Question Getting back into MKX

[KLK Lukas]

Hello all, I played the ever loving shit out of MKX back in 2015 and early 2016 but suddenly stopped soon after Triborg's release. I have recently picked the game back up again and have noticed that some characters just aren't what they used to be, for example, my beloved Lao lost his ex spin armor. I was just wondering what the overall meta of the game is? Is Erron Black still good? What about Summoner Quan?

Back when I used to play, online was full of Kobu Tanya, Quan, Shinnock, D'Vorah, Kung Lao and Predator, are these characters all still amazing or have they been crippled by 'balance changes'?

How about the garbage characters? Have any previously terrible characters become viable?

Thank you for reading and for any help, it's greatly appreciated

Edit: I completely forgot about Cyrax, when i played him he was busted as hell, is he still amazing?

 

[Wigy]

There's a select few that are barely worth playing against a good opponent but if you're just online basically anyone's viable.

Cyrax is no longer busted, unless you put in the work big time he's seen as fairly weak. Very tech intensive character that blows folks up hard with lack of matchup knowledge.

Jax got absolutely neutered by a bug fix that NRS never got around to rectifying (removed armour on his dash punch til they fixed a bug on OHDP, then never put it back)

HQT is the only tournament viable pred variation I believe.

Shinnock power creeped his way back to the top tier but with changes here and there is fair on the whole -not with lag though lol.

All of the rc pressure characters got nerfed and were hit fairly hard except Liu kang who got a bunch of buffs for some reason and is now the strongest of all of them.

Kitana power creeped her way up.

Possessed kenshi is a total beast now and wrecks shit but his other variations are still dildos.

Oh and cyro got changes that made everyone think he was OP initially as he has like 186 tick grabs but turned out to be total garbage

Bout all I can remember.

Got me sentimental over the good ol days

 

[KLK Lukas]

There's a select few that are barely worth playing against a good opponent but if you're just online basically anyone's viable.

Cyrax is no longer busted, unless you put in the work big time he's seen as fairly weak. Very tech intensive character that blows folks up hard with lack of matchup knowledge.

Jax got absolutely neutered by a bug fix that NRS never got around to rectifying (removed armour on his dash punch til they fixed a bug on OHDP, then never put it back)

HQT is the only tournament viable pred variation I believe.

Shinnock power creeped his way back to the top tier but with changes here and there is fair on the whole -not with lag though lol.

All of the rc pressure characters got nerfed and were hit fairly hard except Liu kang who got a bunch of buffs for some reason and is now the strongest of all of them.

Kitana power creeped her way up.

Possessed kenshi is a total beast now and wrecks shit but his other variations are still dildos.

Oh and cyro got changes that made everyone think he was OP initially as he has like 186 tick grabs but turned out to be total garbage

Bout all I can remember.

Got me sentimental over the good ol days

Ahhh okay thanks for the response, that helps a lot! With regards to Erron Black I hear a lot of people saying he's trash (especially outlaw) but I'm not sure why, I have a feeling that once I'm able to block his mixups he becomes fairly punishable, is this true?

 

[Wigy]

Ahhh okay thanks for the response, that helps a lot! With regards to Erron Black I hear a lot of people saying he's trash (especially outlaw) but I'm not sure why, I have a feeling that once I'm able to block his mixups he becomes fairly punishable, is this true?

He is solid mid tier but a good pick for character loyalists and can be made to work in most matchups.

Gunslinger I think is his only tournament viable variation.

 

[KLK Lukas]

He is solid mid tier but a good pick for character loyalists and can be made to work in most matchups.

Gunslinger I think is his only tournament viable variation.

Looks like I just need to practice blocking and punishing him haha, most of the time that I block an unsafe move I panic and just punish with d1

 

[Wigy]

Looks like I just need to practice blocking and punishing him haha, most of the time that I block an unsafe move I panic and just punish with d1

Can't really remember his negative strings/specials.

I know that his Standoffstance low shots has a gap at the end that u can punish with advancing armour. I think strings into SOS on block in general has a gap, though he can cover his ass a bit depending on the string.

I just used to mash ex shadow kick whenever i saw someone try those shenanegans.

 

[KLK Lukas]

Can't really remember his negative strings/specials.

I know that his Standoffstance low shots has a gap at the end that u can punish with advancing armour. I think strings into SOS on block in general has a gap, though he can cover his ass a bit depending on the string.

I just used to mash ex shadow kick whenever i saw someone try those shenanegans.

Cage was one of my go to's in MK9 but lost interest in him for MKX #bringbackgodlikef3

 

[Wigy]

Cage was one of my go to's in MK9 but lost interest in him for MKX #bringbackgodlikef3

His f3 was ridiculous for most of the mkx lifetime.

 

[Second Saint]

Ahhh okay thanks for the response, that helps a lot! With regards to Erron Black I hear a lot of people saying he's trash (especially outlaw) but I'm not sure why, I have a feeling that once I'm able to block his mixups he becomes fairly punishable, is this true?

The reason so many people say Erron is trash now is because his best mid before was his overhead. During the last patch, many overheads got slowed down significantly, Erron's going from I think 15f to 23f. So now all he can enforce his plus frames with are pokes.

Outlaw actually does have a decent mid, but he lost the launching armor, which was one of his biggest strengths. Marksman got hit very hard by the run cancel nerfs and is barely functional now. Only being able to run cancel once really messed up his neutral and safety, since he has to have full stamina to do anything. No run ins into gun cancel combos, basically.

 

[Roy Arkon]

Hello all, I played the ever loving shit out of MKX back in 2015 and early 2016 but suddenly stopped soon after Triborg's release. I have recently picked the game back up again and have noticed that some characters just aren't what they used to be, for example, my beloved Lao lost his ex spin armor. I was just wondering what the overall meta of the game is? Is Erron Black still good? What about Summoner Quan?

Back when I used to play, online was full of Kobu Tanya, Quan, Shinnock, D'Vorah, Kung Lao and Predator, are these characters all still amazing or have they been crippled by 'balance changes'?

How about the garbage characters? Have any previously terrible characters become viable?

Thank you for reading and for any help, it's greatly appreciated

Edit: I completely forgot about Cyrax, when i played him he was busted as hell, is he still amazing?

Hi there dude.

MKX' meta has indeed changed to an extent. NRS removed almost all of the armored launchers, as now those moves are only armored or launching, but not both anymore. That is why Lao's EX Tornado spin special can still launch but doesn't have armor anymore. There are some moves that are still both, but they can only be as such if they have an extra resource in addition to the Meter bar. For example, Mileena's EX Roll can no longer launch unless you use a 2nd bar in addition to the first one. Another example is Sub-Zero's EX Slide in the Unbreakable Variation, if he does the EX Slide while being under the Frozen Aura, the opponent will be frozen mid-air allowing Sub to go for a full combo.

As for the balance in general, NRS balanced the game even further after it was already very balanced, every character has at least one Variation that is strong if not all 3, and even the others aren't weak, they just require more work.

Tanya is very strong in all of her 3 Variations as far as I know, Summoner Quan is not as strong as he was at the beginning of the game but is still very powerful and Quan's other Variations are also very good, Erron Black is still great in the Gunslinger Variation as that is his most versatile Variation, Outlaw is also good, and Marksman is the weakest but I assume it can be good if you put the work. Shinnok got nerfed in his Impostor Variation but still not easy to deal with, and he got some buffs in his other Variations. D'Vorah is still very good too in Swarm Queen and also Brood Mother, Kung Lao's best Variation now is Buzz Saw but his other two are still good, and Predator's best Variation is HQT but Hunter can also be good, Warrior might need more work. Cyrax Triborg can be good but he requires a huge amount of work, but if you put it in, you're gonna get results with him.

NRS also did a universal change to jump attacks, as now the increased hurt regions when you perform a jump attack now activate one frame before the hit region activates, so now it's a bit easier to go for Anti-Airs.

That's about it. Hope that it helps

 

[KLK Lukas]

Hi there dude.

MKX' meta has indeed changed to an extent. NRS removed almost all of the armored launchers, as now those moves are only armored or launching, but not both anymore. That is why Lao's EX Tornado spin special can still launch but doesn't have armor anymore. There are some moves that are still both, but they can only be as such if they have an extra resource in addition to the Meter bar. For example, Mileena's EX Roll can no longer launch unless you use a 2nd bar in addition to the first one. Another example is Sub-Zero's EX Slide in the Unbreakable Variation, if he does the EX Slide while being under the Frozen Aura, the opponent will be frozen mid-air allowing Sub to go for a full combo.

As for the balance in general, NRS balanced the game even further after it was already very balanced, every character has at least one Variation that is strong if not all 3, and even the others aren't weak, they just require more work.

Tanya is very strong in all of her 3 Variations as far as I know, Summoner Quan is not as strong as he was at the beginning of the game but is still very powerful and Quan's other Variations are also very good, Erron Black is still great in the Gunslinger Variation as that is his most versatile Variation, Outlaw is also good, and Marksman is the weakest but I assume it can be good if you put the work. Shinnok got nerfed in his Impostor Variation but still not easy to deal with, and he got some buffs in his other Variations. D'Vorah is still very good too in Swarm Queen and also Brood Mother, Kung Lao's best Variation now is Buzz Saw but his other two are still good, and Predator's best Variation is HQT but Hunter can also be good, Warrior might need more work. Cyrax Triborg can be good but he requires a huge amount of work, but if you put it in, you're gonna get results with him.

NRS also did a universal change to jump attacks, as now the increased hurt regions when you perform a jump attack now activate one frame before the hit region activates, so now it's a bit easier to go for Anti-Airs.

That's about it. Hope that it helps

Thank you, this is very helpful! I haven't played since before these big changes so I'm finding it hard, as a Kung Lao main I'm not used to having no armor on ex spin

My big problem has always been execution in MKX... I know in my head that ex spin has no armor and I know all of Lao's best punishes, but in actual games I just panic and mash wakeup ex spin, even though I know I shouldn't and instead of optimal punishes i just panic d1 lol!

 

[Roy Arkon]

Thank you, this is very helpful! I haven't played since before these big changes so I'm finding it hard, as a Kung Lao main I'm not used to having no armor on ex spin

My big problem has always been execution in MKX... I know in my head that ex spin has no armor and I know all of Lao's best punishes, but in actual games I just panic and mash wakeup ex spin, even though I know I shouldn't and instead of optimal punishes i just panic d1 lol!

I hear ya, it's a habit thing, and in your particular scenario of going back to the game now is very understandable. I suggest that you would go to practice mode and try to find better wakeup options (I don't main Kung Lao so I can't tell you which one, it's up to you to find out but I'm sure you will) and then try to use that against as many attacks as possible in practice mode (more specifically, the ones from the characters that you faced in your matches since returning to the game), while repeating the scenarios as much as you can, that way you will change your habits accordingly, so when you go to actual matches, you would use the new options that you have in your arsenal. Don't pressure yourself too hard of course, take everything in it's right time. I hope this helps

 

[Wigy]

Thank you, this is very helpful! I haven't played since before these big changes so I'm finding it hard, as a Kung Lao main I'm not used to having no armor on ex spin

My big problem has always been execution in MKX... I know in my head that ex spin has no armor and I know all of Lao's best punishes, but in actual games I just panic and mash wakeup ex spin, even though I know I shouldn't and instead of optimal punishes i just panic d1 lol!

Just about every lao does this online lol.

Laos still pretty good. The ex spin was just a bit much along with most armoured launchers.

God I hated overhead armoured launchers in particular

 

[GLoRToR]

Just about every lao does this online lol.

Laos still pretty good. The ex spin was just a bit much along with most armoured launchers.

God I hated overhead armoured launchers in particular

Overhead advancing armoured launchers that are + on block and lead to 1 bar 50% dmg

 

[KLK Lukas]

I hear ya, it's a habit thing, and in your particular scenario of going back to the game now is very understandable. I suggest that you would go to practice mode and try to find better wakeup options (I don't main Kung Lao so I can't tell you which one, it's up to you to find out but I'm sure you will) and then try to use that against as many attacks as possible in practice mode (more specifically, the ones from the characters that you faced in your matches since returning to the game), while repeating the scenarios as much as you can, that way you will change your habits accordingly, so when you go to actual matches, you would use the new options that you have in your arsenal. Don't pressure yourself too hard of course, take everything in it's right time. I hope this helps

Last night I went into training mode and set the AI to very hard and just sat there and tried to block everything and get my reversal timing down and my punishes, and it's already helped loads!

 

[Roy Arkon]

Last night I went into training mode and set the AI to very hard and just sat there and tried to block everything and get my reversal timing down and my punishes, and it's already helped loads!

That's a good start. What I would suggest to do now is to go to the Single Fight mode in the single player modes do the same thing, that way you also get the extra element of limited health and time on the clock in addition to timing of your inputs for reversals and punishes, that can help you get the habits of getting to the right timing under pressure situations. I used to that a lot myself. I do suggest that though to set the difficulty to either medium or hard, and maybe only later do it for very hard. And once again take everything at a time.

 

[KLK Lukas]

That's a good start. What I would suggest to do now is to go to the Single Fight mode in the single player modes do the same thing, that way you also get the extra element of limited health and time on the clock in addition to timing of your inputs for reversals and punishes, that can help you get the habits of getting to the right timing under pressure situations. I used to that a lot myself. I do suggest that though to set the difficulty to either medium or hard, and maybe only later do it for very hard. And once again take everything at a time.

Thank you for the advice, I'll try this tonight I miss the days when ex orbiting hat was like +27 or something

 

[Roy Arkon]

Thank you for the advice, I'll try this tonight I miss the days when ex orbiting hat was like +27 or something

Glad that I've helped