Beam or any projectile assist helps is turning max-range pokes into closer mixups safely. In addition, focus on using the QCF+L and it’s safety, stay exactly at max-poke range, and annoy them. At that range you can react to almost any jump with a j.M before they reach you with their normals, so you don’t need to try predicting with your air-to-airs. You can always use longer horizontal coverage assists too, like drones, shield slash, bolts, or Arthur’s daggers, so you have a few seconds after setting it up safely to move to the distance you want.
And thank you for realizing how strong Nemesis’s launcher can be at times. People always underestimate the guy. That said, Nem is free to lvl4 frank, because your j.M outranges his j.M, which is one of the better air-to-airs, and one of the few things Nemesis has going for him. Also, for the Nemesis matchup, your crouch goes under his tentacles, and you can punish/intercept his jump-ins. I’d say on the matchups you’re having problems with, play defensively at max-poke range and they’ll open up for you.
So do Standing M + Missiles xx Tools L, should be free pressure after that. Stand M + Missiles xx Tools L, Standing M xx L Zombie seems to be about perfect timing to lock them down with missiles. Phoenix Wright shield absorbs hitboxes, so if you do a move that overlaps it in any way it just eats it. Against bad to average Lawyer players, walk/dash up to him while he’s gathering evidence and just grab him, Shield does nothing about grabs. Also a tip for Nemesis if you’re having trouble with him, people do that crouching LM into the shoulder thing, it might just be crouching LMH i have no idea, but anyway. Pushblock the second hit and Crouch H with Frank, you’ll whiff punish them charging forward with the shoulder and get a free combo.
Aside from the fact it’s minus a million on block and can’t be cancelled into anything? Nemesis is gambling with his life every time he throws that move out.
Very true. Everything good about Nemesis comes with big downsides, that’s why he’s not a better tier. It has a range people underestimate, though, so if you see a move you can throw it out, not as a guess, but as a punish to an otherwise unpunishable move. I rarely use it, but it’s useful in the few situations you can/should use it, which is really all a tool needs, a useful niche. That and it’s really safe at the edge of its hitbox, but only the edge.
But that’s just me being a diehard Nemesis player.
Safe in terms of range, if you hit at the grounded portion of the tip, it can be punished by slides and such, such as Nova, Strider (if he goes for an XFC kill), and Hawkeye, not sure if other slides are fast/long enough.
If they block Nem’s laucher on the air tip, though, I don’t think any normal can punish.
Launcher’s usable, but by no means is it one of his good tools. He has a few, and a bunch of tools that have little niche uses not many other characters have, like crossup armor on his st.H, not something you’ll really be going for much at all, but when its time is right you wouldn’t want any other move (though can he please get any frame advantage on his normals, please? That would be nice. Capcom, change his cr.L from a +1 on block to a +5 on block and I’ll take you out to dinner, my treat, somewhere fancy)
Sorry if this has been asked before (I saw a thread that hasn’t been posted in since January), but if I’m looking to pick up Frank, who are some top players I can watch match footage to learn how to actually play Frank effectively? I know Bee has a pretty solid Frank, but I don’t know many others besides Noel Brown and Kusoru.
Honestly there really is no top level Frank player to watch. Wong almost never levels his Frank up on the rare ocasions that he still plays spencer/vergil/frank, and while Noel and Kusoru have solid franks, their ways to level him up are kinda weak so no much chance to learn much from them. Bee is really the only point of reference so far
Watching the Bee set with Knives isn’t bad for getting a feel for Frank footsies; his space control is pretty solid. That said there’s a lot more you can do with different assists to have a bit more field control. Don’t use Bee’s reference for combos though, they’re terribad (Noel Brown’s aren’t nearly as bad but he still leaves some basic damage on the table).
I should be getting some opportunities to record match footage in the near future; it should be a decent starting point.
Not gonna lie, it bugs me to hell and back to see a player as competent as Bee go for st.M > cr.M > launcher with level 4 frank (each doing like 1-2 hits instead of the full 3) after a landed j.S when he can just as easily do st.H and not only do more damage but not scale it so quickly (even if frank’s minimum scaling is pretty damn good).
I use st.M after giant swings because it’s his farthest reaching normal but really that’s about it I think. It’s most useful in the neutral game for its absurd range (though I don’t think it outranges vergil’s st.H, and definitely not his stinger)
Also, I only put that because I feel that it deserved sarcasm. Though Windzero has decent neutral, I hate that team. It’s such a good combination of characters, and he makes SO many poor choices. His combos are way too easy for his skill level, his order’s idiotic, and the fact that he uses pipe assist for Haggar, when lariat gets a picture relaunch anyway is infuriating.
He does, however, use the air pipe to get a picture for frank, but he does it after a reset and never a regular combo, meaning he barely gets levels off of it, when he could simply relaunch sans groundbounce and with a QCF+S for the Frank assist, and get actual damage/levels. It bugs the crap out of me the choices he makes.
And this is before I consider his Frank. I like his play normally, which is why this confuses me. He’s got very good use of roll into AA hyper, and he’s got great grapple game when there’s a barrier, but why on earth does he not learn anything more than a day 1 combo with modok, haggar, or frank?
Random personal opinion? People judge really personally based on combos, how badass they are in general, neutral and crazy dirty tech with the character, or, possibly in the case of Mame Spider, their costume.
Doesn’t mean that much. We are trying to find a frank to watch, really, we want a top player to show up outta nowhere who knows and loves everything Frank-related, and they will be our guiding light into fame and dirty tech. Then the Frank army shall thrive!
Basically, we want a ChrisG, but for Frank. And then we end up with Noel Brown :C
For me, to have the best anything you must
-Be doing optimal stuff, you can’t just have strong fundamentals and get by with ABC OTG BBCS.
-Using every tool the character has, In Franks case I want to see Charge Partitioned zombies much more often along with more roll tech and unblockable setups
-Play the character in their most optimal position (2nd/3rd in franks case)
Have on point movement with the character.
Basically, I want to see all tools being used and optimization.
The thing about frank though is you have to be a bit more discerning to know whether or not the Frank is optimizing well. If I hit confirm with air MMS + Rocket Raccoon spitfire (they bounce on the spitfire and preserves my bounce), my optimal midscreen is literally 1 air series, otg, stand HS, another air series, roundhouse + nova, Tools M x2. It’s exceedingly basic and simple, but in that situation optimized. Really, if you’re managing your decay/bounces/good minimum damage scaling moves, and you know the right spots to squeeze in a little extra damage, that’s good enough imo.
As for zombies, I’d be more inclined to advocate for that if there weren’t so many multihitting/piercing projectiles out there. Lots of characters out there (especially in the top) can tear through a whole line of zombies in a single input. They’re great for setting up incoming mixups though, wish people did more of that.