I think this is the hardest team strategy that I have to fight. The most annoying, and because I just tend to run in trying for the mixup only to get hit by an assist or right into a hyper combo. Even though it isn’t really needed I’ve played plenty of teams that just ran away trying to get me to do something stupid, then they’ll punish. I can deal with being beat by an over aggressive player, but when I lose to someone just running away punishing me and chipping away at my health, I feel I need to work on it much more. Anyone have any tips? I mostly use Rogue/Ken/CC or sometimes switch out Rogue for either Cammy or Morrigan.
2 things–
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Learn to pushblock at appropriate times (gets you out of things like Blackheart AAA/Storm Vertical Typhoon + Cable traps, Spiral stuff). PBlock then SJ will bump up your game vs. runaway tremendously.
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Learn to play as Storm, at least a little. This way you can familiarize yourself with how she works. Play as her for a week and you’ll see where she can be punished (when you get hit out of cheap runaway by competent players).
Other random bits–
- Safely close the gap whenever possible. Best way is to take a dash towards them when they give you a hole. The more you can stay in their face, the more you’ll see what their instincts are when you get close. You’ll start to see where you can get a free AA call to counter and/or beat their assist, and in doing so you take away their assist momentarily allowing you to take the offensive.
-Capitalize off your 1 hits. You have to make the touchdown and the 2-pt conversion at every opportunity you get, especially if you’re playing low tier.
Like ECZ said, close that gap whenever possible with a dash, or a superjump forward. Superjump forward, block will gain distance (slowly). Your goal should be to push them to the corner, then when they are there, don’t put yourself in the corner or let them out. When they are in the corner, they cannot run away so they will either:
A) try to get out of the corner (in most cases they will sj out)
B) try to engage you heads up.
If they try the A option, sj with them and meet them in the air for an air to air attack or throw or whatever. Throws are generally a good option if your opponent is in the corner in general because they are forced to be more defensive and that opens them up to throws, plus most characters have combos off of corner throws so its a big payoff for a potentially small risk.
If they try the B option, then you just forced them to stop running away and fight you.
When is the appropriate time to pushblock vs the sentinel assist/spiral dagger spam? I’ve come up against this a few times but I usually just mashed pushblock or try to hyper out but it never works.
Normally you pushblock spiral and sj.out ahead of or just behind drones… thats if the hole is there. Really good sent/spiral doesn’t leave much of one… so you have to be careful when you pick you jump out time or you’ll eat knives or worse. This is more anti trap than anti runaway… 2 similar but different things IMO…
trapping normally relies on an assist (doom rocks, drones, knives, wtver) so a punish game can often work well. If your team has a big THC or DHC combo… this would be the time. Find the moment and kill off their trapping assist. They’re normally f’d after that.
There are also gimmicks for anti runaway depending on the type. Stuff that tracks… thanos soul… marrow air super… bh aaa… or can be aimed… cyke super optic blast… ect… can be pretty good.
The absolute BEST anti runaway strat IMO is to get a lead early… then if they are trying to keep away… you can just stay back… avoid chip… and wait the clock out… til they have to do something rash to make up ground… then you’ll get a chance to snag em again perhaps. Why chase them around eating wtver chip dmg they want to shoot? If sent wants to stand at the back of the screen spamming drones n mando while he’s behind… why not just sj.up and down wall jumping, double jumping, wtver… to avoid chip… build some meter when you can… maybe tack on chip here or there when its safe… and let him be stupid while the clock is on your side.
I usually start out the round with a quick OH or assist + j lp to try to get a lead if they look like they are going to runaway. Guess I’ll just have to practice at it more often and be more cautious when they are looking to chip or punish. Thanks
Rtsd
Everything stated here is basically what you need to do. Most folks that do runaway panic when the gap is closed or they’re in the corner, you’ll see them just mash their assist away trying to get you away and that’s the time for you to punish, just gotta learn their pattern and time it right.
It’s quite funny though cause there are tons of runaway players on XBL every time I come across a team SCRUB or anything with Cable/Sent/BH/Clops I already know they’re gonna runaway. Once I get close or get them in the corner they just mash their assist away and that’s where I punish them with Storm. I get the usually ragequit though cause apparently to them I’m cheating/hacking lol.
for ground trap: NJ forward on the 2nd-3rd knife and you hop right over the low knives. Then, you have the option of air dash, smartbomb/teleport/any other way to get out of nj, and/or call assist while in NJ. Also can call your assist (depending on which assist, where it comes out, whether it’s invincible or not, etc.) to take the knives while you dish out your own pain (e.g., ahvb) or escape out.
the jumping trap is more random, but you can typically sj out when you see a gap. You can also do the ‘call assist , ahvb/hailstorm/etc’ since the knives are more spread out.
Runaway can be semi-effective in Mvc2 because the best way to stop it is to know gaps and to rush down, both of which are significantly harder to learn than to just run away. You have to be better than your opponent to beat runaway, or you need more life than your opponent, or you need runaway tools (commando or bh assist, sentinel/storm/mag on point).