Match-Up Discussion - Mileena How Do You Use Mileena?

[JerzeyReign]

Question restated: How do you use Mileena?

Personally, I've tried pressure and I failed miserably. I've tried zoning and failed. I've tried to be balanced and failed. The most success I've had is to play lame/patient. I really don't like those terms so I like to call it counter fighting.

With her good damage output, I'm becoming more content with sitting back and waiting for a mistake. Now I know once - if ever - I play against the pros that few mistakes are made but right now its working for me. I've been less free as I've cut down the number of mistakes I make when up close. Now I still get in your face but I get what I can and back out again. Sitting back and throwing sais normally causes your opponent to react with something of his own. Once they throw a projectile but realize I'm willing to trade - especially if the projectile is a mid since I use piercing and will get my low sai off for a trade in my advantage - they normally get impatient and move forward. Jump ins get them rolled up. Ground movement is met with b34. I guess I'm learning how to dictate neutral a bit better and improving my footsies.

Now I'm sure you guys are all better Milleenas than me and I'm really interested in reading your playstyles with her. And I apologize for the 1000s of questions I've asked but just want to let you know that whatever you tell me is noted and applied.

**Edit: And I know replies are probably based on the variation used. Listing that would be appreciated.

 

[bdizzle2700]

@Yoaks

 

[Sai]

I'm new but she feels too slow to be pressure, and her zoning isn't that great. I've found best success with laming it out and waiting for a mistake like you said.

 

[YoloRoll1stHit]

I throw you, instant air you and low you to get meter and life advantage until they get close, I use my mixup

 

[ZeroEffect]

Whatever my opponent seems to have the hardest time dealing with.
Some characters lose to zoning more than others, some characters have a harder time getting her off them. So balanced... I guess.

In Piercing and Ravenous she has all the conditioning tools she needs, but none of the bullshit properties behind them. In other words, good at everything, great at nothing.

EX Fade is damn sure an S-Tier tool though

 

[KIllaByte]

Especially in Ethereal, she can be very hard to touch.
Ex teleport gets her away from walls with no risk, it's fantastic.

 

[ExpiredCodes]

Whatever my opponent seems to have the hardest time dealing with.

 

[I GOT HANDS]

I am not the biggest Mileena player, but I feel like it's important to take whatever opportunity you can to Sai them, even if just to build meter and get some chip, Telekick let's you hurt them if they try return fire. Whenever you can't throw Teles it's important to make use of her up close game, try to mix them up, throw, or block and whiff punish with roll.

 

[ZeroEffect]

I am not the biggest Mileena player, but I feel like it's important to take whatever opportunity you can to Sai them, even if just to build meter and get some chip, Telekick let's you hurt them if they try return fire. Whenever you can't throw Teles it's important to make use of her up close game, try to mix them up, throw, or block and whiff punish with roll.

There's some truth to this. Sai is very important in the neutral game. Low Sai is as well, but it's way worse on block unfortunately.

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

She has to be very patient and make very good reads. Honestly I just harass my oponents with my sais forcing them to get in, then I force them to play the neutral against me, Mileena's neutral game is her best asset so it's not going to be easy getting their things started at all, for characters with teleports I play even more patient, bait a teleport and punish, against zoning characters her best options are telekick and low sai so your reads gotta be on point in thisese kind of MUs. It also pretty much depends on MUs if she wants to keep them away or rush them down.

 

[TheGabStandard]

I guess I would say I am balanced. I usually play lame to bait mistakes or zone/whiff punish but then do pressure in bursts before going back to neutral again. I think there is no set way to play her and to be successful you would need to use all of the above styles of play depending how the match goes. The only thing that is common with Mileena is the absolute need for patience as she is probably one of the few characters that require the most amount of thought when playing.

 

[Blonde_Huntress]

I typically play with pressure and spacing in mind for whiff punishment.

Mileena has such good offensive presence. People have learned to respect Roll--it presents an interesting mind game to her play style because she can punish a random jump or a whiff SO forcefully. She won't get the best damage from it necessarily, but that isn't the point.

She gets amazing range in Piercing with B12, and she gets High Pounce in Ravenous to help shape up her strings (while also being an additional pressure option).

 

[iMileena]

Well to be honest i do the best with her whenever i give less pressure but give a more defensive type of approach, show some a little slack give them some time to act an ass, then counter them as best as you can. But the best thing is to learn her mix ups her F1,2,EX BallRoll is her best mixup to be honest lol

 

[Baconlord]

as a raven main in injustice I try my best to be the lamest player ever. my gameplan is to sit back, throw sais, and anti air with roll. on knockdown I will go for f1 and throw, nothing too risky. I will typically only go for ex roll 50/50s if I have a really good read and I love using ex fade as a reversal and wakeup since its basically a get out of jail free card with meter.

 

[Nu-Skoool]

My general game plan relies primarily on fundamentals. 3/4 screen I'll use sais, air sais to build meter and force the opponent to come in on my terms, low sais to counter their projectiles either on a read or reaction. Given the matchup I'll also use them during footsies because at this range when youre in and out of your opponents best poke, they're not reacting to them. Sais are 16 frames of startup and low sais are 14. Typical reaction time for a player is around 18 frames when they're looking for one specific thing. This is why in fighting games you'll often see players whiff quick normals not only while zoning but during footsies. It's because they're baiting their opponents reaction. If you're getting jumped in on then your opponent made a pure guess or is reading your habits. One of the hardest things to teach/learn in fighting games is how to throw projectiles, intelligently.

In the footsie game I stand just outside of their best pokes range and whiff punish with either roll, b12, f23 and look for every opportunity to AA with one of her many options. Again sais can work here, think of them as a long range poke. Eventually this causes players to be more cautious in their approach or try a risky way in which allows you to either run in to pressure or punish as hard as you can.

Players will give you openings be it on a whiff punish, AA, block string, etc... It's up to you to create them. Create offense with your defense!

 

[Damaja325]

i play very aggressively with mileena. however, depending on the character i'm against i take precautions. if i know my opponent doesn't have an effective wake-up attack i'm like a lion chasing its prey and go for that F1. i use many mix-ups to throw my opponent off guard and go in for big damage combos. rather than play the waiting game i like to run up with F3 or F4 and go big. sometimes i get redundant with my strategy so i'll sit back a bit and wait for my opponent to come after me. if my opponent starts picking up on my offensive i tone it down a bit. i really love the roll for its great anti-air and low sai is awesome for ducking projectiles with my own. i'm probably not the smartest mileena player but i do fairly well with an aggressive play style. most mileenas i see online either play very lame or very mindlessly lol.

 

[CO-KANO]

i use her as my punching bag everytime i punish her rolls or teleports....which is ALL THE TIME.....so yeah mileena stays on my "all the time punching bag" list

 

[Vampira]

I play extremely aggressive, however, if my enemy is punish me I will for sure change my game style, usually I will lame a lot (try to block everything and wait a mistake) or more rarely zone. I'm pretty new tho.