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Mortal Kombat (2011) Matchup Chart

D. R.

Noob
i disagree 100% with this entire mentality. first of all, it is too early to conclusively put ANY matchup worse than 7-3. second, the LAST thing we want is for NRS to look at a 3 month in matchup chart and start blindly flailing their nerf bat. it baffles me that people consider themselves good or competitive players and then support and encourage balance changes and nerfs on a whim, when nobody has shown anything to be actually broken at a high level. how do we even know that sheeva was 'useless'? we can't assume to have figured out a character and all his/her options in such a small amount of time.

hell, even if they do turn out to be grossly underpowered, that will only serve as motivation for people to work harder at them and still win. what happened to these dynamics? what happened to wabi-sabi balancing? i hope to god that if the NRS staff actually does read this thread, they do us all a favor and completely ignore it for at least another 6 months.
:facepalm: No one said anything about them nerfing anything. If anything, there's minor tweeks that could be made to balance out some of these character match ups. Read more carefully if you're gonna quote me otherwise I'mma call you an idiot. Now, how hard is MK, really? If you're a competitive player, you can easily breakdown any fighting game. You have your basic pokes, strings, dash cancellable moves, special moves, combos and resets. The game is not that hard to sit down with someone and practice set ups and frame advantage off of moves, and combos are relatively easy for each character. That being said, when you can learn to break down what character A has vs. what character B has, you can then see where match ups should go. How hard is that for you to do? Do you need to read it off a thread instead because you can't breakdown a game for yourself? Fuck, comeon now. There is no hidden tech that will be found or anything if competent people sit down and play the game, then share their findings. That's why these block string infinites, bomb traps, etc. are gone because people are finding them and sharing. An example of unlocking a characters potential would be my main, Noob. Noob was thought to be a damage light zoning character when the game first came out, so people quickly dropped him in favor of heavy hitters and more rushdown oriented characters. Trying to prove Noob had some tools, I went to training mode and messed around with every tool he had in different situations. The result showed he has a ridiculous corner pressure game and that his zoning actually helps this. Also, he actually has a very solid mini rushdown in his b+2, f+33, 12, d+3, upknee moves. This only took me a couple hours to figure out. With Ver. 1.02, the blackhole then became a viable tool of Noob's as well and I found numerous set ups that force the opponent to move or eat a blackhole reset into a 28%+ combo. I feel I've maxed out Noob's potential for now until frame data comes out so then I can work more on a mathematic level with dealing with punishment, tackle options, upknee options, exact frame advantage, etc. My playing Tekken competitively has me spoiled when it comes to frame data because that game is so heavy in it, but once you now it, you can breakdown a character in seconds, especially on the fly. Someone says, "that's 15 frames punishable on block," you best believe next time I block it, I'm punishing it. Now, your logic of someone with an underpowered character working harder to win is fucking stupid. Who wants that and who the hell enjoys it? It's like you've already potentially accepted defeat because of "your character choice." That's a bitchmade logic if I've ever seen one. I enjoy playing Noob, but I don't like throwing money away at a major, so if I'm fighting against a Raiden, I'm changing characters.

You got 8wayrun in your sig, so you must play SC4. Let's use that as an example. How supportive where you of that garbage ass game? Easy ass God tier Hilde doom combos? Fun to deal with, uh? Oh yes, that made the game so much fun at competitve level. Hell, even people watching the finals at Evo were booing because they knew how dumb and easy that shit was. With your mentality, let's have that for MK too, people booing the gameplay at a major. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. That scene died fast because the wrong people were saying what "takes skill" and what doesn't. That bitch shoulda been banned way early on when that broke shit was discovered, but instead was allowed and thus turned away alot of players, including myself. Is that where you want MK to go? Let's promote any broke shit and broadcast it on streams in front of thousands of people. Ok, lets just go back to Ver. 1.01 Cyrax bomb traps, block chain infinites, KL and Raiden release day. Fun times. I'd drop this game too if that were the case.


i agree lobo, 100%

i think these days with our new fighters, the majority of the people playing them are all just youngins without much competitive experience, or like you said people who claim to be good. Everyone just complains rather then get better and learn, instead they just want nerfs here and buffs there to completely undiscovered characters. I cant believe how many hot fixes and patches go out to characters deemed broken or shit like that. I support fixing glitches and bugs that would render a character banned, but to fix shit constantly is ridiculous.



"that's why I've been wanting to push the match ups chart to get done asap so that character weaknesses can be shown, discussed and if need be, brought to NRS attention"


aren't characters suppose to have weaknesses? and whats the point to make everyone balanced with everyone? I mean sure if you want to play chess. But this is a fighter where some characters have weaknesses that can be exploited, and the player with that weaker character is playing them for a reason. They will learn to overcome the weaknesses as well.. Thats true learning.
:stupid: Agree away! And please stop with the sage wisdom bullshit, speaking of youngins with no xp. Lol ok grandpa, enlighten us of the days of STSF2 or X-Men vs. SF. As I said, MK is not a technical game. That doesn't make it bad, but it's not hard to understand what's going on in certain situations at a competitive level. And yes, as I stated in my post that you didn't fully quote, making me have to call you an idiot as well for not reading probably, even with all your sage wisdom, characters will have issues with other characters by design. Raiden's teleport vs. Noob's tackle is a great example. Noob is zone heavy with tackles, it's mainly how he's played. Raiden is all around good, but is a great anti zoner. Noob throws a tackle, Raiden teleports, Noob's losing 30%. Little risk to reward for raiden in the match, but it's the character design, nothing broken. That's not a weakness to overcome when a character can shutdown another character's playstyle, that becomes a counter pick. Simple fix? Make Noob recover fast enough to block, not move, and still keep the same cooldown on tackle spam. Understand now? Fighting games 101 for ya taught by Prof. D. R.

When you both can provide examples to your arguments in these match ups instead of just quoting someone with your two cents on what they said, then we may have viable discussions going on. If you want to talk legitimately on something, shoot. Otherwise, don't waste my time, keep my misinterpreted quotes out of your posts and continue on playing online. Capiche? :eek:noffrant:


:focus:
 

THTB

Arez | Booya | Riu48 - Rest Easy, Friends
The numbers aren't even concrete, and the chart is still being built up. Anything can change.

About the gaps in tiers...there are only 270 total possible points. Take Reptile at 147...his matchup average is 5.4/4.6 in his favor. Jax, at 107...averages a 4/6 matchup. For a low tier, that is FAR from bad. Take a look at 3S chart numbers then complain.
 

salvificblood

Worst Sub-Zero Ever
1 last thing on my comment on mileena being better then kitana..

if you look at any match up chart ppl will post, mileena will be under kitana in total scores which only goes to show that more ppl are taking kitana where she needs to be and no one is really maximizing on mileena.

match up charts can be wrong and no match up chart made right now will be even close to accurate, please dont ask NRS to buff/nerf around inaccurate match up numbers.
I think this is the problem I am having here. There's not a character in the game who isn't worth putting time into but people look at the matchup chart and think: are you kidding me? Why should I bother with this character when they're so far below (insert name here)? If the matchup chart isn't this concrete, be all and end all thing, is there even any point in making one? Give people the chance to use whatever characters they want to and work with those characters with the mentality of learning matchups better rather than thinking, the matchup chart says I lose this match more often than I win it... What kind of mindset is that for progressing one of the characters who is currently seen as lower tier?

The matchup chart reveals a trend that certain characters just aren't as good as others based on what we know now but this trend might be a lie with further exploration into these characters...

I hope that's what I've been getting across in my posts. I am not saying buffs for all lower tier characters, or nerfs for all higher tier characters. I guess you've answered one of my questions which is how you address the disparity between the best and perceived worst characters in the game: you work harder on your character of choice... The matchup chart just makes it look as though there's no hope for certain characters but we don't know that so I don't think we should give that impression to people who might be interested in playing those characters seriously.

The numbers aren't even concrete, and the chart is still being built up. Anything can change.

About the gaps in tiers...there are only 270 total possible points. Take Reptile at 147...his matchup average is 5.4/4.6 in his favor. Jax, at 107...averages a 4/6 matchup. For a low tier, that is FAR from bad. Take a look at 3S chart numbers then complain.
260, because the characters don't score against themselves...
 

THTB

Arez | Booya | Riu48 - Rest Easy, Friends
A matchup chart gives an idea of who has the best matchups. That is the point of it. But it can change over time due to new discoveries. That is how ALL matchup charts are, especially when the game is only a little more than 2 months old. People are forgetting exactly how new MK9 is.

So pretty much, yeah you're right.
 

D. R.

Noob
The match up chart shouldn't be an end all, be all thing. It should be a thing to give a legit tier list, open viable discussions as to why a character is weak or strong vs. another character, character accessiblity and help in understanding what you as a player maybe getting into when picking up that certain character. This really shouldn't be that hard to set up.
 

salvificblood

Worst Sub-Zero Ever
A matchup chart gives an idea of who has the best matchups. That is the point of it. But it can change over time due to new discoveries. That is how ALL matchup charts are, especially when the game is only a little more than 2 months old. People are forgetting exactly how new MK9 is.

So pretty much, yeah you're right.
I understand where you're coming from, I just hope more people take it in the right spirit and don't think certain characters are terrible because they played around with them for five minutes in training and then looked at the matchup chart only to decide they shouldn't be playing this character. Clearly, not everybody should be playing Kung Lao just because he's really good.
 

THTB

Arez | Booya | Riu48 - Rest Easy, Friends
I understand where you're coming from, I just hope more people take it in the right spirit and don't think certain characters are terrible because they played around with them for five minutes in training and then looked at the matchup chart only to decide they shouldn't be playing this character. Clearly, not everybody should be playing Kung Lao just because he's really good.
Exactly.
 

cabibi

Noob
When Scorpion has meter, he completely shuts down your Smoke Bomb with EX Spear. That is a big part of Smoke's game and why I put it at 4. Also, everyone punishes Scorpion's teleport, that is not a Smoke exclusive.
yea but EX spear looses to smoke port and ex smoke port... which is punishable by a full combo. Both spear and Hell fire are punished by a full combo, as well, when using an air teleport punch or EX air teleport punch (much quicker drop down recovery) to get in. the air tp punches aren't really character specific, but there are characters that have really quick recover on projectiles, where shake is better used.. but for characters with slow recover on projectiles, the EX air teleport always gets you in, and the standard air teleport punch works sometimes as well, if you're quick enough, just have to use the air tp punch sort of like an IAF but with a slightly longer delay.
 

zaf

professor
whoever said i was old? i used the term young-ins, so what?
ive been playing competitive games for several years, but i started young and just like any new growing game, i would say the majority are new players to competitive scenes.
characters will always have bad match-ups like the noob and raiden one you mentioned. its just how fighters are.
even if your fix was to be applied to noob, to give him a better chance against raiden, this change to noob will effect other match ups
this might make a bigger problem them solving one match up. this could make noob a lot stronger in match ups he already has an advantage in and make him stronger in other ones when might not be the desired effect. this could then either lead to noob being fixed again or changes to other characters. which will make fixes never ending.
in games like smash melee and sf2/3 ( any game that was never patched as a matter of fact) players found work arounds for bad match ups and discovered things over years, thats what creating a community is about. so noobs running man can be countered by a raiden teleport, so what? is that the only move he has? good players would of taken the time and creativity to learn the match up and utilize other tools the character has to win in tough match ups. it will be harder to win because you do have less tools, but thats part of the game and counterpicking. id much prefer this instead of an ever changing game.

why would you not enjoy an up hill battle with a character who has a disadvantage against another character.you not wanting to do that is your ownopinion which i respect, but do not think that because it is an uphill battle means it should be fixed. accepting defeat before even trying is a lousy attitude ( not that im attacking you, just in general) because you will never win with that kind of attitude. you are not throwing your money away at majors by using your own character of choice. you are also gaining crazy good xp because everyone is playing to win. you can bet a while from now your noob will be light years better with your background and take on games. this isnt going to happen in training mode in a few hours regardless of how well you can breakdown a character. like brady said,no one character is being maximized to its full potential at the moment, the game is so young. i also feel that even when you get more frame data and more info on noob, it wont mean you found every little thing the character can do in every single match up.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
This is starting to head in the same direction as the first tier list thread. Seriously, don't take negative comments towards "your" character personally. And enough with the insults, c'mon folks let's act somewhat civil.
 
I kinda agree with mileena being better than kitana, but only for one major reason. She has a low combo starter that let's her make comebacks easier and let's her not have as much problems with super defensive play as her moves also seem to be a bit faster overall. Her teleport though also makes any matchup where she gets out projectiled much more manageable than kitana. I think her zoning game is just a bit harder to play effectively as combo'ing roll off anti-air sai is a bit more strict than other simliar combo's kabal/kitana have.

For kitana seems like NRS said him.... she has a projectile with combo potential that is slower/has more recovery than most let's add 3+ frames to any of her normals. If you remove 3 frames from every normal she has her normals only become slightly below average, a bit ridiculous imo and as the game evolves this is going to be what gives her the most problems. Also having the only d1 on block that is punishable on block (only escape tool she has) is already becoming an issue in my local matchups especially against cage who can flashkick it on block if he blocks after a string with minor disadvantage.

Cage vs Kitana is 6-4 cage.
 
Someone previously asked for an explanation of specifically what keeps Quan Chi so low in the tiers. I wouldn't mind some explanation of this, as well, if anyone feels knowledgeable doing so.
 

M2Dave

Zoning Master
ERR0R MACR0 said:
I just started using Quan Chi, and I can already tell he isn't top tier, but can someone who is more familiar with him and his matchups breakdown why he's at such a disadvantage? I really don't want to put anymore work into him if he is unable to mix it up with most characters. I know he isn't top tier, but in my short time with him, he seems to have some ok options, mixups, etc.

Thanks in advance for any info.
Quan Chi has some solid meter dependent tactics and strategies. The main issue is his defense. The Sky Drop is so slow that the 8 frames of invincibility frames run out when performed as a wake up attack. You can hit Quan Chi when he is airborne every time. Quan Chi's defense is definitely the worst in the entire game which means that most of the meter that he gains is spent on combo breakers, not on offense. He also wins the "characters with most useless special moves" award. Sky Drop is too slow as I have already explained. Skeletal Boost is too slow and Quan Chi loses the boost whether he blocks or gets hit. The Trance is too slow and laughably unsafe on block. Smoke gets free Smoke Bombs on any blocked Trance anywhere on the screen. It is that bad. The Ground Bursts have been improved but are still average at best. All of these special moves are actually difficult to balance because they are designed poorly. Make them good and Quan Chi ends up S tier. Make them bad and Quan Chi ends up buttom tier. We know which approach NRS has taken.

REO tried to main Quan Chi a month ago. He dropped him in a matter of weeks. Quan Chi is just bad in this game. There is no reason to use him. Sometimes I wish he had been DLC. LOL. Perhaps he would have turned out better.
 

Slips

Feared by dragons. Desired by virgins.
One thing i just wanna say for fighting games in general is that people care way too much about balance. The best fighting games aren't balanced at all. ST, MvC2, Tekken Tag, Smash Bros: Melee were all pretty unbalanced. It was the engine that made those games great.

Don't get me wrong, NRS should strive to make the game balanced, but I agree with Tom and THTB and all who say the game needs further exploration to start ranting about how bad some characters are.

That being said, I like MK9's engine a lot, and I also think this game is already more balanced than the games I mentioned above.
 

lobo

woof.
*angry, self-aggrandizing, unprovoked rant about being too good to try longer than a month to figure things out, mixed with insults and followed by an ad hominem SC4 diversion and failed sarcasm*


*oh and smileys. lots of smileys.*
rofl.

looks like i struck an unintentional chord of truth. let me attempt to address your concerns in the most civil way that i am capable.

first of all, don't take it so personally, man. geez. i'm sorry. i simply made a point about game balancing. some of us take more than a day to decide that we know everything about a character's potential. it was not my intention to come off as flippant, or for that fact to upset you so much. i didn't mean for my opinion to be an insult to anybody, and i apologize if you took it as such.

as for wabi-sabi balancing, look it up. attempting to thoroughly explain it to you is clearly a waste of my time. i'll go this far: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wabi+sabi ....the TLDR gist of it is that when good players appreciate an early perceived low tier character in spite of their simplicity or "weakness" they tend to come out as better players overall and are still able to compete at even the highest levels, at which point others can copy their techniques and the tiers shift and balance on their own. it doesn't always work, but i believe it will in MK9.

to simplify it a bit further; barring obviously broken things, shit has a way of working itself out.

of course people will be discovering character tactics and abilities, at a pretty fast rate, for months after this writing. it is extremely naive to think that we already know everything. i only study two characters, and i know them very well, and i still feel as if i'm barely cracking the ice on either of them. there is so much yet to be seen and utilized. also, low tier characters can and do win, but the 'wabi-sabi' driven motivators such as character/fighting style loyalty and diligence that are required for it to happen at a high level will not be seen if the characters are continually altered.

as for SC4...for whatever reason you brought it up...hilde is banned and has been for years. i'm not really sure what point you were trying to drive home with that, if any, but i agree that she should not have been allowed to compete in evo. since nothing in any part of this discussion has anything to do with SC4, suffice it to say that patching broken things =/= making hasty balance changes.

i'm not really sure why it is that arguing against more balance changes was enough to set off this rant, or why it turned me into the target of insults such as 'idiot' and 'bitchmade', but LOL. are you even cognizant of your own words? do you even realize that you are directly calling my mother a bitch because i don't feel as if a video game needs more balance tweaks? i love the internet.

how about this; i'll go back to arguing against balance changes until those of us who require more than a day to break down a game can gather more information, and you can go back to using 600 word paragraphs to call people idiots because of their opinions, and we can both just move on.
 

RWDY Nori

Where is crossplay?
The best fighting games aren't balanced at all. ST, MvC2, Tekken Tag, Smash Bros: Melee were all pretty unbalanced. It was the engine that made those games great.
Bingo. I really enjoy the MK9 engine a lot. Love everything about it, makes sense to me. If you are getting owned by a char, counter pick, use that same char, use your own char. Either way, there are ways in this game where you can win, it is your choice to use them or not
 

JagoMIH

Noob
hello can a top player give some baraka insight, what are his best matchups that favor him, and who do you think he struggles the most against? list all his matchup ratings you can think of

i know people say he is low tier but i think he too is underrated. i have as much success when i use him as my other mains like sub, ermac, and lao.
 
The best fighting games aren't balanced at all.
Disagree
It was the engine that made those games great.
I respect your opinion on balance but the correlation you're making is just flat out false.

There's no reason you can't have both. Game designers are smart people(or are supposed to be, anyway) , they can figure out a way to make balance just as/if not more fun for people like you. Just look at skullgirls infinite detection. By your logic, that means the game (at least mechanics wise) can't be great. There's no reason to harp on evolution and change just because you or me can't foresee the ideas that will become new standards.

Ideally the game's roster should be evenly used and feared. No matter what character someone picks, even out of pure "cool" factor, they should not be screwed over for not picking the 'right' character. There's no reason to aim for anything less, even if NRS or other devs don't achieve it. But, thus far, they've come pretty close for a 2D game.
 

Slips

Feared by dragons. Desired by virgins.
Well true of course I'd love balance with a great engine and NRS should still strive to do so. But if I had to choose between a good engine or balance I'd pick a good engine any day of the week.
 

RWDY Nori

Where is crossplay?
Perfectly balanced games don't sell. If games don't sell we don't get sequels. Look at SF4 compared to any other SF. Easiest SF ever made yet Vanilla/Super are pretty good games. TTT had quite possibly the best tekken engine and idea behind it. However, games need to be easier AND unbalanced in order to make money (again, the highest selling games are not balanced). It's not realistic to have a perfectly balanced game

And this is a matchup chart, not tier list. It's very helpful to see what your chars struggles against and doesn't and improve on it.
 

TheChad_87

Bad Reputation
And this is a matchup chart, not tier list. It's very helpful to see what your chars struggles against and doesn't and improve on it.
It is a match-up chart; however, it directly lends itself to become a tier list. Put simply, those characters with the best match-ups are the S tier. I really don't see reason to base tiers on any other criteria.
 

D. R.

Noob
Lobo and Zaf, I'll squash whatever beef maybe starting. My whimsical sarcastic remarks don't always convey properly online.

So moving on, instead of looking at the game as "oh, pretty move does this," it's be so much easier if we could look at the frame data and go "this move is this fast, yields these results on hit or block and is this positive or negative on whiff or block." We could then weigh each character's risk/reward payoff based on this. I hate theory fighting. I'm over the "I think..." discussions. When legit frame data becomes available, then we can know definitely who's working with the best set of tools. This isn't the 90's. We're smarter now and know what's going on in these games at a programmers level. Lets work with it. Fuck broken shit. You want broken, go play Marvel. It's colorful, braindead, pretty and comes with lots of salt.
 

Konqrr

MK11 Kabal = MK9 Kitana
I also agree with Tom Brady in saying that Mileena is better than Kitana. She has way better footsies and her wakeup moves force opponents to respect them unlike Kitana where you can just dash up and d1/3 to avoid or hit her out of all of them.

I am also leaning toward the Kung Lao matchup to be 5:5 because of low hat shenanigans. Once Lao gets in and starts abusing whatever into Low Hat, it is very hard for Kitana to get out safely and he builds a ton of meter.

Kitana vs Kabal - 4:6 because played at the highest level, his iAFB are going to mostly be at the height that you have to duck under or block them and she has to be a jedi to punish a saw blade with an iSB. Kabal wins the zoning battle, he has EX spin to counter EVERY crossup attempt provided he has meter, and she has to guess/respect his wakeup if it is going to be a spin or sawblade where Kabal doesn't have to worry about Kitana's wakeup, he just goes back to zoning and if she wants to punish an iAFB on wakeup, she has to burn meter to do so. Kitana punishes Kabal the hardest for sure, and she gets 27-30% full screen anti air fan punish (or unbreakable 45% with xray) on an iAFB not thrown low enough, which is also unbreakable, but it is definitely an uphill battle for her.

Thank God the Kano matchup is winnable now lol 6:4 Kano

I also want to know what Kitana has over Liu Kang that makes it a 6:4. Lately, I've fought some that have been pretty beast with him. His low fireball from a distance is really good, and standing fireball has a tricky speed to it, if it hits you out of the air it pushes you full screen away. Up close, after blocking one of his jab strings, normal characters can land an uppercut if he tries to do another, but Kitana can't because her uppercut is 15 frames of shit. All she gets is a d1 to create space. I'm thinking this one is a 5:5 matchup.

I have listed the Mileena matchup to be 5:5, and still think it is so because Kitana still gets 40% punishes on blocking her roll or telekick. But it's the fact that you have to punish her before she lands, meaning you have to settle for something smaller than you do on other characters who you can get a full ground combo on. Mileena can punish EVERY fan throw attempt with a roll or dash~roll on reaction unless you are at 100% full screen, she has better wakeup options than you do, an overhead and low combo starter. When this game gets opened up more and more, I think this matchup will go 6:4 in Mileena's favor.

Anyone care to discuss the Shang vs Kitana matchup? I listed it as 5:5 because I have limited experience with it, and how if I was 1/2 screen and blocked an Up Skull, I could get a dash~d1 before he could do another fireball, then I was in. At fullscreen, she can do iAF and the way she flips back in the air makes her avoid Shang's Far Up Skull completely. This forces him to move in closer to make you block it or punish your iAF. This could easily be 6:4 Shang.

Sheeva and Baraka could also show what they have and prove the matchup to be way different than the listed 7:3.

I also think that the Sub-Zero vs Kitana matchup is 5:5.

EDIT: Bolded some things to make my huge post easier to skim and read.
 

Konqrr

MK11 Kabal = MK9 Kitana
konqrr, do you have any advice for fighting kitana as baraka?
I've only fought against 3 Baraka players (one local) and they all sucked.

My advice is once you have meter, make her pay for zoning with EX df2. You have to get in and pressure with 2,2,1+2. If you are 1/2 screen and you read a ground fan throw, she has enough recovery that you get a free JPS combo.