Emma Frost Guide: Abilities, How to Play & Best Team Composition

Emma Frost Overview

Emma Frost is a Vanguard with the abilities to control minds and is able to change her body into a diamond, greatly enhancing her strength. She can project a psychic barrier from afar and seize control of an enemy's sentience to damage them.

Health	650 HP
Role	Vanguard
Difficulty	3/5

Emma Frost Abilities

Emma Frost's has an ability kit for her two Human and Diamond Form.

Ability Name	Input	Description
Telepathic Pulse	LMB	Fire a psionic beam to deal damage; the longer the beam hits, the higher the damage.
Psychic Spear	E	Seize control of an enemy's sentience-damage dealt to the sentience cascades to the physical form and can be pierced by Telepathic Pulse. When the sentience shatters, it unleashes extra damage on its owner.
Mind's Aegis	RMB	Create a levitating barrier at the designated location.
Diamond Form	SHIFT	Activate Diamond Form to transform your attack style while gaining Damage Reduction and becoming Unstoppable.
Faceted Fury	LMB (in Diamond Form)	In Diamond Form, deliver a crushing double-fisted strike to enemies.
Carbon Crush	E (in Diamond Form)	In Diamond Form, lunge forward to grab an enemy. then execute a back slam to inflict damage.
Crystal Kick	RMB (in Diamond Form)	In Diamond Form, unleash a flying kick forward and knock back enemies; extra damage is dealt if they're propelled into a wall.
Psionic Seduction	Ultimate	Project a forward psychic assault that stuns foes and prevents them from unleashing their Ultimate Abilities; if the effect lingers, it gradually commandeers their mind, forcing them to move toward Emma Frost.

How to Play Emma Frost

Emma Frost can change from Human Form into Diamond Form, each having unique abilities that requires good understanding and even greater positioning.

Human Form

Human Form is Emma's main and default form. In this form, Emma is a mid-ranged Vanguard who focuses on shielding and dealing burst damage.

The best way to play Human Form Emma is to stick with your teammates, focus on objectives, and don't dive too deep. Keep firing her basic ray attack, and try to hit them as much as you can, because the more you hit the enemy with the ray, the more damage it deals.

Mind's Aegis is her shielding ability. While not as large as Magneto's or Doctor Strange's, Emma can deploy hers at a great distance. Hold your right-click until you find the distance you want, then simply deploy the barrier there. You can use this mechanic to block a choke point or a specific angle that your team is taking damage from.

In critical moments, such as when an enemy Scarlet Witch or Iron Man activates their ultimate, Mind's Aegis can be a true game-changer. With its ability to deploy a shield anywhere within range, you can effectively block their ultimates. Instead of panicking, stay calm and clutch the moment by placing your shield at the perfect spot.

Just remember not to dive too deep if you don't have the Diamond Form skill ready.

Diamond Form

Diamond Form is the bread and butter of Emma Frost's gameplay. By pressing Shift, Emma will turn into a diamond-covered Vanguard that deals huge melee damage, has great crowd control ability, and gains higher defense.

Use Diamond Form only when you are trying to single out an enemy or when you are holding a point with your teammates. While Diamond Form is a great skill for Emma, if you use it at the wrong time, you might put your team in danger instead.

The best Diamond Form combo is:

• Switch to Diamond Form -> Carbon Crush (E) -> Basic Attack x2 -> Crystal Kick (RMB) towards a wall or a ledge.

If you are pushing a payload and you see an enemy who is overextended or alone, you can quickly turn into Diamond Form, grab them, and kick them toward your team’s side. This can really punish overextended enemies. Overall, Diamond Form is perfect if you are trying to focus on and single out one enemy to kill.

If your team has another Vanguard, preferably a shielding Vanguard, then you can use Diamond Form more freely and often, especially in Capture Point maps. In Payload maps, you can be more aggressive, using your Diamond Form to dive into the enemy line and try to kick one of the enemies to your team’s side.

You can also use the Carbon Crush skill to cancel ultimates from heroes like Scarlet Witch, Magik, and Black Panther. If you time it correctly, just before they fully unleash their ultimate, you can interrupt it by slamming them to the ground.

Emma Frost's Ultimate

Emma Frost's ultimate is perfect to initiate a team combo. If you position yourself correctly and time it perfectly, you can control the whole team thanks to the huge AoE and long-range effect.

Emma’s ultimate is ideal for wiping out enemy backlines. It’s especially effective when Strategists and ranged Duelists are grouped together, as they’re usually positioned at the rear. When timed right, her ultimate can eliminate multiple targets in one go.

If all enemy Strategists are caught in the blast, they’ll likely go down due to their low HP. Catching a Duelist or two in the process adds even more value to the play.

Emma’s ultimate also serves as a great setup tool for team combos. If she manages to mind control at least four enemies, it creates the perfect opening for allies to chain their ultimates, leading to a potential team wipe.

While Emma's ultimate, Psionic Seduction, serves as a powerful ultimate canceler, some characters' ultimates cannot be interrupted by it:

• Venom
• Hela
• Mister Fantastic
• Psylocke
• Storm
• The Punisher
• Cloak & Dagger
• Luna Snow

Mental Projection Team-Up

Emma Frost was introduced along with a new Team-up Ability, Mental Projection. Magneto and Psylocke are the other characters in this team-up, and Emma stands as the anchor.

Mental Projection grants Psylocke and Magneto the ability to craft an illusion of themselves, capable of mirroring their movements and attacks. The best part is, not only can the illusion really create confusion, but it can also deal damage and duplicate abilities — not the ultimate, though.

Psylocke can deploy her illusion to sure-kill enemy backliners while confusing them. This is such a great kit, either to play aggressively or strategically to run away.

Magneto gets so much benefit from this team-up. His illusion can also create the barrier, deal damage and stuns, and, this is the best part, deploy double the shield bubble. If Magneto casts a shield bubble toward a teammate while the illusion is deployed, the illusion will automatically cast a shield bubble toward the real Magneto.

So make sure to pick both Magneto and Psylocke when there is an Emma Frost on the team.

Best Team Composition for Emma Frost

• Magneto and Psylocke are must-have characters in a team with Emma Frost thanks to their new Team-up Ability, Mental Projection.
• Peni Parker can hold the point with her Arachno Mines while Emma Frost kicks enemies into her bomb-filled web.
• Magik is a high-mobility and high-burst damage brawler who can accompany Emma Frost while diving into the backline. Magik can clean up what’s left from Emma’s attacks.
• Namor will likely have minions beside him on the mid or backline. If Emma Frost can kick someone into his range, they will be easy prey for Namor and his minions.
• Winter Soldier’s ultimate can synergize well with Emma Frost’s ultimate, opening up possibilities for multiple kills or even a team wipe.
• Wolverine and Emma Frost can both dive into the backline and each kidnap an enemy.
• Invisible Woman and Mantis are the best long-range Strategists to help Emma, either with crowd control or with buffs.

How to Counter Emma Frost

The best way to counter Emma Frost is to use tankbuster heroes or those who can relentlessly brawl against her and Strategists who can't be seduced:

Groot can prevent his teammates from being seduced by Emma's ultimate by building thorn walls to block it.

Thor can relentlessly brawl against Emma Frost, whether she’s in Human Form or Diamond Form.

The Thing is immune to knockback, meaning Emma Frost can’t kick him away. The next thing to do is chase Emma relentlessly until she dies. Not only that, Thing can also quickly help his backliners who are getting harassed by Emma.

Iron Fist and Wolverine are both tankbusters, dealing damage based on enemy HP percentage. Emma has a high HP value, so these tankbusters are all you need to shut down Emma Frost.

Luna Snow's and Cloak & Dagger's ultimate are the only Strategist ultimates that can counter Emma Frost’s Psionic Seduction. Both ultimate can’t be canceled by Emma, meaning she can keep healing anyone who is being mind-controlled.