Ok apart from charging a round trip, what is the M button used for. From what I understand, adding M to your magic series only takes away damage and adds unwanted HSD to your combo. Is there any use for it in the Neutral game ( standing, crouching, or jumping ) or any reason I would want to start a combo with M over L? Any light shed on the subject would be much appreciated as I am still new to the character.
It’s his safest anti-air, iirc.
Worrying about damage scaling, in a Vergil combo, is silly. Meter build, which is unaffected by damage scaling, is much more important. Furthermore, Vergil’s damage scaling in particular means you don’t care about it; the confirm is more important, and weird confirms off certain assists may lead to s.L popping them out. Vergil’s damage scaling is low on normals (5%) and high on specials (20%), meaning you still get high damage from extending his combos with lots of Lunar Phases and Judgment Cuts and Round Trips, later in the combo. Vergil is a character that does not worry about damage, pretty much ever, because he has a repeatable high-damage hyper/hyper loop that only costs .7 bars and ignores hitstun.
Here’s a very basic example of why meter gain is important:
s.LH > Stinger > Rising Sun (trick down) > sj.MHS > c.H > Stinger > Trick Down > c.HS > j.MMH > Helm Breaker, does ~450k and builds slightly less than a full bar.
s.LMH > Stinger > Rising Sun (trick down) > sj.MHS > c.H > Stinger > Trick Down > c.HS > j.MMH > Helm Breaker, does ~440k and builds precisely one meter. This combo does more damage, in practice.
Also, it appears you are unclear about hitstun deterioration. Hitstun deterioration is based on time; not hits. Adding an M, to a standing opponent (hitstun deteriorates faster on juggled opponents) will barely factor into HSD, if at all. In addition, Vergil is one of the few characters who also does not care about HSD, because he has several attacks which have set minimums, essentially ignoring HSD.
I assume you mean his standing M, right? What makes it better than s.L as an anti-air?
So you’re saying from certain assists, I would want to start the combo with M pretty much? ( aside from the stuff about meter build being more important than raw damage and whatnot…that actually makes me think about stuff a bit differently, so thanks )
It is possible that s.M’s hitbox and higher base hitstun may be necessary in some cases, yes. Or, if you’re charging RT in the neutral.
And j.M is not a bad defensive air to air option.
Thanks for the help you guys. I’m just trying to get an understanding of Vergil’s normals, and i feel like i’m getting a better grasp just from what you guys have told me.
I has a more solid hitbox in front of/above his head. Much safer than standing H.
I guess somebody can go ahead and close this thread, as this really isn’t complex of an issue as I thought at first lol. Unless somebody has some super secret knowledge that is. And thanks for the help everybody.