There are just so many little things about Lao that are nauseating.
When I throw out B1 xx ball roll from mid range with Mileena, if I whiff, just B1 comes out. If I throw out F2 into spin or hat spin with Lao and I whiff, F21 comes out. Lao is just randomly fucked over by the way that strings work in this game.
The random gap in 112124, no real mix ups, F4 being so unsafe, 8 frame or slower buttons, having top end walk speed that's slower than Goro, dive kick being randomly hard to convert off of depending on where you land it, all kinds of problems with teleport.
This character is just such a mess.
Look at his staggers. What is to be respected after F2? The reason Mileena's B1 gets respect, is because of B12. F2 hat has a gap, F23 has a gap, F21 is trash in comparison to B12. F21 hat, like 112124 hat, doesn't even work on males midscreen. Mileena also has a 3 hit string that's +2 on all parts. Lao has a string that's +1 on two parts, is abnormally difficult to do in the first place, whiffs even tho it's not supposed to at the end of it. She also has a 6 frame button to frame trap people with. Lao doesn't even have frame traps anymore.
If you play Lao, drop him for Mileena. She's the same archetype and does everything better. Sure, spin is faster than EX roll. EX roll hits multiple times, though. It's really not that big of a deal, going from EX spin to EX roll, especially when normal roll actually anti airs, unlike normal spin.
