Had a interesting discussion that i wanted to see some other opinions on. In general, which do you think is the better form, blade body or blade assist?
From my experience, it’s her best form over bass and booster, but i personally think the assist has slightly more usefulness over the body. Body gives her access to a great low and standing poke button, a hit invulerable DP, overhead and even more. But the things that ARIA can create off a knockdown with the assist are, honestly, pretty dirty to open you up.
Even as far as the assists go, it’s probably the hardest to punish. You can’t touch the thing until after it’s active frames are over, and ARIA is likely to have you blocking something else by that point. It’s not like the bass assist where you could potentially tag it with a fast projectile of your own or the booster assist that, while it pushes you away, leaves the assist punishable on block.
Also, once that form is gone, i feel like ARIA suffers more not having it as an assist than a body. Bass minus the Blade assist could mean you lose a tool when your opponent has closed space and you want to put out a move they pretty much have to sit and block. Allows you to create more space, get offensive, etc. Booster minus the blade assist means she loses some of her outstanding corner and knockdown oki that utilizes her hover abilities. And you definitely don’t miss the Booster assist more than the Blade assist if you don’t have access to it.