The idea is still to get Frank out and leveled up. The nice thing about having Dante as your second character is that you can bypass him with his Devil Trigger DHC to Frank and still get Frank to level 4+. Failing Nova’s level up than at least you have Dante with Cart looking to combo into a Skydance and hard tag or a million dollars DHC. Then you have a strong Frank backed by your anchor Dante with Jam Session.
The plan only falls apart if they plow through Nova and Dante, and you are basically screwed if they plowed through Nova and Frank anyway.
I’ve actually had a small discussion with The Cape about whether Frank is better second or last in teams where a hit from the point character equals level 4-5 anyway and for me it honestly comes down to preference. I really enjoy playing Frank even at level 1, even if what he gets out of cold star at that level is fairly limited, in my experience at least, I would love to find ways in which that assist helps him out. At level 4 it’s absolutely godlike for pressure but at level 1 (or 2/3 for that matter) I can’t find very good uses for it, some light on the matter would be great. Frank/Dante is even better for this because even at a low level Frank can make good use of Jam Session. That aside, I also prefer to have Ammy as dead last because if Frank dies I can still kinda count on her comeback factor provided I block the incoming mixup. If I have Ammy second and Frank last and Ammy dies, anchor frank won’t do anything for me unless the opponent screws up big time. I’d have to resort to a raw tag because Frank doesn’t even have safe ways in through a DHC. Shopping Cart crossover counter might actually work but I have no idea how safe it is if it’s blocked. Personally, I’m just more confortable playing Frank second.
Anyone running Doom/Frank/??? with any luck? I am thinking about Doom/Frank/Ammy. Having only one way to level up Frank with Doom worries me. The thought of level 4-5 Frank/Doom/Ammy sounds really solid. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
I would have to test it myself but I think that by running Doom/Ammy/Frank you can DHC from aerial Photon Array to VoM, rawtag into frank and still get a picture. Either way, Doom/Frank/Ammy seems solid enough. Ammy gives Frank a million ways to get to level 4 whether she’s supporting him or on-point so it’s down to preference.
Doom can use aerial Photon Array into a whiffed Survival Techniques and if you can get the crossup in the corner before you OTG you should be able to do something like OTG > Molecular Shield > Grounded Photon Array into BLS.
He certainly gets way more use out of it after leveling and I’m not yet an expert on this team but I want some discussion on that too so here are some of the ways I use it at level 1:
Combos. I do a pretty bog standard level 1 Frank combo but where you’d usually j.QCF+H I call Ammy and QCF+S to relaunch getting some extra exp and conserving the bounce for shenanigans later such as THC, j.QCF+S (this should get me to level 4) j.QCF+H s.QCB+L QCF+M FFC
Pinning. Not nearly as useful as when your normals are doing chip and you have to be much more careful but things like QCB+L A2(Cold Star)+f.H can result in a pretty safe locked down opponent letting you dash in from midscreen and get in that ass if the spacing is right.
Welcome mixup. Again this is just weaker than when Frank is leveled but I feel calling Ammy and doing an SJ Knee Drop is still better than most of your other options as an unleveled Frank.
Defensively. This is very dependent on matchup and spacing and doesn’t come into play that often but sometimes I like to think of Cold Star as a little tent I can sit under and chuck zombies/pies from safely if I’m working on pushing someone into a corner or if Im stalling for red life. Against a Wolverine for example while it’s active this will shut down his Berserker Slash, shut down divekicks on Frank, and if he decides to divekick Ammy you should be able to punish him.
That’s really all I can think of that I use it for but it’s enough that I certainly don’t consider it a wasted assist until I get leveled. I’m curious if you use it any other ways or think I’m making a mistake using it in any of the ways I am.
So I’m currently running Wolverine/Frank West/Dante. And while the tech on the time is really, really high, I absolutely hate playing Dante. Is there another character I can use to get an assist that gets Frank to level 4? Prehaps Spencer or Vergil?
I considered Spencer and Vergil myself. I think that playing something like Wolverine, Vergil, Frank would be an amazing team. Already thought up some tech in my head that I will have to get out there.
For those of you that play Strider/Frank I realized an interesting mixup you can do. This might work with other high hitting assists, but Strider was the one that came to mind as the most effective. Hit the opponent with a launcher and call Vajra then jump cancel into a roll. It creates a 50/50 for Strider as they fall out and allows Frank a chance to OTG and combo.
i’m not a great frank OR shuma player, but have been recently messing with the combination. There is solid synergy there. Shopping cart is great for being aggressive with shuma. Also, shuma combos like literally always get frank to level 4. Multiple ways too. you can do a hard tag combo or just a late DHC and snapshot. granted shuma might be a little hard to play but i’m sure with practice people can do it. i like the combo. still working on a suitable anchor for the team. have messed with doom, spencer and haggar in that position, not sold on any yet
The question for that is why would I do that when I can just combo and reset later on? I’m literally giving up a hitconfirm if I do that.
I usually just use Zombie’s and Vajra—> Roll for 50/50’s to move in Vajra hits grounded and combos into the zombies, so if I’m CPing a Heavy Zombie I get a nice free combo or raw tag
