Samsara
Resident Cynic
Unbreakable Sub-Zero is indisputably obsolete. But before you rage at me for down-playing let me lay out a couple of notes outlining the character in a practical manner:
Good: Slide is a great mobility tool and is his go-to combo ender almost exclusively granting him reputable corner carry. It's also an extremely fast armored special which puts him into low profile One of the best moves of it's kind present in the game. Ice ball/Ice blast are decent projectiles that tend to win trades, one of the most unique zoning/anti-zoning tools in the game and allows him to extend combos off of his mixups, b33 most notably. Ice Aura is a decent buff tool thatat its highest potential grants Subby around 30% damage mitigation as well as no chip. It's active for quite a while. This is the saving grace of the variation, allowing him to play much more boldly and allowing him to weather an incessant onslaught of pressure or projectile zoning. Has access to a parry which will freeze an opponent and allow him to convert into a combo. Otherwise has the same applications as any other parry present in the game
Bad: Damage output is quite possibly the worst in the entire game being capped at 30% midscreen with the added benefit of wasting a bar for 33%. Maximum conversion off a parry is 26%. In the corner his numbers increase by about 10%. Damage aside, the recovery on his parry is incredibly high, with the risk of losing out 40+% dominating when juxtaposed with the measly 25% one gains for successful implementation. The move is best used nigh exclusively to punish string gaps, at the cost of a bar of meter in many instances. He lacks a meaningful anti air, and the shield will not parry jump-ins (fair). Also he inexplicably loses his armored launcher ice burst/bomb, therefore eliminating an armored special that was an excellent defense tool.
What I Find Concerning: It would appear that releases of certain characters feature moves that undermine the variation specific tools that were meant to draw people to Unbreakable in the first place. Apparently moves that negate chip come with all sorts of bonuses NRS couldn't muster for Ice Aura, and ice parry doesn't have shit on what "Abysmal" Tremor can cook up with a hard knockdown setup.
Unbreakble is not a defensive variation in the same league as GM (although all of his tools actually work in UNB) and it certainly doesn't have the same anti-zoning tools as other characters on the roster, so I honestly don't see Unbreakable as anything other than Sub-Zero without a variation. When you way the positives and the negatives, the positives that remain noteworthy are already present in what makes Sub-Zero an inherently strong character--- not Unbreakable a good variation.
For the sake of levity and humor, I'm leaving a highly irrelevant video I use exclusively for unapologetic downplay, because trying to do anything else in regards to Unbreakable is highly painful:
Good: Slide is a great mobility tool and is his go-to combo ender almost exclusively granting him reputable corner carry. It's also an extremely fast armored special which puts him into low profile One of the best moves of it's kind present in the game. Ice ball/Ice blast are decent projectiles that tend to win trades, one of the most unique zoning/anti-zoning tools in the game and allows him to extend combos off of his mixups, b33 most notably. Ice Aura is a decent buff tool thatat its highest potential grants Subby around 30% damage mitigation as well as no chip. It's active for quite a while. This is the saving grace of the variation, allowing him to play much more boldly and allowing him to weather an incessant onslaught of pressure or projectile zoning. Has access to a parry which will freeze an opponent and allow him to convert into a combo. Otherwise has the same applications as any other parry present in the game
Bad: Damage output is quite possibly the worst in the entire game being capped at 30% midscreen with the added benefit of wasting a bar for 33%. Maximum conversion off a parry is 26%. In the corner his numbers increase by about 10%. Damage aside, the recovery on his parry is incredibly high, with the risk of losing out 40+% dominating when juxtaposed with the measly 25% one gains for successful implementation. The move is best used nigh exclusively to punish string gaps, at the cost of a bar of meter in many instances. He lacks a meaningful anti air, and the shield will not parry jump-ins (fair). Also he inexplicably loses his armored launcher ice burst/bomb, therefore eliminating an armored special that was an excellent defense tool.
What I Find Concerning: It would appear that releases of certain characters feature moves that undermine the variation specific tools that were meant to draw people to Unbreakable in the first place. Apparently moves that negate chip come with all sorts of bonuses NRS couldn't muster for Ice Aura, and ice parry doesn't have shit on what "Abysmal" Tremor can cook up with a hard knockdown setup.
Unbreakble is not a defensive variation in the same league as GM (although all of his tools actually work in UNB) and it certainly doesn't have the same anti-zoning tools as other characters on the roster, so I honestly don't see Unbreakable as anything other than Sub-Zero without a variation. When you way the positives and the negatives, the positives that remain noteworthy are already present in what makes Sub-Zero an inherently strong character--- not Unbreakable a good variation.
For the sake of levity and humor, I'm leaving a highly irrelevant video I use exclusively for unapologetic downplay, because trying to do anything else in regards to Unbreakable is highly painful:
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