That's the beauty of Shinnok, you can in fact, make various combos from his special moves. I got a combo with Imposter that led up to 31% damage.

By "he has no combos" do you mean you're unable to link moves and create combos or there's no combos in his move list?

Not everyone has tons of combos in their variations. You gotta learn to mix and match with your regular moves, special moves and even link them with dashes or runs if necessary.

Says the Jacqui player. xD

But he is right, you have to learn to link moves together with what little combos you have. They give you the tools and it's up to you to craft something from them.

Shinnok is really good with a couple of unblockable specials, he doesn't have any real mix-up options since he doesn't have an overhead as a combo starter but you can still figure out a few things with him.

I believe bone shaper to be a good variation for that as well as Nerco, as for his Imposter, it all depends on who you are facing.

Bone Shaper Shinnok is one of my mains! He has great combo opportunities, and I'm still figuring out more. Here's a really good one I came up with that needs two bars of super, using the Xbox controller:

Back+A, X, Down+Y into Ex down-forward Y

Once the pop over your head, down-back Y

Ex on the second ground fireball to bring them back toward you, catch them in the air with

Forward+Y, Y, X+A

I think when OP said he barely has any combos in any variation he meant to say strings, which is true Shinnok has the least of any character.

But yeah Shinnok to me feels massively unfinished as a character. I'm honestly puzzled by a lot of the choices they made with him in combination with his overall lack of tools/strings. Like he was either designed from the ground up to be the absolute worst character in the game or they just threw him together last minute. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. I would love to be proved wrong but right now I really don't see how thats possible. You would think the variation system would add so much depth to the game, but then you get characters like Shinnok to remind everybody how lazy/gimmicky they can be over at NRS sometimes.

I know this early in the games life its wrong to judge a character and start requesting buffs since that can easily backfire. But even with that in mind Shinnok STILL needs buffs. Right now we have a shitty, half finished MK9 Shang Tsung spread across 3 variations on the roster.

So yeah, if ya can't tell I'm hella disappointed with how Shinnok turned out.

Which are both garbage. I would be honestly surprised if people actually tried to use the one in necromancer, it is full combo punishable by every character in the game regardless of where they are on screen. Shinnok might as well have a special move that inflicts 30 plus damage to himself with zero gains because thats what that move does. The only time its viable is if your opponent put their controller down to go do something.

As unlikely as it sounds, Impostor Shinnok has become my second main. At first, I only learned him for that AMAZING Face-Steal Brutality, but turns out we actually clicked. He totally called the next day and we're going out again on Friday.



Here's a few things that work for me:

- B2 as a Round 1 starter. Very few start-up frames, and it chucks them across the screen; it's always best to start your offense from a distance when playing Shinnok. Stick to mid/mid-to-full range.

- EX Fireballs into pop-up, F2, 2, DB1; I do this pretty often. F2 has crazy reach, it seems made for this juggle. Depending on the character you're fighting, you can then re-apply this combo and end it with the stolen special, which usually makes for really good damage.

- I know he doesn't have a lot of evident mix-ups, but I still execute some good guessing games with him. People fall for B3, DB1 a laughably many times over. This allows me to steal their special off of a crazy-quick, low-hitting, good-reach normal. Other times, at close range, I'll do his 1,1,2,3 for the overhead, to keep them from thinking they can read my hits just because I'm playing Shinnok. When you hit them enough times with this low and overhead, they start respecting your close-range game as well, and become wary of fighting back. You're essentially tricking them into not realizing Shinnok isn't great at close-range. Gotta play the troll as a troll. Pepper in the occasional F2, 2, 4 from mid-range, and you're officially being scary hand-to-hand.

- I usually follow DB1 with Throw. They're liable to block any strings you try to execute, but for some reason have a nearly impossible time escaping my throw. After Throws, you're in a great spot for an Amulet Blast. It'll hit if they try to attack you or jump away from you.

- Tricky Teleport is awesome! Don't do it so much that they start reading and uppercutting you, but don't forget it's there. After a few failed Fireballs, it's a great move. I start out by following it with 1 for a pop-up into 2,2,DB1 or 2,2,Fireballs. If they start blocking or countering that, I start following it with 4. On hit and block, it'll put distance between you and the opponent, allowing Shinnok the range he needs to stay offensive.




I think that pretty much covers my play style with Shinnok. I wanted to learn Necromancer as well, but it's so zoning-heavy... I don't wanna be the guy who has to stand across the screen throwing you away repeatedly (albeit in style).

Don't get me angry!

But you are somewhat right.

On a completely separate note, does anyone think he looks really silly with his tiny skeleton arms?

YES. I don't know what they were thinking. If looks awful, literally awful.

Yeah I don't really like his bone arms, they look stupid. Which is a shame because I really like Necromancer Shinnok.

He's not "somewhat" right, he's completely correct. The judgement hand or whatever is complete fucking garbage. Flick is better but the tracking on it is fucking horrible, same with the skeleton grab thing.

Shinnok is really disappointing tbh, I do what I can with him but it's obvious that he's very limited compared to the rest of the cast. He feels very unfinished imo. Not going to be surprised when he gets buffs

NRS fuck his gameplay up on purpose. Shinnok is one of my top favorite characters and second most used character for this game. I just hate that his gameplay feels half-ass done.

His gameplay in Bone Shaper feels great. And I agree with what a few others said the arms in Necro are so bad. I really want to try using it but I can't look at those arms.

I'm totally right and I want you angry. All Shinnok players should be angry as fuck. We should be lighting ourselves on fire in front of NRS in protest. The character is not finished and they now need to go back and buff him.

The only viable variation he has is impostor and its really, really not that viable. An unsafe low starter or a grab is the shittiest vortex of all time. And worst of all he has no other options outside the damn vortex. D4 into hell sparks is imo the best thing he has going for him but its punishable by fast advancing specials (i.e Subs slide, Reptile dash, etc etc pretty sure every single character has one). Everything else in that variation is full combo punishable on block (other than enhanced amulet blast.) And Why. The. Fuck does his move steal thing steal the most useless, pointless moves of some characters?? Erron Blacks fucking anti air??? Really? Erron black players never even use that shit, of the one thousand useful moves Erron black has Shinnok gets the damn anti air?? Wtf was going on at NRS the day that got decided? Bring your kid to work and let them do a shitty job day?? If like a fuckin toddler came up with that idea I would understand, their brains aren't fully developed and shit, anyone else should be exterminated from the planet.

/rant

And I'm nowhere near as mad as my post sounds lol, but I am still not a happy camper. If people don't complain he won't get buffs is my worry.

Shinnok Imposter is my main character and his combos are actually very damage heavy. I can easily pull off 40%+ combos, as where my 2nd character is scorpion and it's tough to pull off 30%+ combos due to so many button variations having to be pushed.

Last night I was on a winning streak of 13 matches in ranked player vs player until I got my ass handed to me by reptile. I have to find out how to deal with lots of fast pressure and close combat. Dvorah is another character that gives me trouble with her mid range combat.

My shinnok is on point. Lano will tell you. His ex shoulder rush on wakeup helps heaps for rushers. Setting you back up. But the good thing about Bone Shaper is his 50/50 mixup. He can come with the low syth grab or if they duck hit you with the mid fireball game which has some knockback. You can either do 2 or 3 sets of the ground fireballs great for jumpers or hit them with his low. The amulet strike is great.

Shinnok is my best.

The main issue I have with Shinnok is the lack of interesting normals. I like when they incorporate the character's special abilities in their normal punch/kick moveset.

Quan Chi is a good example of this where he will use those green blasts of energy during his normal combo strings. Reptile uses his tongue and claws. Kano uses the bladed knives on his forearms. Cassie uses her nightstick, etc, etc.

Would have liked to have seen the boneshaping incorporated into his normal attacks. They could have come up with some awesome stuff. Kind of a letdown.

I do like the way he looks, with the gleaming gems on his outfit. Also his dialogue is great. So I am definitely a fan of the character, but feel a bit letdown with the lack of thought put into his normals.

I've only used Jacqui in story mode(and once in versus) yet. xD

I actually created this sig and picture to annoy the haters.

I'm a Kano player. I use arcade to gauge other characters but I haven't done Jacqui yet.

If they buff him, I hope they get rid of those ridiculous skeleton forearms.

Am I the only one who likes the skeleton forearms?

They are hilarious.

Just discoverd something. Don't know if posted yet.

With shinnok imposter vs Sonya you can steal her leg grab. Do that near the end of battle and use leg grab as last move. It Will have Sonyas Brutality.

No you're not, I totally agree lol. It does look silly, that is exactly why I like it.

It gives me that cheeeeesy old MK feeling.

Same with Mileena's Ball Roll Brutality.