Need rundown of assists and capabilities with assists
I’m looking to make a thread in the general mvc3 forum that helps explain how the assists work and how assists work for each specific character. Basically I’d just like a quick rundown of 3 things.
A generic description of each of the character’s specific assists and their uses in battle for offense/defense/adding hits to combos etc.
A general rundown of which assists work well for their rushdown/defense/lockdown etc. Something like this…
DOCTOR DOOM
Spoiler
Reliance on assists on point without XF = Reliant
Reliance on assists with XF2 = Moderate
XF3/Anchor abilities = Solid
Strong assists for lockdown/pressure: Haggar lariat (stops opponent from attacking, hard knockdown for s.H OTG on hit) Ammy Cold Star (long mix up lockdown), Arthur Daggers (fast start up, long mix up lockdown) Sent drones (long mix up lockdown), Chun Li legs (long mix up lockdown, fast activating), Dante Jam Session (long mix up lockdown, keeps aerial characters grounded), Dorm Dark Hole (long mix up lockdown) Akuma tatsu (aerial lockdown, passes through projectiles during active frames), Iron Man repulsor blast (long lockdown, keeps opponent from jumping/flying), Iron Man Unibeam (standard beam lockdown), Tron Fire(standard lockdown, protects your block strings), any other long active multi hitting assist not mentioned.
Strong assists for projectile and assist clearance or unblockable set up: Iron Man Unibeam (projectile/assist clearance, decent active frames for mix up), Shuma Mystic Ray(projectile/assist clearance, keeps opponents from jumping/flying), Arthur Daggers(projectile/assist clearance/fast start up), Wesker gun shot (unblockable set up),Akuma tatsu(absorbs standard beam projectiles during active frames, loses to large hit box projectiles like Dante’s Crystal or Hulk’s Gamma Wave), Storm Whirlwind (projectile/assist clearance), Deadpool Quick Work (unblockable set up), Magneto Disruptah (projectile/assist clearance),Felicia Rolling Buckler (unblockable set up, high priority against other attacks once active),She Hulk Torpedo (unblockable set up)
General assist strategy is to have an assist that locks people down or keeps them down to set up high low mix ups and air M box jumps (aka air dash M cross up). The reason why Doom is more reliant on an assist to lock people down even though he can move around and fly like Mags and Storm is that he doesn’t have a dash that cancels with normals. Whenever you dash with Dr.Doom you get the ability to cancel it into a jump instead. This is technically a nerf since it makes your wave dash reliant on forcing you to jump first. Making you susceptible to air throws even though you’re basically on the ground.
To offset this though once you get an assist that locks down once you get in you can create really long block strings with very minimal gaps since Doom has the ability to cancel his normals into dashes. This means you can lock someone down with say Ammy’s cold star and go for a mix up. If somehow you don’t land anything they still can’t push guard you because of the assist. Once the assist is gone you can start throwing out c.L’s and follow them up with c.H which does a lot of block stun and can be OS’d by doing c.L~c.H so it comes out on a hit or block but not on whiff. If the opponent push guards the c.H you can confirm with the plink that they blocked and advance guarded and then just continue dashing through the advance guard with jump cancelling your dash into an ADDF once or twice to stay right in their face. By that time Ammy Cold Star should be available to lock them down again and if they advance guard too much they push themselves into the corner and lose.
Doom on point isn’t very reliant on DHC synergy because all he wants to do is have his assists plus his normal dash cancels through advance guards help him push people towards the corner. If they’re close enough to the corner Doom has TOD’s that can do up to 1.15 to 1.2 million damage without DHC glitch. 1.15. to 1.2 is easier to achieve with an assist but you can still get 1.05 to 1.1 easy without assist once you build the 2 plus meters at the end of the combo.
Doom also goes well on point with any assist that helps clear up point or assist based projectiles or attacks.
[LIST]
[]Jam Session - Upon jumping in, Dante slides forward and fires a pillar of electricity. Very strong at controlling space and stopping the other guy’s aerial movement. The assist’s hitbox lasts ~40 frames, making it a good lockdown tool. It has some use extending combos, mostly to allow certain characters to OTG into Jam Session and do a super during JS hitstun (Wesker, Wolverine, etc.)
[]Crystal - Dante throws a trio of giant icicles. Slow start-up, but lots of blockstun. Can OTG, but slow startup makes it difficult to use for that purpose. Potentially strong lockdown tool. Generally seen as the least effective of his assists.
[*]Weasel Shot - Dante hops backwards and fires his pistols at a ~30-degree downward arc. Hard to react to/punish because of the hop - sometimes, Dante will hop off of the screen while he’s shooting. Good lockdown assist. Has some use extending combos (i.e. Wolvie slide OTG + Weasel Shot -> special xx super).
[/LIST]
2)
Beam-type assists (Mag Disruptor, Sent drones, etc.) enable Dante to teleport/air-dash in safely, or to zone more effectively.
Low/high-hitting assists let Dante set up unblockables with ease thanks to the range on his normals.
Haggar and Tron help protect Dante from rushdown characters with faster normals who can outpoke him at toe-to-toe range. They also generate excellent combo opportunities on hit.
In addition to zoning/lockdown uses, Ammy’s Cold Star and Dorm’s Dark Hole also have use extending combos.
Viewtiful Joe’s Shocking Pink (bomb) assist can be bounced around by Hysteric, Fireworks, and the gunshot command normals, enhancing Dante’s lockdown, zoning, and ability to hit-confirm as well as potentially generating combo opportunities.
A wide variety of assists can help Dante generate combos from his air throws, mostly fast OTGs or multi-hitting projectiles.
Similarly, many assists can be used in conjunction with a teleport to create left/right mixups.
Zero with shadow super (Sougenmu) active can fulfill lockdown/defensive roles very easily.
Dante can be a strong anchor, but will rely strongly on his left/right/high/low mixups since he has difficulty comboing off of his throws without assists. He does have one unique, strong solo mix-up, but it requires you to use either DT or X-Factor:
[LIST]
[]Million Carats (qcf+:m: x2)
[]Cancel with DT or XF
[*]Teleport or dash in
[/LIST]
Following this principle, Dante can also cancel Hysteric with DT or XF to cover his own approach. Once you’re close, use box-jump mixups.
He’s certainly not as strong an anchor as Wesker or Phoenix, but Dante on his own still has plenty of ways to get in that ass.
Personally I’ve been starting to realize that jam session only has one really strong use outside of specialized lockdowns for characters like X-23 to set up unblockables. The main thing that it does with any decency is bring characters that are constantly super jumping or flying around in the air towards the ground or at least lock their movement down so more ground based characters can get in. It’s risky to call jam session unless your opponent is at super jump height because the start up frames leave Dante heavily vulnerable. If the opponent is at super jump height most characters have to deal with it though.
I’m a big fan of Weasel Shot. It’s a pretty safe assist to call due to his backwards jump, gives you a chance at a mix-up or two and doesn’t mess with the hit stun deterioration of the combo much if they happen to eat it.
I play characters that don’t really need to bring people down from super jump height, or need an additional assist to lock-down someone coming in after a kill, so it works well for me.
I think it’s really good for characters with groundbounce moves from the air, like Sent, Wolverine, Hulk (Felicia and Vergin in the next game). It locks them in place and makes them really easy to smake. You probably won’t do a lot of damage without level 3 or some trickery, but it’s still good to get a hit off of that much space control.
It’s also really good for mixing up a character coming in because it reaches up to the ceiling.
