She plays neutral heavy game and demands good neutral play.
She has very clean tools - minimal or no dirt at all.
That's a big plus to me and I really want to play with her well but it is pretty demanding and not that easy.
Unfortunately I can get better neutral/footsies play with other characters - it is probably just me - or that characters have simply better buttons/tools. I probably do not fit into Kitana's playstyle or just not figured how to play efficiently with her.
I will follow semiij play regardless of my current pick. I am wondering if he will stick to Kitana in the future. He can play strong neutral to make work her.
Match up question: What do you think about Shao Kahn's match up? Yesterday I played around 50 matches against my friend and I really struggled in neutral. I know my mistakes but in general I did not really feel her spacing power against him.
I am just curious if it is an easy match up just need to be better or what.
I agree that it will be interesting to see if Semiij sticks with her in the long run. He could potentially be playing the long-con banking on some good tweaks or tournament variation changes but I'm not holding my breath. He’s a great player and if you re-watch some of his sets he really puts emphasis on how reliant Kitana is on B231 for any of her game-plan.
She has no dirt in her kit sure, but part of that is because her kit has very little in it period. She has a couple of good footsie tools and a nice, safe, advancing mid that leads into a low-profile low in the form of B231 which is what a number of the worse-off characters would kill for, but not much more than that. Average projectile, no mix-up, average (sigh) air-game, respectable walk speed though.
I’m with you in that I enjoy good neutral and clean, no dirt play - but remember this is a game where members of the roster have true 50/50s. Not good mix-ups, but tried and true, un-seeable, guess wrong and you lose 30% 50/50s. All on top of stuff like Jax’s D1 -> Command Grab tic-throw, Scorpion's meter-burn on block teleport that makes punishes have to be reconsidered, Erron’s full-screen projectile shut-down + mid-screen 50/50 he can meter-burn to make safe etc.
In a game like this having a good advancing mid is the bare-minimum a character requires to not be straight-up smoked in some matches.
I main Shao Kahn and from my side of the matchup. I feel like its a real fair game with heavy emphasis on neutral. I have to play real patient against a good Kitana and usually whoever makes the better reads and plays solid wins.
Adding to this with experience from both sides (
though much more Kitana admittedly) Kitana is one of the currently honest characters that has slight favor against Shao Khan in my opinion.
My experience with Shao Khan is that he suffers a little against characters with the all too important advancing mid, as well as characters that can get up in his face and poke at him with strings that aren't TOO negative, which happens to be sort of exactly where Kitana fits.
He also has to take extra caution of the low profile of the 3 in Kitana's B231 since he really wants his opponents to be standing up so he can use his great Highs. On another note I actually think Shao might win the full-screen "
throw shit at each other" range since his spear is crazy + on-hit and trades great with high projectiles, which is what Kitana is limited to with her current variations.
