It's not great in BE assist range but if you can stop your opponent from getting that close, H Beam assist is possibly the best screen control tool that isn't Peacock's stuff. Makes them have to deal with the assist by either jumping over it (and if they time it wrong they still land on it, or they doublejump over it and then they can't call their assist). Especially now that double jumping isn't completely brain dead as far as avoiding the ground it concerned, H Beam covers a fairly high part of the screen and hangs around for a decent while so you can either rush in after it or continue to play right outside mid range if you want to. Also its long active time makes countercalling it from far impossible.
It's especially great for Filia because it clears the screen for her avenue of approach and it makes the c.MP slide under reset stupidly ambiguous.
This is basically how I feel about it as well.
And while I can't speak for to many characters other than the ones I play, for pw it does:
Completely protects my fly j.mp. If I call the assist just before I j.mp from flight... My j.mp basically becomes somewhat uncontestable, at least as far as AA assists are concerned.
My opponent also can't just duck the beam because my j.mp will overhead them.
And characters with run can call it before their run and use it to,cover that kind of advance. It isn't foolproof, but it's a good pattern. There are other things I really like about it such as its ability to be called and be safe, unlike H brass or bomber, and its ability to counter call from full screen away safely.
I can also use it to cover my midrange dashin approach since it will destroy any assist called to hit me.
But it IS weak from close range. I wouldn't use the assist as an anchor on a duo team. The team I have it on has r fortune second and beat extend L anchor.
This way my opponent can't just turtle against my BE assist from the opposite side of the screen, nor can they just rush down my beam assist either.
Though it's just theory I feel like it would be good for any character:
Squigly:
Covers her run in, covers her charging, covers her wiffed divekick.
Peacock.. Kinda a no brainer, peacock covers the ground and air with her bombs, robo covers peacocks deadzone perfectly and adds a move that has to be ducked. By most of the cast, and destroys peacocks nemesis... H brass assist.
Pw:
Synergizes with her fly j.mp ridiculously well.
Filia:
Covers filias approach vector really well... Can't duck the beam cause Filia overheads.
Double:
Double has the least amount of synergy that i can find. Doubles gun is crouchable and so is robos beam...
Bella:
She has ridiculous airnormals and the opponent won't be able to duck the beam while dealing with bella instant jhp or dash jump j.mp.
Parasoul:
Synergizes with parasouls shots by covering space parasoul recovers from her shot. Makes certain tear calls much safer in certain matchups. Also Synergizes with parasouls jump attacks really well just like the rest of the cast.
Beowulf:
Covers his aerial rush attacks.
Etc
I still feel like the assist is really good. Takes some setup and not really useable on a duo. But other than that I think it's the best assist I've used besides vanilla h bomber and beat extend L.
I've never used H LNL though... So, yeah, there's always that.
Thx for replying guys :) I got my question answered more than sufficiently.