In MK1, d2 combos seem purposefully made "not optimal" - you can see that, unless your combo starts with a d2, every time you do a d2 it will have the hit scaling as usual + a 50% damage reduction on itself.
For example: You have a button that does 10% damage. In a 3 hit combo using only this same button, it will do 27% total (10% damage first hit + 9% damage second hit due to scaling + 8% damage third hit due to scaling).
A d2 does 14% damage. A 3 hit combo starting with d2, followed by 2 hits of that button that does 10% damage is: 14% + 9% + 8% = 31% damage.
The SAME combo, now with d2 being the second hit, will be: 10% +
6,3% ([14% damage - 0.1 scaling]/2) + 8% = 24,3% damage. It is why it is generally not worth it to end combos with a rage filled d2 if your opponent is low on health, because it just might not be enough.
There are many instances where MK1 does these "safety" things (which is a GREAT thing, IMO). Other examples include:
- Scaling in throw combos: I'm not certain of the math here, but it seems that the hits during a throw combo are so heavily scaled that it will seldom reach 23% damage, or 33% with fatal blow.
- Combo from interrupted armored moves: only example I can think of the top of my head is Nitara but there are others - if she does the armored blood spit, and gets armor broken, she can in some cases still get up fast enough during the enemy's stun animation to combo (not jail on block, but indeed combo). The combo will be heavily scaled, not as much as throw combo but close.
- Hard to blockables: there is a certain frame window where if an overhead and low connect at the same window, blocking one will automatically block the other, so you must have a specific timing making the two moves hit with a certain time distance from one another.
The d2 scaling mid combo is a bummer, though.
