Mortal Kombat 11/Shao Kahn

Shao Kahn #MK11_SHA
DOMINANCE Emperor of Outworld. For millennia, Shao Kahn dominated the realms, rapidly expanding his Empire by conquest. But when he set out to claim Earthrealm, he was blocked by the rules of Mortal Kombat. Deterred but determined, Shao Kahn demands absolute victory.
Data
Health	1100.00
Hitbox	Big Body

Introduction

One of the most iconic final bosses in all of gaming, Shao Kahn sadly failed to live up to that legacy in MK11 as its pre-order bonus/day one DLC. Community consensus generally placed him as one of the weakest characters in the game, if not the absolute bottom. Fortunately, buffs across multiple patches during the game's lifetime has made him more of a functional character, even if he's still hovering around the middle to lower end of many tier lists. He hits like a freight train once he gets a touch, although getting to that point can be difficult due to his lack of safety on important strings and little else to enforce his general gameplan. Addtionally, he benefits little from his kustom ablities compared to the rest of the cast. He's been described as one of the best characters in the game when he's guessing right but ultimately a feast-or-famine character not quite suited for tournament play.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Hits Like a Train: Buffs to Hammer Lunge have upped his already impressive damage potential, with his meterless damage benefitting particularly. Relatively Easy Combos and Conversions: Shao Kahn, although still having a good and tall skill ceiling, has pretty easy combos and conversions due to how versatile his main combo starter, Shoulder Charger, is. Strong-In-Class Buttons: Many normals (usually using his hammer) like D2, D4, B4, and S2 have strong properties compared to similar tools on other characters, whether they be range, damage, frame data, or anti-air potential. 1100 HP: Tied with RoboCop for highest health in the game, giving him a little more leeway in matches. Emperor of Armor Breaks: Has multiple tools for countering Breakaway, with Skewered in particular effectively shutting down attempts to escape his combos and leading to more damage.

Bad Block Pressure: A lot of Shao Kahn's combo strings and normal moves are quite minus on block, and a lot of characters can punish you very easily if you make a mistake. His F34 string in particular is Flawless Blockable on both hits, effectively mixing himself up. Has to Guess During His Combos: Shao Kahn is forced to choose during his best combo starter since aiming Shoulder Charger down for the Armor Break is a hard read. Weak Fullscreen Presence: Merciless Spear can't compete with most of the other fireballs in the game, while using Kustoms to address this blocks him from more important abilities. Kustoms Don't Help Him: With his base kit lacking some fundamental tools, he can't get enough abilities to address his weaknesses, to say nothing about whether those abilities are even useful. Big: Shao Kahn's size makes him easier to combo than other characters, narrowly mitigating his higher health. No Laughing: His taunt, laugh, and priest buffs are comically slow with no way to safely/reliably guarantee them after a combo. Using them fullscreen will either see you eat a fireball or force you to fight your way back into Shao's preferred range. Bad Krushing Blows: Many of his Krushing Blows rely on his weaker tools or have unreasonable requirements.

Movelist

Normals and Strings

1

Face Smasher
1

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
20.00 / 3.00 / 0.30	High	9	2	11
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
12	23	4	4	-
Placeholder

Warlord
12

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
30.00 / 4.50 / 0.45	Mid	13	2	27
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
16	6	-7	-7	-
Placeholder

DIE
121+3

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
140.00 / 4.50 / 0.45	Mid	26	2	32
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
N/A	14	-5	-5	-
Placeholder KRUSHING BLOW: "Triggers if at least 3 Merciless Spear attacks have already landed."

Takeover
14

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
20.00 / 3.00 / 0.30	Mid	16	2	28
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
21	20	-3	-3	-
Good string, cancels into Hammer Lunge to start your combo.

Merging Realms
142

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
70.00 / 10.50 / 1.05	Overhead	28	2	39
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
N/A	11	-9	-9	-
Placeholder

Dragon Fist
D1

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery
20.00 / 3.00 / 0.30	High	7	2	15
Cancel	Hit Adv	Blk Adv	F/Blk Adv	Cost
10	14	-5	-5	-
Placeholder Cannot be canceled into special moves if Flawless Blocked