Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

[Zevox]

Well, this game has officially released. For those who don’t know, this is an expanded version of Marvel vs Capcom 3, similar to Super Street Fighter 4 vs the original Street Fighter 4. It features twelve new characters (which I cover below in a spoiler block), across-the-board rebalancing of the original cast, a number of general system changes, new modes, and improved online play (and according to early reports that online play is indeed very much improved, though the real test will be how it holds up after the release when the game is in the hands of however many thousands of people all playing online at once). It is a new disk, but is available at a discounted price of $40 instead of the usual $60.

I know some are more apt to complain about the release of the game so quickly after the original – and that does annoy me too, though if the official reason given by Seth Killian, that their contracts with Marvel forced them to release in a specific window of time due to conflicts with other companies’ similar contracts, is true, I think it’s reasonable enough – but I for one have been looking forward to this. I got plenty of great play time out of vanilla Marvel 3, and expect to get plenty more out of Ultimate, especially with some of the new characters. Speaking of, for any who could use an intro, those are:

For those interested, a high-level player, Maximilian, was contracted by Capcom to make videos explaining the new characters in detail in advance of the game’s release. These are called “Assist Me” videos, and I will link to them in each character’s section.

Marvel

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/hawkeye.png
Hawkeye (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFq62jijQm8&feature=channel_video_title))
Most famous as a member of the Avengers, Hawkeye is Marvel’s master archer hero. True to form his play style is largely projectile-based, with him having a variety of special arrows that can do things like temporarily immobilize enemies, cause poison, stick in the ground and explode, or rain down on large chunks of the screen. He also has a long-distance slide attack and a very fast auto-aiming hyper that will be fantastic for punishing enemies doing anything unsafe.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/ghost-rider.png
Ghost Rider (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIV7-ewm8S4&feature=channel_video_title))
Ghost Rider is a supernatural anti-hero character bent on punishing the wicked with his hellish powers. He fights primarily with his long-range normals and specials that use his massive chain to reach enemies clear across the screen, and is the only character in the game capable of doing combos from full screen distance. This makes him very unique, as where most of the cast relies at least somewhat on mobility to get in close or to keep away from their foes, Ghost Rider wants to stand his ground and just swing away at his foes to keep them off of him. He is vulnerable if you get in close on him though, so he’ll need to beware of teleporters, and will likely work best with assists to defend himself.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/doctor-strange-1.png
Doctor Strange (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxKmChpqC1Q&feature=relmfu))
Doctor Strange is Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, the most powerful mortal magic-user in the Marvel universe. He is the hero who opposes threats such as the demon lord Dormammu, whom you may remember from vanilla MvC3. In Ultimate he wields a variety of tricky projectiles, include several that will track his enemy, plus glyphs that he can place around the screen to redirect and enhance one of his more basic fireballs in a manner reminiscent of BlazBlue’s Mu-12; but his quick teleports also give him some surprising rushdown and combo potential. He also features a unique counter hyper that only counters projectiles, but fires off a massive high-damage beam when it activates.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/iron-fist-1.png
Iron Fist (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_YLA8m-Xo&feature=relmfu))
Iron Fist is a traveling martial artist hero with a mastery of the power known as chi. He is Ultimate Marvel’s “rekka” character, possessing a variety of special moves that can cancel into each other to make effective blockstrings, mixups, and combos. He also possesses unique support-type specials that can temporarily raise his damage output, defense, or the rate at which he gains hyper meter. He is a very ground-based character, possessing a launcher that can only hit enemies who are still touching the ground, and is generally lacking in good anti-air abilities, which will make him reliant on a good anti-air assist. He is one of the fastest characters, if not the single fastest character in the game on the ground however, so with such an assist covering him, he will be very deadly.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/nova-1.png
Nova (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8qwNZvAvBE&feature=relmfu))
A member of an intergalactic police force called the Nova Corps, Nova is a space-based superhero with special energy powers. He is one of the game’s most mobile and versatile characters in the air, and possesses a variety of rushing specials that can help him get in on most anyone. Most unique to him are three special moves and one hyper that will drain his red health (health that he has lost but could recover by tagging out or using X-Factor) in order to supercharge their size and damage. Be careful using these though, as they may not always be worth the healing opportunity you lose using them – although the hyper in particular does get very powerful with 30% or more red health spent. He also possesses a charging hyper which, while low in damage, is completely invincible to projectiles, which further helps him counter zoning-dependant characters.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/rocket-raccoon-1.png
Rocket Raccoon (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zWn_RFJ8Ag))
Rocket Raccoon is probably the biggest surprise character of the Ultimate roster. A member of the space-based superhero team the Guardians of the Galaxy, he is an intelligent Raccoon that fights with a variety of guns and traps. He is the smallest character in the game, a bit smaller even than Arthur or Viewtiful Joe, and uses tricky moves such a net trap or a log trap (think of the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi on that one), and even a trap hyper, to mess with his opponents. He also features unique rocket skates that enhance his mobility, as well as tunneling moves that let him move underground for a time, during which he cannot be hit by anything. He is however a low-health character, tied with Akuma and Strider for lowest health outside of Phoenix.

Capcom

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/strider.png
Strider (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFq62jijQm8&feature=channel_video_title))
A talented ninja assassin, Strider is the only new character that is a veteran of past Marvel vs Capcom games, and returns due to popular demand. True to his play style in Marvel 2 he is a glass cannon, tied for second-lowest health in the game after Phoenix. He features a variety of fast robotic animal projectiles, large sword swipes that can sometimes cover most of the screen, and fast teleports that include the game’s only teleport with a built-in attack. He is likely to be a combo fiend, but will need those long combos to do significant damage, as none of his moves do much damage individually. He is also the only character in the game with two level 3 hypers: the rather conventional damage-dealing level 3 Ragnarok, and his infamous support hyper Ourobouros, which summons a pair of satellites to surround him that fire off energy rings with every attack he does.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/firebrand.png
Firebrand (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIV7-ewm8S4&feature=channel_video_title))
Firebrand is a hellish gargoyle character from the Ghosts and Goblins series, the same series that brought us the tiny knight Arthur. He is one of the game’s most air-based characters, featuring several moves that automatically leave him in flight mode, as well as special dive moves that substitute for an air dash. He is a quick character, and can become even quicker with his Luminous Body hyper, a support hyper that speeds him up and, unlike most such hypers, still allows him to build hyper meter while it is active. His level 3 is also unique, summoning a second, smaller version of himself, which does different moves at the same time as he does his, making him very hard to fight against.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/nemesis-1.png
Nemesis T-Type (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxKmChpqC1Q&feature=relmfu))
Nemesis is a monster from the Resident Evil series, bent on killing members of the organization STARS, such as Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. Much like Sentinel or the Hulk he is a huge, bulky fighter who relies on slow moves with super armor to face off against the game’s usually much quicker characters. Unlike those two however he also features long-range tentacle attacks that help him control space across the screen, and has command grabs similar to (if shorter in range than) Super Skrull’s, from which he can easily combo. He is a high-damage and high-hp character, but likely not an easy one to use.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/phoenix-wright-1.png
Phoenix Wright (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_YLA8m-Xo&feature=relmfu))
Yes, he is actually in the game. By popular demand, lawyer Phoenix Wright makes his debut appearance in a fighting game, and boy is he odd. Most of his normals have him doing mundane things like scratching his head, sneezing, or even tripping, making his fighting prowess more accidental than intentional. As for how he fights, he features three modes, each of which give him different moves: investigation mode, in which he can call his assistant Maya to cover him and where his goal is to gather evidence off the ground; trial mode, in which he can use the evidence acquired in investigation mode to create a variety of effective projectiles, as well as doing things like throwing paperwork at his enemies to control space; and turnabout mode, accessed by having three good pieces of evidence and hitting the enemy with his OBJECTION! move in trial mode, in which he gains a number of buffs and powerful moves. It seems he will be a poor fighter in investigation mode, an okay one in courtroom mode with good evidence, and a beastly fighter in turnabout mode, so reaching turnabout mode is his main goal. He also has possibly the best level 3 hyper in the game, a 0-frame fullscreen move that convicts his opponent of crimes for 600k damage, which is between 1/2 and 3/4 of most characters’ hp. Be careful though, as using that move will use up his evidence and leave him back in investigation mode, forcing him to build up to turnabout mode all over again.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/vergil-1.png
Vergil Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8qwNZvAvBE&feature=relmfu))
Hailing from the Devil May Cry series, Vergil is Dante’s twin brother, a half-demon who isn’t particularly fond of the human half of his heritage. While having a few moves similar to his brother’s, he plays quite differently. His massive sword gives him a great reach on his normals, second only to Ghost Rider’s, and his special moves, which have all been taken right from Devil May Cry 3, give him a number of effective combo and mixup options. His three fast teleports help him rush opponents down, and while using his Devil Trigger hyper he gains possibly the fastest air dash in the game, in addition to general buffs. He also features a unique hyper that summons several energy swords to swirl around him, and which can be used to turn those swords into projectiles or to have them track and rain down on enemies as a crown of swords. And his level 3 competes with Phoenix Wright’s for title of best in the game, requiring him to be in Devil Trigger form to use, but doing 600k damage and leaving enemies in a crumple state for easy follow-up comboing.

http://static.capcom.com/character_api/umvc3/profile/frank-1.png
Frank West (Assist Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zWn_RFJ8Ag))
Frank West is a photographer and journalist from the Dead Rising series – he’s covered wars, you know (/obligatory line that everyone uses). He was planned to be in the original release of the game, but some sort of bug or issue prevented that; whatever it was has been worked out though, and he’s ready to fight in Ultimate. Players of Tatsunoko vs Capcom may be surprised to learn that Frank actually fights rather differently in UMvC3 than he did in that game. He still has zombie-summoning moves (though they now can’t hurt him), but has acquired a number of new moves and a “level up” mechanic, whereby he gains experience by using his camera, one experience point per move in the combo at the time he uses the camera, and as he levels up his attacks improve and he gains access to new moves. He can get up to five levels, and his main goal will be to reach at least level 4, at which point all of his moves become powered up in length and damage, and he has access to all of his different possible specials and hypers. He can even double the experience he gains from his camera by drinking booze, but take care with that, as after a time Frank will have to stop to vomit, and that will leave him very vulnerable when it happens.

A breakdown of the game’s new features and specific system changes, for those interested in the specifics there:
Data Transfer
- If you purchased Jill and/or Shuma Gorath in vanilla MvC3, they transfer over to UMvC3, and gain a free new alternate costume (Jill’s is her look from Resident Evil 3, Shuma’s is apparently his protege, Quggoth, who pretty much looks like Shuma but with a bunch of small eyeballs where Shuma has one large one.) Unfortunately Jill and Shuma are still DLC though, and do not come free with the game for those who did not purchase them in vanilla MvC3.
- Beyond that, nothing seems to transfer over. Player points, mission mode progress, etc all starts fresh. Though all of the characters are unlocked from the start, so there’s no need to re-unlock Taskmaster, Sentinel, Akuma, and Hsien-Ko.
- Shadow Battle mode and Event Mode, the DLC modes from vanilla, are currently absent in Ultimate. Whether they will be added back in later remains to be seen.

Modes
- A new option that lets you play through arcade mode as Galactus has been added. If you have save data from the original MvC3, it is unlocked immediately; if not, it needs to be unlocked by accumulating player points (which you get from doing basically anything, including training mode).
- A new “Heroes and Heralds Mode”, to be made available as free DLC, in which you play as either Galactus’ silver heralds or the heroes that oppose them. You are given the chance to power up your team with special cards in this mode, and balance is thrown completely out the window, so expect some of the craziest things you’ve ever seen in a fighting game in here. This mode is just plain goofy fun. You can play it both offline and online as well.
- Spectator mode is now present for online lobby play, allowing up to six viewers at a time.
- Before ranked or player matches online you can now see your opponent’s information, including connection quality, and elect to continue or decline the match.
- Rematch functionality has been added to online play (at least for player matches, haven’t heard for lobbies, probably not for ranked).
- If ranked or player match searches fail to find an opponent, it now gives you the option to search again or create a game rather than kicking you back to the start menu.

System Changes
- X-Factor received a few changes. It can now be done in the air, it no longer benefits different characters differently, the damage scaling during it was nerfed, and it seems that some characters have different durations with it than others (the one known example being that Akuma’s X-Factor lasts less time than Doctor Doom’s).
- You can no longer block while air dashing, making those more of a risk, especially against enemies with projectile hypers.
- Assists are now subject to hitstun scaling, making some combos with them no longer work the way they used to.
- Team aerial combos directed sideways now remove 1 meter from your opponent.
- If you hold the S button while doing your launcher, your character will automatically super jump forward, following the character you hit. This feature can be disabled in options if you dislike it.
- All characters now gain hyper meter about 10% slower than before.
- Many hyper combos now gain extra hits and damage from mashing buttons while they are going on. Not all hyper combos are affected by this, but most characters have at least one that is.

All old characters have also gone through at least some rebalancing, with many getting significant changes and even new moves. Straight-up lists of these are available here (http://shoryuken.com/2011/10/21/umvc3-official-change-log-for-marvel-side-characters/) (Marvel characters) and here (http://shoryuken.com/2011/10/27/umvc3-character-change-log-capcom-side/) (Capcom characters), and videos showing and explaining these changes have been made by a high-level player, Maximilian. Those are:
Marvel: She-Hulk, Dormammu, Magneto, Hulk, & Dr Doom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icdngAz_8Fs&feature=channel_video_title); Phoenix, Captain America, Deadpool, Iron Man, & Taskmaster (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPdWrNyjoVU&feature=channel_video_title); Storm, Sentinel, Spider Man, Super Skrull, & X-23 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pl7Qry1vuM&feature=channel_video_title); MODOK, Wolverine, Thor, & Shuma-Gorath (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P_vxXJWFb4&feature=relmfu).
Capcom: Chris, Wesker, Morrigan, Hsien-Ko, Felicia, Arthur, Zero, Tron Bonne, & Spencer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IVOtSzoaX3A), Jill, Ryu, Haggar, Chun-Li, Akuma, C. Viper, Dante, Trish, Viewtiful Joe, and Amaterasu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzoAIO6AUAA&feature=feedu).
So, anybody else pick this up yet? I actually grabbed a midnight release (because I’m always up at midnight anyway), and have been playing around in mission mode (because I get freakin’ addicted to that thing easily) with the new characters. And holy crap Vergil’s range. I mean, I knew it was big, but it’s something else to actually be using him and see just how far away an enemy can be and still get hit by his heavy attacks. I am definitely going to be using him quite a bit. Looks like it’s going to be a challenge to learn the timing on cancelling his stinger into teleport though – that’s given me all kinds of problems in his missions, and it looks vital, since that seems to be the only way he can combo off stinger’s wallbounce other than just going right into a launcher.

I also surprisingly might like Hawkeye. Wasn't expecting that, but I was kind of enjoying him during his missions. I'll have to get some time with him in training mode.

Zevox

[Illieas]

I got it. I found out you were right about virgil doesn't really go with dante too well.

Interesting fact Phoenix wright assists when in turnabout mode are completely invunerable.

lastly i been working my team and i think i found it.
wesker/frank west/ doctor strange.

you work the wesker teleport to cross up or fake one while calling in frank's shopping cart. he runs about 3/4 screen. on knockdown you can use doctor strange floating energy ball assist. and run the cross up game as well or extend your combos.

One thing that been annoying me is i see peoples doing wesker they do the low shot oTG into crouching Medium. I can't seem to get that link at all.
if you know please tell me what i am doing wrong

for my inputs, light medium heavy S to Jumping medium medium heavy S to
OTG gun shot. the crouching M just wiff all the time. the only time i ever got the OTg gun shot to crounching medium was doing light medium heavy cancel to samurai edge L otg gun shot to crouching medium.

On to frank west. the leveling system is interesting but the main point is that with the fireball assist with strange you can get levels fast as the fireball does 10 hits and a standard light medium heavy crouching heavy S light medium heavy S OTg camera assist(strange) camera again nets you at least lvl3.

Main point seem to be getting the first 5 hit to get level 2. then you can add a cross up game with his dive rolls.


lastly strange i primarily use for assist at this point. I getting used to to the grace of hagami set ups and teleport but he seems so slow and teleport behind doesn't work if they are in the corner unlike wesker.

[Zevox]

I got it. I found out you were right about virgil doesn't really go with dante too well.
I assume you mean he doesn't really play like him, because I honestly think they would work pretty well together in a team. Vergil could benefit from Jam Sessions quite nicely, Dante could probably get some good mileage out of Rapid Slash or maybe even Judgment Cut, and they DHC together well.

But yeah, they don't fight alike. I'm surprised by just how slow Vergil's attacks feel. I guess they have to make up for their range somehow, but still, I feel like I need to cancel them into teleports or a special just to avoid getting beat on anytime an enemy blocks my attacks as him. Though something nice is that you can force the enemy to use advancing guard to get you off by spamming S~H (launcher, upper slash, repeat) - there's no way out of that block string without advancing guard, and you can call assists during it, so if they don't, you can just chip them to death. Not entirely sure if it can be punished off advancing guard if the character is fast enough, long enough range (Ghost Rider or Vergil), or has a forward momentum move (ala stinger) though. You can cancel upper slash into specials though, so that helps.


Interesting fact Phoenix wright assists when in turnabout mode are completely invunerable.
All of them? Really? I'd heard that Press the Witness is, but if it's every one of his assists, then that's even better. Press the Witness is pretty useless without that invincibility, but the other two are another story, especially Get'em Missile.


One thing that been annoying me is i see peoples doing wesker they do the low shot oTG into crouching Medium. I can't seem to get that link at all.
if you know please tell me what i am doing wrong
That only works when the combo still consists of fairly few hits - I think about 5 or less. A standard Wesker combo from vanilla would have him starting with crouching light or medium, going through heavy, and doing 236L (I think it's called Cobra Strike) to cause hard knockdown immediately, then dash or teleport (he can cancel the move to teleport now, so do that) up and do gunshot into crouching medium to continue.


On to frank west. the leveling system is interesting but the main point is that with the fireball assist with strange you can get levels fast as the fireball does 10 hits and a standard light medium heavy crouching heavy S light medium heavy S OTg camera assist(strange) camera again nets you at least lvl3.
Nice. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to get levels fast with Frank - from playing mission mode I can tell you that could be extending Frank's air combos with his 236L, which does something like 5 hits and can be comboed after with jumping medium. You can even work multiple uses into one air combo.

I've been playing around with Vergil (Rapid Slash)/Doctor Strange (Eye of Agamoto)/Hawkeye (Quick Shot Greyhound), though so far I've been mostly trying to get combos down. Vergil's cancel timing on stinger is tighter than you'd expect, but I'm getting it. Also when doing his attack super off of his OTG (3H, High Time) you have to use the heavy button when activating the super - that move doesn't actually super cancel, but it does teleport cancel if you hit heavy, and the teleport can super cancel, so the net effect is the same just requiring you to use heavy + medium or heavy + light when activating the super. My BnB so far is (optional crouching light/medium), 5H, stinger, 623L~H (rising sun to teleport), super jump, j.M, j.H, j.S, 5H, stinger, teleport (or judgment cut if in the corner), 5H, S, j.M, j.M, j.H, j.2H, 3H (High Time), super. Can't do the full final air combo if you start with light/medium and get judgment cut in the corner, but it's easy enough to just to jumping heavy and helm splitter then.

I'm also trying to figure out the best combo for after his air throws. I think it'll have to involve Lunar Phase (his 623M) for the groundbounce move, as the damage scaling after the throw requires the use of multi-hit moves to maximize damage.

Doctor Strange is going to be a combo beast, let me tell you right now. Impact Palm is too good. Crumple state on the ground, immense hitstun in the air. I've gotten relaunch combos just by ending air combos with impact palm, landing, and doing heavy - launch. And you can work in Mystic Sword L early in the combo for big damage, or even Grace of Haggath M and Flames of Faltine during a crumple after impact palm. And that's not even touching his teleports, which are plenty fast enough for combo use (and heavy even tracks in the air!) but I'm just not fast enough to use properly. I've never seen such easy 600k+ no-assist one-meter combos, and I'm far from the best at these kinds of things. The trick is mainly landing that first ground impact palm - if you use the wrong ground normals the enemy will end up out of its range.

Hawkeye I'm having second thoughts on. His assist (the basic projectile one) is great for covering my team, but I keep having trouble with his combos and general gameplan. It's especially annoying that his OTG moves are incredibly hard to connect with in the corner - you have to backdash first to make them work, which takes tight timing, and honestly even his relaunches off his ice arrow or 6M are tricky. Also, it's frustrating how his main super is not so great at the end of combos or for DHCs, since it's only one hit and scales all the way down to 75k damage (most supers, even fully scaled, do twice that much at least). I may want a different projectile assist for the team. (Or maybe I can come back to Hawkeye after I've learned Vergil and Doctor Strange well enough - it may be the learning curve of trying to play three new characters that is the problem, particularly since I'm more interested in learning Vergil and Strange than Hawkeye.)

Zevox

[Dumbledore lives]

I rented out Marvel vs. Capcom 3 the original, but after watching a lot of gameplay videos and everything I just had to get Ultimate. I'm really enjoying Ghost Rider and Phoenix Wright amongst the new characters, and returning to my old favorites like the Hulk and Dante.

I think one of the most fun things though is the ability to play as Galactus, simply because it feels great killing everyone with him after you've been killed by him too many times.

[Zevox]

I rented out Marvel vs. Capcom 3 the original, but after watching a lot of gameplay videos and everything I just had to get Ultimate. I'm really enjoying Ghost Rider and Phoenix Wright amongst the new characters, and returning to my old favorites like the Hulk and Dante.
Nice - I really liked Ghost Rider from the time I spent with him in mission mode myself, and have been planning on replacing a character in one of my old teams with him. I'm thinking he should work nicely in my Zero team, alongside him and Iron Man.


I think one of the most fun things though is the ability to play as Galactus, simply because it feels great killing everyone with him after you've been killed by him too many times.
Meh, I got bored with that mode in less than one play through. The only reason you can win there is because the computers are set at a low difficulty level - if they had an idea what they're doing, you'd be screwed. Galactus leaves himself vulnerable way too much, and his attacks are way too easy to block or dodge - heck, even at the difficulty they set the computers for, they block most of your attacks as you get into the later fights, and only lose because they sit and do nothing most of the time while you're open for attack resulting in death by chip damage.

Anyway, that Vergil/Strange/Hawkeye team I mentioned last post? I've switched Hawkeye for Doctor Doom and his beam assist, and am pretty happy with that, at least until I'm fully comfortable with Vergil and Strange and have more time to practice Hawkeye. I'm really liking Vergil, but I'm having trouble picking up Strange. None of his zoning tools are as effective at keeping enemies out and buying him time to place glyphs as I'd like (daggers of danak don't track as well as I thought, the mystic swords auto-win projectile wars but are pretty easy to avoid, eye of agamoto comes out way too slow, and bolts of balthak are slow and can be ducked under), he doesn't seem to have any sort of "get off me" move I can use once enemies get in close (Mystic Sword L is nice, but doesn't seem to work quite well enough), and shockingly his only low attack is his crouching heavy - crouching light and medium hit mid, making it basically pointless to use them at all, especially since the step forward on standing medium is crucial to comboing into impact palm. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with him. Either there's something I'm missing, or he really needs a "get off me" assist to buy him time to set up glyphs; either something invincible (which there isn't much of, since the invincible assists from vanilla got nerfed) or something like Dante's Jam Session that comes out fast and forces enemies away from you - but I can't think of anything else quite like that off the top of my head, and I don't want to use Dante since he's in my main team.

Speaking of, I've also put in some time with my main team, Dormammu/Trish/Dante, and that's gonna take more adjusting than I'd thought. Trish is great, as I can now extend her combos to full size since her air hyper now hits OTG, but the other two are another story. Assists now being affected by hitstun decay has screwed up my Dormammu combos (which often used OTG flame carpet + Dante Jam Session for extension), and Dante's changes to knockback have screwed with him pretty badly. Fortunately the easier access to Dante's style change moves is a great boon to him, and Dormammu's buffs are pretty nice too, but I'm going to need to work on new combos for Dante and at least a new corner combo for Dormammu (I'm pretty sure from the playing around I've already done that I can no longer get any real extension on his midscreen combos, so I'm just going back to pillar into super there).

Edit: Hm, some interesting observations on Dormammu. As you may have heard, he gained the ability to use his hand spells in the air. Well, normally he drops to the ground after charging just once in the air, completely unable to do anything as he does, so that's badly unsafe. But if he flies he can do up to three and still act as he falls (except for special moves). And more importantly, if you try to release a charged spell in the air, he immediately teleports back down to the ground to do it - the spot right below him, not to a spot near his opponent like the rest of his teleports. That could be very nice for messing with people - super jump, fly, charge two spells then either release or teleport in. They won't know whether you're tossing out a spell or teleporting in for a physical mix-up, and should have a harder time reacting.

Zevox

[Zevox]

Okay, I love Dante's new arcade mode ending.

You may recall from the first game that his ending had him clashing with Ghost Rider? Yeah, that's gone now, probably due to Ghost Rider's presence in the game. Instead he gets approached by Mephisto, who offers to resurrect his mother and mend his relationship with his brother. Dante cuts him off before he can state what he wants in return, puts his sword to Mephisto's throat and his gun to his head, tells him he has no interest in mending his relationship with Vergil, and makes him this counteroffer: "You give me a job that can pay my electric bill for a year, and I let you leave with your head attached to your body."

Mephisto responds that "Well, there is this fiend called Blackheart who has been causing me no end of trouble..."

Dante again cuts him off, saying: "Done. But I'm charging you triple for being such a tool." :smallbiggrin:

Oh, that made me laugh quite nicely.

Zevox

[Dumbledore lives]

I really enjoyed Dante's ending as well.

It seems like Vergil is the new major contender for the best character in the game, as he seems to be able to get massive combos as well as having all the teleports to travel around the field quickly. I personally don't really like him, as I just can't use him that well, and in that he seems like Wesker, just not my style.

I'm pretty happy with my Dante/Hawkeye/Ghostrider team though, with Ghostrider actually getting decent combos, something which I normally have quite a bit of trouble with. Hawkeye can play keepaway really well too, and Ghostrider can push people pretty much anywhere on the screen with the large amount of grabs and huge reach with the chain, it's almost a projectile.

[Zevox]

It seems like Vergil is the new major contender for the best character in the game, as he seems to be able to get massive combos as well as having all the teleports to travel around the field quickly. I personally don't really like him, as I just can't use him that well, and in that he seems like Wesker, just not my style.
That's not surprising - with his almost Ghost Rider level reach without his vulnerability to rushdown characters and teleporters, fast teleports, all the tricks he can pull off with the summoned swords super, how much Devil Trigger helps him, and all the tricks I saw high-level players finding immediately with round trip, he just has a ton going for him. Still, I think some things will hold him back, like his teleports not working in the air. He'll probably be one of the best, but I think Wesker and Phoenix at least will still rank higher than him.


I'm pretty happy with my Dante/Hawkeye/Ghostrider team though, with Ghostrider actually getting decent combos, something which I normally have quite a bit of trouble with. Hawkeye can play keepaway really well too, and Ghostrider can push people pretty much anywhere on the screen with the large amount of grabs and huge reach with the chain, it's almost a projectile.
Ghost Rider is pretty easy to pick up at this point, yeah. I've started doing arcade mode (on very hard) with my third team, Zero/Ghost Rider/Iron Man, and I've done shockingly well with, which I mainly attribute to the computer having no idea how to play against Ghost Rider. I get so many random hits with j.S and 5H just because it keeps trying to throw projectiles or call assists against me when I do those moves, which of course means free combos. Still, I'm sure Ghost Rider will suffer badly against players who know how to rush him down, especially with teleport characters - that's always when I have the most trouble with him.

On that team, I think it's pretty good on the whole. The DHC synergy is there, if not quite in the way I though - Doing Rekkoha -> Hellfire Maelstrom doesn't quite work right, since Rekkoha pulls the target out of range of Hellfire Maelstrom - although I have sometimes seen the last (most powerful) hit of Hellfire Maelstrom connect anyway, not sure how that works - but it does add some okay enough damage, and is the best way to switch from Zero to Ghost Rider. Hellfire Maelstrom into Rekkoha doesn't work at all unless you cancel Maelstrom far too early, thereby negating most of its damage. But you can DHC from Ghost Rider's bike into Rekkoha and it does quite a bit of damage, and both Zero and Ghost Rider DHC into Iron Man just fine as long as you use the right version of Proton Cannon.

Combo-wise my old Zero combo needed to be adjusted, but I can still do pretty well with relaunching via his dive kick special + Iron Man's unibeam assist. Sadly Ghost Rider's pillar assist isn't as useful for combo extension as I've hoped, but oh well, it has plenty of other uses. Ghost Rider I can't seem to do much beyond his vanilla combo, but I've been able to add a couple of hits by using Iron Man's assist, and he does get up above 600K from that. Iron Man I haven't gotten a new combo worked out with just yet, but he seems nicely buffed, so I'm sure I'll get something.

Zevox