Get 'Em Missile seems like it’d be awesome for Frank. Trying to judge when the dog’s gonna hit you low during them middle of a high chainsaw blockstring looks difficult. Press/Break the Witness + Frank’s roll would be tricky and 4 or 5 free hits right already. And if you get Wright to Turnabout, you get a much more damaging wallbounce. You could do a basic combo, call Wright to break them, photo, Wright does about 20 hits with a wallbounce, roundhouse kick M, another picture and that’s level 4. You might could even save the groundbounce for the end of the combo, where you could jab them then go for an air grab. If you call She-Hulk with Clothesline at the same time you get kind of an option select. They tech, they have to block Clothesline and you can restart pressure again. They get grabbed, and Clothesline might combo. It’d take tricky timing though.
Dealing with Sandy, but I’ll post some tech when I get power.
Alright, I’ll post more when I get power, but, behold, the simplest 1 to 3 level combo with Wright (Break the Witness):
s.:s: sj.
:h::d::h: :a1: s.:qcf::s: (BtW hits) (sj.:d::h: if in corner) :qcf::s:
First Photo: 6
Second Photo: 6+13=19
6+19=25
BTW, BtW does 12 hits.
Your fun Frank Factoids for the day:
1 Frank is considered airborne while doing H roundhouse.
2 Snapshot has drastically different hitstun based on whether both you or your opponent are airborne or grounded.
3 In regards to trying to put an opponent into airblockstun in order to FFC them, it’ll never work; when placed in an aerial blockstun you remain in the blocking stance until you land, -even if you already recovered in the air-. Translation; your opponent needs to push guard or press buttons in any situation after blocking something in the air in order for you to FFC them.
I see what you did there.
Alright, got power.
Without Turnabout Mode, Wright can’t really help Frank. His assists, if you ask me, are kinda bad for the neutral game, since they’re very unsafe to just throw out there. Frank, on the other hand, with the Shopping Cart, is very good for covering and protecting Wright.
In Turnabout Mode, though, Wright is much more suited to helping West. As I stated before, behold the “easiest Frank Level Up combo.” However, there are a few problems with the Break the Witness assist. It scales VERY HARD. Can’t do the combo with 10 hits, other wise they’ll fall out before the second pic. That said, it’s very good at keeping out safe after a picture, and is a decent neutral assist.
Get 'em Missile stays much the same. You can use it as a cross up or combo extension tool, but it’s personally not my thing.
Paperwork Storm isn’t bad for covering Frank, and is a good neutral assist, but I still prefer Break the WItness, since it’s better in combo extension (to my knowledge).
As for level up combos, any combo that ends in an “Order in the Court” can be DHCed a little late into a whiffed Survival Techniques for a picture. You can also do a Blue Light Screen midscreen, but I personally find it far too hard and unreliable compared to the very simple Survival Techniques… technique.
A personal favorite corner level up loop of mine. Currently working on reliable ways of opening people up into this loop (from a j.:h:, most likely).
:dp::h: (wallbounce, walk back*) cr.:h: :dp::h: cr.:h: j.:h: (groundbounce) s.:s: sj.:h::s: :qcb::ak::atk: (Order in the Court) :qcb::ak::atk: (whiffed Survival Techniques) s.:qcf::s:
Each Break the Witness :h: adds 20 hits, for reference.
*like, a wee bit, tap it back. You probably don’t even need to, I just personally like to. Don’t go too far, otherwise the next BtW will be too far away to hit.
This is the “simple” version. You can add more hits and add a stun into the combo, but it’s a nice simple, 50 hit combo for a Level 4 Frank. I’ve found it impossible to continue the combo with another assist. Maybe with something like Nova’s forced groundbounce, but it’s very hard.
As for more general leveling, just remember that any combo that ends with Order in the Court can be DHCed for a level up. However, be careful, as Wright can end up killing your opponent before you get a level up chance if you’re not careful.
Is this true of all command grabs? All grab supers? Or just FFC?
While I didn’t think to test I’m pretty sure it’s all of them. If you have a training dummy block something with low hitstun in the air (like snapshot in certain situations), and then have them do nothing, they remain in the blockstun animation during the rest of the jump. But they’re not actually in blockstun; they can do attacks after they’ve recovered on the way down (input buffering tools L was an easy way to test this since it stop’s Frank’s momentum). When they’re still in the animation, you can’t FFC them at all, even if they’ve definitely recovered from the move. However, once they press an attack and/or advancing guard, they’re able to be thrown. Dunno if air throws work the same way or not. Either way, being placed into states where you’re immune to command throws/hyper throws isn’t just an incoming character situation.
So if they jump at you, Frank snapshots, they block right in front of you, you cancel into FFC after blockstun is over, it will NOT grab them unless they push a button right? Similar to when a character is incoming from a snap? That’s probably the same with other air-grab-hyper characters, I’ll test with She-Hulk in a few days. Good find Zan.
Quick Tip: Call Break the Witness (fairly sure it works for Paperwork Storm too) right before your second ToS . Little more damage. Goes right into a reset or DHC if you want
New Frank umvc3 user here!
So far I’m searching for a point character, but at the moment my team is “___ / Frank / Vergil”
So I’m trying to find optimal combos to get at least lvl 3/4 from start. Obviously can only use 1 assist.
This is assuming I can’t TAC or DHC into frank, I need to be prepared incase he’s on his own and I want to be formidable on all grounds.
Anyone have lvl 1/2, 3, 4/5 combos using his as 2nd? I’ve searched through the threads but a lot of it is muddled and I’m hoping for something concise I can use.
Thanks.
With Vergil you can practically do anything. In the corner and early in a combo (say after the first knockdown) you can use rapid slash to extend you combo. After Survival Techniques you can DHC to Devil Trigger (or even SS) and raw tag back to frank for another picture. You can also use a THC as Dimension Slash does a lot of hits, lasts longer than BLS and causes a hard knockdown. And if you want to have Vergil before Frank, the options are even more. Vergil is one of Frank’s best friends by far.
At the moment my problem is trying to utilize him midscreen; here is the main combo I use atm:
Lvl1/2
starter > 5H, 2H, S, j.MMH j.236H, 2MH S j.MMH j.2H, a2(rapid), delay, OTG picture (Second picture corner only) xx 214aa
(If I have more bar) xx 214aa (Vergil Trigger), raw tag, Picture.
It seems to be amazing in the corner and I can get 2 pictures if I have 2 bar midscreen but I’m wondering if I am short changing myself somehow.
Also once I get my lvl 1/2 combos down I need to search for a lvl 3 and 4/5 combo.
<3 Frank!
I’m probably of the dissenting opinion that I wouldn’t pair Vergil and Frank, but that’s just me. In any event, a THC would suffice; can do corner or midscreen and since it’s a hardknockdown you’ll get your snap at the end. 2 air series should be enough hits to reliably go from level 1 to 4.
I know DukeofFortuneMan tried out Captain America, Vergil, Frank and got some great results.You will have to ask him about the team.
Hrm…lemme see. Cap/Vergil/Frank, I’ll just throw out the plusses of it here.
Pretty much every Cap bnb brings to the corner, DHc to swords, lunar phase, Frank level 5 most of the time, or a kill, yay. Rapid slash plus shield pokes makes for some good keepaway and decent ranged confirms. Shopping cart when you’re close to get crossups and stuff. If Cap dies, Vergil can do a bnb into air dubstep, DHC to whiffed tools, still get level 4 Frank. And there’s a bunch of safe strings ending in cart that can preserve the ground bounce, and then do a sword loop or two, lunar phase, hey look, still level 4 frank. Or, Cap can rawtag with the shield returning into Frank, and there’s bnbs for level 4 there as well, either with swords dhc/lunarphase or into devil trigger dhc/tag back in.
Beyond levelling Frank, both Frank rolls and Vergil teleports allow for the derpiest of derpy crossups with shield slash, because it has that lovely delay. Frank midscreen can relaunch with shield skills and picture. Vergil and shopping cart isn’t bad either. And Frank can groundbounce cancel his jumping H tools with either assist.
…That’s all I got. It’s reliable as hell. If my Cap wasn’t doo-doo, I’d be using it right now.
I have trouble opening the opponent up with level 4+ frank. Like, level 1 and 2 my pokes are actually effective, and then it all goes to shit for some reason. I can’t explain it at all. The opponent never lets me get close enough to do much, and suddenly my stuff isn’t quite as ambiguously baity on shield… Anyone shared my pain and knows what to do?
That’s why I never play Frank without a beam-ish projectile. pie and said assist is decent for annoyance, rolling with the assist s a good crossup tool (then go into the instant overhead or Frank’s slide if blocked), and if they still advancing guard you out of all crossups and everything, the beam is at least a way to get closer/score massive chip with QCF+L. Otherwise, chuck j.M’s when they try to get their own stuff off, and you’re golden.
If someone else on the team is a straight-up counter to zoners, that works too.
If they’re running from you that’s fine, throw zombies, charged zombies, forward Hs and assists at them until they realise you win from full screen as well.
It’s not even really full screen, though. It’s approximately maximum poke range, and air to air. Like, at max range, you can’t get anything other than tools L off of a stand medium. Or am I mistaken? At that range, I really just have trouble opening the opponent up, and although chip damage is good, I always end up overextending and going for something risky (like random jump ins) and get blown up. It’s not really so much zoners as characters like Magneto/Storm or characters like Nemesis (I hate that stupid gigantic launcher). Which, when I think about it, is kinda sad. I guess I should try to force them to me, more. In a similar vein, what do I do about Phoenix Wright? None of my pokes work because of his shield; I can be between him and his shield and still miss him because of it.
…I really should consider switching to Plasma Beam assist.