Marvel 101: The UMVC3 Basics Thread

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:25am

Hey guys. This is to replace the <a href=“So You Wanna Go For a Ride?: Syke and Windy’s MvC3 Basics Thread”>Syke and Windy Basics thread for MVC3</a>. Some of this information is outdated or needs to be elaborated more. Shout outs to Syke and Windsagio for holding it down in 2010 when the game was first announced. Hope you guys still lurk the forums. This is gonna be a little tough to read because there are no smilies for this version of SRK, so bare with me. L = Light Attack M = Medium Attack H = Heavy Attack S = Special Attack (Launch button) A1 = Assist 1 A2 = Assist 2 d= Down d/f= Down forward f = Forward d/b = Down back b= Back u = Up u/b = Up back u/f = Up forward QCF = Quarter circle forward or d, d/f, f, or 236 QCB = Quarter circle back or d, d/b, b or 214 DP = Dragon Punch or f, d, d/f or 623 RDP = Reverse Dragon Punch or b, d, d/b or 421 HCF = Half circle forward or b, d/b, d, d/f, f or 41236 HCB = Half circle back or f, d/f, d, d/b, b or 63214 St. = Standing Cr. = Crouching J. = Jumping Sj. = Super Jump Introduction Welcome to the world of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This game is the second installment of the first version (or vanilla version) of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This game is the pinnacle of hype and salt throughout the FGC. If you are looking to join into the hype, beat up on your friends, or just want to expand your game beyond what you know, then you will get all that you need from this thread. You will learn from the basics of moving, to combo creation, to team compositions and even advanced tactics of the insanity that this game is. We’ll start with the most important thing in this game, movement. To Do list: Miscellanous stuff (Kubota escape, guard breaks, TAC Infinites) More detail on assists Where to go portion. Edit in sections in OP

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:25am

Movement Walking - Walking is the slowest and the most basic form of movement in a fighting
game. There is no real purpose to use this unless there is some type of
positioning you need for a set-up or you trying to bait something out.
To walk, you simply hold forward or back on your controller of choice. Jumping - A basic form of air mobility in any fighting game. This is good for avoid simple ground stuff like a hadouken. To jump, you hold up, upback or upforward on your controller of choice. Whether
you jump up, upforward or upback will determine where you jump. If you
just do up, you will jump straight up. If you do up foward, you will
jump forward. If you do up back, you will jump backwards. NOTE: Some
characters have up to 3 jumps in the air. Others have only 1. Depending
on the character you pick, you have to commit to a jump. Super Jump - A basic form of air mobility, except it gets you much much much higher than a regular jump. To do a super jump, you tap down and then up on your controller of choice. Crouching - Its more of a stance than movement. Crouching is when you make your character get into a crouching position. To do this, you hold down, downback, or downforward on your controller of choice.
Your character will not be able to move forward or backwards if he is
crouching, however your character will be able to attack and block.
NOTE: Some characters, like Amaterasu can avoid certain moves when
crouching. Depending on the size of the character and/or how low the
character stoops with crouching you will be able to avoid some things
like fireballs, jabs and even some hypers. Dashing - There are many forms of dashing but this is the most basic version of a dash. To dash, you tap forward twice or back twice on your controller of choice or you can press two attack buttons at the same time. This is how you want to get in and get out most of the time on the ground.
The problem with dashing is that you have to commit to it. However, in
versus games, you don’t have to commit to a dash. NOTE: Some characters can cancel their dash by pressing down on their controller of choice or by doing an attack. This is essential to know to wavedash, which will be explained in the next segment. Wavedashing - The quickest form of dashing in this game. To wavedash, you press 2 attack buttons, then you press down, and repeat.
People argue that this is the best way to get in because you don’t
really have to commit to anything you do and its consistent than its
predecessor, “Plink Dashing”. Having the ability to cancel your dash is
powerful to reduce the chances of you getting hit by something random.
Also, wavedashing gets you close and far so fast that its always a must
to learn, especially if you have a character that can do it. Problem is
that its limited in the options you can do. All you can do in go in. And
its alot harder than “Plink Dashing”. NOTE: Some characters cannot
wavedash because they cannot cancel their dash by pressing down. Some
character have to jump cancel their dashes. Plink dashing - Plink
dashing is new to the Marvel series. Due to the leniency of the inputs
in modern day fighting games, you can trick the game into think you are
dashing, canceling it with a normal, but not really doing a normal, you
are really dashing. Its really really weird to explain. First you have
to learn what P-linking is first. P-linking is when you pressing 2 inputs so fast together that you end up getting 2 of the same inputs a frame apart of each other.
A common way to p-link is like hp ~ mp in street fighter 4. Instead of
the game registering your inputs as HP and MP. It reads it as though you
are really doing HP, then MP and HP at the same time a frame later.
Because the heavier buttons have priority over the medium and light
buttons, the HP will always come out. Same with MP~LP. You get the MP
because the Medium buttons will get priority over the light buttons. Plink
dashing is somewhat the same way. Lets say you did H~ML. The game will
register you doing the H, but a frame later, it will register you doing
the dash, and because dashes get more priority than attack buttons you
will get the dash. If you were to do it again, you dash will be canceled
by the H, but then you pressed LM a frame afterwards. And since they
are so much together and dashes take priority over attacks, you will get
the dash again. Do this multiple times in a row and you get something
that looks like a perfect wavedash, but really, you are "Kara-Canceling"
your attack button with a dash. I really hope you guys understand. Anyway,
the reason that people believe plink dashing is powerful and the best
method to dashing is because you get an “Option Select Grab”. If you are
super close to your opponent and you were to Plink Dash, you will grab
them. If you weren’t close to them, you will get a dash. Its like you
never have to commit. Only problem is that if you were to mess up, you
will throw out an attack button which is something you don’t want to do
in this game, because if you were to whiff something, there is a huge
chance in high level play that your character is dead. So you
technically are committing to something when you Plink Dash. NOTE:
Plink Dashing vs. Wavedashing. Who wins? This is entirely up to
preference. I myself prefer wavedashing for the same reason at IFC Yipes
does, because I find it more consistent than plink dashing. Others,
like K-Beast, prefer Plink Dashing, probably because of the options you
have with it. Whichever you choose is fine, as long as you PRACTICE. Airdash: An advanced version of air movement. To airdash, you jump and press 2 attack buttons at the same time.
Some characters have the option to double jump and an option to
airdash. However, you cannot jump twice AND airdash, unless you are
certain characters like Chun-Li and Viewtiful Joe. You have to commit to one. Yes, you can do this in super jump height.

Flight- Flight mode is limited between a few characters in the game, in where they enter a mode to “walk in the air”. To activate flight, you perform it mostly with QCB + S. In flight mode, you stay in the air for a set amount of time. You have unlimited airdashes (if your character has airdashes and flight mode), for you can dash as long as your character can stay in flight mode. You can deactivate flight mode with unfly (QCB+S when in the air) or by pressing the S button. NOTE: MODOK goes into flight mode just by jumping.

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:25am

Defense Blocking - Basic form of defense in this game. To block, you hold back or down-back on your controller of choice. Certain attacks you have to block a certain way. A low attack you would have to hold downback for. A high attack (jump in and overhead) you have to hold back. Knowing when and how to block comes with playing the game and learning about the character. NOTE: You can block in the air. Something known as chicken guarding. Advancing Guard (Pushblock) - Pushblock is an advanced form of defense. To pushblock, you must be blocking and then press 2 or more attack buttons. Pushblocking is important because it not only gets your opponent off you, but it reduces chip damage (or damage on block) when mashed and can lead to your opponent whiff a huge move so you can whiff punish. Only thing about pushblock is that it makes certain things that unsafe, safe because you push your opponent away and it leaves you in block stun longer. It can be dangerous to pushblock you in the air because you can be susceptible to something called “guard breaks”, which I will explain later. Chicken Blocking (Up back) - Chicken blocking is what some people call “upbacking”. When you upback, you can block overheads, and airmoves. Depend on the frame advantage of that air move, you can punish it. IE. Vergil’s Helmbreaker is a fast move that give him 0 frame advantage, which means its safe. However, if you chicken block Helm breaker, you turn that air move from 0 to -7 or something like that. The disadvantage of chicken blocking is that they can catch you with a low before you leave the ground. Gotta be careful when and when not to chicken block. Assists Assist - Your assist is exactly what it is called. It helps you. It can help you get in, rush down, build meter, extend combos, and even help you with set-ups. To do an assist, you press your assist button on your controller. Each character in this game has 3 assist, alpha, beta, and gamma. Its up to you to figure out what assist you need to use. You are allowed to use 2 assist at a time. If one of your characters die, you lose the ability to call that assist anymore. Tagging - Tagging is a basic way to get your other characters in. To tag, you hold down your assist button of choice. Tagging is unsafe, but it has uses. It is an overhead, which means that if they are not blocking that standing, they will get hit and they will not be able to punish the tag. Choose when you want to tag. Delayed Hyper Combo (DHC) - This is another way to switch characters in, whether to do more damage or just to get another character in safely. To DHC, you must be doing a hyper (which costs a bar to do), and then perform your next character’s hyper in the middle of that hyper (will cost you another bar). NOTE: DHC’s skips the start up of your next character’s hyper. This is a great tool to catch people off guard. Team Hyper Combo (THC) - A team hyper combo brings in all your characters and they do a super corresponding with their assist you choose at the character select screen. To THC, you press both assist buttons at the same time. Depending on the meters you have, your corresponding assist will come out. If you don’t understand, lets say you have 2 meters and you THC, your point character and your A1 (assist 1) will come out and do their hyper. If you have 3 meters, your point and both your assists will come out and do their hypers. If you only have one meter, your point character will just do its hyper. NOTE: You can cancel certain unique attacks and chains with THCs, but not special moves. Variable counter - A variable counter is yet another way to get another character out for a cost of a meter. To do this, you must be blocking, and then press forward and an assist button when a move makes contact with your body. The assist you press will come out doing their assist move and some will gain some invulnerability during their move. Snapbacks - A snapback is a powerful manuever to get another character you depise out for a cost of a meter. To do this, you do QCF and an assist button. When it makes contact, your opponent’s assist will come out and your opponent can’t tag, call an assist, counter, DHC, THC, or anything involving their partner. Which assist depends on the assist button you press. Snapbacks are all 2 frames, with the exception of a couple of characters (Chun-Li’s is 1 frame).

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:26am

The combo system This game’s combo system is absolutely ridiculous. There is alot to know about it in order to become a master of it. Magic series - A staple of the vs. games. The magic series changes with every character, because every character has a rule set they must abide to that dictates what normal moves can be chained into other normal moves. You cannot backtrack in a magic series. Almost every character has a sequence derived from one of
four “base” Magic Series.
Note: Some characters have rulesets with their unique moves to use in chain combos. Its up to you to figure out. Zig Zag Magic Series- In the Zig-Zag Magic Series, you have the ability to chain all 6
different forms of attacks (L, M, and H while standing and L, M, and H
while crouching) into each other. The order which you can perform your
moves is as follows: st. L, cr. L, st. M, cr. M, st. H, cr. H, S Stronger Magic Series- In the Stronger Magic Series, you can typically only chain into a
stronger attack. The order which you can perform you moves is as
follows:
 L, M, H, S. Any of those can be standing, crouching, or a mix between the two. Stronger+ Magic Series - The Stronger+ Magic Series is exactly like Stronger. The real only
difference is that you are allowed to chain Light Attacks. It can either be a bunch of cr. or st. Ls or you can chain a st. L with a cr. L before
needing to move to a stronger button. The order which you can perform
you moves is as follows: L (however many you can fit in), M, H, S. Light Start Magic Series - For the Light Start Magic Series, Medium and Heavy Attack buttons all
fall into one group, and you can only start the Chain from a Light
Attack and chain into any of the four stronger buttons (standing or
crouching m and standing or crouching h). But that’s the end of it from
there. So the order would be: L, M or H, S. Air Combos (Aerial Raves) - If you press the S buttons in a magic series, or just raw S and you hold up, you will automatically go into a super jump and you are able to perform something called an air combo. A combo air magic series is j. M, j. M, j. H, j. S. After you press the S button in the air, your opponent will be knocked down all the way to the ground and the screen will drag to the ground. Team Aerial Combos (Exchange combos or TAC’s) - If you were to put your opponent in an air combo and you were to press S with Up, Side (left and right) and Down after something like j. M, j. M, j. H, then you can do something called a TAC. With this brand new versus series mechanic, you negate all hit stun deterioration of your combos and you are able to extend a combo by switching your other character in. This mechanic is ridiculous because that means you can make combos that build tons of meter and end up killing a character in one hit. However, your opponent is able to counter a TAC. If you were to do side TAC, he would have to counter the side TAC to get out of it. Not only do they get out of it, but you take damage for it. With the TAC comes a reward for a good guess. If you go up, you get more damage. If you go side, you get to subtract a meter from your opponent. If you go down, you gain a stock of meter. Knockdown - There are 2 types of knockdown: Hard knockdown and soft knockdown. Hard knockdown is when you knock your opponent down and they can’t get up for a certain period of time. Depending on a move, they extend their hard knockdown and you can OTG (on the ground) with that move. Soft knockdown is when you knock your opponent down and they almost immediately get up when they hit the floor. You can’t OTG after that. Know what moves knockdown and what type of knockdown. NOTE: Air combos automatically cause hard knockdowns. Bounce - There are 2 different types of bounces: Wall bounce and ground bounce. A wall bounce is a bounce that bounces you off the wall. A ground bounce is a bounce that bounces you on the ground. You can only use one of each bounce unless there are weird stipulations (like Nova’s Centurion Rush M). If you do another bounce move after you already bounced them, you will make them soft knockdown. Bounces allow you to extend combos and create longer combos. Learn what moves creates a bounce. NOTE: A side TAC uses a wall bounce and a down TAC uses a ground bounce. Keep that in mind when you TAC. On the Ground (OTG) - An OTG is a move that you can hit your opponent with while they are in a hard knockdown state, usually after an air combo or a move than causes hard knockdown. Not everybody has an OTG move, but some assist can OTG and you can extend a combo like that. Hitstun Deterioration (HSD) - Hit Stun Deterioration is a new mechanic to UMVC3 that attempts to limit the number of hits in combo that you can do. The best way I can explain it is that each hit you do has a set amount of hit stun. Now as the combo gets longer, the hit stun of each moves starts to decrease. If you try to continue a combo farther than its suppose to, or wait too late to do another hit, then your opponent will end up flipping out of the combo. NOTE: Two things. 1. Assists adds to HSD in this version. 2. TACs negate hit stun. Its gotten to a point where you can do infinites from this mechanic. Will be explained later. Stagger - A stagger is a state where your opponents character looks as though they are trying to gain their footing from a blow. This usually happens when certain moves counterhit. Combo creation is more like exhausting all the options you got with your character and your team. In Marvel 3, you got alot of characters with plenty of combo options and assist that are really good for extending combos. With your team, you should be able to a minimum of 750k with one meter and your DHC should do close to 950k. Your combo have to kill or else you are gonna have a tough time to compete in Marvel 3. If you need to look for bnbs for your character, make a trip to the character forums and the combo threads.

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:26am

How to make a team There are 3 different philosophies on how to make a team in this game. 1. Point/Assist/Anchor - This format is used alot in Marvel 3. Typically, players would use their point character most of the time with their assist and they save up the meter or x-factor for their anchor character to use during the clutch time in the match. Example: Wesker/Haggar/Phoenix 2. Battery/User/Assist - This is what I like to call, “The Marvel 2 format”. Your point character (or battery) would build meter and use it to kill a character or to DHC their meter user in the game. Their end character is their main assist that they use for both of your front characters. Example: Wolverine/Storm/Akuma 3. Point/Assist/Assist - This is the optimal team composition for people who want to make a team based around a certain character on point. These assist not only support the characters weaknesses, but give him optimized combos. Example: Zero/Dante/Vergil Ultimately its up to the player to decide what team format they should play. Types of characters I learned in Marvel 2 that there are 3 different types of characters in a versus game, and in this game there is no exception to the rule: Pixies, Projectile and Big Bodies. Pixies - Pixies are the glass cannons of the game. They excel at rushing down and they do damage when they get in, but they are delicate to any touch. Pixies can avoid the nonsense of projectiles and what not and even some attacks if your movement is crispy. Projectile - Projectile characters are characters that can fill the screen with stuff and possibly catch you off guard. Projectile characters aren’t as noticeable in versus games because they can do other stuff instead of keepaway. Projectile characters have average health and they are not very small, nor big. Big Bodies - Big bodies are the tanks in this game. They do alot of damage and they have alot of health, but they are big and slow. You can look at a character and tell that the character is a big body, with an exception of a few characters which are debatable. They typically have large priority moves with great range and they can possibly have armor. NOTE: Just because they are labeled as pixies or big bodies does not mean they are out of reach of a projectile game. You will just have to look at the character and see what they got. Countering Characters There are many ways to counter a character. The most common and easier way is to counter pick a character. There are exceptions to this rule (IE Zero, a pixie who destroys Big Bodies but has a tough time with projectile characters), but this is the general rule. Think of this like rock paper scissors. Pixies > Projectiles, Projectiles > Big Bodies, Big Bodies > Pixies. Learn what team they are picking. If its a team full of pixies, then picking a team full of big bodies would be the hard counter to that team. So on and so forth. A theoretically un-counterable team would be a team that consist of a big body, a projectile and a pixie in one team. You shouldn’t have any real match-up problems but you can’t hard counter a team. Again, what team you pick is entirely up to preference.

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:26am

Characters in the game I will try to be as detailed, yet short as possible about each character in this game. There are 50 characters in this game. I will list their name, Magic Series Type, body type and a brief overview of what they can do. Akuma Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie This character is the equivalent of his past incarnations in videogames. He does a ridiculous amount of damage (his basic combo does 1.05 million with 2 bars), but you touch him once, he’s dead because of his 750k health. He has a decent projectile game, a teleport, raging demon, a demon flip and a great assist in Tatsumaki. Amaterasu Magic Series: Zig-Zag Type: Pixie This character is a very small character with pretty good versatility. She has great mixups, and a decent projectile game to keep giants out. She has the ability to change her weapons to give her a different moveset However, she has 800k health. Meaning that if she gets hit, there is a good chance she is dead. Godlike assist with Cold Star. Arthur Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Projectile Another small character with almost no mobility (literally, no dash), but a pretty decent zoning game when you get started. He has the ability to upgrade his armor to make his projectiles and entire moveset better along with an increase of damage. However, after the Gold armor breaks, you get hard knocked down and you become naked Arthur, which makes you take more damage when you get hit. Play him if you want a pure keepaway character with a risk to him. C. Viper Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie She isn’t really a small character, but she has very very strong rushdown and does alot of damage. She has the ability to EX her moves with a cost of a meter. EX Seismo is a very powerful get off of me tool. Alot of her moves are invincible and she has pretty annoying keepaway for a pixie character, making her one of the stronger characters in the game. Pick her if you want a mobile character that can do it all. Captain America Magic Series: Stronger+ with restrictions (2 other attack buttons after light) Type: Projectile Cap is a character that excels in the mid range game. He uses his shield slash to keep people out and to confirm a combo. He has a move that charges through fireballs to get in and punish bad beams and fireballs. Problem is that in close range and far range, he cannot compete with the majority of the cast. If you like a character that excels in the mid range game with decent health and great damage, Cap is your character. Chris Redfield Magic Series: Stronger Type: Projectile Chris is one of the most dangerous characters from long range in the game. His full screen magnum leads to alot of damage with a short combo. He has plenty of ways to kill your characters with optimized assists. His grenades has alot of great uses for keepaway and combos. His mobility is pretty bad though. If you like a character that excels with getting damage from full screen with limited mobility, then Chris is the character for you. Chun-Li Magic Series: Stronger+ (?) Type: Pixie Chun is an extremely mobile character. She has alot of jump cancels in this game. She can jump up to 3 times and has an airdash that goes down forward. The problem is that she doesn’t do that much damage for a pixie character in this game, and her most damaging combos have crazy amounts of execution requires and strict timing. If you want to have an extremely mobile character with challenging combos, then Chun is the character for you. Dante Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Pixie Dante, though I consider him a pixie, is a very versatile character with many projectiles for use. His damage isn’t as ridiculous as it was in MVC3, but he still has alot of combos, a great assist in Jam Session and he has safe DHCs, making him still a great choice. Pick Dante if you want one of the most versatile characters in the game. Deadpool Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Projectile Deadpool is a run and gun character with the ability to get in close when he needs to with his teleports. His combo potential is greatly increased with his ability to cancel quickwork and his guns with his teleport. If you like a versatile character with an easy, effective playstyle, play Deadpool. Doctor Strange Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Projectile Doctor Strange is a zoning character that can create mixups with his zoning, but has limited ground mobility. His Eye of Aggomatto makes for a great anti-air projectile that you can knock away with impact palm (f+H). Doctor Strange has the only hyper projectile counter super in the game. He also has one of the better DHC hypers in the game, since it is so fast and it tracks anywhere on the screen seemingly impossible to avoid. Dormammu Magic Series: Stronger Type: Projectile Dormammu is another zoning character with a unique game. Very limited movement, but with the combination of his power of the creator and power of the destructor and a teleport and airdash at his side, he can make a dangerous zoning game with a decent assist behind. If you want a very strong and slow methodical zoning game, then Dormammu is a great character for you. Dr. Doom Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Projectile Dr. Doom is one of the strongest characters in the game. Although his zoning game is what is the most notable about Doom, his rush game is very much formidable. Footdive (j. S) is one of the best air normals in the game due to its large hitbox and the speed of the normal. His damage is very high and his corner mixups are very scary. He also has 2 of the best assist in the game, with plasma beam and hidden missiles and crazy amounts of TACs. Doom is a good character to put on any team. To be continued…

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:26am

Character descriptions continued Felicia Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Pixie Felicia is a
very fast, ground based character with surprising air movement with her
air Delta Kick. With the combination of her wall cling, wall jumps, air
delta kick and assists, she can create some tricky 50/50s. With the cost
of a meter, she can call her helper kitty and create tricky unblockable
or “hard to block” setups. If you want a basic rushdown character with
tricky setups, Felicia is a good character for you. Firebrand Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Pixie Firebrand
is a mobile air character with fireballs and tons of safe stuff. He can
stay in the air for a long time due to the ability to shoot up to 3
fireballs in the air. He has unblockable setups with his H Demon
Missile, but its tough to set up. Firebrand does very little damage, but
he makes up for it with his setups and versatility. If you are looking
for a tricky, air mobile character, then Firebrand is a great character
for you. Frank West Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Pixie Frank
West is a unique character in this game with a level up mechanic with
his snap shot attack. He is a limited character at lvl 1, but once you
level him up, he becomes a much better character. When leveled up, he
gets probably the best air normal in the game with his j. M and he gains
invincibility on his survival techniques. If you like a character that
becomes better during the match and an assist that is fast and wide
(shopping cart), then Frank is for you. Ghost Rider Magic Series: Light Start Type: Projectle Ghost
Rider is the closest thing to Dhalsim that this game will get. You get
long ranged normals that confirm into full damage. You get a great
normal with j. S and st. H. You get a decent projectile game, but up
close is the worst situation for Ghost Rider due to movement and no get
off me moves. If you like a character that can confirm from fullscreen
with a challenging up close game, then Ghost Rider is the character for
you. Haggar Magic Series: Stronger Type: Big Body Haggar
is a ridiculously hard hitting character that can kill a character with
one combo. His air pipe is a long reaching normal with alot of priority
and it cause a hard knockdown AND a ground bounce. His mobility is
limited, but once he gets that hit, it can be all over for your
opponents entire team. His lariat is full invincible and can lead into a
full combo when it hits at a certain height. If you want a big
character with an invincible move, hard hitting team combos and a great
assist, then Haggar is for you. Hawkeye Magic Series: Light Start+ Type: Projectile Hawkeye
is a character with annoying keepaway and surprisingly good ground
movement. His one frame super is optimal for whiff punishing. He also
has arrows that can poison you and sap your yellow health away. His
damage and air movement is lacking, but he more than makes up for it
with his options on the ground. If you want a great keepaway game with
some escape options, Hawkeye is a great choice. Hsien-Ko Magic Series: ZigZag Type: Projectile Hsien-Ko
is a character with a random keepaway game an a hyper armor super. When
she does her armor super, she is allowed to tag out, being an assist
that can’t be stopped unless killed. Her items come out almost randomly,
but they are really good for zoning out. Her health isn’t very good,
her mobility is butt and her damage output is pretty bad, but she can
definitely lame someone out with her reflectors and her items. If you
want a strict keepaway game with limited options, then Hsien-Ko is for
you. Hulk Magic Series: Light Start Type: Big Body Hulk is exclusively there to bully you. His st. H is a really good armor move that ground bounces. St. M is another good armor move. His Gamma Charge has outstanding armor and his gamma wave has really good durability. His weakness is that he is slow and he is solely momentum, making him a streaky character. If you want a big body with tons of armor, damage, health, and a great projectile, pick Hulk. Iron Fist Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Iron Fist is an extremely fast and advanced ground based character. He has great long ranged buttons optimal for whiff punishing the fastest and farthest moves. His combos are extremely damaging. However, he can’t get much from an anti air and he has no air game whatsoever. If you want a ground based footsie character with a weak and limited air game, Iron Fist is for you. Iron Man Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Projectile Iron Man is a character that excels in the air game. He has great air buttons that make him almost impossible to anti-air him. Unibeam is a great tool, along with smart bombs and repulsor blast. His problem lies in the execution requirements for Ironman. His BNB takes 700k and is extremely hard to grasp if you weren’t an Ironman player in the first place. If you want a character with an extremely solid neutral game with tough execution requirement. Ironman is for you. Jill Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Jill is an extremely mobile character. She has a feral crouch that helps her move across the screen, gain access to more moves, and extend combos. Her mad beast lvl 3 gains her insane movement and insane combos. Her weakness lies in her complexity her health. If you want a complex character with tons of sweet combos, then pick Jill. Magneto Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie Magneto is a very fast, yet versatile character. He has tons of combos to learn to go with his infinite amount of hit confirms. His airdash downforward magnetic blast is godlike for zoning and pressure. He has the ability (new to UMVC3) to control the gravity around his opponent (attraction, repulsion, gravitation). He has a really fast beam for an assist and he has great buttons and options. If you want a strong overall character with huge combo options, pick Magneto. MODOK Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Projectile MODOK is a very odd character. He is an extremely versatile character with a level up mechanic called Levels of Understanding (LOU) where you can power up your attacks. He is a big body with amazing movement and a great projectile game. His combos are great but they are complex and need the help of assists to do the max damage. He cannot upback, but he can normal jump into flight mode. If you want a versatile animal with great combos and a complex leveling system, then Modok is for you. To be continued

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:26am

Character descriptions continued Morrigan Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Projectile Morrigan used to be considered not that good of a character, but ever since Chris G started winning and other Morrigan players are showing up, Morrigan has really been a good character. She has a weird dash that puts her airborne. She is very mobile in the air also and has a ridiculous j. S. Along with some great air normals, she has a ridiculous projectile game with her astral vision and her flight canceled fireballs. Pick Morrigan if you want an extremely strong zoning game in exchange for less damage. Nemesis Magic Series: Stronger Type: Big Body Nemesis is a hulking big character that bullies you with his outstanding air normals and frame traps. He has a rocket with really small durability, but amazing damage for a single hit projectile (150k!). He has a grab special he can combo out of. He has great resets to one touch kill your opponent with. His downsides are that he isn’t a very good character to DHC into, he doesn’t have anything really safe and he doesn’t do much damage as a big body. Pick Nemesis if you want a versatile character with great air normals and frame traps. Nova Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie Nova is one of the most solid characters in the game, due to the vast amount of tools, priority and damage that he has. He has long ranged normals, a j. H with amazing frame advantage and huge hitbox, a godlike grab range, a vertical tracking projectile, a shield projectile and a super that goes through projectiles. His downside is that some of his specials get rid of red health and his airdash is pretty awkward and weird to use. Pick Nova if you want an extremely solid character that can fight all matchups. Phoenix Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Phoenix is a very powerful character. People look at her inferior health and damage and think she is a bad character, however, combined with her movement, x-factor and her dark phoenix mode, she becomes the most powerful anchor in the game, with the ability to kill any character with or without meter. She, however is seen as a liability because of the notion that you cannot spend meter with her on the team. Pick Phoenix if you want a powerful last slot and you are willing to conserve meter. Phoenix Wright Magic Series: Stronger + Type: Projectile Phoenix Wright has the most odd moveset in the game. He has 3 different modes, each having a different moveset. His main goal is to gather 3 pieces of evidence so he can go into investigation mode, where he needs to do objection to activate turnabout mode. In turnabout mode, he becomes one of the scariest characters in the game. He also gains access to his level 3, that does 600k. Phoenix Wright’s problem lies in his bad movement and his limited normals in investigation and trial mode. Pick PW if you want a character that is high risk high reward. Rocket Raccoon Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Rocket Raccoon is quite a fast character with access to a solid keepaway game. Combined with his traps and rocket skates, he can create some tricky mixups for anybody to block. He has many instant overheads to go along with his crossups. Rocket Raccoon doesn’t do alot of damage at all and he has really bad health for a character that doesn’t have much health. Pick Rocket Raccoon if you are a fan of limitless movement and tricky mixups. Ryu Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Projectile Ryu is a pretty basic and standard character in this game. He has a very durable hadouken, a charged up hadouken that wall bounces, and a fireball he can fire multiple times (5 I think). He has a shoryuken that is quite invincible (that you can make super by using the S button) and he has his Tatsu, which is great for combos. He does alot of damage for a character so basic, but Ryu has pretty bad air mobility and he can’t chase people well. Pick Ryu if you want a basic character that does alot of damage. Sentinel Magic Series: Light Start Type: Big Body Sentinel is one of the largest characters in this game. He is so tall and susceptible to instant overheads. However, he does ALOT of damage. When he gets the hit (which it isn’t hard with his outstanding air normals and armored moves), you can guarantee that your opponents character is dead. His problem lies in his health. A big body with 900k health is pretty terrible. Pick Sentinel if you want a big body with great footsies, great damage, and armor in exchange for his less than average health. She Hulk Magic Series: Stronger Type: Big Body She Hulk is a powerhouse with great speed and damage. She has a run start move that allows her to get across the screen and gain access to some moves. Off this run start, she can also bounce off the wall and dive at you. She has command grabs that stun and gives her some strong combos. She can get zoned out quite easily, but when she gets in, it turns into a nightmare. Pick She-Hulk if getting in close and doing damage is your main concern. Shuma Gorath Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie This dimensional overlord has many ways to open you up. Alot of his moves are instant overheads and they are cancelable to another overhead move (mystic smash). He also has an annoying projectile game with his mystic ray. Chaos Dimension, his level 3, is capable of grabbing your out of guard stun, making this a very annoying move for people to deal with. His weakness is that he is very fast for a pixie character. Pick Shuma if you want a character that can mix you up at will when he gets in close. Spencer Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie Spencer is the tank of the game. He’s borderline a big body, but his speed and size make him a pixie. He can get across the screen in a heart beat with his wire zip. His Up grapple into reel in punch does 80k of unscaled damage. With his many ways to get that 80k and his supers doing alot of damage at maximum scaling, he can rack up the damage extremely fast. His normals aren’t that good, but having access to an invincible 2f super, the ability to get the hit easy and the ability to kill you off a grab, Spencer is still a threat to the strongest players. Pick Spencer if you want a great rushdown character. Spider-Man Magic Series: Stronger+ Type: Pixie Spider is an extremely agile character that can do alot of damage with select assists. He is able to cancel his special moves with web zip, making him a very safe character. His weakness lies in his normals and him being so fragile. Pick Spiderman if you want to be all around the screen and confirm off of almost anything. Storm Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Projectile Storm is an extremely agile character with a set of great punish hypers to kill assists and even catch stuff that you opponent does that is punishable. She has several overheads and resets that can make her a scary character to try to block against. Her flaws are that she doesn’t do alot of damage and that her health doesn’t compensate for it. Pick Storm if you want a good punish character with great mobility. Strider Hiryu Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Strider is a very odd, yet dangerous character. He has 2 level 3’s. One good for combo enders and the other for ridiculous pressure and mixups. His mobility is very good for annoying people and escaping danger from the opponent. He doesn’t do good damage or have good health, but he has tricky cross ups and resets to help him do damage. Vajra is an amazing assist and he is an extremely dangerous anchor. Pick Strider if you want a character with an amazing pressure game along with movement. Super Skrull Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Super Skrull thrives off of annoying you with his mobility and cross ups. He has a command grab to add into the madness that is Super Skrull. Meteor Smash is a teleport move that gets you from one part of the screen to another, that is also a cross up, an overhead and avoids fireballs easily. He has stubby normals and he can get oppressed pretty easily due to nothing to get people off of him, but he is still a nuisance to every player. Pick Super Skrull if you want tricky mix ups and overwhelming mobility. Taskmaster Magic Series: Stronger Type: Projectile Taskmaster is a very versatile character with the ability to beat your opponent in many ways. His arrows do alot of damage and if they are able to get through those, he has high priority and long ranged normals to out footsie you. His shield skill is a great anti-air with tons of priority. He has an unblockable with his sword master and he has counters with guard master. He can get across the screen with web swing xxx air M arrows, however it can leave him open for a punish if not covered by an assist. Other than the web swing, his mobility is fairly limited. Pick Taskmaster if you want a solid overall beast with a limited mobility game. Thor Magic Series: Light Start Type: Big Body Thor has the largest amount of health in the game with 1.25 million. Along with the health, he does great damage and he has resets to go along with it. Mighty Strike has tons of armor on it, unless someone can stop it before it goes through. He has very slow normals, his movement and he can be oppressed to the point where he can’t get anything going, but with Thor’s large amount of health, he can take the large amounts of abuse. Pick Thor if you want a truly big body character. Trish Magic Series: Specialized Zig Zag Type: Projectile Trish is a very air mobile character with a very good zoning game. With her traps and her fireballs, she can really keep even the most mobile and annoying out. She has an airdash and a fly mode to keep her out of danger. She also has Round Harvest, which allow for unblockable set ups if set up correctly. Her flaws lie in that she doesn’t do alot of damage and she has really mediocre health. Pick Trish if mobility and keepaway is your thing. Tron Magic Series: Stronger Type: Big Body Tron is a large character that racks up alot of damage with the ability to loop supers. With select assists, she can make extremely long combos and do tons of damage. She has servebots to zone and command grab. Her flaws is that she is so big and its really hard to get a solid hit due to her moves having huge pushback. Pick Tron if you want a strong character with great damage and good mixup tools. Vergil Magic Series: Stronger Type: Pixie Vergil is a high damage mixup character. He has long ranged normals, tracking teleports, cross up specials, a high durability fireball, round trip (a boomerang like weapon you can charge and throw) and an extremely high durability super that is key to many of his combos (spiral swords). He has tons of safe strings and tools that make him a formidable rushdown character in this game. His problem is that he cannot fight well in the air, but even with this weakness, his ability to kill character in one combo and his mixup potential makes Vergil one of the strongest characters in the game. Pick Vergil if you want a bully character that can keep everybody at bay. Viewtiful Joe Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie Viewtiful Joe is one of the smallest characters in the game. He has a triple jump, an airdash he can potentially do twice, a red hot kick that gets him to the ground quickly and several invincible moves to go along with his arsenal of a moveset. He can quickly fill the screen with voomerangs and get in safe with them. Joe’s weakness is damage. For a pixie character, he doesn’t do alot of damage. However, Joe is a solid, versatile character. Pick Joe if versatility and small size is your thing. Wesker Magic Series: Stronger Type: Projectile Wesker is an extremely mobile character with a 1f command grab and a teleport. His samurai edge is outstanding to keep people out and he can get in (or out) in a flash because of his teleports. When his glasses come off, he gains a speed boost and attack boost equivelent to his x-factor lvl 1. He is a very versatile character, however, he isn’t necessary amazing at one thing. Also, with his damage output, you won’t see many players considering Wesker a top character. Pick Wesker if you want an emphasis on mobility and versatility. Wolverine Magic Series: Zig Zag Specialized Type: Pixie Wolverine is a linear, basic rushdown character. He has a divekick that extends combos and gets him plenty of frame advantage. Berserker slash can cross up and can be made safe with his berserker charge super. His j. L is a great normal because it instant overheads. With a certain assist you can combo off of that. He isn’t very good in the air but his ground rushdown still makes him a great character to use if given a right team. Pick Wolverine if basic rushdown is your gameplan. X-23 Magic Series: Zig Zag Type: Pixie X-23 is a very mobile character, that lacks damage but has plenty of ways to open you up. Her talon attacks allow her to soar through the air and avoid projectiles and assists, and then she pounces on you. Her lvl 3, Dirt Nap turns her invisible, can grab people out of block stun and with the use of her x-factor, she can kill a character off. Pick X-23 if you want a rushdown character with good air movement and a devastating lvl 3. Zero Magic Series: Stronger Type: Pixie Zero is the king. He has a ridiculous amount of tools to deal with any and everybody. His lvl 3 buster cancels allow for his strings and projectile use to be safer. He has very long combos to extend damage and meter build. His sougenmu super is great for traps and to execute his most devastating combo, the lightning loop. Zero’s only flaw is that his health is low, however, if you master his movement, mixups and combos, there is a small chance you will get hit. Zero’s ability to end the game with only one character kill makes Zero one of the best, if not the best character in the game.

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:27am

X-Factor X-factor is a new mechanic to the Marvel series. This mechanic has many many uses within the game. To activate X-Factor, press the light, medium, heavy and special button simultaneously. With x-factor, your character gets a certain amount boost of speed and attack power in a certain amount of time, depending on how many characters you got and what character you have. The less characters you have, the more power and speed you gain from x-factor and the more time you got for it. X-factor also works as a guard cancel. If you are blocking something and you activate x-factor, you are able to attack or move right afterwards. It negates the block stun and you can punish or escape accordingly. It can also cancel whatever you are doing. Lets say you did an unsafe move, and then you activate x-factor. Right after you activate, you can escape punishment. You can also cancel supers with x-factor. If you are coming from a game like Guilty Gear or Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, you can call this a more enhanced version of a roman cancel or a baroque cancel. X-factor is a powerful tool that can change the tide of a match. Its up to you on how you use it. Neutral Game Neutral game is gonna be tossed around alot in these forums. Neutral game is when two characters or teams fight over control, with movement and projectiles. A more common term in other fighting games that means the same as this is “Footsies”. Only difference is that in this game, you have assists to help you gain space while in games like Street Fighter, you don’t. There isn’t much to say about neutral game, other than to know what your characters excel at and where your opponent is weak at. For example you play a team of Nova/Taskmaster/Doom and your opponent plays something like Haggar/Hulk/Wesker. Obviously you know they want to get close to you because they got 2 big bodies that do alot of damage. So the neutral game would be you zoning him out with Nova’s various projectiles and your assists. A team that would be strong in neutral game has an answer for every situation. If your opponents team excels at the super jump height, does your team have an answer for that? If your opponent excels up close, can you prevent them from being up close? If your opponent excels at long distance, can your team get up close and fight? This is what you have to think about when you attempt to make a good team. One philosophy that I heard is that its a bop and weave game. You throw some pokes, get them to whiff a move and you punish it. Dashing in and out and waiting for some type of screw up. Once you learn how to move, the neutral game is gonna be alot easier to maneuver.

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:28am

This is still in the works. Thank you Diek Stiekem for allowing me to start the basics thread over again.

Sleazoid · February 19, 2013, 6:28am

<blockquote class=“Quote”><a href="/profile/17516/Cee%20Dizzy">Cee Dizzy</a> said:
<div class=“QuoteText”>To walk, you simply hold forward and back on your controller of choice.</div>
</blockquote>

How do I hold forward and back at the same time halp pls

Cee_Dizzy · February 19, 2013, 6:30am

<blockquote class=“Quote”>
<div class=“QuoteAuthor”><a href="/profile/7798/Sleazoid">Sleazoid</a> said:</div>
<div class=“QuoteText”> <blockquote class=“Quote”><a href="/profile/17516/Cee%20Dizzy">Cee Dizzy</a> said:
<div class=“QuoteText”>To walk, you simply hold forward and back on your controller of choice.</div>
</blockquote>

How do I hold forward and back at the same time halp pls</div>
</blockquote>

Oops. Fixed.

DevilJin_01 · February 19, 2013, 3:26pm

Yeah this is very much needed. There hasn’t really been a general how to play Marvel tutorial since Viscant’s video and there’s a lot of stuff that wasn’t mentioned or wasn’t discovered then.

eivellordsm2 · February 19, 2013, 4:02pm

good stuff keep up the good work

Diek_Stiekem · February 19, 2013, 9:52pm

<blockquote class=“Quote” style=“font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;”>
<div class=“QuoteAuthor”><a href="/profile/17516/Cee%20Dizzy">Cee Dizzy</a> said:</div>
<div class=“QuoteText”>This is still in the works. Thank you Diek Stiekem for allowing me to start the basics thread over again. </div>
</blockquote>

No thanks, in fact we should thank you for making an updated basics thread.

TenguEgg · February 20, 2013, 1:34am

You should make a quick note that you can call assists at normal jump height, but you cannot at super jump height.

DevilJin_01 · February 20, 2013, 2:12am

That’s not really a technical rule. What you’re trying to say is that you can’t call assists during a super jump. There’s no rule against calling assists at super jump height.

If you get hit and recover during a super jump…you then can call an assist.

There are characters like V.Joe, C.Viper, Chun Li and Dante (DT) that can reach super jump height without super jumping or using flight.

TenguEgg · February 20, 2013, 2:51am

Yeah yeah sorry, technicalities, I didn’t know how to word it, but you got the jist of what I was saying. I’m sure Cee Dizzy can find a way to word it better, but I think its a decently important note to know for a beginner

_Insert_Name_Here · February 20, 2013, 8:12am

Good start. I like it.

discovigilante · February 21, 2013, 6:36pm

Awesome thread. Just a character specific note: Amaterasu doesn’t have a Zig-Zag series. She can only chain c.L into s.L (like many Stronger characters) and s.H into c.H, but that’s it. Chun-Li has the same thing. They are Stronger+ with one zig-zagged button. Dante isn’t a true Zig-Zag character either.<div> </div><div>Actually, the guide has four different series that I think fit a little better:</div><div>Marvel- essentially Stronger, though they don’t differentiate between this and Stronger+.</div><div>Hunter- Zig-Zag</div><div>2-Hit Limited- Light Start </div><div>3-Hit Alternating- verbatim: “This chain type has the chaining properties of the Hunger series; you can string together attacks from weakest to strongest while also alternating from standing to crouching attacks of the same strength. The difference here is that you can only chain up to three attacks within these limitations. Dante can nomally chain c.M, s.H, then c.H. However, if the combo is started with an additional attack, like s.M, c.M, and then s.H, you cannot follow up with the final c.H.” (BradyGames pls don’t sue)</div><div> </div><div>Dante and Trish fall into this category. Just something to consider. Keep it up!</div>