Let's talk about some of the good things about Soultaker/Spellmaster has. (Soultaker sounds cooler damn it!)
His DB1 Crashing Flames Amp is much safer than Ground Inferno. You can throw out the normal version safely at mid ranges and the amplify can make it safe at the end of strings. Depending on the range and the character, the second hit may be punishable by flawless block attacks(especially Geras/Shao/Frost maybe more) but most of the time you can avoid this with the right string/normal and spacing. In Warlock, you can mixup F242 to prevent flawless blocking by using ground inferno and skull, but basically every option you do besides F243/F242 is unsafe. In Soultaker, you have F24~DB1 Amp which can blow up flawless block attempts, is -6 on block and leaves Shang at a good range where he can check with another Crashing Flames or Soul Steal. This is actually a situation where I think the normal DF3 might be useful for messing with FB timings but I haven't gotten there yet. He can (relatively) safely do B3, B3U2, 3U2 into DB1 Amp which lands him healthy chunks of damage on hit. This general idea applies to Crashing Flames in a lot of situations, and it's a strong zoning tool in the mid range. I think it works well with Soul Steal too, because it makes people want to jump or squirm out of range.
Soultaker's BF1 projectile is slow because you need to get into the stance but it's useful none the less. Once you are in the stance, it comes out in 22 frames and does good damage and knocks down. The amplified version does a lot of damage and it low profiles high projectiles for a portion of the animation. The cancel can be used for some cheekiness. The move trades well and it can help you can into better ranges or just to zone along with Soul Jar healing.
Soul Jar is a little slow, but it's justifiably slow as you can get a lot of healing from it. Some characters will make you risk a lot to use it but not all can really pressure you like that from range. If you land a DB1 Amp with Jar out, the opponent gets knocked down and then feels pressured to stop you from healing yourself for 80. Projectile trades work out better when you have the healing aspect. This is something that's gonna take a lot of work with different matchups and whatnot but I think it's just a good tool. And personally, if I feel like I can get healing in a matchup, that makes me more comfortable playing the mirror match.
DF3 is DF3, I guess they just felt that he didn't need this move to be very strong but as time goes on I suspect people find more usage for it.
So you know it's early but right now but I just try to zone/heal and try to get them to respect my mid range by being aggressive with Soul Steal and DB1. And then I can go for more of Shang's forward moving offense. I don't know if the variation is any good but I think it works, and it's very fun to play.
