Kratos' parry: you will not see the end of this broken-ness

[CrashLand]

I got streaked pretty bad by somebody abusing this, and it was only after three or four matches that I started to understand how it works.

I haven't played with it in training mode, but as near as I can figure:

1) It worked against everything I tried against it, including projectiles and throws

2) The projectile it shoots back is unblockable, but it can be jumped and punished at the right distance (the recovery seems pretty bad). I guess you could probably go through it with an armor move or something?

3) The game goes into that annoying 'dramatic GoW slo-mo' whenever it's activated, so I guess it's not that hard to get around projectile reflects, provided you're not dumb enough to try and block it like me

All in all, probably not that hard to deal with, provided you know how it works... maybe even if he parries at close range, you'd have time to activate an EX move and go through the projectile before it hits?

Can anyone add to/clarify this?

 

[Poto2222]

Kratos' parry (as any parry-like move in the game, except Cage's X-Ray) is vulnerable to low pokes, such as and . After 3 or 4 times doing these attacks in a row while your opponent keeps trying to parry you, he'll get mad and stop doing it right away. Then it's your chance to finish him up.

 

[CrashLand]

I'm playing with this in practice mode right now. He can't parry either, even though they hit high. OTOH he can parry standing low attacks, and uppercuts, plus Liu Kang's low fireballs... but not sweeps.

I guess I should be glad it doesn't beat X-Rays (EDIT: unless you're using Kitana ).

It looks like you're pretty much screwed if he parries at close range... i don't think you can recover in time to get around it.

Also, you can't duck the projectile he shoots back, but you can jump it if you're at least a dash or two away.

 

[Poto2222]

I'm playing with this in practice mode right now. He can't parry either, even though they hit high. OTOH he can parry standing low attacks, and uppercuts, plus Liu Kang's low fireballs... but not sweeps.

I guess I should be glad it doesn't beat X-Rays (EDIT: unless you're using Kitana ).

It looks like you're pretty much screwed if he parries at close range... i don't think you can recover in time to get around it.

Also, you can't duck the projectile he shoots back, but you can jump it if you're at least a dash or two away.

Yeah, forgot to mention that counts as a high attack, thus being "parry-able".
Standing low attacks being parry'd is new to me. Thanks, I didn't know that.

So, anything besides , and (sweep) can be parried... Interesting.

 

[CrashLand]

Yeah, forgot to mention that counts as a high attack, thus being "parry-able".

No no no -- he can't parry it, in spite of the fact that it does hit high.

I mean if there's a pattern here I can't figure it out...

EDIT: unblockable moves like Nightwolf's lightning and Sheeva's stomp cannot be parried, and neither can Noob's upkick for some reason. That last one almost seems like a bug (here's hoping it never gets fixed )

 

[Poto2222]

No no no -- he can't parry it, in spite of the fact that it does hit high.

I mean if there's a pattern here I can't figure it out...

Oh, sorry! Misread your post.
But this is strange. I remember doing against Kratos and him parrying it... Or was it any other attack?
Well, looks like I'm mixing things up here. Or maybe I'm just going crazy. LOL

Anyway, thanks again, Crash!

 

[CrashLand]

See I could have sworn I tried in the match myself and it didn't work, but I sure can't get the practice dummy to parry it.

More stuff that beats the parry:

Ermac's TK push and TK lift

and Liu Kang's EX dragon kick and EX bicycle kick (so probably any non-projectile move with armor)

Nightwolf can reflect the projectile, fwiw

This is seriously the dumbest move in the game, lol... Oh well, I go against two randoms for player matches yesterday and what do I get but one Kratos and one MK2-Smoke. Probably serves me right for not sticking to rooms.

 

[spongebob]

Yeh I once got beat by this from a braindead kratos who would do nothing but parry and then when I tried to attack Ex - parry into that stupid dum ass kick lift kick move that does like 35% lol. Btw the parry on projecticles is virtually useless against certain characters at range at least, sek can TP on reaction after being reflected so I'm guessing other characters who also have teleports (and all are faster then sek's I think) should be able to aswell.

Advice if your playing a character who can outzone kratos and has a TP is to stay at max range and keep throwing projectiles his dash is pretty shit so it will be hard for him to get in.

 

[fleshmasher]

I've experienced this with Smoke's :en Shake (Vibration) and it may apply to Kratos' Parry too:

Even though regular Vibration doesn't counter d1, d3, or d4, when used as wake-up,
the wake-up invincibilty seems to make Vibration counter d1, d3 and d4 too.
The timing must be quite lucky though.

 

[Jamison]

Well fellow PSN users it seems we have all fought the same Kratos, since I have only encountered Kratos once in all my online play time and his play style was exactly as you describe. I also had the hardest time, it seemed to be effective, although annoying since everytime it went into slow motion after execution. He kept doing the parry, those damn arrows and of course the X-ray. Needless to say I lost because I had NEVER fought a Kratos before and this player had put some serious time to perfect his play style.

 

[gravager]

Yeh I once got beat by this from a braindead kratos who would do nothing but parry..

so who's more braindead?

you can seriously just keep sweeping him out of the parry... unless you're Kano for some reason. have seen some specials beat the parry like Jax's dash punch and gotcha grab. that's probably the best move Kratos has, I wouldn't blame players who insist on using him for clinging to it.

 

[Killphil]

The parry is only part of your "kratos problem". His damage output is borderline insane! f4,2 dash f4,2 hold 2 and then do another hit will do 30%+ damage. He's got solid zoning capabilitys,weak overheads mean you need to rely on that parry to throw out your slower than slow normal combo starters. I use kratos to great effect against people. I understand everyone's frustrations about the parry, but the title of this thread is something a scrub would say. I know its very hard not to say someone's playstyle is "gay" or "cheap", but the sooner you stop doing that the sooner you become better. Here's how you beat kratos: neutral jump in, laugh when he parries the air, blow him up with a full combo. Rinse and repeat the prescribed method adding sweeps and more slightly delayed combos and he's toast. Just DON'T LET HIM HIT YOU! The slowest character in the game is granted the gift of easy to do and very damaging combos. No offense to the OP, I'm just trying to kill the unwarranted hate kratos receives.

 

[Finaeous]

I'm an xbox player, so I don't have any experience with Kratos.

However, if it functions like Smoke's :en Shake, Liu Kang's parry, and Cyber Sub's Ice Statue parry; then each character has certain moves that will beat it.

I wrote up a complete list of moves that beat :en Shake here: http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread.php?8104-Moves-that-beat-Enhanced-Shake

Odds are pretty good those same moves will beat Kratos' parry, with the possible addition of projectiles (again, xbox player, no Kratos experience )

 

[CrashLand]

I know its very hard not to say someone's playstyle is "gay" or "cheap", but the sooner you stop doing that the sooner you become better. [...] No offense to the OP, I'm just trying to kill the unwarranted hate kratos receives.

It's cool. Keep in mind that I started this thread to create some understanding about the way the parry works, not to insult Kratos players. I don't blame the Kratos player I was talking about in the OP or abusing the parry and the thread title is really just a joke.

Although, having said that, after playing around with Kratos in training mode a little I do think his character design is a little bonkers... he reminds me of an exaggerated version of Scorpion, in the sense that while he may not be overpowered, he seems very very easy to pick up and use semi-effectively, and you basically have to outguess him, with the penalty for a bad guess being like half your lifebar.

I'm an xbox player, so I don't have any experience with Kratos.

However, if it functions like Smoke's :en Shake, Liu Kang's parry, and Cyber Sub's Ice Statue parry; then each character has certain moves that will beat it.

I wrote up a complete list of moves that beat :en Shake here: http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread.php?8104-Moves-that-beat-Enhanced-Shake

Odds are pretty good those same moves will beat Kratos' parry, with the possible addition of projectiles (again, xbox player, no Kratos experience )

I'm pretty sure you're right, and that is a very good post.

I really dislike that :en Shake and Kratos' parry have such weird properties that the only way to know what works is pure trial-and-error.