I’ve got Strange on one of my teams, but I don’t really have any noteworthy tech between the dok and strange. It’s all combo options and basic neutral game use of the assists, though I’ve just recently switch from the Eye assist to the Bolts assist, since the Bolts assist works more consistently in combo extension, though I haven’t found a good way to connect jamming bomb using that assist near the end of a combo that allows me to do :f::h: after. How are you getting the raw tag to Strange for the faltine loop? Does it work off the wall bounce?
You can do it off balloon bombs and f+h wallbounce. The f+h seems the most consistent on various body sizes, though. You can f+h and just tag strange as long as they are at the right height.
So, I have just now discovered that Rocket Raccoon has a really easy way to setup his own unblockables, and in conjunction with Balloon Bomb assist, it gives him some incredibly scary pressure. If he catches someone on the ground, he gets an almost guaranteed high/low unblockable setup, and even if he gets pushblocked, the Bomb assist not only gives him the safe approach, but it gives him and an incredibly difficult follow up mixup and easy hit confirm.
I think I really undervalued Modok’s bomb assist all this time. It really impacts RR’s neutral game immensely when compared to the beam.
Post it plz
So this is a variation of a setup I saw some RR guys talking about on their forum, I just thought to apply it with Modok assist and it worked out really well. Normally it is done with like Cold star or another multi-hit lockdown assist.
With RR on point, call assist + F+H, cancel it into boulder trap, wait as late as you can to cancel so that the trap will be on top of them and go off even on block, dash forward, cr.M. It should create a high/low unblockable when done right, and the balloon bomb should hit them right after and pop them up to combo.
If you set your dummy to pushblock the F+H, teleport behind them as soon as you can. The timing on the balloon bomb is perfect for them to get crossed up as you appear behind them and combo. It seems very difficult to block on reaction, you would almost have to know the mixup to block it correctly. Because the bomb assist isn’t a normal lockdown assist, there is no chance of them autoguarding the mixup =)
There are also ways to setup variations on this mixup based on when you call the assist.
Because the bomb is unaffected by other projectiles and it floats out there for quite a while, it gives RR a lot of time work his mixup game. Even with holes in your offensive pressure, the threat of the bomb floating nearby it will punish the opponent if they try push buttons. I was always using the beam because beams are usually quite nice, but because of how Dok’s knocks the opponent away and can be ducked, it doesn’t let RR go nuts like this assist does. And going nuts is really what RR excels at.
Nice setup! It sounds like your reactions are going to have to be really on point though. I might steal this for my video tutorial if you don’t mind >_>
Go right ahead, sir. I’m hoping I can land this at our ranbats on saturday on stream. The only real weakness to this setup is chicken blocking, but I was still able to land it quite a bit against my training pal last night. Also keep in mind that if you do it from too far out, the bomb won’t connect, so you have to start the F+H close enough so that you can cancel it deep.
So because I love to theory craft, I went into training mode and messed around with two teams that I think work well for MODOK that I haven’t seen anyone use.
Modok (beam)/Storm (whirlwind)/Dorm (dark hole)
I tried to make a very straight forward team here that would excel at good damage without much effort or execution while maintaining decent contingency plans.
This team has strong, easy dhc’s, an incredibly powerful otg capable team hyper, and can instantly blow up assists by dhc-ing mid air into hail storm. As far as assists go, whirlwind Helps Dok move forward, dark hole helps pin them down. Dark hole also pulls triple duty on top of that for combo utility, jamming bomb setups, and eating projectiles with its massive amout of durability points. The lack of non hitstun scaling assists can hinder Modok’s combos in some areas, but the damage for meter ratio is very good once you add your hyper combos on. If Storm is on point, Dok’s beam assist helps her move forward, and dark hole helps her in the same ways it helps Dok. If Modok dies, Storm and Dorm function well together as a unit. If Storm dies, Dormammu is one of the more formidable anchors in the game. If Dormammu get’s snapped in, he can do Masta CJ mixups with Dok beam easily. Because all three characters can fly and do extended flight combos, TAC combos are very practical for meter building.
The biggest downside is that Storm’s assist is only particularly useful for covering advancement or pushing people away. It has the bonus of cutting through almost anything in its path (including Dok’s barrier), but otherwise only has situational functionality. While storm is only so-so on point, a strong lockdown assist like Dark hole lets her get her instant overhead offense going very easily.
Modok (bomb)/Morrigan (harmonizer)/Strider(vajra)
This team is actually more of a Morrigan team than it is a Modok team, since it is designed for her to do a lot of the heavy lifting. But Modok is arguably the best character in the game at running away thanks to his instant up back and up forward air dash. If you couple this with his ability to avoid almost all opening mixups, his ability to call assists from superjump height while flying, and his ability to DHC mid air, then you have a possibly ideal character to setup the meter to safely DHC Morrigan onto the field. While running away and calling harmonizer assist, Modok gains meter incredibly quickly, and when paired with Vajra, you get one of the best assists for his neutral game and jamming bomb setups. Once you DHC Morrigan in, Modok’s bomb assist can help add to the bullet hell, protect her, or give her a pseudo lockdown assist if she wants to approach. Pairing Morrigan with Strider is akin to using Doom Missiles for keeping people from superjumping out of her soulfist lockdown, but you get the added bonus of having one the best anchors in the game should things go wrong (Doom I only consider a mediocre anchor at best). Snapping strider in can also work out badly for your opponent due to the previous gameplan of building meter with harmonizer which could be used for Orbs instead. Modok’s bomb assist also provides a lot of neutral game utility for strider. Should Strider Die, then it only means your opponent will likely have to deal with xfactor lvl 3 Morrigan instead.
Because both Morrigan and Modok have invulnerable hypers that are good at stopping things like Bionic Arm, They get the added bonus of having some interesting shenanigans in case your opponent does close the gap. Overall though, this team suffers from releatively weak DHC’s and Team hypers. But that is largely not going to be the plan for this team anyway, so it becomes more of an afterthought that a full on weakness.
I went there, Modok/Morrigan/Doom. MODOK/DOOM was already really good. MODOK/MORR/DOOM is just stupid. Balloon bomb is quite hilarious obstacle to have floating around inside bullet hell. If you want to be a prick pick shield assist while rushing down with Morrigan. If you think she was impossible to get the edge on before you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Just now I see that Motempest is already ahead of me on Dok/Morrigan/Strider. http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2012/jun/03/comboratory-stream-highlight-combofiend-clockw0rk-knives-and-fanatiq-battle-hours/ Some footage of him using it at around 4 hours and 16 minutes in.
Glad to hear that others see the potential in Dok/Morrigan/ (Doom/Strider). It seems like a pretty untapped combination.
Speaking of Morrigan/Doom, I honestly would have really liked him to use his Strange team against that Morrigan/Doom team. Dok/Strange seems to be a really good counter pick based on my experience. One bad assist call while doing a Soul Fist grounded (can’t unfly to block) means HPB into SoV into XF into win.
I am very slowly coming around to seriously playing Motempest’s team. I sort of realized that I can do my midscreen jamming bomb setups without log trap as long as I have strider. Bolts of Bolthak gives Modok a huge amount of time to pressure and move forward as well as zone from full screen. Not to mention the nice clean DHC from Spell of Vishanti and the hailstorm-like instant blowup against assists that it gives Modok when he has two bars. After trying a lot of characters in the second slot between the Dok/Strider shell, I really see the logic in his team at this point.
Even though Motempest is using the Eye lately, I think the bolts have really got me considering dropping Raccoon for it. Even though you can duck the bolts, that only helps modok’s high/low game. But what really gets me is because the bolts are so high, they really mess with people trying to chicken block, and that is a huge deal for me lately.
My biggest problem with this team is I think I have my work cut out for me to learn Strange. I do love Raccoon, but the lack of damage and the lack of an assist that can really pin the opponent leaves me wanting. If it weren’t for how low to the ground Spitfire twice is, I would actually use it over Log trap for that specific team. It does give modok a good way to approach, but its height still gives the opponent the option to chicken block too readily.
After a lengthy session with one of my training pals, even without knowing how to play Strange at all, I was having a drastically easier time getting wins with Bolts. and it gave me some really strong options for zoning out his Zero at full screen with air blaster+bolts, and then angled air blasters for big chip damage when he is forced to land while pinned by the bolts.
I too wanna get into the MODOK/Strange/Strider team, but I have no idea how to use those other two characters… and they seem like they take a LOT of homework. :sad:
having strange second for the vishanti dhc and bolts/agamotto is great. I play Dok/strange/doom which is similar enough to that team. I have thought about trading doom for strider because i HATE playing doom as anchor, but i feel the missles are waaay too good to pass up for both modok and strange in the neutral game. Anchor strider is such a better character than doom with xf3 and oroboros its really tempting at times. If i blow someone up with vishanti xfc impact loop it could be a risk if they make a comeback and its xfactorless doom against certain anchors.
No x factor strider is a bit mixed as well though. But even without meter for Orbs, as long as strider has x factor, the chance of him being able to kill at least 2 characters is quite high. Killing a full team with him can be very narrow timing wise, but guard cancelling one and mixing up the next gives you a lot of extra x factor time to work with if you don’t have to worry about a third character. Even without x factor, he has the tools to get around most anything, but the fact that he will need to reset two to three times can be rough when you are up against characters that will kill you in one shot.
It should really just be a judgement call for certain characters to burn it before Strider is in play. I am growing more and more likely to burn xfactor to kill vergil whenever I see him nowadays simply because of how freely he gets to walk all over Modok. I feel like the modok/strider shell has no dramatically bad match ups beyond Vergil so far.
Hey MODOK people I’ve been thinking of running a PW/MODOK team, but I can’t decide an anchor. I’ve been thinking Sentinel (Drones), Strange (Bolts), Raccoon (Log Trap/Double Spitfire), Arthur (Daggers), Hawkeye (Triple Arrow), and Strider (Vajra). Any comments?
EDIT: I’m going to use MODOK’s barrier assist to help out Phoenix Wright to get more evidence. I’m not sure what PW assist to use though, been thinking either Get Em’ Missile for low pressure or Paperwork for a projectile.
Dok probably benefits the most from Get Em’ Missile, since Dok only has 2 lows. It’s also immune to hitstun deterioration, so you can squeeze an extra hit in for an extra 20k or so.
As for your anchor, I’d probably go for Strider. Sentinel is just a bad anchor (though the assist is great), Hawkeye’s assist doesn’t do much for Dok at least, and Strange is free to incoming mixups. Strider’s assist is just excellent for Dok, though it doesn’t seem as great for Wright. Strider is also just a ridiculous anchor. Besides that, just mess around with those combinations in the lab until you find a team you like… there is almost always some pretty good team tech if you lab it out hard enough. Like Owo on the boards here plays a mean MODOK/Wright/Hsien team… it’s basically the antithesis of how most people play this game.
After an enormous amount of time trying to find an ideal second character for my Dok/Strider shell, I think I pretty much just have to accept that Doom does pretty much everything that I want except teleport. Missiles is pretty much ideal for Dok for combos, zoning and moving in, and it is great for Strider as well. He DHC’s properly between Dok/Strider and provides some relatively safe dhc options, and helps make the team hyper combo valuable. He can fly and has an 8 way airdash (which encourages TAC combos between him and Dok for swag factor and big damage). He gets tons of mileage out of Strider assist and gets good value from any of Modok’s. He can self otg, does tons of damage solo, and can kill off grabs… And he puts people in blenders
RR is one of the only other characters that can do most of those aforementioned things, and he falls short in comparison on a lot of others. And as much as I like Strange as a character, He pretty much just acts like Doom only worse on this team. So I think I will continue to play around with my Dok/RR/Strider team because I think it is really fun, but I think Doom is going back on the main team and is pretty much staying there.
I do think if you have a team with a good lockdown assist like cold star, Dok/RR makes a completely different and very powerful shell for Modok, but when I need to accommodate Strider, it just can’t quite measure up to Doom.
Great post. I was considering a Modok/RR/Ammy team and was wondering how Modok benefited from the log trap since he already has a wall bounce move for combos and does not have a teleport to make it cross up. I was also unsure if Modok benefited enough from the cold star assist - obviously he can go into his high/low game when they are blocking it, but could it be used to get more cubes in a combo? I’d love to play a RR/Ammy team but don’t have any idea who the third character could be.
RR/Ammy is an excellent combo. RR’s high low game is arguable the best in the game, and if you put them into any significant amount of blockstun on the ground, RR will hit you with a high/low unblockable boulder trap setup for free. So anything like drones, missiles, or cold star makes RR a very scary character. Especially if you can TAC into a character like Modok to supplement RR’s bad damage output.
As far as Log trap for Modok, I think it is one of the best assists possible for him. Modok can quickly call assists from super jump height by tapping up, and air dashing upward/UF/UB and entering command flight mode. He can then do Kusoru style mixups with log trap by crossing people up with ADDF xx baby kicks, or calling the log and body attacking over people while the trap tags them shortly after. Between the amount of actions he can perform in the air before needing to come down, and the amount of directional control you have while coming down, He gets very solid mixups off the log.
The log also gives Modok some very good defensive/zoning options against heavy rushdown characters like wolverine or Spencer. With that assist and Modoks beams/cubes and standing M/crouching M, He can control a lot of space that rushdown characters will struggle to get through if they lack a teleport.
It also gives Modok easy relaunches from midscreen and off of throws, but because it eats up his wallbounce, it does reduce some of Modok’s maximum combo damage.
As far as cold star, It is good for Modok, but because of it’s downward angle, it isn’t quite as good for giving Modok a ground approach compared to something like drones, missiles, or bolts of bolthak. But the blockstun is substantial enough to give Modok some ample time to turn on some very strong corner pressure. And because Modok can call assist from super jump height like I mentioned before, you can try to aim cold star to be active where you land to pressure more effectively from midscreen. Ammy also gives modok a strong DHC option. I’d personally run that team Dok/Ammy/RR so that you get stronger/safer DHC’s, and when Modok dies, I would try to DHCAmmy out with slow right away and work RR’s rushdown game while having Ammy anchor.