-Huge target
-Can’t safely move forward
-Mixup is really easy to see if you have experience against him (tri-jump = low, box-jump = high)
-His projectiles - while good - are slow to start and recover
-He doesn’t have a good way to punish assist calls from far away (look at Photon Array, then look at something like Shinkuu Hadoken, Magnetic Shockwave, or even Phantom Dance).
-His throw OS game sucks (you almost always want back-throw but that means you are OS’ing with butter gun or hidden missiles which are not helping you at all at that range)
-“Can’t” happy birthday effectively. “Can’t” is in quotes because he probably actually can once people find some new fly combos made for this purpose, but none of his BnB’s work for happy birthdays and usually the best you get is confirm into launch j.MM adf M finger lasers.
-His chip game in XF is only average even with all of his projectiles. Other characters with good chip games either chip you with safe supers or can cancel their chip specials into a super that makes them safe. Photon Array and Sphere Flame can both be really unsafe depending on your opponent’s angle of approach.
I tried so hard to run him as anchor for so long in vanilla. He’s better as an anchor now than he was, but still not nearly as good as any of the real anchors. I think Wesker, Strider, Dormammu, Morrigan, Akuma, Phoenix (obv.), Storm, Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Magneto, Trish, and Vergil are all far superior anchors. I think there is also a case to be made for Ryu, Deadpool, Nova, Firebrand, Spencer, and maybe Rocket Raccoon but they are probably closer to the same level as anchors than being clearly better.
Dante does 1.1mil starting with 8/10 of a meter. 910k before super and you end up with one meter.
Safe DHCs.
Dante can combo off air grabs.
Dante/Zero/Trish
Dante+Zero end up doing a 1.1 mil combo starting with 1 meter (you end up with 9/10 of a meter).
Safe DHCs.
Ryuenjin cross-over assist available.
Dante dies, Zero ends on point with an useful assist.
Trish/Zero/Dante
Trish starts a combo with 1 meter to deal 1 mil damage in the corner. You end up with half a meter.
Safe DHCs.
Unblockable can be started if you have at least 1 meter for 1.2 mil damage and you end up with half a meter again.
Trish dies, Zero ends on point with his best assist in the game and Dante as anchor.
Ryuenjin cross-over assist available.
Trish/Dante/Zero
Basic DHC combo does 847k. Combo first to DT and then to Million Dollars does 942k. If enought meter is available, you guys know Zero finishes the job with the lightning loop no problem.
Safe DHCs.
Probably the worst order, but still very effective IMO.
Zero/Trish/Dante
From an airgrab midscreen (or ground grab in the corner) you get a 1.3 mil combo meter neutral (same meter you start with, same meter you end up with). This combo gets you 1.07 mil without Dante’s last super, so for anybody with titan health, you get to keep your 2 meters.
Zero can combo from his ground grab in the corner with Peekabo (also with air grabs). This leaves you with Jam Session for resets/combo extensions.
TAC becomes setup unblockable.
Zero dies, you end with Trish on point with one of her best assists and Dante in anchor.
Safe DHCs.
Assists allows for defensive Zero and offensive Zero styles.
Best order for the team IMO.
Zero/Dante/Trish
Zero can still kill anybody with lightning loop, but you lose the great DHC from the above team.
Better TAC than Trish that can also deal to death.
Safe DHCs.
Zero+Trish Duo (2 members only)
Get tons of supers off any DHC. Ex: Rekkouha>Reound Harvest>Maximum Voltage or Rekkouha
Trish still kills anybody with the unblockable (but less reliable than the combo with Trish/Zero/Dante).
Zero+Dante Duo (2 members only)
You guys know already.
Amazing DHC for Dante thanks to Sougenmu and if you have enough meter, you don’t even need the lightning loop to kill anybody.
Zero+Dante can take ANY team by their own.
TACs are great as well, but not necessary.
Dante+Trish (2 members only)
Dante gets his favorite DHC in the world, Round Harvest for those Acid Rain loops etc.
They both work with each other assists. Don’t believe me? See Jago or Ice play and you see how great these characters improve with these assists.
EXTRA:
Team health rounds up to a total of 2580 health, almost the same as Fanatiq’s old team for an example.
The three characters have a pretty nice future for metagame development IMO. This team can only get better with time.
I still don’t get the reliance I have with Zero/Dante/Doom or Zero/Dante/Sentinel because Drones or Plasma Beam>Peekabo. Peekabo is still great.
Everybody, but to a lesser extent Zero, is a good anchor. Dante is the best anchor for sure but Trish can still do great things, including killing Thor without starting meter with XF3.
Trish does 1.16 mil if she starts with 3 meters from an air grab in the corner.
Dante+Trish
Dante Air grab damage:
Starting with no meter: 400k (end up with no meter) and 200k Meterless (end up with 1 meter)
Starting with 1 super: 620k (end up with almost 1 meter)
Starting with 1 meter and bit: 835k (end up with no meter)
Starting with 2 meter and a bit: 1021k (end up with half a meter)
3 meters and more and you TOD everybody.
I tried to go Zero/Doom/Phoenix today and found out i hate playing phoenix, as well as playing against her.
It’s a matter of opinion IMO, i never use an assist as doom unless it’s a strider Vajira or one that helps him get in. I disagree with Avarice on a lot of what he’s saying, i read it as “he’s too predictable when he tries to get in” and “He can’t happy birthday effectively”. That’s basically accounting that you’re playing against a team who zones a ton which he blows up with XF3 plasma beams and missiles. Wesker may be a better anchor, but he fits best in the second slot of any team. I’ve played Zero/Doom/Wesker since i got Ultimate and switched to Zero/Wesker/Doom and have had more success since then.
On an unrelated note, why does everyone pair Zero with Team Devil May Cry?
I understand some of those points about Doom anchor, like him being a big target and safely moving forward – this is especially evident in some match-ups (Hawkeye) but I’m gonna have to disagree on some things, as the speed boost in XF3 makes up for his weaknesses.
With the XF3 speed buff, his mix-ups are as predictable as you let them be. His midscreen game isn’t the strongest, but his corner mix-up game is incredible. He doesn’t give a crap about AG, he has the totally underutilized ability to suddenly just appear behind characters before the player can humanly react to what happened. The threat of the new footdive makes people choke.
Every single one of his grabs leads to a very easy, very fast, very damaging combos with the use of Sphere Flame.
His level 3 is insane, even without XF3.
Plasma Beam in XF3 is absurd, combined with well placed Photon Shots, he can chip and zone pretty easily. It also does immense damage to assists.
I don’t think that he’s as good as a handful of characters, but I think calling him a bad anchor is thoroughly incorrect. I’ve been able to make it work pretty damn well since Day 1 Vanilla.
Doom is a great anchor if all his mobility options are second nature to you. However, the number of Doom players this describes I can literally count on one hand.
I was running Zero/Vergil/Doom since the game came out, but lately I’ve been wanting a stronger anchor. My matches usually boil down to a couple scenarios:
-Zero mops the floor with the opponent’s team
-Zero gets wrecked and Vergil comes back using the extra meter and Doom assist
-Zero and Vergil get wrecked and Doom fumbles around hoping to get a random j.m or footdive. Usually have 4-5 meters, which finger lasers doesn’t really help burn.
I’m trying to mitigate that last situation by dropping in Hawkeye. Zero/Vergil/Hawkeye with horizontal assist seems very functional and analagous to Doom Beam, though less powerful as a zoning tool and stronger in combos and setups. I think Hawkeye assist helps Vergil more and makes teleport mixups more powerful. I think Doom Beam is too fast to be ambiguous at times.
Going back to my original team AGAIN (Zero/Dorm/Doom) and now I’m currently experimenting with Dorm on point and Zero 2nd considering the unblockable setups and ToD Dorm gets using Zero + either a great anti air or a half way decent projectile assist allowing me to get away with using Hidden Missile.
Also giving Dorm Liberation assist, there’s a goldmine of shit to be found here and you can even combo into Dorm’s 3C? Mad. May up a vid in a week or 2 once I’ve found more than just a bucket of tech.
Hawkeye anchor can get blown up pretty badly if the opponent is smart enough to just save his x-factor. Be wary of that. His horizontal assist is also faster than Doom’s beam, but I don’t have enough (any) Vergil experience to tell you whether or not Clint’s assist will be good for him. It’s awesome for Zero, though.
Arthur assist is better for Vergil than Hawkeye’s. Daggers do everything Greyhound can, but the Daggers give you a meterless combo after Rapid Slash if you call him just before you do it. Also no one can duck under the Daggers, some characters can duck the Greyhound.
I want to use Captain and Zero on the same team because I feel like DHC from Charging Star into Rekkoha is really good. But I’m having trouble choosing a 3rd character. Is Sentinel Drones the best assist for those two? I really don’t want to use Sentinel, but if he’s the only character that will work then I guess I’ll do it. I need assistance please. ;_;
Drones is easily the best assist for that team - speaking from experience from playing the same team for a while. Drones gives Cap two chances to mixup everything you call it.
Call Drones => TK :l: Shield Slash, if you don’t get a hit from the shield crossing up, cartwheel behind them before the last drone hits and land the hit that way.
I can agree with that, kind of. I think Arthur > Hawkeye with XF3, but I like Clint more without it. I think both are subject to getting lamed out by other people saving their own XF. Arthur has the bonus of XF canceling his level 3 for ridiculous mix-ups and combos.