MK11 vs MK1: Long high damage combos vs short lower damage combos

[Blondie]

So yeah. I've been playing Kombat League yesterday and today and worked my way up to Warrior I think, the third rank. The first couple of matches were fun, people who were as bad in the game as me. Then after reaching the 2nd rank, the Baraka's and Raiden's came along.

When I ♥♥♥♥ up, I'll get a combo in in my face dealing around 47%-52%. Without the fatal blow. During this whole combo, I can't do anything but watch as I am being ragdolled across the room. Then directly after the combo, I'll just have to pray I choose the right option (defend low or high, to poke or not to poke etc) or this repeats.

It's tedious as ♥♥♥♥. I liked MK11. I don't know if I am the minority, but I liked the more no-nonsense approach and the lesser damage combo's dealt. If I screwed up, I'd get around 25%-32% damage and only with some bad luck some more. It felt more forgiving, if that makes sense. And the animations were quicker (except maybe Kollector), so I wasn't locked in the long tedious animations.

I get it: the combo's look flashy. Big numbers make our feelings go 'woooo!'. But.. is it really fun?

I mainly play Kitana and I'm no pro at all. Above average at best, but I already feel like I'm playing at a disadvantage, because punishing people far way is hard with a full combo and a lot of my strings feel... kinda slow, especially the low starter. Having no overhead also makes her predictable (just defend low and punish, really). Isn't the balance kinda... ♥♥♥♥ in this game? Like: do yourself a favour and just play Baraka/Raiden? I'm not saying skill isn't required to pull those high damaging combo's off, but I'm pretty sure that with some practice they can be learned, so why bother playing a different character and just handicap yourself?

As it is now, with the big combo's and the lame as hell kameo system it's like the game is geared towards the 10% of the better players (random number) and forgets about the more casual gamer. Though I can't imagine pulling off big combos without resistance is much fun either, but ehh, who am I..

Guess I just miss MK11 a bit. And Jade. And Cassie. And Skarlet, Ah well, Atleast the single player content there also kept me busy, which is noticably absent in this game. Just had to get this off me chest :D

[Kolumbo]

I understand the feeling but, at the end of the day, ALL fighting games are geared towards more serious players. It's a competitive genre all about practice and mastery!

(There will of course be LOTS of balance tweaks over the weeks and months, as well as lots of new tech being found and new norms emerging - the characters that seem too dominant now almost certainly won't be for long. So much left to discover in this very rich, very new game)

I do totally understand how demoralizing the long combos can be though. I felt the same way when I started MKX (the first fighting game I really dove into) but eventually I found that they stopped bothering me because I had a better understanding of *why* they were catching me and what I could do different

(As for Kitana's basics feeling too predictable - that's where being creative with kameos can make a huge difference! Maybe try busting out Scorpion to get some low/overhead mix)