Shektor and Sherax are cool, finally some differentiation within the characters. Them having a part in the story also solves the issue of Janet Cage being there for the meme but with no personality.
I'm so fed up with Noob, so far looks 1:1 the edgy clown yapping edging nonsense at each occasion that was in 11. I get that he is connected to Bi Han and maybe this time they'll have the decency of avoiding making him a clown also in practical results. However, there were many more better options, like characters from the 3D era related to Havik too that they could bring back, instead of one we just had and who's basically unchanged in personality and appearance.
Ghostface is... ok, I guess? He's two games later in the thematic streak and while potentially cool, feels quite random in-between all the others, who also looks random because the whole gang is a mismatched bunch.
Conan feels also really out of place, he's based on the '80s movie but that thread is also from the last game and overall he isn't such an interesting character. I have total indifference for the T-1000 but it rubs me bad to have another Terminator character. Overall, it feels like a badly assorted cast of scrapped candidates from the past games given a second chance.
I honestly don't know which trend they should have picked after the "violent superheroes", but they could have done better.
Speaking of Tier 2, the main evidence is the battle between Liu Kang and Shang-Tsung
releasing mammoth energies which ripped apart time's fabric, causing the birth of
endless different timelines,
Personally, I disagree with counting this as an example of clear-cut Tier 2 AP, despite what might appear. Now, I don't remember all the counterarguments that were posed back then in a CRT that went on for pages, ending with the decision of waiting for the sequel of the story to shed more light.
For now, I'll lay down the reasons why I don't believe the characters should be tier 2. For starters, I'll quote the tiering system page requirements for Low 2-C, which are the same for 2-A but with infinite possibilities.
they can significantly affect, create and/or destroy higher-dimensional structures that exceed lesser objects by an uncountably infinite margin. An example of this being 4-dimensional spacetime continuums of universal size
While Liu and Shang have indeed significantly affected a spacetime continuum (Low 2-C), splitting it into two (so possibly 2-C) but also to endless others (so possibly 2-A), they have repeteadly failed to affect them in more thoroughly ways on their own and always needed to use the hourglass.
Shang Tsung, upon deciding to simply destroy Liu Kang's timeline, specifically
needs to destroy the Hourglass of that timeline, instead of just doing so by virtue of his own power. This additionally tells us how the Hourglass is what sustains a timeline, not the Keeper of Time.
To restart and craft the timelines, both Liu Kang, Kronika and all the other Time Keepers
need to use the Hourglass, not their own time power. This point is also repeated and shown a million times in MK11.
Lastly, Titan Shang Tsung's initial plan was
to merge his and Liu Kang's timelines, but once again he couldn't do it on his own, he needed
several portals powered by souls to transfer his army and still resort to the power of the
Hourglass.
So, while this split of one timeline into endless ones would technically count as "significantly affect", we also have four other instances where the power that caused this was also insufficient to destroy, sustain, merge and reboot a single one, going against the notion of the Titans really hold such levels of power.
Passing on to Invasions, Scorpion vows to
burn the entire timeline, but that is clearly figurative and an overtime threat of general destruction, likely involving the Hourglass. The only other way to destroy timelines mentioned so far to my knowledge is by
connecting the Jinsei of all Earthrealms, but once again this is beyond a single individual.