How do you feel about Liu Kang? (General Discussion)

[Squeaker101]

In the stream chat for one of the Montreal ranbats, we were talking about alts for Liu Kang, and both you and Mr Mileena recommended I learn Sonya. Do you still think Sonya is a good secondary for Liu Kang? Cause I did start learning her after that conversation.

Nothing on the OP eh? And your a Kang player too...

 

[Squeaker101]

Liu Kang is in a good place, definitely tournament viable and balanced to boot. He has respectable zoning, rushdown and defensive options. He's accessible and fun. He's pretty much all you can ask for in a character, strong, but not overpowered.

If I was into the character, I'd play him at a tournament with confidence.

Edit: simply put, this was where I wanted Stryker to be, not horrible, but not overpowered either. I mean he's viable now, but still.

I like this. I really have nothing to add, you typed the words out of my fingers. (if that makes sense) Strykers cool, I tried picking him up. But he's a bit harder than most, takes more time to learn the ins and outs.

 

[CD jr]

he needs a small hitbox and his parry should be instant like cyber sub and a good d1.his parry is one of the worst special moves in the game imo

 

[Marvaz]

What Xblades said. That dudes a monster with kang. Dont belive kang is good? Play him

 

[RTM2004]

Liu Kang is very irritating fighting against. He can zone really good from full screen once he gets the life lead with Fireballs in the air and the low one. Try to play the poking game with him, his B3 will combo you so fast it's annoying. Not sure if a Liu Kang player won a tournament yet or landed Top 8 (EVO 2011?) at a major but I can definitely see him ranking high especially with the craziest Liu Kang player XBlades who I played online several times. Liu Kang is is definitely good.

 

[Squeaker101]

he needs a small hitbox and his parry should be instant like cyber sub and a good d1.his parry is one of the worst special moves in the game imo

Yea, it's not cool how Liu's headband has a hitbox. A faster d1 and parry might move him up on the tier lists though. (which isn't bad, but we'd have so much more "is blah blah blah top 5?!?) which isn't what we want.

 

[Squeaker101]

OJuggernautO
Sorry to call you out on this, but it'd be nice to hear your opinion. (you do play him though, don't you?)

 

[Juggs]

I don't think he's tournament viable. He loses too many match-ups, and you have to work too hard to win with him. Just use Cage.

 

[Zyphox]

i think lui kang has good footsies, just back up wait for the player to get in range and f1 2, b3 12 its all safe, i just wish you can cancel into dragon stance he would be so good with a cancel-able stance and instand parry omg OP if he had that lol

 

[Squeaker101]

i think lui kang has good footsies, just back up wait for the player to get in range and f1 2, b3 12 its all safe, i just wish you can cancel into dragon stance he would be so good with a cancel-able stance and instand parry omg OP if he had that lol

Haha, yea. I've tried to canel into Dragon Stance before, but the input bug would always make Parry come out. I think he'd be alot better with DS Cancels. OP? Maybe. If we do get another patch, I hope DS Cancels were possible, he'd have more to work with then.

 

[Metzos]

He seems really solid if he is played correctly. He used to be my secondary but i dropped him cause i dont like his down pokes too much.

 

[Squeaker101]

He seems really solid if he is played correctly. He used to be my secondary but i dropped him cause i dont like his down pokes too much.

He's down pokes aren't that great, but they still can poke out of pressure. f12 into d3 is alright. XBlades put some use to his d1 vs Kitana. ( but I think it really only works in the corner) Who knows? Maybe we're all looking over something on his down pokes? (doubt it)

 

[MK Peanuts]

Nothing on the OP eh? And your a Kang player too...

Well, I have some thoughts on that as well.

Ignoring tiers for a moment, if I think about the characters played by the players I would be concerned about facing in tournament, the list would be something like (in no particular order) Scorpion, Sub Zero, Reptile, Smoke, Mileena, Kitana, Sektor, Cyrax, Kenshi, Freddy, Sonya, Jax, Cage, Kung Lao, Kabal, and Raiden. In my opinion, every matchup against those 16 characters is between 5-5 and 4-6. A 5-5 obviously is even. While a 4-6 is tough I would generally stick with my main for one of those unless I thought I knew the matchup with my secondary better than my opponent knew it with his main (which is rarely going to be the case). When you look at it like that, I think Liu Kang is a tournament viable character.

The other way to look at it, though, is some characters are more viable than others. If you're entering a tournament intending to try to win it, why pick a character that is never favored to win? As I've been working on the matchup chart project and come to the realization that there's no matchup that Liu Kang wins, I'm forced to admit to myself that I'm putting myself at a disadvantage by picking the character. It's not an insurmountable disadvantage, but again, my goal when I enter any tournament is to win it. I'm not trying to prove anything about the character or my own skill or anything like that, I'm just trying to win. So why put myself at any disadvantage? The one reason to play a low tier character is it gives you that low tier factor where the other guy may not know the matchup, but Liu Kang doesn't really have that; all you really have to know about him is always block low.

So all that taken into account, I've started exploring my options. I'll probably continue to play Liu Kang for the next few majors I enter just because he's still my best character, but I'm hoping to have another character ready in time for Evo.

I hope that answered your questions.

 

[Squeaker101]

Well, I have some thoughts on that as well.

Ignoring tiers for a moment, if I think about the characters played by the players I would be concerned about facing in tournament, the list would be something like (in no particular order) Scorpion, Sub Zero, Reptile, Smoke, Mileena, Kitana, Sektor, Cyrax, Kenshi, Freddy, Sonya, Jax, Cage, Kung Lao, Kabal, and Raiden. In my opinion, every matchup against those 16 characters is between 5-5 and 4-6. A 5-5 obviously is even. While a 4-6 is tough I would generally stick with my main for one of those unless I thought I knew the matchup with my secondary better than my opponent knew it with his main (which is rarely going to be the case). When you look at it like that, I think Liu Kang is a tournament viable character.

The other way to look at it, though, is some characters are more viable than others. If you're entering a tournament intending to try to win it, why pick a character that is never favored to win? As I've been working on the matchup chart project and come to the realization that there's no matchup that Liu Kang wins, I'm forced to admit to myself that I'm putting myself at a disadvantage by picking the character. It's not an insurmountable disadvantage, but again, my goal when I enter any tournament is to win it. I'm not trying to prove anything about the character or my own skill or anything like that, I'm just trying to win. So why put myself at any disadvantage? The one reason to play a low tier character is it gives you that low tier factor where the other guy may not know the matchup, but Liu Kang doesn't really have that; all you really have to know about him is always block low.

So all that taken into account, I've started exploring my options. I'll probably continue to play Liu Kang for the next few majors I enter just because he's still my best character, but I'm hoping to have another character ready in time for Evo.

I hope that answered your questions.

Dang, so your peacing on Liu? No doubt he'll miss you.

I agree with both views, I find Liu Kang is a very viable character for tourneys. Yet at the same time, other characters have evolved so much. (Sonya, Cage, Kabal, Jax, etc.) That Liu is being left in dust. Not to mention that so many people are absolutely godly with their characters. While Liu Kang has been pretty much the same since day 1.

I'm too loyal to the character to really drop him. I'm picking up an alt to cover his bad MU's, but I'd rather just learn the MU through and through. (which I can't really do online) If I ever get the chance to go to tourneys, I'd go with Kang. Though I'd love to win, its not very likely.

It answered the tourney question, but how do you like playing him? What is it like fighting him? (mirror or not) These were the questions I was mainly asking, tourney viable was just at the top of my head.

Sorry if I read it wrong.

 

[PPJ]

HIS NORMALS SHOULD BE CANCELABLE TO DRAGON STANCE LIKE SONYA

HIS STANCE OVERHEAD IS -15498417 ON BLOCK FOR GOD'S SAKES

 

[Squeaker101]

HIS NORMALS SHOULD BE CANCELABLE TO DRAGON STANCE LIKE SONYA

HIS STANCE OVERHEAD IS -15498417 ON BLOCK FOR GOD'S SAKES

If there was a way to prevent negative edge, then he probably could cancel into DS.

 

[Gabriel032]

Kang has almost as much 5-5s as Scorpion, probably because he is decent at all ranges, but isn't really the best at none.

Of course he is tournament viable. But at this point in the game, it doesn't matter who you play, it's always better if you have a secondary char. Kang doesn't have a lot of bad MUs though.

He struggles against heavy zoners like Kenshi or Freddy (because once he is in, he isn't all that scary) or against chars that benefit a lot of his bad Wake-Up options, like Cage or Jax. But I'd say he has only 6 or 7 bad MUs.

I play him online when I've already used most of my other favorite chars (Sonya, Kitana, Quan, Baraka, Cage, Sheeva) but i really don't think he's ever going to be my main. I struggle against him with some of my mains, like Kitana, but believe it or not I like counterpicking him with Sheeva. He's pretty linear, but that doesn't keep him from being a threat at all ranges.

IMO, he's barely out of top 10 (#11 or 12 in my list) and is definately tournament viable. In my opinion he is one of the only characters that could win a major by himself, since his worst MUs are 4-6, so he doesn't have any really tough MUs, just slight disavantadges.

 

[Squeaker101]

Kang has almost as much 5-5s as Scorpion, probably because he is decent at all ranges, but isn't really the best at none.

Of course he is tournament viable. But at this point in the game, it doesn't matter who you play, it's always better if you have a secondary char. Kang doesn't have a lot of bad MUs though.

He struggles against heavy zoners like Kenshi or Freddy (because once he is in, he isn't all that scary) or against chars that benefit a lot of his bad Wake-Up options, like Cage or Jax. But I'd say he has only 6 or 7 bad MUs.

I play him online when I've already used most of my other favorite chars (Sonya, Kitana, Quan, Baraka, Cage, Sheeva) but i really don't think he's ever going to be my main. I struggle against him with some of my mains, like Kitana, but believe it or not I like counterpicking him with Sheeva. He's pretty linear, but that doesn't keep him from being a threat at all ranges.

IMO, he's barely out of top 10 (#11 or 12 in my list) and is definately tournament viable. In my opinion he is one of the only characters that could win a major by himself, since his worst MUs are 4-6, so he doesn't have any really tough MUs, just slight disavantadges.

Yea, zoners are hard to beat.

Sheeva vs Liu? I have some difficulties with her. (online of course) She'd be easy to face offline though.

Realistically I have him around there as well, just above mid-tier.

 

[XBlades]

Don't beat yourself too much about it, it has always been said that the easiest character to use, is the hardest character to master... You choose who your comfortable with.

 

[MK Peanuts]

It answered the tourney question, but how do you like playing him? What is it like fighting him? (mirror or not) These were the questions I was mainly asking, tourney viable was just at the top of my head.

Sorry if I read it wrong.

I was hoping a long rambling post would address everything, but I guess I missed some stuff.

Obviously I like playing the guy or I would have switched a long time ago. One of the great things about Liu Kang that I really miss when I try other characters is that his strings can't be ducked. Well 213 can but I rarely use that. This plus the fact that b312 hits crouching opponents means he can blow up low pokes better than most characters. I've never really enjoyed doing instant air fireballs but the more I play him the more I feel it's not even his best keepaway tool. Getting in against strong zoning characters is a chore, but otherwise I think he's fun to play.

Playing against Liu Kang is annoying as hell. First off I always forget to block low at first. Second off I'm terrible at blocking mixups on reaction, so I get hit with f3 every time. The mirror in particular is a really stupid matchup; one of Liu Kang's strengths is that he has good projectiles, and one of his weaknesses is is that he struggles against characters with good projectiles. Basically whoever gets off to a life lead early gets to lame it out with fireballs and the other guy is in a real tough spot.

 

[Peckapowa]

Kang has almost as much 5-5s as Scorpion, probably because he is decent at all ranges, but isn't really the best at none.

Of course he is tournament viable. But at this point in the game, it doesn't matter who you play, it's always better if you have a secondary char. Kang doesn't have a lot of bad MUs though.

He struggles against heavy zoners like Kenshi or Freddy (because once he is in, he isn't all that scary) or against chars that benefit a lot of his bad Wake-Up options, like Cage or Jax. But I'd say he has only 6 or 7 bad MUs.

I play him online when I've already used most of my other favorite chars (Sonya, Kitana, Quan, Baraka, Cage, Sheeva) but i really don't think he's ever going to be my main. I struggle against him with some of my mains, like Kitana, but believe it or not I like counterpicking him with Sheeva. He's pretty linear, but that doesn't keep him from being a threat at all ranges.

IMO, he's barely out of top 10 (#11 or 12 in my list) and is definately tournament viable. In my opinion he is one of the only characters that could win a major by himself, since his worst MUs are 4-6, so he doesn't have any really tough MUs, just slight disavantadges.

id like to change ur mind about this statement

 

[Gabriel032]

id like to change ur mind about this statement

I mean, he is scary, but not as much as Cage or Sonya. They are better up close and more likely to stay in. In the corner he is just as good as them though. Except for Cage, no one is better than him up close.

 

[Peckapowa]

I mean, he is scary, but not as much as Cage or Sonya. They are better up close and more likely to stay in. In the corner he is just as good as them though. Except for Cage, no one is better than him up close.

i think hes real close to sonyas level up locse

 

[XBlades]

I will post some vids up soon...

Using Liu Kang will develop a love/hate relationship...

 

[Squeaker101]

I will post some vids up soon...

=D Can't wait!