Common team structures

Now that we have the mindset covered, let's look at how a lot of teams are structured. I'm a firm believer that absolutely any team can work if you are happy to experiment but there are 2 main structures that the majority of teams adhere to.

Point, Mid & Anchor

The most common and in my eyes the most enjoyable structure from a team-building perspective is the point, mid and anchor structure. Each of these refers to a slot in your team, point characters are 1st, mid characters are 2nd and anchor characters are 3rd. But what do these terms actually mean?

Point - Point characters are generally very good without spending meter, make good use of assists and have strong neutral tools. Assist use can refer to advanced block pressure or high damage combos without using meter. Their assists tend to be on the weaker side but that isn't always the case.

Mid - Mid characters tend to be a lot stronger when they have some meter, make decent use of assists and have a good assist of their own. Their job is to come in after some meter has been built, let the point character recover some life and get good damage.

Anchor - Anchor characters can vary quite a lot, but typically they have a great assist the other characters can use all game, don't need much help from assists to get their damage and make great use of meter and Sparking Blast for punishing combos.

The idea is to lose your characters in roughly this order so your anchor is left with lot's of meter and sparking to work with. I'll be providing some insight into which characters fall into which category at a later date but all characters can work in any position and most will fit two categories well.

Three Points

The three point structure is a lot more flexible. It simply involves picking three characters (typically point characters) that do well with assists, that you enjoy playing and you can find some form of synergy with. This team tends to emphasize keeping as many members alive as you can so you can make the best use of their assists. As a result, sparking blast is a lot less important and is usually used to save a character from a bad position. This style also tends to be more resilient if you lose a character as you'll still have two point characters to work with.