Introduction
TvC says that Roll originated from the original Mega Man series (which is true). Roll is generally considered to be a low tier character, but can still be used effectively in experienced hands. She has somewhat low damage on her BnBs without a charge or super, and lacks viable infinites. However, with super bar she can be a very powerful character, as she has high damage super combos off of both her overhead and her lows. Casshern is a very good partner for roll, as he adds damage to any of her normal combos including normal BnBs and the ability to DHC her OTG supers to make them safe. Roll's dashes are slow, which hurts her a lot, along with the inability to consistently combo off of her IADs.
Moves List
Normal Moves
- F+B - Jumping Overhead Broom Smach - Roll jumps in the air and smacks her enemy with her broom.
Special Moves
- QCF+A/B/C (Can also be done in the air) - Broom Smack - Roll takes her broom and smacks the enemy in the face, causing them to fly in the air. The A version launches the enemy into the air slightly, the B version launches the enemy into the air half way, and the C version launches the enemy in the air over half way. The air version of Broom Smack has the same effects. Both version can be used in a combo.
- DP+A/B/C - Water Bucket - Roll takes her bucket full of water and whips it at her enemy. If the water hits the enemy, the enemy will stagger backwards. If you're close, this can lead into a launcher (Down-forward+C), any special, or a super. If the water hits the ground, you will leave a puddle of water. If the enemy touches the puddle of water, the enemy will trip. Each version has its own distance. A version travels less than half way across the screen, B version travels a little over half way across the screen, and C version travels all the way across the screen.
- Charge back for a few seconds, then tap forward+A/B/C - Sweeping Power - Roll dashes at her enemy and starts to sweep them with her broom! Each version has its own travel distance and number of hits. The A version does 5 hits when you're close to the enemy; A version travels about 2/3 across the screen. The B version does 7 hits when you're close to the enemy; B version travels all the way across the screen and possibly hitting the enemy with 1 hit. The C version does 9 hits when you're close to the enemy; C version travels all the way across the screen and possibly hitting the enemy with 3 hits. This can be used in a combo and can be canceled into a super. Example : Sweeping Power -> Sweeping Power Turbo (Charge back for a few seconds, then tap forward+AB).
- QCB+A/B/C - Charging the Broom - Roll charges her broom. This gives you the ability to use an enhanced version of all of her special moves. For instance:
- --Both air and ground version of Broom Smack does a wall bounce (Note: Ground A version will do a wall bounce if you and your enemy are close enough to the wall, otherwise, A version will just make your enemy fly to the other side of the screen).
- --Water Bucket makes the water travel all the way across the screen, doing 2 hits for A version, and 3 hits for B and C versions
- --Sweeping Power will travel faster and do additional hits. A version will do 8 hits, B version will do 12 hits, and C version will do 16 hits. You can cancel her enhanced Charging the Broom into her Sweeping Power Turbo.
Super Moves
- Charge back for a few seconds, then tap forward+AB - Sweeping Charge Turbo - Roll does a super version of her Sweeping charge, then at the end does her Broom Smack, causing the enemy to fly in the air. This does a total of 16 hits.
- QCB+AB - Healing - Roll goes into some prayer position, and something drops on her head (water or the energy ball that the original Mega Man gets while he's in battle?). Anyway, if Roll gets it, the screen will freeze for about 3 seconds.
- DP+AB (Level 3 Super) - Tsunami Wave Super - Roll puts her enemy's rear end on fire, causing them a great deal of pain. As they stagger in pain(wouldn't you?), Roll gets out this gigantic bucket filled with water, tips it towards her enemy. This causes a tsunami wave, hitting their enemy. This super does a total of 13 hits.
Assist
Her assist is amazingly good. It keeps them in block stun for a long time, leaves them in a stagger state making assist crossup follups easy, has good vertical range, and if you dont hit them with the move it leaves a puddle on the ground which has to be blocked low and knocks down, which at the very least gives you some protection and extra control of the field. However what makes this assist really deadly is that this assist can be used to setup unblockables. What you need to do is time any move to hit them overhead when they touch the puddle and it will be unblockable. any Jumping attacks yatterman's 623 moves doronjo's boulders, cashern's overhead dog. sakis 22c standing bullet(obviously unblockable shot is better) and more can all be made unblockable with this move.
Partners
Tekkaman. this is probably one the better partners for roll if you like how she fights when she is alone and plan to use her on point. you don't really need to maintain a charge as much since you can get one and than combo into launcher into air combo into 236c off of his assist. This team has the best healing tricks for roll with various forms of charged 236c healing dhc into 623 super. That being said both of these characters are probubly better off as a partner, and have bad matchups against karas. also you lose your otg super dhc's in favor of healing.
Yatterman. Biggest damage you can get off of OTG DHC. Yatterman is really good battery and point character and Roll gives him unblockables and he seems to fair pretty well against karas. Roll gives Yatterman a big damage corner combo and dhc combos. both of these characters have low health and Yatterman's assist is useful but far from ideal since it cant really be used for cross ups and is only good for pressure at certain ranges. Corner DHC timing depends on which corner you are in and doesn't work with pelican. If roll has a decent matchup against the point character you can have her on point and go for the dhc or you can use yatterman to build meter or just abuse yattermans awesome on piont game and switch with air raid or vc if necisary.
Saki. Dhc into unblockable shot after healing or otg roll sweep. do not need to worry about position, if you predict where they roll you can tech catch with it. Roll can set up team unblockable combo but not as good as projectile supers. rolls assist puts puddles on the ground giving Saki more control of the field. Not guaranteed damage DHC, Saki's assist isnt particularly great.
Doronjo. DHC into boulder after healing or otg sweep, dont have to worry about position much.
The Basics
Roll has trouble comboing off of her IADs sometimes due to the relatively short hitstun on her j.C. Also, her dashes have startup lag, unlike a lot of caracters in the game It can still be used, but it's not quite as useful as other characters, and it must stay very low to the ground if you do use it. There are, however, a couple ways to get around this. The first way is to IAD, then double jump cancel, air dash again using A+B+C, this will give you a little extra height and make you fall faster. If you hit C before reaching the opponent, you will fall quickly and be able to combo off of it. A full jump air dash works the same way. A second useful approach for roll is a j.C, tap up to jump cancel, but before Roll jumps, hit C again for a second j.C. This allows you to hit a j.C and combo off of it quickly from high on the angle of a normal jump, making it a useful approach.
Roll can't combo into her launcher without baroque or assist and her aerial combos aren't particularly useful anyways.
Most of roll's useful approaches, however, are on the ground. While her ground dashes still have startup lag, they are useful because you can use the momentum from your dashes and slide while executing a number of moves including her low A, her 6B overhead, and low blocks.
If playing roll as point, the first order of business should be to get a charge. There are a couple ways to do this, the most normal ways it this:
2A,2B,2C,236C,214C (note that this becomes unsafe if you've cornered the opponent)
With a casshern partner, you can use his assist for a combo that does a little more damage and gives you a better chance at retaining offensive momentum.
2A,2B,2C,assist,214C
With a Yatterman partner,
2A,2B,5C (or 2c) 236 A, assist, 214 c,
with Tekkaman assist
2a, 2b, 5c, assist 236 a, 214c, dash back, 3c air combo, into 236 C, land, dash 3c air combo 236c, 214 c
Once a charge is obtained, a normal no-super BnB should go:
(j.C),1A,1B,1C,6C(mash C)
Roll has a number of options with her sweep super, but it's unsafe if hit on the ground, and potentially unsafe as it can uncombo if used on a standing opponent outside the corner. However it can be very useful as it can be comboed into itself in the corner, so your goal should be to get your opponent to the corner, and use the sweep super twice, cancelled into something else for safety if necessary. A good combo with good corner carry could go something like this.
1A,4B,4C,6A,(charge 4),baroque,4C,6C,charge 4,6A+B,(charge 4),6C(link),DHC into an OTG hitting super (casshern DP super)
Roll also has a number of options off of her overhead. It comboes directly into lvl 3 super or, due to short charge times, lvl 1 super. Also, it can be baroqued into any normal low chain as a powerful combo starter. (i.e. any of the above combos)
As far as healing goes, there are a couple ways to land it. The most common one is simply with a charge to go:
2A,2B,2C,236C,214A+B (once again, won't work correctly in the corner)
With casshern assist, similar to the charge combo, you can go
2A,2B,2C, assist, 214A+B
This combo can actually be timed so that it heals either roll or casshern. If you want to heal casshern, you must execute the super IMMEDIATELY after calling the assist, the timing is very fast. It's definitely controllable though, and with normal timing, will always heal roll.
Advanced Strategy
Roll is a low tier character but with the right partner she can become a solid mid-tier. She is also somewhat of a wild card character where 1 hit can change the tide of the match with her deadly air to air game and dangerous DHCs and un-megacrashable OTG damage. Her top partners are Cashern, Yatterman, Doronjo, Saki, and tekkaman.
She should spend a lot of the match super jumping, air dashing, and running away, while building meter and fishing for any situation where you can put them on the ground and go into the turbo roll sweep super and dhc. your priority's should be to build 2 or more meters, get a charge, and avoid being put under pressure by any character that can do it well.
Any time you hit them with a J.c in the air and you are on your way down and you are not jumping back (usually puts you to far away) you can Land and do super.
air to air combos j.A j.C, Turbo roll sweep DHC (this is her best anti air)
j.a double jump j.b j.b, C roll swing, roll sweep till it touches than Turbo roll sweep, DHC.
j.a double jump J.b j.b, C roll swing dash launcher, J.b j.b double jump j.b j.c (corner) turbo roll sweep, DHC
IAD C, turbo roll sweep, dhc.
Instant overhead version j.a, A roll swing BBQ j.c Turbo roll sweep.
Glitches
Roll can air dash instantly across the screen
You do jump a+b+c, wait a bit a+b+c than immediately up than aattack button and you will go really fast across. Mid screen you can go from being as far away from the opponent as possible to as far as possible the other way. it seems that the boost gives her momentum each time and when you do 2 on the same plane it compounds.
she can short hop by pressing up and back a+B+c than any attack and immediatly up. you can do this backwards forwards or nuetral depending on which jump direction you take. she can also air dash or back airdash and than fall straight down using the same method.