Mortal Kombat 1/Kung Lao/Introduction

Introduction

Youthful Warrior with Dreams of Glory

"Born and raised in the village of Fengjian, Kung Lao has spent his life toiling in the fields. It has been an honorable life, if not a glorious one. Kung Lao’s greatest fear is that his life will amount to nothing. He prays fervently that he will be called to do something bigger. His prayers are answered when he is asked to join the champions of Earthrealm. As a warrior fighting for its honor, Kung Lao knows that his victories will be long remembered."

Kung Lao is a rushdown archetype that excels at pressuring opponents with close-range normals and advancing specials, which can be used to open the opponent up for kombos that are easily extended by various specials and/or Kameo assists; some of his tools include a 212 hit-confirmable autoshimmy, a 6f High B1 fast punish button, a safe 12f Mid B2 that can confirm into a launch (B24), a 12f Low B4 sweep that is +3 on block, and a High-Overhead s.3 that is neutral on block. In addition to the oki provided by the knockdowns of B4 and s.3 (either keeping the opponent nearby or having lots of KD advantage), his safe 13f Mid B3 has equally advantaged Low/Overhead ender options that can hit the opponent for attempting to kounter gaps without an armor reversal. His unsafe 18f Overhead F2 hat can be special-cancelled or assisted by Kameos to enhance his mixup potential; although his various “Hat Toss/Buzzsaw” projectiles disable this hat normal for 1-2 seconds as the hat returns, they can also grant him sufficient zoning with grounded and aerial projectiles which are useful for converting and/or extending kombos. Kung Lao also has other aerial/grounded attacks for nimbly closing in on opponents to make up for his lacking mid-range presence such as his anti-air/divekick DB4 abilities and two advancing armor moves; his EX BF2 armor reversal can be converted into juggles with Kameo assists and has the option to be made safe on block for an additional bar of meter, while his DU3 Shaolin Spin has meterless armor for as long as the startup is delayed and allows him to move back and forth onscreen while delaying the spin to punish the opponent.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Armor King: If Kung Lao's Enhanced Shaolin Shimmy is blocked, he can Enhance it again to make it safe for an additonal bar of meter; his free armored Shaolin Spin also gained an Enhanced version which massively boosts its movement speed to help him escape bad situations or even push his opponents around with Kameo coverage; Wakeup Vortex: Lao can pester his opponent after a knockdown with mixup options like B33 (Low, Low, -6 on block), B34 (Low, Overhead, -6), S3 (High, Overhead, 0 and breaks armor), and even a cheeky F2 (Overhead, -19 but special cancellable); his 21 is +3 on Block, giving him a strong auto-shimmy between his -5 212 and a throw attempt; Don't Touch the Hat: He has a decent arsenal of hat projectiles between the High grounded Buzzsaw, his Mid aimable Hat Toss, and his new Air Buzzsaw which can be tricky to contest when fired low to the ground; Six Frame Shaolin Strike: His special cancellable B1 gives him full combo punishes on -7 moves, a game-changer in many matchups; Lightfoot: Lao is no slouch in the movement department with a strong dashblock; The Dive Kick: It hits lightning fast, recovers just as quickly, and starts combos when Enhanced.

An Odd Job: His projectiles share a small cooldown as the hat needs to reappear on his head before he can use it again, making it a mitigating factor in projectile wars; Slight Frame: Lao lacks range in most of his normals.