Sheeva joined Mortal Kombat 11 as part of the Aftermath expansion that rolled out on May 26, 2020.
The first Queen of the Shokan first joined the fray on April 15, 1995 with the release of Mortal Kombat 3, and has made multiple appearances on playable MK rosters since that time, most recently in 2015's Mortal Kombat X.
Like Goro, Sheeva is a Shokan with four arms. She has a few small horns that protrude from her head, red eyes, and black leather armor to protect her vitals, shoulders, and knees. Her trademark mohawk is back in Mortal Kombat 11 as well.
Her Queens Punishment special is a low attack that compliments her approach perfectly, and Death March sees her take a few steps forward before launching into a powerful kick. She also uses fireballs to manipulate foes and control the space enough to score a good in.
She used to be able to simply spam her Dragon Drop, but NetherRealm Studios rightly toned it down. Sheeva is a grappler whose game plan is essentially to get in foes' faces and stay there. She does this with a bit of tact (though her stomp still does work when used at the right time) and then aims to vortex foes to death with a barrage of grab/strike (mostly grabs, though) mix ups.
Sheeva struggles against zoners, naturally, and those who can routinely leave her at her weakest range (the distance characters start at at the beginning of rounds). She's capable of big damage, but not so much through her strikes and combos. This makes them a bit less scary than her command grabs, making mix ups a bit harder for her.
The Shokan queen was one of the matter of fact best in the business upon release, but since her stomp has been appropriately nerfed, she's plummeted down tier lists a good bit. She's still decent, but tends to be ranked a bit below the middle of the pack.
Sheeva is a lot of fun when she works. Vortexing and frustrating foes is always a good time for grapplers, but she can definitely be hot or cold as when her game plan gets thwarted, she doesn't have much to fall back on. If you enjoy scooping and slamming, though, Sheeva is perfect for you in Mortal Kombat 11.
