In all fighting games I usually gravitate toward characters who can run away. I do not think zoning is strong in this game. The developers obviously wanted this to be an in your face game. It reminds me of a mini Marvel vs Capcom 3.
- you start in poke range of some characters
- the characters are never far away from each other like other fighting games
- the boards are very small. Many characters can corner carry you with one combo
- you get punished for backdashing in this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wtf is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why do forward dashes not require stamina!!!???
- walk speed is horrible except a few characters so you cannot walk in and out of poke ranges. footsies are limited
- RUN BUTTON!
- 50/50, 33/33/33, loopable pressure. if you block quan chi you literally have to block until he runs out of meter. Shinnok loopable pressure.
- the timer is never a factor
- the best zoning characters have crap wake ups... or don't lead to real damage or positioning
- push block, for some reason, requires ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of your resources lol
If you are literally talking about pure zoning (and ignoring all other factors i.e. mix ups, wake ups, reversals ...)
1) Quan Chi (summoner)- no doubt about it. rune is the best projectile in the game. its hard to use bc it does not track and maybe thats by people don't really know how good he is. no other charcter has the ability to lock you down like quan. the bat work freezes people. lets not forget about his INSANE meter building.
2) Predator (hish qu ten) - best recovery on fireballs in this game. amazing. complementary tools to the plasma cannon (disc). The mb lateral plasma is amazing. the up plama mb is 6 frames! his best anti-air for sure
3) Shinnok (bone shaper) - you can not really react to his projectile at mid range or closer. its just about his projectile but the other tools that compliment it.
4) Kitana (roya storm) - converts to >30% no matter where she hits you! that is huge! her projectiles are all highs but have good recovery and even better combo potential. She wins hit advantage on trade with most characters. Its more about her damage conversion off a single it... dont jump vs her... ever
5) Mournful Kitana and pyro tanya - tie. jump back fireballs. they can live in an area of the screen that most characters cannot cover when mid to full screen away
6) Jacqui (full auto) - machine gun travels across the screen extremely fast and does a very good job controlling the pace of the match. only non mb projectile you cannot jump over unless you can change your jump arc. complementary toools in up/low rocket.
7) Lui Kang (flame fist and dragons fury) - meh... barely made the list but he can zone ok. no real thinking here.
not rated and over rated:
kenshi is a bill. duck his tele-fury and 75% of the cast can punish or get on top of him. his buffs were not enough to make him viable. kano is also a bill... 5% projectiles. The character is too easy to advance on. he cannot open you up either.
Now: taking all the characters tools into account, the list changes
1) Shinnok (bone shaper) - no other character gets their turn back better than him. a counter poke (on hit or block) puts you in a standing reset!, his f4 is THE EXACT SAME THING AS PRE PATCH RAIDEN FORWARD 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, he has a standing reset which is one of the most powerful tools in fighting games, amazing footsies. arguable a top 3 character in the game right now.
2) Quan Chi - if you block anything this character does, you have to block high low mix ups until his meter is gone. ya his wake up sucks but his zoning and vortex (best in the game) make up for it. if he had a legit wake up he would be undisputed number 1.
3) Predator - still new but amazing damage, amazing zoning, amazing d4 close low plasma cancel, plasma cancels, amazing j2/3, 32 mix ups and pressure. probably top 10 overall
others are not worth mentioning as zoners really. jacqui is good but her pokes are horendous. she is a few frames away from being viable at the highest level of play.
You can convert full screen off of the EX fan with an instant air fan then just run in and combo. In my video I'll just show you the conversion, not optimal damage 
