Jade Guides

Jade Guide

Jade is the quintessential Anti-air character. A rare breed in Mortal Kombat 11, especially considering just how prevalent and powerful the air approach game is. She is a long-range striker with many projectile attacks that offer her more significant than average control over areas allowing for a zoning playstyle. She also has many tools to close gaps or avoid projectiles herself, leading to a solid foundation to counter zone opponents and pressure those who need to get close to her to start their strategies. Jade's fatal flaw? Low damage across the board makes her slightly unreliable to finish fights.

Key Strengths & Weaknesses

One of the most common moves that see use in Jade matchups is Dodging Shadows, using DB2, this buff provides invulnerability for a short time, and it is the critical tool in opening up Jade's options to respond to projectile aggression, furthermore, getting used to the duration of the invulnerability, 5 seconds, can allow you to reset the buff as soon as it wears off, adding even more time for your to respond. The drawback is that it only works with projectiles, and enemies able to close the gap quickly and land a quick poke will wear off the buff and potentially chain in other attacks. Do not become over-reliant on it.

Going into Ati-Air, the only thing you need to know is that D2 is the strongest anti-air in the game, no dispute. It is the single best tool to respond to those approaches. Which, in reality, is a solid and weak point. It is a strength of the character as it makes it impossible to use a widely used strategy of closing the gap with hops and air attacks. On the other hand, any player with a base-level understanding of the game will realize this and not use said strategies, potentially switching to a more grounded character. If you plan to play Jade, you need to devote as much to your ground game and not focus on trying to catch opponents in the air; if you have to, you will have the tools.

Besides the low damage previously mentioned, Jade is also a little under the average in terms of movement options, which can hurt her ability to maximize the zoning potential of her kit. She is certainly not the character of choice for players that prefer a quick and dirty style of fighting, choosing instead to do a more gradual buildup with big pop-off moments that unfortunately are sometimes undercut by low damage strings.

Jade Best Moves

Best buttons

• 1-  This is a quick, 7f jab that is great for staggering opponents.
• D4- One of her best, while it isn't super fast or anything, it does a great job in that it creates space for Jade.
• B2- This is a high, multi-hit move that does some decent damage
• D2- A very strong move. One of the best in the game, and excellent as an anti-air

Best variation

• (Air) Razor Rang (DB1)
• Delia's Dance (BF2)
• Vanishing Winds (DB3)

Best combos

• B3, 4, 3, BF2
• B3, 4, 3, BF1, AMP
• F3, 4
• 2, 1
• F2, 1, DASH, 4, BF1, AMP, B2, DF4
• D2, DASH, 2, BF1, AMP, D2
• FTHROW, DASH, 4, BF1, AMP, D2
• 1, 2, 4, DASH, 2, BF1, AMP, D2
• FJ2, F2, 1, 4, BF1, AMP, 4, 3, BF2

How to Play Against a Jade

Much of anti-jade strategy revolves around using the gaps created by flawless blocks in some of her strings and moves to respond in force. F2,1 has a slow overhead component that can be blocked without too many issues and once blocked opens up a nice window of time for you to respond to the aggression.

The only caveat is that even though you can block normally, is best if you flawless block, to avoid the pushback of a normal block. B3,4,3,4 can also be flawlessly blocked in the final hit allowing you to U2 for the punishment. Similarly, F3,4,3 has a gap in the second attack good enough to flawless block.

B2, wiggle stick, is a popular move for Jade players, as it has good reach, to counter it you will need to predict it, easier to do on opponents that spam the move. You can duck under the attack, and if you are quick to punish as well.