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Question Why was Kabal so good?

CrimsonShadow

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
StealthyMuffin said:
I always see jokes about how broken Kabal was, but I've never seen an actual reason as to why he was broken. Can I get an in-depth explanation? Or better yet, is there a video showcasing everything he can do?
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Imagine a character who has the kind of chained cancel pressure from MKX, except that he can continue it as long as he wants, because it doesn't cost him any meter -- and there's no stamina bar to limit it. Then imagine that no other character in the game, save one, had any kind of continuous cancel pressure (and the other one who did had limits).

Then imagine chip did more damage than it did in MKX.

Then imagine that he had a projectile that moved him backwards, hit mid, and was fast enough to put two on screen at a time.

Also imagine that if you tried to jump and were hit by a projectile, he could convert that from 75% screen into a combo. And that while you were worrying about the mid projectile, he could also throw out a fast low projectile at any time.

Imagine that he built ridiculous meter while shooting those projectiles, and while doing his cancel pressure, and that at any time he could interrupt your offense for a bar with an insta-armored combo starter that hits all the way to near fullscreen.

If you wake up tomorrow with nightmares, you're getting the right idea.
 
RM AtK!

RM AtK!

aka - RM_AtK !
STRYKIE said:
Well to understand why Kabal did what he did so well, there's a few things to understand about the MK9 system:

- Wakeups had invincibility frames: regular had 11, EX wakeups had 20, (so if you had an advantageous restand, it was a massive deal in MK9)
- Armor was based on startup to first active frame rather than how many hits it could take
- Only designated specials were true wakeups, Kabal had 3 different true wakeups between nomad dash, low buzzsaw and overhead tornado slam
- There was no penalty other than your meter for using a breaker
- Using a breaker in the air actually put you at massive frame advantage
- Air projectile recovery properties were not hard coded and were the same at all times.
- Blockstrings did not jail into highs.
- Hitbox collision issues were waaaaay wonkier

So imagine if in MKX, Liu Kang could use a breaker, was the only character who could run, and run cancel without a stamina penalty, Dragon Kick to the other side of the screen after a breaker if wanted to, had the same recovery on his air fireball that he's granted mid combo, had a disjointed hurtbox on his low fireball etc. That's pretty much Kabal.

Granted, some people were definitely misinformed about some things that made him seem better than he actually was, mostly because MK9's training mode was complete dildos and you could barely explore anything with it. For example, the whole "full screen armored launcher" people say wasn't actually a thing, the armor on EX nomad dash wore off before he even entered travelling frames. It was only really on wakeup that EX nomad dash became a whole different pile of shit due to the invincibility system.




F32 NDC was plus 2 and REO followed up with another F3 (a 13 frame normal), I'm pretty sure it was just a botched counterpoke.
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you could standing punish FULLcombo a f32 into f32 if you had a 9-10 frame starter, which everyone did. The scary one was 2ndc and ex cancels. Kabal was 2 gud. Sonya, was a CUNT though
 
DrManhattan

DrManhattan

Noob
Tony at Home said:
Not really. He did try to poke out and got full combo'd.

It's easy in hindsight to say " oh, you can poke out at that part you were able to poke out of"

The issue is knowing what that 'part' is.
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This is the exact concept of why Tanya is so amazing. People so "there are gaps".

But.... When. You have to make a hard read to counter poke. Or ur corner carried and lost 40%
 
Eddy Wang

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
CrimsonShadow said:
Imagine a character who has the kind of chained cancel pressure from MKX, except that he can continue it as long as he wants, because it doesn't cost him any meter -- and there's no stamina bar to limit it. Then imagine that no other character in the game, save one, had any kind of continuous cancel pressure (and the other one who did had limits).

Then imagine chip did more damage than it did in MKX.

Then imagine that he had a projectile that moved him backwards, hit mid, and was fast enough to put two on screen at a time.

Also imagine that if you tried to jump and were hit by a projectile, he could convert that from 75% screen into a combo. And that while you were worrying about the mid projectile, he could also throw out a fast low projectile at any time.

Imagine that he built ridiculous meter while shooting those projectiles, and while doing his cancel pressure, and that at any time he could interrupt your offense for a bar with an insta-armored combo starter that hits all the way to near fullscreen.

If you wake up tomorrow with nightmares, you're getting the right idea.
Click to expand...
As much as gas blast hitting mid, pretty sure you could neutral crouch it, sadly everyone that could pass Kabal's zoning would lose to rushdown, and who ever could win in the rush down department would still lose to his zoning.
Kabal had decent damage with 32% resets like anyone else though
His armor only lasted for 5 frames

I still think, Kabal's natural enemy in MK9 was Skarlet, Kung Lao was nice as well due the hitbox, but once rooftop day was picked Lao was just as fucked.

Skarlet had the best manageable armor in the game since it lasted for 29 frames and she could extend the duration, Crimson Dash was stupid broken and would lose only to X-rays, and the best blockstun (+21 on block bruh, just block that ex dagger standing and its on), she had the best OTG and her okizeme game was broken.

For any other character who i used against Kabal aside from KL for a while i felt hopeless, definitely 6-4 kabal everywhere. But Skarlet had some pretty good offense which there were times a good slide on hit was enough to bring down a good Kabal.

REO on his prime was definitely the best Kabal that existed, just remembered that match with J360 at MLG dallas, man, i couldn't tell if i was hype or sad.
 
crosstalk

crosstalk

Noob
Eddy Wang said:
As much as gas blast hitting mid, pretty sure you could neutral crouch it, sadly everyone that could pass Kabal's zoning would lose to rushdown, and who ever could win in the rush down department would still lose to his zoning.
Kabal had decent damage with 32% resets like anyone else though
His armor only lasted for 5 frames

I still think, Kabal's natural enemy in MK9 was Skarlet, Kung Lao was nice as well due the hitbox, but once rooftop day was picked Lao was just as fucked.

Skarlet had the best manageable armor in the game since it lasted for 29 frames and she could extend the duration, Crimson Dash was stupid broken and would lose only to X-rays, and the best blockstun (+21 on block bruh, just block that ex dagger standing and its on), she had the best OTG and her okizeme game was broken.

For any other character who i used against Kabal aside from KL for a while i felt hopeless, definitely 6-4 kabal everywhere. But Skarlet had some pretty good offense which there were times a good slide on hit was enough to bring down a good Kabal.

REO on his prime was definitely the best Kabal that existed, just remembered that match with J360 at MLG dallas, man, i couldn't tell if i was hype or sad.
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Yeah I've always wondered if Kabal's MUs would change if people kept playing. Reptile, Skarlet, Kenshi, and KL were good candidates for going even with him.
 
Alright RyRy

Alright RyRy

Florida Kombat
Kabal was very annoying to fight against but at least he took decent execution and not just B1.

I would rather fight against Kabal than Tanya any day of the week.

But man was Kabal fun to play as. RIP every controller Kabal mains used..
 
Error

Error

DF2+R2
Legend has it Kabal was so powerful, that his power was used to create MKX. He is the father of the variation system, for he could play any style he wanted, he gave us the run, but we don't have his unlimited stamina, and our air fireballs could never be as fast recovering/traveling as his own.

Further proof of this is that wake-ups have no invincibility because he didn't care about such things, and Sindel didn't make it into the playable roster for killing him in MK9 story.

Kabal being God of MKX universe is cannon.
 
Matix218

Matix218

Get over here!
I enjoyed fighting against kabal tbh. It was such a challenge but so rewarding when you were able to overcome it. My best mk9 tournament performance (nec13) was ruined by kabal though. Lost my first match to soonks kabal on stream, won my next three matches in losers bracket, then get soonk again in losers and lost to his kabal again...

As good as kabal was though id still rather play against/watch kabal than tanya.... I just despise her play style
 
Spencer

Spencer

Always Training
He was fun too play and brought excitement to the game.

Yes he was too good

The game would have been less fun if he wasn't in the cast.
 
M2Dave

M2Dave

Zoning Master
Eddy Wang said:
I still think, Kabal's natural enemy in MK9 was Skarlet...
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I still think you are a delusional fool who ought to stop spreading that old, false narrative.

Anyway, Kabal was broken for all the aforementioned reasons. One of the primary ones was his ability to turn a defensive situations into an offensive one using a canceled EX nomad dash.
 
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