So I've been playing Quan for roughly a week now and I agree with the statement that he's supposed to be played as a rushdown character. I'm also attempting to break the habit of spamming trance since it's horribly punishable at the wrong distance on whiff/block. I need to start using F12 1+2 more as well since 1+2 is slow, predictable and very punishable with trance. Kitana and Sindel have been giving me the most problems; I have no idea how the fuck I'm supposed to approach those characters - Quan's skull isn't that great and trying to get the drop on them with skydrop is suicide. Kitana will d1 you into oblivion with her ridiculous range if you even attempt to approach her. Apparently Sindel has some actual mixups, too, which have been royally fucking me.
In my limited experience, it seems like Quan's greatest tools are d3, b31+2, his uppercut for AAs (still a pretty shitty AA imo but it's fast), 212 ex runes and the occasional u3 trance. Which is risky and highly punishable but it still catches a lot of people.
Ultimately, I feel like once the 'mindfuck' factor to Quan Chi wears off, pretty much everyone in the cast dominates him. Especially characters that can keep him out or out pressure him. KL, Raiden, Kitana, Sindel, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kabal, etc. In closing, I cannot see this character ever performing well due to the fact that he's walked all over by the upper tiers. IF EX trance had armor, as opposed to draining meter, he'd be a significantly better character. Oh yeah, what idiot gave him 'armor' on EX skydrop - which still remains just as punishable on block? What a joke.
Good luck. I need to just tier whore already. Aggravating knowing that if EX trance had armor he'd have an actual defense, and a fear factor to him, but that's NRS for ya. Some characters get 100% midscreen resets, others gets useless armor.
no matchups in quan chis favor?
I feel like Reptile vs Quan is in Quan's favor, I could be wrong about that though. I likely am.
(phantasmagorian.) gg