From my experience, they're worse than Scorpion players. Scorpion players are usually aware of how cheap Scorpion is, so they just live and let live. A Scorpion player wouldn't really challenge you on how hard it is to use him. Sub Zero players on the other hand are usually arrogant, and think all is well. I came to the conclusion that they think just because they don't use Scorpion, they have the moral high ground. They also seem to tbag after matches too. As if 50/50s and a projectile eating ice ball requires any brain power.
What if there was a Sub-Zero player who also plays Scorpion, like myself? Neither Scorpion nor Sub-Zero are cheap in this game, but I will tell you that Scorpion can be made to have more 50/50 mix-ups than Sub, he gets 40% for 1 bar, 38-39% off an anti-air (S3/S4), has the same obnoxious pokes that Sub-Zero has and not only has more mids, but they also hit from further ranges.
Yet, Scorpion is still not cheap and neither is Sub-Zero; Sub literally has only the overhead and the low (and slide if equipped) as mix-up options and of those options, two of them are full combo-punished if blocked. None of his other strings have any kind of low/overhead components for anyone to worry about. Don't get me wrong, Sub-Zero is a great character in this game that is powerful in the hands of someone that knows what they're doing, but saying that he's cheap because he can alternate between a 19-frame overhead that is indeed reactable in an offline setting (and still easily scouted in ideal online conditions) and a safe low that must be hit-confirmed into serious damage is a cognitive distortion of the highest proportions. The low has much shorter range than the overhead, so if the Sub player is at distance and is about to attempt a mix-up, it's likely going to be the overhead.
If Sub-Zero is really the bane of MK players' existence like many people claim that he is, then we should see him dominating the tournament scene, along with 'cheap-ass Scorpion'. But alas, we do not. It seems every time a tournament player picks up Sub-Zero and uses him in a competitive setting, they come up short - and we're talking about former EVO champions and mainstay Top 8 medalists here. Perhaps it isn't Sub-Zero or his users that are the issue here...allowing Sub-Zero players to be in range of his low starter and overhead option would seem to indicate a loss in the neutral. Sub-Zero - and Scorpion - can seem insurmountable in an online setting, but with a little bit of lab-work, patience, determination and a mastery of a decent character, their limitations become apparent.
The
only normalization that Sub-Zero should get is a severe reduction in hit advantage on his standing 2 and on his B14 and B32 strings, so that Sub players can no longer freeze an opponent and then 50/50-loop them to death. There is much more to the character than that stupid loop and he will still be a great character without it. He needs no other nerfs of any kind, except perhaps to his ground freeze move because in the move's current setting, it creates a perpetual 50/50 loop situation off any hit-confirm. That move needs a complete re-work, but that's about it for Sub nerfs.
By the way, this is a reply not just to SwiftEagle, but to anyone and everyone who boldly proclaims that Sub-Zero is this unbeatable mix-up machine that destroys everyone with safe 50/50s. He is no such thing - he has exactly 2 50/50 mix-up options, one of which is full-combo punished on block. Good Sub-Zero players know this and thus do not rely on said 50/50s to win. They have to use their other tools to win, which is what you all should be doing also. Play a decent character against players in a wired, low-ping connection and get an actual decent neutral game and you will find the Sub-Zero match much easier, I promise.
I'll be damned if I sit idly by and watch perpetual complainers get a good character needlessly nerfed D'Vorah-style due to fake news about safe, unreactable 50/50s and a lack of lab work.