Señor Dave's Zoning Report Card

[Rip Torn]

I disagree. There is a conspicuous pause now between each demon summon which allows characters to run up to him easier. Besides, consecutive demon summons and demon strikes used to build an immense amount of meter, which means you will have less meter for EX runes now. Instant aerial skull is OK. Terrible recovery just like most aerial projectiles in the game. Quan Chi has almost exclusively become a pure vortex character now, which is probably what he was always meant to be. Cybernetic Kano and Full Auto Jacqui may out-zone him now.

You can still build tons of meter with ex rune into rune, and your bat. The skull just stops them from advancing (not repeating ia skulls, just 1 well timed). Yes the ia skull has bad recovery, but it makes it hard to get in on quan because of the angle of the attack, plus you can jump back while doing it, which just creates more space for him. His zoning was amazing before, well above Jacqui and Kano. Now it's just a little less amazing, but still way better than anyone in the cast.

 

[M2Dave]

You can still build tons of meter with ex rune into rune, and your bat. The skull just stops them from advancing (not repeating ia skulls, just 1 well timed). Yes the ia skull has bad recovery, but it makes it hard to get in on quan because of the angle of the attack, plus you can jump back while doing it, which just creates more space for him. His zoning was amazing before, well above Jacqui and Kano. Now it's just a little less amazing, but still way better than anyone in the cast.

No, it is not.

Jacqui and Kano may be able to out-zone Quan Chi now.

Lack of delay in between demon summons is what made Quan Chi's zoning the best in the game.

Something like this will no longer be possible (starting @ 5:33) which is a very big deal.

 

[Rip Torn]

No, it is not.

Jacqui and Kano may be able to out-zone Quan Chi now.

Lack of delay in between demon summons is what made Quan Chi's zoning the best in the game.

Something like this will no longer be possible (starting @ 5:33) which is a very big deal.

Yes, that was dumb and needed to go. But it's not like he can't zone anymore. He just has to create new ways to lock you down in order to summon bat. After throwing a low bat, you can do ex rune into another rune and then summon another bat. If you don't have meter, you can do rune, ia skull, summon bat. Or you could do rune, rune, rune, summon bat. Like you said in the OP, you still have that rune guessing game where you never know when he might do an ex rune for the second hit.

Jacqui and Kano's zoning is rather easy to get around in comparison. Jacqui can't build meter or chip you out as well with her high machine gun and Kano does not quite control the air space like Quan can.