Question - Kotal Kahn Which are Kotal's best variations?

[Jeffrey Wolf]

For those who aren't sure if Blood can make top 8/be tournament viable, don't worry, I will. It's just a matter of time =).

Sure, I might need a pocket in certain situations, but that's true of any one-on-one fighting game--just look at the recent SF4 Evo finals--but I'll do it with BG as my main.

 

[Jeffrey Wolf]

I hope people get on the SG bandwagon, to keep BG on the down low, but I think, in the end, SG players will have trouble, as it doesn't fight well against Kotal's bad match ups. That is, depending on the character, WG or BG will be a better pick, or you'll need a pocket. For example, Jax is a bad match up against WG, because his fast attacks break WG's armor and his dash punch can punish the overhead and low sword easily. Using SG, however, in this match, isn't going to be much better, as you'll need to be close, exactly where Jax wants you.

 

[Jeremy KO]

If you want to MKX in a style that's more "honest" and not just doing 50/50s into 50/50s and being plus on block or whatever while still doing well in a tournament, Kotal is probably one of the best choices. Getting 60% off of a read in Blood God or controlling the neutral game in War God gives me some of the most rewarding feelings I've felt while playing this game.

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

Instead of asking, I'm gonna post my two cents.

Let's start with sun god:
The MU that were hard before are still hard. The new move gives him a slight buff in MU that were already mana gable but does little for his tougher MU where he gets zoned and parry doesn't help much. His armor (moon choke) is great for oki at all levels but easier at 1 and 2 due to how close they are. The armor part of it is meh...it gets stuffed and is not that great of a wake up. Tic throws are fun but it has more recovery than a whiffed bf3 from kenshi . Cashing out the sun levels is even better cause level 1 and 2 are still great. But again getting those levels while you get zoned by katana just will not work.

War God:
Still the best variation and plays MKX pretty much. Slight disadvantage vs the top tiers but has the tools to counter if yr reads are good.

Blood God:
Much like @UltraDavid ive been playing this one the most recently. Damage and defense buffs are huge and they are easy to get out. His footsies are the same or worse in a linear sense but the threat of totems make it super scary to get close. If you play sun god cause you like tic throws and armor you might as well play BG cause his armor sucks and blood God can end up with 16% throws or more with damage totum. The depth here is vast which makes me really think about whether to play sun god or blood God.

My order:
1) War
2) Blood
3) Sun

Sun is by far the most swaggy...that throw animation may be the only reason I keep playing him.

 

[GAV]

 

[Rager Da Prince]

Personally I feel Sun God is now his best. I'd say sun, then war, then blood, but that all three are viable.

I think sun is the best because there's no range where he has no options. War can still get zoned out, but with parry and sun charge, sun can deal with zoning while making the opponent not even want to zone. Midrange, all the Kotals now have safe options and a real antiair grab, so war god's ability to end strings in df2 for safety is less important, although still good. Sun's command grab mixups are no less safe and in some situations safer than war god's overhead and low. F12 being safe really opened up the command grab imo, since it gives a credible tool in midrange/pressure that opponents have to respect on block more. The grab/not grab mixups also lead to more damage more consistently than war overhead/low mixups imo.

That said, war still has extra safety in strings, controls more ranges, and has better wakeup attacks, and those are all important.

So I feel sun is more versatile, but it's also a matchup thing. Where Kotal wants to get in, I think sun is better. Where Kotal needs to control space and have good armored moves to escape bad situations, I think war is better.

All that said, the one I've actually been playing most is blood heh. I agree with the posters above about the improved totems being good and parry making anti-zoning more viable. In fact blood might have the best anti-zoning options for Kotal. On one hand, putting up a crystal and parrying a fireball makes your next ex sunstone do ridiculous damage on hit or block, and the opp has to respect the danger of trading. On the other, putting up a defense totem means you can walk and block or parry and not worry about the chip or mistiming a parry and eating like 4%. It's also just really fun to make decisions about which totems to use when. Getting good at it is hard but there's a really high ceiling there imo! Too bad about blood's lack of mixups, but with faster b1 and safe f12 Kotal can make some pretty credible frame traps, and blood god can capitalize on them like no other.

Anyway, I see sun and war as being legit contenders to win a major. Blood god I'm not sure but I think it can make real top 8s. Kotal is good!

Thank you. I'm not Hollywood enough to make TYM bealive SG is better.

 

[Dean]

BG is scary good, it makes me sad that more of you KK mains can't see passed WG's armor and mixup game to realize how much potential that variation has.

If I didn't hate how KK looks as a character I would main him too, I just hate the way he looks though.

It's unfortunate. BG is stupid good.

You guys should really get away from the games current "meta" mentality and explore the potential of the variation.

I don't think it would be easy to dominate people day 1, but once you master it, It would be scary hard to stop.

I hope to see a BG place well at a major soon.

 

[LEGEND]

1.Blood

2. Sun

3. War

All other opinions are living in the past

 

[Trauma_and_Pain]

Ill still put in Destiny over this most days

Fixed.

 

[Icepick]

I would like to see how Alucard uses Sun God. IMO, War God is his best variation. Sun God is still a good variation with those command grab setups but you have a lot more flexibility and options with War God. When you have meter with War God, they have to be careful since that armour launcher has a really good range and it's pretty fast.

As for Kotal being a top 10 character, I don't know. Once you learn the matchup and know all his gaps, it is a lot harder to open them up.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

Let's not forget that upon landing f12 with Sun God, he can level up TWICE against characters without teleports, once guaranteed against the whole cast. The upgraded damage is a nice token, but the meter gained when Scorching is also great. You can Scorch in pressure to gain meter and throw the opponent off.

 

[Qwark28]

Let's not forget that upon landing f12 with Sun God, he can level up TWICE against characters without teleports, once guaranteed against the whole cast. The upgraded damage is a nice token, but the meter gained when Scorching is also great. You can Scorch in pressure to gain meter and throw the opponent off.

F12 only gives one charge and that's barely not punishable. Turn tech roll on after your strings.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

F12 only gives one charge and that's barely not punishable. Turn tech roll on after your strings.

LBSH, no one (top players included) will tech roll and immediately run or do a wakeup projectile after this hits them.

 

[Qwark28]

LBSH, no one (top players included) will tech roll and immediately run or do a wakeup projectile after this hits them.

... what?

I'm not sure you understand how you should be using run. Running after someone trying to set up is one of the most basic things.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

... what?

I'm not sure you understand how you should be using run. Running after someone trying to set up is one of the most basic things.

f12 is +40 on hit vs grounded opponents.
Spark has 1 startup frame and 41 recovery frames.

You're telling me my opponent is going to punish me when I'm -2 from fullscreen? lol no.

 

[Qwark28]

f12 is +40 on hit vs grounded opponents.
Spark has 1 startup frame and 41 recovery frames.

You're telling me my opponent is going to punish me when I'm -2 from fullscreen? lol no.

No, but they'll be in your face. You have nowhere near enough time to do it twice and most characters will be right in front of you.

F12 sends you fullscreen if you don't tech roll. If you tech roll you recover way faster, please go into training mode and compare the distance.

 

[Jeffrey Wolf]

@Dean, thus my previous posts. And how can you not like how Kotal looks, lol? One of the main reasons I play the fool. Reminds me of Ogre from SFxT, a game that died too fast...

 

[Jeffrey Wolf]

@Qwark28, as a day one SG player, how are you feeling about him these days? Seems to be a viable variation now, but I can't think of any matches where I'd prefer it over WG, BG, or a pocket. I'm always up for being proven wrong though.

 

[Kotal_Wannabe]

1) Wargod
2) Bloodgod
3) Sungod


Wargod is still the best variation, it's the only one with a decent armoured attack, which is too important in this game. While sungod has armour too, it's not so useful, to the point where you might as well just use blood god instead for the extra dmg. Sun gods tick thows are great and fun to boot, but crazy punishable, and for the sake of a low dmg thow, i'd rather not get full combo punished. F1b2 imo kotal's most important string is too unsafe, atleast in bloodgod you can make it semi safe with a defence totem,

The new parry makes blood god and sungod alot more tempting, being able to counter zoners is nice, but way too much recovery on the parry, and faster zoners can fuck up your momentum, still it's nice to be able to parry kitanas fan spam and counter with ex sunstone, makes them think twice about mindlessly spamming.

So yeh, wargod is the best, but fuk it i'm using bloodgod at the moment for the fun factor. The faster b1 has for sure helped this variation and all the others more than any of the other buffs.

 

[Qwark28]

@Qwark28, as a day one SG player, how are you feeling about him these days? Seems to be a viable variation now, but I can't think of any matches where I'd prefer it over WG, BG, or a pocket. I'm always up for being proven wrong though.

War god is the best for fast paced matchups where you're rushed down badly or kept out by someone like Quan.

Sun god best for anything else.