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Harley Quinn is an Assassin character with combo extending tools that help with her Rush-down play style. She can place traps around the arena, and extend combos by hitting your opponent into them, as well as place a remote control explosive to either kill or extend her combos ever further. A lot of her aerials can be combo starters, and she has a easier time getting vertical kills. However, she doesn't have a lot of range, so characters that have fast projectiles can be hard to start combos against, or they are fast enough to get away from you before you can punish.
Harley can struggle a lot against characters who are fast, have many projectiles or those that are hard to hit. Finn and Gizmo are both fast and hard to hit, as well as many of Finn's moves are disjointed. In these situations, the best move is to just really play patient and to bait and punish. With Finn, he wants to charge specials on the ground, so jump over, and angle your Down Aerial Attack to hit him and combo him from there. Your Grounded Down Attack can catch some Finn's off-guard, as it's fast and travels far. For projectiles, things like Batarang, Jerryshot, or Morty's Snake projectile can come out extremely quick, so be ready to dodge at any moment when fighting these opponents.
She does pretty well against the slow characters of the cast that have more telegraphed moves. Iron Giant is very easy to win against if you can avoid his set-ups for early ring outs, as your Forward Aerial Attack, Down Aerial Attack, and Grounded Side Attack can all combo him very easily, just be sure to watch out for his Bolt Armor if he hasn't used it recently. Garnet has armored moves, but they are pretty telegraphed, so using your Remote Bomb (Neutral Special) or your Down Aerial Attack can help with these. Taz and Shaggy you can usually tell what options they are going to do, and predict and punish either by sticking your remote bomb, or getting out of the way and hitting them after while they recover from their more damaging attacks, like Shaggy Side Special and Taz's Tornado. Harley has many tools to set-up with, and can have such as your Jack in the Box (Down Special) and your remote explosive (Neutral Special), can all start chaining into each other with enough effort and practice. When going against a hard match-up, instead of trying to approach a barrage of projectiles, try to set up your tools and look for the right moment to chain them all together.
Best Perks For Harley Quinn
For Attack Perks, Collateral Damage is can really rack up damage over time. Your Aerial Down Air, the first hit of your Aerial Forward Air, and the some hits of Jab can make them hit the ground, which adds damage. These are all parts of your main combo tools, so this adds some percent to your base combos. Make it Reindog and That's Flammable, Doc! can make your Aerial Down Attack better, by making it slightly faster, and have it apply possible Fire damage. This can help one of your best combo starter apply more damage as well, increasing the damage you deal with your combo strings.
For Defense Perks, Clear the Air and School Me Once helps you with projectile pressure, and making sure you can either destroy their resources, or help push through the barrage. This helps you against some unfavorable match-ups. Toon Elasticity is really good since Harley is towards the lighter side of characters, so having more potential to prevent a knockout helps you survive for longer and not get stage spiked by some heavy hitting attacks. These perks are meant to help counter projectile play, as well as some of the stage spike potential that zoners like Morty, Tom and Jerry, or Reindog have.
For Utility Perks, increasing your movement or jump height can help you maneuver around projectiles or help chase people into the air to kill them off the top with your aerial options. Leg Day Champ increases your maximum jump height, which lets you chase characters easier in the air to secure kills, and lets you place your Jack in the Box a little higher than you usually would, if wanted. Speed Force Assist increases your base movement speed, Harley is already pretty fast, so increasing that part of her improves on that strength more. Can help close the gap during combos if the enemy gets out of them. Finally, Tasmanian Trigonometry helps Harley by adding more survivability, which given her weight, can prevent some knockouts from happening earlier than wanted.
Glove Control is, in my opinion, the best Signature Perk that Harley has. It allows your glove to be directional controlled left or right, and that opens up more options to ward people off or to continue and/or start combos. It can also bounce off the floor or platform if timed right, so it has the ability to ward off people who are on the same height as you, or who are approaching with a Aerial Forward Attack. It can be a good mix-up if you are trying to land, and helps to prevent getting juggled. Her other options, Confetti and Smooth Moves can be good, but mostly don't have the flexibility that Glove Control offers.
Placement in the Tier List
Harley is pretty solid, with good aerial options, and pretty easy to pick up combo strings. Her gadgets let her start combos, or be the combo ender. She can feel a bit awkward to play at first, but once you get the basics down, she fits like a glove. Her recovery options aren't the best unless you can plan ahead, since your Side Special covers horizontal distance, but has a fair amount of endlag. She can be pretty good at ledge-trapping, with things like her Remote Bombs, Jack in the Box, and Aerial Down Attack, the boxing glove projectile, all being pretty oppressively against enemies who are predictable with how they get back to stage. I put her at B+, she is totally capable of winning, but can struggle in doubles to get in against teams who have to strong projectile characters. She is still very good and is really fun to play, but learning how to use some of your tools can be hard to grasp at the start. Once you start to put them all together, then she can be incredibly scary in the right hands.
