Punishing Assists

[Psyken]

What is a good way to punish people who spam assist (usually invulnerable) fishing for a random hit? I'm trying to lab around some ideas you guys may have because I get frustrated easily when I get smacked by Filia trying to put on some offense.

Example: Valentine runs up to Fortune and does 2.LK > MP. Fortune blocks the hits. Here comes Filia and Val gets hit.
I know of a risky option: Grabbing your opponent. The argument is that people will normally just block and don't think about getting grabbed. I find people who jump and if they jump, I'll get punished by the assist.

How do you deal with it when they are in your face using it as pressure? You can do absolute guarding and find a way back to neutral.

I always try to hit the assist to limit their reuse but getting punished for doing that can be nervewracking. However! They are also putting their self out there allowing for a double snap combo should they get hit as well.

Are there tips for trying to snipe an incoming assist? With invulnerable assist they only have two frames or so (idr) of hurt boxes before they go invul.

I've learned a lot so far but still getting bodied easily in team vs solo due to invul assist. One v one, I can handle myself. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks. x3

 

[NCV]

The safest punish is to do your launcher then jump and block. Even if the point blocks and you only hit the assist you can still jump cancel.

 

[Psyken]

If it doesn't hit the assist, can you still jump cancel on block? O.o

 

[NCV]

...

If it doesn't hit the assist, can you still jump cancel on block? O.o

...

Even if the point blocks and you only hit the assist you can still jump cancel.

...

 

[Psyken]

I still don't understand. Sorry for my bad English but it seems like you're saying if I hit the assist, then I can jump cancel.

If that is the case, is there an easy way of timing your launcher to hit an incoming invulnerable assist mid block string? Otherwise I'm just going to get hit.

 

[Dagwood]

well if you're solo val your options are limited...

-Grab
-Bait it out, like jump in, double jump back and use Air scalpels or something.
-Armor through it (not an option for you)
-Block it and counter-call your own assist (again not an option)
-Make sure you always hit it if you can. like just jab it if you can safely, since it will cause delay on their next call.

You have less options since you're solo but, if you hit their assist with scalpels it will do a crapload of damage. and if you get a happy birthday they're done

 

[Psyken]

Oh, with decent spacing, if they call an assist and I have some meter... You can bet your arse I'm throwing scalps. It takes away a little under half on a 3 member team.

Not much I can do with baiting because I'll have to go to defensive. Most likely anyway.

I can't super everything though. No meter no luck.

 

[Psyken]

This may have been obvious already but I didn't know that in a true blockstring, your opponent can not call an assist.

 

[Age]

Scalpels does hideous damage to assists.

When you're hitting the assist and the point character is blocking, launchers are jump cancellable, so you can so semi-risky un-combo juggles on the assist while also putting pressure on the point. You need to watch out for reversals if you do this, but on the bright side they can't dhc while the assist's on screen so it's also a risk for them.

One thing you need to be careful of is if the point and assist are not right next to each other. Active hitboxes disappear once they connect with something, so if your attacks don't hit both characters on the same frame it won't hit both. I try to deal with this by focusing on connecting with the point character and taking hits on the assist as a bonus.

 

[Krackatoa]

I've been counter-calling with LK.Bomber a lot lately, out of habit, and trying to avoid committing to string and approaches that'll get ruined by assists. Works fairly well, if only because it's fairly guaranteed that Bomber will hit the assist, locking it out for added time, whereas there's no guarantee that Bomber will get locked out.