"tiers" or "balance" never make characters different in my book, you can beat any character using all characters as long as you know how to counter their offense with your own offense.

What Lebron just said. Every single character is good in the hands of a god player....

However.... Kung lao is highest Tier and Sheeva is lowest Tier. I think this has been tested enough to prove its valid. Sheeva is still nasty in the right hands though.

Kung lao has weaknesses offline but online, he is unstoppable and has no bad matchups. You cannot outzone him, you cannot outcombo him, you cannot outthrow him, you cannot out pressure him with any character. He has an answer for everything.

It really comes down to the player. I've been wrecked by a Sheeva player before, worse than I've been wrecked by Kung Lao's. Kabal, for example, is only as good as the player using him. Good Kabal's are devastating, bad ones just spam and are easy wins. The only definitive for of tier at this point is that Kung Lao is still #1 despite the 'nerf'.

Although you can win with everyone, tiers still do matter, certain characters, like Kung Lao have an answer for everything: Zoning, combos, anti-air, mix ups etc, meaning that no matter who you pick, you're going to have a hard time dealing with similarly skilled players. Whereas certain character do not have an answer for everything, example Sindel has great zoning and things of that nature, but she's not really excelling in other areas like the more top tier characters are in this game.

Stryker is another example, he has decent mix ups. but they're all slow mix ups, which means they're not as effective as Raiden's or Kung Lao's mix ups.

Can you win with lower tier characters against higher tier characters? Most definitely. Is it easy? No it's an up hill battle, especially when no matter how skilled you are, certain characters have an inherent advantage over others.

My thoughts on where Rain lies on the tier list is mid tier, slightly upper mid.


He has high damage combos off of some of his 8 hit combo strings (34% for example), respectable mind games and mix ups, good anti-air.

I use Kenshi, but not much so I really don't know where he lies, same goes for Skarlet and I don't own Freddy, so I know nothing about hwere he is, but I heard he was hat tier(Kung Lao, Raiden), especially prior to the nerfs.

Kenshi seems extremely dependent on his specials, moreso than most others. Not sure if that affects his tier. Seems like it should.

unlike most noob saibots though, kenshi is devastating upclose with his combos. He can zone and have high combos too.
Not to say noob doesn't cause noob has some 55% corner combos but his mix-up options are average to me.

Skarlett has alot of 70%+ combos and she is too fast and too vicious. Freddy was too before nerf but either way freddy can combo and zone nasty like kung lao almost.

Rain is a beast, he has a high,low and high, overhead making it almost 50% or higher that your combo will drill through a blocked opponent. If he overheads you(pop-up too), you are in trouble, he literally has like 100 combo options on that pop-up. He has nasty resets with his waterball and can get rid of your combo breaker meter with an ex waterball.
To avoid pressure he can ex tele which teles for damage or he can ex-roundhouse cause it has armor on it. I main RAIN with Kabal,baraka and Nightwolf as my top 4.

If I entered a tournament and I had to choose carefully.... I know Rain would have my back and I place trust in rain. Ironically, speaking of tiers..... I trust baraka would bring me to the finals in a tournament. He is a BEAST.

People that have destroyed me with kabal,reptile,cyrax and kung lao have all suffered Baraka's wrath. For some reason, I can beat high tier players with baraka since they are unfamiliar with his gameplay but I cannot beat them with my nightwolf which is my strongest character,

Nightwolf is my best too, closely followed by Mr. Cage. I wonder where they fit in the tier lists.

They should still be Top-tier.

So it goes: God, Top, Mid, Bottom, right?

God would probably be Kung Lao, Raiden, Freddy, and maybe Cyrax and Reptile.

Nope, there's no God tier in MK9.

Here's a recently made tier by players REO and Tom Brady:

S (top tier): Cyrax, Kabal, Kung Lao, Raiden, Sub Zero

S- (low top tier): Freddy, Jax, Kano, Kitana, Mileena, Rain, Reptile, Smoke

A+ (high mid tier): Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, Nightwolf, Scorpion, Sektor, Sheeva, Sonya

A (mid tier): Baraka, Kenshi, Noob Saibot, Shang Tsung, Skarlet, Stryker

B (low mid tier): Cyber Sub Zero, Ermac, Quan Chi

B- (low tier): Jade, Sindel

^Wow, Sub Zero and Kano so high, and Ermac so low? But yeah, this game is very balanced overall. It feels like everyone's pretty much on the same plane except Kung Lao, he is slightly above the rest of the pack.

To person above... Example of God tier character = Shao Khan S tier = Kung Lao.

I knew Sheeva isn't low tier. She might not be as fast as Kung Lao but her combos land amazing damage. Try: jump towards+1, back+2, 1+2, ex fireball OR jump towards+1, 2, 1, 2, forward+1, ex grabNpunch.
Those are some simple combos that land damage equal to other players who have to land about 10 or more hits to achieve. Turtles also get punished with her teleport or ground pound, and jumpers with her air grab (which is the fastest anti air attack in the game imo). Sheeva is a beast though for some reason ppl think that the fact that she has no long combos means she isn't strong. I say otherwise ;)

Sheeva's in high mid tier now? YES! I remember reading when this game first came out about her being one of the worst, if not they worst character in the game and based on thatl ist, there are no longer any truly unviable i.e. "bad" characters, intriguing.

The more I play with her, the more versatile she seems to me, I love Sheeva's corner combos to, her jump in 1, 1, 2, back 1, 1, 2, back 1, 2, 1.2. forward 1, grab n punch combo does I nice meterless 40%. I need more practice with her though.

I main Mileena and Rain but I have a pretty good Sheeva as well. If you are on xbl we should battle some time! Bring out some Sheeva awesomeness ;)

Unfortunately I'm a PS3 boy, would have been epic

Personally, I think the whole "tier" thing is a bunch of shit. It all comes down to the player. The best player can pick sheeva and still beat kung lao. The best player could pick jade and beat raiden. Its not the characters its the players.

Holy shit! Go Sheeva!

This tier list is insane to me! Jade, Cyber, and Ermac in the low? That's insane!

The tiers apply to players who are on the same level. There's more chance that a good Kung Lao beat a good Sheeva than viceversa, it doesn't mean the good Sheeva can't win. The good thing about MK9 is that it's really balanced and every character (depending on the player) can win, is just that some have better tools than others.

always base tiers on safe specials, safe combos and safe ex moves.

I don't put all the characters in a separate tier because I think they all play the same almost.

I think Kung lao is obviously the #1 character whiile Shang tsung and Sheeva are at the bottom.

There is facts to back it up though. Kung lao has an answer for EVERY MOVE and he has easy pressure. He can combo you for massive damage anytime he wants but you are pressure and can combo him rarely...

Shang and Sheeva get wrecked when they get knocked down. Their wakeup attacks are garbage.

Everyone else is the game is based on player preference honestly. Alot of garbage ermac players and Garbage Jade players. I played the BEST players of every character in the game and they all seem godly to me except Shang and Sheeva.


Don't pay attention to tiers. its BS. Kung lao is top tier with reptiles elbow dash and everyone else falls on the same exact tier plane.

Tier wise on special moves is

1.Whirlspin
2.Reptile elbow Dash.
3.Cyber Subz Dive Kick
4.Kano's Knives,upwardball.
5.Kabal's Airfireball.

Best EX moves tiers.

1. Ex-kung lao teleport
2.Ex whirlspin.
3. Ex elbow Dash.
4. Ex Nightwolf Shoulder ram
5. Ex Cyber sub dive kick.

Top 5 characters.

1.Kung lao.
2.Tied
3.Tied
4.Tied
5.Tied

I seen impossible to kill raiden's, Cages, Nightwolfs, Sonyas, Sektors, kanos, scorpions, Kitanas, Quan Chis ect.

Bottom 5 characters.

1.Sheeva
2.Shang tsung
3.Bad players
4. Bad players
5. Bad Players.

Shang tsung is a monster but online he just gets wrecked and nobody picks him cause they know this. Sheeva is good with her 2 moves, stomp and ex-slams but if you Neutral jump punch sheeva out of the air shes useless.

You should play Detroit, he kicks ass with Shang online.

Cyber-zero being low mid-tier is bs. I've been maining him lately and he has some really nice set ups plus his divekick is hella good. I find his ice bombs to be one of the useless specials in the game but I'd say he's mid, upper-mid for sure. He's got one of the best 2 hit combos in the game.

You might get more a more cohesive analysis in the Strategy forum since that's where all these details are discussed. I'll move this thread there.