Just started training with Firebrand. That character is just filthy. Feels like I should pair him up with Dormammu and Doom because they all have chairs.
Which do you guys think works better?
Firebrand ‘otg fire assist’/ frank west ‘meter building assist’/ super-skrull ‘tenderizer’
(that team screams synergy, safer but snap back into super-skrull ruins it, frank west makes consistency and him and super-skrull are BF)
Firebrand ‘otg fire assist’/ dormammu ‘dark hole’/ super-skrull ‘tenderizer’
(toki’s team, similar to zak bennets team, more options for set-ups)
Doesn’t Shopping Cart work for the unblockable as well?
It can yes but im using the meter building assist to make sure i have enough meter to snap back loop ToD.
I think Frank West is really vulnerable for a long time during his meter building assist and it’s not really worth giving up a good assist (Shopping Cart) for some meter; the number of iterations of the snap back loop that you gained by having that assist aren’t really worth the advantage in the neutral game that you lose…? (Morrigan’s might be fast enough to make it near-infinite, but Frank West’s is probably too slow to even add that many reps to the loop… you already get enough loops to do major damage without any meter assist.)
Plus if Firebrand happens to be touched first, Frank West is left at level 1 with nothing to help him but Tenderizer assist, which isn’t bad because it lets him get a lot of levels, but he’ll definitely really struggle to get any hits in.
Just my opinion (and I’m not a very reliable source, so you shouldn’t feel obligated to take anything above as truth).
If you choose the Frank West team, you could try to get him out safely to Skrull and DHC back to Frank to level up I think. It would be similar to what Nova players do with his Nova Force hyper but using Inferno instead, plus I imagine Shopping Cart works well with Skrull on point.
Also remember to try and incorporate air resets into your FB combos so you can use TACs with more confidence to level up FW in an alternative way (I haven’t seen how you can do a hard tag combo from a corner combo yet).
Just have fun experimenting! I think one of the big things we’ve learned as a community over the last weekend is that we need to work harder on lesser used characters and assists. For example, I think Modok would be cool with Firebrand as he could combo off hard tags, get easy level ups through safe TACs (if you mix your air combos up with air resets) and the balloon bomb assist controls a lot of space (barrier could be cool too). Add Trish to the team with her traps and you’ve got a pretty annoying runaway team that you could guarantee not many people would have matchup experience with.
Posting here because it’s relevant to what I posted on the last page; when I use Toy Touch after raw tagging in with Felicia, I can only get one jM in before they flip out… maybe I’m doing it wrong?
That being said, I can’t get anything with Viper either… do you Seismo > Box loop?
So I’ve thinking very hard about a new Firebrand team. My current Firebrand team is extremely gimmicky and relies on my whole team being alive. I was actually theory fighting with Firebrand/Akuma. I imagine easy midscreen hit confirms using tatsu and slide and damn near full screen hit confirms using tatsu and bon voyage. I wonder how much blockstun tatsu does… Maybe I have enough for an unblockable in certain cases. Or maybe after a long combo, I can call tatsu, do Hellfire spit, then go into H Demon Missile for an unblockable… Now I wish tatsu caused soft knockdown again lol.
I got alot to test in the morning.
What are some weird Firebrand combinations you seen lately? What have you guys been doing? Real life caught up so I couldn’t really get on SRK lately. I apologize to the people that posted here and in the combo thread.
IMO, a good Firebrand team should be designed in such a way that you can get damage in 4 separate ways during combos with Firebrand on point (neutral assists >>>> over combo extenders obv) AND have adequate zoning to deal with teams that are dangerous up close. Don’t be afraid to lame people out with Firebrand + assists! This will all seem obvious to most but I’ll put it here anyway. The way this game is looking right now it’s going to be important to have a team that operates well in neutral, not just offensively.
The 5 combo variations (of which there will be many sub-variations):
Hard tag combos - allows damage and meter build to potentially ToD characters, but requires certain characters, and depends on the position that Firebrand begins the combo.
TACs - Obv this means you need a second character with potential to do big damage off TACs (alternatively, characters who level up easier through TACs). Can be made reliable through use of airborne resets.
Resets - If you watch Zak Bennett’s Firebrand, he gets away with so many TACs because of the resets he uses that abuse the way hitstun deterioration work. Essentially, against him you CANNOT mash out of TACs without risking being reset. Obviously, Firebrand with his mobility of mixup potential makes other kinds of resets very viable as well, but the thought of having to perform 8 or 9 resets and match seems exhausting, especially in a game like UMVC3.
Unblockable setups - This speaks for itself but outside of very specific teams they cannot be made tight enough to ensure experienced players cannot escape. Outside of these teams, come up with as many variations of an unblockable loop as possible so that the method of escape does not become predictable. Obviously knowledge of these setups aid your resets too. Naturally lockdown assists are very valuable to actually charging the unblockable. If you put enough time into this there is no reason why anyone should ever escape an incoming mixup!
Snapbacks - Because Firebrand has some of the best mixups on incoming characters (some would argue the best in the game) always keep an eye on which characters and assists give you bother and always consider the option of snapping them in because it should be a guaranteed kill. Don’t be afraid to blow x-factor to deal with problem characters as Firebrands matchups are good enough that a smart player should be able to maintain dominance once your opponent has fewer options.
Assists of choice will be 1 lockdown assist and 1 fast space clearing projectile/GTFO assist. You want to limit your opponents options while building your own. Meter building assists I’m not fussed about outside of the deathloop but you’re missing out on ways to improve your neutral position and limiting your team somewhat.
DHC synergy is important too, you need to be able to DHC Firebrand in and out safely, and it’s nice to have hypers that stay active after being DHCed into Luminous Body for mixup/unblockable potential. When Firebrand is low on health, try and keep him alive because he is VERY valuable in fighting a lot of matchups, he has very few bad ones.
Currently I am having issues with teleport characters (because when they teleport on the other side, Firebrand’s command dashes get reversed and you could end up making yourself unsafe) and characters with big sword normals because it makes your approach a lot harder. Is Vergil a problem matchup for anyone else?
Sorry Helvetica, I’ve not had a chance to test anything out aside from my main team which I’m just trying to streamline atm (Firebrand y/Doom a/Sentinel a). I keep swapping between missiles and beam for doom’s assist but I think it might just be matchup dependant, in matches in which I need to clear enemy assists and slow down keepaway the beam is necessary, otherwise missiles just help control the field to make you more dominant and give you more options for unblockables/mixups.
Sorry if this looks like a mess, I should have gone to sleep hours ago!
Also, abuse fuzzy guard!
Thanks so much for the detailed team breakdown! (And you shouldn’t be sorry for anything, it was awesome!)
What are some good space clearing assists? Beams?
Pretty much yeah. Beams/tatsu/trolley etc. Of course these assists are great with anyone, not just Firebrand.
What are these mixups, I dont think any good ones are detailed on SRK, and youtube is all unblockable setups.
Is firebrand’s OTG assist considered as a low hit?
Yes
Are you sure? Guide doesn’t say it hits low, and I don’t remember it hitting opponents blocking high.
You’d think it does (because it’s resemblance to Flame Carpet), but nooooo. =(
Oh well, Firebrand is stupid enough without having a low assist.
Aww, I was hoping I could use it for a unblockable set up for dante using his grapple move. 
Wolvie and Firebrand have such good snap in mixups i feel dirty using them together lol.
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[media=youtube]_x3CQ34Dhls[/media] Firebrand asist
If you take a look at Firebrand’s toolset, it shouldn’t take long to determine how varied and ambiguous his mixups can be. His jump A is one of the fastest overheads in the game and hits crouchers, he has moves which bring him down to the ground faster, his jump B and divekick both cross up. He has moves which cross up anyway given the right spacing and he can get full combos from air throws and ground throws. Not to mention he can confirm into combos from any height in multiple ways so you can chase any character down. So add assists and play around, typically I like to call assists and then use Hell Dive A for high/low mixups, it looks similar to Magneto’s tridash game but obv you can go for left/rights and throws too.
It doesn’t hurt to use spitfire on incoming characters to reduce their options too, and remember after the airborne version you can command dash/bon voyage too. The fact that you get 3 air actions and amazing mobility options should inform how you perform your mixups.