It seems like a lot of streamers/pros use controllers but I went from controller to leverless and can’t imagine going back.

I kinda had issues playing on fightstick but it mostly worked.

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Iirc the entire top 8 at evo was pad

It's usable, but interestingly, many professional Mortal Kombat players use a standard pad.

And when I say many, I mean players like: SonicFox, Nicolas, NinjaKilla, ScorpionProcs, Tekken Master, etc

Although it is curious to me that not many people take advantage of the Leverless and create an optimized layout for Mortal Kombat

Keyboard allows you to input with all 10 fingers instead of just thumbs, so it's objectively better. That said, most people are already used to controllers from playing other games and there's no real disadvantage in using them.

Try both, see which one clicks. Also, definitely use the D-pad.

Controller. I play on ps5, so im a bit biased. However, I use the d-pad. The anolog still will make you do moves you didnt mean to.

I don't know about best, but I really like the "HORI Fighting Commander OCTA - Tournament Grade Fightpad". It doesn't feel like the misinputs I get are from the controller, but my own skill. It lacks a right stick, so you can't use talismans in invasions mode. The shoulder buttons are a little odd with R3/L3 on the left and L1/L2 on the right. Feels like the buttons have microswitches and the dpad doesn't feel "loose" at all

I just got a brook converter so I could use a ps4 controller I already had and I’m liking it a lot. I assume you could find a ds4 for fairly cheap but idk for sure

The series X controller is goat for MK. I didnt realize it until mine broke and I had to go back to my hold controller for a minute until I fixed my broken one.

The series X Dpad is almost bowl shaped so the edges of each direction are slightly raised compared to the middle. It makes hitting different directional outputs easier in quick succession.

Pad, if you want responsiveness always use Xbox controllers on windows!

usas mando inalámbrico o con cable?

There is no best in general. It’s whatever u feel is best

Hitbox-type controllers seem to be the clear answer. Keyboards are the same in essence, but have extra buttons to accidentally press, so are probably strictly worse by a small margin. The measurable advantage is that you can press multiple directions at the same time, which you cannot do on a joystick or controller. This comes in handy less in MK than other fighters, but it does make some inputs much easier, inputs like Shang Tsung's down back forward 1 inputs for projectiles are much easier to nail down with a ten finger input scheme. That said, whatever you like best is perfectly viable. The input advantage can be overcome with practice in almost all circumstances, and plenty of people have a near 100% input success rate with every controller available. One thing that matters a lot is that triggers with actual pulls are terrible for your input consistency, and finding a way to press a button when you would normally pull a trigger can make a huge difference. I use a Razer Raion, and I'm quite happy with it, the triggers are buttons, and there is no analog stick, and the d-pad has mechanical switches instead of wierd membrane buttons. I recommend something like if you want to try other options without a dramatic change in input scheme, the Octa Commander is similar in design but cheaper, and Battle Beaver makes custom controllers that can fix every problem normal controllers have but they are expensive.

Series X controller.

Personally got the 8bit duo M30 with the brooks xb wingman converter.

Well it depends. If you wanna wake up your neighbour in the middle of the night then series x controller is a way to go. But I personally think that playing fighting games on a clicky dpad is terrible.

Hori Fighting Commander will remedy the directional issue, but you'll have to do some remapping as it's basically built for 6 Attack buttons and can be kind of awkward as MK1 is very specifically designed for a standard controller.

Check out the controller settings and see if any help.

Definitely turn off negative edge, then see if either input shortcuts or alternative controls helps you, its depends on what you keep accidentally doing I suppose. The input window can also help in some cases as well, but I'd personally try the others first.

As far as other controllers goes, I always like d pads that are basically a flat disc like the raion and certain versions of the razer wolverine. The new xbox one is ruined by the raised bits for me.

I'm currently playing on a dual sense (all the controllers I preferred died over time) and I hate it, but I was considering getting some d buttons from battle beaver to see if they help. They replace the one piece of plastic with 4 individual directional buttons so you can't get accidental inputs by shifting the whole piece.

I love the circle pad on the Xbox Elite controller for NRS games

So i use my hori octa for every fighting games except mk. I play mk on my dualsense/edge.

Don't want to sound mean, but if the string didn't come "countless times" the controller is either broken or its an execution error of you no controller will fix.

I’m struggling too but I think internet is playing a big part. I have no trouble getting a combo out offline. But online it’s like my character just stops.

Maybe a custom PS5 controller with individual D-Pad buttons from Battle Beavers?

Personally, I use a leverless fight stick from Victrix. If I was buying something for the first time again, I'd probably go with Razers new leverless stick because the buttons are bigger than on the Victrix stick.

In my opinion the hitbox is the absolute optimal controller for fighting games.

I prefer Nintendo 64 controller

Preferably an Xbox controller

It's depend of your favorites. So... usually I try differents models in offline store, after this can order only which are better for me XD

I just got the hori fighting commander for xbox yesterday because I've had buttons break on 2 original xbox controllers already and it's really the only controller i've heard people recommend.

I've only played a couple hours w/ hit, but here are my thoughts:

The sensitivity of the controller seems much more accurate than the original xbox controller. By that I mean if you tap a button quickly, it's only going to register for that very short time. I noticed that i had to slow down my dash cancels in combos because the micro forward press i was doing for something like F3 was going by too quickly. On the other side, this makes short hops insanely easy, so much so I was able to start using them in my play which i hadn't bothered trying since april because the short hop felt so finicky on a normal controller.

The form factor of the controller is atrocious. It feels like an old SNES controller w/ no palm grips to firmly hold the controller w/o over gripping. This is so annoying i'm actively trying to figure out how i could add on grips to make the controller feel better. I've noticed that my left thumb sits higher on the d-pad due to the small grip and this results in sloppy back-forward moves going from having some errant down presses to having errant up presses which screws up your whiffs way worse. It's also much lighter than a normal xbox controller which could be a plus or it could just feel cheap to you.

This pad suffers from the same issue as standard xbox and ps4... non-discrete d-pad buttons. Press right a bit too hard at an angle and it's going to throw in an up or down press as well cuz it's 1 piece of plastic balanced on a point in the center. How they can call this a fighting controller and not have discrete d-pad buttons is baffling to me. This was the one feature i wanted, but in my limited research, the only solution i've found for discrete d pads is getting a battle beavers mod on a ps4 controller.

The controller has no sticks which means you can't use any modifiers in ToT, this is part the controllers fault because you can remap buttons, but not to stick options. This is also NRS's fault for not providing configuration options for the modifier buttons (people that use hitboxes have been asking for this since april).

You can remap buttons on the controller which is... whatever. You can do that through xbox system settings already and the only remapping i did was to "un-break" the controllers default layout which moves RT & RB to the face button, LT & LB to the RT & RB position(?!?!) and i think left stick button and right stick button to the LT & LB position... it's a mess and MK11 doesn't benefit from it at all in my opinion. The hori fight command for ps4 has a rapid-fire/auto-press feature instead of button remapping and I'd much rather have that than this one's remap feature which is borderline worthless on the xbox system.

I've already spewed more info than you probably want so I'll say that so far i think the controller has great response, but if it weren't for the fact that xbox controllers apparently aren't constructed to survive fighting games, i'd just stick w/ a normal xbox controller. For me the form factor really ruins this controller so if i can't find a way to make it feel better, I might return it. Happy to answer and specific questions if you have them tho. Good luck on the search for a good controller! Also remember that good controller != competitive player, many of the pros use regular ps4 and xbox pads.

Personally I use a DS4 for almost every fighting game I play (and even on the ones where it’s not my preference, it’s still comfortable). There’s not really a concrete reason for it, and it does have issues (the dpad being one connected piece means sometimes the controller will register extra inputs), but I think it’s just because I’ve been using one for so long at this point. Whatever you choose, try sticking to just one controller, and the familiarity you get with that controller over time should help you perform better.

Dual shock 4 with beaver custom independent d-pad buttons

I personally preferred the clicky and precise feeling of xbox one d-pads, but every single one I've ever owned developed problems after as little as two weeks of using them for fighting games. I've gone through at least 6 xbox one controllers before I stopped buying them. Every single one has d-pad problems where either inputs don't register or a single press actually triggers 3 or more inputs.

DS4 d-pad doesn't feel as good to me and even after trying to adjust to it I still get the occasional unintended directional problem, but at very least they don't break. Bought two last year, I've been using both for fighting games, and they're both still perfectly functional.

I know the new dual sense PS5 controllers are going through some problems with stick drift, and I've also seen a lot of complaints about the d-pad being problematic. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it's probably a good idea to at least hold off on buying them until they address the stick drift problems.

Ps

I play on stick now, but I always liked the 8bitdo SNES controller.