Sheeva, Sindel, Baraka, or Quan Chi I'd go with, but since you're looking for a good zoner, Sindel's your best bet.

I've noticed and heard that her combo damage potential isn't the best and it's hard to combo with her scream and stuff, but if you can put her to use, I highly encourage you to do so, despite her lacking in some areas, she's a force to be reckoned with.

An alternate choice would be Jade, she can shut down the opponent's zoning, while mounting her own zoning assault, she's pretty entertaining to use and has a fairly easy time comboing into her X-ray, the only major drawback to Jade's combos is that they tend to push the opponent too far away to juggle off her combo strings.

Jade Matches up a little stronger. and invincibility is WONDERFUL lol.

Sindel is VERY difficult to combo with. I have a hard time hitting for 30+% with her, mostly because her best launcher (B+3, F+2) is pretty hard on the hands. Best thing to do is zone and build meter with ground and air fireballs, hair whip if they get too close, and punish teleports with cartwheel or launcher -> EX scream -> ground string.

What about Skarlet or are you talking strictly non-DLC roster?

I know they are more popular than others but I'd say go with Ermac or Noob. Ermac can zone and is versatile and Noob is all about zoning pretty much. Cyrax I've seen some good zoning with high damage combos but doesn't look very easy to play with. He might be what you're looking for though.

Maybe....Shang Tsung? He's my main, and even though I know he doesn't have a lot of decent (normal) strings and he has a difficult time getting out of corners, his fireball game is pretty tight at zoning; that is, if you use and time them correctly. I've managed to pin a few Kung Lao players down with his Up Fireball, preventing them from just teleporting behind me. Even if I'm a little late doing it and they managa to teleport anyway, they usually get hit with it anyway since they're right above your head and in range of the Up Fireball.

Not too mention his best combos utilized his Ground Fireballs and EX Ground Fireball, and the best part is once you hit the opponent with the Ground Fireball, they can't combo break out of it!

For instance, take this combo: Jump In 1,2,2,1, Ground FB (close), Ground FB (med), EX Ground FB (med), step back, Soul Steal. That's a simple 10-Hit Combo, which does about 39% damage. And the ONLY time they can break outta that is if they do their combo-breaker during the initial Jump In 1,2,2,1. Once you get them with the Ground FB, just keep juggling them. And keep in mind that you can probably come up with different juggles here and there just off the one Ground FB alone.

Another pro for Shang is that both his Soul Steal and his X-Ray can catch the opponent from a little more than half the screen away, much similar to Ermac's Telekinetic Push. Pretty useful when someone's jumping in/back from afar, or catching people off guard while they're trying to avoid your fireballs. And who doesn't want a nice power boost (Soul Steal) and then punishing the opponent with their own character? That is, however, assuming you know how to use the opponents character. I've seen some decent combo videos with Shang Tsung morphing into the opponent, start a combo and then finish with his own juggle combo as he morphs back into himself.

Again, the few cons I'm noticing with Shang Tsung are (at least for myself) his corner-escaping game, and his demand for good meter management. Like I stated above, his best combos come from his Ground FB into his EX Ground FB; so if you're the type of player who relies on combo-breakers and X-ray attacks, then you're gonna have to pay close attention when and how you wanna use those EX moves. Or, don't use them at all, and just use little juggles here and there (ex: like using Ground FB into Soul Steal) until you get enough for your X-ray. By the way, he can combo into his X-ray from his Ground FB.

I mean, I'm not the best with him, I'm still learning and training, but I enjoy playing with him, and I like the fact that if used to his full potential he can be a very dangerous man. I personally need to incorporate into my game more normals and pokes with him, as well as take a break and go learn (if even a little bit) the other characters in the game so that I can better utilize his Soul Steal.

Ermac, Sindel, Noob, and Jade are your best choices.... now if we're talking DLC included, Kenshi is pretty good too... Sindel, Ermac. Noob, and Kenshi are your best bet....

And Stryker as well... his Zoning game is difficult to get around, especially if its a good player....

Enjoying the versatility of Kabal.

Kabal is pretty damn awesome when in the right hands. I loved him in UMK3 but I have to put more time in to my burnt friend.


If you want someone to beat Kung Lao specifically, then go with Shang. The best thing to beat Kung Lao with Shang is use the Soul Steal. With the damage boost, your Kung Lao will do more damage than their Kung Lao. Also, against many people Shang's best combos (in my opinion) come from timing the transformation so part of the combo is as your opponents character and you finish the combo as Shang.

Not to mention the Cyber Sub-zero combo I know that normally hits for 52% hits for 70% as Shang.

Im down with kabal, he can do any kind of game plan *though not THE BEST at any one type*

Also has no bad match ups according to TYM

Well, Kabal is awesome but he's not really "under the radar super power", he's one of the best characters in the game. He is "under the radar" online though, if that's what you meant.

According to the folks over at TYM it's Cyrax and Kitana who are Kung Lao's worst matchups. If you really like zoning, Kitana's fans can lead to some lovely high damaging combos :p Cyrax is insanely fun as well with his resets! But these two aren't "under the radar" offline or online :p

Yeah Kabal is bit more high profile than I originally intended, but hes the guy for the job. No real bad match ups, great versatility, but not so strong that you feel like you rip people off.

I want to work for my wins, but I want them to be achievable lol.

Cue in why I am starting to love Cyber Sub-Zero and pick him more and more. I can play the ranged game with him and close in with a slide OR a teleport so it keeps people wondering. Then I have some pretty mean combos once I have closed in. I just gotta work on finding a use for those damn bombs. His dive kicks are also great.

He is not over-powered though which makes it even more fun to play as him. I like all of the options but I like having to actually sit there, think, and work with the options I have.