General Strategy, Page 4
Air Juggles:
Rather than discuss launcher combos, this section is designed to give insight into Storm’s juggles and how they work; knowing why and how things work in UMvC3 is important because you as the player gain insight into why other things might work and you’ll know when something is going to fail, even in the middle of an attempt, and you’ll know how to salvage that situation.
Storm’s main juggle tools are j.:h: and j.:s: with j.
being a minor juggle tool. You won’t see too much of j. in Storm juggles just because her moves have very little hitstun, so j. only has uses very early on when juggling. J. is used primarily to float opponents high enough to begin to take advantage of her air dash juggles for later in combos and has no other notable uses for juggles. J.:h: is the go-to juggle normal for Storm–this move has the most hitstun and gives Storm the ability to control enemy height during juggles. Time the air dash out of a j.:h: differently to control the opponent’s height. Air dashing early into another j.:h: will float the opponent higher and air dashing later into another j.:h: will float the opponent lower to the ground. J.:s: has some uses in basic Storm combos but many more uses in some of her intermediate and advanced juggles. This move doesn’t have as much hitstun as j.:h:, but has a downward angle unique to Storm’s moveset and float enemies up just a little bit, making some very fancy juggles possible when used with air dashes properly. Lightning Attack gets some burn here because of its ability to direct Storm and the opponent to the ground where the opponent can be picked up for a full combo in most cases.
j.:l: – No effect on opponent, low hitstun
j. – High float, low hitstun
j.:h: – Low float, high hitstun
j.:s: – High float, medium hitstun
Lightning Attack – Medium float, high hitstun
Storm doesn’t have jump loops like most air dash characters and relies on ground re-floats to extend her combos. Storm’s primary goal with an air juggle is to stun the opponent long enough and low enough to the ground to land some ground normals ending with either c.:h: or s.:s: and jump cancel out of those to extend the combo. Typical air strings with Storm might look like < j.:h:, j.:s:, air dash, j.:h:, land, s., … > or < j.:s:, air dash :df:, land, s., … >. Also unlike most other air dash characters, Storm cannot abare her way into a Flight combo; if Storm intercepts her opponent in the air with a random j.:h:, do not attempt to cancel into Flight for an air dash combo because it will not work. The exception to this rule is if you are able to abare with super jump normals–those have more hitstun and will allow you to go into a Flight combo if performed quickly.
Running Away:
Running away is an essential part of life. Running away means that you’ve recognized a situation in which you cannot compete and doing so would injure or destroy you. This sort of self-awareness is important and getting out of a bad situation can make or break the match for a player. As noted previously, Storm has the basic runaway tools, but they are quite good at doing their job. Storm has arguably the best air dash in the game combined with great ground plink dashes. Storm can flee with the best of them, even using Lightning Attack to further her runaway potential. Unfortunately, Storm cannot mount an offense while running away due to the static nature of her moves and their recovery data; Storm’s specials leave her too still for too long and cannot be used to reliably pester the opponent while you’re moving around. Fair Wind, while only useable on the ground, actually gives Storm an option while running away, but beware for its recovery and for moves that negate momentum change.
X-Factor:
Storm is a fantastic candidate for X-Factor. While her power boosts are among the lowest in the game for X-Factor, he speed boosts are decent and she becomes much much harder to block even solo. Storm also gets real character combos complete with actual hitstun and OTG extensions. Most notably, though, Storm is famous for X-Factoring her Hail Storm hyper and activating another Hail Storm, dealing massive amounts of damage to opposing characters and their assists.
In X-Factor level 1, Storm gets access to extended combos and modified jump loops. Please be aware that Storm’s normal combos will not work button for button in XF1. The combos will have to be modified slightly, but XF1 is essentially Storm with a normal character’s combos and faster movement.
In X-Factor level 2, this is where things get interesting. Storm now is fast enough to get extreme damage in the corner with Double Typhoon loops by initiating a hard knockdown, then landing and firing a Double Typhoon and hitting the enemy with s.:s: as they descend from the Double Typhoon.
In X-Factor level 3, Storm becomes a good deal harder to block and still uses the same combos as XF2. Work may have to be done in the near future to optimize X-Factor Storm combos outside of jump loops and Double Typhoon loops.
Team Aerial Combos:
Storm has two immediately obvious uses for being the recipient of a TAC tag-in. First, she is capable of ending “happy birthday” combos with a quick air series into Hail Storm and DHC out from there for the KO on both characters if necessary. Next, she can initiate her TAC infinite combo variations from almost anywhere on screen from most TAC directions. The TAC infinite is especially important for Storm, as it is a viable resource-free way for her to score big damage that should would not otherwise be able to output normally.
Storm doesn’t use wall or floor bounces in her combos, so she can come in for her combos off of any TAC directional tag-in and perform the combo of her choice just fine. Beware if you plan on ending your combo with Elemental Rage, however, as you will not receive the wall bounce that is applied at the end of that hyper.
When initiating a TAC tag-out, Storm has the benefit of slipping TACs into many different areas of her combo, similarly to her resets. Keep the opponent on edge by attempting TACs in various areas and sometimes replacing those TAC attempts with resets–you’ll find that not giving the opponent a moment’s rest can force some second guessing and over-thinking on their part.
