Does Anyone else Feel hawkeye isnt going to be just a “Zoning Character?” I feel like he has potential for amazing mid game and Amazing Air control Footsies. Hes also the ANTI zoner if you think about it, a Lv 1 Gravity squeeze basically shuts down most zoning. Discuss?
I don’t see him as an “Anti-zoner” as much as people like MODOK, Dorammmu or Dr. Strange, but I do think he has the potential for strong mixups.
He has good normals and a slide, easy cross-ups, easy combos with good damage, quick and mobile projectile game that lets him make other zoners have to work harder.
Anyone else seeing Deadpool here? Seem to have a similar playstyle.
I think he’s a “Deadpool Part-Deux”
Great zoning but its not where it all ends
I’m not sure where the “great normals” part is going in. His normals seem slow to me, are hard to hit confirm, and are unsafe on block. The only thing he has is a slide which “surprise” is also unsafe on block. If you go up against an swinging opponent, they’ll hit you out of most of the startup of his trick shots. As far as I know he has no real overheads, no instant overhead or anything. As a matter of fact, I think going in with Hawkeye is dumb. The only times I’ve been effective with hawkeye is at full screen. Seems like everything he has needs to be accurately spaced out to be any real threat.
When I think of great normals, I think of Wesker’s cr.mp, task master jumping heavy, magneto standing jab, Amy f.C. Those seems like GREAT normals, because there is very little risk in doing them, they are safe on block, startup fast, and lastly you have 10 years to hit confirm anything off of it. With hawkeye, I don’t see a safe or reliable hit confirm game. st.H not withstanding, I personally think he’s meant to be a pure zoner. If someone has real mixups which will not turn into parlour tricks and gimmicks to hit scrubs, please speak up.
I’m with BranH on this one. Hawkeye’s normal are far from great. Don’t get me wrong, his slide is awesome and the fact that you can trick shot to pseudo-safety is a very useful tool, but Hawkeye belongs as far away from his opponent as he can get. His zoning just has too much going for it, so why risk going in for a combo that, in all honesty, probably won’t net too much more damage than a full screen assist + barrage + Gimlet will give you.
Gimlet is insane and makes Hawkeye the referee of UMvC3. People were too button/special/super-happy in Vanilla and Gimlet blows this up. I like what he does, both in play style and in how he effects the metagame. Playing against Hawkeye promotes safety and smart playing, I like that. Kind of reminds me a little bit of another old Marvel character that was good at getting people to chill the fuck out…
As a bonus, I made a quick illustration showcasing how I think Hawkeye should be played.
Hawkeye is fucking sick though
his normals are pretty bad… except for st.m that thing is awesome.
S.H is the best normal in the game
Truth!!
Full-screen zoning- Hawkeye is great for obvious reasons.
Tip of st.M - Great. Allows you to safely go into trickshot off a block string and start messing with them, and also land combos from what feels like the range of a Hulk st.M
All other situations he’s not as good. Mid-screen it’s more risky to set up zoning and you can’t safely bust out trick-shot without being almost completely open if you guess wrong and Trickshot H into someone jumping at you and pressing buttons. Trickshot feels like a good mixup/mobility/pressure tool, but it’s something you need to set up by making them block a bit, not something you can throw out willy-nilly 100% of the time.
His close range normals are technically pretty fast (I think his c.L is 5 frames) but the range feels a bit lacking at times compared to st.M
Yesterday I was catching my friend by back-dashing into st.M as he was jumping in on me, go straight into slide on hit, opens them up for a combo or trickshot pressure.
s.M, s.H and slide are your main normals with Hawkeye. Slide is really good because it hits pesky short characters and is cancellable into trick L or M if blocked to stay safe. You can call assist during to help with the safeness. If you know it’s going to get you can go straight into combos off it.
The other main tool you’ll use for poking like a normal is the hunter shot (net arrow). It’s the only arrow that will hit all crouching opponents making it a nice long ranged poking tool that easily converts to combos and is the safest on block of all his quick shots (qcf+atk arrows). When you’re out of normal attacking range hunter shot and slide are your main tools.
Hawkeye has solid mix up also. At close enough range H trick maneuver into freeze shot sets up self left/right mix ups. With an assist you can call assist H trick maneuver for free left/right into combos also. Not much high/low mix up but his left/right mix up at close range is solid.
He’s a Zoner. That’s the bad news.
The good news is he’s one of the top Zoners in the game, easily Top 5. Give him little space and prepare to take chip damage out the ying-yang. Gimlet can even punish Magnus’ S.:l:, His Raining Arrow Hyper pushes 'em back, and his trick arrows can stop almost any situation you face. He’s a character that requires you to be in his face to make him ineffective.