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The Future Of Law Enforcement- A UMK11 Robocop Guide

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
Robocop: The Future Of Law Enforcement

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It's been awhile but here we are! My character of choice in MK11 since his release has been Robocop and I have a lot to say about our cybernetic lawman. Keep in mind this is my personal take on the character and how I feel it is best to utilize the tools he has in a solid, concise gameplan. Feel free to take what you like and leave what you don't, I'm just here to provide insight on this decently rare to see character. Without further ado, I present to you the future, of law enforcement.

Table of Contents
  • Pros and Cons
  • General Overview
  • Normals/Strings
  • Specials/Loadout Breakdown
  • Gameplan (Neutral)
  • Gameplan (Offense)
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Pros and Cons

  • Pros
    • Top 3 forward and back dashes in the game (Perhaps #1)
    • Some of the best zoning in the game.
    • Nearly oppressive ground game.
    • Very flexible loadouts for certain MUs
    • Fast up close mids
  • Cons
    • Low damage
    • Slightly stubby outside of specific tools
    • Easily walked down to the corner
    • Struggles heavily in the corner (More than most characters)
General Overview
Robocop is MK11's premier 'hit and run' style character. Utilizing his powerful movement options along with his ability to win most zoning wars, Robocop is a formidable force that presses the situation constantly throughout any given match. Though the character may have some specific struggles on defense if you remain patient and find your openings you can certainly put your opponent behind bars.

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Normals/Strings

In this section I will only go over specifically your most important buttons to be using. This will ensure a more compact overview of his gameplan and cut away all the fat of the character. He has very strong normals and strings but he also has some pretty underwhelming ones so we will just ignore those. I will go over strings and included in those strings I will talk about the corresponding normals/staggers.

121
121 is Robocop's generic jab string. It starts off an 8f high with an underwhelming hitbox making it a bit of an awkward button to utilize but the followups of 12 and 121 move Robocop forward a good amount which increases its utility a slight amount. In general this button is going to be used as your fastest standing challenge in the middle of stagger pressure or as a jailing tool off things like D1, D3 and other high hit advantage moves. It's also worth noting that 12 and 1 by themselves make for good staggers. Be wary of completing the string on block for it is -8 and can be punished by 7f normals pretty easily if you don't special cancel it.



F212
Staring off of a 13f, slightly advancing mid, F212 is an integral part of Robocop's offense and neutral. The string ends in a delayed overhead that must be flawless blocked in order to be punished. In neutral this string is used in tandem with his dashes as a mid to check the opponent's advances. In offense you are centering around F21 and F212. The delay before the overhead makes this a very strong stagger tool. The full string has a punish/counterhit krushing blow attached to it which not only makes it a good 13f punish tool but also augments the aforementioned stagger pressure.


F32

A 10f mid knee, this is your go to counterpoking mid. This move is also really strong at midrange situations where you're within dash range due to the ability to cancel Robocop's long range dash into it. Generally you're going to use this button to catch buttons, catch ducks, chase down back dashes (in conjunction with your own dash) and reactionary meaty delayed wakeups. It is also his lowest scaling hitconfirmable starter which is important to note for Fatal Blow confirms. The string is -6 on block when finished which allows for microduck mindgames but other than that you can usually afford to just block and wait for your turn back.


B12
B12 is another solid offensive tool in addition to being a whiff punish baiting tool. B1 is a fairly stubby 12f mid that leads to a projectile attack that you can pick the distance of (I default to the far version, very rarely do you want a different version) It has a flawless block gap before the second hit and is excellent for setting up solid stagger situations. On block, if they don't flawless block it, it has good pushback and is only -5 on block which sets up nicely for backdashes into whiff punishes. As far as its utility in the form of a whiff punish bait, the second hit about as disjointed as it gets and is highly active along with having the strange property of staying on hit. This makes the string in general quite awkward to whiff punish favorably which makes the idea of whiffing B1 and finishing the string a good idea at some points and spacings.


F42
F4 is an 18f advancing mid kick with a fairly sizeable hitbox attached to it. F42 is a meterless launcher that ends in a duckable high on block. This move acts as a high reward whiff punish/duck punish but versus anyone who is familiar in the matchup can be quite risky due to the duckable ender. It also serves as a matchup check because if the opponent doesn't know about the duckable gap the move becomes quite a bit stronger so having the ability to know when someone isn't punishing it can be very useful information for the matchup and how you utilize the button.


B4
A multi-hit sweep clocking in at 15f of startup that is very active (6f) and quite disjointed due to the animation (Robocop shoots at the ground multiple times rather than your typical kick based sweep). While this move doesn't have the normal sweep benefit of being able to high crush it trades that in for a plethora of other advantages. It's a very strong grounded tool to simply throw out in neutral considering its high amount of active frames. It also has a lot of pushback on block which in some matchups makes the poor block frames (around -11 most of the time) not as relevant. The only issue with this button is at further spacings the opponent won't be hit by all the shots, causing them to recoil backwards but not be knocked down. The spacing after that is nice even though the situation is negative on hit but you do lose all the damage you would've have got normally. Overall a fairly integral tool to Robocop's midrange gameplay.



D4
By far Robocop's most powerful and important button in his arsenal. D4 has Robocop shooting at the ground and covers a large chunk of space on a disjointed hitbox with a startup of 15f. This buttons augments Robocop's midrange by a staggering amount due to its ability to harass as most ranges that characters have a hard time contesting with mids and since its a high crush it can decimate characters with high based neutral (Johnny, Joker etc.) The move also carries with it a strong ability to cancel into special moves which adds to its ability to allow Robocop to dip in and out of ranges and cause immense frustration. Get familiar with this button, you're going to use it a lot.


D3
A 10f low poke with good hitadvantage, D3 is exclusively used for when you need a closer and faster poke option aka whenever you can't use D4 because it's too slow. It's a poke for the specific ranges between D4 and D1 which can be a sort of deadzone in Robocop's poke game. Be careful with this button because it is fairly easily whiff punished up close.


D1
Robocop's D1 is about as typical as it can get with maybe slightly below average range. You're going to use it in any situation you would want to use a D1, not much analysis to be had about it for it's not a very notable button. Important but nothing special. Can sometimes be utilized as an anti-crossover button.


D2
Though it has a sometimes stubby, awkward hitbox, Robocop's D2 is notable because he has the fastest one in the game which allows him to anti air in some cases where others would have a harder time. At 8f, there isn't much else to say about his D2 other than its impressive startup.

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Specials/Loadout Breakdown
With Ultimate MK11 came the ability to use custom variations in competitive play. As a result, Robocop has the potential to much more effectively fight his poor matchups by altering his toolkit slightly. Here I will not be going over every single custom move he has because I don't feel it necessary and a lot of them are quite underwhelming.

My Loadout

  • Core Moves
    • Low Auto-9
    • Flamethrower
  • Flex Picks
    • Arm Crowd Control Cannon
    • (Air) OCP Charge
Low Auto-9
This is the most important special move in Robocop's arsenal and is undoubtedly a required move for the character. Any loadout without this move feels inconsistent in neutral and zoning. Low Auto-9 is an 18f mid projectile that ducks under highs. Amplifying it causes Robocop to shoot two more consecutive shots, causing a knockdown on hit. The meterless variant has a crushing blow associated with it that triggers by ducking a high projectile and punishing it with the Low Auto-9. This is the foundation of Robocop's neutral for not only does it invalidate a lot of characters zoning since a lot of zoning is based in high projectiles with mid followups which Low Auto-9 stuffs, it also makes his midrange game a lot more difficult to traverse. Backdash into low shot is something you will see me do a TON at the midrange. I use it like a larger, slightly slower D4 in a lot of instances which proves itself to be quite effective. The added benefit of having Low Auto-9 is the ability to cancel into it after D4 which can stuff any attempts to retaliate after D4 on block which can be very effective at keeping your opponent on their toes.


Flamethrower

This is Robocop's main hitconfirm tool and enhances his rushdown potential by a significant margin. Flamethrower is a very active 18f blast of flames and on amplify it is extended to do more damage and become +17 on hit. It is very punishable on block but with decent pushback if spaced correctly and high amounts of chip damage. Aside from niche situations in neutral you will almost exclusively utilize this move as a hitconfirm tool which, as mentioned prior, leaves you at +17 when amplified. This situation allows you to dash up and frame trap your opponent with a throw or go for staggerable mids. You can even jail your S1 off of it on hit, meaning essentially your entire toolkit is at your disposal after this lands on hit. I personally find this move extremely important to not only amplify his comeback potential but to in general be able to snowball his offense a little more consistently, especially in matchups where he might not be as focused on zoning and might be more focused on staying upclose/midrange.


Arm Crowd Control Cannon
This is one of the best projectiles in the game by quite a bit. Arm Crowd Control Cannon without meter is a decently quick high projectile with an insanely fast travel time that hits for 9% and knocks the opponent fullscreen. This makes it a nightmare to trade with but the move becomes specifically strong when bar is used. When amplified, Arm Crowd Control Cannon becomes much faster on startup, deals 15% (amongst the highest a projectile can even do) and has little to no recovery associated with it. This move is best selected vs characters that you want to be zoning/winning the zoning war versus. It is also one of the most effective midrange anti air tools, if not THE most effective, that Robocop has at his disposal. The speed of AMP Arm Crowd Control Cannon means that you can easily reactionary anti-air a lot of characters at certain ranges even more effectively than his D2 can in some instances. Due to its ability to win next to every single projectile trade in the game and slamming the opponent full screen on hit, this move in integral to going toe to toe and a lot of times straight up winning most zoning wars.



(Air) OCP Charge
When Arm Crowd Control Cannon just doesn't cut it for one reason or another, OCP Charge is here to save the day. This move boasts insane priority and startup along with fast travel time. Robocop essentially becomes his own projectile with this move which is also SAFE on block at -7 with pushback outside the range of any 6f D1 in the game. This move also causes Robocop's jump back to be a true threat to anyone trying to get in on him. This move is particularly good in matchups where the opponent has a strong counterzoning tool you can jump over (Geras Quicksand, Cetrion Earthquake, etc etc.) or vs characters who love to be airborne (Kung Lao, Kabal, etc etc.) and feels perfectly designed for his worst matchup before this patch, Jade. Having this move versus a character like Jade causes air glaives to be more of a risk, even when she has glow up. In addition to all of this the move has a crushing blow for when you punish/counterhit a grounded opponent from max range which makes short hop in neutral a terrifying tool for the opponent to deal with due to the ability to react to what they're doing with charge.


Closing Thoughts on Robocop Loadouts
Robocop has a very versatile array of moves at his disposal which can ebb and flow depending on what matchup you're up against. At the end of the day this is all preference but I do think Low Auto-9 is the most integral move in his kit and should never be absent from your loadout. Flamethrower is debatable and in some matchups, like Cetrion with Earthquake, I prefer to have both rocket and the charge so Flamethrower falls to the wayside sometimes. Feel free to mess with your own combinations of moves and see what fits best for you. This just happens to be my philosophy on his loadouts and what I think is strongest.

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Gameplan (Neutral)

As mentioned at the beginning of the guide, Robocop is a 'hit and run' style of character. In the neutral he will be utilizing the following tools to accomplish this.

  • D4
  • Low Auto-9
  • B4
  • Dashes
  • Throws
  • F2/F3
You can vary your button usage to your liking but these are the most important parts of his neutral. A fatal flaw in the thought process behind a lot of Robocop players is the idea that he is purely a zoning character. The character has strong keep away in certain matchups and strong backwards movement which can certainly lead to a formidable zoner but eventually he runs out of screen space and finds himself cornered. As a result of this, Robocop can't run forever and has to meet the opponent half way in his keep away gameplan. First we will go over how his keep away functions.

Keeping Your Opponent at Bay and Bringing the Fight to Them
Robocop's zoning gameplan is fairly straight forward in concept. Utilizing low auto-9 and mixing up between amp and meterless low shot will cause your opponent to be more hesitant in neutral. It also gives the opponent something your opponent HAS to block which will slow them down as well. The end goal of his zoning is not to keep the opponent out indefinitely but rather to slow them down and acquire their respect. Once you have acquired this respect is when the character truly shines and the hit and run begins. Having the powerful dashes that Robocop has allows him to move from place to place very quickly and while this is effective at placing him away from the opponent it is also effective at placing himself at the opponent. As your enemy tries to make their way in, you have the option to meet them half way and represent your many powerful midrange options such as mids, D4, B4 and low auto-9. All of this can being to create massive amounts of respect and as a result, a massive amount of blocking from your opponent. This is when Robocop can begin representing the idea of dash up throw.


Utilizing Dash Canceling/Stopping Movement Checks
In MK11, every character can cancel their dashes with normals, specials and blocking. This is integral to Robocop as a character in order to not only augment the range of his normals and evade the opponent's own normals, but as a way to bait the opponent into reacting and swinging. Since Robocop's dashes are so powerful, your opponent is highly incentivized to check this movement with buttons and this is where something like dash forward into block comes in handy. The ranges that Robocop can arrive from is staggeringly far away which means the opponent has to check you from strange ranges. This is how you not only set up your whiff punishes, but establish more respect to be able to run your hit and run tactics.


Sometimes You Have To Walk

We've talked a lot about Robocop's dashes but an under talked about tool at his disposal is his very fast walk speed, both forward and backwards. This sort of static movement puts uncertainty into your opponent because at any point your walking can turn into a back or forward dash, a normal, a special, anything truly. Creating this slow moments of uncertainty can really create a very unpredictable movement pattern which is precisely what we want to be doing.


Closing Thoughts on Robocop's Neutral Gameplan
Robocop's neutral is by far his strongest asset as a character. He lives to create a constant sense of unpredictability while being very hard to pin down himself. This second point is more apparent in his offense/midrange gameplan but is still notable in his neutral. Not only does this unpredictable playstyle slowly chip at the opponents health but it also has a tendency to wear down a player's mental state which is an added bonus.

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Gameplan (Offense)
More of an emphasis on the 'hit' of hit and run, Robocop's offense consists staggers and creating spacings in which the opponent is scared to press buttons in order to set up his strong throw game or retreat back to neutral.


Running So You Can Get To Hitting
A core piece of Robocop's offense is the ability to backdash cancel into normals and specials. Placing a backdash in spaces where your opponent delays buttons or you have large pushback causes the opponent to either whiff their normals which is an easy whiff punish, or it prompts them to chase your backdash which opens up the ability to catch that attempts with jabs or mids. In general in your offense, any points of pushback or even in your staggers you can utilize your dashes to dip in and out of their spacings in a very hard to predict manner. This creates hesitation in the opponent and allows you to begin weaving strike throw into your offense.


Stagger Pressure
My go to staggers are as follows

  • 1
  • 12
  • F21
  • F212
  • B1
  • B12
All of these are fairly standard, self explanatory stagger strings that all have their pros and cons which are all fairly apparent but what are we doing on these stagger points? Well there's the usual poke to catch delayed buttons and throw to catch respectful opponents blocking but Robocop has the added benefit of his dashes. This ties back into the idea of running away so you can open up your opponent, I'm simply using this section to contextualize better at what points you want to be layering in your offensive ideas.


D4, The God Of Annoyance

Your not so secret weapon, D4 fits in this strange nebulous middle ground between offense and neutral due to its nature as a very strong harassment tool. Its range paired with its ability to be special canceled causes the D4 to be the proverbial 'wrench' in your opponent's defense. The mixup between canceling and not canceling Robocop's D4 creates situations in which you can elicit delayed reactions from your opponent, allowing you to backdash and catch them as they press their buttons just slightly too late. This lets you do some usually crazy looking things like D4 on block into dash up throw but that is precisely how Robocop functions, on the fine line between insane crackhead and sophisticated gentleman zoner.


Closing Thoughts on Robocop's Offensive Gameplan

Even though Robocop's offense isn't anything particularly crazy, the fact that it loops back into his neutral and vice versa creates this perpetual tempo shift in the match. This means at any point, Robocop gets to dictate whether or not it's time to play at certain ranges. Having the ability to impose this kind of will onto an opponent is exactly what makes Robocop a formidable force in this game.

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The End

Is it the end already? Well that was fun now wasn't it? What does all of this add up to? Well, Robocop establishes himself inside MK11 as character that is having to constantly change how he is playing. An ever adaptive force, Robocop seeks to play just outside the ranges of his opponent while utilizing his projectiles to establish respect from further ranges. He wins tons of zoning wars and has a no issue playing neutral with most characters. In my humble opinion he is a very much slept on neutral powerhouse in this game but is not an easy character to undertake due to how much he has to be constantly changing his gameplan. He is a ton of fun and I highly recommend you try him out if you're interested! I hope this guide was as helpful to you as it was fun for me. Take care and remember.


CRIME, DOES NOT PAY.
 

RoboCop

The future of law enforcement.
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I love the format, font, and colors. Overall, RoboCop is so bland in an already-bland game that I think you covered literally everything anyone could want to know about playing him.

I do think the guide is a little too optimistic about his tools, though. Like, sure, his dash speed is great, but his staggers are not and even if you do hit, your damage output will almost certainly be below 20%, even with meter. It's D'Vorah syndrome, only without the tools you need to actually open up your opponent the dozen times you need to throughout the match.

That's what really kills me about him. He's got some very solid fundamental tools, but then nothing to do with them. He's like a gun loaded with blanks. If he could put out some damage then he could actually threaten his opponent with his dashes and staggers, but as it stands, he's just a yappy dog making noise until his opponent decides to put him down.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
I love the format, font, and colors. Overall, RoboCop is so bland in an already-bland game that I think you covered literally everything anyone could want to know about playing him.

I do think the guide is a little too optimistic about his tools, though. Like, sure, his dash speed is great, but his staggers are not and even if you do hit, your damage output will almost certainly be below 20%, even with meter. It's D'Vorah syndrome, only without the tools you need to actually open up your opponent the dozen times you need to throughout the match.

That's what really kills me about him. He's got some very solid fundamental tools, but then nothing to do with them. He's like a gun loaded with blanks. If he could put out some damage then he could actually threaten his opponent with his dashes and staggers, but as it stands, he's just a yappy dog making noise until his opponent decides to put him down.
To me, the low damage isnt an issue because of how much he is constantly setting you up to make mistakes. If he hit any harder he'd be kinda OD for no reason lol. His focus is predominantly neutral based so his offense not being great is fine because he is designed to open you up in the neutral more than anything.

EDIT: Also he sets up throws super nicely and you dont need too many of those in conjunction with the little hits youre getting here and there to kill the opponent.
 

Marlow

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Nice. I don't know much about the character, but I love the effort of putting a guide together, that's awesome. I think UltraDavid just posted a video on YouTube discussing his Custom Variation for RoboCop, I'm always interested to compare opinions.
 

RoboCop

The future of law enforcement.
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To me, the low damage isnt an issue because of how much he is constantly setting you up to make mistakes. If he hit any harder he'd be kinda OD for no reason lol. His focus is predominantly neutral based so his offense not being great is fine because he is designed to open you up in the neutral more than anything.

EDIT: Also he sets up throws super nicely and you dont need too many of those in conjunction with the little hits youre getting here and there to kill the opponent.
I think that's the way he and others are supposed to work in theory, but it rarely works out that way against a savvy opponent. It's still a matter of your opponent having to make 3 or even 4 times as many mistakes as you. If I'm fighting Lao and guess wrong at almost any point in the match and while blocking mid staggers and hops and throws and d3s and all that other garbage, I'll eat close to 40% of my health, anywhere on screen, and wake up into more insane oki. Same for Kabal and most of the other top-tier.

As RoboCop, you've either got to just peck away at the opponent and hope you don't get touched, or you can use one of your terrible launchers to go for some of that "bigly" (according to Stephanie) 24% 1-bar damage without any significant oki-followup. The risk-vs-reward just isn't there. Can RoboCop win matches? Of course. Is he still possibly the worst character in the game? I'd say bottom 3 for sure.

Unless I just missed it, the guide doesn't mention his total lack of defense. Yeah, his d2 is fast and d4 can give some characters problems, but that's really it. His wakeups and flawless blocks get him killed more often than they connect. Once he's knocked down, the majority of the kast can bully him heavily with no fear of retribution.

Once he's cornered, it's game over depending on the MU. He doesn't have the tools necessary to keep from being bullied in the corner. Depending on the MU, all he can do is wait for jump-ins to try to anti-air, or try to keep people out with d4. And, again, if he guesses right then maybe he deals 19% damage and gains some ground. But if he guesses wrong in the corner, well, it's not going to work out great for him.

My final point is about throws. Every character can throw, so having a character who is reliant on throws to get their damage is fundamentally unbalanced, especially in a game with a mechanic specifically designed to punish throws for upwards of 65% damnage, and especially in a game with characters like Rambo and Kotal who have several throws built into their strings (and I think Rambo has much better zoning than RoboCop, but that's a discussion for another time lol). Just because a character needs throws to get their damage doesn't mean they're any better at throwing than any other character.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
I think that's the way he and others are supposed to work in theory, but it rarely works out that way against a savvy opponent. It's still a matter of your opponent having to make 3 or even 4 times as many mistakes as you. If I'm fighting Lao and guess wrong at almost any point in the match and while blocking mid staggers and hops and throws and d3s and all that other garbage, I'll eat close to 40% of my health, anywhere on screen, and wake up into more insane oki. Same for Kabal and most of the other top-tier.

As RoboCop, you've either got to just peck away at the opponent and hope you don't get touched, or you can use one of your terrible launchers to go for some of that "bigly" (according to Stephanie) 24% 1-bar damage without any significant oki-followup. The risk-vs-reward just isn't there. Can RoboCop win matches? Of course. Is he still possibly the worst character in the game? I'd say bottom 3 for sure.

Unless I just missed it, the guide doesn't mention his total lack of defense. Yeah, his d2 is fast and d4 can give some characters problems, but that's really it. His wakeups and flawless blocks get him killed more often than they connect. Once he's knocked down, the majority of the kast can bully him heavily with no fear of retribution.

Once he's cornered, it's game over depending on the MU. He doesn't have the tools necessary to keep from being bullied in the corner. Depending on the MU, all he can do is wait for jump-ins to try to anti-air, or try to keep people out with d4. And, again, if he guesses right then maybe he deals 19% damage and gains some ground. But if he guesses wrong in the corner, well, it's not going to work out great for him.

My final point is about throws. Every character can throw, so having a character who is reliant on throws to get their damage is fundamentally unbalanced, especially in a game with a mechanic specifically designed to punish throws for upwards of 65% damnage, and especially in a game with characters like Rambo and Kotal who have several throws built into their strings (and I think Rambo has much better zoning than RoboCop, but that's a discussion for another time lol). Just because a character needs throws to get their damage doesn't mean they're any better at throwing than any other character.
Him needing to throw isnt why he's good at throwing. He's good at throwing because he can keep you still long enough blocking get throws in quite often. Youre also talking about singular hits when robocop hitting you just two ways (throw or otherwise) isnt negligible damage in the slightest. I touched on the poor defense a time or two in the guide but also i dont think the defense is that bad outside of the corner and who isnt getting fucked in the corner? Youre definitely underrating the amount of damage he's outputting on any given hitconfirm its nearing 20% into an advantageous situation. He doesnt hit hard by any means but youre acting like he's a wet noodle when his projectiles chunk your health bar if you ever get tagged, he has throw KBs, 19% hitconfirms into +17/Pushing them back with rocket into basically anything you want. He isnt easy to play by any means but he definitely isnt this crippled little dog youre describing.
 

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Him needing to throw isnt why he's good at throwing. He's good at throwing because he can keep you still long enough blocking get throws in quite often. Youre also talking about singular hits when robocop hitting you just two ways (throw or otherwise) isnt negligible damage in the slightest. I touched on the poor defense a time or two in the guide but also i dont think the defense is that bad outside of the corner and who isnt getting fucked in the corner? Youre definitely underrating the amount of damage he's outputting on any given hitconfirm its nearing 20% into an advantageous situation. He doesnt hit hard by any means but youre acting like he's a wet noodle when his projectiles chunk your health bar if you ever get tagged, he has throw KBs, 19% hitconfirms into +17/Pushing them back with rocket into basically anything you want. He isnt easy to play by any means but he definitely isnt this crippled little dog youre describing.
The issue isn't just the damage, it's also how he gets it. His normals and strings are just overall gimped. Surely you can't defend his b2? There are matchups where his only real option is to bf1 until his opponent kills him. That shouldn't exist in a fighting game. If NRS was that afraid of Low Shot being so dominating that they gimped all his other tools, I honestly wish they would have just deleted Low Shot and given him some other tools, because Low Shot alone is not cutting it except at low-level play or against unsavvy opponents.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
The issue isn't just the damage, it's also how he gets it. His normals and strings are just overall gimped. Surely you can't defend his b2? There are matchups where his only real option is to bf1 until his opponent kills him. That shouldn't exist in a fighting game. If NRS was that afraid of Low Shot being so dominating that they gimped all his other tools, I honestly wish they would have just deleted Low Shot and given him some other tools, because Low Shot alone is not cutting it except at low-level play or against unsavvy opponents.
Theyre not gimped though, like at all. That's just blatantly wrong, his buttons function just fine. Just because you need to think a little bit about them and input a dash in some instances before you use them doesnt make them gimped or stubby lol. Also can defend the B2, its not a button meant to be used outside of combos. Those kinds of buttons exist all the time i would just suggest not using it cuz its bad outside of that lol, theres a reason i didnt mention the button.
 

RoboCop

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Theyre not gimped though, like at all. That's just blatantly wrong, his buttons function just fine. Just because you need to think a little bit about them and input a dash in some instances before you use them doesnt make them gimped or stubby lol. Also can defend the B2, its not a button meant to be used outside of combos. Those kinds of buttons exist all the time i would just suggest not using it cuz its bad outside of that lol, theres a reason i didnt mention the button.
Ok, so it's a buttom meant to be used in kombos, yet it only adds a couple percent damage and whiffs on female hitboxes midscreen. How is that not gimped?!

If I go for f212 and I hit, I get what, 12% damage (not counting the 1-time KB). Great. Buf if the opponent even starts to enter aerial frames from jumping, hopping, or from an attack animation and then I hit them with the f21, the 2 whill whiff and I'll be stuck in enough whiff animation for the opponent to get up and full-kombo punish me for 40%. Utterly, unequivocally gimped.

A 19-frame mid-hitting launcher ending in a high, meaning having to risk a d2 KB just to deal 24% 1-bar midscreen. Gimped.

Any string that isn't 121, f212, b32, or f32 is pretty gimped.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
Ok, so it's a buttom meant to be used in kombos, yet it only adds a couple percent damage and whiffs on female hitboxes midscreen. How is that not gimped?!

If I go for f212 and I hit, I get what, 12% damage (not counting the 1-time KB). Great. Buf if the opponent even starts to enter aerial frames from jumping, hopping, or from an attack animation and then I hit them with the f21, the 2 whill whiff and I'll be stuck in enough whiff animation for the opponent to get up and full-kombo punish me for 40%. Utterly, unequivocally gimped.

A 19-frame mid-hitting launcher ending in a high, meaning having to risk a d2 KB just to deal 24% 1-bar midscreen. Gimped.

Any string that isn't 121, f212, b32, or f32 is pretty gimped, lol. Wtf is the point of his b1 string or whatever, where he swipes and shoots a weird little bomb.
Why are you not hitconfirming you F21 into amp flamethrower or normal flamethrower? Thats not the character thats you if youre just seeing it hit and finishing it. You also just said "all his strings except for the ones you actually use are gimped" so just, heres an idea, dont use the other strings? Stop using bad stuff and saying its the character's fault lol. Literally all the things you just mentioned are showing a lack of getting the picture.
 

Marlow

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The load out I saw UltraDavid use was Low Auto 9, Arm Crowd Control Cannon , and Cheval Trap. Seemed like an interesting way to zone/chip out the opponent by pushing them away and then locking them down with the strip. Thoughts?

 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
And if you remove Flamethrower, there goes nearly all of his damage output and utility. He's basically locked into Low Shot and Flamethrower. I know other characters are locked into optimized variations as well, but in RoboCop's case, he is utterly reliant on those 2 moves to function. His default kit, including his normals and strings, is literaly non-functional.
If you have rocket amp rocket does just as much damage and even then, just use flamethrower then? Again not a character issue considering 90% of his other custom moves arent even worth it anyways youre not sacrificing anything locking into those two moves. Again, that last sentence just isnt true. The words your using arent exactly accurate to the actual situation at hand lol.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
The load out I saw UltraDavid use was Low Auto 9, Arm Crowd Control Cannon , and Cheval Trap. Seemed like an interesting way to zone/chip out the opponent by pushing them away and then locking them down with the strip. Thoughts?

It seems decent to me in matchups where the opponent is super incentivised to get in and has a harder time with it. Since you can keep people still you can get some decent chip but tbh i would much rather flamethrower.
 

RoboCop

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Why are you not hitconfirming you F21 into amp flamethrower or normal flamethrower? Thats not the character thats you if youre just seeing it hit and finishing it. You also just said "all his strings except for the ones you actually use are gimped" so just, heres an idea, dont use the other strings? Stop using bad stuff and saying its the character's fault lol. Literally all the things you just mentioned are showing a lack of getting the picture.
I meant besides those strings that I had already mentioned as being gimped. All his strings are gimped, just those few are at least somewhat useful.

I do hitconfirm into f21, but it's not possible to play 100% perfectly all the time lol. Either way, something is wrong when you need to hitconfirm into 12% damage but your opponent can mash into safe staggerable 40% kombos.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
lol, I meant besides those strings that I had already mentioned as being gimped. All his strings are gimped, just those few are at least somewhat useful.

I do hitconfirm into f21, but it's not possibly to play 100% perfectly all the time lol. Either way, something is wrong when you need to hitconfirm into 12% damage but your opponent can mash into safe staggerable 40% kombos.
Youre just saying gimped. What is gimped about the moves? The only thing youve said is "theyre stubby" which is only relevant in pushback situation, where dashes help that issue. In the smaller pushback situations like pokes into pokes you have the buttons necessary to rectify theyre mashing. Also stop using the idea of low average damage output as a reason for a character to be bad when Joker was being touted as #1 in the game hitting LESS hard than Robocop on average. The damage isnt bad its just below average. Its a weakness he has, which characters should have those. Youre falling into this trap of being so focused on what he lacks that you're not paying attention to the things he has. It feels like you have this picture of what he should be which is getting in the way of acknowleding how he actually is.

EDIT: Also youre saying "you cant be perfect and hitconfirm every time" which

A: is barely true, he is braindead easy to hitconfrim with

And

B: Is again an issue placed upon you the player, not the character.
 

RoboCop

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I think you may also be overestimating his back-dash when use with his pressure. I fully agree that it is maybe the best backdash in the game, but that doesn't matter agaist advancing normals and specials. Yes, you can dash up, f21, see that it's blocked, and then backdash. And you can do that all day long, but it's not going to get you anywhere. A savvy opponent will punish that backdash if the MU isn't shit in your favor.

Here's what usually plays out: You get done blocking 30 seconds of staggers and nonsense from your top-10 opponent and finally take your turn. f21 for the win! Oh, they blocked it because it's a 13-frame mid. Now it's their turn again. Many characters can punish his backdash on a read (and even without a read) with zero issues.

Can you backdash? Yes. Does it get you anywhere except closer to the corner? I mean, it's an extra layer of footsies for your opponent to overcome, so it's not useless, but I'd say if your pressure requires backdashes then you're pressure is probably gimped.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
I think you may also be overestimating his back-dash when use with his pressure. I fully agree that it is maybe the best backdash in the game, but that doesn't matter agaist advancing normals and specials. Yes, you can dash up, f21, see that it's blocked, and then backdash. And you can do that all day long, but it's not going to get you anywhere. A savvy opponent will punish that backdash if the MU isn't shit in your favor.

Here's what usually plays out: You get done blocking 30 seconds of staggers and nonsense from your top-10 opponent and finally take your turn. f21 for the win! Oh, they blocked it because it's a 13-frame mid. Now it's their turn again. Many characters can punish his backdash on a read (and even without a read) with zero issues.

Can you backdash? Yes. Does it get you anywhere except closer to the corner? I mean, it's an extra layer of footsies for your opponent to overcome, so it's not useless, but I'd say if your pressure requires backdashes then you're pressure is probably gimped lol.
Youre talking as if the only thing youre doing is backdashing. You have to layer the offense youre not gonna get anywhere with ANY character just doing the same option. If they go to catch your backdash you can poke them if they go to poke back you can backdash, if they just decide to block or are going for the flawless block on F212 which btw, completing F212 beats both the poke and the backdash catch. The pressure never REQUIRED backdash when the string has its own built in mind game that your opponent has to acknowledge. Its not a high damaging mind game outside of the KB but acting like its not there and isnt effective is a kind of wild perspective to have on the situation. Its not any one thing that makes this stuff effective it is all of it tandem with one another.
 

Zer0_h0ur

XBL tag: South of Zero
Great stuff.
Always found it funny they gave robocop that sweet OP DLC movement when he is a lumbering slowmo in every other media he's been in. Besides the jet pack, which they kinda included I guess.
 

RoboCop

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Youre just saying gimped. What is gimped about the moves? The only thing youve said is "theyre stubby" which is only relevant in pushback situation, where dashes help that issue. In the smaller pushback situations like pokes into pokes you have the buttons necessary to rectify theyre mashing. Also stop using the idea of low average damage output as a reason for a character to be bad when Joker was being touted as #1 in the game hitting LESS hard than Robocop on average. The damage isnt bad its just below average. Its a weakness he has, which characters should have those. Youre falling into this trap of being so focused on what he lacks that you're not paying attention to the things he has. It feels like you have this picture of what he should be which is getting in the way of acknowleding how he actually is.

EDIT: Also youre saying "you cant be perfect and hitconfirm every time" which

A: is barely true, he is braindead easy to hitconfrim with

And

B: Is again an issue placed upon you the player, not the character.
I mean, I explained why they're gimped. Either they don't do what they're meant to (b2) or the risk-vs-reward is way out of wack (every other string). I've literally never used the word "stubby" on this site lol.

Does RoboCop have Joker's insane toolset? If he did, then his damage would certainly be fine. But he doesn't, so it isn't. Damage isn't the only consideration.

I'm a player who focuses on what makes a character good. I've even argued as much on this site before. I don't care what bad tools a character has as long as they have good tools I can use while ignoring the bad tools. Good tools > bad tools any day. But that's not the case with RoboCop. He's got Flamethrower, Low Shot, d4. and b4 as his only moves that really shine compared to the rest of the kasts' tools. Those good tools aren't good enough to carry the useless weight that is the entirety of the rest of his toolset.
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
I mean, I explained why they're gimped. Either they don't do what they're meant to (b2) or the risk-vs-reward is way out of wack (every other string). I've literally never used the word "stubby" on this site lol.

Does RoboCop have Joker's insane toolset? If he did, then his damage would certainly be fine. But he doesn't, so it isn't. Damage isn't the only consideration.

I'm a player who focuses on what makes a character good. I've even argued as much on this site before. I don't care what bad tools a character has as long as they have good tools I can use while ignoring the bad tools. Good tools > bad tools any day. But that's not the case with RoboCop. He's got Flamethrower, Low Shot, d4. and b4 as his only moves that really shine compared to the rest of the kasts' tools. Those good tools aren't good enough to carry the useless weight that is the entirety of the rest of his toolset.
I can see that we're just gonna have a complete fundamental disagreement on this character so i recommend we pack it up here.
 

RoboCop

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Youre talking as if the only thing youre doing is backdashing. You have to layer the offense youre not gonna get anywhere with ANY character just doing the same option. If they go to catch your backdash you can poke them if they go to poke back you can backdash, if they just decide to block or are going for the flawless block on F212 which btw, completing F212 beats both the poke and the backdash catch. The pressure never REQUIRED backdash when the string has its own built in mind game that your opponent has to acknowledge. Its not a high damaging mind game outside of the KB but acting like its not there and isnt effective is a kind of wild perspective to have on the situation. Its not any one thing that makes this stuff effective it is all of it tandem with one another.
Well no, I'm saying the mixing in the backdash isn't as helpful as you're making it sound. Yes, it helps keep you from getting pressured after getting your f21 blocked, but then what? It doesn't get you anywhere. You're talking about all this mix, but the opponent doesn't have to participate in any of it. They just have to block until you commit to f212 or one of your other derpy strings. Then it's their turn. RoboCop is not the stagger machine you're making him out to be.

(And just for the record, I'm enjoying this debate and hope you are too. I'm disagreeing with you, but I do highly value your opnion, as you're always one of my favorite posters on this site.)
 

CrazyFingers

The Power of Lame Compels You
Well no, I'm saying the mixing in the backdash isn't as helpful as you're making it sound. Yes, it helps keep you from getting pressured after getting your f21 blocked, but then what? It doesn't get you anywhere. You're talking about all this micx, but the opponent doesn't have to participate in any of it. They just have to block until you commit to f212 or one of your other derpy strings. Then it's their turn. RoboCop is not the stagger machine you're making him out to be lol.

(And just for the record, I'm enjoying this debate and hope you are too. I'm disagreeing with you, but I do highly value your opnion, as you're always one of my favorite posters on this site.)
Im enjoying it too but there does come a point where we just loop the same points over and over which means it goes from a debate to a broken record lmao.

Also if theyre looking for you to complete F212 then you can easily just throw them. You can force the issue, they cant block forever/tech right forever.
 

RoboCop

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Im enjoying it too but there does come a point where we just loop the same points over and over which means it goes from a debate to a broken record lmao.
Yeah, but there's like 4 people who play RoboCop, so we can't be shutting each other out lol.

In a complete void, I can agree with everything you've said so far. On paper, that all seems totally believable. But then when you put those concepts into MK11, with all its nonsense and anti-zoning tools and frame traps and tick throws and 65% KB kombos and 50% Landmine resets and half-screen safe normals and all that garbage, it all just seems to fall apart, especially when there are characters who have access to almost all of those tools at once and RoboCop gets none of them, unless you count Low Shot as anti-zoning lol.

Imagine having no car and you win a Honda Civic in a raffle. You had no car before, so that seems pretty fucking sweet. Then you go to pick it up and find all the other raffle winners got Porsches.