Shang Tsung Combo Guide - Warlock

[Wazminator]

Here is my first Shang Tsung combo guide! This guide covers all of his BNBs from his practical situations, including morph enders, enjoy!

 

[Pan1cMode]

Siiick!

Very helpful. Thanks a bunch

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Thanks for posting the combo video and taking the time to put it together.
He has a lot of scaling on his combos but it makes him honest.

 

[TheDylbot]

Hell yeah Waz

 

[xenogorgeous]

wow nice one dude, thanks !

 

[MKF30]

Nice stuff. He's not combo heavy damage wise, but his KB can lead to some nice 30% damage. I definitely see Shang as a more defensive, footsie and zoning character. I love it.

 

[ATIWAB]

Nice video. Covered a lot of the same stuff I was seeing, too.

Three quick notes from my own labbing:

1) For your 35% 1-bar off of the B1D2 at 1:45 -- juggling with 21 instead of B11 keeps them much higher in the air and gives you more time to hit the dash into kick ender for the exact same damage.

2) S3 is a more reliable connector than S4 at the cost of 1% damage, the timing on the S4 is way more picky.

3) If you don't want to end that combo in Soul Swap because you don't know the character -- like your alternate at 1:55 --and you have a hard time with the Far DB1 input, you can use the exact same setup as the 21 into Soul Swap but end in Sorcery Rush instead for equally good corner carry at 34.7% instead of 35.5% --

B1D2KB FF 21 DB1 Amp FF FF S3 BF4

 

[sunday_roast]

Thanks so much for this, super helpful!

 

[Kris.Hornett]

yoo to piggy back on the combo... try

B1D2Kb FF 2 xx DB1 FF FF S3 DB1 its 36.1

 

[ATIWAB]

yoo to piggy back on the combo... try

B1D2Kb FF 2 xx DB1 FF FF S3 DB1 its 36.1

I get 34.5 on that.

 

[ATIWAB]

Once people start getting more experience against him, hearing people complain about defending against JI2 B3U434 vs JI2B3D4 vs JI2B3U4 special cancels should be fun.

Extremely irritating to defend against 31.5% 1-bar:

JI2 B3U4 DB1 Amp FF S4 BF4

You can condition them to think it's gonna be the unpokable OH Low Low, then hit them with the OH Low OH Special Cancel version instead... Oof.

Granted, you can poke out of the gap between B3 and U4, but conditioning and mind-games + input delay are gonna make it irritating as shit online.

 

[Kris.Hornett]

I get 34.5 on that.

my bad late to see it. you have to hit the S2 at it's highest point that way the two fireballs hit at the end

 

[ATIWAB]

my bad late to see it. you have to hit the S2 at it's highest point that way the two fireballs hit at the end

That's with both fireballs.

If only one fireball hits, it's only 32%.

Check your inputs. Maybe you meant S4 (*edit: just tested with S4 and it only does 35.5), or maybe you were doing S21 and not just S2?

 

[Kris.Hornett]

That's with both fireballs.

If only one fireball hits, it's only 32%.

Check your inputs. Maybe you meant S4 (*edit: just tested with S4 and it only does 35.5), or maybe you were doing S21 and not just S2?

lol I'm the worst, I was doing the whole string. It can't KB with both hits sorry.

 

[ATIWAB]

lol I'm the worst, I was doing the whole string. It can't KB with both hits sorry.

Easy KBs are a scam

 

[ATIWAB]

Something I noticed in this video and in the Shang community as a whole -- probably because the timing is so tight and it's what was said on the Kombat Kast gameplay reveal too -- but people are under the impression you can only use his F242 juggle in the corner. In Warlock, you can use the juggle to hit a DF1F amp mid screen, too.

Not sure how practical it is yet, haven't found anything to follow it up with -- fireball doesn't reach in time, etc -- but good to know that it can connect outside the corner. Might be useful for when you're not quite in the corner yet but the DB1F would push to the corner and then could FF to juggle more? Haven't played with it enough.

 

[Afumba]

Something I noticed in this video and in the Shang community as a whole -- probably because the timing is so tight and it's what was said on the Kombat Kast gameplay reveal too -- but people are under the impression you can only use his F242 juggle in the corner. In Warlock, you can use the juggle to hit a DF1F amp mid screen, too.

Not sure how practical it is yet, haven't found anything to follow it up with -- fireball doesn't reach in time, etc -- but good to know that it can connect outside the corner. Might be useful for when you're not quite in the corner yet but the DB1F would push to the corner and then could FF to juggle more? Haven't played with it enough.

You can do dash~DB1F after that. Although only the first groundskull seems to connect.
Maybe someone with better execution might be able to get the second one the connect too.

Someone also said you could connect with dash~BF4 but i wasnt able to do it yet.

 

[ATIWAB]

You can do dash~DB1F after that. Although only the first groundskull seems to connect.
Maybe someone with better execution might be able to get the second one the connect too.

Someone also said you could connect with dash~BF4 but i wasnt able to do it yet.

I messed with it a little but can't get the dash or the second of the fireballs to connect either. Been labbing him for two days straight tho so pretty burned out and gonna conclude it's probably not worth it, there are more practical connects and being able to launch from any string off DB1 amp anyway makes having impractical launchers 100x less meaningful tbh. B3U4xx is a less predictable opener to it since it could also be B3D4 and has a lot more practical application here than finishing out the F242 string.

 

[Afumba]

I messed with it a little but can't get the dash or the second of the fireballs to connect either. Been labbing him for two days straight tho so pretty burned out and gonna conclude it's probably not worth it, there are more practical connects and being able to launch from any string off DB1 amp anyway makes having impractical launchers 100x less meaningful tbh. B3U4xx is a less predictable opener to it since it could also be B3D4 and has a lot more practical application here than finishing out the F242 string.

F2 strings still have their purpose though and if you can consistently land the groundskulls after F242 there are situations were you can raise your damage 5-10+%. Its definitely a risk though as missing the groundskull gets you full comboed even by Jades F21.

Edit: groundskull=grounderuption... sry force of habit

 

[ATIWAB]

F2 strings still have their purpose though and if you can consistently land the groundskulls after F242 there are situations were you can raise your damage 5-10+%. Its definitely a risk though as missing the groundskull gets you full comboed even by Jades F21.

I like that it's + 5 on block, but man that F2 is so easy to telegraph and FB punish. I think it's gonna be a liability to use as a starter against good players once people start getting used to the MU.

 

[Afumba]

I like that it's + 5 on block, but man that F2 is so easy to telegraph and FB punish. I think it's gonna be a liability to use as a starter against good players once people start getting used to the MU.

Even then you could use it as a whiff punish. At the end its still a meterless launcher and if you are reliable with it its better to have it then not to

 

[KeyserSoze]

One of the most complete combo vids I've seen in a minute.

And, it happens to be sporting one of my favorite Shang skins! Good job

 

[ATIWAB]

Even then you could use it as a whiff punish. At the end its still a meterless launcher and if you are reliable with it its better to have then not.

How many times in a row can you hit the DB1 off it though, honestly? Because I can connect F242 DB1F twice in a row MAYBE once every 10 attempts and actually hit it around half the time, for a total of 203 damage meterless. Metered connects we've both acknowledged are hard as fuck to follow up on even if you do connect the first part of the combo -- I still haven't seen any that work except the second one-fireball FF DB1F.

On the other hand, you could whiff punish the exact same whiffed string with a 3U2 DB1 for 200 damage meterless with an easy, guaranteed Amp juggle into standard 4 BF2 or 4 BF4 or 4 DB1 enders for 32-34%. That 0.3% damage on the meterless is never going to be worth dropping the whole combo for.

 

[haketh]

How many times in a row can you hit the DB1 off it though, honestly? Because I can connect F242 DB1F twice in a row MAYBE once every 10 attempts and actually hit it around half the time, for a total of 203 damage meterless. Metered connects we've both acknowledged are hard as fuck to follow up on even if you do connect the first part of the combo -- I still haven't seen any that work except the second one-fireball FF DB1F.

On the other hand, you could whiff punish the exact same whiffed string with a 3U2 DB1 for 200 damage meterless with an easy, guaranteed Amp juggle into standard 4 BF2 or 4 BF4 or 4 DB1 enders for 32-34%. That 0.3% damage on the meterless is never going to be worth dropping the whole combo for.

3U2 doesn’t hit at the same range as F24, yeah the Up Skull is hard after F242 but it’s something you can reliably get down.

 

[ATIWAB]

3U2 doesn’t hit at the same range as F24, yeah the Up Skull is hard after F242 but it’s something you can reliably get down.

If you totally ignore that FF exists, sure, you'd have a point.

They do though, so in the same amount of time the F2 takes to come out, you can FF into S3.

From the same range, a quick FF S3 will connect where the F2 doesn't.

You're also still missing the bigger point, which is that the 3U2 DB1 meterless does the same 20% damage as the F242 DB1F meterless. If you're going to solidify one of these two strings in your muscle memory as your go-to whiff punish, it should 100000% be the one you can spend a bar to convert to 34%, not the one that's essentially useless to MB.

(edit -- should note that this only applies to midscreen, f242 still has a lot of utility as a WP in the corner because of the corner juggle, obviously.)