Who do you think is the best and worst of this game’s zoners? I understand that zoning in this game is more for chip or forcing the opponent into frustration and making a stupid mistake, but who has the best abilities to keep the enemy at fullscreen range? (or at least prevent rushdown)
Characters commonly considered zoners- Dormammu, Doctor Strange, Arthur, Chris, Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool, MODOK, Trish, Iron Man, Viewtiful Joe.
Characters who can zone but are not really zoning characters (to be judged on their zoning only)-Dr. Doom, Dante, Morrigan, Pheonix Wright, Pheonix, Sentinel, Magneto.
I’d say that MODOK, Trish, Iron Man, and Viewtiful Joe are all probably better played as rushdown characters than as keepaway. Maybe not Trish, but definitely the others.
That isn’t as powerful as it looks. You have to get into a position to start it first, and keeping it up isn’t exactly trivial.
In any case, trying to identify individual zoning characters doesn’t seem to useful, as most of the time teams are formulated to make a powerful keepaway element instead of one character doing it.
Dormammu offers plenty of chip damage, huge hit boxes, teleports, flight mode, unblockables, crazy good normals that cut through projectiles, strong hyper combos and his dark spells allow him to get even more ridiculous with lockdown, meter gain, extended combos and GTFO tools, also, don’t forget that he is a zoner with really high damage output and 1,000,000 health. IMO, he is number one.
If we are speaking about assistless zoning… Arthur, Hawkeye, Viewtiful Joe and Taskmaster are pretty damn good.
MODOK, Magneto, Morrigan and Trish are the zoners with the best rushdown, however, this is only my opinion.
Im not so sure I would put Trish up there since shes not really much of a zonner per se. She can play runaway but in a battle of projectiles shell loose to almost every other character on that list. Shes more of an “Im gonna go retreat to super jump height, annoy you with tricks and low voltages, and then come down with some sort of mixup” type. If shes on the list you might as well put Dante up there too, Id actually say he out zones her.
Morrigan
Hawkeye
Zero
Dormammu
Magneto
Captain America
Deadpool
Chris
Arthur
Ghost Rider
This thread needs some solid definition. You used the term zoning, which is different to the term keepaway, so I’m posting both together. Most of these characters play both rolls anyway, some others include the following although they have some subtle differences, more rushdown orientated.
Taskmaster
Phoenix
Trish
Nova
Akuma
Doctor Strange
MODOK
Rocket Raccoon
I have to disagree greatly, zoning with dormmamu is incredibly difficult. You have to predict your opponents every move when playing with dormammu, his moves have considerable start-up time and and are not safe whatsoever. One gutsy misplaced purification/flame carpet and you’re in a combo… And charging hands is not as easy as people think it is lol, you usually gotta throw out a stalking flare to get charged and that move is like -50 lol. I just dont think he’s the best zoner because of the holes and the fact that all his zoning depend on predicting your opponents every movement…
I really don’t know how to decide who has the best zoning because with certain assists it could make something extremely effective… Morrgans soul fist nonsense is almost pathetic without hidden missiles to control the air.
First of all, you obviously lack experience with Dormammu. Are you throwing Stalking flares just to charge hands? Are you seriously spending one meter just to get one special?
You should only charge hands when you are safe, when there’s distance between your enemy and Dorm or after a knockdown. You can cancel Dark matter into charge which allows you to put pressure while getting dark spells. You are meant to charge hands as the battle progresses, it isn’t something that you just rush into unless you’re somehow covered. 2 blues and 1 red liberation gives you enough time to get 3 charges again before the enemy can get to you.
Dormammu isn’t about predicting, if you are trying to fill the screen with shit hoping that you’ll hit something then you’re doing it wrong. Dormammu is all about precision. Think about him as a samurai, it’s not prediction but reaction. You are having trouble keeping your enemy away, use teleports to get away, fly and start air dashing… is he trying to get you in the air? Use liberation as a teleport to get back on the ground. If he super jumps, use purification, if he wants to catch you he will have to eat the damage so he can keep moving forward, he doesn’t want to eat that damage, you will stop them from going forward while they get some chip damage and you can put a flame carpet while they fall.
If you try to fill the screen with stuff, you are unsafe, however, if you are reacting to your enemy, you are safe. Also, if defensive Dorm isn’t working out, you can switch to an aggresive play… why run when you can destroy 90% of the cast with your moveset?
After saying all that I must tell that you totally missed the point, zoning isn’t the same as keep-away, zoning is controlling the place so that you always have some kind of advantage, keep-away is just one type of zoning. Dormammu can put pressure everywhere in the screen and if you give him space to breathe he will become even more powerful, his rushdown game is ridiculous as well and his health pool is pretty good for a zoner. If played on point he can reach more than 1 million damage quite easily while being meter positive, he has some of the best hyper combos in this game and he is one of the best anchors in this game.
There are several reasons why people consider him “S” tier. The character is amazing, you are just exposing yourself as a mediocre player.
