In-Depth Character Discussion: Elle

*Updated by Solinarius Feb 2nd 2015*

Based on 5.1

Elle is best used with SoR 3 Pause Delay and SoR 3 Combo Type.

ELLE's MOVELIST

A - Special
B - Attack
C - Jump
X - Special Combo

NORMAL ATTACKS

Basic Combo - B, B, B, B (Lash, Lash, Vertical Snap, Crescent Kick). Each Lash has quite long range, while the Snap covers front (long) and back (short). The Snap, while blockable, has deceptively long range and appears to have higher priority than most, if not all attacks in the game. The combo itself is a little slower than others but not detrimental, due to Elle's overall playstyle. The Crescent Kick has its uses but is the black sheep of the combo and should be substituted with another move.

Back Attack - B+C (Reverse Lash) - Fast and can do decent damage, for a back attack, if all the hits land. The lash is viable for chaining the basic combo.

JUMPING ATTACKS

Vertical Jump Attack - C then B (Front Kick). Pretty nice when used against jets. Avoid otherwise.

Flying Jump Attack - Forward + C then B (Side Kick). A top-shelf attack that's basically Electra's kick, so you can finally give them a taste of their own medicine .

Diving Attack - C then Down + B (Vertical Chop). Good damage and very safe.

SPECIAL ATTACKS

Offensive Special (Whip Flail) - Forward + A. Elle makes a prolonged swing then fully extends the whip forward which electrifies all it contacts. High in utility and the damage is excellent when accounting for range. The initial swing covers front and back but inevitably leaves you vulnerable to sucker-punches. Best used when Elle's flanks are covered.

Defensive Special (Electric Lash) - Neutral A. Elle brandishes her whip for a few moments. Has decent reach, which is slightly greater on the side you're facing. Risky against enemies that block.

RUNNING/BLITZ ATTACKS

Blitz 0 - Forward, Forward, B. Elle slides forward, flexing her whip and makes a short hop.  An overall slow blitz but has good range and damage. Enemies with long reach generally make this unsafe. Situational.

Blitz 1 - X, Forward, Forward. Faster but retains the same flaw as Blitz 0.

Blitz 2 - X, Back, Down. Elle extends her bionic arm and uses it like a prod while sliding forward. Instant knockdown with fair damage, great range and speed. It's safe, spammable, and Elle's fastest attack.

Blitz 3 - X Forward, Back, Down. Elle rolls forward hitting multiple times and the final jolt knocks down. Has higher damage potential but is not as useful as Blitz 2.

GRAB ATTACKS

From front:
Neutral B (Lash) - Has about as half the range of the basic combo and leaves you open for counter-attacks. Faster than it used to be.

Forward + B (Knee, Knee, Knee + Overhead Bash) - The knees-to-crotch have nice range and do decent damage. Avoid the bash.

Back + B (Circle Throw) - Good damage and has great crowd control.

From Behind:
B (Overhead Toss) - Same as above.


ELECTRIC BOOGALOO 5.1

Elle is a powerhouse since the post-release patches. She brings high utility and substantial damage to fights. While blockers make her damage sink a bit, she has great throwing game on either side of a grapple.

Free-Form
No longer do you need to play defensively and exploit the Vertical Snap to achieve good damage (standing point-blank with an enemy at your back for extra strikes). Elle's combo does quite good damage by itself and swing delay is brief. Still, if you want to abuse the Snap, knock yourself out, it does even more damage! Another vital part to playing Elle aggressively, is to anticipate and control enemy movements with a combination of her Basic Combo, Blitz 2, and back attack. If you notice an enemy circling to your flank, you might throw out a quick back-attack, then continue lashing enemies in front.

Combo
The whip attacks have long range, but the Snap is situational because it leaves you open a bit more. You should know the precise range of the Lash and Snap to make the best of them. You'll be spamming Lashes fairly often and will need to get used to priming a Snap. What I mean by this, is with SoR 3 Combo Type, you can choose to perform a quick combo or delay your swings to defend your flanks with a Snap, depending on the situation.



Grapple
The Forward-A knee is safe and powerful in crowds (especially when combined with whip attacks) and solo alike, abuse as much as possible (just beware of defensive enemies). As per usual, throws provide extra points, damage, and crowd control. If you're looking for a good point-gain/damage ratio, do a lash or two, then grapple (knee, if feasible) throw.

Flying Attacks
For the most part, Blitz 2 makes these unnecessary and as such, simply use them if the situation calls for it.

Blitzes
Blitz 2 is hella useful for breaking up defensive crowds and cutting enemies off. It also allows you to easily control the battlefield. Other uses: burst movement and repositioning; attack interruption; AI disruption; SPAM SPAM SPAM. You can pretty much ignore all other blitzes.


In that situation with the Biker, if I'd used any other Blitz, I would have been hit from behind by the Signal and Donovon. As you can see with Blitz 2, however, the AI opted to back off. It also allowed me to reach the Biker faster.

Standing-A special
Useful for combo-breaking, and avoiding ranged attacks and cheap boss crap. However, enemies like kickboxers can surround you and beat you down if they block and charge.

Forward-A special
If you want to play more defensively, this is a go-to attack and 5.1 has made it that much better! Hell. It's not bad as a basic combo finisher (just play it safe )!

Overall
- Learn whip ranges
- Don't forget your back-attack (it's also very useful with kiting)
- Be aggressive
- Control the battlefield
- Dominate crowds with your basic combo and blitz 2
- Spam throws and blitz 2

I played her today and I'd forgotten how good she is since the patch...I should play her more really. I've generally given up on the fly-kick spamming tactic since the patch, but this is one character it still works on. Even if there's Donovans around I can still spam it defensively in a corner and mix it with her powerful combo (the only one where a defensive A special is the best finisher), decent throws and ranged attacks. Her only major weakness is lack of a decent blitz until 2 stars, but the tactic above seems to work ok for hordes. She's also one of the weakest against safe-landing bosses (Blaze twins/Mona+Lisa/Shiva/Rudra) as none of the throws work (the best she can manage is knee+knee+power blow). Fatties aren't so bad, as they can easily be combo+defensive A'ed to death.

Elle's flying kick is matched only by Blaze's, but I think Elle's might do slightly more damage.

It does the same damage as Blaze 3's, but more than Blaze 2's. (and less than Blaze 1's but that's a different kick altogether)

Elle has the same "super knee" as Blaze-2, the hitbox is really large!

DarkThief wrote:I played her today and I'd forgotten how good she is since the patch...I should play her more really. I've generally given up on the fly-kick spamming tactic since the patch, but this is one character it still works on. Even if there's Donovans around I can still spam it defensively in a corner and mix it with her powerful combo (the only one where a defensive A special is the best finisher), decent throws and ranged attacks. Her only major weakness is lack of a decent blitz until 2 stars, but the tactic above seems to work ok for hordes. She's also one of the weakest against safe-landing bosses (Blaze twins/Mona+Lisa/Shiva/Rudra) as none of the throws work (the best she can manage is knee+knee+power blow). Fatties aren't so bad, as they can easily be combo+defensive A'ed to death.

Elle's flying kick is matched only by Blaze's, but I think Elle's might do slightly more damage.

It does the same damage as Blaze 3's, but more than Blaze 2's. (and less than Blaze 1's but that's a different kick altogether)

I really dont think that is true I believe rudra's flying kick out does Elles it has more reach and the same power rudra's flying kick is just as good as blazes.

I find Elle to be the weakest character in the roster, in terms of normal attack strength, but she somewhat makes up for it with how many times she can attack in a single attack sequence. She's also very fast, so she's good for running out of tight spaces between enemies. Also, give her a knife or 2-star blitz attack and she'll pummel enemies' life bars good.

One thing I don't like is her attack range when she's using her standing special move; it doesn't go very far beyond her body and therefore is only good for when enemies are closing in too much on her. On the other hand, her "Call Police" special is both extremely powerful and visually impressive. Definitely someone to use if you're of the "fragile speedster" mentality.

The crescent kick is rather worthless, short range trash with a short delay for low damage that is best substituted with a grapple or special. But it could be worse, AKA, Blaze 1's flip.

On SoR3 pause delay, SoR1 Blaze's standing combo has extremely fast execution and, the time it takes to do a full combo and land from the flip kick is actually surprisingly short (same speed as doing a full standing SoR2 Blaze combo!). Elle's slow speed on her first couple of whips makes it far worse overall.

But holy crap, is it me or has Elle been seriously improved in this patch? Maybe I used to suck with her, but the extra damage on her standing combo helps alleviate its somewhat slow speed. But the real benefit is her offensive special has much more safety now due to partial invulnerability against attacks (from the direction she faces, this doesn't work if the enemy attacks so close that it hits her back though). The extra safety really helps make up for the fact that Elle is a bit vulnerable from behind when using it.

Her jump kick really is awesome, and her 2 star special is great to spam repeatedly via the special command input, knocking down even blocking enemies quite often (her 3 star has worse range and not much more damage, a faster version of her 2 star would have made for a better 3 star move). Her 0 and 1 star blitzes are also pretty good even with the jump at the end, for non-blocking enemies they work quite well. She's hard to learn to use, but I'm finding her definitely better than I used to; I think I underestimated how good some of her moves are. No suplex on her rear grab hurts for throw recovering bosses, but the throw on her rear grab helps with crowd control (enemies in 5.0a are a bit easier to throw into each other). Even her back attack seems to have gotten better in terms of hit range. That jumping down + attack also has really good range for starting grabs!

Her defensive special is a multihit so it sucks though - used as antiair it'll only hit once and do little damage. Not too shabby if you use it close to a standing enemy though.

Shadow Fist King wrote:I find Elle to be the weakest character in the roster, in terms of normal attack strength

SoR3 Skate is by far the worst. Not even the addition of offensive special invulnerability in the latest version has helped him much - he's still the worst character in the game due to horrendous damage, range, lackluster blitzes (SoR2 Skate has way better star blitzes!)...

In fact, I'd say Elle is honestly better than SoR3 Axel is. At high level play, SoR3 Axel's blitzes kinda suck and don't help him go through crowds and his damage is bad compared to SoR1&2 Axel. If SoR3 Axel had is rear attack infinite, maybe he'd be better, but Elle has a serious speed advantage, her throws are pretty good, her jump kicks are good, and her blitzes (especially that 2 star) are really solid.

Elle's 2-star blitz is very handy, but her 3-star blitz requires aim and good reaction-time on the player's part. Her normal standing attack combo is on the slow side in terms of her reaction time; even Skate can stand-combo faster than she does.

Elle in v5.0a got seriously buffed and it's faaaaaaaar from weak. A very solid character now.

Don Vecta wrote:Elle in v5.0a got seriously buffed and it's faaaaaaaar from weak. A very solid character now.

This.

She was my least favorite in vanilla V5. But she is one my most used chars in 5.0a. Very good and overall fun character to use.

Hello Ragers, been a while . This guide hasn't aged as well as some of the others, but I was too lazy to really alter it further. Sufficed to say, she is vastly different in 5.0a, but some of the things in this guide still work. Combos while facing opposite of enemies still do more damage. In fact when combined with an aerial chop and a throw, it takes a full bar away!

Shadow Fist King wrote:I find Elle to be the weakest character in the roster, in terms of normal attack strength, but she somewhat makes up for it with how many times she can attack in a single attack sequence. She's also very fast, so she's good for running out of tight spaces between enemies. Also, give her a knife or 2-star blitz attack and she'll pummel enemies' life bars good.

I'm sure most people despise 5.0 Elle's combo, the one's that haven't discovered the tricks of the trade as outlined in my guide, that is. Roo, Zan, and SoR 3 Skate definitely did less DPS and in 5.0a her damage is godly.

Bumping this as I have updated the first post with updated information for v5.1 sent on by Solinarius.

I never really played as Elle in a serious way before 5.1. Couldn't get into the slow combo style at all. Today, I was freestyling my way as Elle, playing through the mod "Return of Mr. X" and I finished with 9 lives left on Very Hard. Only other character I can get the same result with in that mod so far is Zan (or Max, if I abuse his Blitz-2.)

I think a lot of the guide in this topic still applies, since I have been jotting down my findings as I played through the mod and after reading the guide in the first post of this topic I see many, many points I agree upon whole-heartedly. For the record, I use SoR3 combo type and Remake pause delay.

Although... IMO the combo ending kick move is really good. I use it all the time as a standalone move to get enemies off my back, counter air attacks, finish off weakened enemies, kick them off platforms... you name it.
OTOH I seem to have an abysmally low hit rate when using the vertical jump attack. It almost never connects, a combination of tricky timing and hitbox it seems.

Elle's REALLY good against enemies that like to swing weapons like pipes, bats, electric whips, or swords from a distance that would be safe against other characters with a shorter reach. Me likey.

She's definitely a powerhouse these days. That forward special is SICK, and so is her Blitz-2. It's almost as good as Zan's Blitz-3, which I consider the best one in the game, maybe tied with Zan's Blitz-0. I base this on the fact that it is the preferred mode of attack in almost every possible situation you could find yourself in throughout the game. The only exception I can think of is when you have to kill bikers with long lifebars that keep racing across the screen...

Elle's Blitz-2 comes out ridiculously fast, doesn't seem to be blockable as far as I can tell, knockdown guaranteed, counters air attacks, flying enemies, moves you forward a good distance to get out of a tight spot, is easy to input... the list goes on.

No longer will I ignore Elle, this I vow. She is a great character, and finding an effective playstyle feels very intuitive. Most of the characters have specific weak spots that become apparent after clocking a suitable amount of hours playing the game seriously. Skate3/Axel3 have DPS problems. Police can't be called in many levels. Shiva and X can't do a screen clearing attack to save their butt if things go out of control and that can become a life sink. Some characters lack reach, others can't deal with blockers well or lack grappling options. Some have iffy jump attacks. Etc etc.

I can find no real flaws with Elle as of v5.1. Happy to have discovered another character to play with years down the line.