A New Challenger has entered the ring! I wanna learn KI!

General Discussion
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Hi everyone,

I am new to KI and I’d like to learn the game! I am a die-hard Mvc2 player so I wanna test my skills against the best here by picking up a new game. I do have a few questions:

What character should I choose? I play rushdown with an emphasis on heavy execution if needed for large damage. I prefer a counter-hit frame-trap heavy character that is oppressive, has amazing buttons and devastating combos. I was liking Fulgore but haven’t explored anyone honestly.

What is the current meta and where can I learn the mechanics of the game properly? I want to have a solid understanding of fundamentals so that I can learn scenarios and punish accordingly.

Any other tips? Thanks to anyone that responds! I hope this game keeps its scene alive!

-Kinetik

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Welcome

Some may disagree but I would say Sabrewulf and Orchid could fit your preference for rushdown.

There is a very comprehensive guide made by a forum legend. It could help you decide on a character.

ki.infil.net

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Ah, gotcha! I probably will end up learning Fulgore tbh as well as another character to make up for bad match-ups if needed. Wow, this guide looks pretty comprehensive, thank you!

How is the online servers? Is the netcode still good?

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The game has generally no issues with netcode. Unfortunately, the game can sometimes be a bit buggy, especially with dlc characters not showing up properly. But online performance is usually not a problem for this game. KI is best in class.

Fulgore is a good choice. Very hard to master but can be really strong.

As for meta, generally all matchups are close without overwhelmingly weak or strong characters. It has been a KI selling point as the game is well balanced at the moment. I’m sure in a few hours the folks in the US come online and will give more tips on the state of the game and other advice.

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In addition to my last post, the following thread is a good source for matchup and player analysis…

And here is the matchmaking thread. Very active in general…

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First off, welcome!

Bojima pretty much nailed a lot of things in his replies so i just wanna add on more with your character stuff.

Given that bit of info, you’re probably pretty comfortable with knowing bare bones basics of multiple characters. Once you have the general mechanics and rules of the game down, learning new characters is fairly straight forward aside from the individual ways they bend the rules. And to be honest, if you wanted to try your hand at a close ‘Marvel-like’ character, might want to look into ARIA. Character has three different bodies and when she’s not active in any one particular one, they can be used as an assist to add layers to her offense.

If you want to play rushdown, Sabrewulf, Riptor and Rash are all good choices. Though their styles of rushdown are a little different between each.

If you want a counter-hit frame trap heavy style, might want to look into Jago, Orchid and Fulgore for that sort of play.

If you want oppressive, characters like Eagle, Sadira, Eyedol and Aganos can fit that bill in varied ways.

Amazing buttons, the likes of Shadow Jago, Arbiter, Hisako or General Raam come up for either their range or their frame advantage.

Devastating combos, try looking up Tusk, Kim Wu or Mira if you want to come close to ToD’ing life bars.

If you can’t tell, you can find a lot of different character styles from exploring the roster. Insofar as meta or learning how each character is played, there’s literally years of player games to go off of. Combo Breaker happened a little while ago and there was a lot of character variety throughout the pools and top 24 to grand finals. Also, there’s a specific resource on YouTube where you can find online sets between some of the games better players. https://www.youtube.com/user/XiBassiX

To be fair, i think the one character that comes closest to encapsulating everything that you’re looking for might be Shin Hisako.

Happy gaming.

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Welcome!

First I thought of Orchid (for damage) and Sabrewulf (for rushdown) but honestly…
You mentioned Marvel and thinking about it maybe Rash could be for you. It’s opressive, has good normals, he can move full screen,easy manual crazy juggles blah blah blah. It’s dumb and good.

I use Sabrewulf and don’t reccomend it unless you want to suffer in many matchups running and trying to get in almost every time.
I mean,I love the character and won’t change it for anything, it’s just my experience.
You can give it a shot tho.

Good luck!

PD: Fulgore is quite good,I would use him but he is boring to me compared KI2.
He has quite good normals, some frametraps, dp! (invecible with light punch), teleports, cancels using pips,etc.
Still not the easiest character to pick, his damage isn’t amazing (you have yo make choices about resources for increasing your speed and mixups or use them for damage).
Overall, very good character for most matchups but requires work in specific ones. It’s not free.

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All of this advice is great! I’d also take a moment to check out the developer breakdowns just to give you some developer insight on how characters are supposed to work. (although this may be outdated or patched out). Fyi, at the beginning of Season 3, a lot of moves were changed/taken away/added, so check out the Season 3 breakdown of characters.


Search youtube for “[character name] breakdown”. You might want to include the following keywords as well: developer, dev, iron galaxy.

Here’s an example of the dev breakdown of Raam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFghm4-tlNU

There’s also a facebook page called Killer Instinct Ultimate Fans. Lastly, there’s a discord for KI as well.

Welcome!

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Wow thank you to everyone that has contributed! I didn’t expect such a great response. I feel that this game has so many different styles and it’s great to be able to fight against each one.

I think it’s hard to really replicate Mvc2 here, especially if I played Magneto because his sheer speed and many ways he can open you up is really unparalleled. I may do Fulgore and Kim Wu to start off. For more reference, I used to play Cody in USF4 as well. I can’t wait to dig in to this game!

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Cinder is the character that comes to mind for me when someone says MvC, what with his aerial movement, juggles, and “make a mistake and die” archetype. Rash is also a good choice, probably being the most mobile character in the game when it comes down to it. Your experience with Cody means you’ve got a liking of strong frame traps and some good “stop” tools though, and for that I’d recommend Jago. But really, you can pick up anyone in the cast who strikes your fancy. I think Sneerful covered a lot of the bases pretty well.

In terms of the game meta, KI is a title where you can legitimately play who you like and more or less make it work. Top 8 at Combo Breaker had at least 10 characters played, and Top 24 probably had 20+ characters represented. If you lose a match it’s almost always pretty easy to see where you as a player messed up, as opposed to just being stuck in an unwinnable MU. So play a character you like with tools you love, and just have fun taking them as far as you can. The two characters @SonicDolphin117 plays, Arbiter and Kim-Wu, are widely considered by the community at-large to be some of the worst characters in the game (Arbiter in particular, almost always listed in bottom 3). In KI the whole cast is viable.

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Since OP was interested in playing Kim I just wanted to add that last I heard she was considered roughly mid-tier, since her tools and damage lend her generally solid MUs against the the rest of the cast besides Aganos (who, be warned, gives her easily one of the worst MUs in the game).

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I’m a Sadira main! She’s what I’d call an Areal Rush down character. Sadly she got the nerf hammer and while she is certainly an awesome character, there are a few mus that can give her trouble. Not unwinnable, but can be hard.

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If you’re new to this game, I’m training a new pocket Fulgore. You could run games with that; should even out the playing field quite a bit. Could be a good learning experience for both of us.