MK1 - Sonya

MK2 - Jax or Reptile(for most beginners atleast)

MK3 - NightWolf

UMK3 - NightWolf

MK4 - Tanya

MK:DA - Kintana(what happened to her?????) and Mavado

MK1- Sonya or Kano
MK2- no one really
MK3- Nightwolf
MKT- Ermac
MK4- Kai or Shinnok
MK:DA- Hsu Hao or Drahmin

Sonya is top tier in MK1 hands down you guys, don't forget Johnny Cage. I don't think MK1 really had any specifically unusable characters, the cast was too small. MK2 saw Mileena and Jax as dominant forces, and again I don't think anyone was so terrible in that to say they were the weakest. MK3 Shang Tsung and Sheeva are pretty weak, and UMK3 still Shang Tsung and Sheeva. Not even her 50% combo is enough to help her.

Matt

MK1 - Sub-Zero
MK2 - Reptile
MK3 - Sektor, Sheeva, Kitana
MK4 - Kai
MK5 - Cyrax

There's others but those are ones I really remember sucking.

Shang Tsung was always good even if his fireballs sucked since he can become anyone. If I found myself losing with him then transforming into a strong character over and over would win the battle.

No one was really weak in MK1 but out of the 7 Sonya was the weakest to me. She just seemed to lack something.

I think Raiden is the weakest character in MK1, he had no move to counter with.
MK2's prolly Reptile, MK3 Shang and Sheeva, as MK2KLB said. I think Mileena is also pretty low tier-wise in UMK3.

MK1- Kano
MK2- Reptile
MK3/UMK3/MKT- Sheeva and Jax
MK4- Jarek and Shinnok
MKDA- Hsu Hao, Bo Rai Cho, Kitana, and Nitara

Honestly, I dont know why people dont like Johnny Cage, and I don't know why people like Jax

Sonya's sweep in MK1 is unpunishable, and her leg grab is amazing for the game's system.

Shang Tsung can be beaten down any time he goes to Morph playing against a good player, and if he does morph to someone deadly, the other person will just stall til the morph wears out and use it against Shang. He has decent standard attacks, but he is slow overall, fireballs too, and ground eruption is virtually worthless, it should have been unblockable. Well timed morphs are pretty much the key, but he's like Cyrax, too complex to play well in the environment you'd be dealing with. Shang is considered bottom of the barrel in MK3 and especially UMK3 according to official tier lists. I go by that and personal experience as well, as I am usually not one to follow tiers to the letter. I have seen Ermac ranked #8 when I know he is closer to 4. He's so dangerous in the corner what with his nearly endless choices of 100% combos.

Matt

I always found Mileena and Jax to be two of the best in MKII. If I had to pick a worst player it would probably be Reptile. You're kind of forced to play slow with him.

I always found it hard to use Jade effectively in UMK3. I have friends that I just about ALWAYS beat, but if I pick Jade I will lose. I tend to dog on Nightwolf, but whenever I get him on random select I do a lot better than I expect, so I won't vote for him. I think I'll agree on Sheeva though. The stomp will kill a novice every time, but once somebody knows what they're doing they will avoid it every time and punish you for it.

I used to think that Robo Smoke rendered Sektor useless, but then I learned to exploit the homing missile. People tend to get freaked out by that move for some reason, plus you can get some unexpected combo extension with it.

I gotta agree with Mavado for MK:DA, he only has 2 special moves I think and one of them isn't even an attack.

MK1 I couldn't stand JC, I played as Sonya most.
MK2 I liked just about everybody, but I would lean towards Reptile.
MK3 Sheeva and Shang tie it, with Jax, Sub and Kabal being my favs (if you don't know why Jax is favored in MK3 try locking someone down with his projectile, it is craziness)
UMK3 still Sheeva and Shang. Too labored and as MK2KB said morphing with Shang has its uses but depending on it is a liability. Best would be something like Kabal, Nightwolf(if you don't know why then you haven't rushed with him), and Ermac for those super deadly combos of goodness.
MK4 I hated Reiko, don't know the word on how good he really is though because I had to so little real play in that.
MKDA, don't like Bo Rai Cho, but again I haven't played it enough to form a real opinion.

I know what you mean about Nightwolf... I'll run up to a guy and use the LK, HP, HP, LP, QCF+HP, juggle... it's sweet because they can't duck the first LK, so unless they blocked, they are screwed.

Jax is nice but for some reason I liked him better in MKII... could have been my imagination but I felt like they toned down his backbreaker significantly in part 3. In II it was easy to jump kick a standing opponent and combo into a backbreaker... I forget if it worked in 3, but if it did it was a LOT harder. He's still great in 3 though... his 5-7 hit autocombo is sweet!

Was the point of this thread to find out who the actual weakest characters were in each game? As in specifically the least powerful in terms of gameplay? Or was it just who each of us thinks is bad? Because I know a lot of people hate Nightwolf and Stryker and they will say they are the weakest, but in reality they are two devastating characters. Nightwolf is ranked very high and it's mostly because of the lock down with the shoulder tackle, and then change ups to his autocombo. Throw 2 or 3 tackles that get blocked, then run in with an autocombo when they go to duck another tackle and they are practically dead. Stryker has so many different things about him that can do damage and are useful. Two different heights for the bombs is great, the riot gun is one of the fastest attacks in the game, he has a semi infinite with his pop up combo and the gun, a corner infinite, and a relaunch infinite on a good number of characters. The baton dash is great anit air and can be used almost like Kabal's dash and does high damage. He also can duck and block Nightwolf's tackle and not get hit by it, and not everyone can run jab him, but in turn, he can't run jab many characters either.

That is just a way of explaining why two generally hated characters based on appearance are ironically really good characters. Let me know what the real point was.

Matt

I don't know about anyone else, but I based it on who I either didn't like playing as or who I wasn't good with.

MK2KungBroken Wrote: Was the point of this thread to find out who the actual weakest characters were in each game? As in specifically the least powerful in terms of gameplay? Or was it just who each of us thinks is bad? Matt

If someone can stall till your transformation goes away then you're not attacking that much or effectively.

I never had any big problems to make him a weak character.

Aslong as you know about how long the transformations last and if you never leave yourself open big time, then changing back is no problem. Then you can change right away if the person is not near you and block by the time they shoot a projectile or hit them and then change into someone else or the same person.

I dunno about MK3 since I didn't use him much in that game but in MK2 changing was not a problem like some say aslong as you knew the timing. Shang Tsung could turn someone's biggest advantage into their biggest down fall. Now if you didn't use his morphing ability hardly then yes he was one of the weaker characters.

Guess it all comes down to how much you use him and know his style.

Stalling can either be turtling, or in some cases poking and preventing Shang from attacking and then just waiting til he is forced to morph back, then take advantage of that. The only people Shang morphs work against are ones who are less than good.

Matt

MK1-Pretty even all around
MK2-Reptile
MK3-Shang Tsung (Too Slow)
MK4-Kai (unfortunatly)
MK:DA-Hsu Hao (Boy, did he suck)

To say Nightwolf is weak demonstrates your lack of expertise. His Hatchet Uppercut is wicked for setting up combos, and if your fast you can even juggle them with two. His Shadow Ram is fast, and a great way to end combos. His Arrow's a bit slow, but pretty good for containment. His Shield though, is what makes him a true expert's choice. Someone with quick fingers and an even quicker mind can easily reflect anything your opponent throws at ya, and it's even a good move for psych outs. Simply put, Nightwolf is one of the best characters in MK3.

MK2KungBroken Wrote: Stalling can either be turtling, or in some cases poking and preventing Shang from attacking and then just waiting til he is forced to morph back, then take advantage of that. The only people Shang morphs work against are ones who are less than good. Matt

Not true. Sorry but if you can't attack someone in anyway or form then you're not trying hard enough. Maybe you're not that good with Shang and that's why you consider him weak but I am.

And I always play against someone good otherwise there is no fun in it.

I consider him weak because a good player can take advantage of Shang's morph lag with any other character, even Shang Tsung himself. If the only thing that makes him good is simultaneously his biggest weakness, then what good is he? There are obviously guaranteed morph opportunities, like after an uppercut, or roundhouse, or ground eruption, but on the norm, Shang has less chance to get into those predicaments where he is on the advantage than any other character in the game. Having only projectiles as specials is really bad, and they are the slowest in the game. Even if you do get a good morph out, you have 8 clock seconds to utilize whoever you morph into to their fullest before you are forced to morph back, or if you can prevent morphing back by staying out of neutral frames, but even then you're dancing on thin ice. One advantage he has that you might not have even realized is he is harder to juggle than most characters. He's up there with Sheeva and the female Ninjas, however juggling is not the most important thing, simple pressure is very hard on Shang because he has nothing fast to get out it. Many many simple juggles are difficult, or don't work at all on him. But as I've said, Shang's morphs are only good against substandard players, if you're winning with Shang based upon who you're morphing into, it's because the people you are playing are not as good as you think they are.

Matt

I think MK2KB sums it up pretty well. Shang is just a weakling. I personally would probably rank Sheeva even higher then him but thats just because I like using her long distance kicks and such. I would still rate her pretty badly overall, but for me she edges out shang a bit because she has some nice things like the long kicks, and I really like her projectile for its fast startup.

HardKorHippy Wrote: MK1-Pretty even all around MK2-Reptile MK3-Shang Tsung (Too Slow) MK4-Kai (unfortunatly) MK:DA-Hsu Hao (Boy, did he suck) To say Nightwolf is weak demonstrates your lack of expertise. His Hatchet Uppercut is wicked for setting up combos, and if your fast you can even juggle them with two. His Shadow Ram is fast, and a great way to end combos. His Arrow's a bit slow, but pretty good for containment. His Shield though, is what makes him a true expert's choice. Someone with quick fingers and an even quicker mind can easily reflect anything your opponent throws at ya, and it's even a good move for psych outs. Simply put, Nightwolf is one of the best characters in MK3.

to say hsu hao and kai are weak demonstrates your lack of expertise.

Dreemer is correct to rank Sheeva a little higher over Shang, not to mention jump punch + combo = 50%, she has the ground stomp as well which is good throw in every now and then and is relatively safe.

So the point here is, if I random select, and I'm against a Shang player who likes to morph into high level characters, I will intentionally sit and cowar and let whoever the Shang player has morphed into until I know he's going to morph back, and then give back 5 times the damage, and start over again. Shang has that one severe disadvantage. Just imagine if you were Kabal, and every 8 second you had to stop what you were doing. Remember even if you morph into Sindel, Scorpion, or a few other containment players, the character instantly comes out of containment if Shang morphs back. He's just not good. If you want we can play sometime, and you will see first hand what I'm talking about. To say Shang's morphing ability is powerful demonstrates lack of experience.

Matt

Like I said I dunno how MK3 Shang is since I didn't use him much. So Sheeva may be better then him.

I even said I was talking about MK2 Shang and when I play with him there really is no big weakness to him to make him part of the weak bunch.

You might only get 8 seconds but you can always do another morph. Also different characters are weak to certain characters and I take advantage of that with Shang.

He's good imo no matter what anyone says. Is it such a big deal? Seriously?

mk1:sonya

mk2:kitana

mk3:stryker,sheeva.

mk4:kai


mk5:drahmin

mk6:i dont think no 1

MK1:Liu Kang(the weakest jump kick in the game), can be dangerous but if you block he is no problem

MK2: Reptile, Kung Lao, Jax(unless you are a top player)

MK3: Shang Tsung, Kano(the fact that you had to charge his cannonball made him weak)

UMK3: they did a lot of things in UMK3 to balance the characters more, I would still say Shang Tsung however

MK4: Shinnock

MK5: Kitana