What's new

How do you fight highborn kitana???

I’m sort of at a loss here, highborn feels kind of OD to me in the sense that she controls literally every inch of the screen... Like, I’m a jacqui/cetrion player (I chose them because A: i was a jacqui main in X, and B: because I wanted to have contrasting play styles) but highborn kind of just shits all over both. Like against jacqui, I have to work my way in on her Sai/fan toss mind game and then when I finally get in her face she has pressure tools and staggers that Are ridiculously good. Like being able to safely special cancel pokes and strings into razors (which can be plus) having neutral on block staggers, cancels, good footsie buttons, and a literally god like d3 anti air. And when I use cetrion, kitana can teleport my boulders on reaction, and her fan startup is so fast that cetrion basically can’t establish any kind of full screen game without getting clipped. And then when she’s in, her pressure completely outshines cetrion... like my best mid (f2) is literally full combo punishable off every option after f2... am i missing something? Cuz I have a good friend (Shiraiyu DJ) for anyone who might know him who literally dominates me with kitana and it feels like she just can’t be counterplayed... what am I missing here?
 

GLoRToR

Positive Poster!
I’m sort of at a loss here, highborn feels kind of OD to me in the sense that she controls literally every inch of the screen... Like, I’m a jacqui/cetrion player (I chose them because A: i was a jacqui main in X, and B: because I wanted to have contrasting play styles) but highborn kind of just shits all over both. Like against jacqui, I have to work my way in on her Sai/fan toss mind game and then when I finally get in her face she has pressure tools and staggers that Are ridiculously good. Like being able to safely special cancel pokes and strings into razors (which can be plus) having neutral on block staggers, cancels, good footsie buttons, and a literally god like d3 anti air. And when I use cetrion, kitana can teleport my boulders on reaction, and her fan startup is so fast that cetrion basically can’t establish any kind of full screen game without getting clipped. And then when she’s in, her pressure completely outshines cetrion... like my best mid (f2) is literally full combo punishable off every option after f2... am i missing something? Cuz I have a good friend (Shiraiyu DJ) for anyone who might know him who literally dominates me with kitana and it feels like she just can’t be counterplayed... what am I missing here?
It's your understanding of space control that needs work. Understand how many frames something takes to come out and learn when to block, when to move. Most projectiles give you a bare minimum of 15 frames to take a few steps ahead for example. I can only thing of Sonya who has fucked up pushback on her projectile. Every other form of zoning, my poor jade included, is negative one million on block unless meterburned and has gaps and can be ducked, jumped or walked under and punished.
Go into training mode, set the ai to spam the move you are having trouble with and then find creative ways to fuck it in the nose.
Sai shenanigans are typically not something you should let her get away with and since she lacks any good lows, you can sleep block on her for days anyway and react to low.

The rest of your problems stem from other problems with fundamentals but since you play Cetrion you need to understand what you are doing right (what the character enables you to almost automatically do right) when you win and what you are doing wrong when you lose to the same thing.
Jacqui is hard to play in that her range suffers and you have to work to get in with her but I don't play her so I'm not going to try and fix your problems with that.

I feel like if you up your spacing game and defense against zoning and counterplay you'll find it a lot easier to deal with Miltana.
 
You can’t duck fans after blocking sais... the sais are plus on block... it’s literally the exact same mind game cetrion plays with boulder/geyser except kitanas come out twice as fast. I’ll acknowledge that the mind game isn’t AS strong as cetrions in some aspects but it takes up the airspace at such a speed that cetrion literally can’t do anything more than hells wrath to check kitana when she’s negative. I’m usually fine with that because I accept that cetrion can’t just sling boulders all day and expect to win. But the problem is kitana keeps cetrion from doing what she’s meant to do, and then destroys her when she gets in as well. Did you not read the part where I said kitana gets a free teleport on reaction if I even THINK about throwing boulder? You kind of
omitted my whole point of this post which is to say that high born dominates too many parts of the screen. She shouldn’t be able to keep you out and then delete you with pressure when you get in. That’s the same reason Sonya is broken except she gets stupid damage and not pressure.
 

Hellbringer

1 2 3 drink
You can’t duck fans after blocking sais... the sais are plus on block... it’s literally the exact same mind game cetrion plays with boulder/geyser except kitanas come out twice as fast. I’ll acknowledge that the mind game isn’t AS strong as cetrions in some aspects but it takes up the airspace at such a speed that cetrion literally can’t do anything more than hells wrath to check kitana when she’s negative. I’m usually fine with that because I accept that cetrion can’t just sling boulders all day and expect to win. But the problem is kitana keeps cetrion from doing what she’s meant to do, and then destroys her when she gets in as well. Did you not read the part where I said kitana gets a free teleport on reaction if I even THINK about throwing boulder? You kind of
omitted my whole point of this post which is to say that high born dominates too many parts of the screen. She shouldn’t be able to keep you out and then delete you with pressure when you get in. That’s the same reason Sonya is broken except she gets stupid damage and not pressure.
Dont listen to that guy lol, he doesnt even play the game and every post he makes includes saying how bad jade is.
And yeah highborn is stupidly good, didnt realise untill i played a good one.
I found out that when she ends in razors and delays that you can flawllesblock the second razor but i need to lab some more.
 

Temptress

Edenian Empress
You’d think GLoRToR is playing MK9 with every post of his never failing to include a whiny tangent about how utterly shit Jade is in his mind.

Raptor’s video which was already mentioned is helpful, although Highborn is inconsistent for both the Kitana player and her opponent, especially online where even the slightest timing error is the difference between being plus or punishable.
 

Zer0_h0ur

XBL tag: South of Zero
You can’t duck fans after blocking sais... the sais are plus on block... it’s literally the exact same mind game cetrion plays with boulder/geyser except kitanas come out twice as fast. I’ll acknowledge that the mind game isn’t AS strong as cetrions in some aspects but it takes up the airspace at such a speed that cetrion literally can’t do anything more than hells wrath to check kitana when she’s negative. I’m usually fine with that because I accept that cetrion can’t just sling boulders all day and expect to win. But the problem is kitana keeps cetrion from doing what she’s meant to do, and then destroys her when she gets in as well. Did you not read the part where I said kitana gets a free teleport on reaction if I even THINK about throwing boulder? You kind of
omitted my whole point of this post which is to say that high born dominates too many parts of the screen. She shouldn’t be able to keep you out and then delete you with pressure when you get in. That’s the same reason Sonya is broken except she gets stupid damage and not pressure.
She's designed that way, very strong anti-zoning zoner.
 

MKF30

Fujin and Ermac for MK 11
She is rather annoying to deal with the floaty I'm a Princess pose move with the fans, that shit jails you. Her other 2 variations are solid imo but can be dealt with a lot easier. I think her HB is a tad bit OP, could use a nerf.
 
Last edited:

xKhaoTik

The Ignore Button Is Free
You can’t duck fans after blocking sais... the sais are plus on block... it’s literally the exact same mind game cetrion plays with boulder/geyser except kitanas come out twice as fast. I’ll acknowledge that the mind game isn’t AS strong as cetrions in some aspects but it takes up the airspace at such a speed that cetrion literally can’t do anything more than hells wrath to check kitana when she’s negative. I’m usually fine with that because I accept that cetrion can’t just sling boulders all day and expect to win. But the problem is kitana keeps cetrion from doing what she’s meant to do, and then destroys her when she gets in as well. Did you not read the part where I said kitana gets a free teleport on reaction if I even THINK about throwing boulder? You kind of
omitted my whole point of this post which is to say that high born dominates too many parts of the screen. She shouldn’t be able to keep you out and then delete you with pressure when you get in. That’s the same reason Sonya is broken except she gets stupid damage and not pressure.
I’m so glad you think Kitana beats cetrion. I’ve been preaching this for a while now. Hopefully we’ll see it in tournaments soon because I honestly feel like Kitana is the ANTI cetrion.

I also use Cetrion as well and honestly, you’re best bet is to stay in. Kitana can’t interrupt the amp wall except for d3, and even then, it has to be frame perfect, so you can somewhat abuse it (unless they’re gdlk at FBing it). Play the footsies game. Both have good footsies but Cetrions is better, especially with that backdash. You can use geyser outside of b2 range since kitana can’t punish it. S1 is really good against Kitana’s jump ins.

Outside of that tho, no zoning from cetrion much, while kitana can do hers freely.
 
I’m so glad you think Kitana beats cetrion. I’ve been preaching this for a while now. Hopefully we’ll see it in tournaments soon because I honestly feel like Kitana is the ANTI cetrion.

I also use Cetrion as well and honestly, you’re best bet is to stay in. Kitana can’t interrupt the amp wall except for d3, and even then, it has to be frame perfect, so you can somewhat abuse it (unless they’re gdlk at FBing it). Play the footsies game. Both have good footsies but Cetrions is better, especially with that backdash. You can use geyser outside of b2 range since kitana can’t punish it. S1 is really good against Kitana’s jump ins.

Outside of that tho, no zoning from cetrion much, while kitana can do hers freely.
people GO AWF on me when I even suggest that Highborn wins the MU. But like, you have to be blind not to see why highborn wins. She’s high speed cetrion that doesn’t kill herself upclose ever. Highborn is ridiculously good and it’s amazing how much downplay she gets. Her tools set is insane.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
I'm sure this'll continue to happen until we see her used properly, in tournament, at a high level.
Dragon already showed everyone, but I think some people have forgotten.

He put Highborn on the map in tournament.
 

xKhaoTik

The Ignore Button Is Free
Dragon already showed everyone, but I think some people have forgotten.

He put Highborn on the map in tournament.
Saying he put Highborn on the map is a bit of a reach because we haven’t seen him use her since, it was only for one match and he lost, she isn’t running rampant online like how Kang was or how Cage is, and no one else uses her in tournament. Plus everyone already knew how good highborn was then.

He did show Highborn can compete tho.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
Saying he put Highborn on the map is a bit of a reach because we haven’t seen him use her since, it was only for one match and he lost, she isn’t running rampant online like how Kang was or how Cage is, and no one else uses her in tournament. Plus everyone already knew how good highborn was then.

He did show Highborn can compete tho.
He put her on the map, so someone else needs to sail her across the ocean :p

Plus he lost 3-2, to the greatest player in NRS history. Imo he gets a pass.
 
Saying he put Highborn on the map is a bit of a reach because we haven’t seen him use her since, it was only for one match and he lost, she isn’t running rampant online like how Kang was or how Cage is, and no one else uses her in tournament. Plus everyone already knew how good highborn was then.

He did show Highborn can compete tho.
^This. We've only had a taste of high level Tournament Highborn.
 
Can we all agree she controls every inch of the of the screen with utter ease tho? Like... she can’t be zoned... and she will fuck u up if she gets in...
 

MKF30

Fujin and Ermac for MK 11
Air fans all day, everyday.
You know when the game first hit I was practicing IA fans and they're pretty good I must say, perhaps I should start maining her again as a back up against that pos. Would you recommend her against him?
 

xWildx

What a day. What a lovely day.
Just disrespect the bitch. Sais shouldn’t be an issue when you have a teleport, and her own teleport can be full combo punished.

Should you be zoning against Highborn? Obviously not, but Kitana has shitty buttons regardless of her variation. Cetrion has to play the MU at mid range and just watch for errant fans.

And don’t throw any of those damn boulders unless they’re guaranteed.
 

DarksydeDash

You know me as RisingShieldBro online.
You know when the game first hit I was practicing IA fans and they're pretty good I must say, perhaps I should start maining her again as a back up against that pos. Would you recommend her against him?
Oh yes, fearless in particular can really body him.