Iconic Horror
Behold The Kingdom Of The Wretched Undying
To begin with one great thing about D'vorah is her first tournament variation works well (for me) in both competitive play and custom variant play.
D'vorah places low in the tier lists because she is 1. Difficult to make safe without the use of meter. 2. Doesn't get a normal guaranteed off of a poke. 3. Struggles with zoning playstyles. 4. Doesn't have a jump in that crosses up unless you delay it super late. 5. Doesn't have a mid aside from her db4 ovipositor rush which you need a bar to make safe. 5. Few of her combo strings completely whiff on block leaving you punishable.
I feel like the problems are with the character fundamentally (normals, pokes, jump ins) and not as much her specials. Her specials are actually quite great. My only problem being with her ex db1 mid launcher being -36 I believe.
Now that I have highlighted her problems, I'm going to give some good information on working around those problems and making the character work. Not here to complain or ask for buffs.
General gameplan: Firstly you need to realize that off of a d1 you get a throw attempt, another poke, or a db4 special guaranteed. Anything else is gimmicky but to make her work you may have to play that way. I try to condition with pokes into db4 to get them actually respecting and then you can start going for high starters like her 8 frame s1 or her 15 frame f1. As far as ending things off safe with db4 ex I have little ghetto mix up that works on people. You can sometimes manage to get away with being safe off of db4 without meterburning because the opponent is fearful of the meterburned extended part. Against people with slower reactions and are maybe more respective you can actually manage to get a poke. After the meterburned version you are -3 so you're free to poke or block. Learn to cancel db1 into her ovipositors because this can catch a ton of people and the ovipostors can provide enough hitstun for a throw, a quick mixup, or more of her stagger game involving d1's, d1's into her db4 , f1, f13, s4, s44, s1 and finally s12. I feel like staggering anything else is too negative and not worth it. SOMETIMES, I can manage to stagger f2 into d4 but only at max range. I would then cancel her d4 into strepsiptera for mixups, more pressure, etc. When in the mid range realize her ji1 is absurd so using that is one of her most deadly tools and can lead into full combo into strepsiptera set up. I almost always end combos off with strepsiptera and not df2 because I prefer the oki pressure with the bug then the slight increase in damage. As far as zoning goes it is really hard to do but I try and put out strepsiptera to protect myself especially against teleport characters. Then, i throw out bf1's like crazy while slowly edging my way in. Sometimes I throw out the meterburned air bugs to stress my opponent in neutral to make getting in easier. I wouldn't do this too much though because it takes forever to recover from it and can leave you open. Try jumping over a projectile and setting it up so you have a bit more time to be safe and return to throwing out bf1's and moving in. f22 d1+3 is key to getting in if the string works against the character you're fighting. If it does work f22 d1+3 can actually be special canceled on block into anything, preferably db4. Boom you're in.
I think I covered a majority of it, may have left some stuff out. I apologize for it being an extensive conglomerate mess of a paragraph but I'm in class and rushing before it is over to get my knowledge out there. (lol)
As far as combo's go I'm 100% sure there are plenty more but these are what I do that are the most optimal. I never go for 2 bar combo's because they aren't worth it and you need your meter.
Easy midscreen: F13xDB1mb f13x either df3 or df2 your preference.
Easy Corner: F13xDB1Bmb s1 d1 s12 either df3 or df2
Hard Midscreen: F13xDB1mb dash s1 f13x either df3 or df2
Hard Corner: F13xDB1Bmb s2 d1 either df3 or df2
Easy midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb B34
Hard Midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb dash s1 B34
Hard Midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s121+3
Fatal Blow (Midscreen) F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s4 FATAL BLOW
Fatal Blow (Corner) F13xDB1Bmb s2 d1 d1 s4 FATAL BLOW
Fatal Blow (Midscreen, Hard) F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s1 dash s4 FATAL BLOW (you have to cancel the dashes pretty early).
She has some weird combos you'll get rarely with bug setups but I don't have time to get them down. (They're on YouTube all over D'vorah combo guides if you're interested.)
This is what I have to give about D'vorah. Comment and tell me something! I'm sure I left things out. My gamertag on Xbox is Iconic Horror if you want to see some gameplay or experience it.
D'vorah places low in the tier lists because she is 1. Difficult to make safe without the use of meter. 2. Doesn't get a normal guaranteed off of a poke. 3. Struggles with zoning playstyles. 4. Doesn't have a jump in that crosses up unless you delay it super late. 5. Doesn't have a mid aside from her db4 ovipositor rush which you need a bar to make safe. 5. Few of her combo strings completely whiff on block leaving you punishable.
I feel like the problems are with the character fundamentally (normals, pokes, jump ins) and not as much her specials. Her specials are actually quite great. My only problem being with her ex db1 mid launcher being -36 I believe.
Now that I have highlighted her problems, I'm going to give some good information on working around those problems and making the character work. Not here to complain or ask for buffs.
General gameplan: Firstly you need to realize that off of a d1 you get a throw attempt, another poke, or a db4 special guaranteed. Anything else is gimmicky but to make her work you may have to play that way. I try to condition with pokes into db4 to get them actually respecting and then you can start going for high starters like her 8 frame s1 or her 15 frame f1. As far as ending things off safe with db4 ex I have little ghetto mix up that works on people. You can sometimes manage to get away with being safe off of db4 without meterburning because the opponent is fearful of the meterburned extended part. Against people with slower reactions and are maybe more respective you can actually manage to get a poke. After the meterburned version you are -3 so you're free to poke or block. Learn to cancel db1 into her ovipositors because this can catch a ton of people and the ovipostors can provide enough hitstun for a throw, a quick mixup, or more of her stagger game involving d1's, d1's into her db4 , f1, f13, s4, s44, s1 and finally s12. I feel like staggering anything else is too negative and not worth it. SOMETIMES, I can manage to stagger f2 into d4 but only at max range. I would then cancel her d4 into strepsiptera for mixups, more pressure, etc. When in the mid range realize her ji1 is absurd so using that is one of her most deadly tools and can lead into full combo into strepsiptera set up. I almost always end combos off with strepsiptera and not df2 because I prefer the oki pressure with the bug then the slight increase in damage. As far as zoning goes it is really hard to do but I try and put out strepsiptera to protect myself especially against teleport characters. Then, i throw out bf1's like crazy while slowly edging my way in. Sometimes I throw out the meterburned air bugs to stress my opponent in neutral to make getting in easier. I wouldn't do this too much though because it takes forever to recover from it and can leave you open. Try jumping over a projectile and setting it up so you have a bit more time to be safe and return to throwing out bf1's and moving in. f22 d1+3 is key to getting in if the string works against the character you're fighting. If it does work f22 d1+3 can actually be special canceled on block into anything, preferably db4. Boom you're in.
I think I covered a majority of it, may have left some stuff out. I apologize for it being an extensive conglomerate mess of a paragraph but I'm in class and rushing before it is over to get my knowledge out there. (lol)
As far as combo's go I'm 100% sure there are plenty more but these are what I do that are the most optimal. I never go for 2 bar combo's because they aren't worth it and you need your meter.
Easy midscreen: F13xDB1mb f13x either df3 or df2 your preference.
Easy Corner: F13xDB1Bmb s1 d1 s12 either df3 or df2
Hard Midscreen: F13xDB1mb dash s1 f13x either df3 or df2
Hard Corner: F13xDB1Bmb s2 d1 either df3 or df2
Easy midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb B34
Hard Midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb dash s1 B34
Hard Midscreen side switch: F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s121+3
Fatal Blow (Midscreen) F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s4 FATAL BLOW
Fatal Blow (Corner) F13xDB1Bmb s2 d1 d1 s4 FATAL BLOW
Fatal Blow (Midscreen, Hard) F13xDB1mb dash s1 dash s1 dash s4 FATAL BLOW (you have to cancel the dashes pretty early).
She has some weird combos you'll get rarely with bug setups but I don't have time to get them down. (They're on YouTube all over D'vorah combo guides if you're interested.)
This is what I have to give about D'vorah. Comment and tell me something! I'm sure I left things out. My gamertag on Xbox is Iconic Horror if you want to see some gameplay or experience it.
