Just made some videos for leveling up frank.
Using frank and strange w/ any other character to get frank to level 4 without the use of any meter, or x-factor, or T.A.C. Basically it’s a guaranteed level 4 frank … unless you drop the combo.
Marvel
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Capcom
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And here are a few level 5 frank combos. Again without the use of meter, x-factor, or T.A.C. (also not just with Dr.Strange)
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There’s two fundamental problems with those setups.
1 You’re finishing with a raw snapshot. Anybody can neutral tech and punish a raw snapshot. You’ll likely have a bar, but if for some reason you don’t have your initial, practically none of those combos will build you a bar. Look for situations where you can end in round house, take a dash back, then snap.
2 You have Frank on point. 100% serious. Frank is never, ever meant to start on point as level 1. 2nd or 3rd spot only.
I finish with raw snapshot to save on time from the video. In a large portion of the combos you can cancel camera shot into his Survival Techniques hyper (in many cases you will have enough meter for a D.H.C. to finish off lower health characters). For the ones that in the air you can go for the Funny Face Circuit (air grab hyper) reset and get the guaranteed K.O.
I play with Frank on point and do just fine. I look for 1 (count them 1) opening and badabing lvl 4 Frank and then I D.H.C. into Iron Man (my team is Frank/Iron Man/Dr.Strange). Frank is a viable character on point. All you need is a little patience and adaptability and frank can work wonders. Granted he has some bad match-ups in which case having him second or third would be a good idea, but that doesn’t mean he should NEVER start on point at level 1. Level 1 Frank is not as good as his later levels yes, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good character.
Playing Frank on point is a terrible Idea. Your gimping yourself of not only a great assist, but of a better point character. He Really shouldn’t ever start at level 1 period. He has NO way to open you up unless your opponent is ass and can’t block. His normals have meh range and he has no mixups at level 1. At level 1, he has much more bad matchups then good.
In your videos, alot of your Frank combos require two assists just to reach level 4/Level 5. Frank can reach level 3 by himself and Level 4 with the use of one assist. I don’t really understand the point of your video. Frank can get to 4 with Dr. Strange alone, and can even get there with Dr.Strange on point IIRC.
If you don’t have the meter and you end in snapshot, you’re getting punished. Ending in roundhouse in those situations will give you more meter, more damage, another hit for your photo, a better position post snap, and still ample opportunity to cancel into survival techniques if you so choose. If you’re going to say it’s because you’re time saving for a video you should at least acknowledge that rather than demonstrating bad habits for others. Also, most of those combos will be hard pressed to kill anything beyond Strider/Raccoon/Phoenix even with a decent DHC behind it; Strange’ll kill your scaling and level 1 Frank combos hardly get past 500k with one bar even while leveling him. Furthermore, any FFC setup you do after a snapshot can be forward tech’d for free.
Frank on point, conceptually, is like putting Phoenix on point; sure you could do it, but you’re severely dwarfing the potential of the character. Both Frank and Phoenix are supposed to come in at full health and tear through a team in their powered up state, not fight to get to that point. That’s what other team members are for. Level 1 Frank has no reversal, too slow of pokes relative to their distance, no safe strings, no mixup, lackluster damage and can’t even properly defend himself. Putting Frank on point makes him more of a liability than an asset, and even if you do get that one hit, you’re getting Frank after he’s (almost always) taken a few hits rather than at his full power. Not only that, but point Frank will almost never get lvl 5 on his first touch, which also means no fully taking advantage of his 10% damage reduction or damage boost.
So yes, he should NEVER start on point without being leveled. You want good disjointed buttons at the start of a round, play Vergil or Dante.
When you TAC Frank in, do the inputs change based on whether you are midscreen, corner, or on the exchange direction? The book says M,H ,L tools,M, L tools,M, L tools, M, S. The starter of M, H, L tools doesn’t seem to work midscreen off of side exchange. Also I know midscreen I want to end with knee drop not air S. Does this change the combo I start with at all? I’ve been combing these threads for this info and can’t find it anywhere.
I hope this answers your questions:
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A quick video for fun on how Wright’s missile assist can extend Frank’s level 1 combo.
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Sorry for bad quality.
Personally, I prefer his Press the Witness assist, because it’s way better as Break the Witness for Frank combo extension. Admittedly, it does need Turnabout Mode, but…
I do a Vergil Swords combo that ends with a Lunar Phase Ground bounce at around 50 hits. Hard tag Frank. Snapshot for level 4. Can get level 5 if you use the right assist for a second snapshot. Though the timing is tough on getting the assist out.
I just like how I solve most problems on umvc3
LARIAT into rapid fire fists raw tag then wait till I can call lariet again call it take 2 phots and get level 4 frank from 1 bar
I understand many people strongly believe Frank does not belong on point. While I do agree with all the facts regarding how crappy lvl 1 Frank is, I’ve come to learn Frank point is high-risk but still viable to play with.
98% of the times, I’m able to put up a solid fight with Frank point, and that includes when I’m at casuals. I understand the less-than-2% of the time when I run into Neo or some other pro I may as well put the controller down and sit back to watch the slaughter, but honestly I doubt having Frank sitting behind an optimal point character is going to make much of a difference in the outcome of the match in those cases.
That said, despite the cons outweighing the pros, here is my lvl 1 Frank point combo:
c.:L:, c.
, c.:H:, s.:S:, SJ, j.:L:, j.:L:, j., j., j.:H:, j.ToS:H:, c.:L:, c., c.:H:, s.:S:, j.:L:, j.:L:, j., j., j.:H:, Knee Drop, call Tenderizer, Snap Shot, Snap Shot
Note that Survival Techniques will still hit after the 2nd snap shot 100% of the time while Tenderiser is still going (unless you drop it), and this combo always builds more than a meter. I usually DHC to Inferno against low-health characters, as it will kill. Done right, you should have 50 hits for Level 4. Also, if you carry this combo into the corner, you can use FFC after the 2nd snap shot (can someone confirm if this can be teched out of? Usually works for me as long as I don’t miss the timing).
I know that in real matches, you hardly ever land a c.:L:. Realistically, almost 50% of my combo conversions are off of high/low mixups with my Viper BK assist. Since it’s a soft-knockdown, it’s very easy to confirm with c.:H: into the same full combo (BK is immune to HSD), which will leave me with 49 hits, in which case I usually bait them into coming in and take another snap shot (Tenderizer helps keep me safe) for level 4.
I also notice that air ToS:H: opens opponents up very often. I use the same concept to get to level 3 and go for a FFC reset, or risk a single TAC (any direction) for Inferno DHC whiff, snap shot, instant level 4/5. Since even the partial combo builds a full meter, as long as I still have the inital meter (advantage of point Frank), I will always have enough meter for DHC whiff (unless they used side-TAC).
I’ve played all kinds of matchups, and I have a fairly high win-rate (90% online as of now). I would say that I have the hardest time against zoning teams like Morridoom or Trish, or against people who turtle in the corner. In both cases, I just throw a zombie and tag in Viper (if I have 2 bars) or Skrull (1 bar) and wait for DHC whiff.
I posted a video on the Skrull forums about a video I made with Skrull / Frank / Senintel. It mostly shows ways to level up frank without using the typical methods. It shows a few ways to do hard tags and getting to level 4 without skrull or meter.
Nice vid! I tweaked my BnB a bit too, so you can get level 4 no meter and only Skrull Tenderizer assist:
Corner Press:
j.S, c.L, s.M, c.M, c.H, s.S, j.L, j.L, j.M, j.H, H.ToS, Land, c.L, c.M, c.H, s.S, j.L, j.L, j.M, j.M, j.H, Knee Drop, Call Assist, Snap Shot, Snap Shot
Anywhere Else:
j.S, c.L, s.M, c.M, c.H, s.S, j.L, j.L, j.M, j.H, H.ToS, Land, c.L, c.M, c.H, s.S, j.L, j.L, j.M, j.M, j.H, j.S, Land, G.Dash, Call Assist, Snap Shot, Snap Shot
This combo is based on Frank’s Day-1 and I think it’s much easier in execution compared to the newer Frank BnB’s, it’s really easy for online play and I almost never drop it or misinput.