General/Other Getting bored of Sub Zero

[zRaandom x]

So Ive been playing sub zero for long time now, gained mastery of him and everything. Id say im pretty good with him especially because hes my main. But lately Ive been getting bored of using him, his style is not fun for me anymore. What i mean is that he basically haves 2 to 3 consistent combos and theyre all boring, hit 3 buttons and slide. So ive been wondering if any of you experiences this over time with any other character especially subzero? and ive also been thinking of picking up another character, so which one(s) do you(subzero players) recommend me? any post would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced to everybody.

 

[RoboCop]

So Ive been playing sub zero for long time now, gained mastery of him and everything. Id say im pretty good with him especially because hes my main. But lately Ive been getting bored of using him, his style is not fun for me anymore. What i mean is that he basically haves 2 to 3 consistent combos and theyre all boring, hit 3 buttons and slide. So ive been wondering if any of you experiences this over time with any other character especially subzero? and ive also been thinking of picking up another character, so which one(s) do you(subzero players) recommend me? any post would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced to everybody.

So answer at least one of your questions, yeah, I have experienced that. I exclusively play Kano and every now and then after one of his bad matchup (namely Sub-Zero) I think about changing it up a bit. But his personality (and every other character's lack thereof) always brings me back. Plus I feel like his versatility means that it will be months before I actually "master" him. I could see Sub-Zero getting very boring, even if he is a really good character. If I were you I would transfer as far from Subs playstyle as possible just to mix things up. Maybe a rushdown like Liu Kang or Cage. If you don't want to go that rout you could go with someone like Ermac, where you wouldn't have to switch up your strategy too much, but it would be different enough to be fresh.

 

[Kombo]

So Ive been playing sub zero for long time now, gained mastery of him and everything. Id say im pretty good with him especially because hes my main. But lately Ive been getting bored of using him, his style is not fun for me anymore. What i mean is that he basically haves 2 to 3 consistent combos and theyre all boring, hit 3 buttons and slide. So ive been wondering if any of you experiences this over time with any other character especially subzero? and ive also been thinking of picking up another character, so which one(s) do you(subzero players) recommend me? any post would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced to everybody.

You sound just like me, I picked up Sub as an alt for Reptile for now I'm thinking of dropping him because he just isn't fun to play as anymore. People say he is Top tier but I don't see it. He has far too many bad matchups. To me he is high mid tier at best. Characters I use now are Reptile, Smoke, and Kung Lao just for casual play though I am enjoying him alot.

 

[Sc0tt2288]

Yeah ive main him since the beginning and im pretty great with him but recently i have gotten a lil tired of looking at him.... so i picked up kenshi he is pretty fun to play as but after a while i was like not for me.. so then i picked up scorpion and he is hella fun to play as and im pretty beast with him b.c. most of the time people see someone pick scorpion there like noob then when i hit them with his 37% no meter combo they shut up then lol... but i picked up scorpion as my alternative to sub-zero suprisingly..... still when i wanna try hard i still pick sub-zero but they will enventually been even once i get more time wit scorp

 

[SilverKeyMan]

Pick a few different characters to learn, and rotate between two or three of them (including Sub-Zero). This way you don't get bored with any one character.

If you are particularly bored of Sub's combos, try using Kenshi. It's very easy to create different combos with him, different from what the next person is using. When you bore of those combos, you can mix them up and create different ones. I'd also recommend staying away from Shang Tsung, since his combos can get a little repetitive.

 

[salvificblood]

To be honest, Sub-Zero has way more than one or two combos. Sure, most of the combos include many of the same inputs, but that doesn't really bother me. Compare the ex groundfreeze reset and his Xray corner combo, for example, or a midscreen Xray combo; they're all pretty different. In any case, it isn't combos that makes a character like Sub-Zero interesting. It's the setups.

However, two fun to use characters for me are Noob and Kang. I used to counterpick with those but when I really started to develope my own Sub-Zero, and not just a poor replica of somebody else's, I stopped feeling the need to use another character. The thing with Sub-Zero is that because he's not a pick up and play character, he has more complex solutions to a lot of problems, too. I don't know how you guys can be bored when he's that engaging mentally.

 

[Kombo]

The thing with Sub-Zero is that because he's not a pick up and play character, he has more complex solutions to a lot of problems, too.

Care to explain? Because all I'm doing is freeze 2,1,4, slide or xray into winning.

 

[KOA CAPONE]

there prolly trying to turtle with sub i use him as pressure and only use the ice clone in my game plan to try lock my oppent down in corner hes a rush down character for me people play him wrong . nobody i mean nobody knows all his combos i got some secerts i got a 30 percent in the corner that i see know one use never give up on sub. one of the best characters in the game.

 

[SilverKeyMan]

Care to explain? Because all I'm doing is freeze 2,1,4, slide or xray into winning.

Are you just spamming the Freeze projectile until it hits?

 

[Kombo]

Are you just spamming the Freeze projectile until it hits?

No i rush with Sub. If I loose or play horribly I always ask my opponent what I could've done to do better but 99.9% of the time people online are just assholes who take there win/loss too seriosly.

 

[zRaandom x]

thanks to all the people that replied. i didnt think i would get as much.

trust me people i know almost all his combos mid screen or corner(no mean to brag), but the thing is theyre not reliable. moreso oniline(which is all i play). his ex puddle reset is a waste of meter imo. u get like 30 to 40% BUT i can just use his jip 22 xx iceball, dash back jip 214 xx slide for like 35ish% and its more reliable. i do not play him as a turtle i change between very defensive clone and "spamming" iceballs to rushing down with 212 xx ice clone etc. and also using clones to stop wakeups of course. its not that i dont know ho to play him its that i got bored of his playstyle.

ive tried picking the characters less used, cause i like being original. so far, no luck, i ceratinly wont pick baraka, he has a high learning curve, sheeva..no comments. all of those low tier to low mid tier ive tried and ive gotten nowhere with them. guess ill maybe pick up ermac, scorp, JC or just hop onto the reptile bandwagon.

EDIT: I certainly wont be dropping him, this is more of a question to whom i should choose as a alt being a sub zero player.

 

[Kombo]

thanks to all the people that replied. i didnt think i would get as much.

trust me people i know almost all his combos mid screen or corner(no mean to brag), but the thing is theyre not reliable. moreso oniline(which is all i play). his ex puddle reset is a waste of meter imo. u get like 30 to 40% BUT i can just use his jip 22 xx iceball, dash back jip 214 xx slide for like 35ish% and its more reliable. i do not play him as a turtle i change between very defensive clone and "spamming" iceballs to rushing down with 212 xx ice clone etc. and also using clones to stop wakeups of course. its not that i dont know ho to play him its that i got bored of his playstyle.

ive tried picking the characters less used, cause i like being original. so far, no luck, i ceratinly wont pick baraka, he has a high learning curve, sheeva..no comments. all of those low tier to low mid tier ive tried and ive gotten nowhere with them. guess ill maybe pick up ermac, scorp, JC or just hop onto the reptile bandwagon.

The Reptile bandwagon is a fun ride.

 

[chessmaster]

good. we need more people NOT playing the ninjas.

 

[zRaandom x]

good. we need more people NOT playing the ninjas.

we cant help it, ninjas are so cool.

 

[Mechacide]

Maybe a rushdown like Liu Kang or Cage. If you don't want to go that rout you could go with someone like Ermac, where you wouldn't have to switch up your strategy too much, but it would be different enough to be fresh.

Sub-Zero is a rushdown character. He just happens to have one of the best zoning tools to help that rushdown. Which just happens to do an amazing job of keeping out other rushdown characters.

I personally love Sub's combos, because they're straight-forward (wouldn't go as far as braindead) and consistent, but also cool to look at. I don't really care about different combos, because that's just free dmg. It's not like I'm sitting there mashing out my combos saying "Yeah! I've got you now! Try and get out of THIS!" because the other person is just sitting there looking at their meter, waiting for breaker, and once they have it they will very easily get out of it...

Having said that, Sub has plenty of situational combos that you should be mixing it up with. There's:
- Two staples for after 2,2_b+1,2_f+4 xx Freeze.
- The JIP, b+1,2,1 after an opponent is frozen standing.
- The 2,1,2 xx Freeze staples.
- More than one combo for after an opponent is frozen in the air.
- There's all the different XR combos, and you have to know which scale better etc.
- Corner combos, where you have to decide whether to take the dmg or get a Clone out (not a hard decision, but still takes more brain-work than most characters...)
- There's the b+2 reset, and the EX Ground Freeze reset.
- And I'm sure I'm missing some.

Not to mention the fact that often you'll have the opp frozen somewhere away from you, and you may have to adjust your follow-up a little because you won't get there in time for your full staple.

But yeah, I can't imagine being bored with Sub. I love everything about him. His normals, his voice, his costume (and now there's gonna be an unmasked version!), his sword, the way he says "SCOOBIYAH!", his XR (oh man...his XR!). But most of all, I love, no...ADORE, his wall-rape. When my opponent is running away from me, trying to "zone" me, and I'm just slowly walking forward, blocking each of their attempts, and slowly backing them into the corner before tearing them apart and never letting them back out... Well that's just one of the best feelings in the world, my friend.

Also, his EX Ground Freeze reset nets you 57% in total. You must be doing the wrong one, or not doing the most dmging combos you can be.

Back to his XR quickly: You ever experience it when you have XR, and you're playing against Cyrax, or Mileena, or Kitana, or someone else that throws a lot of projectiles and stuff, and suddenly they're just backing away, trying not to do anything? Not sure about you, but it's an awesome feeling knowing my opponent is scared of me and what I can do, and is having to play outside of their comfort zone and play on my terms. That actually extends way outside of Sub's XR, because that's what his whole gameplan really is.

I don't use any other characters the way I use Sub, and I don't want to. It feels like NRS somehow knew he'd be basically my only character, and made sure to never have him more than one character-slot away. Thank you for that, NRS, and thank you for Sub : )

 

[GamerBlake90]

Sub-Zero's a very solid character, dude. I would not recommend dropping him at all.

You've gotta realize, there's more to a game than combos. Sure, combos can get repetitive, but as long as you punish properly with them that's all that matters. If you are the type to get bored, the best thing to do is explore the roster and find sub-main characters to mess with.

It's often best to know more than one character so that you don't carry just one set of tools to every battle, because after a while you can get predictable. Even Sub-Zero can struggle against some characters, especially those equipped with projectiles.

Part of the point of the game is gaining an inherent knowledge of the roster, even if you are not skilled with all characters, so as to keep the game fresh. Still, if you're good with Sub-Zero, don't drop him by any means. That's what I would suggest.

 

[zRaandom x]

dont worry, im not dropping him. ill always use cause hes my main im just saying that im getting bored of him and looking for an alternate. maybe mechacide is right i should mix it up more often and do all of his nasty trick corner and wtever. thanks to mechacide for taking the time to write all that info. ive certainly didnt know some of those things, something tells me ive been playing him wrong. u people just gave me hope to not drop subzero and to change it up a little bit. u guys are the greatest, for real. feel free to add me on xbl. we can get some matches up. anyways 'nother question who would you consider me pickin up: ermac reptile or JC?

 

[Mechacide]

Definitely Ermac, for two reasons:
1) He covers some (probably most) of Sub's weaker match-ups.
2) He's a bad match-up for Sub, so learning him would give you an advantage if you're ever facing an Ermac as Sub.

 

[Kombo]

Sub-Zero is a rushdown character. He just happens to have one of the best zoning tools to help that rushdown. Which just happens to do an amazing job of keeping out other rushdown characters.

I personally love Sub's combos, because they're straight-forward (wouldn't go as far as braindead) and consistent, but also cool to look at. I don't really care about different combos, because that's just free dmg. It's not like I'm sitting there mashing out my combos saying "Yeah! I've got you now! Try and get out of THIS!" because the other person is just sitting there looking at their meter, waiting for breaker, and once they have it they will very easily get out of it...

Having said that, Sub has plenty of situational combos that you should be mixing it up with. There's:
- Two staples for after 2,2_b+1,2_f+4 xx Freeze.
- The JIP, b+1,2,1 after an opponent is frozen standing.
- The 2,1,2 xx Freeze staples.
- More than one combo for after an opponent is frozen in the air.
- There's all the different XR combos, and you have to know which scale better etc.
- Corner combos, where you have to decide whether to take the dmg or get a Clone out (not a hard decision, but still takes more brain-work than most characters...)
- There's the b+2 reset, and the EX Ground Freeze reset.
- And I'm sure I'm missing some.

Not to mention the fact that often you'll have the opp frozen somewhere away from you, and you may have to adjust your follow-up a little because you won't get there in time for your full staple.

But yeah, I can't imagine being bored with Sub. I love everything about him. His normals, his voice, his costume (and now there's gonna be an unmasked version!), his sword, the way he says "SCOOBIYAH!", his XR (oh man...his XR!). But most of all, I love, no...ADORE, his wall-rape. When my opponent is running away from me, trying to "zone" me, and I'm just slowly walking forward, blocking each of their attempts, and slowly backing them into the corner before tearing them apart and never letting them back out... Well that's just one of the best feelings in the world, my friend.

Also, his EX Ground Freeze reset nets you 57% in total. You must be doing the wrong one, or not doing the most dmging combos you can be.

Back to his XR quickly: You ever experience it when you have XR, and you're playing against Cyrax, or Mileena, or Kitana, or someone else that throws a lot of projectiles and stuff, and suddenly they're just backing away, trying not to do anything? Not sure about you, but it's an awesome feeling knowing my opponent is scared of me and what I can do, and is having to play outside of their comfort zone and play on my terms. That actually extends way outside of Sub's XR, because that's what his whole gameplan really is.

I don't use any other characters the way I use Sub, and I don't want to. It feels like NRS somehow knew he'd be basically my only character, and made sure to never have him more than one character-slot away. Thank you for that, NRS, and thank you for Sub : )

You should make a Sub guide to help us scrubs out.

 

[Mechacide]

You should make a Sub guide to help us scrubs out.

I take that as a compliment, and thank you, but I'm an online player, so that isn't my place. If I manage to enter some tournaments, or get a local offline scene together (with some footage to prove my worth) then maybe I'd make my own guide, but right now I think the guide we already have is pretty good. And I'm sure Tom Brady has a good guide for Sub in his Living Guide.

I do think we need to organise Sub's forum at some point, though, with an updated combo thread and a proper match-up chart etc.

 

[King]

Try switching to Noob; his resets are so fun to setup and to execute.

 

[Mechacide]

Try switching to Noob; his resets are so fun to setup and to execute.

Yeah, but they're all so easy to escape.

 

[Lyuben]

I only get bored with Sub when I lose a few matches online or win a few too many. Then I play as Baraka for a while and go back to Sub again. Its a cycle for me. 70% sub zero, 20% Baraka and 5% other guys I choose randomly or when I feel like it.

 

[Bizkit]

HOW DARE YOU! Sub is fun, real fun. When you are really good with him, Like Mecha, I can't imagine getting bored with him.

I do however like to work on other characters, because its always fun to learn a new character.

But really, Sub is fun, and definitely a viable character.

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

HOW DARE YOU! Sub is fun, real fun. When you are really good with him, Like Mecha, I can't imagine getting bored with him.

I do however like to work on other characters, because its always fun to learn a new character.

But really, Sub is fun, and definitely a viable character.

if you are that bored I'd go with Mileena. She has crazy pressure and teaches you how to not make mistakes (all of her specials are punishable). I did this and it actually improved my sub game. Her tools teach you how to condition players to do what you want.
Sub is that kind of player. After initial blows... you have to condition your opponent to do what you want ... be it walk back to the corner... duck by clones etc etc.
Mileena is fierce at this. Her setups mostly have to be on a conditioning case.... and she teaches you the proper way to keep opponents zones without a clone.
To me Sub is the all in one package. He has a good zone game... can work over someone at midscreen.... and is stupid good up close. (not insane like Jax, Cage, Kung but all the same).

So my suggestion would be Mileena or Kitana.... either or.