Rush Mode...The Art of Liu Kang

[UPR_Nova]

This is a video concerning a couple of techniques that I find effective when using Kang. Also something "new" I found in the lab a couple days back. This is how we should utilize spacing as Liu Kang players. Welcome to the days that we all now fear Kang!

Edit: New video coming soon...last one was poorly executed...show you guys the beast very soon! Thanks for patience!

 

[Playpal]

Good vid. You pointed out some good things about Liu Kang and what block strings you should use. I wouldn't use F4 personally especially since B3 is faster anyways. I do have some issues though.

213? You didn't talk about this string at all. Do you recommend throwing it out or not? Could have talked about this.

ex low fire ball? A lot of people like to use 21 ex low fireball since it gives lots of advantage. It'd be good to add to even more mix ups. Also a good wake up attack to use considering how shitty his wake ups are.

zoning? I know this was mainly a rush down vid, but liu kang definitely has good zoning. I feel that learning to utilize his iafb and crouching low fire balls could be very useful. Then again low fire ball gives you a bigger hit box than neutral crouch, so I don't know how useful crouching low fire balls are. It's also tough to do on a pad.

I also disagree that you should end combos in a sweep. jip B312, B312, B312, B31 bike kick does 39% and gives more wall carry. You're arguing that sweep puts you at a better position but the opponent can roll, and bike kick gives more advantage (untested but I'm pretty sure).

 

[UPR_Nova]

Thank you for the feedback first and foremost.

To answer your questions:

The reason I did not mention zoning was 1.) I wanted to focus on the up close combat and 2.) I was going to make a second video about the zoning, wake up, in-depth mind games and special focus. This was basically a warm-up to mention the VERY basics of rush down.

I'll mention 213 in the next video....thanks for noticing though...I wondered if anybody would.

And the sweep...one of the main reasons I made the video. I wanted to throw that out there. I do agree with more wall carry and I love the corner pressure of Liu (except for some things that I will mention in the next vid), however, this has treated me well. Rolling back does not relieve you of anything because the best option (as I should have mentioned...apologies) would be to dash forward. You have time to dash forward before your opponent does anything. I haven't tested all characters, but that seems to be the case. Also dashing forward creates a small but useful mindgame. Most people that dash forward after knockdown do not look for wake up attacks. Dashing then baiting the wake up is nice but you can't overuse it obviously. Nothing major...just something to think about.

I've actually decided to play a bunch of matches (maybe 100) and see how many times that the sweep has granted me some type of advantage to win the round. If it is more effective than the wall carry. I really just put that in the vid for something to mull over and to let people know that there are other effective ways to end the combo. The next one goes really in depth so expect something around 20 mins or so.

As you can tell by this rant, I have plenty more to say on what I feel could be the monster of this game.

 

[XBlades]

hey man, good stuff on making a tutorial for other liu kang players. Since I main liu kang as well, you should look into b+1~low fireball, after a f+3 or b+312 since it will catch them at that distance. Also i disagree on ending combos with sweep, liu kang will need as much damage as he can put out. Not only that, he can build meter using IAF at that distance, or hitting them with low fireballs, or advancing with F dash and utilizing b+1 into low fireball to launch them into the corner; and get into the corner game with liu kang. Building meter and using it for anti air EX bicycle kick, break, or xray should be the only use of meter. You can get technical with using f+1,2 and ex low fireball for easy mix ups. And another thing as well is, when you do f+1,2 you can get poked by other characters at the end of the frames, best thing to do is d+3, or if they jump allot d+1.

 

[UPR_Nova]

Obviously I suck at commentating over MK tutorials.

Seriously, thanks for all of the great feedback...I am trash at getting my points across in MK. I can do it all day at COD but WTF with this game. In all seriousness I will post up a better, more in depth, properly executed video within the next few hours. I made too many mistakes and I wanna give this forum great content...I may remove this one. A lot of what I said and executed in the video did not match up. For instance, pressure (like Blades pointed out) can be interrupted by pokes. An obvious thing that I failed to demonstrate to you guys.

I now have a grip and mindset on how I need to execute these vids from now on, so you guys get great content from here on out. Can't wait to post the new vid...hopefully this one will be done properly. Thanks for your patience!

 

[Dat Al]

Any tips on escaping pressure with Louis? That d1 of his is painful.

 

[Playpal]

You want to use D3 to escape pressure with Liu Kang. It's not very good compared to other characters because it's 7 frames and completely unreliable as an anti-air. If you're reading a jump you should go for standing 2 instead of D1 since 2 has a better hit box to anti-air and it's faster at 9 frames.

I was in the lab with LK and I noticed some things about his strings that make him similar to JC. Most are 0 on block and give advantage on hit. What makes JC the superior rush down character is that his strings give more advantage on hit, his D1 is 6 frames with good range, his ex force ball trap and his F33B3 being 4 hits. Not to mention that nut punch reset. Only thing Liu Kang has over JC in terms of rush down is that most of his strings are mid. Examples are F24, F12, B2B3, B32 and F3. 21 is disadvantage on block so I wouldn't recommend using that unless you're going to complete the string or canceling into ex low fire ball.

I honestly think you guys are over rating good position on wake up. If you guys were to give up 5% to keep the opponent standing with advantage, then I'd understand. If you gave up damage for a trap (like cyrax's bombs) then I could also understand. I see little advantage in ending with a sweep instead of the usual bnb though, especially since LK can excel at full screen.