Alright, so one of the things I've always wanted in teammates for Dormammu is a safe cover against characters who have answers to Stalking Flare. If I do Stalking Flare and Ryu does Shinkuu Hadoken, Shadow Servant beats it clean and Stalking Flare still gets about 5 of its hits in. With Firebrand, I had Luminous Body. With Vergil, I had Devil Trigger.
What does Akuma have? Well, it turns out he has something better than any of those characters.
I sat down tonight and tested the Stalking Flare vs. Shinkuu Hadoken situation, followed by a DHC to Akuma. I assumed that DHCing to Messatsu-Gohado Ungyo would win or trade, so I tried that first. Surprisingly, Akuma lost that exchange, and I felt some despair.
Then I tried Messatsu-Gohado Agyo. Ready for weirdness? It trades with Shinkuu Hadoken. That's right, the fireballs trade with the beam, but the beam loses to the beam. I don't understand it myself, but that's how it goes.
Then I tried Messatsu-Goshoryu just for fun, and that's what really floored me. It's old news that Messatsu-Goshoryu negates beams. What I didn't know is that it doesn't just negate beams that hit Akuma, but it actually destroys the beam itself. So, normally, if this exchange happens:
Stalking Flare, opponent Shinkuu Hadokens, I XFC for safety;
Dormammu will be safe, but Shinkuu Hadoken burns all but 4-5 hits of the Stalking Flare out, so it's not a big win for me. It does maybe 50K damage.
However, when I DHC from Stalking Flare to Messatsu-Goshoryu, because the beam is negated, all 20 hits of Stalking Flare connect! It never interacts with the beam at all.
That's not what the big deal is, though.
Stalking Flare keeps Ryu in hitstun long enough for Akuma to recover and perform a full combo on Ryu, and by full combo, I mean:
c.LMHS, sj.MMH, rdp.L~L, j.H, j.MMH, qcb.L, c.MHS, sj.MMH, qcb.L, qcf.AA, and then whatever depending on your screen position.
It all hits.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this is Dormammu's best DHC response to a beam from Stalking Flare. Even if your opponent decides to XFC to safety, then Akuma gets the blockstun from Stalking Flare for several mix-ups with c.L and his standing overhead.
So, me being me, you know what I have to do: I have to test it against everything. All tests were DHC attempts by Dormammu after the opponent's cinematic screen appeared. If I say shoryu "wins", I generally meant that Akuma gets a full combo out of the situation, but I wasn't consistent on the word usage. If the beam wins, it often leads to a full combo because Stalking Flare picks the opponent up for an air juggle, which gives Akuma just enough time to wavedash, superjump, and rdp.L~L into a ground bounce.
Ice Storm - no DHC possible post-screen, pre-screen Akuma wins with beam or shoryu.
Elemental Rage - Akuma wins with beam or shoryu.
Okami Shuffle - Akuma loses with beam or shoryu; fireballs trade, and trade in his favor.
Hyper Sentinel Force - Akuma beam and shoryu lose, fireballs win big time.
Proton Cannon - Akuma beam loses (but you get a TvC style fireball war), fireballs trade, shoryu wins
Magnetic Shockwave - Beam and fireballs trade, shoryu wins if you delay it, and Akuma still gets a full combo
Spell of Vishanti - I'm sure Akuma beats this with the shoryu, but it's not reasonable to beat on reaction; you could bait it, though
For the Princess - not even the Shun Goku Satsu beats this stuff - so good!
Grenade Launcher - negates the beam, but not the flare (weird); negates the flare, but not the fireballs (second grenade hits Akuma), grenades rock the shoryu
Round Harvest - beam wins and leads to happy things, fireballs win, shoryu wins but might not lead to a combo
Maximum Voltage - Akuma always wins
Genmu Zero - beam and fireballs lose, shoryu loses unless you DHC right as the beam will hit; Zero still recovers faster I think
Desperado - shoryu wins, beam gets Akuma hit but saves flare, fireballs win
Phoenix Rage - shoryu and beam win, fireballs lose but save flare
Gamma Tsunami - beam wins, fireballs lose, shoryu wins with timing
Gamma Crush - beam and fireballs lose (duh), shoryu wins because you go under Hulk and recover in time for a full combo from Stalking Flare
Nova's beam - beam and fireballs lose, shoryu wins
Human Rocket - beam and fireballs lose (duh), shoryu wins in a clash if you time it right, but it's iffy since Nova can direct his hyper
Rock n' Roll - beam wins, fireball and shoryu lose
Hyper Psionic Blaster - beam wins, fireball...Akuma gets hit and recovers, beam no longer hurts him, giving him a full combo; Stalking Flare gets destroyed, shoryu wins
Hyper Mystic Ray - beam wins, fireball trades, shoryu wins
Hyper Mystic Smash - beam wins, fireball loses, shoryu does very little
Gimlet - beam, fireball, and shoryu win
I didn't test anything that already loses substantially to Stalking Flare, and I didn't test anything not projectile-based, since things like Bionic Arm and Hyper Charging Star will clearly lose to the shoryu's invincibility.
Basically, it looks like Akuma might be the best DHC Dormammu has to save his butt from a bad Stalking Flare, which also makes him the best bait DHC, meaning he lets Dormammu use Stalking Flare against nearly every opponent that he previously had to be careful about its usage against. Naturally, with my team structure, this is like Christmas.
