Here are a few things I’ve noticed about AAA’s and assists in general while experimenting with the game:
There is now a small window where you can hit anti-air assists (yes, even invincible ones like Ryu’s shoryuken) before they execute their moves. The window exists between the time they land on the screen and the time it takes for them to start their moves. If you’re mashing jab and your opponent calls in their assist, there’s a very good chance that you will stuff it right on the spot (provided you’re right on top of them). If you recall, in MvC2, assists like Psylocke were pretty much invincible up until the point where they finished their move, but now you can’t just mash on the assist button and expect to get them off you. Instead, you will likely get your assist stuffed, punished, or worse. I’ve tested this with invincible AAA’s like Ryu, Morrigan, and CapAm. About the only assist that doesn’t seem to have this window of vulnerability is Haggar’s Lariat. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on the game and the value of AAA’s as a whole.
Assists now seem to take about 25-50% more damage. This makes them easier to kill than before. It seems that all it takes is one wrong assist call and a THC to almost kill them. I tested this with Doom vs. Ryu, Iron Man, and Dormammu’s triple beam THC. On point, he took about 50%, while as an assist he took roughly 75%.
Assists now have a slightly longer cooldown time. In MvC2, you could call an assist almost immediately after they left the screen. Now it appears you have to wait to get the “Assist Ok!” message on their life bar before you can call them out again. The difference is probably 2-4 seconds, but it’s noticeable in game.
Assists are now invincible while they do their exit-taunt. This makes them harder to punish, as you have to catch them while they execute their moves (in MvC2 you could wait until afterward). And in the case of projectile assists, you usually have to blow through them or jump in on them.
If anyone has noticed other interesting changes or quirks please let me know. Thanks.
I was testing some of this stuff out too while I was in the SRKMvC3 chat and folks were asking me to do so. I found also that some AAA can be hit during their recovery frames while some are only invincible once they land and start their exit animation.
This is good info answers a lot of questions I had after playing the game a bit. Was curious why my assists were getting stuffed like that. Good to know.
So does Haggar’s Lariat get stuffed before he gets on the screen? I remember that one being pure invincible until he stops spinning or close to stop spinning.
the assist “cooldown time” once they have left the screen is something that I never heard talked about before we got the game but is now proving to be a major factor and something you really have to adjust to after mvc2. The cool down even applies to the assist who didn’t come out.
also is there a list of changes from mvc2 to mvc3 for when you can’t call out assists during a match? seems there are several of them.
I also tested mashing jabs with Morrigan’s AAA, Zero’s AAA, She-Hulk’s AAA, X-23’s AAA, Dante’s AAA, Doom’s AAA, and Wolverine’s AAA. It beat out all of them. Again, the only exception was Haggar. He also appears behind you which makes him pretty good anti-teleport assist (i’m thinking of Dante’s teleport specifically).
Also, assists were not invincible during their exit taunts. That was usually when they got punished by Cable’s AHVB or Storm’s Typhoon xxx Hail. This actually changes the dynamic of the game significantly, since you don’t really need to protect assists as much as you used to. I also think this makes quick assists far more useful (i.e. C. Viper’s ground pound, Magneto’s EM Disruptor) since they are only vulnerable while they’re attacking. Conversely, it also makes AAAs even worse because there is more recovery time built into the actual move, whereas someone with a fast recovering projectile that appears behind the PC (i.e. Magneto) has a very small window of vulnerability and they’re actually shooting shit at you during that time.
No, I said in my first post that Haggar is the exception. He can’t be stuffed by rapid fire jabs or anything else for that matter.
My apologies. Have you tested against Viewtiful Joe’s AAA? I believe it’s called Red Hot Upper or something. According to some VJ players, that assist is invincible. Perhaps there are much fewer invincible assists this time around.
As for the whole taunt thing being invincible… yeah that was a great buff for assist protection. The taunt proportion was the part that assists would get combo’ed from the most.
IIRC, You could always use two assists in this game. But if you somehow use an assist and continue a combo, whatever assist you used won’t be able to be summoned against until your combo stops.
These are the Invincible AAA’s in MvC2 that I know for sure.
Psylocke [Start-Up]
Cyclops [Start-Up]
Ken [until he lands]
Jin [stops being invincible when he gets naked]
Cammy [when she hits someone she loses invincibility. If whiffs then until she lands]
Ryu and CapAm never had invincible AAA’s in MvC2. Infact Cap’s AAA had terrible priority. Ryu I can’t recall, but Akuma’s AAA can get stuffed. Morrigan was always never invincible as well. The way we tested how “invincible” an assist was if it could survive a hailstorm. Ken was the only one that had full invincibility while he was out until he started to land. Psy/Cyke could get through some of it before their invincibility ran out.
From what I gather, there are very few flat out invincible assists. The only one that we know for sure is Haggar’s Lariat and the rumored VJ’s AAA.
When I say invincible, I mean just a few frames in the beginning. I don’t mean it’s completely invincible all the way up like Ken or Cammy’s assist. In MvC2, Ryu’s AAA was invincible when he jumped in and he continued to be invincible for few frames after his hitbox became active. He was not invincible the whole time, but if someone was on top of you, he would beat out just about anything they were doing. In MvC3, Ryu jumps in, is vulnerable for about half a second, and THEN he starts his shoryuken which has a few frames of invincibility during the beginning. That’s the difference. If there’s a meaty attack where Ryu would come in, MvC2 Ryu would beat it out, whereas MvC3 Ryu would get stuffed. I hope I clarified what I meant by invincible anti airs.
Also, I tested Viewtiful Joe’s AAA and he gets stuffed when he jumps in just like everyone else. He may very well have invincibility on his upper, but that doesn’t kick in immediately. He jumps in, is vulnerable for a small window of time, and then he starts his move.
So how are they different from any other assist? AAA’s were never stated to be always invincible. From the way you describe it, looks like everything can be jabbed out if spammed at the right time. That’s kinda why Psy/Cyke were the usual AAA’s of choice. CapCom’s AAA was done so fast and he kinda ducked so he would avoid a lot of crap when he would come down. Assist getting stuffed before they get a chance to do anything is nothing new.
for hulk is it his ground rock throw thing? dont know the name lol. but yeah i couldnt stuff that last night against my friend, figured it was shitty timing on my part… maybe not.
which of thors assists is invincible from frame 1?
I tried Thor’s Mighty Smash and Might Strike, both of them can be stuffed. Actually Hulk seems to have armor of some kind on his assist, as I was able to damage him, but it didn’t stop him from doing his move.
Yeah I was just testing this and nah thor is still useless but she hulks flash kick seems pretty decent because of the angle she comes it its pretty useful not sure if its inv though
I think there may be very few pure invincible assists aside from Haggar. Even then Haggar gives up some of his life to use it. Hulk has some armor capabilities in his specials so he may not be invincible he will blast through most things. Thor has no super armor. Sentinel has super armor on his standing launcher and crouching heavy. He no longer has standing launcher as an assist. All of Sentinel’s assists can be stuffed quite easy before he can do anything.
Hell even in MvC2 Doom rocks could be stopped if you got him fast enough.
Hsien-Ko with Dark Force gains hyper armor, it seems like she takes more damage by things with multiple hits aka beams. Much like how Colossus took extra damage/had slowdown when he took a beam to the face. Perhaps less invincible assists was a balance decision so that characters simply won’t be “assist characters”.