The best way to use it imo is wall jump + bolts. Depending on your timing you can make it cross up before, after, or during. I think the most valuable property of bolts is that most people give it too much respect and just crouch block the whole time. Either take the free command grab or use the dash over Falling Claw mixup. If I go for a left/right mixup I try to get more convoluted than normal with nonsense like double MF M into talon or MF Talon > dash over Falling Claw. I just haven’t had much luck opening people up with the normal MF M stuff since Dr. Strange doesn’t know the meaning of the word subtlety. Against people that are very assist happy, walljump, assist + TA M or H nets a fair amount or HPBs. You def. have to get out of the habit of trying MH M + bolts since he doesn’t activate soon enough. You can’t get too predictable with your wall jump + bolts, either or they’ll just start tossing out a projectile to hit strange anytime you wall jump. Depending on the projectile tho, you can usually counter them with a wall jump S to hit them out of their recovery.
On relaunching, I haven’t labbed it a lot, but I know for sure that you can relaunch after a corner dirtnap with Charged AS + bolts > lmh>whatever. I assume that with correct spacing you might be able to get the same off a front air throw. You just have to make sure there’s something hitting inbetween the bolts since hitstun isn’t high enough on juggled opponents.
For extension, the highest damage relaunch extender I’ve found is beam bouncing with S+Bolts, sj.HxxCS LxxTA L (spikes into the second bolt) s.S sj.etc.
For dirtnaps I don’t have any great setups with him since you’re still gonna be stuck chasing down air mobility characters since the bolts don’t hit high enough. Against people without any mobility, Kill>activate dirt nap> dash back walljump + bolts > whatever you want to use to hit with since Wall jump will leave you in a spot to hit with almost anything. They’ll either be in blockstun or hitstun from bolts and you should be set. (I’m still of the opinion that you should just use Meaty TK CS H unless you’re just messing around, though)
555 uses in with Laura, still don’t have a solid team. Was running Hulk-X-Strange but it isn’t working. Hulk-X-Sentinel would work I’m sure, I can’t perform mirage feint combos online though.
Can’t see myself dropping her, but I hope she gets some buffs eventually. Gets annoying using characters for their assists just to use her.
If you’re running laura at second you don’t really need to emphasize MFs online all that much because she gets a self relaunch from XF2. Hulk+Drones is like peanut butter and jelly, and I like the idea of XF2 Laura+Drones more than XF3 Sentinel. That team can work wonders especially online.
Ooh, thanks for the response, Meryll, I’m going to reply to this in parts.
I have never used walljump in my life, lol. I gotta try that, it sounds pretty damn strong. Normal MF M stuff isn’t working for me either, since I find people just holding downback don’t get opened up unless I throw a MF+M TA in there, which I’m terrible at online. I have been overusing the command grab stuff (definition: using it at all) when I was setting it up with Nem’s clothesline rocket, so an assist actually made for it, hot damn, I’ve been abusing the crap outta that one. I still need a lot of work with her and bolts, cold star and triple arrow played a lot differently, and I’m a man of habit. So my mains are actually my second best team with bolts, Nemesis is now godlike, and X-23 lets herself get birthdayed after a decent pressure string with a terrible assist call, so I die a lot right now. Still on day 2 of playing people with Strange on the team, give it time.
Oh, I did find one thing I liked, though, especially when the bad guy is sleepin’, I find going LMH call strange QCF+L uncharged is decent on certain members of the cast, between pushback, the fact that advancing guard is negated a bit, and that I still have one bolt left for tomfoolery of the crossup variety. And if it all hits I get the combo. Could someone let me know the frames on the uncharged version? because I don’t know if I’m fighting dumb people or not, but I have yet to be punished for that one in particular.
Off an airthrow and a dirt nap, not sure about dirt nap, a delayed AS and bolts actually works, for reasons I can’t entirely explain. The second bolts just catches them, I guess, but it’s a blur, all I know is I have it consistent, and it looks cool. I bet jump loops can go in there too, I mean I did see it in that vid of the Japanese X-23/Strange player.
Yeah, I have that one too. I do, S+Bolts, sj.HxxCS LxxTA L (spikes into the second bolt), wait a sec, s. H s. S, air H dH CS+H, AS plus Nemesis, and the Nemesis assist still connects with both shots, and it can be called out in time. I find that occasionally if I make the followup to the bolts catch too quick, the second assist extension doesn’t come out. Have you tried a lot with this, and if so, got any tips? Because I’m not sure where the best place to delay is yet, so I’m getting it at about a 50% success rate when sparring.
I had something pretty sweet, but it was improvised, and I forgot exactly what I did. Caught a buddy’s deadpool, though, so it might have merit. I’ll get back to you on that one. My thoughts are that most people without airdashes are dirt nap’s bitch anyway, so the walljump thing is hot, but I gotta find something for doublejumpers and airdashers above all.
I’m starting to think X23/Vergil/Mags can be a really, really powerful team. Disruptor has durability problems but it’s still a very good assist for X23’s left/right game plus puts something on the screen for her to get in. Vergil has a safe DHC option and can even start on this team if need be, and Mags is an incredible anchor with lots of options than what I was running with Akuma. If I can just get down Mags XF/regular combo strings I think I’ve found a winner with this team.
I’m using **X-23 **[Ankle], **Vergil **[Rapid Slash], **Doom **[Beam]. There isn’t a need to end the combo with WXP to DHC into Vergil sword loops, since this:
Always carries to the corner. After that, it’s just Ankle Slice into Rage Trigger, and you can either DHC to swords when the opponent is still at normal height, or DHC after the last hit of Rage Trigger into Vergil’s swords. You’ll have to super jump if you do the latter though. Doing this combo also lets me go into Doom’s TAC combo shenanigans.
You could also add a Mirage Feint in there, and you’ll get this:
after the Rapid Slash extender at the right height so that the snap will connect.
Doom with Beam is just good for Vergil and X-23. Instant cross ups for Vergil and X-23 (to an extent), and also provides cover for X-23 when she’s moving in.
yeah i was trying to see if i could relaunch with ankle slice > burn kick but its really hard and inconsistent. I know people talked about Hulk / 23 / Iron man. But how good is X23 / Hulk ? you have a pseudo beam in gamma wave plis i believe it OTGs.
Also, what verticle assist do u guys use? I really dont like dante and doom, but hidden missiles is really good in nuetral and decent for combos. I guess vajra is an option too though
X23/Hulk is still pretty solid. You can relaunch consistently better in corners w/gamma wave plus it gives X23 the perfect DHC in gamma crush, people just run Hulk/X23 more to give Hulk an OTG assist to convert his dmg and XF2 for X23.
Also it depends (vert. assist). Some people like Taskmaster Vert. Arrorws, which I think is solid enough. You can never go wrong with HM, but protecting Doom isn’t one of X23’s biggest advantages. Vajra is an option if you are just looking to snipe flyers in the air, but X23 can’t convert well off of it.
It sucks, but i might use doom. X / hulk / doom gives X some good relaunches with wave and missles. and depending on when you use missiles, helps relaunch for hulk. Ill do some more testing for TODs and stuff but so far off of a simple magic series > launcher with x on point i can get 700k
Vertical assists are pretty limited in this game. Vajra, Hidden Missiles, and Jam Session are about all you can rely on. Task and Hawkeye’s up arrows are okay, and if you really want to you can get away with using Dormammu’s pillar assist. I gave up on trying to work a good anti-air assist into my game and just made sure my other characters could handle Laura’s bad matchups. It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough.
X-23/Hulk/Doom isn’t a bad team to go for, but if Doom gets taken out you’ll have a lot of trouble since Laura and Hulk have basically the same weaknesses.
Yea, i was looking for vert assists and kept findong myself trying to add dante to my team. Is there at least any other relauncher assist thats useful in nuetral? thats really why i picked up hulk. his gamma wave helps extend combos but also helps her get in as a psuedo beam.
Depends on when you’re relaunching. I don’t know of any horizontal assist that OTG relaunches offhand. Nova’s works as an OTG relauncher and sort of functions as a horizontal assist with the added benefit of giving X-23 a great DHC and someone to cover her bad matches, but if you’re looking for a pure horizontal coverage you can get pretty close to optimized damage by doing mid combo relaunches with Storm’s Whirlwind, Cap’s Shield Slash, Strange’s Bolts, and Taskmaster’s Arrorws.
Log trap is another assist that’s good in neutral and for relaunching, but the DHC to rocket is so shitty it kind of defeats the point of a relaunch. Rage trigger DHCs are so annoying. Could put rocket in the back but I don’t think that’s his best spot.
Thanks for the help. I just have one more question. I decided to run x / cviper / doom. X23 with ankle slicer, viper with burn kick, and doom with beam. I have been learning to consistently relaunch with vipers burn kick but I want to know which is the better neutral assist burn or seismo? If seismo is better in neutral then I could just learn combos from the easier seismo relaunch.
It has to be done fairly early in the combo, and you have to land as far from the opponent as possible for Laura to recover in time to hit S. I’m not sure if it can be done in the corner even with a backdash before the OTG, but you can always just use the Arrows to combo into a fully charged Neck Slicer (st.m -> st.h -> H feint -> j.m -> j.h -> l talon attack -> st.m + Task Assist -> st.h -> Neck Slicer -> Relaunch) for similar damage. Task is a really solid assist for her. With his DHC my combo does just a little under 1 million damage, and I’m sure you could get it higher if you use a better assist for the second relaunch.