary, only in corners. Normally, characters with strong frame advantage, with normal moves and special moves that favours constant attack attempt

- Zoners : this one, benefits of middle screen and full screen distance between him/her and the opponent, in order to attack with moves with good range, and quick projectiles (and, normally, more than one type of projectile, a normal + low projectile, or a air projetctile also ) He can play rushdown, if, normally, has good lifebar lead, but, he prefers to play safe , zoning, until the game runs favour to him/her .....

- Corner specialist : these characters normally, have insane corner pressure, with frame advantage, great damage ouput, and, naturally, are feared, if your opponent has his back to the corner, and is caught is some deadly corner combo sequence, that can leave to a more than 40% damage output, or some combo reset ..... their strongest game resides when opponent, is caught in corner, without combo breaker ....

- All around : "Jack of all trades, master of none" ?

 

[MashPotatoTower]

quan and maybe cyrax is so an AO Nuke - caracter that use lots of meter for there offence and uses lots of specials, usualy weak without meter - strong against zoners

there is some footsie characters like baraka and mileena - characters that punnish wiffs, or just have mad footsies great dashes - strong against rush down

there are utility characters like cyrax and sub, cyber sub - character that rely on a uniqu special move. like a trapper so to say - strong against footsies

Heavy mix up characters like scorpion and shang - characters that have a great pokeing and mostly all mix up game - strong against - strong against utiliy

rush down guys like cage and kang - great with up close, good advantages to there normals - strong against AO guys and mix up guys

zoners like kenshi and noob - heavy area control - strong againts footsies ( i wanna say rushdowns to but realy just cage)

punnishers or anti characters like kano and lao and smoke (not to sure on this one) - character that can break out of block strings and good against zoneing, normaly hard to preasure - good against utility and zoners

you can pretty much fit every character in these catagorys
its pretty tough to place them all but after seeing everyones MU charts I made this sorta rock paper sissors character type thing going on.
I use this as my counter picking chart =p

 

[Flagg]

I agree that Jax is probably more an all rounder because he is good at zoning, rush and corner.

 

[MashPotatoTower]

truth is there is no one character that dominates every aspect but everyone does share each one of these trates

 

[Enenra]

I have seven, lol.
Sub is a corner specialist.
Rain is rushdown.
Smoke is a runaway.
Scorpion is rushdown.
Noob is a zoner.
Ermac is a specialist.
Reptile is a specialist.

And by specialist I mean they can zone and rush down.

 

[MashPotatoTower]

wait... everyone is awesome in the corner? i dont get that one.. who sux in the corner game?

 

[Lumpymoomilk]

Sonya - The Whore
Jax - The black guy
Sheeva - The Shemale

 

[fr stack]

this probably sounds stupid but noobs zoning isnt viable so i wouldnt call him a zoner tbh more like corner specialist

 

[McNasty]

Im gonna get blown up for this but here is mine:

Scorpion:Hit and run
Sub Zero: Corner specialist
Reptile: counter zoning
Ermac:Zoner
Noob Saibot: corner specialist
Smoke:Hit and run
Rain:Gimmicks
Mileena:Hit and run
Kitana:Punisher
Jade: lol wut?
Skarlet:?
Sektor: Punisher
Cyrax:all around
Cyber Sub Zero:
Kenshi:Zoner
Freddy: Zoner
Sindel:hit and run
Sonya: Rushdown
Jax: Corner specialist
Cage: Rushdown
Stryker:Zoner
Lui Kang:all around
Kung Lao:All around
Kano:counter zoning
Nightwolf:Gimmicks
Kabal:all around
Baraka: Corner specialist
Shang Tsung:all around
Quan Chi:Gimmicks
Raiden: Hit and Run
Sheeva:bitch tossing

 

[GNG Iniquity]

-Rushdown
-Zoners
-Comeback potential (Cage fits in rushdown and comeback potential, Scorpion *iffy*, Quan Chi, Cyrax and Smoke due to their unintentional resets. Still, Cyrax's 50% 1 meter non-reset is big damage. )
-Corner specialty
-Counter Zoners

Characters that excel in multiple areas, like Cage, are scary.