1st:

WARNING: Please edit the title of your thread to something that is not insulting towards gay people. I'm giving you 24 hours to do so, otherwise I'll have to skull you.


2nd:

REPLY:: Smoke is considered one of the best characters in the game according to the tourney players. I'm not a Smoke player myself, but from what I know, he's got super good pokes, insanely damaging resets, good anti-air tools (standing 2 for example), his footsies are very good (walk back + b2, 3 is very dangerous) and he's a very mobile character overall. True, he doesn't have a great "low game", but if he had one, I believe he'd be overpowered. It's his weakness and it's good to know that some of the best characters in the game have some weak points too.

As I've said, I'm not a Smoke player myself, so I'll leave to others to provide more info on why he is considered very good. Also, have you ever seen CD Jr. play Smoke? Or Aris, or KT Smith? They have a very good Smoke. However, I think we'll see even sicker Smokes in 2012.

I don't think Smoke is at the bottom.


Let's start with his teleport, it's one of te fastest in the game, it can be whiffed to play mind games with your opponent he can do it in the air or on the ground, it's a very versatile move, intermediate and pro players can utilize it to great effect. His teleport is also so quick that he can punish projectiles on reaction, even if he wasn't prepared to teleport.

His teleport has a homing effect, like Quan Chi and Mileena's, which means you'fe not going to be jumping much or being as mobile as you'd like to be, allowing Smoke to set the pacing of the fight much more than most characters.

Shake awesome punish for projectiles and the enhanced version punishes physical attacks too. The shake is much better than Kenshi or Nightwolf's reflect and the reason? You're guaranteed damage if the opponent's projectile hits, there is no escaping this parry.

Another thing that makes Smoke scary is the fact that he can get in close or escape with ease thanks to his smoke away and smoke forward specials, which allow him to avoid projectiles to get in close or allow him to play mind games by passing through you and punishing you with a full combo, if he can read your attack correctly.


The Smoke bomb you don't want to trade with this projectile, most of the time if you do, Smoke will be able to get a full combo off of this even with your projectile connecting. Unless you have a projectile with knockdown or one that shoots out two or doubles back, most of the time you're eating one of Smoke's 30% and higher damage combos.


He has pretty nice combo damage as well and this is omitting resets.

He can also go invisible which although he is semi visible, due to his mobility, it can be a very scary encounter watching a good player move around so quickly and you can barely see them, then the enhanced version makes him fully invisible


He has an air throw that is super effective and cannot be broken, sending the opponent to the floor and giving him time to set up his next pressure game.


If Smoke did have low mix ups as well, he would be a bit too dangerous to deal with effectively.

Yeah, you guys pretty much covered it. Most people who think Smoke is low-tier are probably playing him as a rushdown character. He's not a rushdown character. Being successful with Smoke means shutting down your opponents options and capitalizing on his/her poor choices. Otherwise, keep poking.

One thing I will emphasize is his mobility. I would have to double-check, but I believe he's the second most mobile character in the game (hard to say, but I feel the first would be Reptile and the third Mileena). Smoke has a lot of ways of traveling. Many players online will just stand still and block online because they're afraid of spamming, but truthfully, that is the WORST thing you can do against a good Smoke player. You're never safe from the guy.

With that in mind, every character in the game has a happy distance. Kung Lao likes to be in your face, Kitana likes to be outside of mid-screen, etc. Use Smoke's mobility to take the opponent out of their ideal spot. You can take this strategy against anyone with the exceptions of Kung Lao and Ermac. Kung Lao because he has full-screen mix-ups and crazy good frame-traps up close; Ermac because his tele-push cannot be parried, punished or reacted to.

I don't feel the Smoke/Ermac match up is any worse than 4/6. You just have to poke him and stay within mid-screen till you get a knock down. Not that that's easy, but there's not much of an alternative. If you try to do anything at a distance, Ermac is going to sex you up with his glowing green Nyquil.

That's all I really have to add I guess. Although it's not an orthodox strategy, you can make Smoke's air teleports safer by using EX-Invisibility. This is a great way to be counter Sub-Zero players.

Hmmmm.......this thread (not just the OP) has made me want to pick up Smoke. I'll probably get to that once I get decent with Quan Chi.

I don't play Smoke just because of his stance lol.

i think kung lao is the most mobile character in this game. his game-play is fast and his tools such as dive-kick and tele-port make him very mobile. if kung lao has frame traps as you said please tell me bc i haven't figured it out nor read it on test your might. kung lao has krazy pressure but no frame-traps as i know. but if u know please tell me.

Smoke's mid/low/throw guessing game is very good. "Just" having low pokes and throw as his option to beat stand block is overlooking how strong those options are. His d+4 is big advantage on hit, enough that they cannot interupt the overhead afterwards. Every d+4 that hits loops the guessing game. Throw is 12% and he can teleport right in to continue pressure or bait a wakeup attack. Asking for a high damage low would be ridiculous.

Holy shiet! I'll keep that in mind!

The dive-kick, although useful, doesn't give Kung Lao too many mobility points. For one thing, it isn't safe-on-block given most distances. You CAN use it to go over the opponent (making it safe), but that's very situational. It's hard to do that with precision, and you could end up putting yourself in a worse situation that way.

As for the teleport, it certainly adds to his mobility, but if your opponent guesses right, it can be punished. I'm not saying Kung Lao isn't mobile, but I'd say the three aforementioned characters (and probably Raiden) beat him out in that category.

As for frame traps, I believe his 2,4, followed by low hat was his most notorious one, but I think that has been patched out (not 100%. I don't play Kung Lao).

if you kick/punch right before the dive-kick u won't touch your opponent.
yes that combo is patched, it was broken before. his low hat was safe on block, this has been patched. i think only sub-0, jax and shang tsung have frame-traps at this moment.

Low hat was never safe on block. It used to be -7.

yeah i should have said "safer" on block.