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 fails to live up to that legacy in MK11 as its pre-order bonus/day one DLC. Community consensus generally places him as one of the weakest characters in the game, if not the absolute bottom. While he hits like a freight train once he gets a touch, getting to that point is difficult due to his lack of safety on important strings and little to enforce his general gameplan. Addtionally, he benefits little from his kustom ablities compared to the rest of the cast. That said, buffs across multiple patches during the game's lifetime has made him more of a functional character, and he does have more genuinely strong buttons/specials than a lot of players give him credit for. He's been described as one of the best characters in the game when he's guessing right but ultimately your mileage may vary.

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 gives 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. Has to Guess During His Combos: Adding to his block pressure issues, Shao Kahn is forced to choose during his best combo starter and a lot of his blockstrings. Weak Fullscreen Presence: Merciless Spear can't compete with most of the other fireballs in the game, while using Kustoms to address this block 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	-
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