Question - Assassin Planning to Learn Kitana

[Juxtapose]

Hey all,

My two main Mortal Kombat characters are Mileena and Kitana, and I've been playing as Ravenous Mileena since launch. I'm fairly comfortable with her, and am planning to learn my other main in the next little while.

Now, I've always been thinking of Assassin, but I know this is considered her worst variation. Has anyone revisited it recently? Has it improved with the last few patches? How much is the gap between this variation and Royal Storm, generally speaking?

Royal Storm would be my next choice if I don't go Assassin, and I'd definitely be going over @xKhaoTik's recent guide as it looks solid.

A little more info: I mainly play against the Hard AI in Single Fights and Klassic Tower, or Online (PC) as I don't get to go to my local scene; just in case what I'm playing against makes a big difference.

Thanks!

 

[xKhaoTik]

Yea assassin got buffed in the last patch, but not much. All they did was make her parry faster, which was a good buff, but not enough to make it stand out next to RS and mournful.

Assassin and RS are pretty much the same thing. The only difference is RS is much more zone/anti zone heavy. The extra range fan lift has in RS is really good as well. Assassin has the parry cancel mindgames and the sharpen (which is slow af).

I would definitely get the feel assassin tho. Like I said, it is a fun variation and it's not necessarily a "bad" variation. After you get the feel of that, pick up RS and see which one fits you better.

 

[Juxtapose]

Yea assassin got buffed in the last patch, but not much. All they did was make her parry faster, which was a good buff, but not enough to make it stand out next to RS and mournful.

Assassin and RS are pretty much the same thing. The only difference is RS is much more zone/anti zone heavy. The extra range fan lift has in RS is really good as well. Assassin has the parry cancel mindgames and the sharpen (which is slow af).

I would definitely get the feel assassin tho. Like I said, it is a fun variation and it's not necessarily a "bad" variation. After you get the feel of that, pick up RS and see which one fits you better.

That's some solid advice, @xKhaoTik , thank you!

Any recommended "Assassin" guide I could peruse to get me started?

 

[Espio]

The good thing about playing Assassin and Royal Storm is that the transition between the two is pretty easy. Royal Storm is better, but I don't think Assassin is bad by any means or so far away that it's not worth tryinh, it's just a different style.

I only use Assassin now personally, but the gist of it is that I can still zone effectively in this variation and use Assassin dash to check duckers and Assassin dash is hella plus on hit so you have some frames to play around with. I really like parry against most armor heavy and quite a few pressure characters, especially those who lack low starters. It helps to create a sense of hesitation from the opponent which can give you more space to get away again. The parry got buffed, making it a serviceable option, which is nice, but nothing crazy. Sharpen is pretty slow, but there are safe set ups for sharpen, check out some of Laos Boy's threads for videos of them. I like status effect buffs as I think the chip is awesome, but setting up sharpen is a bit of a challenge. Lift in Assassin is interesting because, while it doesn't project out as far horizontally, it seems to cover more height over her body as a whole.

Royal Storm has increased range on lift, which compliments her fan toss zoning superbly, giving her a threat of a full combo if you just wanna sit and duck fans or whiff pokes, not to mention well spaced lifts are safe against pretty much everything. Her bounce back reflect is pretty good too because it makes people with good zoning options more hesitant to throw fireballs back at you, feeding into the strength of her own zoning as well. Royal Storm also has square wave/ass, which can be done on the ground in the air, off of float and off of forward 2,2 up 4, it also has a lot of advantage on hit like Assassin dash. Royal Storm's combos are easier because you get much more advancing range on lift.


If you wanna zone and counter zone a bit more, Royal Storm is probably a good direction to run in honestly.

If you wanna potentially do more chip/combo damage and have a more layered up close defensive game with parry, Assassin might be a good choice too. Not to mention, Assassin has a sick black mask, dark eye shadow and if you pick the primary alt color for Assassin, you won't regret the majesty of it .

 

[Juxtapose]

The good thing about playing Assassin and Royal Storm is that the transition between the two is pretty easy. Royal Storm is better, but I don't think Assassin is bad by any means or so far away that it's not worth tryinh, it's just a different style.

I only use Assassin now personally, but the gist of it is that I can still zone effectively in this variation and use Assassin dash to check duckers and Assassin dash is hella plus on hit so you have some frames to play around with. I really like parry against most armor heavy and quite a few pressure characters, especially those who lack low starters. It helps to create a sense of hesitation from the opponent which can give you more space to get away again. The parry got buffed, making it a serviceable option, which is nice, but nothing crazy. Sharpen is pretty slow, but there are safe set ups for sharpen, check out some of Laos Boy's threads for videos of them. I like status effect buffs as I think the chip is awesome, but setting up sharpen is a bit of a challenge. Lift in Assassin is interesting because, while it doesn't project out as far horizontally, it seems to cover more height over her body as a whole.

Royal Storm has increased range on lift, which compliments her fan toss zoning superbly, giving her a threat of a full combo if you just wanna sit and duck fans or whiff pokes, not to mention well spaced lifts are safe against pretty much everything. Her bounce back reflect is pretty good too because it makes people with good zoning options more hesitant to throw fireballs back at you, feeding into the strength of her own zoning as well. Royal Storm also has square wave/ass, which can be done on the ground in the air, off of float and off of forward 2,2 up 4, it also has a lot of advantage on hit like Assassin dash. Royal Storm's combos are easier because you get much more advancing range on lift.


If you wanna zone and counter zone a lot more, Royal Storm is probably a good direction to run in honestly.

If you wanna potentially do more chip/combo damage and have a more layered up close defensive game with parry, Assassin might be a good choice too. Not to mention, Assassin has a sick black mask, dark eye shadow and if you pick the primary alt color for Assassin, you won't regret the majesty of it .

Thanks! So basically, the general starters for Royal Storm should work for Assassin?

My play style is typically more up close and in the person's face, with some zoning for the purpose of space control, metre building, and to frustrate my opponent into doing unsafe things. That's how I play with Ravenous Mileena anyway.

So Assassin Parry, it properly counters melee, but not projectiles, correct?

My fav costume for Kitana is Tournament. Then Revenant, then Primary, then Klassic, then Dark Empress. Jingu is my least.

 

[Espio]

Thanks! So basically, the general starters for Royal Storm should work for Assassin?

My play style is typically more up close and in the person's face, with some zoning for the purpose of space control, metre building, and to frustrate my opponent into doing unsafe things. That's how I play with Ravenous Mileena anyway.

So Assassin Parry, it properly counters melee, but not projectiles, correct?

My fav costume for Kitana is Tournament. Then Revenant, then Primary, then Klassic, then Dark Empress. Jingu is my least.

Yes, you can start your combo with the same strings like forward 1,1,2, +2,1,2 + 1,1,1 + Back 1, 4 and cancel into fan or lift across the board for these two variations. Kitana has pretty free flowing combos so you have a lot of creative freedom. Like I said already, Kitana has more range on Royal Storm lift so her combos are easier and she can hit the opponent further away and still chain stuff together.

Kitana's up close game is serviceable across all variations, but I personally regardless of variation play the long ranged zoning game most of the time unless a match up calls for up close and footsie play like Raiden, Mileena and so forth. You can be aggressive at times though, she always has meter so you can cancel strings into ex fan for plus frames and chip.

Assassin parry is designed for countering physical attacks, Royal Storm's reflect parries projectiles.


Eww Revenant Kitana . Tournament is a good alternative though haha.

 

[Juxtapose]

Yes, you can start your combo with the same strings like forward 1,1,2, +2,1,2 + 1,1,1 + Back 1, 4 and cancel into fan or lift across the board for these two variations. Kitana has pretty free flowing combos so you have a lot of creative freedom. Like I said already, Kitana has more range on Royal Storm lift so her combos are easier and she can hit the opponent further away and still chain stuff together.

Kitana's up close game is serviceable across all variations, but I personally regardless of variation play the long ranged zoning game most of the time unless a match up calls for up close and footsie play like Raiden, Mileena and so forth. You can be aggressive at times though, she always has meter so you can cancel strings into ex fan for plus frames and chip.

Assassin parry is designed for countering physical attacks, Royal Storm's reflect parries projectiles.


Eww Revenant Kitana . Tournament is a good alternative though haha.

Thanks again, appreciate the advice!

And Revenant Kitana looks cool; interesting take on the character and it is canon what with her being dead and all . I actually think most of the Revenant Skins look great. Sub-Zero's and Kung Laos are some of my favourite skins in the game.

 

[Declan Deegan]

could anyone tell me her bnbs for online i stuggle to hit the optimal ones

 

[Juxtapose]

could anyone tell me her bnbs for online i stuggle to hit the optimal ones

I'd be interested in this as well.

 

[Juxtapose]

Hey all,

Just to update, I have been practicing with the Princess in my free time over the last month and a bit.

Kombo-wise, I've learned the following (video is pre-September Hotfix, so the damage is about 2% less per kombo):

Played a fun Online set with a buddy a few weeks ago to test out what I've learned here (keep in mind it is Online):

After this set, I started toying with Ex Rising Fan to try and get out of corners, and I've started playing against the Hard AI for some better Offline Practice.

Overall, I have a long way to go still, both in terms of knowledge, fundamentals, and execution, but I'm still pleased with the progress I've made.

I do have a few more questions that I'm hoping you all can help with:

1) One problem with "training" with the Hard AI is that it reads inputs, so what are good, faster options to open an opponent up with the Princess? As a Ravenous Mileena main, this usually isn't a problem for me, as I can quickly 1,2,3 and hit confirm, F4,4, or play with Pounces or Ex Ball Roll. With Kitana, I'm less certain. 1,1 works alright, as does F1, 1, 2, but I'm not sure what else. F2,2, even though it has range, is often too slow and gets me blown up, and Ex Rising Fan seems to whiff on Low attacks, which is often what the AI does when it has you in the corner.

2) Speaking of which, what are Kitana's best get-out-of-the-corner options? For Mileena, it's all about Ex Ball Roll. For Kitana, Ex Rising Fan only seems to work if the opponent is not doing a Low attack, which the AI often does.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

 

[SM StarGazer]

You gotta make those DP reads to get out with Kitana. Or pick Morunful and use that sweet ass safe Shadow Kick. Either way though I personally believe her wake-ups outside of Mournful are straight ass, easily baited or armor-broken. You can sometimes get away with a wake-up parry but don't make that your go to. You'll get blown up for it.

 

[Juxtapose]

You gotta make those DP reads to get out with Kitana. Or pick Morunful and use that sweet ass safe Shadow Kick. Either way though I personally believe her wake-ups outside of Mournful are straight ass, easily baited or armor-broken. You can sometimes get away with a wake-up parry but don't make that your go to. You'll get blown up for it.

By "DP," you mean a low poke? I'm not into switching variation at this point, but I haven't shut the door on Mournful.

So basically, what you're telling me is her wake up (Assassin) is poor and the corner will give me trouble regardless, correct?

 

[TarkatanDentist]

By "DP," you mean a low poke? I'm not into switching variation at this point, but I haven't shut the door on Mournful.

So basically, what you're telling me is her wake up (Assassin) is poor and the corner will give me trouble regardless, correct?

DP is referring to her db2. DP = dragon punch, which is a term used to describe any Shoryuken-esque move basically.

And yeah, unfortunately her wake-up game in both Assassin and Royal Storm isn't very good - all of her options are high-risk (and db2 is the only one that's high-reward lol).

 

[Skedar70]

Assassin is fun to play but royal storm is superior. One of the cool things about assassin is her parry which works very well against heavy pressure. But there are a lot of mind games to using parry and that is what sucks when playing against the AI I don't think the AI will fall for your parry. Aside from that, Sharpen is very slow and the AI will probably punish you. The other move db3 is good for ending combos but it doesn't add anything else. So the best she has in this variation is parry but it only works on humans.

 

[YoloRoll1stHit]

Assassin is fun to play but royal storm is superior. One of the cool things about assassin is her parry which works very well against heavy pressure. But there are a lot of mind games to using parry and that is what sucks when playing against the AI I don't think the AI will fall for your parry. Aside from that, Sharpen is very slow and the AI will probably punish you. The other move db3 is good for ending combos but it doesn't add anything else. So the best she has in this variation is parry but it only works on humans.

I have a serious question. Her parry can help her out of heavy pressure of which character?

 

[Juxtapose]

DP is referring to her db2. DP = dragon punch, which is a term used to describe any Shoryuken-esque move basically.

And yeah, unfortunately her wake-up game in both Assassin and Royal Storm isn't very good - all of her options are high-risk (and db2 is the only one that's high-reward lol).

Thank you, I learned some new terminology today regarding DP!

Okay, so I'll need to toy more with Rising Fan or defend. And yeah, I can get at least the mid-20's off a successful EX Rising Fan, and it's her only armoured move that leads into a combo as far as I know.

In terms of just getting out of the corner though, perhaps EX Assassin Rush for the armour (and it leaves you on the opposite side of your opponent)?

 

[Juxtapose]

Assassin is fun to play but royal storm is superior. One of the cool things about assassin is her parry which works very well against heavy pressure. But there are a lot of mind games to using parry and that is what sucks when playing against the AI I don't think the AI will fall for your parry. Aside from that, Sharpen is very slow and the AI will probably punish you. The other move db3 is good for ending combos but it doesn't add anything else. So the best she has in this variation is parry but it only works on humans.

Oh, I know Royal Storm>Assassin, but I am having fun learning Assassin . I like the style of that variation, personally.

The Hard AI does fall for Parry, but of course it's not consistent. It doesn't seem to input read 100% of the time, but it does a lot.

For Assassin Rush, it's a great ender, you can use it to quickly get away from an opponent (going under them if they're airborne), and the Hard AI does still get hit by naked Rushes sometimes.

For Sharpen, I can get it out against the Hard AI provided I have enough distance between us and I did a hard knockdown, but there is risks of course.

 

[Juxtapose]

I have a serious question. Her parry can help her out of heavy pressure of which character?

Pretty much any character provided they're attacking mid or high and you read it right.

Against a Human opponent, you can also play games where you simply mix it into a combo, so say 1,1,Parry and hold it. If your opponent was blocking and expecting a Fan Toss or Upraise, they might block all three "attacks" and then counter out of habit, getting caught in the Parry.

I have not had success with this against the AI though.

 

[YoloRoll1stHit]

Pretty much any character provided they're attacking mid or high and you read it right.

Against a Human opponent, you can also play games where you simply mix it into a combo, so say 1,1,Parry and hold it. If your opponent was blocking and expecting a Fan Toss or Upraise, they might block all three "attacks" and then counter out of habit, getting caught in the Parry.

I have not had success with this against the AI though.

I'm sorry but in most situations, the risk reward when using parry is not in her favour at all. And who doesn't d3/d4 Kitana, especially she's known to be very safe, usually slight minus on block

 

[Skedar70]

I have a serious question. Her parry can help her out of heavy pressure of which character?

I usually use it against kung lao, Kotal, and Tanya. For example after kung lao does the EX orbital hat (or however you call it) that leaves him at plus they usually continue pressure using a medium hit (they rarely use low poke) so I use parry. It requires a read but after a few parry hits the opponent starts respecting it and this diminishes pressure.

 

[Juxtapose]

I'm sorry but in most situations, the risk reward when using parry is not in her favour at all. And who doesn't d3/d4 Kitana, especially she's known to be very safe, usually slight minus on block

Never said it was in her favour, just replied how to use it as it _can_ help.

 

[YoloRoll1stHit]

Never said it was in her favour, just replied how to use it as it _can_ help.

Sorry sometimes when I get mad with something in life I take it with me on online forums....Like the Nightwing community said: once a dick, always a dick

 

[Juxtapose]

Sorry sometimes when I get mad with something in life I take it with me on online forums....Like the Nightwing community said: once a dick, always a dick

No need to apologize, I didn't take any offense from your original comment .

For Parry, it won't be effective much against a truly competent player; there's a reason most people aren't keen on it, or the Assassin variation. I'm going to stick with it though, just as I stuck with Ravenous when everyone was telling me to go Piercing. Still love my Ravenous Empress.

 

[YoloRoll1stHit]

No need to apologize, I didn't take any offense from your original comment .

For Parry, it won't be effective much against a truly competent player; there's a reason most people aren't keen on it, or the Assassin variation. I'm going to stick with it though, just as I stuck with Ravenous when everyone was telling me to go Piercing. Still love my Ravenous Empress.

To me, Ravenous still has something superior to other two. But Assasin, unfortunately is a different story

 

[Juxtapose]

To me, Ravenous still has something superior to other two. But Assasin, unfortunately is a different story

Heh, no arguments there.