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What main ability attracts you to a character?

Umm......Im not weird I promise but I have a thing for chains.

Lobo in Injustice
Birdie in SFV
Cody in SFV
Scarecrow in Injustice 2
Spawn in MK11

I just love the sounds they make and how they look and clank around all metally and just just just HNNG!!!
I don’t know why this made me crack up like other people would be asking ok how’s this characters range? Do they have a projectile? And you’re like do they got chains!?!! Haha
 

matterovermind

mindundermatter
For MK, I've always chosen characters based on how certain normals or specials look and costume.

-MK9: Smoke: the smoke bomb sound effect, look and feel of standing 2 as an anti-air

-MKX: Kung Lao's 4,4 string; Kenshi's base costume, Sonya's 2, 1, U+3

-MK11: Kitana - her base costume, queen for a day intro, and the Kitana Kahn mask; Sonya's ex air control (sad the bounce was nerfed)
 

Espio

Kokomo
Lead Moderator
I like characters with good staggers and throw game as well as downward projectiles and counter zoning.

I also love characters that are savage and feral (Baraka, Goro, Cheetah)

As well as characters with sassy ass attitudes (Jade, Stryker, Blue Beetle, Hawkgirl).


I'm open to a lot of play styles, but I definitely like safe pokes and ranged buttons too.
 
I normally gravitate towards grappler types (Potemkin, Gief, Tager, Hakan) and I appreciate good footsies and huge damage, or block pressure and frame traps (M. Bison). Tricky/wacky characters are also pretty fun (Brad Wong).
I also like to zone (Sir Arthur)
That said, I'll also completely abandon my usual tastes if the character grabs me thematically and just make their gameplay work.

For MK, I simply play Raiden because he's the coolest, and Spawn because I'm one of those schmucks that has been waiting for him to come back since SoulCalibur 2.
Terminator sure scratches the grappler itch, though.

I recently picked up Granblue Fantasy VS and have been learning with Soriz.
 
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I've mained a wide variety of characters and archetypes and I generally like to switch things up between games. So there's really very few definitive qualifications I look for in a character other than "fun factor"

But any character that cannot anti-air is fucking dead to me
 
I'll main whoever of my
all time favorites clicks with me. Won't stick to a character which I don't like even if his gameplan suits me. But I'll tolerate a bad gameplan for my faves.

Then it's about a turtle / keepaway / counter gameplan. Finally animations and choreography play a role too.
Mk9 : Jade, Raiden, Subzero, Kitana, Scorpion
Mkx : Subzero, Scorpion, Kitana
Mk 11: Raiden, Subzero.
 

PapaRegadetho

All hail emperor Liucifer Kang!
Hard to say, but I guess I like a good all arounder in 2d fighting games.

  • Liu Kang, Cage in MK games.
  • Deathstroke, Batman in Injustice.
  • Ken, Ryu and Akuma in Street Fighter
  • Lei Wulong in Tekken. He might not have good damage which keeps him from being a all arounder, but he does have lots of mixups that essentialy you'll be dishing damage all the time.
 

Jynks

some heroes are born, some made, some wondrous
I like playing the unusual characters, as long s they are not to execution heavy. I'm a casual, I hover around god to demi god. So tier lists and all that mean nothing. No one is good enough at my level to force you to pick top tier and still rack up wins.

So I usually pick based on four things...
  • How attractive the character is. Yes, I'm a "disgusting" man.. so what wana fight about it? If I am going to look at a model for 100s of hours I like that model to look good to me. I almost exclusively play female characters.
  • At most medium execution. I can not be stuffed with 1 frame links and all that kind of jazz. The character needs to play relatively easily
  • Have sick looking combos or moves.
  • I supposed I am a low tier hero. I like to play the most whatever I see the less online.
 

Error404

Noob
Fighting dirty/disrespectfully has always made sense to me. And few things are better in that regard , than punching people in the genitals. That , on top of constantly roasting opponents is why Cage is my favourite character in this franchise by far.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
I like playing the unusual characters, as long s they are not to execution heavy. I'm a casual, I hover around god to demi god. So tier lists and all that mean nothing. No one is good enough at my level to force you to pick top tier and still rack up wins.

So I usually pick based on four things...
  • How attractive the character is. Yes, I'm a "disgusting" man.. so what wana fight about it? If I am going to look at a model for 100s of hours I like that model to look good to me. I almost exclusively play female characters.
  • At most medium execution. I can not be stuffed with 1 frame links and all that kind of jazz. The character needs to play relatively easily
  • Have sick looking combos or moves.
  • I supposed I am a low tier hero. I like to play the most whatever I see the less online.
Nice avatar.

Anyway, nothing wrong at all for choosing a character based on looks. I do this as well in any game that isn’t a fighting game. Mainly RPG’s, I use a female character. I’d rather look at an attractive woman for hundreds of hours personally. Also, kicking ass with a badass woman is appealing to me.
 
Since the question is about main ability:

I like elemental powers, lightning first of all. (This comes from all the rpgs I grew up with)
And the staff as a melee weapon, because it's non lethal and usually associated with nice acrobatics and such.
 
Was thinking about the characters I choose to use in fighting games, and I noticed an interesting (but obvious) trend. All my mains, for the most part, have some type of teleport.

(UMK3: HSmoke, Ermac)
(MKT: HSmoke, Ermac, Scorpion)
(MK9: HSmoke, KL, Scorpion)
(Injustice: Ares, MMH)
(MKX: Scorpion, Shinnok)
(Injustice 2: Supergirl)
(MK11: Scorpion)
(SF4: M. Bison)

And unfortunately, teleports are the #1 universal complaint in every single NRS game. They also are complained about in other games too. But man, NRS players, from the bad to the very best, doesn’t matter. They will complain about teleports literally until they are nerfed.

Anyway, that’s not what this thread is about. I want to know what main attributes, skills, special moves, abilities, etc etc are generally an attractive quality to you generally speaking. Meaning if a character has it in a fighting game, you more than likely are going to be using that character.

For me there’s obviously also a lot of other stuff that I look for in a character. Like their normals, fundamentals, good AA’s, walk speed, mobility, good frame data, etc. But I’m more talking about specifically ONE thing that attracts you universally to a character. As I said for me, that’s a character with a teleport. And It could even be something as trivial as how they look. I’m just curious if other people have a trend like I do with their mains.
Regaring teleport: When you play zoner who is bad at melee and your enemy either uses teleport character from beginning or will change to one (because it nearly impossible to find somebody who wouldn't have at least 1 teleporter in his arsenal) in second fight you will want teleports nerfed to the point where your projectiles aren't useless.

Back to your primary question and main Topic of this thread:
MK1-3 I were playing Sub-Zero, sometimes Reptile, Scorpion, Smoke. I also liked playing Ermac. Yes pattern is obvious. Ninjas. All of them.
MK4 Sub-Zero.
MK5-7 were unfortunately out of my reach because I had no console of that gen and Arcade versions didn't existed. Nonetheless I loved to read about its characters in press, read various guides and overwiews etc and had my favourites: Reptile (his MK4 appearance sucked his MK2-3 Ninja appearance were good, his most reptilian MK 5 appearance rocked), Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Ermac, Onaga, Nitara.
MK 5 for Game Boy Advanced Scorpion and Sub-Zero. I do not count it as Mortal Kombat however. It felt too much like different title which tried to take advantage of MK:DA trademark. Perhaps it didn't sucked but I just couldn't find joy in this game.
MK9: All male Ninja's.
MK10: At first Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile and Ermac. Later Tremor. Ultimately Kotal Kahn (War variant).
MK11: Kotal Kahn (Ascension because War is absent. Cat is bad joke since his only advantage over other's is reliable get in against zoners BUT whats the point of having such an tool when zoners have better melee than you lol), Raiden (he were annoying me with his screams in previous parts and when they gone I actually started to miss them) I don't know why really, Shao Kahn (eh again bad character).
Teken 3-7: Yoshimitsu (I also played him once in T2)(although last time I were satisfied with him was in T5. Irony they loved to change Yoshimitsu drastically with each installement but when they made him unappealing in T6 they decided to stop drastical changes), Sometmes Heichachi, True Oger and Kazuya.
Guilty Gear XX R-Rev2: Justice. Although not in GGACC+R where they made us hold buttons like in f* Twister game. Given that she wasn't present in sequels I started to suspect them on making her unfun on puprose to decrease her popularity among fanbase so they could cut her out of the series.
SSF4AE Akuma.
SF5: Erhm I tried to give this game chances on more occasions but ultimately I dont play it. I licked Charlie, Akuma, Zeku and Gill. I dislike this game so I don't know if I should even list it.
Blazblue CPEX,CF: Hakumen. In CF I would mained Susano'o over him but his seals mechanic gave him literally hundret(s) of combo routes depending on situation. I like complicated charaxcters but It were overkill.
BB X Tag: Susano'o, Mitsuru Kirijo,Hakumen, Izayoi.
DOA5: Kasumi, Hayabusa.
Soul Blade: Lizardman
Soul Calibur: Somphitia, Lizardman, Nightmare.
Soul Calibur 2: Cassandra.
Soul Calibur 5: Mitsurugi, Nightmare, Yoshimitsu.
Soul Calibur 6 Beta: Mitsurugi, Yoshimitsu. Ultimately however amount of unnecessary new mechanics and seemingly worse usage of 8w run made me unwilling to buy it.
SSBU: Hmm Dark Samus? Ganondorf? Corrin? I don't know. Probably Dark Samus.
UMvC3: Virgil, Dormammu, Firebrand. Although I played so little and only against CPU that it might not count.
MVCI: Dormammu + Jedah, Later Venom + Gamora. I wish this game popular even today because its gameplay were outstanding.
DBFZ: Hit, SSB Vegeta, Cell.
Zero Divide 2: Tau, Zero, Cygnus.
Injustice: Doomsday.
Injustice 2: Atrocitus.

I'm 100% sure I missed game or two.



Hmm how do i choose characters? I certainly like weapons which have at least some range. I also like unique characters who have something very uncommon in their gameplay. I like Ninja's. I like quick characters (although mine list proves that characters whose speed is below average are also sometimes appealing to me). Sometimes I chose characters based on appearance and give this character chance even if playstyle is something that looks unlike mine pair of shoes.
 

Apex Kano

Kano Commando main MKX
Command Grabs and Parries. Sonya and Kano MKX was like Heaven to me. They both played like I wanted them to.