Who is the (or your) best character to put on anchor (disregarding your Point and Mid Characters)? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? Can the character “hang” without Lvl. 3 X-Factor? How deadly is the character WITH Lvl. 3 X-Factor? What do you think SRK?
In my opinion, I like to believe Dr. Doom is a pretty good anchor character for the following (pros/cons) reasons:
PROS: Easily do 700k Dmg Mid-Screen (800k Dmg Corner) WITHOUT X-Factor. When he’s in X-Factor Lvl. 3, 2-3 Foot Dive Loops and your character is gone. His combos are always meter positive. His corner pressure can be ridiculous. And of course… Foot Dive priority and it’s ridiculous crossover properties.
CONS: The only real problem I see with Doom as an anchor character is the fact he is the opposite of a keep-away team. If you manage to have a character like Dormammu or you have a homing assist on deck, then Doom seriously has a slim chance of survival (slim chance is the player screws up the keep-away).
This is VERY dependent on team composition. Doom provides a great assist, but solo he lacks the tools to mount a comeback. Personally, I think stock in anchor Doom will go up once someone really starts abusing XF2+Missiles. On the flip side, Vergil becomes completely retarded in XF3, but he doesn’t exactly have a good assist. Ammy, Arthur, Strider, Akuma, and Dante are very strong cantidates for best anchor, but they lack the assist power of missiles or the idiocy of Dark Vergil. The categories go like this:
Spoiler
[LIST]
[]Assist (Doom, Sentinel, Shuma, Akuma): They lack the ability to consistently make a comeback, but their assist should prevent the need for one if you know what you are doing. Works best with a XF2 second.
[/LIST]
Pro: Good assist, makes first two characters much better.
Con: Cannot do much on point, can be happy birthday’d against good players.
[LIST]
[]Composite (Ammy, Arthur, Dante, Strider, Wesker, Magneto): They have a good assist and have good point ability, but they don’t really fall in the extremes of either category.
[/LIST]
Pro: Works very well with a select portion of the cast, takes some stress off of your first two characters.
Con: Benefits aren’t good for all characters, prone to getting snapped or happy birthday’d in against good players.
[LIST]
[*]Dark (Vergil, Phoenix, Dorm): If these characters are sitting on 5 bars and X-Factor, GG.
[/LIST]
Pro: Can decimate opponents and allows you to take risks early on.
Con: Very prone to getting snapped in against good players, generally require meter to be effective.
So I take it you believe Vergil, Phoenix (Jean, and not Wright I presume, haha), and Dormammu are your picks for best Anchor. I agree with your picks, but it sounds like they need meter or X-Factor. From what I know, Vergil doesn’t build too much meter off his solo combos (maybe 1 at best), Jean NEEDS meter, and Dormammu doesn’t build meter at all. But you are absolutely right, if each of these characters DO have meter incoming as Anchor, then God Speed to the opposing.
Alright, let’s have everyone calm down for a bit, haha. It’s hard for me to imagine Dorm as an anchor (not to say he’s a bad character to use, just on anchor). I’m sure he could build meter no doubt, but in order to do so, I know he needs to do those “P-p-power of the… power of the” to get an extra OTG/Launch. (which means more meter gain). And as an anchor character, I find that powering up can be difficult (not impossible) and time wasting for the player, which could be used to get a decent mix up instead.
EDIT: My apologies, after watching a few Dorm combo vids, I’ve noticed that Dormammu actually does have the ability to do a corner-relaunch. But still, I still don’t think he’d be on the list of “Top Anchor Characters.”