Firebrand Beginners Guide 2013

Classic Fighting Games Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
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This is basically an updated guide for Firebrand after about a year and a half of UMVC3 gameplay.

Firstly the main stats.

Health: 850,000
Hurtbox: Small-Med (Wings do not have a hittable area)
Playstyle: Tricky Rushdown, Frame Trapping and Light Zoning if necessary
Ideal Position: Point
Ideal Assists: One Lockdown (ex. Cold Star), One Stun-Heavy Neutral (ex. Drones, Bolts, Plasma, Tatsu, etc)
Comfort Range: Short (Imagine the width of Rocket Raccoon and that is Firebrand’s best range of combat)
Combo Difficulty: Easy
Typical Solo Damage (no meter) Output: 350k-400k
Learning Curve: Intermediate-Somewhat Difficult.
Most Challenging Thing About Using the Character?: Mastering use of his Command Air Dashes and Mobility.
Second Most Challenging Thing?: Finding creative ways to mitigate his “low” damage output. Only a few members of the cast can really help Firebrand.

Firebrand’s Assists: Don’t use them unless…well…maybe you can find a use for them, but they’re all pretty shitty and they expose his body for a very long time.

Overall Verdict: Firebrand has all the tools he needs to get in and wreck havoc. He’s a very solid and extremely mobile character. But in a metagame where the top tiers have godlike range, superior teleport mobility, crazy solo damage, and derpy normals he simply gets outshined on a lot of things as you move up beyond the A-tier cast. But by no means let this stop you from using Firebrand. He has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to harass the opponent into oblivion.

Oh yeah, and he’s cute as a button. So that’s another plus.

The rest of the guide implements a 1-10 scaling system.

1 - 3 = Terrible
4 - 5 = Decent
6 - 7 = Good
8 - 9 = Great
10 = Amazing.

Normals: (Overall moveset, not an average) 7.5/10

Despite his short range, Firebrand has some very good normals in his arsenal. The one’s I’ll be going over first are Lights, followed by Mediums and then Heavies.

Lights:

St.L (10/10) = This move covers a sizeable area in front of Firebrand and gives you +6 on block. Great for frame-trapping with staggered L’s.

Cr.L (5/10) = An underwhelming Rapid-Fire Cr.L, Would be quite bad if it wasn’t mashable.

Air L (7/10) = Since you can combo from J.L into J.M -> J.H -> J.DH, This makes j.L a very fast attack for starting round gambits. Is useful in a few Okizeme setups as well. But it’s not an outstanding good air-to-air in most cases do the range.

Mediums:

St. M (4/10) = Combo Fodder mostly. Why use St.M when St.L starts up faster, has range, and leaves you with +6 on block?

Cr.M (2/10) = Same range as St.L, Negative on Block, and slower start up. Need I say more? Definitely Combo Fodder

J.M (9/10) = Da’ Heel Slap is a great Air normal. It’s fast, Has an Awesome Angle, and Deceptively Good Range, and it can lead into a combo on hit. Also its great for swooping down and taking the opponent by surprise. I highly suggest using this as your go to air-to-air in Close Range.

Heavies:
St. H (4/10) = Decent Anti-Air, but the slow start-up kills it’s usefulness. It’s neutral on block though, so that’s good.

Cr. H (8/10) = Firebrand swagger-jacked Frank’s awesome slide. Although it’s extremely unsafe on block you can cancel it into a Command Jump in order to make it safe. Firebrand’s slide is his longest reaching normal by far, and a great low poke IMO. It also shrinks his hurtbox to Raccoon Size. In addition, you can use it to catch up-backers after a recovery roll if you time it right. Oh yeah, but stick to St.L as much as you can though…that move is truly the godlike one.

Air.H (7/10) = Either Karsticles or Kresent (forgot which one) has quite a few set-ups using this move. I personally don’t use it as much as I should. But the double hit effect is good for catching people of guard. Also it’s very safe on block and we can set-up some nasty frame-traps with our good friend St.L. So throw this out every once in awhile and see how the opponent reacts.

Launcher:

S (1/10) - Do not use this unless you’re launching in a combo. Period.

Air S (7.5/10) - I really like the angle of this move when I’m swooping down and the massive advantage it lands on hit or block. But if I’m not swooping then I feel I have no use for this move. But since I do a lot of swooping with command dashes I use this move rather often. However, Da Heel Slap is still my numero uno on a swoop down aerial approach.

SPECIALS:

Ground Bon Voyage (5/10) - This move is the best whiff punishing move in the game hands down. But it’s also -30 on block and even more so on whiff recovery, so
you have to make a godlike read or punish a big whiff to use this move effectively. You’ll use it no doubt, but the uses will be seldom and few. However, if you feel like you can read the opponent like a book at match start, then using GBV when the round begins is a very risky but rewarding option. But I repeat, you must have a great understanding of your opponent and their habits for this to work.

Air Bon Voyage (10/10) - This move attacks at a great angle, has massive priority, +10 frames on block, Converts to a grab on hit (giving Firebrand invincibility for the rest of the duration), and it’s a corner carry. Air Bon Voyage is Firebrand’s best move. Some could even say that Bon Voyage is nearly everything about Firebrand (which is somewhat true.)

Hell’s Spitfire L/M (6.5/10) - It’s a cute little fireball that deals 100,000 points of damage and like 30k Chip. It trades with other fireballs like Soul Fist, Hadoken, And Akuma’s Thing. It has pretty slow start-up and Firebrand isn’t going to win a zoning war. But it’s better than no zoning ability at all. Get creative in your spitting patterns and you’ll land a few hits on the opponent most cases. But if you feel like playing more of a cautious Firebrand then partner him with something like missiles so you can utilize this move more often.

Hell’s Spitfire H (5/10) -OTG’s, Has Massive Startup, And +50 on block. The reason this is rated so low is because Firebrand is completely prone if he uses this in the air and he can be knocked out of start-up on the ground. So its only really useful to combo off an air grab/ back ground grab. Still, you can make this move very good by combining it specifically with Amaterasu’s Cold Star assist (on block). However, this move dramatically scales damage to the point where you’re basically giving the opponent 1/10th a bar of meter in exchange for taking 1000 points of damage.

Demon Missile L (2/10) - This is probably the least used move in my arsenal. It’s +1 on block and Firebrand flies forward… but on hit or block he get’s knocked back half screen. We do not want to be knocked back a half-screen when playing Firebrand.

Demon Missile M (8/10) - Firebrand passes through the opponent like a ghost, and this move ignores advancing guard. It’s unsafe unless covered by an assist like plasma beam, drones, cold star, etc. But the move is awesome for left/right shenanigans when covered by a partner. I use this move very often.

Demon Missile H (10/10) - This move is fully unblockable for 30 active frames after fully charged up. But even when DMH is not charged, it’s still an amazing move. It has high priority, safety, crosses-up, and since it’s active for 30 frames it can counterhit the opponent out of the start-up of their own moves. Use this move for corner pressure when you have a stun-heavy assist in your arsenal (like Cold, Star or Drones)

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The following moves I cannot rate because you must use them all effectively in order to master Firebrand’s mobility. If you’re going to use Cr.H a lot then you must learn to cancel it into one of the following 3 command jumps on block, every time.

Hell’s Elevator L - Vertical Jump
Hell’s Elevator M - Forward Jump 1/5th of Screen (Crosses Up)
Hell’s Elevator H - Backwards Jump 1/4th of Screen.

While in the air you must also utilize Firebrand’s air swoops/ command air dashes.

Hell Dive L - Fall Directly Downwards
Hell Dive M - Diagonal Swoop Forwards
Hell Dive H - Horizontal Swoop Backwards.

Command Moves

Wall Cling ( jump and tap <- <- near wall) (9/10) - very useful move for stalling, evading, and attacking. By pressing any attack button besides S, Firebrand shoots a fireball so he can zone as well. In addition you can block/move shortly after dismounting the wall as long as you don’t use a fireball. What this means is that you can use wall-cling as a tricky approach method as well.

Devil Claw (Down + Heavy) (6/10) - It’s a foot dive that causes a ground bounce but has slow-start up. +10 on block, and it’s used in Firebrand’s bnb. I often use this move to frame trap since it leaves Firebrand in auto-flight on block with a +10 advantage. So I spam this a few times to keep my opponent in blockstun and then cancel flight into another move so I can attempt to counterhit my adversary.

Team-building

You have a small pool of teammates that can truly support Firebrand. I recommend at least one of them, but i’s your call regardless.
I can’t rate teammates because there are too many factors to consider. But I can give you some pros about each one

Sentinel - Godlike Drones, Hyper Sentinel Force Unblockable, Brings “The Sentinel Effect”. Also allows Firebrand to have a stupidly good okizeme game.

Amaterasu - Cold Star Setups, Okami Shuffle Unblockable, Amazing Anchor, Solid Character.

Dormmamu - Dark Hole Unblockable, Stalking Flare Unblockable, Amazing Anchor

Super Skrull - Tenderizer Unblockable, fantastic point character when backed by drones, hits like a truck, great anchor, Awesome Voice.

Doom - Doom is just Doom. He automatically makes the entire team better. Missiles/Rocks/or Beam can greatly assist Firebrand. Also Doom is hella derpy as a character especially when paired with Ammy.

Akuma - Firebrand gets use from Tatsu, and Akuma is a pretty good character as well. It never hurts to have that projectile nullifying ability.

Taskmaster - Great All-Around Character, Marvisto Arrows Unblockable setup.

Vergil - Anchor Derp.

Dante - Great All-Around Character, Jam Session Unblockable

Strider - Anchor Derp, and Vajra.

To be continued in another post (since you cant edit your posts on here after an hour has passed smh

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This really helps man.

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I was going to wait for you to post the next part of your guide before I replied to this but it has been 25 days so no point in waiting now.

You overrate s.L and underrate c.L.
s.L IS very good, but I wouldn’t compare it to Air Bon Voyage(That you also rated 10/10). I’d say it’s more like 8/10, since it pushes pretty far away on block/hit and is pretty weak.
c.L is good for staggering as well and despite short range, it’s definitely better than 5/10. The fact that it’s his fastest low makes it important. Air Bon Voyage makes it easy to be in range for it too. I think this would be more of a 7/10.

I agree that s.M isn’t that great BUT it does have decent range(For Firebrand, that is).

Something about j.S: It has a backwards hitbox at the end of the move.

I think I am the one who mentioned j.H because I like using it as a double overhead. I also like it since it’s two hits, so it’s easier to confirm and going into j.H allows for easy s.L confirms at normal jump height. Or into Bon Voyage/Devil’s Claw at other heights. Lastly, since it isn’t a launcher, it is cancellable into other specials.

Small, unimportant note: Devil’s Claw is +11 on block.

Other than Hell Spitfire H being capable of picking up off throws, I think this move is straight up garbage. Slow start-up, short duration, scales like hell, goes away if you get hit, can’t block if you do it in the air, and IT’S PUSH-BLOCKABLE. Too many people let Firebrand get away with this move because the moment you start blocking it, you can pushblock him to almost full screen.

Simply so you have more data, you should note that Hell Spitfire L and M only have 5 low durability points.

You didn’t mention hard tag combos from Doom. Off of any air Bon Voyage AT LEAST half screen from the corner, or any throw NOT into the corner (on all but 5 characters), you can hard tag into Doom for 3/2 launches, respectively. Also, IMO, I think Plasma Beam is Firebrand’s best assist.

Akuma, Vergil, Dormammu, and Amaterasu (Maybe Taskmaster, depending on the assist you pick) bring THC options to a Firebrand team. (Damage or unblockable).

Someone mentioned this in another thread and it’s a very useful trick that not a lot of Firebrand’s seem to know about. On a wall cling, pressing j.S without pushing a direction causes him to jump almost full screen off the wall.

I can write up some stuff about his hypers if you want.

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Go ahead Karst! I’ve just been so busy with life sowwyyyy!

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Kresent, not Karsticles.

Dark Fire: A really good level one hyper, both for DHCing out and for damage. At 192k(mashed), it’s one of the higher damaging supers at minimum damage scaling. Including hypers like MODOK’s fulling charged b eam and Ryu’s Shin Tatsumaski hyper, Dark Fire comes in at the 32nd strongest hyper in the game. The only way this hyper does good damage is if you are directly in front of them. However, Firebrand’s Bon Voyage makes this very easy. DHCing out from this move isn’t easy for a lot of characters since it leaves them so high. However, this hyper covers almost a full 180 in front of Firebrand. So, you can SJ to a corner and use it and it’ll “swipe” the screen with a high durability flame. While weak at full screen, it WILL eat all projectiles that aren’t hypers (And some that are) and because of the way it works, it tends to beat people out of their own hypers. (As in, the spray of fire constantly renews its durability so you can’t just eat it once. Example: Akuma uses a beam and it misses. Firebrand SJs and uses Dark Fire. Dark Fire will hit Akuma out of the beam, even though the spray had to go through the beam to get him). This is great for DHCing out when the screen if full of projectiles, or you want to slightly hit the enemy/assist and then DHC out into your next character. Main draw back of this move: If you use it in air, you CANNOT block until you land. This move has (20 frames)*(3 High durability beam points), is mashable, and it OTGs.

Luminous Body: One of the best install supers in the game. Firebrand gets a 25% speed boost for 8 Marvel seconds. This is a very noticeable speed increase. The MAIN thing that this brings is that you can j.L and cancel it into Bon Voyage for an instant overhead anywhere on the screen (This can be done in any level of XF as well). Along with that, Firebrand can still build meter during this install, something that a lot of characters can’t do. While his assists do get slightly better, they are still pretty garbage in this mode. You’re better off NOT DHCing out with this and instead, saving it for your safe DHC in. This move has a slight bit of recovery, and if you use it in the air, it will leave you in flight mode. So you can do things like, shoot two air fireballs, Luminous Body, and shoot three more. This hyper is amazing, honestly. The main problems I have with it is that unless I am DHCing in or trying to save myself, I don’t generally find myself with meter to use this. I tend to save my meter for the kill. However, this is definitely something you should be using a good amount. I’m not sure of the EXACT numbers, but when combined with XF, Firebrand gets ridiculously fast. The numbers either stack, or multiply (I can’t remember how the game does it). I believe that XF3 Firebrand in Luminous Body is the fastest character in the game and is VERY hard to control. Luminous Body ups Firebrand’s fireball game a lot too and in XF3+Luminous Body, the fireballs link infinitely.

Chaos Tide: Firebrand’s level 3. In my opinion, the 2nd worst level 3 in the game (Next to Deadpool’s counter lv3). Firebrand summons another Red Arremer to help him. What he does is based on the button you use. For L, he uses Hell Spitfire M. For M, he uses Demon Missiles M. For H, he uses Demon Missile H. He stays on the screen for about 8 Marvel seconds or so. He will move left/right on the screen in a slow fashion at regular jump height, but pressing M and H making him do moves that move to the other side. I have a lot of beefs with this move. As far as damage, the Zak Bennett combo and the Divekick/Demon Missile H loops are the only ways to do damage with this. Both are weak, however. Zak Bennett’s set-up requires a specific assist, does about 200k and builds 2 bars back. The other set-up is worse. As far as utility, this move is subpar as well. The L attack shoots Hell Spitfire M. Would have been MUCH better if he shot the L(straight) version. Otherwise, this fireball tends to just hit the ground most of the time. The M attack is Demon Missile M. Would be better if he did it on the ground, because A LOT of characters duck under it. His H attack is his Demon Missile H (Unblockable, uncharged). This is the best of the three moves, but it can interrupt combos pretty easily. Unless your enemy is BETWEEN you and the bot, the non-controllable Red Arremer is also affected by any advance guarding that someone does to the regular Firebrand, making this even less useful. Honestly, the only time I use this move is on accident and I never want to spend three meters on it. I get way more damage out of DHCs for two meter.

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Hey so here’s a little tip I’ve been using lately.

So, as I said in my first post in this thread, you can wall cling and then hit S without a direction and Firebrand will jump about half screen away from the wall. If you time it right, you can do this right as Firebrand comes in. So, if your opponent isn’t forcing you to block on incoming, you can use this to get out of the corner.