Shang Tsung General Discussion

[DJV13]

i found another combo but yet again i dunno if it was found yet so here it is...

52% above up skull , j.1/2, 221, ,medium Ground skull, far ground skull, Ex ground skull, dash, close ground skull, f+4~1, soul steal.

you can do a meaty above up skull on someones wakeup and hit confirm off the jumpin and ground string and you can also mix up the jumpin with f+3~4 and if it connects you can do a medium ground skull and follow up with his bnb and if its blocked you can do a soul steal which is safe on block i believe.

 

[Cool Pseudonym]

Two quick thoughts

First one is on alot of the previous ex ground skull into soul steal combos in this thread (not the last post though. that's better). So far everone's doing 12 or f+43 into soul steal, but b+2 is better. It's stronger than 12 outright, and will out damage f+43 in the end with damage scaling. Plus it's got a nice big hitbox and the exact way it pops your miid-air opponent up makes the soul steal impossible to miss due to height. It helps to take one step back while the ex ground skull is hitting

Second, when Shang can't absorb a soul (Goro/Kintaro/Shao) he gets a flat out damage boost. You probably knew that. But the damage boost also kicks in in a Shang mirror match. And the damage boost lasts twice as long a normal soul absorb. Around 10 seconds. So if you find yourself in a Shang mirror, landing the soul steal is key. It does less damage as a combo ender than a true soul steal though.

 

[DJV13]

what do you guys think about using soul steal as a projectile??......i been using alot cuz its 100% safe on block and if its spaced correctly you can catch airborne opponents and even if they do jump at you and the soul steal whiffs if you spaced it at max range the opponent can't even land a jump in cuz they are to far away , but i only tested counters to this by myself so i might be wrong. Also soul steal does decent chip so it might force your opponent to jump and try to avoid it and you could bait it and punish. Tell me what you guys think

 

[Luxus Nights]

I don't use soul steal as a projectile par say, but I do use it to catch opponents who jump.

I ve also been using close ground skull as anti air.

 

[DJV13]

you can't really react to a jump in and have time to do the soul steal cuz they will knock you out of it...and i wouldn't try using close ground skulls to anti air for the same reason, but you can try predicting a jump in and throwing out a ground skull.....but what i was saying in my last post about shang soul steal is that there is no reason not to throw soul steal out there all you have to worry about is the spacing......if they block it they get chipped if they jump they either get hit with it or the soul steal whiffs and your to far away for them to punish by the jump in attack cuz you spaced it at max range....you can kinda think of it as a poke. only things you have to worry about are dive kicks and air specials. You get it?

 

[Luxus Nights]

I got ya, and what I meant by catching jumps was when my Opp is getting around my Skulls and what have you, being predictable with his jumps, I snag em with the soul steal.

Heres another question what are your plans once you land a soul steal?

 

[DJV13]

well landing the soul steal is just a bonus, its mostly to do chip and bait jumps , but if they do get hit by the soul steal then you get a damage boost and now your their character ...so once you land the soul steal its really up to you what you wanna do with that time before it runs out.....thats why i have been trying to learn every character.

 

[Luxus Nights]

what are you guys getting for a max damage mid screen combo that uses 1 stock of meter?

 

[RWDY Nori]

I like Tsung but I'm having a lot of trouble keeping people away from me when they're in. Any suggestions?

I'm still waiting for a good answer for this question Especially vs Liu Kang or Teleport spamming Raiden

 

[SZSR]

I'm still waiting for a good answer for this question Especially vs Liu Kang or Teleport spamming Raiden

For a strategy, try your hardest to morph into them so you can pressure them to the other side of the screen. If you're good with who they are using, then it should be no problem to get them away so you get back to your zoning.

 

[DJV13]

@Luxus Nights

221, medium ground skull, far ground skull, ex ground skull , dash , close ground skull, f+4 3, soul steal

this does 43 % without a jump in , when you do the ex ground skull you dash forward and do close ground skull and the opponent will go behind you and the close ground skull will still hit them and knock them back to the original side allowing time to do f+4 3 soul steal

 

[Luxus Nights]

^ thnaks and some morph combos.

http://www.mortalkombatunited.com/showthread.php?7968-DetroitBalln313-s-MK9-Shang-Tsung-Combos

 

[Luxus Nights]

I wonder how many uppercuts can we add into Shangs corner combos?

 

[Infiny]

I tested that (need 2 ex bars)

mid screen

BP,BP, FP, ground fireball (close), groud fireball (med), ex groud fireball, back dash, ex fireball

Well ... No i wonder if we can do that

BP,BP, FP, ground fireball (close), groud fireball (med), ex groud fireball, back+FP,BP,FP,BK, ex ground fire ball, backdash, BP,BP,FP, uppercut ?

 

[Tyrin]

@Luxus Nights

221, medium ground skull, far ground skull, ex ground skull , dash , close ground skull, f+4 3, soul steal

this does 43 % without a jump in , when you do the ex ground skull you dash forward and do close ground skull and the opponent will go behind you and the close ground skull will still hit them and knock them back to the original side allowing time to do f+4 3 soul steal

For some reason I drop this combo about 50% of the time on the f4,3 so when I'm in panic mode I do the exact same combo except after the ex ground skull I hit an up skull as they are passing over my head... does 37% iirc and I can do it way more consistently.

I gotta up my execution on the one you mentioned though =(

 

[Luxus Nights]

What are you guys using for pokes etc?

I Use Shang's over head into Soul Steal, here and there much like how reptile's use 4 into acid hand.

also Shangs crouching is nice and I find a bit of use for it.

 

[PLAYING TO WIN]

How long does the damage boost last after soul steal? the rest of the round? can you stack damage boosts?

 

[Luxus Nights]

As long as your morphed.

 

[Up_Grade_U]

Hey,

been searchin for some shang information and stumbled upon tym from tom bradys guide.
i recomend it for starters because it gives detailed information on, i think the full move list.

in addition i found some interesting things, which i couldnt comfirm in actual online match because of psn being down:

1) about the morph/not morph question i thought about it like this:

pro styaying as shang:
- you know the moves/combos blindfolded
-shangs throw can recover your health
-shangs x-ray has extremly good stats
-zoning options very good

pro morphing:
-damage boost (as tom's guide points out varies from 10-30% dependable on combo)
-new movelist giving different set up/rush/turtle options, but need to be trained for every character
( i think only the basic stuff will be needed because morphing time is considerably short exept for meter-version)
-wake up options! as i read that shang is a little shaky on rush in opp's (i cant speak for myself, havent fought so many opp)
so you can memorize a few wake up options to get them off your back before going back to start the zoning game

and so i figured out i would use the morph like this:
-when in lifelead/draw its best for overhead>soulsteal because safe on block or at the end of combos for mixup
(i think i would always turtle to disrupt the opps rythm, when he learned to escape the skulls)

-and when behind it rather stay as shang because i can still use his throw to regain life or get in the xray when close to losing
the wake up option change might come in to consideration here, but that has to be still tried out

tell me your thoughts on that if you can agree/disagree

because i have some option selects and combos which havent been talked about up my sleeve =)
i'm trying to make a vid soon or else i'll post them later for support of shang kommunity!

regards

 

[Up_Grade_U]

nearly forgot, i rarely use xray because shangs ex-moves are insane and a two bar combos does 52% unbreakable if opp has not more than 1 bar
of meter (after start of round shang gets first hit and the situation kicks in) and on the other hand you need to break out of combos often because of shangs weakness in wake up game, so theres rarely room for an xray.

basic stuff:
shangs soul steal builds good meter even without hit and the ground skull build a bit less so a moderate zoning game should build
meter throughout nearly every move (i havent checked if comboed specials build less meter, but if i hit i just groundskull like krazy,
so i dont worry about meter)

 

[Luxus Nights]

because i have some option selects and combos which havent been talked about up my sleeve =)
i'm trying to make a vid soon or else i'll post them later for support of shang kommunity!

regards

Option selects? Now Im interested.

nearly forgot, i rarely use xray because shangs ex-moves are insane and a two bar combos does 52% unbreakable if opp has not more than 1 bar
of meter (after start of round shang gets first hit and the situation kicks in) and on the other hand you need to break out of combos often because of shangs weakness in wake up game, so theres rarely room for an xray.

basic stuff:
shangs soul steal builds good meter even without hit and the ground skull build a bit less so a moderate zoning game should build
meter throughout nearly every move (i havent checked if comboed specials build less meter, but if i hit i just groundskull like krazy,
so i dont worry about meter)

I agree, Shangs Enhanced special moves are just two good to save up for X ray not to mention Shangs X ray get raped by damage scaling.

 

[Up_Grade_U]

well i'm still experimenting but i tried it out against sub zero and if you do the down, up above skull after shangs overhead,
there are the following options.
-the overhead gets blocked and your opponent wants to punish -> the above skull hits and breaks the combo
-the overhead hits:
--normal get up without block -> the skull whiffs but you're save to block
--normal get up while blocking (i set the dummy to always block low) -> the skull hits and you're free to combo
--normal get up wake up attack -> you can hit confirm the skull and do a neutral jump -> after a slide wakeup you can catch him with far ground skull, and against ice clone wakeup your safe to block

now, if opp recovers you have time to confirm if he goes for recovery while shang performs the above skull, you do an medium ground skull imediatly
--recover, no block -> the medium ground skull hits
--recover, block -> the medium groundskull gets blocked but you're safe
--recover, wake up attack -> slide wakeup gets caught by above skull AND ground skull, ice clone akeup lets above and ground skull whiff but you stay safe

additionaly you can do down, forward up skull if you guess your opp will use recover, hits the opponent but its unsafe because slide is invincible against it and only far groundskull can catch iceclone.

a set up for the overhead option select is after my testing a mixup with the overhead>soulsteal and any combo you can end on his overhead.
because the key lies in the weird hit animation i think.

if i'm completely wrong here please let me know

 

[Up_Grade_U]

another thing on the games mechanics i see beneficial for shang tsung,

you can enter the inputs for special moves before the last 2 buttons while blocking e.g.:

(input while blocking) normal iput
(down) up + 4 > far groundskull
(forward, down) back + three > soulsteal

the moves work 100% if you release block before the last 2 inputs, so you can hold block longer

and against your opp see you duck before ground and up skull
you can input specials while changing stance and the move comes directly after the animation, its not that practical but maybe some handy
information for someone ho can incorporate it to actual play (?)

next up i'll post some info about juggle properties with groundskulls and there changes depending on combo, if someone interested

(the three on my keyboard is broken sry)

 

[King]

So lately, I've been maining Shang Tsung and I was messing around with him in Tag mode. I've been thinking that Smoke would be a good partner for Shang with his OTG smoke combos. I was thinking of doing the following combo with Shang/Smoke:

(Shang) 221, DB 4, DF 4, DF 4 + BLOCK (Mash Tag to switch to Smoke) air grab, OTG Smoke Bomb, Air Throw, OTG Smoke Bomb.

So far this combo only uses 1 bar of EX and I'm guessing it would do around 50-60% damage but I haven't been able to get it to work. Do you guys think this is possible to even do or what? I've been trying forever now and I can't do it. I know it's not my execution since I'm always able to do the combos with Smoke/Shang easily, even online. So what's the deal here?

 

[Up_Grade_U]

what exactly isn't working? i get the airgrab, land and hit him laying down with the smoke bomb for another airgrab, it just doesnt combo.
is that what you mean?

but the first airgrab only does 2% so i don't think its worth it.
try using shang at the end of your combos, you can get the db4, df4, df4+block after the tag combo when shang launches them in the air with his kick.
also you need a fast partner in first to open the opp for shangs zoning, when they switch their playstyle from defending against rushdown.