Kano strategy

[entrerix]

i just noticed that myself and frostcyke are about the only 2 people really posting in kano on srk. the discussion is way better here though so i think im going to give up trying to update over there. srk = capcom games only pretty much. this forum is 100x better for mk

 

[Sully]

I am trying to get the Hampton Roads guys at SRK SoVA involved in MK9, but most of 'em are laughing at off. Me personally I enjoy it way more than Capcom stuff. There's a few guys but our metro area is divided by tunnels that are a pia for commuters so finding people close to me that additionally like MK is rough. Most the guys on my end like SSFIV, MvC... bleh.

The other thing I haven't messed with is Air Ball... does the angle it dives at allow it to go over projectiles when playing other zoners? Like... can you do riskier jumps and stuff because you can airball on reaction when they try to catch you with stuff? Maybe hit them when say scorp throws out a spear or a kitana fan or whatever?

Haven't tried this... i suppose I should mess with it. Just thinking of ways to use the tools...

I know there were some Guile comparisons too... and just this is little shit I learned from SF. Is MK so special have that poking doesn't have merit? I don't know like with F,3,3 or even just standing 3 as part of his game? That was just an example.. or even like f1,2. I know it doesn't lead into anything, but does changing stuff up like that have any effect on the opponent at all. Just by being reliably unpredictable?

Again just more stuff to speculate about... also should we start a matchups thread?

 

[entrerix]

you CAN airball over some projectiles, I do it frequently, but if your timing is off and you end up eating a harpoon into 40% combo, you may decide it wasn't worth it. In other words, it works most of the time, but think before you start doing it recklessly (the hitbox on scorpions spear is really big)

 

[Dietician]

Lab time! Turns out he can keep pressure after all, and it would be quite strong if his hit low.

Here's everything:

- Fast enough for when they are in your face.
+ - For switching sides if you started close to the corner. Requires an immediate dash towards to get as close as non-:en version. The greater distance on recovery makes it easier to back out to sling projectiles.

Either lead into any of the following well on recovery, thanks to the range on and :

Knockdown with more space for returning to a projectile/ball neutral game.​

Overhead attempt with spaced knockdown for a jump in.​

, , , ,
Combo attempt (for some reason not low) with spaced knockdown for a jump in.​

, <throw> (on block)
-or-
, <throw> (on block)
-or-
, <safe jump> (on hit)
-or-
, (on hit)
can all be mixed in for another level of mixups.​

After any of the above that end with knife you can immediately input after to fly over the opponent on knockdown to switch sides instead of going for a jump in punch.

As far as following up a jump in with a combo there is:

, , , ,
-or-
, , , , ​

Either space fine for another jump-in attempt upon recovery, with the first doing very slightly more damage.​

Not having any luck with jump ins? Stay in neutral and rely on up close!
will come out ahead in projectile trades with it's high damage.
air can break zoning and punish poor projectile use
so does :en!
ground can sneak under enemy jump ins to keep your space.

:kano:

 

[entrerix]

wow dietician... that is awesome. doubly so because 1) its all thoughtful and insightful advice and 2) because its coming from someone with a generally negative outlook on the character (so i trust the advice more than if it were coming from a frothmouthed fanboy)

excellent write-up. How do you feel about his matchups though? Seems like teleport characters can still really mess up his zoning

 

[Dietician]

How do you feel about his matchups though? Seems like teleport characters can still really mess up his zoning

When doing anything besides throwing a knife you can always mash out kano ball and a few things will happen:

1. You'll stuff the teleport attack

2. You'll fly out of the way of the teleport attack

3. They'll hit you in such a weird way that not even ermac's :en teleport attack can be followed up

If you're throwing a knife the recovery is quite small so unless you were doing something quite sloppy against the wrong characters it turns out quite okay.

Raiden's electric fly loses to knife, but straight up beats kano ball. He can teleport behind you and electric fly to win, but you can just block provided you catch on and don't whiff another dagger as far as I can tell.
From ranges where you would be reasonably trying to throw knives, reptile's slide can't hit you before you can block or gets stuffed during startup.
Smoke's shake is retarded. Sektor and Ermac is where it gets really really bad to try to throw any knives.

 

[Sully]

STUFF!

Whoa, dude. . . this is exactly the kind of stuff I was kind of poking around for. I guess I am just not really working with the tools, well enough. Tested some of this in training and it really opens him up for some options. Great stuff, does this change your position about Kano? Or is it simply a "work with what you got" solution.

You sir, are a stupendous badass.

 

[entrerix]

thanks for the thoughtful response diet, looks like smart info.

 

[cyke_out]

I believe Smoke will be Kano's worst match-up. Smoke seems like he's designed to be the anti-zoner, shake gets around knives. he's got a fast teleport, and trading knife with his bomb still allows him to combo off of it, unlike other projectiles that cuases a knockdown.

Having a bad match-up isn't so bad, except when it's a bad match-up with a heavily used character. Smoke will be able to get close to Kano at will since Kano will be worried about throwing out too many knifes and will be stuck play heavy defense to guard against smoke bomb.

 

[entrerix]

i agree that smoke seems like a very bad matchup with kano. really though, right now i struggle to think of the characters that kano has a GOOD matchup with

 

[Dietician]

Smoke isn't much different.
Sure- you can't throw knives, but he can't throw smoke bombs either or he eats a kano ball.
It ends up with both of you having to be up close where it comes down to kano doing less combo damage, being slower in general, and not even having a low mixup.
Whereas smoke still has the fastest sweeps and teleport punches to work with- they're annoying but a good jump in stuffs shit. Every character has to watch for :en shake and mash out a anyway.

 

[ihasaflavour]

I just created an account to thank you guys for this awesome thread. I hope I can contribute.

I recently just finished with about 30 matches online with Kano. Man, I'm really digging it. I was getting a lot of heat from people because I was "spamming" the knives. Granted, I was, but it's a perfect, and FAST zoning tool.

I recall a few posts back, someone comparing Kano to Ryu in a weird way, and I feel he does feel the same.

You guys are also talking about his Air down ball. It's way to beastly to not be using it. I can't count the times I've had to jump back, and capitalize on tagging someone who was following my jump.

 

[entrerix]

just noticed that kano's airthrow does more damage than most other peoples. his jk airthrow is 15% while other characters is 14%.

so both his knife and his airthrow are a little stronger than other chars. its like they gave him slightly higher quality tools to make up for the fact he has fewer tools on his workbench.

strykers grenade toss does 9% too though... not fair.

 

[Arcade-Fever]

just noticed that kano's airthrow does more damage than most other peoples. his jk airthrow is 15% while other characters is 14%.

so both his knife and his airthrow are a little stronger than other chars. its like they gave him slightly higher quality tools to make up for the fact he has fewer tools on his workbench.

strykers grenade toss does 9% too though... not fair.

Far as I know Stryker do suffer the same problem as Kano in damage output.

 

[Dietician]

Far as I know Stryker do suffer the same problem as Kano in damage output.

Nope. Stryker has the loops he's famous for in this game, too. Big damage.

 

[Arcade-Fever]

Nope. Stryker has the loops he's famous for in this game, too. Big damage.

Oh well, we are still better than Sheeva and Baraka I guess.

 

[Dietician]

Kano is all about mashing like you're trying to break your stick in a desperate attempt to make the enemy not default to standing block and be immune to everything.
It'll instantly cancel into ball or choke if they try to get smart and push something.

Gonna need some decent switches at least for down and bk for standing block.

"Diet, why did you only put in a couple of good switches instead of a full set?"
"I play Kano."

Anyway, when/if frame data becomes available you'll ditch the notion of sheeva/baraka being terrible; especially considering baraka's odd crouch making him immune to weird shit.

 

[Sully]

I just created an account to thank you guys for this awesome thread. I hope I can contribute.

I recently just finished with about 30 matches online with Kano. Man, I'm really digging it. I was getting a lot of heat from people because I was "spamming" the knives. Granted, I was, but it's a perfect, and FAST zoning tool.

I recall a few posts back, someone comparing Kano to Ryu in a weird way, and I feel he does feel the same.

You guys are also talking about his Air down ball. It's way to beastly to not be using it. I can't count the times I've had to jump back, and capitalize on tagging someone who was following my jump.

This is another thing, I was kind of wondering about. I CAN do his combos, but it seems a lot of my games I win throwing knives, and using up ball with a random jk+throw. It's kind of funny actually. Mostly because people get REALLY ragey.

Rushdown characters particularly, I was playing a Johnny last night that was so upset when I tried to rationally explain what zoning was and why I kept throwing knives. Is it just me or does Kano seem to have like stubby arms? I've noticed alot of people seem to have quite a bit better reach for starting combos. . .

I don't know, the way I see it if you're going to let me win with as little work as possible I'm going to do it. I'd rather work on spacing, timing and punishing, than trying to be flashy because I can do a 12+ juggle combo

Dietician - I was playing with this d, 4 nonsense you are speaking of. It comes out so fast it SHOULD be a combo... it isn't. It's good stuff. My choke whiffs, but ball or knive are definitely games to play. I am devouring this thread. Great Stuff.

Maybe by the time this game has been out a month and we've eaten through all the info Kano will go up a few notches.

I saw that comment about Baraka, what is with me and picking "shitty" characters. I LOVE Baraka, tiers be damned. I'll learn him next.

 

[Arcade-Fever]

I saw that comment about Baraka, what is with me and picking "shitty" characters. I LOVE Baraka, tiers be damned. I'll learn him next.

Hey, I play Tager in Blaze Blue and he is bottom tire so I understand your feeling, but it doesn't mean Tager can't completely own someone if he make a mistake. XD

Thank god I play Zangief in SFIV/SSFIV, that way I can say I play a relatively high tire character in a game. XD

 

[entrerix]

it doesnt really hurt to learn low tiers. in SF4 i used guile and abel, who were both considered low tier (especially guile). I got a nice boost then when super was released and both characters were given lots of buffs. (abel not as many buffs, but his worst matchups got nerfed)

besides learning low tier just makes you better at THE GAME and not relying on your character's natural strength as much.

 

[Mgt2]

Lab time! Turns out he can keep pressure after all, and it would be quite strong if his hit low.

Here's everything:

- Fast enough for when they are in your face.
+ - For switching sides if you started close to the corner. Requires an immediate dash towards to get as close as non-:en version. The greater distance on recovery makes it easier to back out to sling projectiles.

Either lead into any of the following well on recovery, thanks to the range on and :

Knockdown with more space for returning to a projectile/ball neutral game.​

Overhead attempt with spaced knockdown for a jump in.​

, , , ,
Combo attempt (for some reason not low) with spaced knockdown for a jump in.​

, <throw> (on block)
-or-
, <throw> (on block)
-or-
, <safe jump> (on hit)
-or-
, (on hit)
can all be mixed in for another level of mixups.​

After any of the above that end with knife you can immediately input after to fly over the opponent on knockdown to switch sides instead of going for a jump in punch.

As far as following up a jump in with a combo there is:

, , , ,
-or-
, , , , ​

Either space fine for another jump-in attempt upon recovery, with the first doing very slightly more damage.​

Not having any luck with jump ins? Stay in neutral and rely on up close!
will come out ahead in projectile trades with it's high damage.
air can break zoning and punish poor projectile use
so does :en!
ground can sneak under enemy jump ins to keep your space.

:kano:

Man I want NRS to do that for him " " hit low...

 

[cyke_out]

Kano is not the only one with a low kicking looking like it should be low, but it's not. Nightwolf f+3 is the same way. Yet, guys like Smoke and Liu Kang has strings that lead into combo's, starting with a low. It seems very arbitrary on what they make a low in this game. no rhyme or reason at all.

 

[RobotAIDS]

I'm an intermediate level player and I've really enjoyed my time with Kano. Unfortunately I've only had a chance to use him online against a shit load of scorp scrubs, but at that level my strategy has me winning 8 out of 10 easy. Zoning with knife works well. Most scrubs just try to jump them(if they don't have a teleport) and you can punish with upball. If you're against a teleport character, you can easily bait them to teleport because they THINK that your super fast knives are about to be thrown. With that I punish with a 30 percentish combo. His air ball is great for counter attacking projectiles. He has some solid tools. I just wish that I could play someone with some skill offline and see his full potential. So far I've only played my gf offline and she's a total kitana scrub.

As a side note I'd like to add that this game seems to be a game that will get a lot of people into fighting games. It's so accessible and people with no knowledge of fighting games AT ALL seems to almost naturally grasp some of the fundamental concepts simply by playing the game. For example, my gf decided to switch over to sheeva for a couple matches and instantly she noticed that she is "heavy" and that she has to "get close to be any good so that she can grab people". I was amazed that a person with little to no fighting game experience could grasp the concept of a grappler with in seconds of playing as one. This game is gunna bring it a bunch of new faces.

 

[Arcade-Fever]

I'm an intermediate level player and I've really enjoyed my time with Kano. Unfortunately I've only had a chance to use him online against a shit load of scorp scrubs, but at that level my strategy has me winning 8 out of 10 easy. Zoning with knife works well. Most scrubs just try to jump them(if they don't have a teleport) and you can punish with upball. If you're against a teleport character, you can easily bait them to teleport because they THINK that your super fast knives are about to be thrown. With that I punish with a 30 percentish combo. His air ball is great for counter attacking projectiles. He has some solid tools. I just wish that I could play someone with some skill offline and see his full potential. So far I've only played my gf offline and she's a total kitana scrub.

As a side note I'd like to add that this game seems to be a game that will get a lot of people into fighting games. It's so accessible and people with no knowledge of fighting games AT ALL seems to almost naturally grasp some of the fundamental concepts simply by playing the game. For example, my gf decided to switch over to sheeva for a couple matches and instantly she noticed that she is "heavy" and that she has to "get close to be any good so that she can grab people". I was amazed that a person with little to no fighting game experience could grasp the concept of a grappler with in seconds of playing as one. This game is gunna bring it a bunch of new faces.

Nice to see people enjoying the game at all the skills levels.

 

[GStick]

I've noticed this too with my girlfriend. She can't play SF2 to save her life, but she at least understands all the concepts I've explained to her when they're applied to this game.