Sindel enhanced hair toss.

Depends on who I'm using.

When I have Stryker I baton trip, down, or if the person jumps at me I break out the heat (i.e. his gun).

Rain I use his high low mix up combo or a down 4 sometimes or a geyser kick if someone tries to cross me up.


Sonya I like to do her high low mix up combo or down four when people run to the edge of the screen and start lobbing projectiles.

For Sheeva I like to do her football punt kick (forward 4), her anti-air grab, or down 4.

It also depends on who I'm playing, if it's Raiden, Reptile, Cyrax Kitana, Kung Lao, Kabal or Johnny Cage, I let them come at me because most of my characters aside from Rain cannot out maneuver them in most cases.

.


It's so hilarious how careful everyone is to get the first hit, after that people just get so reckless and sloppy

I X-Ray

Seriously though, I use d+1, d+3 or d+4.

Honestly everything you said.


Sektor:
Elbow lunge

Cyrax:
Air grab or Saw blade

Zero(cyber sub):
Jump kick or slide

Stryker:
Block, roll, or baton sweep

Freddy:
Teleport in either direction

Everything else you already stated.

^ Regarding Cyrax, how punishable is his b, f+2 on block in the 1.05 version?




LOL, so true!

Against most fighters, I just play defensively, and counter-attack when I can. Sometimes I just do a jump-in punch and rapidly do D+3 low kicks if they block it, which they most likely will, the D+3 low kick will catch them off-guard and if they do block the low kick I'll be doing it rapidly so they'll get hit after blocking the first couple o' times.

My strategy to get the first hit varies, but I mostly play defensively.

NJPs or block (followed by incessant poking) against aggressive peeps. Jump back against defensive peeps, usually followed by a projectile war.

Johnny's flip kick.

I almost always use Kenshi, so I have a few different ways to try and get that first hit bonus.

F2,2,B+1.....(Juggle combo) (good reach and pretty fast)
F3,2....(Tele-charge or Rising Karma into Tele-charge)
1,1,4....(Rising Karma or Tele-charge) (as it's pretty fast)

Interesting thread.

I tend to do this with each character

Cyber Sub Zero:

- Jump backwards (since most people try to JIP [jump in punch] for the first hit) and then Dive Kick in on them for a hit (and the bonus of course).

-
Kung Lao:

- Jump backwards (since most people try to JIP [jump in punch] for the first hit) and then Dive Kick in on them for a hit (and the bonus of course).

- Kung Lao's Spin could of course catch someone if needed.


Kabal:

- Yea I'll be the guy who isn't ashamed to say that if needed, I will fire a ground-saw at the start just for the bonus. It usually isn't needed but it is a last resort that usually works. Otherwise his popups work well to get the bonus

Ermac:

- If they go for the JIP, then just use the TK slam to get the bonus and combo off of it.

- If they jump backwards, say to perform what I wrote above with CSZ or KL, then I would go for a TK Push.

More later...........

Thank you!



@TheNinjasRock071394: I do tend to do the exact same thing with Cyber SZ and his dive kick. However, I don't do the same with Kung Lao as it is much easier to punish his dive kick. As for Kabal I prefer to fire an instant air gas blast as you can recover faster. If the opponent jumps over the ground saw they can punish it as it has more recovery.

Ya very clever thread. I feel like the first hit of a match is way too underrated.

I play characters like Sektor, Cyrax, and Johnny Cage who can do sooo much more when they have meter so I normally play it a bit safe at the beginning of a round. A lot of the times I just crouch block and wait to uppercut the JIP or react to what my opponent does.

With cyrax most of the time I dash back and net to not only get the first hit but a combo as well. Also his AA grab works a lot of the time as well but is more of a gamble.

For Sektor i use to do that B1 most of the time too but was getting hit by all the JIP scrubs so now i just jump backwards and missile or flame throw depending on whether my opponent jumps forward or not. Seems like most players expect the TU at the beginning of the match so normally i delay it a bit to throw them off. Like if i jump pack and shoot off a missile and feel like they're gonna try to out zone me or jump forward over another missile I'll iTU.

Johnny Cages flip kick is normally a safe bet unless your opponent merely crouches cause then they can uppercut. My favorite way to start a round is with a B3 against a JIP so I can start the match off with a combo, end at nutpunch so i have advantage, AND two bars of meter. It can be tricky to react to a JIP with a B3 in lag tho. Also when I simply don't want my opponent to get the meter boost I'll jump back at the beginning of the match and then do that red slide kick because most of the time they'll throw a projectile after me, especially Kenshi and Shang players. This can be a little risky tho.

Against characters like Milleena, Sonya, Kung Lao, sometimes Kabal, and kitana i immediately crouch block tho because I've lost the first hit battle against them hitting low far too many times. Against Cage, Jax, and Nightwolf I just crouch and wait for their high hitting dash moves.

For a Raiden player I ALWAYS crouch block and wait for the teleport. As soon as I see/hear it I hit D4 and hit him as he appears. Must Raiden players will start a match with a teleport.

I'll add more as I think of them, not that any of these are particularly ground breaking tho :p

Awww, thanks mate. Appreciate the input.


Btw, I think it's better to stand block against Raiden as it takes less frames to recover from a standing block than crouching block, so it's easier to react to his teleport and any other stuff. He doesn't have any low starters anyway.

d+1 or an instant air fan. This is pretty much all I do anyway so it just works out that they're good for getting the first hit bonus.

LMFAO! Don't start trollin' us now.

Btw, what's up with those casual matches from Devastation? I'd like to see those.

Ha! I see what he did there.

My favourite thing to do with Kenshi is the tele-push, or a combo from F+2. Sometimes I'll just go right for a jump kick. It's not the best idea, but I like jump kicking.

Holy shit I did not realize that. Played the most annoying Raiden i have ever come across last night and I'm embarrassed to say he beat me simply by teleporting and then either throwing or doing a super man. There was a bit of lag so I thought that was the reason his superman was beating my pokes from crouching block but i guess I'd have better chances if i stand block before poking?? Looking forward to trying that :)

^ Oh wait, no! LOL, sorry. If you wanna attack with a fastest combo string then it's better to be stand blocking, but if you just wanna poke, then crouch blocking is better I'm sure. Sorry for the confusion! Hope you don't lose any matches 'cause of this. If you do, bitchslap me!

Btw, listened to the KombatTomb podcast, very entertaining! Must start throwing more!

THE ELECTRICITY! IT BURNS!! WHY?!? WHY NEPHRITE??!?!?



lol really tho, no worries man. I learned Cage's F3,3, Nutpunch can punish Raiden's teleport on reaction, but have no idea how consistent this is. Some Raiden players would just cross me up while I tried while others would get hit. Dunno if it was the players fault for not blocking or if lag was fucking one of us up or if its really even possible in the first place.

BUT i digress, don't wanna turn this thread into a "wtf i H8 fagraiden1111!" thread.



Also, a good way to start a game with Cyber Sub is to Jump forward a TINY bit and hit D3, always a good bet and a lot of characters can't punish it in time (assuming they started the match on stand block).