Big fan, Merkyl. Anyway, I’m trying to create an X-23/IM/? team. It’s mostly for a counter pick, which I didn’t expect to do well at all. Any good anchors that would work well? I found Iron Fist worked surprisingly well, but he’s no perfect anchor for this team. I’m open to any tips.
Pick something that makes IM viable if you’re playing him 2nd, so:
log(assuming you liked rising fang, this is my pick for assist that benefits both characters and RR is a viable runback anchor),
missiles(doom likes unibeam so you can run X23/doom/IM if you wanted, but X23/im/Doom is the better dhc order),
drones(don’t like sent, personally, but it’s a good assist),
JS(I would recommend running dapvips team if you do Dante, though),
CS(ammy is honestly a top 5 dark anchor and the entire IM game plan is just about getting then in a corner, which cs helps with.)
So…im curious what X23s top 5 assists are for her Neutral and for combo extensions respectively. I know Log Trap is up there…try to omit it if possible.
Umm… honestly, I have a hard time saying for sure because I’ve spent so long looking at team composition for double dirt nap arequirements and working assists around that rather than what assists give her the absolute best neutral.
She gets a lot from fast startup guys like cart and tatsu (in neutral, but not much for combo extension. It’s mostly the fast startup + lockdown that she likes the most, though.), she likes beams with longer lockdown like PB, UB, bolts, daggers and straight lockdown assists like CS and RB ( usually gives her beam bounce extensions or give otg + assist extension) Missiles gives her ground throw conversions and extensions. The faster stuff like JS and EMD isn’t amazing for her, specifically, because you usually want a longer lockdown to set up fuzzies or work as extenders. She can make it work, but she has to pay much closer than normal and her wall jump/ground dashes to pressure for from further ranges. I’m not willing to mention neutral and ignore log, it probably is her #1 assist since it lets you just play mobility and force them to guess and rewards you for using her dp in neutral.
Combo extensions are broken up into three main categories. Beam bounce, smallest extension, works on assists that are barely too slow to do otg + assist (will often work for throw pickups.). 1st extenders, assists that work at reasonable levels of hitstun with otg + assist. And 2nd extenders, assists that either give you assist + neck slicer for spinning knockdown, or otg+ assist with ground bounce our wall bounce. Those assists see the ones that work at max hitstun and having two extensions gives you about 2 bars on a full combo.
Beam bounce - pb, ub, cart, tatsu, Arthur daggers, drones
Ist extension - cs, rb, rapid slash, bolts (tight link), EoA, etc
2nd extension - all decently fast otgs (usually not great for neutral, though), log, cent. Rush
Hmm…I tried a combo using Rapid Slash as my first extension, then using Log for my second relaunch and it seems like I cant launch > j.H xx H CS. They flip out before the CS. I guess I can just try doing launch > H CS asap.
Thanks. If anyone else could chime in on the better neutral assists, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
She works well with anything, it’s just the second relaunches that are limited.
For super late extensions you have to do s.S xx tk CS H xc TA L. With most assists, you have to delay the S until they’re lower to the ground.
One of the really nice things about my old im/rr team was that rb takes them out of the corner so you can end with otg + log, neck slicer, otg super.
Dark hole it’s one I left off the list that’s amazing for her.
Hmm…It seems like the assists that allow relaunches in the corner are limited. I had a hard time converting off things that I kinda expected to get relaunches off of (Plasma Beam for example). Maybe Im timing it wrong or something, but I found it very difficult to relaunch in the corner. Task arrows too.
Yeah, those can pick up after a throw or dirt nap with porter timing, but to extend with them mid combo, you have to beam bounce (s.S + assist, sj.HxxTA L, opponent lands on top of beam, s.S) the slower the beam, the longer the sj portion can be. E.g.: Bolts can do sj.HdH xx cs l xx ta l.
As far as assists for just purely combo extension that don’t effect hitstun alot and really add a far amount of damage to her combos. I have found Skrull’s Stone Smite to add an extra 120,000 of almost unscaled damage to her combos and it picks up for a relaunch with anckle slice.
Also for the same purpose Akuma’s Dive kick assist works really well and positions the enemy better for her to follow up in the corner as Skrull’s does a wall bounce and you have dash back to keep it cornered. But Akuma’s dive kick assist is weaker than Skrull’s Smite.
Also Nova’s angled ground bounce assist works the same way if you like Nova. Plus Nova has a Tac infinite.
But, the only thing about sacrificing an assist for purely combo extension is a lack of a neutral assist or projectile assist so it is a sacrifice.
Not the best assists for the Meta but still pretty damn fun to run.
^^ Yeah I messed around with Skrull a bit too, but I figure if im going to use a wallbounce assist, theres no reason to use anything other than Log Trap considering it can be used in neutral and is very difficult to punish Rocky. Its always a struggle between neutral vs combo extension lol
So ive come to the conclusion that I really want to use X23 / Akuma. That being said, I dont know who to use as the last character. Could anyone give suggestions as to who would fit / help round out the team. I would personally like a beam and a tac infinite, but I know that really limits my options to Mag / Doom / IM / Thor.
Anything could help.
I also run X-23 with Akuma. Those are the two character I feel the most comfortable with.
If you run Tatsu assist you can probably get away with a nice neutral assist like Jam session if you like Dante.
If you wanna run Akuma’s dive kick assist then a projectile assist is probably best. And besides the ones you mentioned Taskmaster works well but no Tac really. Ryu is half decent and great DHC or Storm if you wanna master her and like her feel. Maybe Frank’s Cart assist. Either of these aren’t as good as the ones you already listed.
Have you tried X-23, Racoon, Akuma?
Problem with Dante is that he enjoys EMD a hella lot more than Tatsu. It creates a picky situation where X23 wants something but Dante wants something else. As for Doom he doesn’t really care for Tatsu, he’s practically there for support or the infinites. I like Mags because he can use Tatsu for his high/lows better and you still gain his infinites to boot.
X23(CS)Mag(HG)Akuma(Tatsu) I like this setup. Infinites, tricks, quality anchor.
Personally I don’t like EMD with X23, but you could probably get away with it since you will be calling out Tatsu assist a lot.
Thinking about dropping Ammy, not sure for who yet. Dante’s probably the best choice but I don’t really like playing him. Maybe Nova?
Morrigan, Dormammu, Magneto, Spencer or Vergil.
Not too interested in them, Spencer might be fun but I don’t think Laura gets too much from him to be honest. I wish there was some tech with Strider, Laura with Vajra would be good if it lead to anything.
Are there any other characters that get meaningful conversions with her crescent scythe assist besides Vergil?
None that I know of. I assume Magneto could convert off it, but that doesn’t mean it would be particularly useful elsewise. It’s got pretty lousy angles IMO. 
Yeah that’s what I thought. It’s pretty ironic how the ONE character I never wanted to use has the most legit assist synergy with her best assist.
I wonder if there is any cool Spiderman, X-23 tech out there
I would be surprised if there were. I play Evil Rahsaan a lot and Spider-Man is basically the same character archetype as Laura. Having both of them on the same team would create some redundancy.