Rapid Slash makes those confirms easier to eye ball and he can catch jumping enemies with it into a combo. Plus Rapid Slash comes with the utility of pushing enemies pretty much full screen away where Hawkeye is in his element.
In addition, you get Vergil DHC off of any Hawkeye combo finisher which is almost always going to lead into a dead character.
Also I don't think Jam Session is a very good defensive assist. It's not a Lariat like assist where it's going to get Wolverine off you, it's really more of a mid range assist. Hawkeye also can't really confirm a Jam Session hit into big damage (unless he does some awkward Hunter arrow confirm into Dante TAC infinite which can still be broken). I would much rather have Doom Plasma Beam or hell even Doom Rocks if I want a more defensive assist. And Dante on the team means that's yet another character that is going to get mauled by Wolverine, Vergil at least has more options to combat him.
You know what just put Hawkeye in front of Vergil/Doom and call it a day because that's what the game is REALLY about.
hawk vergil doom is a team asking to be mauled mannn
and it's the midrange game that is the most important re: defensive assist because that's where it gets hot and heavy for hawkeye since it's where the decision points to the determine if the match becomes an up-close game are made. you gotta remember that hawkeye has nigh hulk/haggar-like levels of mobility when it comes to options of escaping with none of the button pressing threat most of the other characters with that type of mobility have. think about it this way: if he gets you to block a haggar assist how is he going to scare you after that? even if he gets a hit it's unlikely he will kill you off whatever comes after unless it's a TAC infinite.
in addition once the opponent gets in and establishes their close up game haggar assist isn't really going to help him escape because they can just bait it out with low risk or low profile it due to hawkeye's weak up close tools
most of the characters who can use haggar to their advantage like that have strong buttons/moves or movement to escape the situation by calling haggar- hawkeye doesn't
at the point where it comes down to 2nd char vs. their point pretty much everyone is gonna get mauled by wolv on incoming so... it's not that weird that dante gets mauled too. not sure where you were going with that, unless you mean 'stick dante on point instead of hawkeye' which in this case then makes it a non-point hawkeye team
the reason rocks and plasma beam won't work in that regard are similar in that they're also lacking in coverage to hawkeye's worst blind spot in the same way that most other defensive assists lack. it's the area above and in front of him - most characters have issues with this space but hawkeye especially does because it's where most of the really good characters get their offense going and he has no mobility tools or attacks to change up the spacing situation since usually the scenario there would be to escape via movement or attack with strong buttons/moves
trap assists (shield, bomb, trish traps) are active hitboxes or still cover approaches from that space so that's why they're relevant here. the opponent is forced to consider that and then block it during their offense which gives hawkeye time to breathe and escape from the midrange position
speaking of which, modok's another character that might be a potential 2nd but both the balloon bomb assist take significantly longer than the other trap assists to come out which could be a serious problem in the midrange pinch game where normally you'd be able to call those assists and make a decision in button pressing to either escape or force them out
i think you're focusing too much on the output here when spacing should be the #1 concern. also note that if youre hitting their point char and killing them with hawk/vergil you're going into the next character at no meter/significant meter disadvantage unlike most other vergil combinations due to how pathetic his meter gain is
also hawkeye task is my businessss
edit: hawkeye vergil dante is up there for sure, probably equal to hawkeye vergil strider
it has holes in the long range sj coverage game though which is what strider was for but that's relevant primarily in the top tier matchups more than anything else. other chars it's not as much of an issue
