Optimal role on team: Point character
Due to the system and character changes, Tron’s role on a team has been limited to mostly point or bust. That said she can still be a very effective point character in the right hands and with the right assists backing her up. In nearly all cases it is highly recommended you back Tron up with assists that will allow her to extend her combos as she dishes out damage and builds meter. This is not to say she’s completely helpless by herself, but to maximize her value you will want to look to put her on point and backed up accordingly. Keep in mind this will not be easy, but like (almost) any character with the right tools she can work and reward you as a valuable member to your team on point. However it is best to note that due to the nerf to Gustaff Fire’s invincibility Tron does not necessarily feature assists that will properly benefit your other team mates. Gustaff Fire has gone from amazing to decent and Bandit Boulder is still an ok option in the right situation.
Useful Assists and Teammates
BFF Tier
[details=Spoiler]
Sentinel
As Assist: You will want to use the Drones (Charge) assist with Sentinel to extend her combos. This is arguably the best assist you can give Tron as most of her combo extensions revolve around this and it provides good cover in general as one of the best assists in the game. Be wary outside of combos you MUST cover Sentinel as he calls the drones otherwise they will not only be destroyed, but he will potentially die a quick death.
As Teammate: With Plasma Sphere Sentinel offers a good DHC option to Tron if needed and more importantly his assist works well with just about any team. The drawbacks to Sentinel are of course his health, hit box, and slow normals, but overall he is one if not the best team mate to back Tron up with and hits like a tank when used on point. If you’re already committed to overcoming the hurdles of learning and maining a character like Tron picking up Sentinel shouldn’t be too great a task. Bonus points for Color 6 which despite being famously coined Mango Sentinel by IFC Yipes I like to refer to as Servbot Sentinel.
Frank West
As Assist:: Overall Frank’s Shopping Cart is one of the best assists in the game and like most assists in this tier will work with anyone. It will keep your opponent on notice and is very hard to hit Frank out of. There is really not much else to say here as explained in the next section.
As Teammate: Tron and Frank were made for each other in this game. As displayed by Tron user branespload in the combo/video thread she can get Frank leveled up to 5 in just one combo. At levels 4 and 5 Frank West becomes just about one of the best characters in the game with good damage, great normals, and better mobility. However, keep in mind Frank at level 1 is not much, but can still be okay should you land a hit and get to level 2 or higher. With his slide and launcher you still have options depending on your other team mate to level him up, but it might be a rough ride. You need to realize that as well as Frank and Tron work together he arguably needs her more than she needs him. Still you can’t go wrong with a well timed shopping cart call. You main goal when using a DHC lies in the ability to level Frank up more than strictly damage output.
Dante
As Assist: Jam Session will be your most likely choice here to back up Tron. It not only offers the benefits of being a combo extender, but the pillar will keep your opponent either off of Tron should you be getting rushed down or stuck in a corner to deal with her pressure and mixups. Once again, like the other 3 listed thus far this assist offers great flexibility for any team so though you are building a team specifically around Tron you will not have much to worry about in regards to making Dante work with the team. Weasal Shot’s OTG capabilities make it a solid choice as well, but once again this will be a matter of preference.
As Teammate: Dante is arguably a top 3-5 character in the game and like Doom it’s hard to go wrong with putting him on your team. He has fantastic normals, great mobility, teleports, and the ability to pull off some really devastating combos. Be aware though the learning curve on some of these combos may be overwhelming at first and due to changes in Ultimate you can no longer spam the hammer like you once could. For DHC options Million Dollars remains one if not the best in the game for that purpose and with the ability to mash can still be really good as a combo ender for damage. Bonus points for the fact that Million Dollars and Dante in general offers Frank West a great way to level up should you already have him on your team.
Doctor Doom
As Assist: With Doom you have two options, Hidden Missiles is the go to choice for lock down in this game and can provide the same type of combo extension seen with Drones. However Doom also offers a very solid beam assist in Plasma Beam. Depending on your third character you will want to pick accordingly, but all in all you really cannot go wrong. Like Sentinel, Doom needs to be protected but his missiles are generally going to hit if he gets them off.
As Teammate: Doom is widely considered not only a top 10 character in the game, but one of the most complete. He is comfortable in any role on a team whether it’s point, assist, or anchor and his j.S is one of the most useful normals in the entire game. His presence on your team will not just benefit Tron, but most likely your third character as well. For DHC options his Sphere Flame and Doom’s Time should work, but be careful of the leniency input potentially causing accidental Doom’s Time instead of Sphere Flame. All in all, If you can get down his air mobility you have yourself an amazing team mate for both Tron and your third character.[/details]
Good tier
Spoiler
Vergil
As Assist: You will want to use Rapid Slash in this instance as it not only provides a good overall assist for Tron in general, but functions in a Clakey D ender. Of the right call Tron has the ability to go straight into a combo and do her thing. Though not as good as the ones listed above it can be a devastating assist used properly and can help Tron extend her combos
As Teammate: Vergil can DHC into anything he wants off of Tron’s hypers and benefits himself from Tron’s ability to build meter. He has some of the best normals in the game and is widely considered a top 15 character in the game. Vergil’s biggest drawback is he can eat a lot of meter really quick due to his Devil Trigger and Swords as tools for getting for, but adjust your game plan and you should do fine. Fortunately Vergil is versatile enough to still work well with the likes of Sentinel, Dante, and Doom who will potentially already be on your team.
Another/expanded take by Rikir: Basically Rapid Slash will give you whatever combo you want with Tron. Vergil can naturally very easily combo after a DHC into Spiral Swords/Devil Trigger from either Tron’s Servbot Surprise or Lunch Rush. The thing is however, you would never need to. Two Servbot Surprises with Tron will do more damage than whatever Spiral Sword loop Vergil can do. You almost never need to DHC into Vergil since Tron can handle the kill by herself. Thats not to say that Tron/Vergil wont get awesome combos however. Tron as a partner for Vergil is a little subpar since her assists dont offer much for him, Bonne Strike is probably the best for him since it at least offers some lockdown. DHCing from Vergil to Tron is also a little tricky, you have to carefully time your hypers or you just flat out miss.
She Hulk
As Assist: Your best assist here is going to be Torpedo since it allows you to OTG and not worry about whether or not you’ve used your ground bounce. Because of this you actually give yourself many more opportunities than you normally would to not only change of up your combos, but extend them in a variety of ways. By hitting the opponent low She Hulk actually creates some more pressure and mix up options for Tron however be wary there is no real way to protect her during it.
As Teammate: It seems only fitting that two of the biggest nerfed characters in Ultimate would work so well together, but it is what is. Tron has the ability to set up an outstanding reset for She Hulk to land her air grab super which of then can lead to even more damage. By hard tagging in She Hulk after an air Beacon Bomb and then utilizing the super you can catch the opposing character as they air tech. Perhaps the biggest weakness to placing She Hulk on your team is that she, like Tron, is best backed by assists and on point. However, there are some pretty great rewards to having She Hulk back Tron that may just outweigh the risks if you work at it.
Strider
As Assist: It goes without saying, but Vajra is the best assist in the game probably without question. Where Akuma’s Tatsu, Sentinel’s Drones, and Doom’s Missiles are also very good Vajra just seems broken at times. So that’s good news for you should you run Strider on your team. Vajra will allow Tron to keep the pressure on by preventing any unsafe super jumps and just overall locking down the opponent. It is very hard to punish Strider during this assist as the opponent is generally forced to either take the hit or block so there’s an added bonus of not really having to protect Strider on your assist call compared to other assists. The only thing to keep in mind is following up Vajra’s hard knockdown state can be difficult for Tron to follow up on if she’s too far away. Treat it like an air throw and you should be good to go, but if you’re unable to dash over fast enough don’t get trigger happy pushing buttons.
As Teammate: Let’s cut right to the chase, Strider is hands down the best anchor in the game. The cost to get him the meter necessary to run Ouroboros is much easier than attempting to get Dark Phoenix and with XF3 he becomes close to impossible to block with it. Tron has the ability to easily help him gain the meter as a battery and from there it’s probably lights out for your opponent. The only thing to really look out for is he does not do a ton of damage outside of X-Factor compared to other anchors and he has just 750K health, but like said in the assist section it’s a small price to pay for such a great reward.
Nova
As Assist: With Nova’s Centurion Rush M you can extend or finish your combos with a Beacon Bomb into Hyper of your choice as it ground bounces the opponent. You’re not going to be doing your typical Clakey D enders with this so keep that in mind, however it still works very effectively for setting up the ending to Tron’s combos. The other positive to this assist is that it is one of the few crossover assists in the game to hit overhead creating very good mixups for Tron in her rushdown. Centurion Rush L is not a bad choice either as Nova flies across the screen horizontally and will cause a wall bounce on hit, however he is by no means invulnerable during this and the M version is just overall more useful for Tron.
**As Team Mate: **Nova is an extremely hard hitting character with very good Hypers to DHC into after a successful Tron Hyper. He’s probably best used on point and backed by assists as well, but so are many characters so this is a minor gripe towards him. The biggest issue with Nova is probably his red health gimmick and that’s mostly it. This is more of getting used to his character than it is Tron so really if you want to use him just learn to be smart about it and you’ll be just fine.
More coming soon
Okay tier
Spoiler
Chun Li
As Assist: Your obvious choice here is Lightning Legs as it not only provides an annoying lockdown assist to help Tron keep pressuring the opponent, but also functions in the Clakey D ender. Some people have said that it has lost some of its’ priority, but I personally have not tested this so be cautious. Due to the fact it has a lot of hits though be wary of hit stun deterioration when transition to a combo after it lands.
As Teammate: The main question you have to ask yourself regarding Chun Li and the biggest reason she’s only “Okay” is simply she’s not a good character. This might seem strange to hold against someone when building a team for Tron, but you really have to ask yourself how much work you’re really willing to put in a on team featuring two characters presently considered bottom 5-10 on the tier list. She is one of the hardest characters in the game to learn without as much reward compared to other characters considered execution heavy. To some this might not be much of a hurdle, but at the end of the day it just might not be worth it to others. Should you be willing to put the time in though Chun does have really good DHC options with Tron and as stated above a very useful assist.
more coming soon
Notable and/or Recommended Tron Teams
Tron (Fire) / Dante (Jam Session) / Sent (Drones)
Explanation by Keranata
Spoiler
was my team in vanilla and in my opinion the best Tron team by a significant margin. In ultimate you should replace fire with boulder assist which is surprisingly good to help Dante continue pressure and this is still in my opinion her best team. These two assists each allow Tron to control space, pressure/mixup, convert random hits, and continue combos in ways no two other combination of assists allow. If you lose Tron, Dante+Sent has incredible synergy and can still give you a much better chance to win than any other combination of her other great assists. If you can DHC her out either by a combo DHC to Dante when she’s low or by bigman to devil trigger, boulder assist allows Dante to have even better pressure and mixups as well as a really nice DHC from guns to lunch rush. The team DHC’s all work in any order which allows you to spend as much meter as needed to kill. Overall this team is as perfect as a Tron team can be.
Tron (Fire) / Frank (Shopping Cart / Dante (Jam Session)
Explanation as well as video
[details=Spoiler]This is also a very good all around team involving Tron as it provides not only a very good method to get to Level 5 Frank easily should you land a single combo from Tron, but also is backed by a fantastic assist in Jam Session. This is not the only form of this team as Drones can also be utilized here, but overall Jam Session might just be better in the long run as Dante is a much better character than Sentinel as well. To support this view the following (also posted in the video topic)
[media=youtube]Pcm7qJU645g[/media][/details]
More coming soon
.