When will you post more Mk2Kung?

I want to see a guide about Johnny Cage.

And also about Tsung and Sheeva, since Im still unsure why they are so low tier. Sheeva has some wicked powerful combos.

I won't be doing any MKT characters until I finish all the UMK3, I usually like to wait about a week between guides unless I get some inspiration otherwise.

MK2Kung, are you planning on doing one for Kung Lao? Also, I've looked around the forums (not that much, i am a lazy ass), and I was wondering if anyone has (im sure they have) done Kung Lao's Corner Infinite. It's just Spin, Jump+HP( or Jump+HK), repeat... I'd just never seen it in any videos, ive seen parts of it in that crazy ending to the UMK service pack 3 video, but not just a straight Spin to Jump HP or HK.

Thanks

Later

There were variations shown throughout the combo vids. There will be yet another new variation in the next vid as well.

Yeah I'll be writing up every character eventually, I am going to do Shang Tsung next, I just haven't gotten around to it.

You can do reverse shits with Lao against Sheeva when get her out of corner.

Shang Tsung

Shang Tsung is a low tier character, near the bottom, perhaps in the 20s, but the fact that he has an infinite at his disposal and large easy morph combos off a single ground eruption, with some effort means he cannot be last even though basically he is less capable than most. Shang's lock down, keep away, and zoning pressure can be absolutely insane if you commit to a gameplan with him. Your strategy is going to be constant double fireball to ground eruption traps and set ups. His ground combos are limited, no pop ups, significant recovery time on his comboed roundhouse, etc. Remember, if you are Shang Tsung, you are also, at limited durations, Kabal, Kung Lao, Kano, Ermac, etc. If you mix these characters up with others like Reptile and Kitana who have completely different strategical defense, you'll have your opponents guessing, and adapting constantly. It is theoretically possible to beat people without morphs just using his lock down and basic moves, because the important ones are good. His collision boxes are the most awkward and unique in the game. Many juggle combos simply do not work on him, so take notice that people will have to significantly modify combos on him, generally doing a lot less to him. This is an advantage against some characters. Also, he has a hard time ducking certain projectiles if you're a hair late, watch out for this.

Basic Moves:

Shang's basics are kinda mixed. He definitely has a sluggishness about him in general, but that's really only his ground combos. They have significant pauses in them that result in breaks constantly. However, his uppercut, standing HK, and RH are ideal anti air attacks, and your choice is up to you or the situation. His uppercut's range and height is excellent, however during his duck and rising frames he tends to get stuck, so aaUppercuts need to be anticipated a little sooner, or you have to wait just slightly to allow their jump attack hit duration to pass. Kano and Nightwolf will often times snuff his uppercut so it's better to go for the standing HK which is high and pointy, his RH is also high with good range. Sweep range is a little less than to be expected. Stand LK is good, his ducking LK is also good. A lot of his basic moves are similar to that of the Male Ninjas. His run jab game is decent, sometimes you can try and stick in a single fireball after a few run jabs. His JK is very good, his JP is ok. His straight up JK is pretty nice.

The Flaming Skulls (fireballs in the general gaming world) have existed since MK1, but in MK3 they were changed significantly. They were originally small and fast moving, now they are slower, and longer. You may notice certain fireball amounts are better for different set ups and combo opportunities. Double fireballs are a good bet, Shang seems to recover quickly after them compared to the height they usually bounce off the last one. If you do 3, the 3rd might not hit them right and Shang winds up unable to capitalize, so stick to usage of 1 or 2. Fireballs have no limit of usage, and no pre set hit limit when they turn off, you can stagger their usage by placing two hits inbetween them, much like Stryker's riot gun. For example: in corner, aaHP,HP, double fireball, JK, aaLP, double fireball. This is not a conventional in game combo, but it demonstrates the moves limits. Try to stick in single fireballs anywhere it's safe if you're not going for morph game, the situations are similar, like after a roundhouse, or throw.

The Ground Eruption (GE) is a very interesting move, similar to his fireballs, but sets up free juggles if they connect. Mix up cross patterns of single or double fireballs and GEs in effort to lock your opponent down, watch for their move, pin them down, keep them guessing, keep it constant, don't let up, and ultimately set up GE combos. Another great thing about the GE is that it's a free morph opportunity as well, and you can set up great juggle combos off them easily, but pulling them off is up to your own abilities. The GE has absolutely no limitations whatsoever and can be continually used over and over with no break inbetween, setting up difficult, but doable infinites. Remember in order to really benefit from the juggles, the GE has to hit the characters well placed. If you do one from full screen as Jax is about to do his missile, chances are the third will GE will miss so you will need to watch for this and compensate combos. Against non teleport characters sometimes it's a good idea to do two GE's in a row, because they will often times run through the first two and get hit by the third, as they go up on the third, RH them into the following GE. Most characters will get juggled by all three GE's from a full screen distance, Robots, Female Ninjas, Shang, Sheeva, Kabal, Sindel, Sonya, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, some (Stryker and Male ninjas) will only get hit by one, the rest get hit by 2, so set combos up accordingly. In order to get the full juggle you have adjust the distance slightly, but generally there is not enough time to do this so you need to pay attention to where they get hit. This really only applies to grounded opponents.

Morphs are probably his best tool overall because of versatility and strategy changing at your command. If you know how to use a lot of characters, you might like playing as Shang just for the challenge of being him at certain times. Morphs last approximately 16 clock seconds in 1 on 1 gameplay and have no limit of usage. Keep your characters varied, look for free morph situations. Generally after a RH, or especially an anti air RH, a morph is free, so have an idea of who you would like to use in those situations. Uppercuts have a reasonable amount of morph safety, as do juggle Fireballs, and the GE is obviously the safest. It is possible to use morphs to cancel corner push back and possibly continue combos, but you have to make sure you are paying attention to morph times.

Shang has a few variations of the same infinite using his GE. The easiest way is to start with one hitting all 3 fireballs, then run Shang to the middle and do another, as the character hits the last fireball which goes up just behind Shang, he will be hit into the second fireball from the second ground eruption, getting knocked back over in front of Shang. Repeat this as much as you like til you get to a wall. It's also possible to knock them the other way into fireballs coming up from behind in a similar manner, but doing the GE a bit late. Another way to do it, is if the person jumps onto the first GE, run almost to the other side of the screen and GE as they are landing. You have to make sure the last hit knocks them behind you, so walk into the middle, let it hit them over, then run and buffer the next GE to hit as they fall.

Basic Juggles:

1. aaHP,HP, double fireball 4 hits 28% (sets up GE lock down or if they jump as soon as they land they will get hit and it sets up juggles, morphs, and infinite combos)
2. GE, aaHP,HP, double fireball 7 hits 43%
3. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, uppercut 5 hits 50%

Advanced Juggles:
1. aaDouble Fireball, GE, aaHP,HP, aaHP, double fireball, 10 hits 65%
2. (near corner) aaHPHP, double fireball, JK, HK, 6 hits, 59%
Morph and GE related Combos of various degrees of difficulty:
1. aaDouble Fireball, [Ermac], teleport punch, aaHP, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits about 47%
2. aaLP,(BL,HK for Kabal morph) spin, aaHP,HP, JK, air fireball (JK on some) (and now you are safe as Kabal to terrorize for about 12 clock seconds) 6 hits 47%-48%
3. GE, [Kabal] aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 7 hits 57%
4. GE, [Jax] aaHPHP, JK, air throw, 7 hits 59%
5. GE, [Nightwolf] Axe X4, aaHP, Axe, aaHP, Shoulder Tackle 11 hits 60%(varies on the characters, for example against Kabal, Sub Stryker or Jax, the full combo isn't that difficult, but against Shang it would be impossible)
6. GE(2 hit), [Sindel] scream, aaHP, scream, aaHP, scream, HK, HP, HP, D+HP, aaHPHP, JK, air fireball 12 hits 69%
7. GE, [Ermac] JK, Lift, aaHPHP, aaHP, fireball (JK on some) 8 hits 67-71%
8. GE, [Liu Kang] aaHPHP, JK, Air Fireball, Dragon Kick 8 hits 70%
9. GE, [Reptile] - as many aaHPHP whiff elbow dashes, as possible on whatever character you're against, for example, GE, [Reptile] aaHPHP, whiff dash X3, uppercut, 10 hits 75%
10. GE(2 hit), [Ermac] aaHP, JK, lift, aaHPHP, aaHP fireball or JK 8 hits 68-73%
11. GE, [Kung Lao] into various spin, or aaHP, JK, whiff dive kick infinite combos
12. [when aware of being Sub for a while] aaHP, freeze, or aaFreeze, aaHP, freeze (kill whatever time is necessary) [Shang][Kung Lao] to infinite variations or Ermac and anyone of his various ridiculous combos.

Finally...thanks Shock !

very deep, nice work.

This is a really great one. I think you've captured the limitations but also the real fun parts about playing as Shang.

Awesome! Great work Shock.

When he gets a chance I would like to see Cyrax and Ermac guides.

He said he'll do all the UMK3 characters, followed by the added MKT characters, just have to have a little patience...

Actually, I'm looking forward to the Cyrax guide.

what is aaHP

anti air high punch. punching someone out of the air while you are standing and they are off the ground.

I'm going to do Ermac tonight, actually I might write up a bunch when I get some free time and release them once a week or so. It really doesn't matter to me I just want to get them done.

Ermac

Ermac is a high tier top 10 character, he is ranked 8th but in the right hands can be considered top 3 as his combo/juggle ability is unparalleled in terms of average damage per combo coupled with the relative ease. He is played very much like Human Smoke, except without air throw tactics. His average combo ability is around the 50% or more on anyone at anytime. I will list many specific character combos in his juggle section. What you are going to try and do with him out of the ordinary teleport methods is anti air HP counters on jump ins and what you can do with that is cancel the HP with block so you cannot be accidentally hit and if you do hit your HP you still have plenty of time to cancel with a Telekinetic Slam (TKS). Watch out against Kano and Nightwolf JKs because they tend to still over prioritize aaHPs if you don't time it right, instead aaRH them. Against agressive players you can throw out a TKS sometimes after a blocked auto combo, and they will get snagged by it. Against jumpy or overly aggressive players you can stick in a TKS after an aaHK if you so choose to use it over the aaHP, and often times it will get them on their wake up. Don't over use it. Run and knee jab mix ups, teleporting away from and landing next to are a must but watch out because players can scout the teleports and position themselves to get in the way of what you might think is a safe teleport, punishing you for it. His walking speed is slower than Human Smoke's so multi jab juggles need to be timed more rigidly. The only combo you should ever use midscreen is HK, LP when rushing down, and off starters.

Male Ninja Basics moves:

The Male Ninjas have excellent basic moves, good height and range on everything in relation to their sprite proportions, their roundhouse is extra wicked and can connect in almost any situation. The only thing that can be weird about them is their aaHPs. Sometimes they tend to miss in situations where you wouldn't expect them to and this is due to kara canceling with run to speed the last hit up, in this situation, often you can do aaHP,LP and it'll work, with slightly less damage, otherwise, always take an extra small step in before doing aaHPs.

The Telekinetic Slam is one of the most broken and unique moves in the game, however you need to learn how to max out the combos off it. Its properties are a little unorthodox, as it does damage, but does not count as a hit in a combo (unless you hit them before the first bounce in which it doesn't do damage). It does not activate damage protection and has a limit of 4 hits before it is locked, and this means 2 usages per combo are about the norm. There are ways to stretch it to 3 uses but they have to be absolutely perfectly time with no room for error so it's not worth getting into because you really can't get any more damage than normal this way conventionally. Your standard set ups are going to be either hit, TKS, hit, hit, hit, TKS -or- TKS, hit, hit, hit, hit, TKS, etc. Make sure to try and labor the 3 hit succession just a bit to elapse the time limit inbetween uses, which isn't noticable usually. Good set ups for the TKS are anti air HPs if someone JKs early, this the perfect time to aaHP and cancel to a TKS. From here a guaranteed 78% damage combo is possible on almost every character, more difficult on some than others, but on characters like Shang you need to be slightly more rigid with the timing and max out about 75%, otherwise it's not worth trying the extra hits, and on a lot of characters 82% standard counter from a standing aaHP is possible. Remember that the TKS doesn't count as part of a combo it also doesn't add to the damage for some reason, so for every TKS you use in a combo, add 5.5% to the end damage read outand 3% in DPed combos, generally two should always be used in a combo so that's 11%. In the corner you can set up a TKS combo off an aaRH easily. Remember to run cancel all your jabs during juggle combos to allow more time for extra jabs and JKs. It is possible to glitch cancel (on the frame of contact) up to 5 hits before a TKS, but it is not recommended

The Teleport Punch is a great move if used for escaping and overall positioning and manueverability. If you use it too much players will see your patterns and counter by getting in the way of it and blocking. If you are experienced enough with the placement and timing you should be able to teleport almost anytime it is available (it has a small time limit between usages) and not get punished. Use if when you are getting up to escape run jabs, HKs or knee starting combos. Ermac turns invisible when he does the teleport punch and is still actually on the screen moving until he lands or shows up on the other side of the screen. If you are air thrown or Bike Kicked, for example, before you leave the screen Ermac will stay invisible until he is hit by another move. Take advantage of this, an invisible Ermac is an even dealier Ermac. Try only to teleport when you have 2/3 of the screen behind you or at least a total of 2/3 screen distance between you and your opponent in some manner. This would mean, you can have half a screen behind you and your opponent is standing right next to you, you'll wind up landing about sweep distance away behind them. It is best to try and get the placement down to land right next to them even if they are blocking, this sets up free throw potential and/or rush down. Watch out for counter sweeps, LKs, HKs or uppercuts if you rush in immediately. Utilize the teleport punch as a combo extender but try not to actually hit them with it as it activates damage protection. Its limit is 4 hits before it is locked, has a small window of time limit recharge and you can stretch it out to 2 uses per combo if done right. A good way to start a DPed juggle combo would be to aaRH an incoming JK and hit a teleport punch on the other side before they land. After this do a TKS, wait, RH, again, teleport punch, TKS again, to standard finish of choice. Do not use the teleport punch as a safe guard chip hit when someone is on danger because it only does about 2% chip damage and danger can mean the person has 4% life left. It is common to see people lose matches they should have won because of this. In order to connect his teleport punch on characters like Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, female ninjas, Robots Ninjas, and Sheeva in mid screen standard combo situations, after his HK, LP pop up, jump forward and wait until he starts coming down on the flip to JK, then instantly cancel to the teleport punch. This makes him line up better with them. You can also glitch cancel the teleport punch if you want to get fancy.

The Green Spark is a standard, slow starting fireball and is only good to use as a combo terminator. In most cases if you realize you're not going to be able to get 3 aaHPs at the end of a juggle (it's noticable on how the aaHPs connect after the second TKS) you can subsitute aaHP,HP, aaLP, fireball and that will usually connect and is compenstable upon reaction. There are no tactical uses for his fireball. There is never a time when a fireball can be used as a last resort on a jumping back opponent with him when a teleport punch would be better and more of a guarantee. In general the fireball leaves him too open because it takes him forever to recover, you can jump over it easily, and he stays in one position.

Ermac can relaunch all characters in the game like Kano and Human Smoke. Some characters are more difficult than others, in order to best line him up, you should do his pop up, pause slightly before jumping forward, and punch at the last possible moment.

Basic Juggles that work on everyone:

1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 42%
2. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 53%
3. punch starter, HK, LP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, fireball 7 hits about 43%
4. (for a punisher) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 69%

Advanced Juggles:

These are maxed out combo situations that work faithfully with little risk of failure on all characters except Shang, Sonya, Liu Kang, and Sheeva. Adjustments are required for the slightly lesser damage combos on the specific opponents mentioned with usage of one less HP, or a fireball instead of a JK at the end, downgrading the combos by about 15%

1. HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHPHP, aaHP, JK 8 hits about 47% on Sub-zero, Jax, Stryker, and Male Ninjas, you can walk in after the HK, LP, and do a RH, then teleport punch, perform the TKS motion backwards because the teleport punch usually juggles behind him, for 48%
2. punch starter, HK, LP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 52%
3. (for a punisher) aaHP,HP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 58%
4. aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaRH, teleport punch, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 62%
5. (for a punisher or counter to a jump in attack) aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82%
6. (Opponent at Midscreen) TKS, aaHP,HP, teleport punch (miss), aaHP, JK, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, JK 8 hits 82%
7. try and stick in an otg (off the ground) HK LP after his TKS for some neat looking juggles HK, LP, JK, teleport punch, TKS, HK, LP, aaHP, fireball 8 hits 46%

Advanced Corner Juggles (watered down):

1. HK, LP, JK, RH, (or aaHP), TKS, aaHPHP, JK, RH, HK, (or LK) 9 hits 64% (58%)
2. punch starter, HK, LP, RH (or aaHP), TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, HK (or LK)9 hits 66% (60%)

Corner 100% juggles:
1. TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK (works on just about everyone and is good if someone does a projectile in the corner and Ermac is about half screen away)
2. aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK
3. aaRH, TKS, aaHP,HP, aaHP, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK
4. suJK, TKS, aaHP,HP, RH, TKS, aaHP,HP, JK, RH, LK

awesome

thankx

Nice Ermac guide.

Have you ever considered listing the best character(s) to use AGAINST the character you are doing the guide for? I could use such a listing, and I'm sure it would be helpful to others as well...

after I'm doine writing everyone up I'll add a "Counter characters" section to each post.

Thanks, that would be very helpful and much appreciated.

You could add that there are over 20, 1 hit differences to his corner 100%'s
awesome guide ;)

There's probably 200 different 100% Ermac combos if you count every one hit and order of hit change a difference.
There's a ton of sets of hits that result in 100% and have to stop when the round is over, so like any combos that kill at the RH but a LK or HK is possible afterwards don't count, but there are plenty of combos that do enough damage that a HK or LK after the RH is needed and both will kill, some instances where a HK will kill but a LK won't, etc.
Not all of these are conventional, but they all lead to unblockable 100% combos with the correct damage hits.
x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
x,x,x,x,TKS, x,x,x,
x,x,x,x,TKS, x,x,x,x,
x,x,x,x,TKS, x,x,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x
TKS,x,x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,TKS,x,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,x,TKS,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x
x,TKS, x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,
x,TKS, x,x,x,TKS,x,x,x,x,x
x,x,TKS, x,x,TKS, x,x
x,x,TKS, x,x,TKS, x,x,x
TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x,TKS,x
TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x
TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x,TKS,x,x,x

That's 24 formats (I might have even missed some), many of them having 4 or 5 different variations and probably up to 10 depending on how you mix and match the hits. You can look at it from a maximum amount of hits using LPs, and JPs in the combo instead of HPs and JKs, or a minimum amount of hits replacing HPs with RHs, and then there's a normal number of hits with the combo set up to reach 99% before the last hit, putting the combo way over up to 115%. Remember even ducking LPs can be thrown into Ermac combos too, so that reduces damage in the beginning, forcing more larger hits at the end.

Awesome. I had missed the Tsung one, didnt know you had updated. I can finally understand why he is so low tier in MkU now, he is still fun to play with though. Good work with Ermac too.