General/Other - Mileena Is patience the best approach against Mileena?

[TackyHaddock]

Regardless of where people place Mileena on the tier list, I have a difficult time against this character. One threshold question in pretty much any matchup is whether you should have an attack first mentality or a more patient read & react type strategy. I haven't gotten either approach to work consistently against Mileena, but have faced particular problems when I try to be the one initiating the offense. I find that her toolset and air/ground mobility / air and low projectiles make it much easier for her to react to any attack that I initiate. So I assume patience is better, but even then she still seems to achieve damage in many annoying ways while I try to be a fuckin Zen monk with infinite patience. You might think "patience is ALWAYS the best approach regardless of character" but I do think there are certain characters, e.g., Quan Chi, where you need to have an attack first mentality or else you will die.

What do you guys think is the best fighting philosophy to employ against her?

 

[TackyHaddock]

@TheGabStandard @Akromaniac27 @YOMI RM SaltFace @UsedForGlue

 

[Kamikaze_Highlander]

Definitely wait and punish. most if not all of her specials are very punishable. biggest thing I have trouble with is respecting ball roll on wakeup, not even the Ex version, just regular. I see they have no bar and I'm ready to pressure and even mids it will get under. For all except etheral just wait, punish, and send them full screen, Sai's can be a problem to get around, but most players will eventually try and teleport in at some point.

 

[Baconlord]

In neutral patience is probably your best option. mileena can blow you up if try to jump in with roll, and you need to be carful when running in because she can catch you running into a b1. once you do get in you can bully her due to her slow normals.

 

[TackyHaddock]

In neutral patience is probably your best option. mileena can blow you up if try to jump in with roll, and you need to be carful when running in because she can catch you running into a b1. once you do get in you can bully her due to her slow normals.

Yeah, that makes sense. One thing I get blown up a lot by is the following: run in and block to try to bait the ex roll, see that they have delayed wakeup, attempt oki, and they get blown up by ex roll shortly thereafter. failed baits breh

 

[TheGabStandard]

Regardless of where people place Mileena on the tier list, I have a difficult time against this character. One threshold question in pretty much any matchup is whether you should have an attack first mentality or a more patient read & react type strategy. I haven't gotten either approach to work consistently against Mileena, but have faced particular problems when I try to be the one initiating the offense. I find that her toolset and air/ground mobility / air and low projectiles make it much easier for her to react to any attack that I initiate. So I assume patience is better, but even then she still seems to achieve damage in many annoying ways while I try to be a fuckin Zen monk with infinite patience. You might think "patience is ALWAYS the best approach regardless of character" but I do think there are certain characters, e.g., Quan Chi, where you need to have an attack first mentality or else you will die.

What do you guys think is the best fighting philosophy to employ against her?

To be honest it all depends on how the Mileena plays. The first game I feel you have to be patient first to gauge what kind of player you are dealing with, one who is heavily offensive and goes for constant mixups or one that is more patient, focuses on the neutral and stays safe. Once you find out from the opening exchanges you adapt your method of attack accordingly.

In my experience I find that being patient is the best way to deal with her but it also depends on your character. One thing that is universal is that Mileena herself does have a hard time dealing with constant pressure, so depending on the characters you use that may help in the MU.

 

[SaltFace NS]

Depends on the player. Some people wait for them to hang themselves. A player like me however won't do anything stupid like that.

So yea it depends on the player.

 

[SaltFace NS]

To be honest it all depends on how the Mileena plays. The first game I feel you have to be patient first to gauge what kind of player you are dealing with, one who is heavily offensive and goes for constant mixups or one that is more patient, focuses on the neutral and stays safe. Once you find out from the opening exchanges you adapt your method of attack accordingly.

In my experience I find that being patient is the best way to deal with her but it also depends on your character. One thing that is universal is that Mileena herself does have a hard time dealing with constant pressure, so depending on the characters you use that may help in the MU.

Ethereal says hi to pressure.

 

[TommyKing5]

I would wait for a mistake and heavily punish her. When/If a projectile war begins, I usually make the mistake of jumping over her sais and get hit by the telekick. She lives and dies by her mixups and generally is unsafe as well as meter intensive. I have a lot of trouble with her online, but offline she's much easier to deal with.

 

[TheGabStandard]

Also find ways to break Ex Roll on wakeup and normals/low that will stuff wake up meterless Roll.

 

[SaltFace NS]

Also find ways to break Ex Roll on wakeup and normals/low that will stuff wake up meterless Roll.

And that's why I play Ethereal. I get another wake up option

 

[TheGabStandard]

Ethereal says hi to pressure.

serves me right for replying with Piercing glasses on

 

[SaltFace NS]

serves me right for replying with Piercing glasses on

You know me man...I will switch variations immediately depending on what I'm up against. I learned them all for that very reason.

 

[TheGabStandard]

You know me man...I will switch variations immediately depending on what I'm up against. I learned them all for that very reason.

Yeah that's true. My Ethereal is still nowhere near where it needs to be though. Have to try and dedicate myself to it

 

[Baconlord]

Yeah, that makes sense. One thing I get blown up a lot by is the following: run in and block to try to bait the ex roll, see that they have delayed wakeup, attempt oki, and they get blown up by ex roll shortly thereafter. failed baits breh

are you on psn? I can run some sets with you if you would like. I don't play any good shaolins.

 

[SaltFace NS]

Yeah that's true. My Ethereal is still nowhere near where it needs to be though. Have to try and dedicate myself to it

Practice it up man. It's really good to use vs heavy pressure.

 

[TackyHaddock]

yeah I should also note that I have never faced a Mileena player offline. Only online, so I'm sure that factors into the equation here.

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

You definitwly have to be patient against her, her telekick is a good move that conditions people who like to throw projectiles all day to make more reads. She mostly has to use her telekick on a read as well, she can telekick on reaction some of the projectiles in the game i.e. Sub-Zero's iceball, Jax's projectile and a few others but if you have a fast projectile she must read it and telekick (only if you like to throw projectiles and she doesn't have a life lead, otherwise she will just block, whiff your projectiles and keep throwing hers)
I see you play Kung Jin, his jump punch is tricky to anti-air but it's doable, yet he can counter her AA's with jump kick, I'm not sure if he can hitconfirm an empty jump kick into divekick but he sure has more options off jump kick than other characters.
Up-close it's VERY important to know her gaps and your options against her, otherwise she can use that against you.
-21(U4)
-F4(4)
-21(3) this one is range dependent
-F14(3) in Piercing but she doesn't have to use this string that much.
All those strings have gaps, F44 is -8 on block so if you have a 7F or faster normal you can punish it and you wouldn't have to waste a bar armoring trough it.

In order to mix you up she needs a bar of meter, so there's no reason to block overhead of she doesn't have a bar.
Waking-up as her is pretty risky, specially against characters with good armor breaking moves like Kung Jin, if she doesn't have meter she can wake-up regular roll so make sure you condition her with a mid hitting move, also NJP is underused against her wake-ups.
In Ethereal she can wake-up vanish so be careful.

So in general, you have to play patient and it pretty much depends on the player you're against, some people play so wreckless as Mileena, other people play her safer and more inteligently.

 

[TackyHaddock]

are you on psn? I can run some sets with you if you would like. I don't play any good shaolins.

For sure man, TackyHaddock8

 

[TheGabStandard]

Practice it up man. It's really good to use vs heavy pressure.

Yeah I need to. I guess there is no time like the present to switch up now to get good with it and banish the nightmares of launch Ethereal

 

[TackyHaddock]

You definitwly have to be patient against her, her telekick is a good move that conditions people who like to throw projectiles all day to make more reads. She mostly has to use her telekick on a read as well, she can telekick on reaction some of the projectiles in the game i.e. Sub-Zero's iceball, Jax's projectile and a few others but if you have a fast projectile she must readnit and telekick (only if you like to throw projectiles and she doesn't have a life lead, otherwise she will just block, whiff your projectiles and keep throwing hers)
I see you play Kung Jin, his jump punch is tricky to anti-air but it's doable, yet he can counter her AA's with jump kick, I'm not sure if he can hitconfirm an empty jump kick into divekick but he sure has more options off jump kick than other characters.
Up-close it's VERY important to know her gaps and your options against her, otherwise she can use that against you.
-21(U4)
-F4(4)
-21(3) this one is range dependent
-F14(3) in Piercing but she doesn't have to use this string that much.
All those strings have gaps, F44 is -8 on block so if you have a 7F or faster normal you can punish it and you wouldn't have to waste a bar armoring trough it.

In order to mix you up she needs a bar of meter, so there's no reason to block overhead of she doesn't have a bar.
Waking-up as her is pretty risky, specially against characters with good armor breaking moves like Kung Jin, if she doesn't have meter she can wake-up regular roll so make sure you condition her with a mid hitting move, also NJP is underused against her wake-ups.
In Ethereal she can wake-up vanish so be careful.

So in general, you have to play patient and it pretty much depends on the player you're against, some people play so wreckless as Mileena, other people play her safer and more inteligently.

Yeah I actually think Mileena matches up very well against Shaolin kung Jin. One reason for this is that if you like to use shaolin's upkick as a repositioning tool / poor man's teleport / way to get in, Mileena's telekick has priority against the upkick in air collisions pretty much every single time.

You are absolutely right that I need to learn the gaps, I really don't know where they are against her, even if I did know it at one point that shit is hard to remember lol

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

Yeah I actually think Mileena matches up very well against Shaolin kung Jin. One reason for this is that if you like to use shaolin's upkick as a repositioning tool / poor man's teleport / way to get in, Mileena's telekick has priority against the upkick in air collisions pretty much every single time.

You are absolutely right that I need to learn the gaps, I really don't know where they are against her, even if I did know it at one point that shit is hard to remember lol

Yeah, that MU is fun and even IMO.

 

[UsedForGlue]

Simple answer is yes, at least the way I play Mileena.

You have to play on the ground, and with that, you have to play her ground game, there is always a chance that you will jump a low sai, but then you run the risk of being rolled when you jump.

If you are careless or reckless in the match against a good Mileena, you will get blown up for wiffing normals, jumping and crossing over.

You also have to bait her MB roll on wake up and in neutral, you can't just pressure endlessly.

Also, you blocking has to be on point, and you have to punish 21U4 on the U4, and make sure you know what wake up attacks you can't use.

 

[IrishMantis]

Hit and run

get a big chunk of life lead and play a lot more conservative is a safe bet

Unless against Ethereal then the hit and run approach is irrelevant as that aviation nullified her risk factor by a long shot IMO

 

[Akromaniac27]

Simple answer is yes, at least the way I play Mileena.

You have to play on the ground, and with that, you have to play her ground game, there is always a chance that you will jump a low sai, but then you run the risk of being rolled when you jump.

If you are careless or reckless in the match against a good Mileena, you will get blown up for wiffing normals, jumping and crossing over.

You also have to bait her MB roll on wake up and in neutral, you can't just pressure endlessly.

Also, you blocking has to be on point, and you have to punish 21U4 on the U4, and make sure you know what wake up attacks you can't use.

Essentially this.

If YOU have no meter, the best you can do against her gaps is backdash, in which no punish will be rewarded and if you do, she can stop the 21 to bait a reversal and unless you're Lao, Cassie or Reptile, your reversal won't punish it.

You can't play patient with her especially from full screen because with Piercing's low sais, you're going to get guaranteed chip damage done to you and a smart Mileena player wont randomly tele in or approach you if you're that far away.

If they manage their meter right, they will almost always have a bar, so you CAN bait an EXroll, but she can use that respect to just get away, reverse grab, start some pressure, ect.

Its dependent on the player and how well they establish her game of respect at every area of the screen. She's only as unsafe and slow as the player makes her out to be.