Sentinel is almost worth a full team of Phoenix healthwise. 
If you add both of her HP values together ( assuming you want to use ALL 5 bars ) then itâs not so bad. I was looking to use her as a main as well ( Phoenix, Dante, Thor / Dormu ) but really unsure because of her HP. Like Kusanagi said, if she getâs tagged while doing an assist, it will be like instant death.
Can she use her health sphere during Dark Phoenix mode? If so, then shell be not that different from ABA in Guilty Gear⌠a very heavily meter management based character.
This is all theory fighting based on the supposition that 1) u can use health sphere while on dark phoenix mode 2) youre using chun and morrigan in your team and they are alive by the time u get to 3 hyper meters and 3) your phoenix is good
Point with chun (and yes⌠i know she is really useful as asist, but the idea is to use morrigan and her lighting legs to battery really really fast) switch her in with air exchange when you got something around level 3 or level 4 hyper⌠or with a dhc if you are really confident on your phoenix (definetly worth it if you can also kill a character like that, and if u have morrigan and chun as assists, you can build meter pretty fast to get to that level 5)
A level 4 Phoenix is pretty dangerous⌠specially with a morrigan assist. The moment shes in she can build meter like crazy while covering morrigan who gives her more meter⌠That means she could even use her health sphere in normal mode and have good chances of being lvl 5 when she dies (this is ALL THEORY FIGHTING⌠just wanted to say that again).
Anyways⌠continuing with my THEORY FIGHTING⌠if everything works out and she dies as level 5 and morrigan and chun are still alive, a good Phoenix player can really get her to the point where she just wont die⌠(unless she gets hit once with C by a Hulk who has hyper lvl 1 lollololol :P) Covering for Chuns lightning legs assist with her projectiles shouldnt be hard⌠once u make the opponent block that ur in and u can call morrigan while u do ur block string⌠then u basically switch the whole time between morrigan and chun to get the rush down going and meter flowing, and u keep using health sphere.
So, thats A LOT OF THEORY FIGHTING, A LOT OF IFS, and maybe its all bullshit⌠oh yes and my spelling is probably horrible, so is my grammar⌠-_-
Neways, those were my thoughts of a possible way to play a phoenix chun morrigan team
PS: chun could be substituted either with Ammy other with Doom i believe⌠the only reason i thought of chun was because of her very good lockdown assist⌠i believe ammys (ice star⌠or its called something like that?) or dooms rocks should work kind of the same way.
So⌠flame away 
Yes, she can use her sphere during Dph mode. So go Dph and spam that sphere.
Whatâs some good DHCs off of Phoenix Inferno super? I just realized that with the wall bounce and knockdown, it could be the new school Lightning Storm.
Any ideas?
Shinkuu Hadoken if you aimed it upwards, Ryuâs beam is super fast. Probably any beam super Iâd think.
HSF? Americaâs Favorite DHC reborn? Someone needs to test this right now since I plan to use Sent on my team with Phoenix.
Dormâs floating bomb maybe?
Zellorz posted in the Spencer thread that his Bionic Aaaaarrmmmmm super could DHC into Dormâs Floating Bomb for full damage. The main reason is because Spencerâs super causes a wall bounce, and thus the opponent is on the screen in a combo-able state for a longer time than usual.
Nah, think bigger. You can stick beam supers after virtually anything anyway. When I say ânew school Lightning Stormâ, I mean any hyper should be able to connect, just like after MvC2 Stormâs before.
Iâm thinking really hard-hitting or versatile things that arenât the most DHC-friendly like Gamma Crush, Floating Bomb, Ammy Mist (into launch??), Zero SeiâEnbu, HSF, etc.
I was thinking this. And it would be a cool âbalancedâ synergy if it works, considering Phoenix has no health and Sent has lots.
I think paired exclusively with Dormamu Storm or Sentinelâs runaway game (Sent can go in and attack if he wants) sheâll be good. Storm is probably the least likely, but with a few quick lock down type of attacks that keeps them still, you can get an assist and be effective with the character without using up meter.
Iâve seen alot of mention about Morriganâs meter build but does that really seem like it will work if you lose your on point character first? I think that she works better for the big guys, but not for the glass canons.
I think Phoenix as a last resort X-factor character, or just a middle of the pack second string kind of thing would work. Build meter on your point, have Phoenix come in when he dies/ gets low. Beast with her until she dies and goes Dark phoenix and then make sure the last character youâve got can survive an unsafe tag if need be.
Iâm thinking Sent/Phoenix/Haggar for some strange reason. Two resilient monsters in the damage department and then one ridiculous glass queen in the middle to assist them exclusively. Sentinel would be able to chip for free, and Haggar would be in love with that assist. Haggarâs lariat is invincible btw, but it does 1/10 his health everytime and more like one 1/9 as an assist.
Whatâs funny is that Dark Phoenix has more health than regular Phoenix.
I really do not see Dormammu as being a good partner for Phoenix. He needs meter, and he generates it slowly.
A few little ideas I want to throw out that I havenât seen mentioned too much here:
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It seems like right around the 50-60% health mark, characters convert an overwhelming percentage of damage to red. Watch match videos for this. Once the âred lineâ hits the middle of the health bar, it seems very reluctant to move any further down until the person just gets downed. I already saw in one of her gameplay vids that HF heals the red even while she is still taking damage. Combine this with what I just mentioned about red health being the majority at 50% health and this means she may become nearly unkillable once she gets down to 50% and has HF active (assuming she is close enough for HF to do itâs thing). This is EXTREME Theory Fighting, but it will be the first thing I test when I get the game.
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I read a good observation about Thorâs âEpic Tauntâ meter building special somewhere that carries over to Phoenix really well. They pointed out that the great thing about the âEpic Tauntâ was not that it built meter, but that it MADE PEOPLE ATTACK HIM. Any move you can do in ANY fighting game that dictates your opponents response is powerful. If you build to 5 meters and then get Phoenix in your opponent is in a very awkward scenario that will affect the way they play. They know killing her will give you a powerful tool they donât want to deal with. They may resort to being defensive, stalling to let their team heal, or just trying to land a snapback so they just donât have to deal with her. The fact that having 5 bars makes opponents reluctant to kill Phoenix could be her most valuable weapon.
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I see lots of people concerned about her being chipped out with beams since HF would haveno effect from a range. As long as you have characters in reserve and 1 meter, you could always prevent the chip out using a cross counter/alpha counter/variable assist counter or whatever its called in this game. She would take the chip as red damage, and then you would burn one meter to safely swap her out before the chip killed her and she would be in reserve and could heal all the chip back. The character coming in would eat the tail end of the beam, but thats a small sacrifice to save Phoenix.
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I think DPh is something that needs to be properly prepared for. The fact that she gets her whole life bar back and has stronger moves does not, on itâs own make her such a huge threat. Many people are talking about saving Phoenix for last so she can be clean up. This, IMO, is only half of a good idea. If you stick Phoenix in back and let her be the last one out you hurt yourself in some very important ways:
You never get to use her powered up assists. While you would never want to over use them for the obvious fact that it would take one well timed HC to kill her as an assist, being able to use the power of those moves with out worrying that she is âon the clockâ would be a great boon. You get to use these super damaging attacks to augment your point character without worrying about how DPhâs health is ticking down or how you are one combo away from losing her. Assuming you call her assists and cover them safely, the raw damage they deal, and your opponentâs over eagerness to punish her as an assist can work in your favor.
You never get to see how beastly she can be when supported by assists. DPh is powerful for sure, but like any other character she is far more powerful when she has assists to protect her and/or back her up. Saving her for last means you will never be playing her at her full potential.
Finally, and most importantly is that if you save 5 bars and Phoenix for last to play cleanup, when she dies and goes DPh, you now have a character with depleting life, no assists, no way to tag out and heal, and NO BARS. It doesnât matter how good you are, even with X-factor, that is not an advantageous situation at all.
What I think will be optimal is to put her second. Have a character at point who is a good battery, and a third who has a meter build assist (Ammy or Morrigan). Once you get to 3 or 3.5 bars look for an opportunity to get a combo going and use arial tag combo to get Phoenix in safely without burning meter. Those combos get you tons of meter so you should end up at 5 or close to 5 by the end and then you have Phoenix in and 5 bars. Fight until she dies and you get DPh and get her out of there as soon as possible.
Now, you fight with your team of 2, safely, and sparingly using DPhâs high damage assists. You use meter when necessary, but the goal here is to build some meter while still using some when you need to to inflict maximum damage. Your end goal is to hold on to x-factor and to build some meters so that when your 2 characters die. DPh hits the board with X-factor AND meter to spare. Now she can us HF to keep herself alive, which x-factor will help with too. Also, now she can threaten with Phoenix Inferno HC as well and it will hit like a mack truck with or without X-factor up.
THAT will be a nightmare for any opponent. Without meter she is so screwed since she needs to build it in a hurry just to stay alive with HF and she canât exploit her damage potential fully with no Phoenix Inferno. If you take the pains to get her early, you can more fully utilize her strengths, and set her up to be the last character standing with the meter she needs to stay alive and be a threat.
Even if Healing Field could max out her life, it wouldnât matter since almost the entire cast has a ranged hyper they can combo into, placing the field out of its field of effectiveness.
I disagree on Thor - it would only be useful if it forced people to attack him in melee. I have no problem spamming projectiles from afar all day while he tries to do that silly taunt in the middle of a fight. No one should be reluctant to kill Phoenix in any circumstance - itâs not like you can eventually prevent her from coming out, or completely avoid damage until she gets out. Take Phoenix down, and have a plan to take down Dark Phoenix. Itâs just that simple. Me? I will be saving X-Factor to throw two Stalking Flares at Dark Phoenix; I hope she enjoys the chippy death.
True, but you just set yourself back a meter to getting her Dark. With an instant teleport though, she shouldnât be eating random beams, and if she does, that person is not equipped to play the character. Itâs just that simple.
I donât think most people really mean âlastâ, just âlaterâ, which is in accordance with your opinion.
Why not third? The Aerial Exchange idea is nice, but if you have Phoenix on your team, everyone will be expecting it.
I think DF assists are going to be best used mid-combo and only if the opponent has already XFCâd. That or if you really think itâs worth it to try and bait one early (though âearlyâ is subjective since getting DF and then safely on assist isnât exactly something that happens quickly). Thereâs obviously a lot to discover with a unique balance design like this, but right now I donât think Iâll toss her out as an assist in the majority of cases unless the opponent is being juggled and I havenât jumped yet.
MagnusReloaded, i agree with a lot of what you wrote, if you look a page back, you will see i have very similar ideas.
I also think getting her in as 2nd would be the best way to use her, and i also agree on morrigan or ammy being good assists to her to building meter. I also believe some1 like Chun should also be there in the team because of her lightning legs assist.
Where i dont agree with you though, is in getting her out once she hits dark phoenix mode⌠although u have a point, saying that when shes out she wont loose health and her assists will still be powered up, i believe having her in would be more beneficial, especially if Chun is around as assist. With Chuns assist, it is not hard to get in, and i think a Dark Phoenix rushdown with Chun as an assist can be very, very crazy scary shit.
During the blockstring, call a meter building assist, when a hole in the string is coming, call chun and her lightning kicks in, keep that going until either ur opponent dies, or Dark Phoenix dies.
All i want to do, is use Dark Phoenix with Chuns legs as assist, i think it is very, very very scary.
Well, I am curious what you mean by âsee it comingâ. Ordinarily I would say, it doesnât matter what they see coming, if your point character gets the combo started then here comes the arial tag combo! But I know they can be countered and prevented. The mechanic is still a bit of a mystery to me.
I know that you press either left, right or up with E and it does the tag and continues the combo. If the other person matches your input, it gets countered. What I am not clear on is if you can control which character gets tagged in by which inuput you enter. If you can, then I see what you mean about seeing it coming. The opponent would know you are trying to safe tag Phoenix in and would thusly know which input you were going to use for the tag and counter.
My decision to put her second was based on the idea, that arial tag combos, lke DHCâs progress through your lineup in order. Based on THAT assumption, her being third would require 2 arial tags to be made, giving your opponent an extra opportunity to guess correctly and prevent the tag. If that assumption is wrong and you can choose who to tag in by your input regardless of their position on your team, then you are right, using an arial tag combo may not be effective, as a smart player would know I am trying to get Phoenix in safely, and counter the tag attempt.
I see your point but I think you are exxagerating just a tad. It isnât nearly the entire cast. Ryu, Akuma, Iron Man, Dormammu, Arthur, MODOK, Deady, Dante and Trish have the projectile HCâs. Thats a quarter of the cast. Also, one must consider the range from which they can combo into the HC, and how much of the comboâs damage is loaded into the stuff that precedes it.
All melee attacks preceeding it would be all but nullified (if my Theory Fighting is correct about HF and red health at 50%). In order to render the effect of HF worthless they would need to be able to combo it such that Phoenix is out of HF range when the HC goes off. Even if all 9 of the characters with projectile HCâs could do that, it would still be effective against the other 3/4 of the cast.
Edit: Taskmaster has one too.
You know, I think you are right in that case because you have teamed her with an assist that can protect her. That makes enough sense. I guess what I should have said is less that she needs to get right out, but that you donât want to over expose her right away. The idea is to get DPh on the board as soon as you can and then make sure you can create a scenario where she is your last character and she has x-factor and plenty of meter to party with. Whether you do that by just taking her off point completely, or keeping her out a bit and protecting her with the right assist is a style choice.
You can mash S while twirling your joystick to have a super-high counter rate; Seth Killian says the balance to this is that if someone isnât doing an Aerial Exchange, they can bait your mashing and then punish you with a second combo. So, if someone has Phoenix on their team, I would probably lean more toward mashing on the assumption that they want meter.
Early on, people said Left or Right + S brought in character two, and Up or Down + S brought in character three. Recently, people have been saying that you can only ever bring in character two, regardless of what the input is, so itâs more like DHCing.
A non-comprehensive list of level 1 hyper combos that would out-range Healing Field:
Deadpool (guns)
Doctor Doom (anything)
Dormammu (anything)
Hulk (gamma tsunami)
Iron Man (proton cannon)
Magneto (magnetic tempest)
MODOK (hyper psionic blaster)
Phoenix (firebird)
Sentinel (hyper sentinel force)
Shuma-gorath (his new eye beam)
Spider-man (ultimate web throw, maybe maximum spider)
Storm (icestorm)
Super-Skrull (inferno)
Taskmaster (arrows)
Thor (shockwave)
Akuma (fireball)
Amaterasu (okami shuffle)
Arthur (bracelet)
Chris (grenades)
Chun-li (kikosho)
Dante (ebony and ivory)
Hsien-ko (swords)
Morrigan (dark silhouette)
Ryu (shinkuu)
Trish (voltage)
Tron Bonne (lunch rush)
Joe (six majin)
Thatâs a huge list, and I left out a lot that might ignore Healing Field, but Iâm not sure (like Zeroâs rainbow hyper).
If any of these hypers fall short of killing Phoenix outright, it just takes a DHC to finish the job. Looking at how much Shinkuu alone did to her, and that it wasnât even the full beam, I wouldnât be too confident about the damage prevented from the melee portion of the combo mattering.
Edit: Also, the biggest hole in your hypothesis is that Healing Field does not last forever, and considering how very long combos can be in this game, the likelihood of it blowing out mid-combo is high.
While there are some on this list you made that I hadnât thought about, and I agree would nullify the effectiveness of HF, the one I have bolded I either would need to test or I actively disagree with. In the latter case, most of the ones I disagree with are on the grounds that I thought we were talking about combos that could kill her because during the combo she would be knocked too far to heal during the HC. For example, Doom. Yeah if he hits her from across the screen with Hyper Photon Array, HF will not help. But thats not really the concern here. A decent player should be able to block a random HC from across the screen. Even a bad player should be able to actually.
So Doom can combo into HPA in the air, but he is well within HF range when he does so. Ammyâs Okami Shuffle is another example you gave I dont agree with. Yeah if you catch someone with it at random from across the screen HF is a non issue, but you wont catch someone at random from across the screen. She would have to combo into it with normals while somehow remaining far enough away to not let HF do itâs thing. I cant say if thats possible or not, but it doesnât seem to be.
I need to run, so I canât go through the whole list to state what I disagree with. In any case, I appreciate your counter points but I still donât think HF as a potent survival tool can be so easily discarded as you seem to feel. Even if the whole cast had a projectile HC they could combo into from far enough away to nullify HF (which they donât), the fact remains that players would need to develope these specific âPhoenix Bustersâ just to kill her with HF on. While it may not be too hard for some people to do, just the idea of needing to construct a character specific combo to have a chance at killing her is tantalizing and may make her more viable than some people think.