Doramammu
In a nutshell
Dormammu is a very unorthodox keepaway character. He has an 8-way air dash and a teleport, which you might think could make him dangerous when attacking, but his speed prevents this from ever being true. Instead of shooting projectiles in straight lines, Dormammu players will need to predict where their opponents are going to be, and open Dark Holes and fire towers of Purification to keep their enemies out. His Chaotic Flame super is one of the fastest in the game, and can easily be hit-confirmed off of a ground Dark Hole, and his Floating Bomb super gives him some nasty chip damage and mixup opportunities. If you can predict your opponent's movements and want to play the hardest hitting keepaway character, Dormammu is your inter-dimensional being.
Video Walkthrough
Move List
Assist Types
Dark Hole
front}} 
Purification 
}} 
Liberation front}} See Liberation Effects chart
Normal Moves
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ softknockdown
+ 
nocancel
+ 
nocancel
Special Moves
}} 
teleport in front teleport behind teleport on top }} 
+ }} Liberation Effects
Roots for 6 seconds
Hyper Moves
+ + atk}} + + atk}} Damage scales by 0.95
+ + atk}} 12,000 chip on block
Attack ends after first hit if blocked
Mission Mode Combos
Apprentice Combos
Strategy
Dormammu works best as a 2nd or 3rd character on a team with a good battery character on point, such as Wesker, who doesn't really have great hyper combos. Save those bars for Dormammu and he becomes incredibly dangerous as both of his level 1 hyper combos are among the best in the entire game.
Dormammu's Dark Hole assist helps rush down characters like Wesker, Zero, and Wolverine by occupying a large portion of the mid range field and tying up the opponent for a decent amount of time if blocked.
Tips and Tricks
- Dormammu's Dark Holes easily hit-confirm into his Chaotic Flame super for big damage.
- The Light Dark Hole appears so close to Dormammu that no character can fit between it and him. Use this just off the ground to discourage airborne attackers.
- The Pool of Flame won't disappear when Dormammu is hit, so try to keep one in play and fight from on top of it. This way, anyone who scores a jump-in attack on you will land in the puddle.
- Dormammu cannot cancel his ground dash into normals or specials, so avoid using it unless you know you are safe.
- After scoring a hit with Purification, Dormammu has enough time to charge two or three of his hands. You might choose to fire another Purification instead, but a solid strategy involving his Liberation can make Dormammu that much more frightening.
- Finger Shot easily combos into a Heavy Dark Hole and/or a Chaotic Flame super.
Basic Strategy
The goal of Dormammu is to buy time, which allows him to charge up Dark Spells and unleash extremely powerful special attacks. Do this by placing your Flame Carpet (which does not go away if you're hit) and trying to catch the enemy with Dark Hole or jumping Dark Hole as they approach you (it is safer to miss with than Purification, but you still don't want to!). The easiest Dark Spell to learn to use as a beginner is Big Bang, which is 3x Destruction and allows you to punish the enemy nearly instantly from full screen with big damage. This is a very powerful tool and forces your opponent to be more cautious if they know what you're capable of. That in turn allows you to chip away at them and build bar with your Dark Holes with relative impunity. If you do catch them with Big Bang you can follow it with a ground Dark Hole (if you're trying to conserve your bar) or the Chaotic Flame hyper combo for 400k damage from anywhere on screen. You can also try to squeeze a Dark Hole in between Big Bang and Chaotic Flame, but it only adds 10k dmg to the combo and isn't worth the risk of missing Chaotic Flame unless you practice doing this. Another Dark Spell to consider using is Hellfire (2x Creation, 1x Destruction). It provides good chip damage, builds meter, prevents super jumps, and more importantly, gives you time to charge up Dark Spells.
Any time you finish an air magic series with S, you can land and quickly cast Purification to hit them OTG, then cancel into Chaotic Flame IMMEDIATELY (do not pause between inputs at all) to tack on more damage. Practice doing this as it is a core mechanic of Dormammu. If you want to get fancy, you can then X-Factor cancel the first Chaotic Flame into another one. If you don't want to go this route you can simply cast his level 3 OTG hyper, Dark Dimension, after landing from his air magic series (without Purification!). Don't do it too fast or it will go under them while they are bouncing on the ground, leaving you out 3 bars with nothing to show for it. Practice using Dark Dimension in training mode until you get the timing down. If you still have meter after using it, you can OTG with Purification to Chaotic Flame for extra damage.
Your 5M and 2M can eat some enemy projectiles by hitting them faster than the enemy can cast them, use this to win against other zoners as you can time your own air Dark Holes in between their projectiles. Your 2M is also a great anti-air attack that leads into your launcher, but beware that it counts as a mid attack for blocking and will go over the heads of many ducking opponents (Wolverine for example) and leave you wide open if that happens.
Finally, a good way to keep incoming characters on the defensive is to cast your Stalking Flare hyper while they are jumping in. Even if they block it, it does great chip damage, and buys you time to charge up Dark Spells. Alternatively, you can try to teleport behind them with Mass Change M for a cross up and a combo while they are blocking your Stalking Flare from the front. If you're in X-Factor level 3 and have the bars, you may want to cast Stalking Flare twice as the chip damage from 2 can kill many characters that are below 1/2 life.
Advanced Strategy
Aerial Approach/Rushdown/Mix-Ups
In heated battles, there may not be enough time to use Dormammu's ranged tools properly since if they whiff completely, you are very open to a combo. Dormammu's ground rushdown/mix-up game is almost nonexistent. His dash cannot be canceled into normals and his normals come out slow to be used effectively in close-range combat. However, Dormammu's aerial game is pretty good when you utilize it correctly.
As stated earlier, Dormammu has an 8-way dash and teleport. You can tri-dash with a normal (preferably either j. or j.). You can also cancel your air normals into teleport for more shenanigans. You can also delay your tri-dash, activate Flight, airdash in another direction, or teleport after super-jumping to confuse your opponent on where you're going to land.
When tri-jumping, please be sure to super-jump before dashing down-forward, so you can air-dash down-forward much faster.
His only real mix-up is normal tri-jump j. -> cr. . The j. can hit at his lowest jump height needed for an airdash. This can be difficult to block when done properly. However, the j. comes out slow and the range isn't that great. The mixup works best with assists.
This is the mix-up performed in action. Credit goes to themossadman.
Also, trijump j. can cross up the opponent. The move comes out pretty fast, has a huge hitbox, and is safe on block. You can add more layers to this approach by whiffing trijump j. , then land and either do a mix-up of either cr. or throw. You can also do an option select using j.{{ + H}} if the opponent tries to meet you in the air. An air throw will lead to a full combo. Squaredash crossup j. is another option to explore.
If opponents block your aerial set-ups, end your blocked strings into Flame Carpet and run away to plan another aerial assault. Remember, with Dormammu, you want to buy time for him to do what he wants to do.
Charging Dark Spells During Combos
Credit goes to xXGomuGomuXx.
For more comprehensive information on Dormammu, check out "The Dormammu Thread" by Karsticles here.