Dennis

*This article is about **the Dennis in original LF2**. For a list of Dennis, see Category:Dennis.*
Dennis is one of the heroes, his theme being kicking. He has several highly damaging unbreakable combos, including an indefinite one. His dash attack is quite quick and far-reaching. On the downside, his punch is somewhat slow, which is a huge problem in PvP, and his super punch is horrendously slow.

 File:Dennis f.png

## Basic moves

### Movement

Dennis is faster than average. He travels faster by repeatedly dashing than by running.

### Punch

Dennis' punch (or rather, kick) is slow but far-reaching, and counts as 1.5 punches when it comes to damage, fall and bdefend. While it has average warmup, the cooldown time is bad. Because of this, if Dennis punches someone twice, there will be two frames before the second punch lands during which the target is in standing position. Characters with quick attacks can make use of this brief window, as follows:

* Davis may Dragon Punch; he even has time to turn around first if he's facing away from Dennis.
* Deep may Strike, with varying results depending on the positioning:
	+ If Dennis is well behind Deep, the Strike will propel Deep out of Dennis' second punch's range, and Dennis will get hit by the backswing;
	+ if Dennis is well in front of Deep, the second punch will land before the Strike comes in range;
	+ otherwise, both Deep and Dennis will get hit, with Deep taking more damage (2Kicks = 60 Dmg and 1Strike = 54Dmg). Deep will recover from DoP before Dennis has a chance to attack. This trade off does not have a good risk/reward ratio.
* LouisEX and Firzen may punch or attack with a (non-heavy) item, though not quickly enough to avoid Dennis' punch.

### Super punch

Dennis' super punch is a very wide roundhouse kick. It deals good damage, but due to the ridiculous warmup time, one is usually better off doing a Strafe. In particular, using a super punch as a follow-up to a punch which broke the target's defense gives the target two frames of standing before the super punch lands, as with consecutive punches described above. The last three frames of cooldown can be skipped by doing a Chasing Blast, Strafe or Whirlwind Kick.

### Run attack

Dennis' run attack is a reverse roundhouse kick which sends the opponent into DoP. It does very little to break defense, even less than a typical punch. Afterwards, Dennis can do a super punch, skipping the two cooldown frames, or immediately launch into a Chasing Blast, Strafe, or Whirlwind Kick, aborting the second half of the run attack entirely.

### Jump attack

Dennis has a fairly quick jump attack. Though it only deals 35 damage, the attack range is quite good. Since it knocks the opponents into the air, Dennis' jump attack is useful in setting up a team combo. Dennis can do two jump attacks in a single jump, or a single jump attack followed by a dash.

### Dash attack

Dennis has a quick dash attack with average damage and fairly long range.

## Special moves

### Energy Blast

**Input method**:

**Mana**:

D→AAA...

40+40+70+...

Stats
 Second ball
 Third ball
 Fourth ball

Dennis shoots a little energy ball with his hand, optionally spending more mana to shoot some more balls. The balls are cheap, but too weak for most situations; they do little more than harass. In PvP, they are good for keeping an opponent who is already in DoP in DoP, because they have a small fall. Against bots, they can be used to delay an approaching enemy, or can be spammed to some effect, particularly if one is almost dead, for then the mana drain from continually shooting (3.6/frame) is largely canceled by mana regeneration.

Normally, if an enemy is hit by the first ball, they will have two frames where they're in standing position before the second ball hits—potentially enough time to move out of the way, and enough for characters with punch warmup time 2 frames or less—Davis, Woody, LouisEX, and Firzen—to punch back the second ball. However, if Dennis shoots from very close, where the first ball will spawn inside the enemy's hitbox, the second ball will have no more distance to cover than the first did, and as such the enemy will be given only enough time to defend. The same is true of the third ball following the second ball. The fourth ball comes very soon after the third, so there is no time to even defend between the third and fourth balls, no matter the distance they are shot from.

The first ball costs 40 mana. Pressing Attack after shooting the first ball will make Dennis shoot another from his other hand, costing an additional 40 mana. If he presses Attack again, he will shoot two more balls, costing 70 mana. Pressing Attack yet again will restart the four-ball cycle. The first and third balls fly straight, while the second ball flies a little into the screen and the fourth ball flies a little out of the screen. They all move at the speed of 15 px/frame.

### Chasing Blast

**Input method**:

**Mana**:

D↑A

100

Stats

Dennis releases a big energy ball which picks an opponent to chase, flying away after a little while if it does not manage to make contact. Normally it deals 40 damage, but it will deal 65 if it hits as soon as it leaves Dennis' hands. When rebounded, it will switch teams, but the chasing duration does not reset, so it is not always able to hit an enemy before flying away. This move can be done while grabbing, though there is no point in doing so, as the enemy would have plenty of time to punch Dennis. Overall, the main feature is the chasing, since apart from that it has unimpressive damage, long execution time, and a hefty mana demand.

### Strafe

**Input method**:

**Mana**:

D↓A

75

Stats
 Second kick
 Third kick
 Fourth kick
 Overall

Dennis rapidly kicks four times in sequence, the last one knocking down the target(s). This is Dennis' best special move, for its high damage, unbreakability, and multi-hitness. It can be executed while grabbing someone, with no time for them to jump attack unless they are LouisEX. Once started, Dennis is locked in for 24 frames, so he is completely vulnerable to any enemy not caught by the Strafe. Dennis' strafe is the best strafe for its lack of gaps between the kicks (even projectiles cannot sneak in, and Davis cannot do his Dragon Punch), so Strafe tactics work particularly well with it.

Dennis moves forward slightly as the Strafe progresses and the final kick has significantly less backward range than the others, so if he starts out overlapping his opponent, by the time he gets to his final kick, he may have moved too far forward, and it may miss entirely. This is normally a bad thing, as it gives the opponent a free punch while Dennis is busy doing the fourth kick, but it can be exploited by making sure the enemy is in DoP before strafing.

### Whirlwind Kick

**Input method**:

**Mana**:

D→J

75+4.25/frame

Stats
 Backward kick
 Forward kick

Dennis indefinitely floats forward, swinging his leg in a circle. Dennis can stop at any time by pressing Defend or Jump. He moves at the speed of 9 px/frame, normally going straight but optionally slanting into the screen (by holding Up) or out of the screen (Down). The kicks themselves have the frequency and fall characteristic of punches, though they deal more damage than a typical punch and are multi-hit.

There are large gaps between the individual kicks, meaning that it is quite possible for enemies—even Justin, who has the shortest range in the game—interrupt Dennis with a well-timed punch. Projectiles, at least, cannot interrupt at all unless they approach from behind or above. However, because most dash attacks have at least as much range as the kicks, if an enemy dash attacks Dennis from in front, Dennis will get hit, while the enemy will only take a kick at most. This interruptibility, combined with the fact that Dennis is practically locked into a straight predictable path, makes it silly to use the Whirlwind Kick in a frontal assault.

It is, however, the preferred way to quickly stop defending when one's opponent is nearby and a Strafe would be too risky. If, for instance, Dennis has just defended against something and the enemy is near enough that he cannot afford to wait for his defence to end, he may use a Whirlwind Kick to either attack, if the enemy is too stupid to move out of the way, or to carry himself safely away. Another situation in which the Whirlwind Kick excels is in stopping spontaneous dash attacks and Woody's Tiger Dash from close up, because it hits very high.

The Whirlwind Kick can be executed while grabbing, with overall success depending on whom is being grabbed. Characters with jump attack warmup time 2 or less—Rudolf, Deep, Mark, and LouisEX—can attack Dennis before the Whirlwind Kick even really starts. Characters with punch warmup time 2 or less—Davis, Woody, LouisEX, and Firzen—can punch Dennis after the first kick, once they land on the ground. The rest can simply defend against the second kick, taking two kicks worth of damage but then letting Dennis float past (unless a wall is in Dennis' way, in which case they will take another kick and go into DoP).

The first kick is a special forward-facing startup kick, costing 75 mana, then he alternates indefinitely between a backward-facing kick and a forward-facing kick. 17 mana is deducted when the backward-facing kick happens, and another 17 mana is deducted while continuing to the forward-facing kick. Stopping takes 7 frames of cooldown.

## Data Changing

Prominent techniques:

* type: 3
	+ z-height management
	+ chasing
	+ time expiration

**List of characters in original LF2**