**Updated with impressions of Iron Fist and Dr.Strange. **
**Updated 2nd post with information on how Dante’s double air dash seriously improves his mix up when he goes in DT (like he needs more mix up). Plus impressions on Spider Man and Wesker. **
Updated with 2nd post of character thoughts. Also updated with importance of assist relaunches being nerfed and how not only did hard knockdowns get taken away from assists, but most assists NO LONGER HAVE SOFT KNOCKDOWNS.
Overall I obviously like it better than Vanilla. Meter build isn’t absurd anymore. Combos that used to build 2 meters now build like 1.4 meters (no having a full team DHC ready everytime you land a combo). XF1 is toned down a lot (at least with X-23 I wasn’t killing people in one combo easy without burning meters…I’ll test with wolverine later). XF3 is still strong but scales better so like ABCS, BBCS nothing else won’t kill people anymore. Air XF of course has its uses but it’s just another way to use XF. Everything else gameplay wise feels similar outside of the obvious HSD nerfs. Some assist relaunch combos are screwed up now because of.
I will say though that unfortunately for the pad players out there…they really made sure this game had its MVC2 shit going on with the mashing. You definitely have to do some arcade stick style mashing to get the most damage. If you just kinda mildly push on the buttons, it does less than what the super would normally do in Vanilla. So if you wanna get standard damage you’re going to have to mash period. I didn’t test it a ton but from what I could tell, you will lose damage for sure if you don’t mash it out good. Being an execution loving player I love it but I’m sure the pad men are gonna not like as much.
The one other thing I’ve noticed that’s changed across the board is that you can’t just choose any assist and expect to get like assist relaunch stuff twice over. You can use any standard assist early in a combo but later on the assist will scale and generally just make the opponent pop out. ** I think this might have been done on purpose to give more importance to wall bounce assists.**
The other big issue of course is that any assist that used to cause hard knockdown pretty much got its property removed and the only character that gained that property that I know of is Strider with his vajra assist on aerial hits. Like for instance…Jill’s arrow kick assist no longer causes hard knockdown. It has been I guess you could say changed or maybe even nerfed depending on what characters you used to a wall bounce.
There are even some assists that really get changed due to no longer having a SOFT KNOCKDOWN. Akuma’s assist obviously got the nerf on the soft knockdown like it should have. Strangely though assists that were strong, but not quite as cheap like Felicia’s rolling buckler used to pick people up nicely with the soft knockdown on hit now strangely require pin point timing after hit to land combos after. Zero’s Shippuga assist also suffers from this.
**Some character change notes for some of the characters I play (and some that my brother or others play). **
Laura Kinney
[details=Spoiler]Assist relaunch stuff is nerfed with her a bit now. Ankle slice OTG+jam session into weapon x prime basically does not work anymore. Raw OTG slice into Weapon X Prime doesn’t seem to work as was said in earlier playtesting (at least it didn’t work on Zero). Rage trigger when mashed does 10 to 15k more damage than WXP (295 as opposed to 280ish).
Crescent Scythe can now be cancelled into any talon attack (air qcb+atk) which is nice for extending combos. A kind of indirect buff this creates is a lot of the time when you’re in the air trying to do a L talon attack you’ll end up accidentally doing a CS. Now if you accidentally CS you can just cancel into one of the talon attacks and keep shit going. CS is generally a 5 frame start up anti air with a huge hit box so this buff also makes CS way more useful as a hit box to keep pesky sword normals out. ** The biggest buff I love about this is that since you can also cancel grounded CS it makes CS her new preferred assist.** CS when used as crossover counter is invincible and can be cancelled into L, M or H talon attack basically giving you a one meter safe DP in the form of a dark haired wolvie girl ready to make some swiss cheese. This buffs Dante on point significantly because now you have a safe way to get X-23 in if Dante is getting blown up.
Level 1 XF being nerfed kinda hurts X-23 up front. Especially with the assist relaunch nerfs. Definitely not as scary in XF1 anymore and you’ll most likely have to do some kind of reset after an XF dirt nap relaunch to kill higher health characters in XF1. XF2 is nerfed a bit in damage also but if you really put a nice combo together you can still kill most of the cast without having to reset. This isn’t the hugest deal though cuz her standard combos are still the same and we’ve vastly improved her mix up/reset game since February.
Long as you have an assist that hits multiple times and anti airs like Jam Session or Repulsor Blast (Iron Man), air XF does not affect dirt nap setups. They still can’t do shit unless they’re Sentinel or Morrigan with 3 meters. They just burn their XF early and die or take a lot of damage.
My favorite stuff from her…the MFC strings are of course still intact and work great with standard combos.
[/details]
Dante
Spoiler
Firstly hammer is definitely nerfed but still basically a mix up stopper like it’s originally been. You can’t hurp durp pass through Zero’s level 3 or gravity squeeze anymore. You can’t just randomly throw it out and expect it to win basically. You have to use it more like a late DP and throw it out so the ending frames of the hammer hit the opponent. Long as you just try to get it so the later frames of the hammer hit it still stuff just about everything that isn’t haggar assist. Didn’t really test the frame advantage on block but I’m sure it’s definitely near 20 frames if done low enough as usual. **Being able to just mash on L and get it to come out indirectly buffs it since it allows it to start up faster and makes it so every online scrub will run the shit out of it now. **Luckily you can stop them before they start it instead of just being at their mercy until the very last frames.
I could do corner combos with Dante mostly the same with the whole jet stream to fireworks at the end and everything. Mid screen I had trouble doing hammer relaunch with cold shower into stinger. At least on Zero he kept falling out after the cold shower. Have to mess with that some more.
Dante will generally be more reset based because his long bold cancel combos do less damage and build less meter. My standard long bold cancel combo does a bit less damage, but more importantly builds at least 40 percent less meter. Instead of getting 2 plus I get like 1.4 at best. No more double DHC off bold cancel combos. At least they didn’t change the combos too much so you can still look pretty with Dante.
His s.L and s.M got nerfed a bit in vertical hit box but nothing really different. It’s only if they’re like near the top of the regular jump screen do you really notice.** The bigger issue is that for the scrubby/newer Dantes that can’t do like the stinger, volcano bold cancel stuff…they’re going to have a hard time playing the new Dante. Dante’s execution threshold has definitely went up now that ABCS pretty much WHIFFS ALL THE TIME on grounded situations.** You can still do it as anti air but landing the normal killer bee stuff is really hard now. This will definitely take some readjusting to get used to.
Oh yeah…forgot to add the stupidest strong thing Dante got. Basically once Dante goes in Devil Trigger he gets an air dash that allows him to dash forward, then dash backwards. You can’t dash forward twice or back twice (only forward then back unless you go in flight mode), but that leads in to the point. He now has fake cross ups in Devil Trigger.
He already has what is probably the fastest box jump/air dash M in the game that instantly can convert to a low after or you can fake with a L that whiffs into a low. In the right spot it can already ambiguously cross or not cross while hitting overhead. Now this buff makes it so when you are in Devil Trigger you essentially get what are fake cross ups where you can go for an air dash to look like you are going to cross the opponent…then dash back behind them again and hit them in the front. This is going to be HARD to block. Especially when you have to worry about him just coming down to the ground and hitting you low after the first dash instead of air dashing back. People are going to be scared as shit and just mash on air throw and that’s when you can just counter hit them out of their air throw into an anti air combo.
Victor Von Doom
[details=Spoiler]
Doom is obviously better. His aerial game got a much needed buff with the S foot dive buff. S foot dive is much faster and causes hard knockdown on any hit so you’re getting free combos easy if that shit lands on hit. Makes air photon shot, ADDF much scarier now that you can back it with M or S. ** This will stop Doom from getting blown up by air throws since he can’t wave dash without being in an air throwable state and can’t attack or block during his wave dash until it ends.** All projectiles pretty much got buffs especially with heavy gun/butter gun basically being a great full screen zoning tool like it should have been. Plasma beam seemed the same speed. Hard to tell if it got any faster.
His being able to attack during backwards air dash HELPS a lot. Not blocking during an air dash anymore is whatever. Doom needed this WAAAAAAAAYY MORE. No more pixie characters running behind you and shutting down your air actions.
Combos feel the same. Corner combo into s.H + jam session, H plasma beam, sphere flame still works (least I remember it working when I tried).
Level 2/3 XF sphere flame definitely got nerfed. It scales correctly so no more 830k damage level 1. Does more like 580k at level 3 XF now.
XF point hidden missiles has been fixed. They track correctly now in XF which will help his anchor game a lot also. No more being able to stand still and make XF hidden missiles whiff. [/details]
DERPGIL
[details=Spoiler]
** Vergil is basically Dante with a bit less safe pressure but basically even LONGER normals.** **The best way I would initially describe him without Devil Trigger is basically like what would happen if Sentinel had a bit better of a chain game and had a teleport but no flight. Sentinel players IMO will feel right at home playing point Vergil . He wants you at a distance because if he has you at a distance (like nearly 3/4’s screen) he can just swing H,S over and over and over and there’s not much you can do because he can cancel the swing after the last block and keep it relatively safe from that distance. People thought Wesker’s s.S was bad? Try s.H, s.S x N which can be started from a ridiculous range. I’m sure people will learn to just be patient against this but it’s basically the new February Sentinel s.S shit. Day one Vergil is going to make people RAAAAGEEE. ** He’s basically everything scrubs get blown up by in a character. That’s his NON DT game.
I’m going to do a sentence just for rapid slash (well ok multiple sentences). Rapid slash is basically Wolverine’s H berserker slash except you also get tatsu in the middle so it basically 50/50 mixes you up instantly. It’s basically an assistless just frame left/right in the right spot. SCRUBS ARE GONNA HATE THIS. THEY’RE ALSO GOING TO LOVE THIS BECAUSE ITS BASICALLY ASSISTLESS LEFT RIGHT INTO DEVIL TRIGGER OR XF. Sword hit boxes come shooting out this so it’s basically WOLVERINE AND TATSU in the same special move. ROFLMAO.
Any sword normal that is unsheathed absorbs projectiles (ala Sentinel/Dorm). s.H or s.S will absorb Ryu hadoken no problem. Which makes him like a faster Sentinel, teleport enabled Sentinel in the mid range.
Unfortunately he needs DT to get a double jump or air dash and he doesn’t have standard L, M, H air normals that cross up. The one thing I have heard though but haven’t tried out is that his j.S or j.D+H is basically a better version of Dante’s j.S that you can teleport cancel downwards and keep safe and will also cross up. This might be what you need to do instead of typical air dash M, H stuff.
Devil Trigger assists are GDLK. Standard assists are ok but DT assists is where it’s at.
** DT Judgment cut assist is basically Dark Hole but like twice the size and scales far less**. It’s probably the safest to throw out since Vergil stays back a bit before throwing it. One random thing I found is the assist will stuff out some supers even ones that have invincibility like Ryu’s Denjin Tatsumaki super.
**DT Rising Sun is similar to MVC2 shoryu assist ONCE it’s active (I retested this and you can stuff the start up frames before active). **Once it’s out in active frames you basically can’t touch it with anything physical that I’ve seen. Might be able to allow you to follow up for combos but was hard to see initially.
DT Rapid Slash is basically a much longer start up…but super fast near full screen tatsu assist. What I mean by this specifically if if you want to avoid the hit box of DT rapid slash…**YOU HAVE TO SUPER JUMP OR BE AT THE OTHER END OF THE SCREEN. NO JOKE. **[/details]
Strider
Gonna get into him more later. Basically has Zero ranged normals except none of his L’s are sword normals. Teleport dive kick on point is good but can be chicken block (air block then press buttons) or XF punished. Teleport kick assist is RETARDED. Starts up faster than I initially thought and is basically homing dive kick that they have to eat. Stuns on regular hit, hard knockdown on aerial hit. Welcome mix ups with that assist is gonna be STUPID.
Strange
Played with him a bit but can’t really say much until I get more play.
Magneto
My friend iNerd said that he doesn’t really like him too much. He looks good to me still but he doesn’t like air dash speed nerf and just feels the gravity pull is gimmicky.
Nova
Saw my brother play with him a bit. They basically gave him Magneto’s vanilla speed air dash except there’s a slight pause before doing it. Meaning you can kinda tell he’s going for an air dash but when he comes down, it’s full on high/low guess at super speed. You can barely see Nova move to the ground. He’s just like…there all of a sudden.
2nd post of character impressions. >>>> Got in an hour of ULLLLtimate so far. Impressions
