KHTC Jink
Don’t even
Phew, so let me start out by saying I’m not up-playing Kitana, I know you Kitana players are very defensive of her placement on the tier list, and by no means am I saying she’s busted or anything. But my lord, that variation is one of the few that go against the typical ‘meta’ of the game.
That variation does not play neutral...like at all. Now you may be wondering, “well of course she does, it’s Kitana, her whole game plan revolves around zoning, outspacing with her good buttons etc” and I’d be inclined to agree with you if we’re talking about any other variation of hers.
Okay, so Highborn gets access to a stance, in this stance she gets a teleport, the stab, and the air sai that tracks. She also gets (this is where it gets ridiculous) a safe 15 damage special that she can hold or stop at any time. ON BLOCK this special does 52 damage. So every jump in you have to hold around 78 damage, depending on the string. Pretty strong, yeah but how does she just completely avoid playing neutral?
This variation (once she gets in, which isn’t difficult because of her Mileena teleport)
Does one thing. Strings in db2 ending it at different times to steal a turn back or just blocking the opponents poke and going back into it. Let’s talk about it from the opponents perspective. So let’s say you’re trying to zone a little bit, but you have to be cautious of the stance. So she works her way in and jumps in, you were waiting but too bad, you can’t anti-air Kitanas early jump 2. Now you’re already in guess mode, is she going to stagger back 2? Throw? Or just do the whole string into db2. Let’s say she does the last option. She only holds it for 2 fans (meaning you block 2 of the 3 fans that spin) you were expecting that and you poke, but guess what? Too bad because actually, the move was taken from mk9! And in transferring over to this game it got what’s called random frame advantage. If you do her back 2 string into the in-place fan spin it can be -5, 0, +1, -4. It can also randomly go all the way to minus 8 and 6 as well, but this is all assuming you don’t let the THIRD fan go.
What I’m getting at, is this variations entire game plan is to do any string into that special and chip away at your health. The entire game. Not one other character plays like this. There’s no neutral being played, no back and forth of pokes or footsies, just guessing when she decides to end the special. It feels super unnatural to play against and it goes against what this game is supposed to be centered around.
Now I’m not going to just complain and not offer what I think should be done. I think that they should make the move have consistent frames, no matter how much you hold it or not. I think if you block one fan and they stop it should be the normal -5, same goes if you block the second or the third. And truth be told, I think the idea of being able to hold or cancel it at any point is weird. Imagine if chop chop could be stopped on a dime and was safe or even sometimes plus?
I’m curious to hear your guys’ thoughts, because I’ve been using this variation for the past week, and I’ve fought many that do. And the general game plan consensus among Kitana players that play Highborn is: String into db2, poke or block poke, string into db2.
Let me know your thoughts
That variation does not play neutral...like at all. Now you may be wondering, “well of course she does, it’s Kitana, her whole game plan revolves around zoning, outspacing with her good buttons etc” and I’d be inclined to agree with you if we’re talking about any other variation of hers.
Okay, so Highborn gets access to a stance, in this stance she gets a teleport, the stab, and the air sai that tracks. She also gets (this is where it gets ridiculous) a safe 15 damage special that she can hold or stop at any time. ON BLOCK this special does 52 damage. So every jump in you have to hold around 78 damage, depending on the string. Pretty strong, yeah but how does she just completely avoid playing neutral?
This variation (once she gets in, which isn’t difficult because of her Mileena teleport)
Does one thing. Strings in db2 ending it at different times to steal a turn back or just blocking the opponents poke and going back into it. Let’s talk about it from the opponents perspective. So let’s say you’re trying to zone a little bit, but you have to be cautious of the stance. So she works her way in and jumps in, you were waiting but too bad, you can’t anti-air Kitanas early jump 2. Now you’re already in guess mode, is she going to stagger back 2? Throw? Or just do the whole string into db2. Let’s say she does the last option. She only holds it for 2 fans (meaning you block 2 of the 3 fans that spin) you were expecting that and you poke, but guess what? Too bad because actually, the move was taken from mk9! And in transferring over to this game it got what’s called random frame advantage. If you do her back 2 string into the in-place fan spin it can be -5, 0, +1, -4. It can also randomly go all the way to minus 8 and 6 as well, but this is all assuming you don’t let the THIRD fan go.
What I’m getting at, is this variations entire game plan is to do any string into that special and chip away at your health. The entire game. Not one other character plays like this. There’s no neutral being played, no back and forth of pokes or footsies, just guessing when she decides to end the special. It feels super unnatural to play against and it goes against what this game is supposed to be centered around.
Now I’m not going to just complain and not offer what I think should be done. I think that they should make the move have consistent frames, no matter how much you hold it or not. I think if you block one fan and they stop it should be the normal -5, same goes if you block the second or the third. And truth be told, I think the idea of being able to hold or cancel it at any point is weird. Imagine if chop chop could be stopped on a dime and was safe or even sometimes plus?
I’m curious to hear your guys’ thoughts, because I’ve been using this variation for the past week, and I’ve fought many that do. And the general game plan consensus among Kitana players that play Highborn is: String into db2, poke or block poke, string into db2.
Let me know your thoughts
