Mileena tips?

[zRaandom x]

so I recntly Picked up Mileena, and I need some starter tips.

I do no know much about her. so i got some questions:
1. what is her playstyle?
2. What are her BnBs?
3. does she have any steups?
4. Because her d4 is so great should I be using d4 over sweep?
5. 50/50s?
6.Block strings?
7.Anything you can provide will be helpful

Thats it for now, I would appreciate if you shared some of your knowledge with me/
TYVM to every single one in advance

 

[PimpUigi]

Read the advance Mileena guide. It's not stickied btw...
http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread.php?6338-Mileena-is-part-Skunk!-(Advanced-Mileena-Guide)

 

[Sultani]

Well, you know her D4 is good, and what it is best for is a setup for the U4 starter.

Alot of people ball up instead of blocking high to stop the D4.. So, I have a couple BnBs that start from this.

1. U4, U4, B1, 4, 3, roll, B1, 4, teleport kick. Does 33%. Or ,
2. U4, B1, 4, F3, 1+2, roll, B1, 4, teleport kick - 34%

These start from overheads, and she has faster strings like 3, 2, ball as starters.

She has awesome mix ups I guess is how I'd describe her playstyle. Once the teleport kick lands from one of the first 2 BnBs, be mindful of the wakeup options your opponent has. If they are lacking, you can immediately dash in, and they'll usually try to block high to stop another U4 (overhead starter). Because of this, use the below low starter instead.

3. B3, ball, U4, B1, 4, dash, 1, 1, 2, bite. The best part about this combo is that if you enhance the ball and you're close enough when you do B3, the ball is unblockable.

Her sais.. well, for me the best part about them is that you can do them in the air. One of the things they do very well (that I'm not sure alot of people use them for) is bait out wiffs. Like if you teleport kick and it gets blocked, and someone tries to punish it with a juggle or string, you can do an air sai and pause yourself in the air to make them wiff.

Another huge tool she has is her advantage on landed teleport kick. Once it hits, you get enough of a frame advantage to dash in and start a combo. The following string is blockable, but since she has such great mixup tools, a landed teleport kick is essentially forcing your opponent into a coin flip to avoid eating 30% + damage. Do I block high for the overhead? Do I block low for the b3, ball?!

The other thing I like about her low starter is that it leaves the oponent standing after the bite. Any combo that ends this way leaves the opponent just slightly inside of your U4 range.

Again, awesome mix up character, but like most, her matchup against Kung Lao and Raiden is terrible.

Her enhanced teleport is a little harder to spot than other enhanced teleports such as smokes. The enhanced version knocks the blocker back just enoughso that they can't punish it with an uppercut. That said, her specials (roll and teleport) so so punishable it's insane.

If you roll ant someone and they block it, they have time to stand up, go get a drink, maybe take a shower, come back, pick up their controller, and still have time to catch you floating in the air.

As for the guide, it's very very good. But a couple of things to keep in mind about some of the things in there...

Mileena is not primarily a ranged character. Her mixup game is way too good to suggest that. playing her as a ranged character will make you miss about 3/4 of what she can do, and characters that actually ARE zoning / ranged characters will absolutely tear you to shit if you try to play her like that.

Secondly, her sweep does NOT suck. She has better options than just a naked sweep from close range, but if you are outside of sweep range, you can do b3, b4 to actually link into her sweep. No one else can do that. As for hit prioritization, the naked sweep is lacking. D4 has better range than her sweep does, but the biggest reason her sweep doesn't suck is because of the b3, b4 link into it.

It can be used insteade of D4 as part of her mixup game, and it the b3 hlands, you can hit confirm into a 30% combo.

 

[Sasuga]

Also usefull is when you catch your opponent in the air with flying kick, you can then throw air sai and hit them with the ball when you land. Leaves them open for combo.

But there's plenty of stuff in the Mileena section, check it out.

 

[zRaandom x]

Well, you know her D4 is good, and what it is best for is a setup for the U4 starter.

Alot of people ball up instead of blocking high to stop the D4.. So, I have a couple BnBs that start from this.

1. U4, U4, B1, 4, 3, roll, B1, 4, teleport kick. Does 33%. Or ,
2. U4, B1, 4, F3, 1+2, roll, B1, 4, teleport kick - 34%

These start from overheads, and she has faster strings like 3, 2, ball as starters.

She has awesome mix ups I guess is how I'd describe her playstyle. Once the teleport kick lands from one of the first 2 BnBs, be mindful of the wakeup options your opponent has. If they are lacking, you can immediately dash in, and they'll usually try to block high to stop another U4 (overhead starter). Because of this, use the below low starter instead.

3. B3, ball, U4, B1, 4, dash, 1, 1, 2, bite. The best part about this combo is that if you enhance the ball and you're close enough when you do B3, the ball is unblockable.

Her sais.. well, for me the best part about them is that you can do them in the air. One of the things they do very well (that I'm not sure alot of people use them for) is bait out wiffs. Like if you teleport kick and it gets blocked, and someone tries to punish it with a juggle or string, you can do an air sai and pause yourself in the air to make them wiff.

Another huge tool she has is her advantage on landed teleport kick. Once it hits, you get enough of a frame advantage to dash in and start a combo. The following string is blockable, but since she has such great mixup tools, a landed teleport kick is essentially forcing your opponent into a coin flip to avoid eating 30% + damage. Do I block high for the overhead? Do I block low for the b3, ball?!

The other thing I like about her low starter is that it leaves the oponent standing after the bite. Any combo that ends this way leaves the opponent just slightly inside of your U4 range.

Again, awesome mix up character, but like most, her matchup against Kung Lao and Raiden is terrible.

Her enhanced teleport is a little harder to spot than other enhanced teleports such as smokes. The enhanced version knocks the blocker back just enoughso that they can't punish it with an uppercut. That said, her specials (roll and teleport) so so punishable it's insane.

If you roll ant someone and they block it, they have time to stand up, go get a drink, maybe take a shower, come back, pick up their controller, and still have time to catch you floating in the air.

As for the guide, it's very very good. But a couple of things to keep in mind about some of the things in there...

Mileena is not primarily a ranged character. Her mixup game is way too good to suggest that. playing her as a ranged character will make you miss about 3/4 of what she can do, and characters that actually ARE zoning / ranged characters will absolutely tear you to shit if you try to play her like that.

Secondly, her sweep does NOT suck. She has better options than just a naked sweep from close range, but if you are outside of sweep range, you can do b3, b4 to actually link into her sweep. No one else can do that. As for hit prioritization, the naked sweep is lacking. D4 has better range than her sweep does, but the biggest reason her sweep doesn't suck is because of the b3, b4 link into it.

It can be used insteade of D4 as part of her mixup game, and it the b3 hlands, you can hit confirm into a 30% combo.

Very very helpful. The guide is super awesome. She actually can do more than i thought, which is good indeed.
Might tke a few days to learn her completely, but i think its worth it.

 

[zRaandom x]

Also what playstyle is her weakness? for example: Shangs are weak against rushdown type character like Liu kang.

 

[Sultani]

her wakeup teleport and wakeup roll are really good at preventing rush downs, but she's kinda like sub zero with her wakeups. If you try to wakeup roll or wakeup teleport, you risk being caught with a string, similar to someone baiting sub zero's wakeup slide. she's weak (imo) against ranged attacks with low recovery frames. Characters like Kenshi and Kung Lao are very, very tough for her. Raiden is very hard too because his vicinity trap after block string demolishes her face off.

She does ok against most ranged attacks because her teleport kick will hit most people before they recover. but faster recovery ranged attacks get teleports or rolls blocked into full punishes.

Her weakness against characters like this is that her methods of getting close to either bait out wiffs or use that devastating mixup game are highly punishable and in most cases extremely predictable. Another one of her weaknesses is that both the low hit and overhead combo starters are very very slow, and anyone who understands what mileena's tools are will just block low and fuzzy guard the overhead.

Because of the extremely high start up frames, most opponents string starters out prioritize mileena's. This isn't really worth mentioning though, because standing face to face trying to trade strings with each other isn't usually a good idea.

Short, don't try to punish a blocked string with an overhead or B3. Use D4 and try to predict a low block and use the overhead.

She can be weak against speed. Johnny cage and smoke can be a little tough for her too. Cage can bait out an overhead by showing you a low block, and his uppercut is fast enough to catch you, a properly executed smoke bomb will hit your wakeup attacks, so smoke can fake rushing you downand trick you into a wakeup, then wham, smoke bomb.

One thing that I noticed right away when I started playing her about a month ago.. I'm not sure if this is true for every character, but it absolutely is true for the majority of the cast.

If Mileena wiffs an uppercut, the opponent can NOT uppercut her. They will wiff too.

 

[zRaandom x]

dang, you post some real informative things about mileena, and I greatly thank you for that.

Are you on XBL? so maybe i can see youre mileena, and maybe learn some tricks and setups and stuff.

 

[Sultani]

dang, you post some real informative things about mileena, and I greatly thank you for that.

Are you on XBL? so maybe i can see youre mileena, and maybe learn some tricks and setups and stuff.

Yep, I'm on XBL, Gamertag Sultani19. Toss me an add. I'll be out of town from today until Sunday, but you can usually catch me on around 9:30ish CST during the week.

 

[PhillyPhinest]

Hey guys, First time, long time. I began to "main" Mileena for awhile now. However I feel like I am beginning to plateau. Any suggestions to take my game to another level? I usually try to work on combos in Practice but when I go online. I cannot put anything together. Any info will be appreciated.

 

[zRaandom x]

So ive been using Mileena for a while now and i got to say I have a hard time using her.

Maybe it's the online but i cant seem to link a split(u4) after a wake up ball, nor can I do iASais. Any tips?

 

[ZeroEffect]

U4 after roll should be fairly easy to do with practice. even online. But if the connection is weak you may have to do U4 earlier than normal to make up for the lag.

iAS is done with pressing Up and Back at the same time and then quickly pressing forward+1. It might be easier to do Up+Back then Down+Forward+1. I tend to do it better using the analog than the dpad, but it can be done the same way on either.

 

[zRaandom x]

U4 after roll should be fairly easy to do with practice. even online. But if the connection is weak you may have to do U4 earlier than normal to make up for the lag.

iAS is done with pressing Up and Back at the same time and then quickly pressing forward+1. It might be easier to do Up+Back then Down+Forward+1. I tend to do it better using the analog than the dpad, but it can be done the same way on either.

I know how to do them combos and everything, its online. Btw iAS on 360 pad is difficult as fuck man. Anyway thanks for the advice

 

[PhillyPhinest]

I just got done playing a Cyrax as Mileena, and for some reason this person was constantly blocking. Eventually wore my health down and came with a W. What's the best way to deal with a player like this.

Also whats the best way to punish Cyrax when he teleports.

 

[cyke_out]

Well, I think that is your first problem. Using a 360 pad is just begging for punishment.

If the person is just constalty blocking, hurl dem sais! even if they just crouch under them.. keep hurling and build meter, if you have the life lead why do something reckless to lose the life lead, the burden of winning is on them. if they have the life lead and try to turtle you out, approach safely and start her high/low/throw mix-ups to regain the life lead and then hurl those sais once more.

 

[zRaandom x]

Well, I think that is your first problem. Using a 360 pad is just begging for punishment.

If the person is just constalty blocking, hurl dem sais! even if they just crouch under them.. keep hurling and build meter, if you have the life lead why do something reckless to lose the life lead, the burden of winning is on them. if they have the life lead and try to turtle you out, approach safely and start her high/low/throw mix-ups to regain the life lead and then hurl those sais once more.

Yeah I know im planning on buying a stick in a couple of weeks. Because 360 pad is retarded as hell!!

For Cyrax i would say.. poe with d4 until he blocks low then u4 combo. Build meter with sais like cyke_out said. And the nets and bombs I would say punish on reaction with teleport kick. As for punishing Cyrax's teleport I think a roll into combo would be the option since mileenas normals are slow.

Btw how do you see cyrax vs mileena match?
I think its a 6-4 but idk

 

[PhillyPhinest]

Yeah, I need to get a stick. I was thinking of dropping some cash and getting the MK Klassic Stick when it comes out. Any recommendations which stick I should get?

 

[Sultani]

I actually played against a really good cyrax the other day. Out of 10 matches I lost 6.

 

[ZeroEffect]

what was cyrax doing that gave you trouble?

 

[Sultani]

To be honest, guy was simply a better player than me.

He cuaght me too many times with d1 ragdoll or d3 ragdoll. I was trying to bait out nets and tele kick, but he'd just air grab me.

He punished my poor meter management with 70% resets too often. There were rounds that I was winning handily, but got caught in nets with under 70% health and no meter, which is gg.

He won the last three in a row, and by that point he adapted better than I did. Last 2 were pretty one sided.

 

[Creepy00]

Just today i decided to spend time with Mileena in the lab, and gotta said she has lots of potential as a mix up character. So i have a few questions about mileena:
1st) what does she lacks on?
2nd) what are her safe strings? Best normal?
3rd) what is that i want to keep in mind when playing Mileena?
4th) Is there any similarity with Jade's gameplay? I play jade as well, and i have seen alots of jade players from jade's threads that Mileena as well.
Thanks in advance

 

[redeyes]

Just today i decided to spend time with Mileena in the lab, and gotta said she has lots of potential as a mix up character. So i have a few questions about mileena:
1st) what does she lacks on?
2nd) what are her safe strings? Best normal?
3rd) what is that i want to keep in mind when playing Mileena?
4th) Is there any similarity with Jade's gameplay? I play jade as well, and i have seen alots of jade players from jade's threads that Mileena as well.
Thanks in advance

Mileena Lacks good normals shes a very special based character.
a thing you want to keep in mind with mileena is telekick is NOT safe. alot of players play like it is. but it isnt.
and i havent played jade much so i dont know if they are similar.
also D4 is your best friend haha.

 

[Sultani]

Just today i decided to spend time with Mileena in the lab, and gotta said she has lots of potential as a mix up character. So i have a few questions about mileena:
1st) what does she lacks on?
2nd) what are her safe strings? Best normal?
3rd) what is that i want to keep in mind when playing Mileena?
4th) Is there any similarity with Jade's gameplay? I play jade as well, and i have seen alots of jade players from jade's threads that Mileena as well.
Thanks in advance

Read the thread. There's also a link to a really good guide.

 

[Steez-]

1. what is her playstyle?

The beauty (irony lol) behind Mileena is that she's a very balanced and tricky character. She can zone with ground sais & air sais (more effective), as well as play aggressive and provide mixups.

2. What are her BnBs?

My best no meter, midscreen BnB is a 37% however it's probably too difficult for beginner Mileena players.
Here are some fairly easy ~25%-30ish~ BnB's:

U4 + U4 + ( B1,4 ) + ROLL + 4 + NECKBITE
( 4,2 ) + ROLL + U4 + ( B1,4 ) + NECKBITE

3. does she have any steups?

Yes! She has nasty setups. She can zone with sais, which are pretty fast. This allows her to build meter/test your opponent's reactions/chip away at their health. If the opponent tries to jump and rush you, punish with telekick + combo. Up close she has high ( U4 ) + low combo ( B3 ) starters. A good and safe mixup string is ( B3 ) + ground sai. Another one is her 2,3 which can be followed up by a sai or grab.

4. Because her d4 is so great should I be using d4 over sweep?

It's a matter of preference. I rarely use sweep in general, I feel like D4 really gets into the opponent's minds more and sometimes forces them to block low which is opens up several doors. Also her D4 is one of her best assets and has great range.

5. 50/50s?

Refer to 3, basically her overhead U4 and low B3.

6.Block strings?

Refer to 3.

7.Anything you can provide will be helpful

What I love about Mileena is that when played at a high-level she's one of the most unpredictable characters in the game. Therefore try not to be too repetitive, truly try to put the opponent on their toes and don't overuse special moves, especially telekick + roll because they can be highly punishable. I'm sure you've seen people use air sai after telekick which is pretty smart for obvious reasons so you might wanna do that too. Also meter management is crucial and the only EX move I recommend using is EX telekick because at times the opponent doesn't notice it's an EX telekick and won't block for the second kick, plus I believe you must block low for EX telekick (not sure). Mileena has a high learning curve but it's safe to say she's my new main. I've been winning A LOT more with her compared to my old main ( Kabal ). Her versatility is great and she's a mindfuck to play against :bigsmile: Have fun with her because I sure as hell do! Good luck.

 

[Steez-]

I just got done playing a Cyrax as Mileena, and for some reason this person was constantly blocking. Eventually wore my health down and came with a W. What's the best way to deal with a player like this.

Also whats the best way to punish Cyrax when he teleports.

Lol, Mileena is actually a bad matchup for Cyrax. The Cyrax you played was really smart by blocking. Instead of throwing out the usual bomb or net after getting up he expected you to roll or telekick. The best way to play a player like this is to play patient and use high-low mixups. Best way to punish Cyrax's teleport is DFOURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!