If Kabal never existed...

[xInfra Deadx]

iaGB was bigger, really.

EX Dash would like a word.

 

[STRYKIE]

If Kabal never existed you guys would swear to God that Kung Lao is still "broken" and still wouldn't know what the fuck you're talking about trying to get him nerfed instead.

LBSH, it took this community 6 months to realize what Sonya, Kenshi, Cyrax etc. Really had going for them, all because you were salty about a single mixup from ONE character and you quite clearly didn't acknowledge what part of it was giving you trouble.

Only things patches should've addressed were infinites, resets and damage scaling issues.

 

[Z-911-Z]

I still firmly believe that Lao is better than Kabal.

 

[Squeaker101]

EX Dash would like a word.

I loved this before the patch. It had hyper armor, went through everything.

I don't know, I love fighting Kabal. Besides, before I knew of NDC pressure and iagb I loved Kabal. Got me like 100+ respect point s quite awhile ago...

Kabal has pushed the community to level up too, and we continue to do so.

When I first seen REO's NDC pressure (vs. Mr. Mileena) I had to change my pants multiple times.

 

[Axel_Redd]

Lao isn't broken, lol, he's where he needs to be, if he got nerfed any more he'd suck, lol. the only thing i'd change about kabal is his block infinite.

 

[DJ L Toro]

kabal's cool. kick smoke out though. i hear he limits people from learning fundamentals

 

[Lt. Boxy Angelman]

iaGB was bigger, really.

That, friend, is a tough, tough call.

I don't know which one I could call more important to his metagame.
I feel like he wouldn't be quite as terrifying if he had the iAGB, but no NDC's/EXNDC's.

 

[DragonPick]

If Kabal wasn't in the game, I'd actually be upset, because his chapter was one of my favorites in the game. Also, I love his story of becoming a hero after being a member of the Black Dragon, I think this new origin story was pretty sweet. Finally, as cheesy as they both are, his fatalities kick ass.

I'd be a sad camper if he wasn't in the game

 

[Alien Substance]

+ Freddy and Cyrax might get more attention.
+ Kratos and Rain would be the only fighters capable of Flash Parries.
+ Curbo would likely still be playing Johnny Cage.

- Kabal forces me to get better at the game; he's a mixed blessing.
- We wouldn't get to hear his voice distorted by his breathing apparatus. Sounds so cool.
- There would be no Darth Vader of MK.

 

[STB Sgt Reed]

This game would be boring....
Whatever Kabals 'broken' levels are...he has been a driving force of this game. People want to beat him. He creates hype and without him this game would suck Ka Balls

Lol no, kabal makes everything a snooze fest. #realtalk

 

[THTB]

That, friend, is a tough, tough call.

I don't know which one I could call more important to his metagame.
I feel like he wouldn't be quite as terrifying if he had the iAGB, but no NDC's/EXNDC's.

iaGB is the reason he even jumped as far as he did. As soon as people began to abuse it, he really climbed.

 

[FrothyOmen]

kabal's cool. kick smoke out though. i hear he limits people from learning fundamentals

He's one of the most fundamental characters in the game, with a sprinkling of stupid shit on top.

A vanilla rage cupcake, if you will.

 

[RiBBz22]

iaGB is the reason he even jumped as far as he did. As soon as people began to abuse it, he really climbed.

Yeah, I totally agree. iaGB forces pretty much every player to respect it, get away from their normal game, and find a way in which opens up all of Kabal's other mind games and BS which also happens to be extremely good...

 

[gdf]

Johnny Cage, along with the K characters.

 

[Justice]

iaGB is the reason he even jumped as far as he did. As soon as people began to abuse it, he really climbed.

I repectfully disagree with this statement. I see the IaGB the same as any other character with an air projectile in that the second people find out the character has one, they re going to practice how to make it come out as fast as humanly possible. It happened with Liu Kang, Kitana, Mileena and even Sindel a method was found. IaGB was an inevitable development.

NDC and 2NDC on the other hand, took time and effort to discover and perfect. On top of that, the strategy of not only when to do it, but when to do the cancel makes this the more important game development in my mind.

On top of all this, when you sit back and look at the screen and you realize that with 2 moves Kabal controls at least half of the screen from the ground to the sky; it's just one big rectangle in fromt of Kabal the amount of space he controls with these two moves. This more than anything else forces you to play the player instead of the character.

 

[THTB]

I repectfully disagree with this statement. I see the IaGB the same as any other character with an air projectile in that the second people find out the character has one, they re going to practice how to make it come out as fast as humanly possible. It happened with Liu Kang, Kitana, Mileena and even Sindel a method was found. IaGB was an inevitable development.

It was inevitable, but Kabal's zoning game is what wins him more of the important matchups than anything. NDCs are icing on the cake to the entire scheme of things.

If you weaken his NDCs, he won't be nearly as bad as if you weakened his iaGBs. The move is unlike any other air projectile because it comes out as fast as it does and has a huge hitbox. It also pushes him backwards quite a deal.

 

[FrothyOmen]

What if Kabal iaGB pushed him forward

 

[DJ L Toro]

LBSH iagb needs to be unblockable

 

[GLoRToR]

Mk has never been about balance. I think I liked it better when (almost) EVERYBODY had an infinite though.

 

[ZigZagGamer]

I don't mean for this topic to become a bitch session against Kabal, but I just wanted to get peoples' takes on how balanced they think MK9 would be if Kabal never made it into the game. Going back all the way to launch through the present, do you:

-Think the game would have been even better and more competitive than it eventually turned out to be?

-Think that lesser played characters would have become more popular because they wouldn't have been seen as being at as huge of a disadvantage as they are today?

-Think there would be other characters as hotly debated as Kabal? What are some other characters that would really jump up a lot higher in the tier list if Kabal was not in the game? How would it affect your character(s) and fight strategy?


Obviously losing a bad matchup like this would really benefit characters like Kenshi and Smoke, and make them even more prominent in the game...but at the same time I don't think Cage would really jump any higher in the same situation...

This kabal issue doesn't seem to effect me as i rarely run into kabal players and when i do my reptile usually crushes them as i rarely see a high level kabal.

 

[GLoRToR]

Air projectiles: Either everybody or nobody.

 

[xInfra Deadx]

If that's the case, then everyone should have NDC mixups.

 

[MashPotatoTower]

Kung Lao would be the best character in the game. Kenshi would be a factor but Kung Lao players would be destroying the kenshi's so much he woul be considered 3rd or 4rth or some piss!

 

[GLoRToR]

If that's the case, then everyone should have NDC mixups.

More like: Game balance requires characters to be at equal grounds. Nobody should have game breaking advantage, which is hard to do.
I do believe that NRS has overburdened this game with the 30+ cast. I would have loved to see the cast be:
Cage, Raiden, Sonya, Kano, Scorpion, Subzero, Reptile, Liu, Shang, Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Jax, and then release every other character as DLC including nextgen like Havok through a course of a year or two, rather spending more time on development than end up with botched mechanics and a shitful of bugs. Poor design choice and rushed release coupled with patching on impulse. Bad.

 

[Axel_Redd]

More like: Game balance requires characters to be at equal grounds. Nobody should have game breaking advantage, which is hard to do.
I do believe that NRS has overburdened this game with the 30+ cast. I would have loved to see the cast be:
Cage, Raiden, Sonya, Kano, Scorpion, Subzero, Reptile, Liu, Shang, Lao, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Jax, and then release every other character as DLC including nextgen like Havok through a course of a year or two, rather spending more time on development than end up with botched mechanics and a shitful of bugs. Poor design choice and rushed release coupled with patching on impulse. Bad.

kano needs more nerfs NRS