Mortal Kombat 1/Kung Lao

Kung Lao
Base Health	1000.00
Availability

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 monk that excels at pressuring opponents with close-range normals and advancing specials, which can be used to open them up for damaging kombos (easily extended by various specials and/or Kameo assists); his tools include a hit-confirmable autoshimmy (212), a fast 6f punish button (B1), a safe 12f Mid (B2) that can confirm into a launch (B24), a 12f Low (B4) sweep that is +3, and a High-Overhead S3 that is neutral on block. The oki provided by B4 and S3 (either keeping opponents nearby or having lots of knockdown advantage) is complemented by a fast/safe Mid (B3) with equally advantageous Low/Overhead ender options that can hit opponents for attempting to kounter gaps without an armor reversal. His unsafe 18f Overhead F2 hat normal can be special-cancelled or assisted by Kameos to enhance his Mixup potential; although his various hat projectiles disable this normal for 1-2 seconds as the hat returns, they can 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 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 reversal can convert into juggles with Kameo assists and has the option to be made safe for an additional bar of meter, while DU3 Shaolin Spin has meterless armor for as long as the startup is delayed and allows him to move forward/backward while delaying to punish opponents.

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 kombo 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 kombos 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.