Shang Tsung Thread - "Your soul Is Mine!!"

Which combo starter to use find you use mostly? I try and use 2,2,1 with him, but I can never get it to connect, it seems like most of the other fighters can get their hit in before Shang can with that starter. It seems like f3,4 has been the safest for me so far. I wanna be able to connect on 2,2,1 though.
 
Which combo starter to use find you use mostly? I try and use 2,2,1 with him, but I can never get it to connect, it seems like most of the other fighters can get their hit in before Shang can with that starter. It seems like f3,4 has been the safest for me so far. I wanna be able to connect on 2,2,1 though.
Here's what I use.

F4,3,4 - It's my favorite string. Very good for dashing in and starting combos. Great range and cannot be crouched.

2,2,1 - When I try to combo of a jump punch. Not really good otherwise IMO. F4,3,4 has superior range and all 3 hits are mid. The first punch on 2,2,1 can be crouched(AKA you eat an uppercut).

F3,4 - For punishing those blocked teleports. It's also great for catching people who stand block. It's unsafe on low block, though. On low block you must react really fast and cancel into close skull or soul steal to make it safe.
 
Here's what I use.

F4,3,4 - It's my favorite string. Very good for dashing in and starting combos. Great range and cannot be crouched.

2,2,1 - When I try to combo of a jump punch. Not really good otherwise IMO. F4,3,4 has superior range and all 3 hits are mid. The first punch on 2,2,1 can be crouched(AKA you eat an uppercut).

F3,4 - For punishing those blocked teleports. It's also great for catching people who stand block. It's unsafe on low block, though. On low block you must react really fast and cancel into close skull or soul steal to make it safe.

Yeah, that all makes sense. Good analysis of those. Another thing, I cannot for the life of me escape pressure once someone like Johnny Cage or a good Skarlet player gets in on me. I can block all I want, but it doesn't seem like Shang as any moves to knock the opponent back off of you. Any tips on escaping pressure with Shang?
 
Yeah, Shang doesn't handle pressure very well. His EX soul steal works sometimes but that's all he has. It lets you absorb a hit and gives you a damage boost -- and from my experience people tend to turtle a bit until you morph back. The bad news is that you need to know the character. I used it on a Jax player the other day and I had no idea what to do... :neutral:

Aside from that, you just have to rely on reading your opponent before they start pressuring. Jump in before your opponent jumps in on you... throw them before they throw you... dash in and poke with 1,2 or F434 etc etc
 
Yeah, Shang doesn't handle pressure very well. His EX soul steal works sometimes but that's all he has. It lets you absorb a hit and gives you a damage boost -- and from my experience people tend to turtle a bit until you morph back. The bad news is that you need to know the character. I used it on a Jax player the other day and I had no idea what to do... :neutral:

Aside from that, you just have to rely on reading your opponent before they start pressuring. Jump in before your opponent jumps in on you... throw them before they throw you... dash in and poke with 1,2 or F434 etc etc

That's kind of what I figured, alrighty then. Just gotta practice with him some more. I do enjoy using using him though, he's been loads of fun so far. There's just nothing like juggling people with fire skulls and knowing they can't do anything about it except take it and enjoy the ride :)
 
I've found a pretty neat combo that wasn't listed and thought I would post it.

two bars [10 hits, 35% damage] F+4, 3, 4, DF4, XDF4, FF, XDF2

The upward skull should propel the person upward into 2 of the 3 falling skulls. Possibly could hit all 3 skulls with a bigger character model.

Can also be done as

two bars [6 hits, 25% damage] XDF4, XDF2. From a full screen length apart.
 
Bring back his morphing is what they should do in an update and make him be able to morph into anyone but the bosses who agrees
 
that f4,3,4 starter is beastly, i never knew about it before. i only used his b1,2,1,4 and his 2,2,1 combos before. now im actually winning a couple of matches.
btw any tips on when/ if there is a good time for his xray? i always seem to use the enhanced fireballs more than anything so i never really have full xray.

Also Khameleon, his ability to morph into anyone was taken out becuase the game couldnt handle throwing in all the different characters, (the loading screen is jsut used to load the characters because their detailed in and out, the background less so)
 
Bring back his morphing is what they should do in an update and make him be able to morph into anyone but the bosses who agrees

He would kind of be overpowered that way he can already turn through combo strings but his speed be killin me online. Still love him tho
 
that f4,3,4 starter is beastly, i never knew about it before. i only used his b1,2,1,4 and his 2,2,1 combos before. now im actually winning a couple of matches.
btw any tips on when/ if there is a good time for his xray? i always seem to use the enhanced fireballs more than anything so i never really have full xray.

Also Khameleon, his ability to morph into anyone was taken out becuase the game couldnt handle throwing in all the different characters, (the loading screen is jsut used to load the characters because their detailed in and out, the background less so)

My xray combos are

Jp 221 close fireball xray
Or
F3 4 med fireball xray
Or
Corner only
Jp 221 close fireball f434 xray

To honest I try not to use to much meter unless nessasary
Because you can do decent damage without it
Like
Jp 221 close med far fireballs does hella decent damage and if your losing ground in the stage u can always double up
 
Bring back his morphing is what they should do in an update and make him be able to morph into anyone but the bosses who agrees

Ok but why? If they did that they would have to get rid of the damage boost and probably make his damage do half cause people would turn into cyrax and use the bomb mid combo to make infinites...
Hmmm hell no lol
 
ive been playin shang lately a nice little trick he has is ... jump in punch 2,2 down up 2 jump in again and do yer combo de upskull gives like 8 % wen used at de start
 
been having problems with rushdown characters lately (reptile,jc,etc) i normally can handle them by zoning fire skulls but they seem to have found a way to escape it
 
been having problems with rushdown characters lately (reptile,jc,etc) i normally can handle them by zoning fire skulls but they seem to have found a way to escape it

Usually fireballs are too slow, so when all else fails, morph into them and use they're own strat against them. Morphing is instant damage unlike fireballs, and they have no time to see it coming or counter it. I do the same to people when they spam sub zeros ice clone. Morph goes right through it, and they don't see it coming. They will eventually stop doing it
 
Usually fireballs are too slow, so when all else fails, morph into them and use they're own strat against them. Morphing is instant damage unlike fireballs, and they have no time to see it coming or counter it. I do the same to people when they spam sub zeros ice clone. Morph goes right through it, and they don't see it coming. They will eventually stop doing it

Thanks bro, I rarely use the soul steal but I will start to put it in my gameplay
 
Thanks bro, I rarely use the soul steal but I will start to put it in my gameplay

I started using morph recently too. It's just so fast.

It's funny, Shang tsung and Liu kang are both my mains, but Shang tsung is so much more fun to play as. And if u get bored, u just morph into the other player. He's so underrated
 
Morph is an amazing tool with Shang. I don't use it nearly enough (mostly because I don't know how to use a lot of the characters), but it's fantastic for sure.
 
Morph is an amazing tool with Shang. I don't use it nearly enough (mostly because I don't know how to use a lot of the characters), but it's fantastic for sure.

I been learning alot of characters lately so morph will be good cuz I can dish out some damage with almost any character
I just started ending my combos with soul steal and it does help alot especially when I play one of my mains
 
The only problem for me is I think his moves are pretty slow. It's a good character, but if you're playing a near kombat against a fast character, you're lost :(
 
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