Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate First Impressions Tier List by Dragon and Honey Bee

[M2Dave]

Spoiler

S+ Cetrion, Liu Kang, Jacqui, Sub Zero, Kotal Kahn, The Joker

S Geras, Johnny, Shang Tsung, Kano, Kollector, Kung Lao, Fujin, Sindel

S- Terminator, Noob, Mileena, Rambo, Scorpion, Raiden, Cassie, Spawn, Kabal, Erron Black, Jax, Nightwolf, Sonya

A+ Rain, Kitana, Baraka, Sheeva, Frost, Jade

A Robocop, Shao Kahn, D'Vorah, Skarlet

 

[Second Saint]

Judging by some of the things they said (Honeybee's match with 2EZ), this was shot a week ago. So they were definitely early impressions. Honeybee actually found a D'vorah kustom he likes with Tele + Strep. I don't think they were aware of Dragon Stance Sheeva at the time either.

Does anyone else miss when S-tier meant something more than top tier? I do.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

Judging by some of the things they said (Honeybee's match with 2EZ), this was shot a week ago. So they were definitely early impressions. Honeybee actually found a D'vorah kustom he likes with Tele + Strep. I don't think they were aware of Dragon Stance Sheeva at the time either.

Does anyone else miss when S-tier meant something more than top tier? I do.

Yeah, I think people have really forgotten what it means.

S+ tier basicaully means "beyond broken", like what Tanya was on her introduction to MKX.
S tier means "broken or destroys nearly the entire cast in MUs", like Kenshi in MK9.
A tier or A+ is the normal top tier, where they're better than everyone else but not broken.

Somehow at the start of MK11 if became popular to start putting 50 characters in S tier, but this game actually hasn't had many S level characters at all.

 

[Second Saint]

Yeah, I think people have really forgotten what it means.

S+ tier means "beyond broken", like what Tanya was pre-both-patches in MKX.
S tier means "broken", like Kenshi in MK9
A tier or A+ is the normal top tier.

Somehow at the start of MK11 if became popular to start putting 50 characters in S tier, but this game actually hasn't had many S-level characters at all.

For real, this bothers me so much. S+ tier is for Kabal in UMK3 or fuckin Makoto in 3rd Strike. It's just that balance in general is so much better than in the old days because patches are a thing now that people seem to have forgotten what it really meant. It's not even about how good the character is, but how much better they are than everyone else.

 

[haketh]

For real, this bothers me so much. S+ tier is for Kabal in UMK3 or fuckin Makoto in 3rd Strike. It's just that balance in general is so much better than in the old days because patches are a thing now that people seem to have forgotten what it really meant. It's not even about how good the character is, but how much better they are than everyone else.

It’s just one of those things us old fools gotta get used to

 

[popmaster501]

For real, this bothers me so much. S+ tier is for Kabal in UMK3 or fuckin Makoto in 3rd Strike. It's just that balance in general is so much better than in the old days because patches are a thing now that people seem to have forgotten what it really meant. It's not even about how good the character is, but how much better they are than everyone else.

I think it's to alter the perception of "bad" If Shao Khan was in D tier, as in everything were shifted down, people would perceive that he's bad, when that's far from the case he's not "useless", he's just not as good as the others.

Also, Couldn't have every tier just jampacked with characters if they just went from A to C tier.

 

[scrubjesus111]

It’s a way of saying that every character is close to each other in terms of viability. Older games didn’t have so much balance across the roster, not to mention the variation system which blurs the lines even more.

@CrimsonShadow Yeah “S” was reserved for truly broken characters. Somewhere along the way people decided S means top tier, which I don’t mind tbh. It’s a cool way of distinguishing the best characters imo, and going forward there might never again be a broken tier in fighting games anyway. If there is they’ll have to invent a new category lol

 

[Swindle]

Spoiler

S+ Cetrion, Liu Kang, Jacqui, Sub Zero, Kotal Kahn, The Joker

S Geras, Johnny, Shang Tsung, Kano, Kollector, Kung Lao, Fujin, Sindel

S- Terminator, Noob, Mileena, Rambo, Scorpion, Raiden, Cassie, Spawn, Kabal, Erron Black, Jax, Nightwolf, Sonya

A+ Rain, Kitana, Baraka, Sheeva, Frost, Jade

A Robocop, Shao Kahn, D'Vorah, Skarlet

Just the simple fact that 27 characters are in the “S” tiers completely negates the whole concept of “S” tiers.
This list is a bill.
If we, as a society, still engaged in the practice of stoning, then I would recommend it for these two heathens.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Yeah, I think people have really forgotten what it means.

S+ tier basicaully means "beyond broken", like what Tanya was on her introduction to MKX.
S tier means "broken or destroys nearly the entire cast in MUs", like Kenshi in MK9.
A tier or A+ is the normal top tier, where they're better than everyone else but not broken.

Somehow at the start of MK11 if became popular to start putting 50 characters in S tier, but this game actually hasn't had many S level characters at all.

I completely understand and also have been bothered by the use of S Tier - or +. The fact they have 3 types of S makes me want to vomit honestly.

But others have said some important things. This game is far more balanced than MK9 or X and the dirt is a lower level than previous games. I honestly don't feel any character is truly S tier in UMK11 even with customs. But I remember a time when tiers was based off matchups 7-3 being the popular top tier and S meaning the character is beyond cheap with tools unfair to the rest of the roster.

I can agree most characters are close in tiers and most characters can effectively play the game since the meta is very simple. But I'd place most in A+ A and B+/B

 

[M2Dave]

Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7 players also use the letter S to represent their top tier characters although the games are balanced. The letters are arbitrary, folks.

 

[Vslayer]

Bad list. Thank you, next.

 

[DixieFlatline78]

Theres a lot of lapses in knowledge in the list. They straight admitted they didnt know anything about Rambo

It's a first impressions list, sure, but clearly more for the views than to drum up conversation

 

[Trini_Bwoi]

Dragon says he can fuzzy the Sonya mix

 

[Law Hero]

Take a shot every time one of them says, "I dunno".

 

[Obly]

Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7 players also use the letter S to represent their top tier characters although the games are balanced. The letters are arbitrary, folks.

Right, but the letters didn't used to be arbitrary, and I agree with others that tier lists were more meaningful and informative then. It makes natural semantic sense for A, B, C, etc. to be the progression, and it communicates that those characters are at least all playing the same game.

Every once in a while (thankfully rare), you'd get a character who's so broken they're not even playing the same game, and that's what S used to mean. It was a clear signal to players that this character carries (play 'em if you want, but prepare to be flamed) and to the devs that the character needed fixing.

I don't know when or why S stopped having that meaning, so now it's "S is the new A". Just seems like an unnecessary shift, and confusing because a lot of folks assume the labels still have meaning. So now tier lists have to include a bunch of disclaimers: "Hold your horses, S doesn't mean broken, it just means really good. There are no broken characters." What's the point then... just drop S and go back to using A.

For the record, I don't actually have strong feelings about this (not sure how informative tier lists are in general anyway). I'm just a fan of clear communication.

 

[BurdaA]

Fwiw I used to assume B as mid (with +/- as upper/lower) C as low and A as high (again with +/-), then D as shit, S as busted.

...so basically 11 tiers. Sure, I liked that, but it too is certainly arbitrary.

 

[Arqwart]

NOTE: I'm aware this was made with initial reactions so it may not accurately reflect their current thoughts.

D'Vorah being bottom 4 makes 0 sense to me. I'd argue that only Shao and Robocop are in their own worst tier with everyone else above them.

I understand that there's many a complaint to be made for D'Vorah's current balance and design; however, she has a few key gameplay styles (Widow combos, Strep shenanigans, Ketipo staggers) that work more than well enough to put her above the Shao/Robo tier. D'Vorah having permanent access to Strep, combined with the ability to complement it better than Buzzed did, allows her to entirely shut down many characters.

 

[Vslayer]

Dragon says he can fuzzy the Sonya mix

of course, everyone can!

 

[Zer0_h0ur]

First thing I noticed was they got Kano Kollector higher than most and those are the chars Biohazard is awesome with, may skee Bees perception of em

Sheeva seems low.

 

[cR WoundCowboy]

Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7 players also use the letter S to represent their top tier characters although the games are balanced. The letters are arbitrary, folks.

The letters aren’t arbitrary. S is supposed to mean the absolute best characters. Cmon Dave.

 

[M2Dave]

Bad list. Thank you, next.

Did they rank Mileena too high for you?

Dragon says he can fuzzy the Sonya mix

There is a one frame difference. My cousin, who used to play me for thousands of games, used to be able to fuzzy guard Tremor's 2,1,2 and 2,1,d+4, which also has a one frame difference, nine out of ten times offline so I believe Dragon.

The letters aren’t arbitrary. S is supposed to mean the absolute best characters. Cmon Dave.

The characters listed in S+ are the absolute best characters in the game.

I think that the game is balanced, but try using Robocop, which I know you do, Kitana, or Shao Kahn for a week and then use one of the S+ characters. You will notice a difference that is actually not subtle at all.

 

[spidey300]

why are you guys so shocked that there are so many s tier characters in balanced, play it safe, no bad characters, everyone's broken with customs now, mk11?

 

[Second Saint]

why are you guys so shocked that there are so many s tier characters in balanced, play it safe, no bad characters, everyone's broken with customs now, mk11?

We aren't shocked. This is old people being old about how things were better back in our day.

 

[Law Hero]

Transformed the tier list into something more readable.

 

[Pyrosis]

RIP Shao Kahn.