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Guide Rain Rampaging - knowing rains best tools and general play style

kandehbar

The Gryphon
First and foremost i always do a bit on what i think should be done when ever I do a thread so this will be my trade mark
First off I think Rains ex lighting should do three traking hits even if it misses, second i think the hitbox on it should be a little bit bigger
for some reason it wiffs at the most critical moments for some people (not me).

Rain is pretty intersting because he isnt much of a rush downer and his zoning is terrible the closest character to rain is raiden due to the fact they capitalize on your opponents mistakes and both of their footsies are pretty nasty. The most important thing about rain in a tournament setting is that he builds a lot of hype which can cause your opponent to lose moral.

Best tools

D1 - Holy fuckin shit i have never seen a poke so damn fast in my life. D1 is probably rains best poke and probably one of the fasts d1 in the game being at 5 frames ( shout outs to TheSayBiie for the rain frame data) this is your tool for footsie being so fast you can knock out lots of strings that are frame traps and if timed right anti air into lightning. I know down one is good on a lot of people but rain NEEDS TO USE THIS ALL THE TIME

B3: really good for anti airing and corner checking, this has been unofficially dubbed as Sweet Chin Music. So if you see anyone typing or saying SCM you know its B3

Roundhouse - Roundhouse is Rains most important tool if you want to be good with him. It build retarede amounts of meter on block or hit and if cancel I belive it builds the same amount but im not sure. Rain over all needs meter to function will because his wake ups are pretty bad aside from geyser kick and roundhouse builds the most metter for him.It also make most of his unsafe block strings that can buffer safe. Ill get into the uses and mix ups for him with the cancels l8er

Geyser kick - very very move, it can be punished on block but its almost like trying to punish a kung lap low hat up close ( rarely ever happens) so your good just dont use it to much on block strings. Geyser kick builds a good meter on hit as well which is important. Geyser kick 2 best uses is 1: countering the jump over punch, if you do this on recation and condition them to you punshing there jump over punches it pretty much shuts that option away from them. 2: the poppin bottles combo, in the corner raind has a B2-1+2 into 4-3 geyser kick looping that does a soild 37% damage if anything its really good for building hype

Teleport: very good very fast teleport use this for mixups. If can be done in the air but if you do it in the air you dont teleport till you hit the ground and they can hit you out. good thing is when you do it in the air he falls faster.

Water gun: this is best at the end of combos since rains oki options are pretty much telegraphed after the first round this removes the wake up situation and give you even more options. its a pretty decent anti air as well but the range on it is i little biger then round house so use round house instead

Advanced play
Now into the advance play

Ex roundhouse is armored and its a very
Rains Grab at mid range is a really good spacing tool because it puts you in the perfect postion to wiff B2 but concet with either 3 or 1+2. That is one of the few mix ups rain can do easily.

Rains 3-3 stings is rain fastest string and it can be canceled in to lightning for the combo or roundhouse in a block sting to make safe.
this sting is fast enought to punish a dash before it hits you ( that frikken Swagtastic)

4-3 string isnt as fast but the same thing apply for it it can cancel in to special except round house and made safe with roundhouse.
Your gonna be use this ALOT in combos and you can combo this after a backwards uppercut. USE THIS OR DIE

Now for the roundhouse cancel option
One thing you need to know canceling regular roundhouse is not safe AT ALL you can get cleanly hit out of it if your not careful BUT
you are supoosed to use this when you have established sufficient mind games AND when your BUILDING momentum not when you alredy have it. I say that because if you have momentum and your useing the normal roundhouse cancel they will most liklely react with an armored move and shut your momentum dead. (remember Rains wakeups arnt to good) The things i do with the canceling is this i 4-3 cancel dash up and either grab or loop the 4-3 again. If if 4-3 again then when i cancel im not gonna dash up im going to dash back and start the 2-3/2-1+2 mix up or I will SPECIAL CANCEL the roundhouse in to a teleport or a water gun* safe on block. ( most people forget you can special cancel with roundhouse and neglect it) Special canceling is something that i didnt even see CD jr do and that is one tool with rain that makes up his lack of good mixups.
Rain like my other main that i did a thread on are two characters that you NEED TO USE ALL HIS MOVES TO BE GOOD
^*http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread.php?10838-Smoke-away-and-Ex-smoke-toward-tips-Capitalizing-on-Invisibility
Alright thats all I got If you have anymore information and corrections to this tread please post it and i will correct and or add the FORMALLY DONE paragraph and give you credit at the begining of your paragraph.

PS. can someone figure out how to put pictures on a post i want to showcase my gouken hitbox art TY
 
Click the Image button when posting a reply. The button looks like a picture with a tree. Then enter the url of the image into the pop-up and you are good to go.
 

Deadly Torcher

King Dingaling
I use rain a bit, but only when im playing an opponent who doesnt really block that much or is a complete noob, cos im not that great with him, I know a few of his combos but find them hard to do on an experienced player cos all you really need to do is block high, then 4,3 lightning is useless. Im gonna start using the block strings you suggested tho & see if they hold me in good stead. If Rain had a combo that could hit low on a standing block then he'd get more play time from me.

If theres even the slightest bit of lag then Rain becomes useless for me, everything seems to whiff, esp 2, roundhouse kick which is the move I do the most.
 

Marcus

Mortal Kombat Philippines / Injustice Philippines
Well you can always check them with b1 or b2,3 for several times. When they get annoyed theyll block low then its time to sneak in the b2, 1+2.. combo.
 

kandehbar

The Gryphon
Meh b1 on block = your dead

B1 isnt really good at all you cant follow up with it
At long range Check with lightning

At close Rh is just godlike
 

Marcus

Mortal Kombat Philippines / Injustice Philippines
Meh b1 on block = your dead

B1 isnt really good at all you cant follow up with it
At long range Check with lightning

At close Rh is just godlike
Oh didnt really test out b1 on block. Im just giving out options that hits low. Thanks for pointing that out.
 

BookBurning

Voidwards
Make it Rainn.

Wish I had a capture card. :( Muffin you shouldn't be doing naked 43s in my opinion, do 43 rh cancels into 33 rh cancels etc. Haven't watched the whole thing yet but that's the first thing I noticed.
 
Make it Rainn.

Wish I had a capture card. :( Muffin you shouldn't be doing naked 43s in my opinion, do 43 rh cancels into 33 rh cancels etc. Haven't watched the whole thing yet but that's the first thing I noticed.
Haha, thanks im trying to get all the tips I can for him. Im trying to main him, my main is reptile right now. But like, i try to 43 when I know its free and I can get it, or if im gonna ex block string, or like I did there.
 
that was sooo pointless. you took 9% damage i believe and burned 1 bar of meter instead of taking 2% chip?
erm, sir I blew one bar of meter and Dealt like 25-30% due to a breaker, which forced himt o burn TWO bars. On top fo that, if he didnt break it, I could have taken 40% damage off the full combo, +mix up chip damge if I ended the combo in a teleport. Not to mention, after that It put me in a pretty good lead.
 
erm, sir I blew one bar of meter and Dealt like 25-30% due to a breaker, which forced himt o burn TWO bars. On top fo that, if he didnt break it, I could have taken 40% damage off the full combo, +mix up chip damge if I ended the combo in a teleport.
not to mention if you get hit by reptile's force ball you're going to be on the receiving end of a full combo.
 

BookBurning

Voidwards
Rain's regular RH cancel pressure is a great tool to get them in a block strong and build massive meter.

One thing you should think about is once you get them in a water bubble albeit in a combo or off of lightning, reset them with a simple back 2 RH cancel. If it hits they stagger and you can run in for a 43 rh cancel, 33 rh cancel, 43 rh cancel, repeat etc. You can also mix them up with grabs or release the rh to kick them if you read that they're going to try and jump out of it; all the while you'll be building massive meter.

Also use his uppercut combos, they aren't too bad to learn and deal out massive meterless damage for when you need it; I mean with jip 43 water bubble, uppercut, 43 geyser, 43 geyser he does 52 percent in the corner with no meter, that's just an example.

And 43 lightning, uppercut, 43 waterbubble gives you decent damage when you're planning to reset them with the bubble into more pressure/rh cancel mixups.
 

redeyes

Button Masher
erm, sir I blew one bar of meter and Dealt like 25-30% due to a breaker, which forced himt o burn TWO bars. On top fo that, if he didnt break it, I could have taken 40% damage off the full combo, +mix up chip damge if I ended the combo in a teleport. Not to mention, after that It put me in a pretty good lead.
you could of jumped the forceball and did all that and had 1 bar of meter :O
 

Marcus

Mortal Kombat Philippines / Injustice Philippines
Yup I think you could've just jumped the force ball and proceed with the comb. Its a good move to do if its against Sektor's flamethrower and Sub's Ice clones though. I started doing RH cancels to absorb Sektor's flamethrower and go in for the punish. Thanks to CD Jr. for the tip!
 
Rain's regular RH cancel pressure is a great tool to get them in a block strong and build massive meter.

One thing you should think about is once you get them in a water bubble albeit in a combo or off of lightning, reset them with a simple back 2 RH cancel. If it hits they stagger and you can run in for a 43 rh cancel, 33 rh cancel, 43 rh cancel, repeat etc. You can also mix them up with grabs or release the rh to kick them if you read that they're going to try and jump out of it; all the while you'll be building massive meter.

Also use his uppercut combos, they aren't too bad to learn and deal out massive meterless damage for when you need it; I mean with jip 43 water bubble, uppercut, 43 geyser, 43 geyser he does 52 percent in the corner with no meter, that's just an example.

And 43 lightning, uppercut, 43 waterbubble gives you decent damage when you're planning to reset them with the bubble into more pressure/rh cancel mixups.
Would you be willing To show me this on xbox? Im a good player. Rank 96, so you wouldnt have trouble trying to stick some ideas into me.
 

kandehbar

The Gryphon
Yup I think you could've just jumped the force ball and proceed with the comb. Its a good move to do if its against Sektor's flamethrower and Sub's Ice clones though. I started doing RH cancels to absorb Sektor's flamethrower and go in for the punish. Thanks to CD Jr. for the tip!
Here are reasons why he did this
1. The other player now realizes he is willing to take that kind of risk to pressure you which can shake him a little bit ( evidence of this is him breaking so early even though he had a huge meter lead and had a win on him already)

2. If he blocked he would have dashed in and began a block string pressure, he probably knows so watch out for the EX RH and would try to bait that

3. Since he dashed in He had enough room to put the other player in a gamble situation to either attack or try to predict the mix up in this case he did the latter and failed.

Rain is high rish high reward and that instance was a perfect example of what a high level rain players options are in that situation he could have jumped over it but he might have caught a slow force ball or he might have just dashed in and block string him when he hit the ground
 

Marcus

Mortal Kombat Philippines / Injustice Philippines
Here are reasons why he did this
1. The other player now realizes he is willing to take that kind of risk to pressure you which can shake him a little bit ( evidence of this is him breaking so early even though he had a huge meter lead and had a win on him already)

2. If he blocked he would have dashed in and began a block string pressure, he probably knows so watch out for the EX RH and would try to bait that

3. Since he dashed in He had enough room to put the other player in a gamble situation to either attack or try to predict the mix up in this case he did the latter and failed.

Rain is high rish high reward and that instance was a perfect example of what a high level rain players options are in that situation he could have jumped over it but he might have caught a slow force ball or he might have just dashed in and block string him when he hit the ground
1

I know he has reasons on why he did that. But for me, I think he should've just jumped and saved a meter for when Reptile starts to pressure you, you can get out with an EX RH later. or even Break if you get caught in a combo.