Yo, new Nova player here (never played him in 3)
-To Marvelo and other veteran Nova mains, how well do you guys think he transitioned from 3? Is he better/worse? Is he more/less fun to play as?
-Thoughts on the Best stone for him right now?
-I’ve been learning the staircase combo and have been using j.HP, but others have used dolphin kick. Does it matter which one you use?
Damage wise it doesn’t matter. I prefer to use Dolphin kick as it’s easier for me to alternate LP+HP, j. f+HK than LP+HP, j. HP. I know I can just do LP+HP twice but I’m losing some control this way when I want to change the direction. And I play on a stick so I don’t have any bind.
Plus I think Dolphin kicks have a larger hitbox so doing the staircase should be easier on Rocket Racoon.
Right now, I can only get 6700+ damage with one bar :
j. HK, d/f+LP, HP, HK, qcb+HP, j.f+HK, ad u/f j.HP, j.f+HK, Fly, j.LP,j.HP,j.f+HK, (AD -> j.f+HK)*7, qcb+LK, land qcf+LP, qcb+LP+HP. There should be something a bit more damaging.
Hmm. Well, i’ll always love Nova, but I just couldn’t get him to work well with Strider in this one. Which is a shame!
I think he’s extremely good because of his offensive capabilities, but they removed his H pulse and his zoning potential. Which is sad because that’s how I played him!
I think Reality Stone is his best stone with maybe Mind Stone because of the full bar buff.
Yeah dolphin kick definitely looks more consistent, and agree with you on being easier on RR. I’ve been practicing with j.HP because it’s been easier and for learning how flight/staircase combos work, but dolphin kicks are easier to land. I think maybe I’ll just learn both lol.
Damn, that sucks. Have you found a different partner for Nova?
No surprise reality is one of his best stones lol. Thinking of using reality, but because I’m playing around with Jedah/Nova for now, I might try Space too. Have you tried Mind Stone in matches? Were you able to incorporate the command grab in your gameplan?
Lastly, how are you guys approaching the neutral with Nova in this game? I probably shouldn’t ask this when I haven’t even played against someone online yet, but I’m still curious haha
I been struggling to adjust to him in this game as a former Nova player. I had to put him aside and practice with Capt. Marvel to get my hands and brain used to the new layout. Right now I think Reality and Space might be his best. Watching Coach Steve play has been giving me a good frame of reference for how to play him as of late. I personally haven’t been able to do the Dolphin Kick loops, but I know it does the same damage as the HP ones, so I haven’t found much urgency yet.
Neutral wise, the only thing I can say is air javelin is life lmaooo. I wish I had more concrete stuff to offer here. It’s hard to not want to play a returning character how you used to.
It’s good to see the old Nova mains in here haha. I think he’s less fun IMO because his linear movements and Grav Pulse shield made him very unique and meshed well with my defensive style. He is however very strong in this game and his offense is really good/fast and can be very safe. But also very very different from UMvC3 Nova so it takes awhile to adjust.
I also agree air javelin is really good. I use time stone so it compliments the zoning with air javelins and can create simple mixups with tag and teleport. It’s an easy way to start the lockdown in neutral, in which I can tag my support character (Strange) to set up shop to later then lock them down with eye/daggers/bolts to tag in Nova for the pressure. Just like UMvC3 LOL.
Also can we talk about how important it is to have 3 meters? It hasn’t been really discussed but his Grav Pulse and Javelins become upgraded when you have at least 3 meters (much like having red health, but no consequences)!
Grav Pulse = More range/damage + wall bounces
Javelin = More damage + HARD knockdown
For those who did not know and were struggling with it, you an do the Dolphin Kick loops by pressing LP+HP+HK together in the air. Kicks take priority over punches.
I think there’s no point to do LP+HP+HK. It’s better to alternate HK and LP+HP. Easier and more controlable.
Strange enough, I’m more confortable now to Loop with Dolphin than j.HP.
With j.HP I tend to do LP+HP twice and sometimes I miss the input. It’s harder to alternate LP+HP, HP than LP+HP, HK as you use different fingers for HK when you play on a stick without bind.
Just dumping some stuff that i made consisting of a team of Nova/Dante:
Matter of preference, I guess. I’m able to do it with all 3 consistently and got it within like my first 2 or 3 tries.
I drop it too often so I do the easy combos 
dfLP isn’t a low actually
reality storm (and generally; any storm) can confirm off of groundstring -> sHK-HK xx activate
sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvbXtGirYE
nova can set up hard to blockables on block with dfLP xx qcbHK, sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDXnVQ3fys
the idea is to use the tag in attack to catch up back, then dash low
you can also dfLP sHP xx qcbHK tag, easier to hit/block confirm. delay the sHP so it still is in range even if they pushblock
gamora for whatever reason has an unpushblockable crLK, so you can qcbHK tag gamora, dash crLK crHK and they have to go low high low block, very fast. pushblock doesnt save them.
This is the most optimized solo Nova combo I have as of now. You delay the j.HP after H Nova Strike so you can stay close to the ground and get the j.HP xx Dolphin Kick (jf.HK). Also after pushing to the max here, I’m confident that it’s better to do loops with Dolphin Kick because it’s faster. They will pop out doing this exact same combo with j.HP. Dolphin Kick generally just has as a better hit box and corrects their positioning in exchange for the extra button.
Meanwhile I’ll leave this one here as an alternative. LoL
Of course there’s the Flight Combos, Dolphin Kick Loops and Heavy Punch Loops(that I can pull off somewhat) but I wanted to show off some much easier combos for people to pick up and learn that still do GREAT damage. I’ve seen countless people asking for alternatives so here’s a couple! As for myself I’ll be working on optimizing these even more cause I think I can crack 6.8k without Flight still but I had to share these. Hope it helps someone
It’s
Ultimately I think it’s just easier to double tap lp+hp ~ hp, than it is to hit f.hk as well for the dolphin kick, it just makes the execution a lot more complicated. I hated Nova in MvC3 but he’s looking hella galactic in this game I’m loving him. It’s a shame his shield is gone but I’m liking him all the same.
Based on my minimal experience thus far, I honestly think players should invest in learning how to press all 3 buttons at the same time for the Dolphin Kick loops. It seems like DK comes out faster and I been able to get it to work more consistently in situations where j.HP whiffs. DK also seems to have a better hitbox and corrects height better in certain situations.
I just eyeball it. Practice on the rat and then you know typically that it will work on everyone, just adjust your height as you go. I’d rather risk them falling out of the combo due to misplacemebt than drop the combo from a failed input that I know for a fact is difficult to do.
This pattern seems pretty universal, I’ve tried it on giants, normals and pixies and it works on them all. Just need slight variations in the corner, or if you pick them up from a different angle, other than that hp is perfectly fine, unless you want to swag it out which is also fine.
Who do you guys think work well with Nova/Soul Stone?