--Reiko--

I'm happy as f*ck to play Reiko again. He was so much fun in MK4.

With that said, I love him in MKA. However, he's not as strong as I was hoping him to be. His air combos don't register a a high amount of damage and his Ying Yeung isn't anything special by itself. It seems to be only a nice facilitator for his air combos--of which, mostly defines him as a character. His Crude Hammer has a number of unsafe moves that can be parried, but they can punish an opponent when starting an air combo, especially in the corner.

His 'assassin stars' don't hit someone all the way across the screen, but they have quite a reach. They seem to be a nice mid range tool on someone advancing w/ a combo. It's also nice to use after an air combo.

Example (Ying Yeung): 3, jump 1,1,3,3 After opponent his the ground, they can't roll out of the last hit that plants them. So, it doesn't hurt to throw his stars after the combo cause someone might not block while getting up.

To speak on his Crude Hammer, I found a glitch with it during an air combo . Start with this:

3, Flip Kick, jump 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 The opponent will twist and drop to the ground. If you notice, he'll hit twice on the ground and that leave an opponent open for only one move that can't be parried, blocked low, or woken up from afterwards. After 1, 1 in the air and the opponent drops, use t+3 and that'll register 36% damage for the combo.

this might be something small to use in open area, but in the corner... it's good to use to keep an opponent in the corner. Now... if you use this combo in the corner, you could try to switch to Ying Yeung and use d+4 instead of t+3 in Crude Hammer. From there, you could try his throw to add an additional 16% damage, but d+3 it can be woken up from, especially in the corner. Against a noob, this most likely will pay dividends, but it should be used selectively w/ individual strategy against an experienced player.

For now, I see him as a solid mid-tier character. Anyone else have any thoughts on Reiko?


Ghostdragon

Tgrant,don't worry about that online.Doing 1,1,u+3 twice is already hard enough.

And on big characters it leaves them standing,but it's still so bad to get hit by it.I think you get a free throw after it,or you might mix it up with another 1,1,u+3 or the Ground Bash.Both result in half a life.

Moloch is bad.

Check dude, the infinites from my understanding are hard and a lot more difficult to pull of then in MK:D, correct?With the exception of Jades which I hear is easy.

So, that's a good thing at least.

Besides, at least we can get out of most of them by rolling or breaking them but I hate wasting breakers on them.

Anyway, I agree with Dave on Moloch.He's 50/50 as far as opinions are concerned from what I'm reading and hearing online.Some say he's good others not.I don't think he's anything special personally, Blaze is better IMO.The only time I see Moloch giving me a hard time is in the corner where 4 hits can do like 58% but that's a rare situation.

I'll tell you this though, Blaze is fucking annoying.I played this guy online then he pulled cause I was corner trapping him.Lame.

Blaze is a top tier guy hands down, his rolly move along is unblockable and takes lots of damage, only thing you can do is jump.

Overall I must say Midway did a good job with this game, IMO.Most of the glitches you can escape like Malone is always saying I've noticed.

BTW, Mavado and Jarek are definitely top guys....

Hey Dave I hear you still use Dairou, lol is it me or is he like not nearly as hardcore as he was in MK:D?I think he's well toned down, his TS is predictable, mi zong isn't that great if you ask me and with the jumping in this game he's no longer a huge threat.That's my opinion on him.

BTW, I was playing someone the other day and Bo has a two hit little OTG I've noticed.Now, I did escape it but not easily.It's like a two hit pokey move not grab after it though.

Just wondering if anyone noticed that.

Blaze's "rolling move" is blockable.I'm sure I blocked it when the CPU did it on me.I'll test it again,though.

Also,whoever says Moloch is bad doesn't know what he's talking about. 1,1,u+3 is as spammable as BRC's f+3 in MK:D.The only reason why you can't spam it 100% of the time is because of the parry.Again,hit 1,1,u+3 and side step (so all their wake up attacks miss) and either do 1,1,u+3 again or the Ground Bash.That's 50%+ right there.

And yeah,Dairou is bad in MK:A.In fact,very bad.Characters like Sub-Zero,Sareena,Scorp,etc. are much better than him now.There's almost no reason to use him,especially if Moloch is around...

all the infs i found in the past few days are not hard at all

they are time infs, 83 hits 27% etc

they are also in the corner only, but are unescapable

jades, and the other 20 characters who have it, is not a inf, u can hold block or up and back to escape it, and some of them only "work" in the corner ALONG the wall, very hard to set up and would never arrise in any game situation

for the unescapable infs, raidens is hard and shang tsungs, the other 3 are easy, very easy, the reason why raidens and shang tsungs is hard is because they are not high enough after the first 2 air sets to keep continuing,, getting 30 hits with each of them is pure skill, basically keeping them at the same height for every one, there are ways of doing it


and another thing, this is offline only, air combos online stall and suck, no need to worry about them online.

worry about being player 1 or player 2 online, thats about it.

there are other infs i havent posted that i told u about in PMs MKF. if u want to know how its done, get back to me.


peace, hope u got cyraxs down

I like Reiko a lot too. I spent some time in practice and came up with some combos that are decent damage, but ineffective in a fight in some cases because (as everyone knows by now) of the ability to stay on the ground or tech roll out. I wish he had a better style than Ying Yeung, but whatever.

Ying Yeung
Flip 2x, jump, 332, 1134 = 40%

Crude
Flip 2x, jump, 112, 1134 = 42%
3, 3, (let them drop a bit) Stars =32%

Any style: Flip 2x, (drop) Stars = 32%

Shadow Grab, walk up and throw = 27%

I don't know if this is what's meant by infinite, but you can launch them, jump, 113 and immediately launch again upon landing. So...

Flip 2x, jump, 113...land and repeat. Tell me what you think.

~peace

not a inf

Sindel is pretty bad in this game. Argh her Zha Chuan is still very unsafe and her new combo 1,1,3 doesn't really help her. using U+1 and then air combing with her kwan Do does around 35 damage so at least thats decent

Kitana has definitely improved a lot. Her Ba Gua's 1,2,2,3 is pretty damn powerful. Already 31%right off the bat. But with Kitana i like to use her Steel Fan and use 1,1,b+2, 1,1, move forward, 1,1 b+2 does 35%.
I got a 43% with her i think. It was very difficult. Its the same as above except instead of ending with 1,1,b+2 you have to continue with 1,1 once again and then end with 1,1,b+2. With Ba Gua i like to use 1,3,cs 1,1 2,2,2,F+2 aswell a nice 38 percent combo 40%=Steel Fan 1,1, b+2, 1,1, air kombat 1,1,2, 1,1,4
her Ground fan is nice. Easy to throw out and comes out faster then other projectiles.

So any of the ninja's any good? I found out scorpion sucks ass. I thought he was ok at first but then I seen the mixups some of the other characters have. Drahmin's low and high pokes are nuts.

I was playing a guy from here who kicked my ass. Seen a lot of stuff. I need to mess with some other characters before everyone finds everything out lol. Scorpion is not cutting it this time around.

This is the gameplay topic right? Okay, can you people gimme some hints all to use parry with sucess against CPU. Some characters really kicks me, like Drahmin and Hotaru. I would like these tips.

I was very skeptical of sub-zero when i first got the game, but i have gradually come to the conclusion that he isnt that bad. The mid-hitting 3 in shotokan has improved his overall effectiveness. and what else; 3,b+2 is also a launcher. mixing it up with d+1 will get you results.

I don't have another player to test this out but i think 1,1,3,b+2 is safe on block since it pushes back. Could someone check this for me. My only learning experience is the online mode.

Ice clone is very effective this time around with the ability to do it in the air. However, its very iffy and risky if done close-up against the enemy.

Kori blade is exactly the same as in deception so that is good news as well. Although i mainly play in shotokan style, i bring out the blade when i need to combo into them especially after a freeze.

On the downside, his new ice pilar move is very risky and not that effective. The risk/benefit ratio is really bad so avoid it at all costs. Once again, Sub-zero isnt that great when it comes to damadge. His combos are extremely weak. He also seems slower than the most characters but that is just based on observation and i might be wrong.

So subbie IMO (revised edition ) is not low tier in MKA but probably somewhere in the mid-tier considering it still takes alot of patience and hard work to get a win from subbie.

I've been doing some work on Shao Kahn. Whether or not these combos are useful online I'll let you guys decide. Most of these are around 40-44% damage combos (when character is in normal hand to hand stance).

Shao Kahn Combos..

1, 1, cs, 3, cs, 2, 4 for 43%

1, 1, cs, 3, followed by emperor's shield for 40%

1, 1, cs, 3, cs, 1, 1, 2 for 44%

1, 1, cs, 3, followed by mystic choke for 41%

1, 1, cs, 3, cs, 2, 3 for 43%

As you noticed, these combos rely heavily on the 1, 1, cs branch which is unsafe. However, when landed, these combos can dish out some decent damage. Try to mix it up, don't always go right for 1, 1, cs as it will be predictable. Hope these help...

Well Scorpion is still kickass. Better than in Deception it seems.

Smoke not all that great. Low tier I'd say. Still fun to play with.

Shang Tsung I'm not so sure about. His Straight Sword doesn't seem that good. Snake seems like it got improved from what I remember it being in the past. Not so sure how good I'd say Snake is though, so not sure how good I'd say Shang Tsung is.

Shang's specials seem good though. Still the same specials as in Deadly Alliance, but now with a kool teleport that is low. His Soul Steal special has very fast recovery as well unlike it did in Deadly Alliance.

So how yall see Tsung?

Also some thing I've been wondering.... What does that one new move of Quan Chi's do? It looks like a Soul Steal, but I don't think that it had the same effect from what I remember. So yeah what does that move do???

Thanks for clearing that up Check and m2dave.

The move you're refering too is one Quan Chi uses in order to strip weapons from the character he's fighting. It does little damage to someone without a weapon, so it's pretty much useless unless they use their weapon stance at all.

I don't know how long it lasts for. The round maybe?

it lasts for one full round. how ever he cant strip away kitanas, drahs and Barakas. basically any character who has specials that uses their weapon.

Scorpion is better in this game than he was in MKD and he was ranked around 6 or 7 in that game so go figure.

Smoke is still very good as is Noob.

Shang, I'm not sure about, he still has his broken damage 3-D fireballs, but that doesn't save him from say, Shinnok...don't know.

What makes scorpion good in MKA? I havent had a lot of time to mess with the game. Only played like 10 - 15 matches online and from what I saw he didn't have a lot.

His sword stance doesnt seem as good anymore. I could have sworn F+1 was an overhead in MKD and his D+1 hit low. In mka it seems you can block both moves high or low and on top of that parry makes it hard. Granted if I land the F+1 I can land a 32% (all I know) combo but it's a pain to land on anyone who knows what they're doing.

Also his hapkido stance. His 3 is still great but his low game seems to be lacking without the sword. When I play online his sweep gets rolled out of or trades on wakeup a lot which leads to me and the other guy on the ground most of the time.

Back 1 is a pretty good high poke and 2 is decent but gets beat out by almost everything. If you manage to land it though (block or not) it can lead to some decent mixups. I usuallly walk up 2 and pause then overhead/sweep/throw. Kinda works like a tick throw. Also his down and 1 seems kinda safe but it has like no damage potential from what I know.

All of his moves seem bleh, seems like everything is high risk. His teleport can be blocked on reaction and is not safe. Harpoon is useless unless i use it after F+1 Sword stance, Flip kick always seemed to be a high risk move with not enough reward. Hellfire seems ok but if you miss it you are left wide open for like a half an hour lol.

This is just from what I know though. I have nobody to test anything with. Only thing I was really able to try on my own is juggles and stuff lol. I sat in training with scorpion for a bit and could only get 32% and it's almost impossible to pull out online with lag cause the system gets all wacky online. Anyway if you guy's know something I don't hook me up! Why is he better than in deception?

Also after emsing with scorp for so long I went to johnny cage. Cage seems to be pretty good. His down 3 sweep is a nice low and you can land some great mixups off of it because of the way it stuns, not completely knocking down. You can hit low with down+3 to harrass them and then come in with the 4 and launch them for more than 40% damage in one shot. I was doing 40 something % combos easy with cage in like 5 mins of playing him. But like I said, I didn't have a ton of time to test everything out. If you guy's know some good scorp stuff let me know. The stuff I do works somewhat but against anyone good I have a really hard time. It just seems as though scorpion isnt as good cause his sword stance doesnt seems as scary anymore.

More Moloch...bull-shit...

1,1,u+3, Ground Bash is guaranteed unless they low kick or uppercut from wake up in which case you can slightly side step after 1,1,u+3 to make all their wake up attacks whiff, and then do the Ground Bash or possibly punish with 1,1,u+3 and repeat the procedure.

If they stay on the ground or tech-roll after 1,1,u+3, dash in quickly and do d+4,d+3, small side step, Ground Bash. 70% here.

This only works on non-boss characters.

On boss characters...

1,1,u+3, free throw or 1,1,u+3, Ground Bash/1,1,u+3 mix up.

Don't bother.The CPU plays nothing like a human opponent.Against the CPU simply turtle it,and then when it does an unsafe attack,punish with your biggest combo.Attack less because whatever you do or any mix up you try the CPU will guess correctly and punish you especially at the highest difficulty.

Anyway,Blaze is crazy as well.His 2 and Steam Roll look unsafe but are surprisingly very safe.Fire Pound (d,d+2) and Steam Roll (f,f+1)mix ups are nice especially against bigger characters.

d+1, d,d+2 seems guaranteed

1,2, 2, d,d+2 seems guaranteed as well.

2, d+1 looks weird.

My mistake F+1 sword stance with scorpion IS an overhead but for some reason people online manage to block it low. Am I missing something or is it lag? I just found a few things im going to test real quick. I will post back on if anything works lol. I have to go online to test how safe certain normals are :(.

Ok I just tried some shit with scorpion online. Well I was using his down + 4 as a sweep instead of back + 3 and it seems better. It puts them ins tun so you can move foward for a mixup. Only thing is it seems like people would just mash out of the stun and hit me with a combo when I was trying to move foward. I dunno maybe it was lag or something. Only played 1 match.

scorpion
(hapkido)
spear-u+4-b+1-2-2-3-cs-hellfire
52%

spear-u+4-b+1-b+1-2-3-cs-hellfire
55%
nuff said. lol i have quite a few high damage scorp combos along with a few other tricks that i know with him. i usally just stick to juggles, air kombat kombo are pretty pointless and real glitchy when you change your stle while throwing.... i like to launch, go into a kombo, style branch on the bounce (or even after a launch), but the damage changes verry little, and the op can just go into wakeup and avoid the cange.

ill post more combos later.

And how do you land that spear? It seems really risky tring to throw that shit out. I usually only use it after F+1 in sword. Tried the combo nice damage but is the hellfire guarunteed? It doesnt regestier as a combo for me and looks lie they can roll out of it. Lol if only you could cancel moves in mk.

Btw this game has mad retarded shit. Fucking taven ground pound... He jumps in the air for the start of the move and if you try to jump kick him out it try's to air combo? wtf lol. Some weird shit.

how to land a spear? i assume youre joking right?