Figured I’d start us up on what Lei needs in a partner. I’ve tried him in both point and bench, and I feel he fits in better as a bench warmer until he’s tagged in when the space has been closed and he goes for wake up shenanigans. He doesn’t need meter to do damage and I find I use meter for safe tags or tage extend combos rather than EX moves.
So what I feel Lei needs in an ideal partner that would cover all his shortcomings:
-Fast movement/ability to chase turtles
-Strong long range footsies/zoning abilities
-A BnB that permits a tag in to a grounded combo for max damage.
Partners I’d tried and am feeling compliment Lei well so far:
Law - Good movement, builds meter fats and has excellent tag in options, Spinning Shaolin kicks allows for grounded combos and on block nets a safe tag out and gives time for Lei to stance switch for mixups
Dudley - Machine Gun Blow bnbs permit the same privileges as Law’s SSK and 2 meter tag combos using EX-MGB do 550 damage or more.
Jin - Half decent zoning, great pressure tools, strong ability to close in on characters Lei would struggle to get in on.
Kazuya - Amazing ability to close space and pressure in close, grounded Slaughter High kick tag ins, EWGF.
Rufus: Possibly one of the best characters to close space in the game, solid footsies, Messiah Kick.
More than anything, I want to know who you guys are using with him, why, and how you feel they compliment Lei’s tools.
I’m putting Lei on point at the moment for the following reasons:
He does a good job building meter (as Disaster FX points out), and he’s not much of a meter whore.
Tiger Sip seems to be completely invulnerable to jump-ins as well as projectiles, so fireball happy players can’t set up their zoning game right off the bat. I feel like he can force the footsie game early.
But mostly… I’m still learning the ins and outs of him, so I don’t want to rely on him toooo much
As for a partner, I mained Vega/Ogre in vanilla, so I’m not straying too far yet. Ogre still works well for me as my preferred anchor, because he can load on the pressure or play defensive (as the match dictates). Other character types that could work well would be…
I’ve spent more time with Law on point and Lei in back and I’m starting to really feel comfortable in most match ups with it. Law pretty much shuts down any zoning character who isn’t Guile or Raven from the crazy long reach of his flying kick. Law also builds meter like a madman, only really using it for ex-fury as a gtfo/read on unsafe pressure. Leaving tag options for big, easy damage (fury fist rush tag to fully charged Lei super is stupidly good) or safe switches.
I played against a really good Hwoarang yesterday and I can see those two working well. I don’t know much about him, but he seems like he might compliment Lei well. How does Ogre/Vega go with Lei? Again, I haven’t played them outside of trial mode.
I’ve been using Lei on point and Xiao as a back up. I like Xiao as a partner cause of her damaging BNB like cr.HP to qcf.HP +P +P it deals pretty good damage.
She also has a great setup for Lei’s qcf.MP. ( I forgot what its called but its that upward 3 hit kick thing from her pheonix stance, tag lei and then qfc.MP loop is also possible :).
Shes also great after you ABC Launcher with Lei, Xiao then can do a cr.HP to qcb.MP which leads to a ground bounce, then tag lei for a raw Super with full animation. Sorry I’m bad with names for the moves I just can’t seem to remember them.
This just some of the things I do with them.
Oh and jump in HP to cr.HP cancel to pheonix to HP to cross art with Xiao deals a whole lot of damage.
I’m also using him as a point right now. At first it was to make sure I learned how to use him, but he fits pretty well in the point spot. Really threatens fireball throwing, has a decent enough AA game, doesn’t need meter except for extended combos and the occasional reversal. I think meter for making certain stances more threatening is key, but lei usually gets it by the time he’s doing stance mix ups.
I used to play Gief/Bob. I’ve gotten a bit bored of Gief, but I don’t really want to drop bob. The problem is that he isn’t all tgat synergistic (word?) with Lei. Still trying to figure out who will work best. Alisa looks really good, but I was also thinking Bryan
I agree with Disaster I was using him on point closing in with the speed and footsies of snake stance but found he works better for me on anchor with Law in front. Shoalin kicks into cr.f comet kicks sets up so much damage
Law/Lei has a really obvious flaw that someone online today figured out pretty quickly. Constant close quarters jump-in pressure. Rufus/Akuma using divekick/demon flip over and over, had to be really patient and alpha counter to reset spacing. Lei’s dp just isn’t fast enough to get out and half of the time the angle of Akuma’s flip palm or dive would beat it clean.
Dudley seems to be able to get out of this much easier, st.mk anti air is too good, get the right read and cross counter tag is awesome and his mp. dp is much faster, and machine gun blow sets up the same stuff Law’s Shaolin spin kicks.
Bob/Lei. Bob is already the kind of partner that benefits nearly anyone with his assortment of tools. Also, Lei has several moves that can be canceled into Bob’s granchi loop for significant easy damage.
Though swoops is right, they do not appear to be very synergous, though I am working on it, and loop is gimmick status at best.
Still, learning Lei is no walk in the park, so I need to stick him with either Bob or Nina.
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I main Law/Lei. I don’t know if you guys think gems are cheap but I use the super art boost gem and use the medium version of the fist of fury, tag cancel and then charge my super up. They do have a flaw, which is pressure but with the right spacing you can easily get away.
I use the same boost gem for both law and lei. Both of there supers are relatively short giving you time after the super to use the 20% boost. Also cr.mp x2 super with lei is stupid good and easy to hit confirm.
Cr.mp x3 into super with that gem does 481dmg and Cr.mp x2 > super does 466dmg… making it a super good ending combo, and gives ~9 secs of 20% boost afterwards. For a punish, Cr.hp > comet kick > cr.mp x2 >super does 545dmg for a beastly punish.
No real counter hit setups which allow combos that normally wouldn’t be possible. Some frame traps I’ve been using are just the run of the mill stuff. Cr.mp > comet kick. delayed razor into panther then panthers razor chain TC.
I use mp.rush punch tag super charge all the time. I tend to spend my gems on EX Onslaught with the instant health regen, onslaught that activates on being tagged in with launcher and speed gems for better mobility. I really just like having more options open for meter use.
Honestly, the most common thing I use Lei’s super for is punishing things people think are “safe” like Hwoarang’s overhead, Cody’s CU, between Lars rekka etc.
Elaborate on this Hwoarang’s overhead punish please and the Cody’s CU. I think I may have found a good stance cancel corner combo. I used a CPU to mash out and I registered a counter hit when I did it correctly but I will have a human help me with it tomorrow.
I guess my strategy is a bit opposite from the others in this thread. I’m putting Lei as Anchor. I have a pretty good Law so I let him get some damage in and the I go for wake up set ups and baits. I try to do as much damage with Law as possible. Plus its easier for me to get out of a jam with Law than Lei. Lei really confuses people so I like to do damage and then put him in because they don’t know what to expect.
Yoshi’s flaws are mobility, fireball wars and unreliable wall bounce damage options, that aside he’s amazing. Yoshi actually wins fireball wars except against maybe Akuma.
I find that Law just can’t handle people jumping in on him, Lei having a semi decent anti air and a great hit confirm into launch to bring in, is very important for me at least in a point char. I feel his footsies can be as good as law’s but require some real work in stances to be a threat. In his neutral stance he has so many normals that move him forward so buffering into comet kick, razors edge, ect. makes him a real threat at some questionable distances.
I fear that the bane of this team will be grapplers, as none of their moves are safe leaving them in a very bad spot if things aren’t spaced perfectly. Not to mention Lei will get blown up on the approach by mashed lariat, which sucks, but is something we will just have to figure out in the coming weeks.
Law has Rainbow Kick, thought that was a good Anti-air?
-Grapplers with meter are very scary, I’m as new as everyone else is with Lei, but this is what I can think of from the top of my head:
Against Hugo you just have to wait for a lariat, punish and then sit on the life lead.
If Lei could block and maintain his stances then Drunken walk would have been awesome.
Abel has a strong vortex, but his anti-airs are unreliable so I think you just need to go for jumps and super jumps (cause his air grab’s range and timing is strict so jump mixups improve the odds in your favour.
-Kuma is no threat, IMO he’s simply too slow, if you know what’s low or overhead then you can just turtle punish, he’s like a fair version of Hugo.
Marduk has a better air grab than Abel, so instead you might want to do comet kicks, apply SAFE pressure, bait and punish his backfist and go for crossups.
-Against Gief you need to go for constant crossups, they will beat lariats unless your using Law or Chrisie in which case I’m not sure. Crane style works nice against Gief but unless Capcom make stances last then it’s not worth investing time in. Also you might want to move back and forward a lot, this will make the Gief try and come closer to avoid whiffing his grab, when he does he migh be in crossup distance, super jump to be safe.
