RollTide8569
Noob
Sub-Zero
Wrongly placed at Top 3, Sub still has what it takes to be the 4th best character of 15 in MK4. His Wpn, high priority normals, super cheap special moves and damaging corner combos and traps helps him a lot.
Starting with his normals, we can say that Sub has a good aaHk that has high and long range. Long range Lk. Good aaHp?s and good Lp?s for stopping running foes on their toes. His early SUJK can be cancelled easily and is an important part of his rushdown as it has long reach. High priority combo openers. This means that most of the time you run at the same time that your foe (and assuming he has another char) Sub will gain the upper hand if both try to start a chain combo. He share this property with Scorp.
As most chars, slow sweep speed that is easy to counter and sucky RH useless for aa.
The ice Clone is cheap. Plain and simple. It can be done very close to the foe and this can be very annoying. In a high level match against a Sub you MUST think twice every move you do, otherwise you will end up frozen. Scorpion and Liu are the main weakness of Sub. Scorp can punish EVERY Ice Clone attempt with his Teleport Punch followed with the Spear for easy 47%. There are multiple Ice Clone setups for almost free. It can be done in air which helps him for his corner infinite and/or it can be done mid-screen after popup: HP, HP, HK, D+HP, run and jump into opponent and cancel the jump with aa ice clone. Its also a good move for zonning against some characters and its possible to hit opponent into ice clone (weapon throw, jump lp and etc) but very difficult. You can try to use it in corner traps also against non teleporters or characters with high transport moves (Liu Kang, Sonya..). Its useful to escape from aa traps and crossovers that will be countered. This move has no hit limit but time limit.
His Ice blast though slow off of a combo and with an 1 hit limit, is useful if you can hit confirm a close Hk (knee) then cancel with the Blast. Also aaHp > ice Blast works. The freeze itself registers as a hit in a combo metter so you wouldnt be able to get Freeze, SUJK, Freeze - because its registers as 3 hit combo. No real glitch canceling at all too. The best way after aaFreeze would be to draw the weapon and B+HP the opponent into B+LP weapon attack wich will freeze the opponent again. Blocked chains works well, especially if you know that the Ice Blast lose his hit limit if the foe blocks. so you can do a 3-hit chain like HpHkLk and then cancel the tip of the Lk with an Ice Blast. It will come out fast because is part of a combo and the Lk is only fake and your foe may think that you messed up your chain and could go offensive. You can mix it up with the Ice Clone but both mix are useless against Scorp. Rayden can also teleport behind the Ice Blast but can get frozen if he tries to teleport behind the Ice Clone.
Always be aware that all of his freezing moves activate damage protection so expect having a hard time trying to do damaging combos but this is relative because he has plenty of openings for freezing and with single hits alone he can dish out lots a damage.
The Slide is good for two reasons: First, it can punish EASILY all blocked sweeps and like 80% blocked weapon attacks. Second, it works very well as a transportation move (of course if it dont hit the foe). You can setup throw traps (cross up/crossunder) after a pop up combo or extend Juggles with it. A blocked Slide means a 40% combo if punished correctly. Its possible to get 2 slides in corner when the second one will get them out of corner: Popup into corner, aaHPx2, Slide into corner, SUJk (out of corner), Slide. This is not that hard to get but there is always a chance to miss the sujk or second slide so watch out with your timing.
With Wpn he is just plain evil. Sub can turtle/attack all day, mixing up stuff for not getting predictable. The Lp sweep is perfect and only a few chars can punish it if blocked. B+Hp is Juggle starter. B+Lp can freeze you and cannot be punished if blocked (except from short startup moves like flying kick, slides and etc). Standing Hp has high poking priorities and can be an excellent aa. His jumpin? attacks gain more priority so they are harder to Juggle, specially J.Lp. Back J.Hp is a nice aa too if done on reaction. A weakness in his wpn stance is that Foes can duck without harm under B+Lp and Hp both Wpn attacks and can counterattack. Sometimes Reiko?s J.Hk can beat Wpn Hp. Liu, Reiko and Sub can punish almost all of his Wpn attacks.
The main game for Sub is to get his Wpn out. So you should focus on setting this up as quick as you can. Some safe spots obviously, are when the foe is frozen. Quick Lp sweeps will keep them out of balance and will have to be in crouch block most of the rounds. Dont try blocked chains that include the B+Lp or B+Hp attack! The foe will just release block and uppercutt you! Instead go for the B+Hp or Lp sweep. Of course, again be careful against Reiko and Liu advanced players. If you manage to get an B+Lp blocked, normally your foe will try to retaliate, this is the time for either an ice Clone or a close Hk into Ice Blast or better yet: Early SUJK , Hk, B+Lp. The Early SUJK has an awesome range and most of the time will connect.
Sub-Zero has 2 infinites, the first one is using his ice clone in corner. What you should do is Jump HP LP and cancel it into aa ice clone. Wait few secs for the time limit to reset, jump HP LP again and cancel it with another ice clone. The distance is like this: sub-zero's head should be under your opponents overindulge. Its also possible to mix various hits like Jump HP with weapon into ice clone or jump LP only into ice clone but this will cause your opponent to be freezed lower and lower so you should put jump HP LP between the other hits.
The Second Sub-Zero infinite is mid-screen and its more like an OTG Relauncher. Basicaly relaunchers are blockable in MK4. You cant also do HP, HP, HK, D+HP, run otg SUJK and repeat the popup because its blockable. But somehow the Ice Clone break that rule and you can get: HP, HP, HK, D+HP, Jump Ice Clone, wait the opponent to fall and almost touch the ground and do otgSUJK (Unblockable!) and repeat the popup. There is a big chance for SUJK to juggle but you can always hit with aaHP and Slide after it. This infinite can be done c2c also.
Without Maximum Damage Sub-Zero's game will be almost excactly the same when the only difference will be his infinites which if timed perfectly could take all your energy.
Basic Juggles:
Wrongly placed at Top 3, Sub still has what it takes to be the 4th best character of 15 in MK4. His Wpn, high priority normals, super cheap special moves and damaging corner combos and traps helps him a lot.
Starting with his normals, we can say that Sub has a good aaHk that has high and long range. Long range Lk. Good aaHp?s and good Lp?s for stopping running foes on their toes. His early SUJK can be cancelled easily and is an important part of his rushdown as it has long reach. High priority combo openers. This means that most of the time you run at the same time that your foe (and assuming he has another char) Sub will gain the upper hand if both try to start a chain combo. He share this property with Scorp.
As most chars, slow sweep speed that is easy to counter and sucky RH useless for aa.
The ice Clone is cheap. Plain and simple. It can be done very close to the foe and this can be very annoying. In a high level match against a Sub you MUST think twice every move you do, otherwise you will end up frozen. Scorpion and Liu are the main weakness of Sub. Scorp can punish EVERY Ice Clone attempt with his Teleport Punch followed with the Spear for easy 47%. There are multiple Ice Clone setups for almost free. It can be done in air which helps him for his corner infinite and/or it can be done mid-screen after popup: HP, HP, HK, D+HP, run and jump into opponent and cancel the jump with aa ice clone. Its also a good move for zonning against some characters and its possible to hit opponent into ice clone (weapon throw, jump lp and etc) but very difficult. You can try to use it in corner traps also against non teleporters or characters with high transport moves (Liu Kang, Sonya..). Its useful to escape from aa traps and crossovers that will be countered. This move has no hit limit but time limit.
His Ice blast though slow off of a combo and with an 1 hit limit, is useful if you can hit confirm a close Hk (knee) then cancel with the Blast. Also aaHp > ice Blast works. The freeze itself registers as a hit in a combo metter so you wouldnt be able to get Freeze, SUJK, Freeze - because its registers as 3 hit combo. No real glitch canceling at all too. The best way after aaFreeze would be to draw the weapon and B+HP the opponent into B+LP weapon attack wich will freeze the opponent again. Blocked chains works well, especially if you know that the Ice Blast lose his hit limit if the foe blocks. so you can do a 3-hit chain like HpHkLk and then cancel the tip of the Lk with an Ice Blast. It will come out fast because is part of a combo and the Lk is only fake and your foe may think that you messed up your chain and could go offensive. You can mix it up with the Ice Clone but both mix are useless against Scorp. Rayden can also teleport behind the Ice Blast but can get frozen if he tries to teleport behind the Ice Clone.
Always be aware that all of his freezing moves activate damage protection so expect having a hard time trying to do damaging combos but this is relative because he has plenty of openings for freezing and with single hits alone he can dish out lots a damage.
The Slide is good for two reasons: First, it can punish EASILY all blocked sweeps and like 80% blocked weapon attacks. Second, it works very well as a transportation move (of course if it dont hit the foe). You can setup throw traps (cross up/crossunder) after a pop up combo or extend Juggles with it. A blocked Slide means a 40% combo if punished correctly. Its possible to get 2 slides in corner when the second one will get them out of corner: Popup into corner, aaHPx2, Slide into corner, SUJk (out of corner), Slide. This is not that hard to get but there is always a chance to miss the sujk or second slide so watch out with your timing.
With Wpn he is just plain evil. Sub can turtle/attack all day, mixing up stuff for not getting predictable. The Lp sweep is perfect and only a few chars can punish it if blocked. B+Hp is Juggle starter. B+Lp can freeze you and cannot be punished if blocked (except from short startup moves like flying kick, slides and etc). Standing Hp has high poking priorities and can be an excellent aa. His jumpin? attacks gain more priority so they are harder to Juggle, specially J.Lp. Back J.Hp is a nice aa too if done on reaction. A weakness in his wpn stance is that Foes can duck without harm under B+Lp and Hp both Wpn attacks and can counterattack. Sometimes Reiko?s J.Hk can beat Wpn Hp. Liu, Reiko and Sub can punish almost all of his Wpn attacks.
The main game for Sub is to get his Wpn out. So you should focus on setting this up as quick as you can. Some safe spots obviously, are when the foe is frozen. Quick Lp sweeps will keep them out of balance and will have to be in crouch block most of the rounds. Dont try blocked chains that include the B+Lp or B+Hp attack! The foe will just release block and uppercutt you! Instead go for the B+Hp or Lp sweep. Of course, again be careful against Reiko and Liu advanced players. If you manage to get an B+Lp blocked, normally your foe will try to retaliate, this is the time for either an ice Clone or a close Hk into Ice Blast or better yet: Early SUJK , Hk, B+Lp. The Early SUJK has an awesome range and most of the time will connect.
Sub-Zero has 2 infinites, the first one is using his ice clone in corner. What you should do is Jump HP LP and cancel it into aa ice clone. Wait few secs for the time limit to reset, jump HP LP again and cancel it with another ice clone. The distance is like this: sub-zero's head should be under your opponents overindulge. Its also possible to mix various hits like Jump HP with weapon into ice clone or jump LP only into ice clone but this will cause your opponent to be freezed lower and lower so you should put jump HP LP between the other hits.
The Second Sub-Zero infinite is mid-screen and its more like an OTG Relauncher. Basicaly relaunchers are blockable in MK4. You cant also do HP, HP, HK, D+HP, run otg SUJK and repeat the popup because its blockable. But somehow the Ice Clone break that rule and you can get: HP, HP, HK, D+HP, Jump Ice Clone, wait the opponent to fall and almost touch the ground and do otgSUJK (Unblockable!) and repeat the popup. There is a big chance for SUJK to juggle but you can always hit with aaHP and Slide after it. This infinite can be done c2c also.
Without Maximum Damage Sub-Zero's game will be almost excactly the same when the only difference will be his infinites which if timed perfectly could take all your energy.
Basic Juggles:
- HP, HP, HK, HK, Slide (5 Hits, 25%)
- HK, Freeze, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHP, Jump HP HK (10 Hits, 42%)
- HK, Freeze, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, HK, Draw Weapon, B+LP (9 Hits, 37%)
- HK, Freeze, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aa Ice Clone, Draw Weapon, SUJK, b+HP, B+LP (11 Hits, 35%)
- (near corner) HK, Freeze, HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHP, Slide, SUJK (10 Hits, 41%)
- (near corner) HK, Freze, HP, HP, HK, D+HP, Jump HP LP, Ice Clone, Jump HP LP (12 Hits, 41%) Video!
- (near corner) HK, Freeze, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, HK, Draw Weapon, B+LP, HP (10 Hits, 44%)
- aaHPx2, Jump HK, Slide (4 Hits, 19%)
- SUJK, HK, Slide (3 Hits, 31%) (if the slide hits in corner you can get another SUJK 39%)
- (With Weapon) B+HP, B+HP, B+LP, SUJK, B+HP, Slide (6 Hits, 33%)
- (With Weapon) SUJK, B+HP, B+LP, SUJK, B+HP, Slide (6 Hits, 40%) Video!