Shang Tsung 3rd variation

[Ashesfall]

a little detail that frustrates me is when you try to range out his reptile slide KB distance and when you meter burn it, reptile sometimes flys behind him and whiffs the following kick, even tho the slide was hitting.

ps: i really need a smoke* brutality, i got all the other so far (*classic stomp splash kill)

 

[kcd117]

I still believe that Shapeshifter's Training is probably mid tier, but the super kick definitely sucks for all the reasons that you named.

In general, the ninja moves seem disappointing aside from the shake. They either have slow start ups, poor damage output, limited range, impractical krushing blow requirements, or all of the aforementioned.

They are too cool to be so bad lol.

Superkick needs to do 12% dmg raw, have huge pushback like terminator’s B3 string, start up in 23 frames, KB on counter hit and for 20% dmg.

Lift needs better dmg and scaling. A combo like 114 lift J1 B11 lift should do 30% dmg. Having to finish combos with D2 to get below average dmg is ridiculous.

Slide also needs to start up faster. Like in 16 frames. The KB can be changed to something that doesn’t cause hitbox issues when you fulfill the requirements, like maybe on a 7 hit combo.

Another buff that is simply a MUST for this variation is the ninja moves counting as morph for the throw KB. It would actually make the superkick cancels be decent.

 

[Cobainevermind87]

Reptile is not that bad imo. Sure if you do it raw it's not that great but if you want the KB it's easy to combo into from superkick or D2 and B1D2 KBs.

I know how to get it from superkick, but how are you getting the slide KB after d2/b1d2 KBs?

 

[Zviko]

I know how to get it from superkick, but how are you getting the slide KB after d2/b1d2 KBs?

B1D2 KB, 4, Reptile KB. 388.76
B1D2 KB, F2, Rain, 4, Reptile KB. 439.76
D2 KB, 1, Rain, 4, Reptile KB. 501.76

 

[Marinjuana]

A throw KB after a rain cancel sounds cheap

 

[haketh]

B1D2 KB, 4, Reptile KB. 388.76
B1D2 KB, F2, Rain, 4, Reptile KB. 439.76
D2 KB, 1, Rain, 4, Reptile KB. 501.76

Yo thanks for this

 

[versavices]

Shake is the only good thing about this variation imo.

Lift has obnoxious dmg and dmg scaling that simply don’t make sense. He should be able to hit for low 30s with this move but he can barely scratch the 25 mark. I’ll not complain about the KB bc it can actually happen once in a blue moon, despite late blocking being the dumbest requirement in the game for a KB.

Slide is ridiculously slow. It’s even hard to link your combos into it bc it takes ages to come out. The KB is hell to space out and honestly if anyone gets hit by this shit they deserved to lose both bars of health and get auto tea bagged into a babality for how unpracticle this shit is.

Superkick is the single worst move in the game. Man, if paulo ever tried really hard to come up with something worse than this move he’d probably transcend into a new plane of existence bc it is humanly impossible to make something shittier than a move that:
Starts up in 28 frames
Doesn’t link from some of his best strings
Does low dmg
Scales hard as fuck
Is unsafe on block
Is unsafe on every cancel
Can be low profiled
Has a KB locked behing the requirement of your opponent being a neanderthal
Does 12% dmg on that KB and takes a bar if you want the pop up

Seriously, this variation is complete garbage. If it wasn’t for shake being a S tier neutral killer this would be worse than spellmaster.

I don't get NRS' idea of cancels for this game. Its atrocious. They not only made most of them slow as fuck but they also made the cancel not instant and you glow bright yellow when you do it. A -19 cancel after the amplify glow is not a mind game. This is getting D1'd everytime.

I get that they were OP in MKX but honestly they made the game a lot cooler. My only problem with cancels was how often you could do it. Watch ninjakillas Liu - its dumb af. You take a throw off a fireball cancel and his stamina is already full again once the throw is done. MK11 seemed to want to keep the coolness of cancels but fixed their critical flaw of accessibility. Tying it into the defensive meter was an amazing idea and was all that was needed to be done but they found a way to make 28/30~ cancels in this game completely dog shit.

Make cancels have a weird input again (not just one button) but make them instantaneous. It will add a ton of combo depth to almost the whole cast and will make defensive meter management a real thing again. Not as many rolls and breakaways will make the game more fun imo. Instantaneous combos will let you link strings with hit advantage connections if you're fast enough.

 

[WhooFlungPoo]

A throw KB after a rain cancel sounds cheap

Jax plus frames and inconsistently being punished when its your turn, constant plus frame advantage from kang, free jacqui cancels, etc.. no cheaper than those and they are in the game. Or just change the kb to throw whiff like others. Others have crazy good tools with that kb, why not shang? Nothing about shang is op, he needs a little cheap to compete with the rest of the cheapness present.

 

[Marinjuana]

So I think you can always land a Roundhouse kick after an Ermac Lift amp, despite increased gravity. You just immediately input the kick after the lift launches. When you do it like that you'll get a slightly different knockdown, being slightly farther back and only being 24 or so frames of hit advantage. But it's still a very good knockdown and you get the side switch. So you could do something like:

F24~Roundhouse Amp, dash~11, B12~Lift Amp, Roundhouse Kick (314)

4~Roundhouse Amp, dash~11, B12~Lift Amp, Roundhouse Kick (339)

B12(KB), dash~11, B12~Lift Amp, Roundhouse Kick(300)

 

[Marinjuana]

Jax plus frames and inconsistently being punished when its your turn, constant plus frame advantage from kang, free jacqui cancels, etc.. no cheaper than those and they are in the game. Or just change the kb to throw whiff like others. Others have crazy good tools with that kb, why not shang? Nothing about shang is op, he needs a little cheap to compete with the rest of the cheapness present.

I don't know what those characters have to do with it buddy I just don't think it's a good buff idea. You'd basically just have a back throw KB after most of your combos or landing a shake. That's not very interesting IMO

 

[legion666]

Soul Eater sucks. I get that Cetrion and Warlock Shang are zoners that is why they do 25-27% for a bar. But Soul Eater isn’t a zoner at all, he is supposed to be high risk high reward antizoner rushdown. But he has to end combos in d2 to get optimal 26% for a bar?!? WTF?!I am actually fine with all KB requirements except of course Super Kick. But the damage you get while spending a bar for both Super Kick KB and Force Lift KB is “Abysmal “!!

Slide - make it faster, like 16 frames, change the requirement for the KB to Amp it 3 times like Sub’s. Oh and make it do the same damage as Sub’s slide on Amp.
In general Soul Eater needs some move to be a more damaging combo ender than d2. It probably should be slide. So if the normal Slide does more damage then forget what I said about Slide Amplify doing as much as Sub’s)

Force lift - needs to have it’s combo scaling adjusted. 1 bar combo should do 300+. KB should launch without Amplify.

Super kick - needs to do more base damage, there is also a great alternative to make it launch without Amplify IF the damage scaling of the kick and Lift doesn’t change. The start up needs to be like 10 frames less in order for people to have a reason not to mash as soon as they see purple appear off his best strings. And the KB requirement should be for Shang to cancel the Super Kick 3 times. After that you got it loaded. This KB also needs to launch without Amplify because all other KBs that do around 12% damage launch meterlessly.

Shake - fine for the most part, I would like to see a bit faster start up around 9 frames would be awesome. I also hate that it doesn’t work on things that other projectile parries do counter like Scorpion’s Spear or some thrown interactables.