I use firebrand/modok purely for the tac combos. First, firebrand is a great character with good matchups against a lot of the cast imo. Second, any hit will bring them to the corner for MODOKS best mixup: 50/50 up or down tac into death. Against some health pools you can side tac too for an easy kill. The cube buff combined with airdash cancels add some flexibility to his tac combos so I’m sure you optimize side tacs for TODs too. That would give modok a 3 way blind mixup that kills the opponent. I feel pretty grimy playing this way, but its in the game so use it to your advantage.
I have been thinking about a way to get MODOK to do a bootleg chicken block technique.
A lot MODOK players tend to forget is that while MODOK can’t chicken block like a normal character, it doesn’t mean he can’t chicken block at all. His superjump is not altered at all, it’s still same pre-jump frames like a regular character. So instead of inputing UB, input DB/D>UB. You can also do DB>B>UB to get a super jump. You are still vulnerable of getting hit by overhead mixups because you are inputting DB. However, this beats frame trap lows that would counter a regular chicken block. Which prevents stuff like Sent going for a low to punish a character from chicken blocking his command grab.
Found this little comic at Deviant Art, and it is just hilarious. It also has our boy Mookie in it, so I thought I’d share it with you guys.
http://avielsusej.deviantart.com/art/Stars-Are-Scary-271462302
Only real MVC enthusiasts will get this one, LOL.
I did some very thorough testing today to figure out how MODOK’s prejump works in UMvC3.
Regular Jump (Float? Regular Flight? Whatever) Prejump
6 FRAMES TOTAL
Airborne during frames 1-6
Airborne frames can be cancelled into specials/supers at any time
Airborne frames CANNOT be cancelled into normal attacks AT ALL
MODOK cannot BLOCK during first 5 frames (but he CAN block during the 6th)
Command Flight Prejump
3+6 = 9 FRAMES TOTAL
Grounded during first frames 1-3
**MODOK can BLOCK during grounded frames **
Can cancel grounded frames into specials/super at any time
Airborne during frames 4-9
Airborne frames CANNOT be cancelled into specials/supers AT ALL (unlike regular jump prejump)
Grounded+airborne frames cannot be cancelled into normal attacks AT ALL
MODOK Cannot BLOCK during first 5 frames of being airborne (but he CAN block during the 6th)
Superjump Prejump
3+1 = 4 FRAMES TOTAL
Grounded during frames 1-3
MODOK can BLOCK during grounded frames
Airborne during frame 4
Airborne+grounded frames can be cancelled into specials/supers at any time
Airborne+grounded frames CANNOT be cancelled into normal attacks AT ALL
MODOK can BLOCK during airborne frame
Summary!
- Basically the same as Vanilla
- Brady games guide is wrong (as it is with LOTS of stuff on MODOK)
- Superjump prejump is basically the same as everyone else
- Command flight is basically the grounded part of superjump prejump, with regular jump prejump tacked on the end… except he cannot cancel the airborne part for some reason
- Also learned that MODOK can no longer send airborne specials into the ground (balloon bombs will now change trajectory to stay above-ground, for example)
Now, I think I tested pretty thoroughly… but that’s not to say I couldn’t have fucked up somewhere… I don’t have a programmable controller to play with, and I’m only human. So I’m submitting this to you guys for peer review (SCIENCE!! :wgrin:)
I do not see what you think this is grimy, this is a perfect way to play modok. Firebrand is a good lead to begin with and can be really annoying, but he dies to quickly so feel good.
I don’t understand why they made him unable to block on his flight start up, and think this is a crap thing to have, because of his huge hitbox! Ironboy can you explain how the SJ Chicken block method beats low frame traps, because I am doing it wrong all the time (getting beat by mashed low attacks)
It’s because nobody reads the MODOK section
It also has plenty of typos in the MODOK section.
I wonder what they do if none of those people like to play that character.
Do things like otg slime flight cancel dash air m still work? wasn’t a heavy modok player in vanilla and having trouble getting what seems to be simple tech to work…
It’s because the designers INSISTED on making him airborne first frame… as some sort of quirk because of his chair/jets/whatever (or so Seth Killian told me)
If he could block, and also be airborne first frame, he would never have to worry about high/lows, never have to worry about grounded throws, and he would be able to punish basically everything on block, because you would ALWAYS hold upback and chickenblock everything… EVERYTHING! Even meaty attacks on wakeup! lol
Why it’s so bloody long is probably because they had to make his jump reach a certain height to auto-fly… there is a height restriction on flight (as well as airdashing). Seth told me it got all kind of glitchy during development with letting him immediately fly, and the height restrictions and whatnot are probably how they sorted it all out.
It just blows that they also then had to do something to prevent him from becoming a chicken-blocking monster, and they decided to make so that he can’t block… in a game like Marvel where holding up-back is the norm, and sitting still is suicide.
Yup! It fucking sucks! Being “airborne” instantly is essentially useless. So MODOK has the longest, and worst prejump in the entire game.
Yup, still works.
it works, otherwise there would be no useful tho\row follow up.
its actually pretty easy… make sure that you don’t cancel slime into flight on slime start up, otherwise it(the OTG slime of course) won’t come out
Actually one of the buffs in Ultimate was that MODOK can now just dash up, c.M > launch after his grounded throws. No fancy fly cancelling required. (but I still do it out of habit hehe)
As for after air combos midscreen, you can usually replace it with an empty triangle jump into c.M > launch to get the relaunch too.
…It might still be necessary after backward airthrows tho. 
sorry for another question, i dont understand modoks mobility fully. when you do your empty triangle jump are u inputting Up, then ADDF OR are you inputting Down, Up (superjump) then the ADDF?
that would help my damage output greatly as i usually end midscreen throws with otg slime into blaster lol. 
I agree, it is definitely a legit tactic with MODOK. A large part of the community does not like TAC combos, myself included (until ultimate that is). I never actually spent much time building my team to support it in vanilla, but in ulimate I have embraced them entirely. I feel grimy because with firebrand I am playing an annoying and extremely mobile point character with some of the best mixups in the game where damage was supposed to be a limiting factor. Add TACs to the mix and any errant hit/throw with firebrand anywhere on the screen will kill due to his easy combos and full screen wall carry. Perhaps grimy is the wrong word, but it was mostly referring to firebrand rather than modok. That character is out of control and some of his stuff is easier than it should be.
I saw in the video thread people were talking about MODOK teams and a few people were running MODOK first. How many people run MODOK second? I will only run MODOK on point if it is a matchup where he clearly has an advantage versus another character on my team to run first instead. TACs are too strong to ignore. I try to run characters able to deal with multiple types of gameplans with as long as possible wall carry to lead into TACs. So far this is Viper, Nova, Vergil, Dante and Firebrand for me. There are other characters that fit this description, but I havent played with all of the characters nor do I want to. However, If I land a hit with Viper, Nova, Virgil or Dante I can bring you to the corner from anywhere and TAC in ANY direction and get a minimum of 1million damage. Firebrand comes in a bit less killing off the 850K and under club with his side TAC due to his low damage, though. This is MODOKs best position, IMO, because if you succeed you TAC (66% chance) you will kill a character and put MODOK in the best possible position: cornered opponent with no assists, possibly with 9 cubes ready to go
It’s probably because you are inputting UB after DB, and you didn’t block all of the rapid fire low attack. The whole reason why you can get frame trap by UB, is because you didn’t block low. DB>UB gives you a moment to block that low because you are inputting DB.
If i could get the TAC combo with modok down consistently i would almost always play him second. killing in the corner with the opportunity to lay down a big shield.or jamming bomb mixup seems very valuable.
wondering what your cube combo iterations are and when do u ever decide for a side tac? what combo do u use to get 9 cubes off of that?!
The first one… no need to superjump, MODOK slides pretty far when he lands too.
While I am sure it is possible to get max cubes, I only go for 8 cubes on the side TAC. It is consistent, good damage and with the meter steal enough of a threat to cause the opponent to consider breaking out. With that, the 3-way mixup is complete with 3 strong options. I will post a video on my YT in a moment and post it here. As for my up/down cube loops I just use the NOS99 loops which are very flexible. I would definitely work on getting these combos down. Dont know if anyone watched the TNT stream, but in the top 8 video people were using TACs like CRAZY and I only saw like 1-2 breaks. If any of those guys had MODOK in the back ready to wreck things alot of those matches would have been different. Until people start breaking out of TAC with 50% or greater success rate (is this possible?) its going to be ridiculous. Especially since this creates OTHER options like resetting someone in the air that you know is Mashing on S+direction since they cannot react to the exchange.
In all honesty, I’m sure midscreen TAC combos in any direction can net 8-9 cubes much easier than before and just need to be explored. I think that was the real buff to MODOK with his dash cancels and faster cube recovery. I think Nos99 had a video with a bunch in Vanilla but I personally never used them. Time to go into the lab, I guess.
Edit:
Spoiler
[media=youtube]faB2dBe86q4[/media]
Here the combo does 826,900 with a simple starter. A firebrand corner carry B&B into TAC will net you about 880ish to 900 depending on the combo. Starting from a mid or fullscreen Bon Voyage (like after j.A, BV instant overhead in Luminous Body) will scale damage pretty bad though. Using other characters with better damage before the TAC ups the damage quite a bit. If I am using nova/viper/virgil its 970-1mil+ This works on all characters, but I omit the last cube on sent making it a 7 cube combo.
Ok guys so I considering picking up the chair because im tired of people talking shit about him not being a solid character. I did his trials and now im wondering what to do from here. Im thinking about running MODOK/Sentinel/??? Now I was wondering to things whos assist really helps MODOK’s combos and how did you all get used to his movement?
Assists that help MODOK combos:
Wesker Jaguar Dash/Kick
Sentinel Drones
Bolts of Ballthakk
Senpu-Bu
As for how I got used to his movement, he was the first character I played as. So he was how I learned the game.
Someone else could give you better answers for sure.
MODOK’s flight mode’s startup is kind of underrated imo. I agree he can’t take what he dishes out in the corner((pressure), but when he is mid screen…there isn’t really much to worry about. When most fast projectile supers like range from 8-10 in startup frame, there is a pretty good window MODOK to block stuff. We all know that MODOK can make his normal safe when his flight is still grounded. He can also block during his airdash, and if he threw out a normal.
Overall, IMO you really don’t to worry too much about dashing around as MODOK. When you got the fastest startup in the game, the airdash doesn’t really matter. I bet there is some pretty safe block strings with flight mode as well.
Probably a dumb question but did MODOK’s S Psionic Blaster always cause stagger on hit? I don’t remember this happening in vanilla.