Personal opinion on the Grandmaster
He's easy to pick up, probably best suited for beginners to intermediate players. His strings are easy to execute and understand.
Standard strings into Ice Ball (hits HIGH):
~ 1,2 (HIGH, 8 Startup, short range but fastest)
~ Back+1,4 (HIGH, 14 Startup, slightly longer reach, main string)
~ Back+2 (MID, 14 Startup, Knocks Up but Heavy Scaling)
~ Back+3,2 (LOW, 13 Startup)
Standard strings into Rising Ice (hits MID btw in case people are wondering) at Midscreen:
~ 2,1 (HIGH, 8 Startup)
Opponent blocks HIGH? Use Back+3,2 (Hits LOW) into Ice Ball
Opponent blocks LOW? Use Front+2,4 (Hits OVERHEAD) into a knockdown. Or you can Front+2 into Amplified Rising Ice / Amplified Ice Ball for a 1 Meter kombo (Note: Front+2 cannot combo into a regular Ice Ball, unless Front+2 Kounters the opponent)
Using his base special moves alone, DMG for his kombos usually range between 20~30% for 1 meter, 30~35% for 2 meters, and hitting about 35~40% if there is a krushing blow.
Sub-Zero has 5 KBs, notable ones include 1,2,4 with a Kombo of at least 8 hits, and another from hitting 3 Amplified Slides. Another two of them are based on kountering or punishing the opponent (Down+2 Uppercut, the overhead string which is Front+2,4) and the last one is the Back Throw, if opponent fails to escape a throw previously. Not including the uppercut, none of his other Krushing Blows launches the opponent into the air.
Damage-wise, he unfortunately seems to be at the lower end, if you compare to other characters such as Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Jacqui just to name a few, who are notably faster and also hits harder. The DMG of a few of their meterless combos can even kontest Sub-Zero's 1 meter Kombos.
Also, Sub-Zero has a limited skill cap and little variety of strings and battle approaches. Sub-Zero's strings all hit MID aside from the first hit of every kombo (eg. his overhead string hits OVERHEAD, MID, MID), so once the opponent successfully blocks a Sub-Zero kombo, he or she does not have to worry about alternating between standing and crouching blocks, as opposed to more diverse attacking characters such as Scorpion, who although does not hit that hard as well, is fast and has a wide range of ways to engage the opponent. He can combo into an OVERHEAD or even a LOW normal move from his strings, making Scorpion a dangerous foe.
Sub-Zero on the other hand, is not fast at all compared to the others, does not hit that hard and only has 2 base abilities, not to mention having less-than-ideal tournament variations (if they are confirmed and fixed). Hence, I would understand people's frustrstions regarding him.
Abilities-wise, given Sub-Zero's basic & one-dimensional gameplay, one must have Rising Ice for Kombos, & Creeping Ice for LOW mix-ups. The last ability slot boils down to preference, and I personally would include a zoning tool (Death-cicle or Polar Axe, Frigid Storm is a no-go and a joke tbh). This will make Sub-Zero hit harder and more unpredictable to opponents. An interesting ability will be Arctic Trap, looking forward to experiment with it.
Is Sub-Zero the best character in MK11? By the looks of it, definitely not. Will I main him? Definitely! Don't get me wrong, I love Sub-Zero, and will play as him no matter what. But yeah, he deals okay damage and has few strings with limited effectiveness, thus making other characters more appealing. While he is pretty easy to learn, this make him easy to kounter as well, especially by opponents/experts who know Sub-Zero's gameplay. Also, his best special moves are unfortunately categorised as abilities. Hopefully his tournament variations are updated. Personally right now I will go for the variation with the 2+1 zoning tools (Frigid Storm is pretty bad, even slow startup and does little damage. I wont even acknowledge it). Casual gameplay wise, he will most definitely not to be underestimated. He IS the Grandmaster after all. Cheers!
got super happy for a second.
