Question Which Secondary Characters Complement SZ?

[Whiskeyjack]

I'm looking to pick up a secondary character that can help cover for some of SZ's weaknesses. My play time is very limited, so I have a strong preference for relatively simple, easy-to-pick-up characters.

I struggle with strong zoners (no surprise), so I was initially attracted to Noob; but Tom Brady's most recent tier list classifies Noob as a B-tier character, and since there are so many options in tiers S and A, it seems silly not to select a naturally stronger one.

I've always been attracted to Smoke as the anti-zoner, and after watching some Aris videos, he looks relatively simple.

I'm also interested in Liu Kang, Raiden, and Sektor.

SO... who should I pick up? Thanks for reading.

 

[Enenra]

Noob and Sub compliment each other quite nicely I do say.

 

[SZSR]

I'm looking to pick up a secondary character that can help cover for some of SZ's weaknesses. My play time is very limited, so I have a strong preference for relatively simple, easy-to-pick-up characters.

I struggle with strong zoners (no surprise), so I was initially attracted to Noob; but Tom Brady's most recent tier list classifies Noob as a B-tier character, and since there are so many options in tiers S and A, it seems silly not to select a naturally stronger one.

I've always been attracted to Smoke as the anti-zoner, and after watching some Aris videos, he looks relatively simple.

I'm also interested in Liu Kang, Raiden, and Sektor.

SO... who should I pick up? Thanks for reading.

If you're looking for A tier, try out Smoke and Rain. Smoke for destroying pure-zoners and Rain to provide a more defensive mix-up character. Although i'd recommend not going past 3 for now.
Smoke though is easy to start out, to be able to condition your opponent to act a certain way is kinda difficult.

 

[GNG Iniquity]

I've always been attracted to Smoke as the anti-zoner, and after watching some Aris videos, he looks relatively simple.

I'm also interested in Liu Kang, Raiden, and Sektor.

SO... who should I pick up? Thanks for reading.

I do not recommend Sektor if you're looking for an easy to pick up character, because he's not it. Liu Kang has iAFBs, low fireballs, EX kick to get in and strong rushdown - he's also painfully simple. Go with him!

 

[FrothyOmen]

Smoke is very easy to be a scrub with , one of the most difficult to be good with.
Don't tier whore, play who you want to play and who feels good to you. Noob is very easy to pick up, but requires very good baiting/mindgames/matchup knowledge to be played to his full potential. he's tournament viable

 

[Enenra]

Smoke is very easy to be a scrub with , one of the most difficult to be good with.
Don't tier whore, play who you want to play and who feels good to you. Noob is very easy to pick up, but requires very good baiting/mindgames/matchup knowledge to be played to his full potential. he's tournament viable

Easy to pick up, hard to master. Keep that in mind about Noob OP.

 

[FrothyOmen]

Kano's pretty easy to pick up too. db2 and df2 and fdbf appropriately and you've got half the character down, and one that will definitely annoy and tilt your opponent.

 

[greeneless]

I do not recommend Sektor if you're looking for an easy to pick up character, because he's not it. Liu Kang has iAFBs, low fireballs, EX kick to get in and strong rushdown - he's also painfully simple. Go with him!

I agree that sektor is not easy to master, and as a kang mainer I agree with him being painfully simple at times also (but, you have to make him more complex to mix things up, or you'll get rolled).

But I wouldn't suggest picking up Kang to compliment sub zero, and thats the point of the tread. Sub obviously isnt pure rush down, and that is kangs big strength, but Sub does have to get close to someone to do any real damage. I dont play a whole lot of sub, but I know you're not going to get very far hiding behind an ice clone and throwing projectiles against good players. Kang has a better zoning game than sub, but I feel like its only truly effective against certain characters. I think you want to pick a character that forces your opponent to come to you, instead of the other way around. That's smoke, or that's Noob.

 

[Lord Beef]

I agree that sektor is not easy to master, and as a kang mainer I agree with him being painfully simple at times also (but, you have to make him more complex to mix things up, or you'll get rolled).

But I wouldn't suggest picking up Kang to compliment sub zero, and thats the point of the tread. Sub obviously isnt pure rush down, and that is kangs big strength, but Sub does have to get close to someone to do any real damage. I dont play a whole lot of sub, but I know you're not going to get very far hiding behind an ice clone and throwing projectiles against good players. Kang has a better zoning game than sub, but I feel like its only truly effective against certain characters. I think you want to pick a character that forces your opponent to come to you, instead of the other way around. That's smoke, or that's Noob.

Its crazy I found this thread today of all days. I was just thinking about joining the temple of light and start learning kang to compliment sz. Greeneless, you may be getting hit up for mirrors sometime soon! Btw sorry I never answered your message the other night, I was in the zone and never even saw it!

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[Grand Blitz Ace]

Well I'll just say that Sektor is my alternate and I think he is a good choice. I have an easier time dealing with some of Sub-Zero's tougher opponents when I play Sektor.

 

[doomfarmer]

I main Sub as well... and I gotta say, go with Raiden.

He'll cover your bad matchups. he's an amazing character and you'll want to transfer the way you play Sub over to Raiden. When the game first came out, everyone used Raiden online because of his great rushdown... but he's a different character now. Play him like you do Sub, bait and punish. Use his teleport to get out of the corner of course but use it to cancel your strings to make them safe like how you use ice clone after a blocked string. Plus, Raiden has similar corner rape combos to Sub's... I just think he'll be easy for you to pick up I dunno. He's pretty solid man, you should try him out for a bit.

 

[Verstande]

If you have limited time, raiden is not the answer, because he is essentially not easy to master, he requires STRICT MINDFUCKING, and that takes time. Your best choice would be smoke, but he's terrible against Kitana's for some reason.

 

[Wildabeast]

Raiden's been working pretty well for me so far. At the lowest levels of play Smoke is easy, but once you get to fighting players that actually know what they're doing Smoke is far from easy. Raiden isn't easy to master either, but the difference is Smoke still struggles with some of Subs bad match ups (Reptile and Kitana being good examples), Raiden doesn't.

 

[Ravox]

SMOKE.

They complement each other so well that they have an affair.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

To clarify, my preference for an "easy-to-pick-up" secondary counts out dash-cancelers like Kabal and Reptile, and characters that require Jedi-like hit-confirmation such as Johnny Cage. AFAIK, there are no easy-to-play characters that can succeed at competitive levels; but due to my limited play time, I'm hoping to pick a secondary that doesn't have the steepest learning curve.

That said, it sounds like Smoke and Raiden are my best options.

Smoke will be easier to succeed with against noobs, but will struggle in some of the same matchups that SZ does. Raiden will be tougher to learn, but will be a stronger overall secondary; does that sound right? If so, I'm probably leaning towards Raiden.

Can I get by with just 3-4 combos on Raiden? My limited play time prevents from committing much more than that to muscle memory.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Verstande]

Definitely no, 3-4 combos won't help you at all if you have limited time to play, Raiden is all about mindfucking, and that is no easy task.

It would be best to choose Smoke.

 

[GodsLonelyman]

Learn Noob Saibot. He is the real Sub Zero after all ;-) Kidding aside, if you like playing methodically and baiting and punishing, try Smoke , Noob Saibot and Raiden.

Smoke is a turtle. You can poke, hit and annoy your opponent all day long then just run away, smoke away I mean. lol He is a great punisher and an anti zoner.

Raiden can be another annoying turtle. He's pretty safe and can escape lots of bs with his teleport.

Noob Saibot. He's a decent zoner but dies from up close. his normals and pokes are all garbage so you wanna make jump distance the closest they get to you. just in range for a b+1, an upknee, f+3 etc. He can be a nuisance to those that dont have teleports and have to burn meter to get in. Quite gimmicky and requires "thinking outside the box". I think he's more for the "avant-garde" crowd. You gotta think alot, be patient, mix it up, make good reads, few mistakes etc and be very careful when zoning because his projectiles recovery is horrific.

 

[McNasty]

sub has issues with characters that can runaway and still do damage. I'd be looking into an anti zoner best would be raiden then probably smoke or freddy.

 

[Sao87]

sub has issues with characters that can runaway and still do damage. I'd be looking into an anti zoner best would be raiden then probably smoke or freddy.

Came here to sai Raiden as well, he has an answer for everything that is shitty for sub and vise versa.

 

[Bidu]

I'd say that Cyber Sub and Noob Saibot are the most common picks.

 

[PunisherAlive]

someones Salty?

 

[loogie]

Mileena, she's my secondary after SZ.

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

Raiden... without a doubt.

 

[Sage Leviathan]

From my experience, Noob, Mileena, Ermac, and Smoke are really great partners for him.

 

[PunisherAlive]

Sub-Zero hasnt got a good projectile, yes people can't trade because with him because of iceball but he hasn't got a good projectile to build meter with.

i think you need to find a character with good mobility, good projectile and ofcourse thinks you like in a character.

take a look at Smoke, Mileena, Kung Lao.