So I have been considering playing competitively but I don't know what characters would suit me. What I go for when choosing a character is.
Strong punish game.
Ability to zone and play mind games.
Viability.
All suggestions are appreciated.
For strong punish game, good zoning and mind games I can honestly say every character meets those requirements except D'Vorah, Jacqui who have no zoning or awful projectiles and a few others.
All characters are now viable after the patch.
My best recommendations are:
Well Rounded Characters:
Sonya:
Has great zoning and rushdown with top 5 fireballs and crazy 50/50's.
She lacks fast mids and her 10f mid has almost less range than most pokes.
Amazing damage (50%)
Jax:
Amazing Rushdown, Staggers, AA's, good gap closers and very respectable zoning once heated up. The best FB. Can be zoned out.
Kabal:
Great range with hurboxless normals, great AA's KB's, FB, good staggers, 9f mid with 50/50's, great zoning and gap closers.
His mix can be fuzzied but he has no gaps.
Liu Kang:
Pretty much good at everything but suffers from footsie range and can be out spaced.
Low damage from most used normals and his highest damage midscreen is 13f and punishable but has amazing jails into +3. He makes up for sub 30 damage with his KB's
Cetrion:
One of the best zoners, great range, low profiles normals, escapes corner and has great footsies and staggers.
Lacks fast mids but has a 10f low to compensate.
Sub Zero:
Great range, good damage from KB, true 50/50's, good buttons, best punisher, 8-11f starters.
Doesn't do much damage midscreen in Thin Ice without KB/FB. Good damage with his DOW variation and he can start combo with both overhead and low.
Baraka:
Is more of a rushdown char. He does insane damage 40-70% with KB/FB. Uses staggers and frame traps to open up the opponent but only needs to touch them twice.
Harder to open up players than some characters but hurts. Great projectiles and flag gives them damage boost to out trade other zones. Jack of all trades master of damage.
Shang:
Great zoning, does less damage now but has great buttons, staggers, punishers, AA's, Footsie, frame traps, mixup.
Has trouble with some characters up close but has tools to deal with them. Can change into opponents and gets huge damage boost.
Nightwolf:
Same as shang but less about zoning and more about footsies. Good at basically everything. If you have good footsies you will do very well with him. Great damage, punishers, corner carry, damage buff, staggers, buttons