Deciding on a team composition

http://skullheart.com/index.php?threads/skullgirls-team-building-thread.329/

If you are going to run Filia and PW I'd run PW up front with Filia anchor. Filia should be Updo as PW doesn't have great reversals and PW I think cr.mp would probably be very good as it would lead to good mixups with Filia's overheads.

If you decide you want a third character then you can't go wrong with Bella, lock 'n load is good for Filia and I imagine for PW as well to help them approach but she has other really good assists as well and she is a strong achor who is relatively easy to learn.

Hey, I remember you!

Sheep Wizard said:

I currently play Filia (H. Hairball) and Painwheel (cr. mp), my two favorite characters playstyle and lore wise, and they go together lore wise which I find kinda cool, but I don't feel that they work well together as an actual team, and I only play them because I find them fun.

Well, most of the time you'll hear 'anything is fine, you can make it work.'

At a higher level of play sometimes the poorly constructed teams suffer a bit vs the well thought out teams.

The issues I personally have with this team is that:

cMP assist has poor range and a basic hitbox for when you play Filia point.
You'd use it after making them block an attack from Filia so that you can dash back in and apply more mix up while/after it finishes spinning.
It can be easy to wall off Filia's approach if she's just approaching solo with out an assist to back her up during neutral.
If she does hit you and she calls the cMP assist then she basically won neutral but she did it without a neutral game assist.

Painwheel can appreciate Updo for sure.
She has no meterless reversals and Updo just generally covers a good area of space in front while being invincible.
This issue is that if you ran Painwheel > Filia and Painwheel died on point without a chance to tag or DHC, you'd be playing solo Filia against an opponents team most likely.
It's a bit of an uphill battle at that point.

Sheep Wizard said:

I've played Bella, being best at Bella.

If you're okay with playing this character, Lock N Load / Copter are both great assists that work well with those characters.

Filia with Lock N Load is really good because you can call it and then move in.
The opponent will have a hard time jabbing you or poking you out of your approach because Cerebella will follow behind her with the delayed punch.
It also adds tons of damage to Filia/Painwheel combos if you call it early in the string.

Painwheel is more partial to Cerecopter but Lock N Load H is still really good for her too.

[The Filia > Painwheel > Cerebella Team]
Filia plays great neutral with Lock N Load assist until she gets to low health, then she uses a super and DHC's into Painwheel's hatred install in a combo or on block to make it safe and save herself.

Filia recovers life in the back of the team while Painwheel has now has access to Lock N Load for pressure/footsies/neutral and also a very good fast defensive DP assist from Filia to deal with pressure and jump ins.

Painwheel dies or safely escapes to go heal and now you're playing Cerebella.
She's fine as an anchor and by this point she should have three meters from your other characters.
Her Level 3 is great at turning around games and pulling out clutch wins.

------

So, if you're really uncertain about a team composition and you like those three characters, you could start there.
Playing three characters right away is sometimes too much for some people but I just consider it accelerated learning : )

But don't forget that if you really do love the Duo, you can play the Duo.
[Filia > Painwheel] is how I would play that order because I'm very partial to having a safe DHC via Gregor/Fenrir > Hatred Install.
Filia can also set up combos where you combo into Painwheels raw tag to switch for no meter and it starts Filia healing.

This should give you something to chew on.

H updo assist is best because its invincible longer yeah

painwheel c.mp is not a bad assist for filia IMO, the way I read what skar said (and feel free to correct me if i'm wrong skar) is not that c.mp is bad but c.mp as filia's only assist means she has no assist to help her get in which is filia's biggest problem. Filia with c.mp for lockdown and lock n load in the back for a neutral assist sounds pretty solid. I dunno if filia gets anything off of any versions of pinion but if pinion lets filia get in maybe you could run cerecopter in the back, I dont play painwheel though so i dunno maybe that wouldn't work.

skar also said that he would play filia point for the safe dhc but IMO it depends on matchup and character experience; skullgirls is a very snowbally game by nature so you want to start the game with a composition that is most likely to win you the opening neutral game. Painwheel is considered to have a stronger neutral game than filia so personally I would run pw/filia/bella, with a trio even if you lose PW then you still have filia/LnL which is fine. filia/pw/bella is cetainly fine though, and for the duo I would definitely agree with skar about running filia/pw since solo filia is hard.

and while skar is right that poorly constructed teams suffer at high level play I think that this trio is competitively viable for sure as long as you know how to play it.

Sheep Wizard said:

My only question is what assist you would use on PW over c. mp. You said you didn't like it as an assist but didn't suggest what I should run instead

Like Pickles said, I didn't mean you should take a different assist but more that cMP as Filia's only neutral game assist was my issue.
Painwheel doesn't have many killer awesome assists unless they're for character specific set ups or conversions.
That's why I recommended adding Cerebella.

Sheep Wizard said:

Whats the group that everyone is in now?

Nobody really.. ever used steam groups :P
Most players use Skullheart, Steam Chat, IRC, and our Discord server.

Sheep Wizard said:

whats a really solid competitive comp I could try practicing in the background?
I'd really like to try playing a solid, well rounded, competitive comp.
I want to try to play something I could confidently take into a tourney.

Filia Painwheel Cerebella is absolutely fine as a competitive team and can win tournaments.
This ain't Marvel, there's not really any "Well known competitive teams" besides Valentine Filia Double as 'Team Duck/Cloud' which gets picked often ish. (Like 2+ times.)

If you want to construct a team just do something like:

Point: Anyone
Second: Not Valentine
Anchor: Not Valentine, Painwheel, Peacock or Squigly.

Then that's a team that can win a tournament.
It's just about the player.
(You can still play Big Band > Valentine > Peacock and win a tournament if you are good.)

Skarmand said:

Nobody really.. ever used steam groups :P
Most players use Skullheart, Steam Chat, IRC, and our Discord server.

What's the IRC channel?

I've been looking for an SG chatroom for some time, but #skullgirls is empty and the steam group chat is dead.

pegglefrank said:

What's the IRC channel?

I've been looking for an SG chatroom for some time, but #skullgirls is empty and the steam group chat is dead.

irc.mizuumi.net
#skullgirls

Skarmand said:

If you want to construct a team just do something like:

Point: Anyone
Second: Not Valentine
Anchor: Not Valentine, Painwheel, Peacock or Squigly.

Then that's a team that can win a tournament.

Anchor rule seems fine, I don't think Valentine second is that bad though if you have a character who can benefit from her assists. @mpgame99 plays Val second and it works great for him.

mcpeanuts said:

Anchor rule seems fine, I don't think Valentine second is that bad though if you have a character who can benefit from her assists. @mpgame99 plays Val second and it works great for him.

I think my team is just an exception to that rule. Robo is probably the only character who gets a huge benefit from any of Valentine's assist. The only way I can see Val viable as not point is if people use the pushback from bypass to make resets safe.

mpgame99 said:

I think my team is just an exception to that rule. Robo is probably the only character who gets a huge benefit from any of Valentine's assist. The only way I can see Val viable as not point is if people use the pushback from bypass to make resets safe.

I think there's a few other characters who can use it the same way you use it with Robo to convert off stuff you normally can't. I know it works with Big Band with L Brass for example. I haven't tested it but I imagine it works with other stuff like Double's gun or Squigly j.HP.

idk what point I'm trying to make with all this because for the most part I agree that Val second doesn't work on most teams. I'm just postin

Val 2nd is great on any team that can use any of her assists to deadly effect... As with any character.


She is particularly decent behind painwheel since painwheel gets an unblockable when val is 2nd.

In this game it is less about a character being bad outside of point, and more about finding a character that can use the points assists well.

Val and pw are hard to use outside of point because few characters mesh well with the assists available to those characters.

But double and parasoul both use painwheels cr.mp VERY well, and pw uses Val's cr.mk well. Double also uses Val's cr.mk pretty well when double has the opponent locked down by cats.

In those situations both characters can shine outside of point.

Hey everyone! I'm an experienced FG player that's getting back into Skullgirls, but I'm having some problems creating a team. I've been doing research and watching videos but I feel like a little advice from knowledgeable players would go a long way. (Posts specifically from @Skarmand, @mcpeanuts, @Dime in various subforums have been super helpful during this info gathering process, so a big ol interwebs fist-bump to you gents)

Characters I really enjoy:
Beowulf, Parasoul, Painwheel, Big Band

Characters I'd add for synergy / out of necessity:
Filia, Cerebella

I've been looking at various ways to use the first 4 I mentioned, but I've been toying around with so many ideas it's been getting overwhelming. Aside from BB / Para being good anchors, Beo / PW / Para being good on point, and Sniper DHC to Hatred install being strong..I'm not sure what I'm doing here lol. Anyway, this is what I have so far. Any advice you can give in regards to assists or which team is strongest would be SO helpful. Thank you!


Parasoul / Beowolf / Big Band
Parasoul / Painwheel / Cerabella [Safe DHC install / Copter resets for both]

Beowulf / Filia / Parasoul
[L shot helps neutral and oki, Updo for defense and resets, also Gigantic Arm DHC Fenrir corner carries with Filia coming in point blank for mixups. But if Beo dies Filia + Para have no damage output]

Beowulf / Painwheel / Parasoul
[H Pinion for neutral and conversions from Beo's far j.HP, when Beo dies PW can fly around with Napalm Pillar for defense and resets]

Beowulf or Painwheel / Big Band / Cerabella
[HLnL + Brass are great for oki and neutral for both characters. DHC to BB is damage)

Painwheel / Cerebella (HLnL) / Parasoul (NP)

I really want to buckle down a team and start grinding.

Not an experienced or good player, but here's my two cents:
Put Band on point, his defense is probably his biggest problem so assists like Beo's H Chair is gonna be really helpful.
Maybe Painwheel second, Install DHC, aside from being sweet, would probably make a blocked SSJ safe? Don't really play her so I don't know what assists to run, though.
Everyone else, maybe outside Filia, would work great solo and/or have great assists so toss 'em at anchor.

Fumako said:

Put Band on point, his defense is probably his biggest problem so assists like Beo's H Chair is gonna be really helpful.

He's just big, bigband has probably the best defense in the game with some of the best reversals in the game, both on the air and on the ground, with and without meter, and even a parry. He's also arguably the hardest character to approach with cymbals, brass and a-train to keep the opponent away and pressure from anywhere on the screen. I'd put bigband on anchor for how much scarier he becomes with meter and the great assists he can offer.

I think I'd go with Beowulf(H chair)/Painwheel(H pinion)/Bigband(H brass), this team looks VERY fun to play and VERY annoying to deal with.

RaynEX said:

Characters I really enjoy:
Beowulf, Parasoul, Painwheel, Big Band

Characters I'd add for synergy / out of necessity:
Filia, Cerebella

I've been looking at various ways to use the first 4 I mentioned, but I've been toying around with so many ideas it's been getting overwhelming. Aside from BB / Para being good anchors, Beo / PW / Para being good on point, and Sniper DHC to Hatred install being strong.

it's rare in SG that you have to add characters out of necessity. You can make a good team of out those 4 characters for sure.

of those 4, BB is the best anchor without question. Parasoul anchor is overrated she's much better point. Beowulf and PW can both do either point or 2nd, I think beowulf is better point though. Para 2nd is not very good IMO so I would say

point: para, beo, pw
2nd: beo, pw
anchor: BB

The team caio posted seems pretty solid, H pinion gives BB some cool conversions and brass is amazing for beo

Thanks for the advice @Fumako , but Big Band on point isn't really what I'm looking for.

@CaioLugon: I've never thought of that team comp actually. It *does* sound fun to play, my only gripe is the DHC synergy between Beo and PW isn't so hot (Gigantic Arm DHC Death Crawl is finnicky because of height). The alternative is to use his AA super DHC Death Crawl, but this requires an OTG. Aside from this DHC dilemma, this team sounds quite cool.

@Pickles: It's refreshing to play a game where you can be creative. Everything I've read up so far parallels what you're saying (Para weak 2nd, Beo decent 2nd but better on point, BB being a strong anchor). H Brass doesn't seem very useful for PW though, or am I wrong? Beo / PW / Parasoul I thought was better because PW flying around with a DP assist is good for get-off-me or resets, and has more usability than H brass.

Hey all,
I decided to stop by this thread because I'm having the same problem as Sheep Wizard. In most of the fighting games I play, I tend to gravitate only towards fast/rushdown characters. Thus, when I recently picked up Skullgirls, the characters I instantly felt most comfortable with are Ms. Fortune, Filia, and Valentine. However, I'm aware that these three characters make a very bad team as they all have very low health and absolutely zero zoning options, and Fortune seems to be very low tier from what I've seen of top level Skullgirls (though I'm probably wrong).
Do you think that I'll need to pick up a different character to make my team competitively viable? I'm thinking of picking up Eliza or R. Fortune but I haven't bought either yet, so I have no real ideas as to whether or not I'll enjoy them.

The Victator said:

Hey all,
I decided to stop by this thread because I'm having the same problem as Sheep Wizard. In most of the fighting games I play, I tend to gravitate only towards fast/rushdown characters. Thus, when I recently picked up Skullgirls, the characters I instantly felt most comfortable with are Ms. Fortune, Filia, and Valentine. However, I'm aware that these three characters make a very bad team as they all have very low health and absolutely zero zoning options, and Fortune seems to be very low tier from what I've seen of top level Skullgirls (though I'm probably wrong).
Do you think that I'll need to pick up a different character to make my team competitively viable? I'm thinking of picking up Eliza or R. Fortune but I haven't bought either yet, so I have no real ideas as to whether or not I'll enjoy them.

fortune is easily top 3, there are top players who think fortune is the best character in the game. The only problem with fortune/fil/val is that I don't really like either of them as the anchor of a trio (but if you had to val/fort/filia is probably the best order unless there's some assist synergy I don't know about). Eliza is a rushdown character who makes a much better anchor and she is also very good so you could play her if you liked her.

Val has good zoning options, in fact she is probably the most defensive rushdown character in the game. Very content to sit back and throw projectiles. Just to let you know. But if you just recently picked up Skullgirls i would worry less about making a team and find out what characters you enjoy first, I also enjoy fast rushdown characters but I don't enjoy fortune very much despite her being a very strong rushdown character.

Skullgirls is balanced enough that you can just ignore tiers unless you're really concerned about winning tournaments, it's the last thing you have to worry about when approaching this game. Just play the characters you like.

There are some great resources here, and I'd just recommend starting with less characters right away, Fortune(H fiber)/Filia(Hairball) for example sounds great.

The Victator said:

However, I'm aware that these three characters make a very bad team as they all have very low health

Just wanted to correct this: all characters have the same health. Health values only differ between whether you play solo/duo/trio. Damage also changes based on this.

@The Victator the only problem I can think of with your team is that its basically a team of point characters. While Filia is often kept second cause updo is a pretty good assist, and having her to dhc into gets rid of problems she has getting started. Val and fortune don't have super amazing assists. With fortune, h fiber is pretty much your go-to assist, but converting from it with filia or valentine might be a little weird. SHK is also an option that works for fortune but you lose the lockdown it provides if you end up with the head off. Val's cmk is a pretty decent low assist which definitely helps out with filia's or fortune's mixups. I can't think of anything specifically strong that h bypass would be useful for on the team.

If you plan on playing/learning headless as fortune, filia's h hairball is a really cool assist to use to hit the head and get lockdown and strengthen your long range game. This could probably work in conjunction with h bypass to get you pretty strong fullscreen presence if you use your head well. The main downside of this is that, as fortune, you wouldn't have access to an invuln assist in the event of someone getting in on you, and you lose your non-metered reversals while in headless. The the main thing that one should be wary of when playing headless is that you have the potential to die faster than any other character if the head and body are both being hit.

Apex said:

Just wanted to correct this: all characters have the same health. Health values only differ between whether you play solo/duo/trio. Damage also changes based on this.

Oh...then what's the advantage of having a character like Big Band, Double, Cerebella, or Eliza as an anchor?

The Victator said:

Oh...then what's the advantage of having a character like Big Band, Double, Cerebella, or Eliza as an anchor?

good anchors in SG are characters who don't necessarily need assists and also make good use of meter. Anchor characters usually have a strong assist as well that benefits the whole team

Hey, since we're talking about PW teams, does anyone have any recommendations for a 2-man (women?) team with PW as point?

I'm currently thinking of using pw + fukua, eliza, double, or bella.

What do you guys think?

Para/pw

Fukua/pw
Double/pw
Or pw/bella.

Literally up to you