BookBurning
Voidwards
This post is littered with a bit of salt I admit but I felt that I had to write it because for the most part, I’m tired of people saying Rain isn’t tournament viable. Albeit, I don’t have any problems with Bill’s placement of Rain on his tier list, I still feel, and strongly so that Rain is a perfectly tournament viable character.
Let me clarify.
Rain is a great character mainly because of his ability to nullify anything with armor and is the only character that can do this while dashing into his own counter-attack. This tool is enormously powerful because it doesn’t only have the ability to negate pressure, it completely turns his pressure negation into a wreckingball. Once activated successfully, it allows Rain to counter attack for a full 47 percent combo. Because of this, the simple threat of this ability doesn’t advise for respect; it demands it when it comes to pressuring Rain.
Along with this, Rain has good normals. His d1 is advantage on hit, his d4 is great with +12 hit advantage and his d1 poke is 6 frames. Standing 4 has enormous and almost deceptive range and can be canceled into a RH to make it 100 percent safe and naturally combos into the RH itself. 3 as well is a great punishing tool and being only 9 frames, can punish a myriad of moves into a full combo. The RH cancels themselves are also great because they allow amazing pressure, mind-games that lead into throws and you can release them whenever you like which either results in a blocked yet safe string or your opponent getting launched into the air for a combo. B2 also has ridiculous range and is safe when canceled into a released RH.
His damage output is the most efficient in the game as well and Rain easily falls into some of the highest damage per combo out of any character in the game, save Cyrax. On top of this, he requires absolutely no meter to do this. He gets 50 percent off of a jump-in, meterless combo anywhere on the screen, and even has the ability for more off of the corner. Along with this, all of his moves are comboable for the most part, the way his character is designed allows for juggles off of virtually anything.
All this alone makes him a force to be reckoned with.
Now this would be completely biased if I didn’t list his flaws and he does have them.
Rain has no real projectile. Lightning and waterball are useless when it comes to true projectiles and trading. Because of this at a range, Rain cannot trade, if he does trade, the most he can do at range is only 5 percent with 2 lightnings. This is enormously frustrating against characters that Rain has trouble rushing down because the zoning war is, by design, against him. This could be fixed if lightning was made safe, and would allow Rain to check more easily his opponents with lightning. The upside to lightning is, if it hits, it leads to decent damage off of a single projectile, along with waterball, however when traded and in terms of chip, it’s not good.
Waterball is also not a projectile, it’s too slow and it’s only use by itself is when catching opponents as they drop from the air. It can be used, but takes finnese and is altogether not efficient. Waterball is, for the most part, simply and extension of lightning because it can rarely be used out of comboing off of lightning when it comes to being a projectile. (Disregarding combo uses obviously.)
Rain’s teleport is also lacking. It’s frustrating because his teleport is border-line okay, yet bad enough that it must be used sparingly, less you eat a combo. Anyone who disagrees with this has yet to play as Rain legitimately offline. His EX teleport however is a great punishing tool for projectiles, but it costs meter and isn’t viable as a cure-all for zoners. It is also punishable on block.
And really, that’s it. It doesn’t seem like much for negatives, but the negatives he does have create enormous problems. I suppose not having a low starter for combos doesn’t help, but then again, half of the cast doesn’t, so I can live with that. All in all, Rain is amazing at what he does, Rushdown and mixup with canceling and has an enormous damage output to top it off, but he doesn’t have a solid answer to characters that can prevent him from getting in. Fortunately though, that’s not much of the cast by any means and truth be told, the only matchup that I see as glaringly bad for Rain is Rain vs Kenshi.
My reason for writing this is because I feel like 99 percent of MK9 players in general haven’t even touched Rain, atleast not really when it comes down to it. CDJR himself said he doubts Rain will win another major, yet I feel that there is perhaps a bit more to explore when it comes to Rain. Do I think he’s top 10? Of course not, but to those of you that say he isn’t tournament viable need to take a step back and re-look some things about this character.
I hope I can turn some heads at my first major, or my second, or whenever I can bring a great showing and make people rethink how good Rain actually is, but until then, I unfortunately can’t bring much to the table other than this to make you think otherwise. However, the game is always changing and with MK9 at its current state, the only thing that rings true so far is the fact that no tier list can be trusted.
Let me clarify.
Rain is a great character mainly because of his ability to nullify anything with armor and is the only character that can do this while dashing into his own counter-attack. This tool is enormously powerful because it doesn’t only have the ability to negate pressure, it completely turns his pressure negation into a wreckingball. Once activated successfully, it allows Rain to counter attack for a full 47 percent combo. Because of this, the simple threat of this ability doesn’t advise for respect; it demands it when it comes to pressuring Rain.
Along with this, Rain has good normals. His d1 is advantage on hit, his d4 is great with +12 hit advantage and his d1 poke is 6 frames. Standing 4 has enormous and almost deceptive range and can be canceled into a RH to make it 100 percent safe and naturally combos into the RH itself. 3 as well is a great punishing tool and being only 9 frames, can punish a myriad of moves into a full combo. The RH cancels themselves are also great because they allow amazing pressure, mind-games that lead into throws and you can release them whenever you like which either results in a blocked yet safe string or your opponent getting launched into the air for a combo. B2 also has ridiculous range and is safe when canceled into a released RH.
His damage output is the most efficient in the game as well and Rain easily falls into some of the highest damage per combo out of any character in the game, save Cyrax. On top of this, he requires absolutely no meter to do this. He gets 50 percent off of a jump-in, meterless combo anywhere on the screen, and even has the ability for more off of the corner. Along with this, all of his moves are comboable for the most part, the way his character is designed allows for juggles off of virtually anything.
All this alone makes him a force to be reckoned with.
Now this would be completely biased if I didn’t list his flaws and he does have them.
Rain has no real projectile. Lightning and waterball are useless when it comes to true projectiles and trading. Because of this at a range, Rain cannot trade, if he does trade, the most he can do at range is only 5 percent with 2 lightnings. This is enormously frustrating against characters that Rain has trouble rushing down because the zoning war is, by design, against him. This could be fixed if lightning was made safe, and would allow Rain to check more easily his opponents with lightning. The upside to lightning is, if it hits, it leads to decent damage off of a single projectile, along with waterball, however when traded and in terms of chip, it’s not good.
Waterball is also not a projectile, it’s too slow and it’s only use by itself is when catching opponents as they drop from the air. It can be used, but takes finnese and is altogether not efficient. Waterball is, for the most part, simply and extension of lightning because it can rarely be used out of comboing off of lightning when it comes to being a projectile. (Disregarding combo uses obviously.)
Rain’s teleport is also lacking. It’s frustrating because his teleport is border-line okay, yet bad enough that it must be used sparingly, less you eat a combo. Anyone who disagrees with this has yet to play as Rain legitimately offline. His EX teleport however is a great punishing tool for projectiles, but it costs meter and isn’t viable as a cure-all for zoners. It is also punishable on block.
And really, that’s it. It doesn’t seem like much for negatives, but the negatives he does have create enormous problems. I suppose not having a low starter for combos doesn’t help, but then again, half of the cast doesn’t, so I can live with that. All in all, Rain is amazing at what he does, Rushdown and mixup with canceling and has an enormous damage output to top it off, but he doesn’t have a solid answer to characters that can prevent him from getting in. Fortunately though, that’s not much of the cast by any means and truth be told, the only matchup that I see as glaringly bad for Rain is Rain vs Kenshi.
My reason for writing this is because I feel like 99 percent of MK9 players in general haven’t even touched Rain, atleast not really when it comes down to it. CDJR himself said he doubts Rain will win another major, yet I feel that there is perhaps a bit more to explore when it comes to Rain. Do I think he’s top 10? Of course not, but to those of you that say he isn’t tournament viable need to take a step back and re-look some things about this character.
I hope I can turn some heads at my first major, or my second, or whenever I can bring a great showing and make people rethink how good Rain actually is, but until then, I unfortunately can’t bring much to the table other than this to make you think otherwise. However, the game is always changing and with MK9 at its current state, the only thing that rings true so far is the fact that no tier list can be trusted.
Nomad Dash canceled into normals. 
