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Discussion How many characters/variations should one master to effectively fight against the whole cast?

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Deep33

Noob
I would say that i can play the 3 variations of Reptile and 3 variations of Raiden at a high level. Since MKX is my first fighting game, It has taken me 2 damned years to get to this point. (learn all the mechanics, etc, etc) I am able to take on the whole cast confidently with these 6 variations. I've beaten some of the well known names from time to time on Ranked. I think i may be able to survive in a tournament if i signed up, but, i have my doubts as well.

Does a person need to master several characters/variations to be able to handle tournaments? (to perhaps have a "more effective" counterpick to different characters/variations in the cast?) For instance Semiij exclusively plays Mileena, but, i am sure he has way many more characters under his belt. For a minute, i thought Rewind exclusively played Raiden, but, he pulls out a God like Liu Kang and Cassie outta nowhere.
Do most of you Pros play like more than 5 characters and all their variations??
 
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Roy Arkon

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
It's all about who your go to main is and what Variation you pick. You need to check out what set of tools that char has and what gameplan you can go with that tool set. What I personally like about the Variation system in MKX is that it gives you more then one set of tools to play your char with. Of course that some chars can play more then one role with a tool set and you don't have to use every single tool, but of course there are a set of directions that you can go with each tool set, and if none of the directions fit you, it's not gonna be easy for you to win. I for one play Noxious Reptile 99% of the time with just a tiny bit of Nimble Reptile and Ninjutsu Scorpion as both secondary chars, and while Reptile's universal moveset is versatile across all of his Variations, his Variation specific tools show that Noxious is the most versatile and Zoning oriented then the other 2, as he needs meter for his Variation specific tools in Nimble and Deceptive, which of course make him more of a Rushdown and Pressure specific char in them (with a bit of Zoning in Nimble). Thus Noxious Reptile is the right Variation for me to play.

After you find the one char and one Variation that you love playing, once you figure if there are any 3-7 bad MU's for that chat (as I believe that as long as the worst MU's for you char is 4-6, which is the case for Reptile BTW, you can still play that MU well and you all need to worry about is your muscle memory and habits, and in the case of Reptile it's also his overall versatility that adds to that) you can find a char and a Variation in order to cover those bad MU's, whatever if it's the same char but a different Variation, or another char and one of that char's Variations. And if you really need to, you can for another char/Variation. Of course that you can play more then that and you can play them even if you don't need any coverage for the bad MU's, and there are players like Forever King who is known to play multiple chars in MKX. But you also need to keep in mind that the more chars/Variations you play, the more you need to split your muscle memory between the tools and combos for each of them, which can be overwhelming for some players.

So my suggestion is that you need to start with one, or maybe two, chars/Variations that you love to play in terms of gameplan (and also if you like them as characters, which can also be a factor for you playing them in the long run), and if you need any MU coverage, pick a second or a third one. And you can go beyond that if you want, but only if you truly feel you can deal with the things you need to remember for each char and Variation.

Hope that helps :)
 
D

Deep33

Noob
Roy Arkon said:
It's all about who your go to main is and what Variation you pick. You need to check out what set of tools that char has and what gameplan you can go with that tool set. What I personally like about the Variation system in MKX is that it gives you more then one set of tools to play your char with. Of course that some chars can play more then one role with a tool set and you don't have to use every single tool, but of course there are a set of directions that you can go with each tool set, and if none of the directions fit you, it's not gonna be easy for you to win. I for one play Noxious Reptile 99% of the time with just a tiny bit of Nimble Reptile and Ninjutsu Scorpion as both secondary chars, and while Reptile's universal moveset is versatile across all of his Variations, his Variation specific tools show that Noxious is the most versatile and Zoning oriented then the other 2, as he needs meter for his Variation specific tools in Nimble and Deceptive, which of course make him more of a Rushdown and Pressure specific char in them (with a bit of Zoning in Nimble). Thus Noxious Reptile is the right Variation for me to play.

After you find the one char and one Variation that you love playing, once you figure if there are any 3-7 bad MU's for that chat (as I believe that as long as the worst MU's for you char is 4-6, which is the case for Reptile BTW, you can still play that MU well and you all need to worry about is your muscle memory and habits, and in the case of Reptile it's also his overall versatility that adds to that) you can find a char and a Variation in order to cover those bad MU's, whatever if it's the same char but a different Variation, or another char and one of that char's Variations. And if you really need to, you can for another char/Variation. Of course that you can play more then that and you can play them even if you don't need any coverage for the bad MU's, and there are players like Forever King who is known to play multiple chars in MKX. But you also need to keep in mind that the more chars/Variations you play, the more you need to split your muscle memory between the tools and combos for each of them, which can be overwhelming for some players.

So my suggestion is that you need to start with one, or maybe two, chars/Variations that you love to play in terms of gameplan (and also if you like them as characters, which can also be a factor for you playing them in the long run), and if you need any MU coverage, pick a second or a third one. And you can go beyond that if you want, but only if you truly feel you can deal with the things you need to remember for each char and Variation.

Hope that helps :)
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Roy, I agree on the splitting of muscle memory between different characters/variations becoming overwhelming. Guys like ForeverKing have probably been playing fighting games for a decade or more man.

Noxious being less meter hungry (always having meter handy) can force some opponents to reconsider/repurpose their typical gameplay a bit more. He also covers defensive gaps well (compared to Nimble and Deceptive) when you're getting pressured to eternity. But, Nimble would fare better against a character like Covert Ops.

Some bad MUs are obvious. For instance, Reptile gets shut down by Grandmaster. Displacer solves the grandmaster problem. But there are certain less known niche playstyles for a character that can provide the upperhand at highlevel gameplay. Obviously, i haven't fought every high level player out there. I am just wondering what is the sweet number for number of characters to fight the entire cast when you take the game's core character balancing design into consideration.
 
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Roy Arkon

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
Deep33 said:
Roy, I agree on the splitting of muscle memory between different characters/variations becoming overwhelming. Guys like ForeverKing have probably been playing fighting games for a decade or more man.

Noxious being less meter hungry (always having meter handy) can force some opponents to reconsider/repurpose their typical gameplay a bit more. He also covers defensive gaps well (compared to Nimble and Deceptive) when you're getting pressured to eternity. But, Nimble would fare better against a character like Covert Ops.

Some bad MUs are obvious. For instance, Reptile gets shut down by Grandmaster. Displacer solves the grandmaster problem. But there are certain less known niche playstyles for a character that can provide the upperhand at highlevel gameplay. Obviously, i haven't fought every high level player out there. I am just wondering what is the sweet number for number of characters to fight the entire cast when you take the game's core character balancing design into consideration.
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Noxious Reptile is just as good against Covert Ops Sonya if not even better. Since he can use his Zoning a lot more freely, all he needs is to push her full screen just once and it can become a Zoning nightmare for her. Obviously as long as you can Zone, it will be a lot safer to play in that approach instead of a Rushdown style against a fully Rushdown char like Sonya. As for Grandmaster Sub-Zero, yes that is one of the harder MU's for Reptile, but even that can be dealt with. All you need is to play more patiently and less aggressively, and Reptile can play in that approach. Time you projectiles and specials accordingly and you should be fine.

I'm not a pro by any means, but after playing Noxious Reptile for so long since day 1, and getting a few wins over pros and high level players myself, I can tell that from experience. No disrespect of course.

And like I said earlier, I believe that the number of mains, and Variations in MKX specifically, should be between 2-3. But if you can play with just one, or 4 plus, and you really feel you can take it, go right a head.
 
D

Deep33

Noob
Roy Arkon said:
Noxious Reptile is just as good against Covert Ops Sonya if not even better. Since he can use his Zoning a lot more freely, all he needs is to push her full screen just once and it can become a Zoning nightmare for her. Obviously as long as you can Zone, it will be a lot safer to play in that approach instead of a Rushdown style against a fully Rushdown char like Sonya. As for Grandmaster Sub-Zero, yes that is one of the harder MU's for Reptile, but even that can be dealt with. All you need is to play more patiently and less aggressively, and Reptile can play in that approach. Time you projectiles and specials accordingly and you should be fine.

I'm not a pro by any means, but after playing Noxious Reptile for so long since day 1, and getting a few wins over pros and high level players myself, I can tell that from experience. No disrespect of course.

And like I said earlier, I believe that the number of mains, and Variations in MKX specifically, should be between 2-3. But if you can play with just one, or 4 plus, and you really feel you can take it, go right a head.
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Nimble can zone her out just as good as Noxious too, but, keep in mind, her mixups are rough when she gets in. Nimble can basilisk slow her down a bit and go to town with 40 to 50% combos (the quicker you finish her off the better).When getting pressured by characters like Tremor, Johnny, Liu, etc that are easier to read/block, Noxious is better cos you can turn the gas on for free most times.

What you say about "patience" and zoning is true for Grandmasters to a certain skill level. Above a certain skill level, its a no-brainer. I am not sure if have played Sikander, Madzin or other high level GMs yet. I am not saying it can't be won, but it is very rough. But, the relative ease with which Displacer shuts GM down is laughable. 2 games with Displacer against GM and every GM main runs off to a secondary main (leaving their GMs behind in the cold). That can never happen with Reptile.
 
Roy Arkon

Roy Arkon

I will leave my seal on you!
Deep33 said:
Nimble can zone her out just as good as Noxious too, but, keep in mind, her mixups are rough when she gets in. Nimble can basilisk slow her down a bit and go to town with 40 to 50% combos (the quicker you finish her off the better).When getting pressured by characters like Tremor, Johnny, Liu, etc that are easier to read/block, Noxious is better cos you can turn the gas on for free most times.

What you say about "patience" and zoning is true for Grandmasters to a certain skill level. Above a certain skill level, its a no-brainer. I am not sure if have played Sikander, Madzin or other high level GMs yet. I am not saying it can't be won, but it is very rough. But, the relative ease with which Displacer shuts GM down is laughable. 2 games with Displacer against GM and every GM main runs off to a secondary main (leaving their GMs behind in the cold). That can never happen with Reptile.
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The Zoning that Nimble can do is when Basilisk is activated, as the projectiles will also change their speed thanks to the Basilisk, but it's very situational, and as for universal Zoning, which is what you wanna do against Sonya, Noxious is the better choice. Yes you can use Basilisk while you get an opening and go for a super high damage combo, but it is also very risky because you need to find that sweet spot to counter her and you need meter to activate EX basilisk, and from that range she can counter you a lot easier then she can from full screen. On the other hand, with Noxious you can put all the meter you need for the Zoning, Space Control, Pace Control and Keepaway, and if Sonya does get in, all you need is a single Reptilian Dash or EX Slide which has armor, and then go for the full screen Zoning. So not only you give her a much rougher time getting in on you in the first place, but the opening at close range, when it comes, is a lot easier to deal with, and then it's easier to keep her away from getting close to you again.

I'm not gonna argue about how Raiden deals with GM Sub since I've never played Raiden in MKX, but as for Reptile, the patience is indeed the key to win that MU. I've played against some very tough GM players, including Hidra who is a good friend of mine and a very strong player (his true main is D'Vorah but he's got a strong GM Sub of his own), and even Taco, who is known to play both Unbreakable and GM Sub-Zero. And yes, it is tough, no doubt, but it can be dealt with. Once again patience is the key, Reptile can control the pace of the match (that's one of his best attributes), you just need to out-pace GM Sub in a smart way, that's all.
 
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Dankster Morgan

Dankster Morgan

It is better this way
Depends who you learn. I’d say main a top tier like Mileena or Shinnok or Triborg and have a pocket like Grandmaster who murders half the cast
 
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