S TIER
Quan Chi: The best defense is a good offense. Fortunately for Quan Chi, he's got some of the cheapest offense in the game. Great NJP and good uppercut. Poke speed is decent. Summoner is unbearable. Sorcerer has the potential to be unbearable. Warlock gains the anti-footsie troll boot and good armored options. EX Sword Stab is practically SAFE. Getting up in non-Warlock is pretty hard, and overall he is pretty unsafe and has no safe meterless blockstring specials not counting Puggles.
Summoner = Sorcerer = Warlock
Cassie Cage: Superman's f+2,3 has been reincarnated into b+1,2,4. Imagine if it didn't have a gap. Cartwheel is insane. Theoretically it should be impossible to cross her up because of Cartwheel. Good pokes and great d+4. B+2,1,2,d+1+2 is great. Hollywood gains raw damage and some nice setplay. Dr. Doom approves of Spec Ops and Sektor wishes his missiles launched and homing missile did chip damage. Brawler I feel is her weakest variant but its not too far behind the other two at all.
Hollywood = Spec Ops > Brawler
Kung Jin: Jack of all trades and thankfully master of none. Above average to great in all areas. Insane jump attacks that are super hard to anti-air. Best NJP in the game. Bojutsu is his easiest variant to learn and is very strong no matter what some players may think of it now. Bo swing moves are hard to punish for most. Green Arrow is envious of Ancestral. Flame + Stun Arrow zoning is good, as well as the setplay gained from Stun Arrow. Shaolin is my personal favorite, gaining a practically safe chip blockstring in Upkick+Drop. EX Chakrams are 0 on block. Annoying Setplay. Gains b+1,2,3 which the second hit doesn't whiff max range unlike b+1,4.
Bojutsu = Ancestral = Shaolin
Scorpion: The original vortex character. Good ol' Hanzo hasn't been this good since the 3d era. Hellfire has ridiculous pressure and damage. Inferno is the easiest to use in my opinion and also has great damage, but loses Hellfire's pressure. Ninjutsu gains better footsie range and gains f+4,2 which is decent, but overall the variant outclassed by the other two. Medium risk/high reward character. Hellfire/Inferno f+2 is punishable by yung Cass which kinda sucks.
Hellfire > Inferno > Ninjutsu
Sonya Blade: Cheap bitch needs to sit out an MK game already. 50/50's into more 50/50's in Covert Ops is not fun at all. b+1,4 has a gap which is exploitable but somewhat hard because she can run in and b+3,3 you. Best X-Ray in the game imo. Good Uppercut. Divekick has like no whiff recovery. F+2 is a decent footsie. Special Forces is nifty and Demolition is underexplored but Covert Ops reigns supreme.
Covert Ops > Special Forces = Demolition
Jax: Do you think you're bad? This man will hit you for 1 bar 48-50% in the corner off his 50/50 and you'll think so no longer. F+2,1,2 aka Electric Wind Godfists aka Twin Pistons is great. Alot of his strings are 0 to +2 on block which is nice. 6f cheap jab. d+3 0 on block which could be the best d3 in the game. CRY UNCLE!!! B+2 overhead is not special cancelable on block which is a blessing cause you can mash special without risking a punish. Heavy Weapons gains the LAW ROCKET which is one of my favorite moves in the game. Wrestler is one of the better grapplers in the game. Pumped Up has the air ground pound and the cheap Gotcha Grab restand. I think Heavy Weapons is the best but not by much.
Heavy Weapons > Pumped Up = Wrestler
Tanya: You can't pressure her on wakeup. All her variants seem solid
??? > ??? > ???
