Curious as to how other players here work around people who use latency to their advantage and just stand there and block all game. I'm never going to consider myself anything more than average at the game... but i mean its just annoying. I'm not talking people who are actively trying to zone and attack. I'm gearing this toward the people who just stand there and wait for you to attack, then take advantage of the online not letting you punish there blocked combo or uppercut because lag made my input just slow enough.
Do I just deal with it? This is mainly when I use Mileena btw.
That's not an "online strategy". What you're referring to is called "Turtling", which is like "Camping" in FPS's. It may seem more effective online, and it may be, but it's a strategy that applies to online and offline.
Now, beating a turtle is really easy in MK games. Every thing you do causes chip damage to a blocked opponent. Also, in MK9, attacking a blocked opponent builds your meter fairly quickly. So, you're inflicting chip damage and you're building meter while attacking a blocked opponent.
If they're countering your rushdown, you have to bait them into countering, then block and punish. For instance, if you're playing against a Nightwolf, and he's just turtling and waiting for you to rush in to do the shoulder charge, you're going to have to bait it.
There's also always throws, which are very good in MK9.
Other than that, you have two options. Either don't play online, or accept it for what it is. Online is bullshit, especially in MK9. If someone is getting away with a certain tactic because it's laggy or delayed, there's nothing you can do about that. That's one of the many reasons competitive players despise online play. It's just too unreliable and there's too many negative variables for it to be worth it imo.
EDIT: Changed thread title to "Turtling Online" and moved to "Basic Gameplay".