Jarek
Out of 15 characters in MK4, Jarek should be in the 8 spot. He acomplish this by having a good arsenal of special moves and a very fast weapon built specially for juggles. His damage, however, isnt that much in every situation so he sits there at the middle of the tier. Still he can be amazing zoner character and very good wakeup threat. Jarek throws are good. His Lp is a damaging pile driver and his Lk one is good because it glitch the camera and after it you can mix it up.
His normals are the same as everybody but he has some nice standing Lk attacks for poking, and his Hk altought high and pointy, is practically useless for anti air BUT it can set up many weird stuff after it. Examples of this are his infinites or various Juggles containing SUJK, Hk combos. If you catch a blocked special that goes into air punishment mode, you can do even things like aaHk, JHK, Ground Pound.
His throwing star is pherhaps the fastest projectile in the game (but not the safest) when comboed. Is a good poking tool hat can be used safely at certain distances. Is also a good move to end a Juggle. It share the same properties of the nightwolf's green arrow: It can be fired fast when the foe is in a non neutral state. Mixing it with the Ground Poung from full screen could be considered as safe against most characters, you can also add Ground Pound after aaStar.
The vertical kannonball is a good anti air but it can be grabbed by the air throwing characters. It has some weird startup not "visible". That means, when it cames out, it doesnt make instant contact in the first frames of animation. You cannot punish blocked moves with it as you could in UMK3 with Kano. It tend to miss at the end of various Juggles. Still an amazing counter for every single jump attack and can be used against crossup jumps. This move also can be used as a "corner reset" rush, which could open various LK/LP throws or another neat rush strats.
The regular cannonball is good and fast. Excellent to finish long Juggles but there are better options. Its an EXCELLENT transportation move. Some throw traps can be setup with this and coupled with the crazy camera glitches. Ex: grounded combo HpHpHkD+Hp, Run aaHk, JHK, then here do the regular kannonball and it will miss but leave you in front of your foe. The camera will lost sight of both of you for a while. Here you can attempt Lk throws (wich leads to other camera glitches and traps), simply keep rushing or even crossups. The kannonball can even extend some combos but is hard to do. This is more flashy than practical. Its possible to get whiff cannonball in a juggle combo but not infinitely like Reptile's Dash in UMK3, so far i got 3 whiff rolls after aaHPx2, aaSUJK aaHP and aaSUJK, HK. This is only for fansy stuff really since its very difficult to be done in a real vs match.
Ground pound is probably his best move and his curse. Is unblockable even at full screen and the only way to avoid it is jumping. It can be used for zoning strats and as a combo finisher too. We have to keep in mind that the ground pound enters in punished mode even if it connects. The best way to use it is from far from sweep range. Otherwise, the foe can just take the hit and simply run and combo you. If done from full screen, Scorp can punish it with his Teleport. Its good wakeup after various attacks like LP Weapon Attack, Roundhouse, Throw Weapon and etc. It can be done in jab/knee pressure which will make often opponent to jump away, in that situation throw a Star which should hit them in air and do another Ground Poung. Then after you hit the same opponent with the ground pound they will not jump away again and probably will start run into you -> wakeup them with the v. roll and etc. Mix various scenarious after this move because this is what is Jarek's Game.
His weapon is plain evil. Probably one of the best weapons in the game. Its so good that if Jarek loses it in a match and other character grabs it, it becomes deadly. Even Kai can make good use of it. All of his attacks except b + Hp share an important thing: SPEED. All of Jarek weapon attacks are fast as hell. Lp is the ultimate punisher for everithing in the game (like Kai's Weapon), also a free Ground Poung is possible after every single LP weapon attack. Althought if blocked it has some recovery. Hp is a Juggle starter that can be even comboed off an Hk and can be repeated up to 3 times in a row for damaging combos. Best option is to end with an Lp slash then free ground pound is max damage (46%)!. B + Lp is a linging strike wich is fast and can be repeated without having fear of a counterattack. Spam it all you can. B + Hp is a spinning stab very slow and useless.
Jarek has one real infinite. Its like Sonya's SUJK, HK repeat. Delaying the SUJK and HK could help you a lot but sometimes the HK will just push the foe away. 7 cycles of this inf are 100%. Turning Maximum Damage Off will make Jarek into one really huge threat. His infinite + weapon juggles coul easily take your all energy.
Basic Juggles:
1. HP, HP, HK, HK, Roll (5 Hits, 29%)
2. HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHPx2, Jump HK, Ground Poung (7 Hits, 34%)
3. HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHPx2, Star, Ground Pound (7 Hits, 35%)
4. HP, HP, HK, HK, Weapon Draw, Ground Poung (5 Hits, 29%)
Advanced Juggles:
1. HP, HP, HK, HK, SUJK, HK, Roll (RH @ end instead HK 44%) (7 Hits, 43%)
Video!
2. HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaSUJK, aaHK, Star, Ground Pound (7 Hits, 41%)
3. HK, HK, SUJK, Weapon Draw, Ground Pound (5 Hits, 41%)
4. (with Weapon) HK, HP, HP, LP, Ground Pound (4 Hits, 42%)
Punishers:
1. aaHPx2, Star, Ground Pound (4 Hits, 24%)
2. SUJK, HK, Roll (3 Hits, 34%)
3. SUJK, HK, Star, Ground Pound (4 Hits, 42%)
Video!
4. (With Weapon) HP, HP, HP, LP, Ground Pound (4 Hits, 46%)
