Dreary Cell

[Nemphtis]

Has anyone found any effective uses for this new attack? It appears the enemy needs to get pretty close for it to activate, and even then it's easy to spot and dodge. I think the only time I get a hit with it is when the enemy is unlucky enough to use an attack which propels them towards me and end up standing right on it during their recovery animation, which is hardly a common occurrence for me.

Being able to place three at a time is nice, but I think I remember reading on this forum that the enemy could not see the actual trap on their screen, I imagine this was speculation before the game was released or something but reading it had me excited, but of course the final attack feels quite lacklustre in comparison.

I'm not the most imaginative person out there so I was hoping some of you had found some pretty sneaky uses for it and could share some of that knowledge. I've recently started placing all three DRs in a small triangle shape so that I have a single trap with a larger effective radius, usually placed above my thunder crest to discourage people jumping over it. Still this is hardly effective because you need time to place three in close proximity, a luxury you won't often have against certain players/characters.

I want to use this move, because on paper it sounded awesome, but in reality it doesn't do much at all. I don't even mind if they can be dodged after the trigger, this wouldn't be so bad if the range at which it activates was larger so that even though you wouldn't rely on it to get the HP damage, it could function as a pressure trap to keep the enemy on their toes and dodging at the very least.

EDIT

I just remembered, Dreary Cell absorbs when activated, so one possible used for them is to place some on the very edges of a Thunder Crest so that it pulls enemies into the TC, assuming of course the HP hit doesn't push them out of TC prematurely. Even though shooting Dynamite from midair into the middle of TC can also do the job, it doesn't last as long on the map and requires a bit more effort to aim in the centre of your trap. Again however, I re-cast Thunder Crest so often that the idea of going through the trouble of placing DC around it, only to have it re-cast somewhere else after five seconds makes this particular use for the move a tiny bit meh, but it's something.

[Myth3842]

I usually send the two flares out first then put Dreary Cell behind it a bit and sometimes the opponent will dodge towards me and activate Dreary Cell. You can also try and remember where the EX Core appear on a map and put it directly under it before the Core shows up.

[Zero_Ruzai]

Yeah, actually I can use it as an aerial safeguard now.
Typically, I swapped tactics with the emperor from being a ground player to an aerial player.
What I do:
Battle starts:
Set up one blue flare
Jump once, setup mines
Forward dodge, setup dreary cell
forward dodge, setup mine
forward dodge, setup dreary cell
repeat this until you're at the top of the screen (until the top of the stage is stopping you from going any higher.
Setup red flare.
Get above that and setup 1 dreary cell
dodge once, setup another cell, dodge again, set up another dreary cell
You should have three out plus a red flare.
Dodge around a bit (so you stay at the top of the screen) and setup a bunch of mines (mine field, yayyyy)
Now the fun part: Starfall
The opponent should come to you, here's the situation so far.
You're at the top of the stage, surrounded by mines, surrounded by dreary cells, and with 1 red flare below.
Stay by one Dreary cell. Since Starfall prevents magic from connecting, they have to come to you.
So, they have to melee attack you, here's what happens:
They melee attack: you dodge out of the way. Dreary cell still activates, possibly hitting them. If they dodge, they have a high chance of hitting a mine OR you can punish the dodge with Kuja assist, followed by a mine combo, which deals massive damage.
Setup more Dreary cells and traps.
In DFF, Opponents could HP attack through Flares. You can't HP attack through Dreary cells, and since they HAVE to come to the top of the stage before starfall hits, they come into the danger zone of Dreary cell.

This really DOES work VERY well, it just makes really long games.
Oh and if the opponent pulls some cheap crap move like Meltdown, just punish with Kuja assist>double mines. They'll regret it.

[Myth3842]

Well that's cool and all but Ulti's C.K. Axe can go trough his Starfall magic guard. and pretty much anything Mateus sets up.

[Zero_Ruzai]

Ulti's CK has a freakishly long cooldown, more than enough to punish with assist. Also very easy to dodge from a distance.

[Myth3842]

Ulti's CK has a freakishly long cooldown, more than enough to punish with assist. Also very easy to dodge from a distance.

She does? I usually just D.C. out of it.
And how about CoD? She could just dash through all his traps and 0-Form his Flare away, and the same with Laguna and some other characters.

[Nemphtis]

I usually send the two flares out first then put Dreary Cell behind it a bit and sometimes the opponent will dodge towards me and activate Dreary Cell. You can also try and remember where the EX Core appear on a map and put it directly under it before the Core shows up.

I only know of one map where the EX core always spawns in the same location.

Yeah, actually I can use it as an aerial safeguard now.
Typically, I swapped tactics with the emperor from being a ground player to an aerial player.

Most of the time when an enemy does a HP attack through Dreary Cell, it's one that travels quite a distance with good tracking, especially if I'm casting Starfall. Due to lack of a better example coming to mind at 4AM, let's use Cloud's aerial HP attack as an example, where he lunges himself at you, I think it was called Braver or something?

It seems these types of moves travel too fast to get pulled into Dreary Cell, so it would be a bit match-up dependant. However your use for the attack sounds much more effective than mine, I may give this a go just to keep it on the side as a possible option.

My main problem with this is that my friends complain about how boring and dry it is to fight against Emperor already, using this tactic will probably make them quit the game entirely and then I'll have nobody to play! ;D

[Zero_Ruzai]

Keep in mind, you're camping Starfall while INSIDE of a dreary cell. Absorb doesn't need to happen since they would be in it already from trying to attack you. Braver lasts long enough to work.
And I didn't give this example to make him fun, I just gave this one to make him GOOD. Also, if they do use HP attacks, 98% of them are all punishable by assist, and Emperor is an assist whore, the Dreary cell can miss, still making them punished by assist. Dreary cell will be the CAUSE or PRESSURE for the dodge. Therefore, even if it doesn't connect (which it still does) it can lead to an easy attack, which means it still has it's uses.

[Nemphtis]

Keep in mind, you're camping Starfall while INSIDE of a dreary cell. Absorb doesn't need to happen since they would be in it already from trying to attack you. Braver lasts long enough to work.
And I didn't give this example to make him fun, I just gave this one to make him GOOD. Also, if they do use HP attacks, 98% of them are all punishable by assist, and Emperor is an assist whore, the Dreary cell can miss, still making them punished by assist. Dreary cell will be the CAUSE or PRESSURE for the dodge. Therefore, even if it doesn't connect (which it still does) it can lead to an easy attack, which means it still has it's uses.

In that case I may have to give this Kuja assist a go, I've only ever used Aeris as my assist because Cure seems so useful on the ground, and her aerial BRV assist attack was nice to use after an enemy dodges to stun them long enough for a dash-in flare attack. The only thing I don't understand is if you're in the DC whilst casting as you said, at the very least he is going to hit you with his HP or BRV attack during the animation where DC activates and the energy balls launch to find their target? If this is the case, is the trade always worth it?

[Zero_Ruzai]

There's enough time between aerial HP attacks that you can stop casting once they're close and dodge out of the way.
You're not giving in to a free hit, you're luring them to the DC and punishing.