Mileena is fun but doesn't have what it takes to win a major, here's why

[ZeroEffect]

If you see Mileena abusing D+4 on you, just do a close ground skull and she will have to think twice before throwing that poke out. Shang can use up skulls to counter react sais on trade similar to Kano, he wins the trade since his do 9%. Also his morph is pretty good in this match since Mileena is great against Mileena, lol.

haha Yes, Mileena's worst matchup can arguably be against herself. She counters everything she does.

I may have to disagree on Shang though. The only time Shang seems to be a pain is when he's doing strings into up skull in close. I understand how it could be bad, but because his ground skulls and upskulls are at set ranges, it makes him have to guess to beat her out or trade. And the way I've always seen it is, against Mileena, if the character has to guess more at range than she does, she has the advantage.

 

[GenLiu]

His spin is already super punishable, dunno why people think this is his best tool.

I'm sorry to say that but the Kung Lao spin is not SUPER punishable.

KL's spin is punishable, Mileena's rolling (for example) is super punishable, the difference between this two moves is huge.

No matter if I play well or not I can punish 1OO % of the Mileena's rolling I blocked by full combo. ANY of them but for the KL's spin this is not the same deal. I have to concentrate, react fast to punish with full combo.

It mainly depend on who you're playing, Ermac can easily punish the spin but as a Quan-Chi player I'd say I have to stay focused and the spin is not SUPER easy to punish...

 

[rotanadan]

I'm curious about the raiden thing. Once mileena gets inside on me she flips a coin and goes low or high. Me guessing wrong = 30%+. You cant poke the pressure because she does a little hop with both starters.

 

[CY MasterHavik]

These are the opposite of Jax's match ups. And I feel Mileena has what it takes to win. It takes more than just knowing that X characters rapes her. Don't pack in REO my good man. that got for the rest of ya. But hey, you're your own man. I can't stop your choices. I do find Mileena annoying as hell though. Though kicks and rolls are fucking nightmares.

 

[truendymion]

Well Mileena might have it bad but she doesn't have it nearly as bad as some of the other characters. You'll never see Sheeva, Baraka, Syndel, Stryker, or Scorpion at major tournaments.

 

[spongebob]

I'm curious about the raiden thing. Once mileena gets inside on me she flips a coin and goes low or high. Me guessing wrong = 30%+. You cant poke the pressure because she does a little hop with both starters.

Mileena's low and mid starts arn't really a true 50/50. You can't react to her b3 into roll but her u4 is slow and can be reacted to most of the time and fuzzy guarded too. So long as ure not getting crossed up its a safe bet to just crouch block theres no way of hit confirming her b3 into roll so blocking that = full combo. You can see u4 and block accordingly. After blocking U4 she does have advantage though and can follow up with pokes or a quick string.

She does get a true 50/50 between b3,b4 and b3,ex roll but thats kinda shitty most of the time considering one option does no damage.

 

[SZSR]

I somewhat disagree with you on the Smoke matchup. Okay, if it's a player that can predict correctly on reaction and can punish well I can believe that. But keeping a good Mileena off of you as a Smoke and trying to create space for your side to go a bit more smoothly is screwed by perfectly timed drop kicks and rolling thunders. His best chance to keep them away is really his Smoke bomb and his somewhat far reaching chains, but that's about it.

I'd for more for a 5.5 vs 4.5 in Smoke's favor, because I think just because he has those tools doesn't mean the player can always can them out.

 

[Necrocyte]

all i can say is mileena is broken vs reptile, u think KL fucks mileena, well mileena turns reptiles asshole inside out. my sister who never plays the game can almost beat me with mileena. rock paper scissors i guess? dummbbbbbbbbb

 

[ZeroEffect]

all i can say is mileena is broken vs reptile, u think KL fucks mileena, well mileena turns reptiles asshole inside out. my sister who never plays the game can almost beat me with mileena. rock paper scissors i guess? dummbbbbbbbbb

^See my post in the "vs. Mileena" thread for reptile.

 

[Necrocyte]

my reply is there too

 

[GodsLonelyman]

all i can say is mileena is broken vs reptile, u think KL fucks mileena, well mileena turns reptiles asshole inside out. my sister who never plays the game can almost beat me with mileena. rock paper scissors i guess? dummbbbbbbbbb

Agreed. Mileena rapes alot of characters. Her hitbox is absurd and her pokes can be difficult to deal with. She has super fast specials and is one quick and sneaky biatch. I know how to use reptile well and can't win against good mileenas. With Cyrax I have a tough time as well but thankfully his d+4 has decent range and good recovery so I annoy mileena with pokes too and bait.

 

[Danno]

Nice write up but you have to just be better than your opponent on these match ups. I've never had a real tough time with smoke personally. Baiting out teleports then punishing hard with full combos.

I generally believe any match up when played right can be good for mileena. Kung Lao is stupid matchup for anyone really. I would probably opt to playing my Kano against kl though.

Gl at evo man. Mileena users will be cheering for you!

 

[VIDA]

I actually think Mileena is extremely underrated. Her u4/b3 mixups are insane, her telekicks are hard to deal with and her sais are good for zoning. By far the char I have the most trouble facing. Mayb partly due to lack of xp playing against her.

 

[Sao87]

I find that Kung Lao's spin is only an issue for people that want to go full auto-pilot and then get checked by a spin when attempting to pressure him on wake up or in general.

Go into training mode and set Kung Lao to tech roll and wake up attack, he will be the best training partner you've ever played with next to a actual human being. Get confident punishing his spins.

Next, stop pressuring him all the time. There's nothing wrong with zoning in this game, use your pokes. Kung Lao's normals actually have a pretty short range compared to most of the cast, be aware of your distance between him. Believe it or not it is actually possible to be threatening without being right next to Kung Lao.

Create the illusion that you intend to be offensive. There's nothing wrong with dashing at Kung Lao and pressing the block button. Who knows maybe you will bait a spin and then all of your training mode experience will grant you the ability to punish him with a combo.

Stop jumping! Kung Lao wants you to jump, its how he gets free damage. Don't jump.

Crouch block! Kung Lao wants you to stand block, here is why you shouldn't. All of Kung Laos strings can be ended with a low hat, if the low hat hits he gets to dash forward and pressure some more. All of Kung Lao's overheads push you away, if he uses one you've just escaped his pressure. If you fuzzy guard his overheads, you get a free combo. By crouch blocking you limit his string enders to low hat cancels and when a low hat is blocked you can press d+1 to stop him from following anything up safely.

I'll probably get hate for this, but this is my advice. Try implementing these things into your game play and I think you will feel more comfortable with the match up.

And this wasn't directed at Reo, this is more directed at the players that are having a tough time with the Kung Lao match up.

 

[GenLiu]

I find that Kung Lao's spin is only an issue for people that want to go full auto-pilot and then get checked by a spin when attempting to pressure him on wake up or in general.

[...]

I'll probably get hate for this, but this is my advice. Try implementing these things into your game play and I think you will feel more comfortable with the match up.

And this wasn't directed at Reo, this is more directed at the players that are having a tough time with the Kung Lao match up.

Getting hate for helping us?
Thx a lot for you advices Sao.
I have a lot of problem facing KL when I play Stryker (no problem with Kenchi and Quan-Chi considering that KL is a really good character anyway) and your advices will help me a lot.
Now I read your message I just realize that I come to close to him and tend to block/punish his spins instead of just baitting them.

 

[REO]

Well Mileena might have it bad but she doesn't have it nearly as bad as some of the other characters. You'll never see Sheeva, Baraka, Syndel, Stryker, or Scorpion at major tournaments.

This is why the only time I look into buffs it's for characters like those, no characters should be buffed over any of those. But I feel Scorpion and Sindel are ahead of the other three so they would be last in line out of the five.

 

[RayboneKilla]

kabal vs mileena

kabal is one of my mains and for the life of me.... I can't defeat solid mileena players. Because of her sais? no. because of her roll ball? NO. It's because her god damn ex teleport kick. The move just completely shuts me down. nomad dash isn't fast enough to get out of there either. on block it's ass. i dunno. any advice would help.

the ONE thing that kinda saves my ass, is if i just do a stand gas blast when she teleports. SOMETIMES it hits her, but man... certainly does grind me gear. I've become a master of filthy language on the match up alone. I may have come up with a whole genre of new cuss words in my experiences.

 

[variable]

great thread. I haven't played MK in years and am not much of a fighting game person but I've been trying to get into the scene on some level recently and Mileena is my favorite from way back when. nice to see some perspective from the truly elite players on her, even if it doesn't really apply to my games.

thanks, good luck

 

[AIBOSTON]

This is really a good thread. I like Mileena on this game because I can play her so many different ways. I think I'm tournament ready. Funny thing is Reptile is my hardest opponent. Not even Kung Lao can give me as much pressure as Reptile does. I guess thats why hes my second best character. I refuse to play him online yet tho.. I have to keep playing this dude named UpcloseKill or something. His is the only one I have trouble with. Were about even with attacks. But I think next time I play him ill record.

 

[PND OmegaK]

This is really a good thread. I like Mileena on this game because I can play her so many different ways. I think I'm tournament ready. Funny thing is Reptile is my hardest opponent. Not even Kung Lao can give me as much pressure as Reptile does. I guess thats why hes my second best character. I refuse to play him online yet tho.. I have to keep playing this dude named UpcloseKill or something. His is the only one I have trouble with. Were about even with attacks. But I think next time I play him ill record.

UpClose is on TYM I think. I find it funny how Reptile players find Mileena a hard matchup and vice versa, it's pretty interesting.

 

[cyke_out]

Online Reptile's dash is basically unpunishable. The difference between those that think reptile is hard might be becuase they are playing online.

 

[Sultani]

I've been playing only Mileena for 95% of the time the past few weeks and here are her worst match-ups from bad to terrible:


Jade: 5.5 : 4.5 - She negates all forms of sais with shadows on reaction and there's nothing you can do to prevent her from getting mid-screen. Mid-screen she's dumb, you have to deal with her U+3 all day and there's nothing you can do about it besides random rolls and teleport drops which is more harm than good.

Shang Tsung: 5.5 : 4.5 - His ground skull makes it so you can't use sais at him without risk of being popped up, you have to constantly rush him down and do a ton of random teleport kicks to stop him from controlling the match. With Mileena's slow normals and Shang's pressure up close always leaving him at an advantage it's tough to get anything going.

Nightwolf: 6 : 4 - Nightwolf's reflector shuts down ground sais and his shoulder shuts down air sais, so you have to play a grounded mid-screen game. His F+3 normal goes over and crushes Mileena's D+4 and makes you never want to throw it out in risk of eating 40% just for a 3% poke.

Smoke: 6 : 4 - Smoke shuts down ground sais with his shake and can punish air sais with teleport on reaction. He can turtle while building meter with his teleports and smoke bombs. Smoke bomb also stuffs teleport drop since Mileena goes into the ground before teleporting. Overall he's just annoying and Mileena struggles when she's forced to constantly rushdown with random teleport drops and her slow normals.

Kano: 6 : 4 - It's really tough to punish Kano's up ball on reaction, sometimes it's so strict I don't even attempt to go for a roll since the risk is him recovering in time and then counter punishing me. He can throw knives purposely when you throw sais and always win the trade since Mileena's sais do 6% and Kano's knives do 9%.

Raiden: 7 : 3 - This match is just stupid, you're forced to sit their and block or jump around like a maniac. I like to switch between the two but overall there isn't much you can do since Raiden can counter just about everything you do on reaction. His vicinity traps work on Mileena so it's hell if you're ever stuck in frame traps and he just controls the match way too much for you to ever get a momentum started.

Kung Lao: 8 : 2 - It's like Kung Lao was designed to rape Mileena. He has every damn tool in the book that counters anything she can do, just a pointless match up to even consider playing through, IMO. His F+3 goes under air sais and he can hit confirm into spins for combos, dive kicks beat ground sais, teleports just give him to many options that EVEN when you know he is teleporting you have to guess if he's going to do an instant 3 then be left at advantage or 2 and many other specifics. Spin punishes ANYTHING she does (even counters D+4 range), including her enhanced teleport drop. So you are stuck playing defensive in block while he builds meter constantly chipping you to death and crossing you up. Once he has x-ray just put the controller down because you aren't doing shit.




I can go into way more depth about these chars but just wanted to make it as breif and straight to the point as possible. Considering some of these chars are very popular in tourneys you would see why you would need back-up chars to fight some of them. And if anyone wants to know what I used to come up with some of the match-up info it's from playing people who use a certain char really good from playing both off-line and online.

I love how a billion people thank you for this but when other people say exactly the same thing about these matchups, they're just whiners.

All you can do against KL is try to bait out a spin, block it, and punish it with roll, b1, 4, dash 1, 1, 2, bite. Good luck doing that when he's ALWAYS going to have a breaker against Mileena. The timing is so strict on punishing the enhanced spin with the overhead starter that I've decided it's not worth it, because a hair of miscalculation makes you eat a spin, and the B3 roll starter doesn't work because blocked spin knocks you out of range to do it.

Since you're only talking about majors, we don't have to talk about Kenshi... which imo is even worse than KL.

I've also been playing mileena mainly for about a month now, and I agree with these assessments. These are definitely the toughest matchups I've had to face with her (save Kenshi). My brother plays Raiden exclusively, so I get alot of practice against him. I have an easier time with Raiden than I do against KL, but I think that kidna goes without saying, because what you posted about the KL matchup is true for way more characters than just mileena.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Mileena mainly, some of the match-ups like Smoke or whoever then I'll probably need to use Cage.

Smart choices man.

That has to be one of the best team in the game. Those 2 characters cover each other perfectly.

Hope you beat all those Kung Lao, Reptile, Kabal and Cyrax fools!

 

[ZeroEffect]

I love how a billion people thank you for this but when other people say exactly the same thing about these matchups, they're just whiners.

Haha, That's the sad reality, unfortunately. Big name players' opinions will always be more heavily valued by the majority of the community, no matter what. Even if they're wrong. If you're an unknown player, you don't really matter much. I know I said Jade was a problem months ago and everyone thought I lost my mind, lol. (I wonder, if Reo claimed Reptile was a bad match for Mileena, would all the Reptile players finally change their minds? ...maybe) But honestly, it's something you deal with in time.

Reo is a great player for sure, and I'm not directing any negativity towards him. I do disagree with a couple matchup assessments though. In the end, you can't just let one person's opinion change your own. Play your own matches, gain experience, and who knows, maybe you'll figure something out that even a "top player" has been sleeping on.

 

[JennyCage]

Surprised to see no mention of Ermac in this thread. He's Mileena's second worst matchup behind Lao in my experience.