So just to be clear, in his 2nd tourney variation, he only has 1 of his totems. Is that right? I believe it's the attack buff totem I think. I haven't messed around with Kotal too much, so I'm still trying to figure him out.
I honestly haven't even picked a main yet. I'm torn between a few characters, including Kotal lol I thought I was gonna have fun with totem/ray setups, but I may not. We will see. lol
His second tourny variation is complete trash. He has panther and panther with one totem the blood totem. So no combos but has B22 launcher into 20% but it's a slow high starter that has to be used far and best damage off his only base launcher B22 is B22, 34~DB2 Amplified. 25%
But in his Acension Tournament Variation he has Kahn-cut and Command Grab that gives him a meterless launcher something like Switch stance:
B22~DF2(Kahn-cut), F12~DB2(CG) 26%
F12~DF2, F12~DB2
Long range starters:
F24~DF2(Hit confirmable) 22f mid
Mid Range Starters
F12~DF2(Hit confirmable) 11f high
F3~DF2(Not Hit confirmable) 17f low
Close range starters:
Hasno close range mids
What I don't like about Acension is he has God Ray which replaces base move Sun Ray and makes his tracking Ray only far and even farther removing the capability to set it on Kotal for zoning.
On top of it his startup and recovery on Sun Ray, Ground Pound, is completely unsafe in fact the opponent can wake up and walk full screen for combo punish.
He lacks close game and is forced to use multiple pokes because the highs are slow to start or have too short of range (12 & 22 too short on first hit) and (34 is too slow 11f high with gap on second hit)
12~DF2(not hit confirmable) 8f high
22~DF2(Hit Confirmable) 9f high
So let's look at his normals speed and range:
12 - is 8f high with very short range, ant move will push Kotal out of range.
22 9f high first hit very short range similar to mkx Jacqui.
34 - 11 frame high can only reach close bit is too slow to use close.
F34 - 17f low good mid range shit up close.
F24 - can only be used for wiff punish half screen away. Never use close it's 22f mid.
F4 - great pushback like F24 but starts up 15 frames can't be used close only mid range.
B22 - very slow on startup but launches on hit, can only be used far, easily wiff punished because each hit take forever to come out, like he us swatting flys out of the air.
B223 - high, mid to Overhead, unsafe, like B22 can only be used mid range and is very punishable and can't launch for combo because of recovery and has a gap to FB.
F122 - 11 frame high mid overhead with gap, can't be used close, best used mid to long footsie range. Full combo punishable and flawless Block gap punishable.
F12 - 11 frame high to mid, one if his best starters used at mid range.
As you can see he has nothing but pokes close range and his D4 to get them out is slow so he lacks close up and suffers against zoners having a delay between disks and his Sun ray being full combo punishable midscreen.