MVC3 frustration - combos

hey. yeah, i first started playing fighting games (for real) with sf4. and i have a problem with combos (i have trouble memorizing the button sequences, let alone playing them back in a match). i am pretty decent, but i’m in the casual level in ssf4 (no characters higher than a B rank) because i heavily rely on tactics and mind games to play. so i can get by in the sf4 series without combos. but, i got this mvc3, and it looks like i either have to learn 5 good combos per character, or stop playing it all together. is this game impossible to play without combos, or am i just imagining it? i mean, the computer on medium has better combos then i do. and because of the way i am, i can’t memorize combos. then i go online, and see several people in a row that have played between 1000-2000 matches that are pulling out 20 second long combos that leave me getting up to get a glass of orange juice in the middle of the match because i already know there’s no way i can win.

Yep, no excuse to put off combos now that you are playing MVC3. Better hit training mode ;). Thankfully, 98% of combos in this game are chains, and when links DO happen, they tend to be more lenient and forgiving than in SSF4.

These combos require a lot of muscle memory. Frustration is natural. Hell, I find myself getting frustrated from time to time. You don’t really have to worry about doing these 3-hour long combos. They look flashy, but are easy to mess up. Just start out with basic combos. Ideally, your basic combo should do at least 420k; enough to kill Phoenix in one combo. People tend to overlook keeping it simple when they see these long-winded combos.

If you have a hard time memorizing combos, BREAK THEM DOWN! I also find myself having a hard time with some combos because I forget them. I put together a combo with Viper a while back.

:l:,:m:,:h:,:s: (1-hit), :dp::l:, j.:m:, j.:m:,j.:h:, double jump, j.:m:, j.:h:, :qcb::s:, land, :m:,:h:,:s:, sj.:m:, :m:, :h:, double jump, :h:, :s:, land, :dp::l: (otg), :qcb: :l:+:m:

Obviously, since I’m combo retarded, I didn’t finish this combo in one attempt. It took me hours of practice to be able to get through that even once. I had to break it down in sections, which is how you should practice combos.

I know it’s not the most damaging combo, but if I have the meter I pull it off. Because I practiced it for days to pull it off consistently, I can habitually pull it off. Find a decent combo, or imagine a decent combo and work at it. It’s gonna be hard. I know. We all know that. But if you defeat yourself before you even try, then what’s the point. You won’t learn long combos overnight. Make practice mode your bitch, and you’ll see a payoff.

Due to the speed and overall density of the combos MvC3 isn’t an easy game to pick up quickly. I think my execution is pretty good and it still took me 1-2 days of long hour training mode to really be able to do stuff. Take it slow, start with the basics. ABCS BBCS and see where you can take it from there. MvC3 tends not to be DIFFICULT neccesarily, for example a basic wesker[low execution req] combo is ABCqcfa, dash dfc cBsCS air BBCS. If you look at its just and extention of the basic combo [+ a pick up]. He can add an additional teleport after the BsC and thats his B&B - the whole thing is 4 parts. The tricky part of MvC3 is the speed, you need to have decent hand speed and dexterity to do this accurately. Unfortunately, it IS a neccesity to be able to combo in this game with certain casual B&Bs completely acing <1m chars in one go - you simply cannot win if you’re looking for 2-3 openings[many more if you can’t combo at all] and they need but one.

Sounds like you’re better suited to play Super Turbo or 3rd Strike man. Give them a whirl, they’ll never go out of style. For MvC3 memorizing long combos will win much more than relying on basics and mind games

Unless you have some sort of handicap, I don’t see how this is the case. Even if you do, you ought to be able to break combos down into smaller parts and learn to put them together.

I know exactly how you feel. I’ve learned a few decent Hulk combos for various points mid/corner and to get into the DHC glitch, but I never pull them off online. When I first jumped online I pulled out 12-6 ranked and thought I sort of had the hang of it. Now even though I’m still low ranking I’m always thrown up against higher ranks and they do one or two combos and I don’t even have a chance to press a button.

From what I’ve done messing around in training mode and watching tutorials online, it really seems like you gotta just put in the time to memorize combos. There’s no other way around it. I’ll get trolled for this for sure, but this game seems like it has no other point to it whatsoever. Get the muscle memory and hope you land your loop first. Rinse and repeat.

And anyone who tells you to “pick a team you like” or “a character you like” and just practice with them are lying to you if you actually want to take the game seriously. You’ll get bodied all day if you don’t throw in with the rest of them.

That’s pretty much it. To get anywhere in MvC3 your required to know long combos.

i understand were u coming from im in the same boat have a hard time doing long combos …but we just gotta keep at it and train more
i do a lot of short combos but reason is to put some pressure instead of waiting for the opponent to slip up while i wait i take in lot of trick damage
have fun with the game real important thing right there…good luck on ur gaming …if ur on ps3 feel free to ad me

wow… i can’t find another way around it. you just sound like a douche. i guess you could call it a handicap, but my mind moves at a faster pace then normal people. and like running faster than your feet can carry you, or talking faster than your jaw can move, you tend to trip up if you keep it up for any extended period of time. i don’t have a learning impairment (i am smarter than any teacher i’ve ever had), or a motor skill impairment, but i am unable to do things that require precise inputs without a screen prompt (like guitar hero, or dance dance revolution. if the game doesn’t set a pace, i go too fast), especially when it deals with memorizing specific inputs. so, basically, if i don’t keep it to simply mind games and basic combos (2-4 hits in ssf4), i get ahead of myself, then lose the pace of the match and ultimately… i don’t have fun.

everyone else, thanks, but i think this is a game i just won’t be able to play. i was thinking about it, but then i started thinking about the fact that you really can’t just pick your three favorite characters (spiderman, hsein-ko, x-23) and expect to win. i watch matches on youtube and here, but there are never any real matches with any of them, and ther rare ones i find, they almost never win. so… yeah. i play fighting games because i enjoy them, but if i have to spend sleepless days mastering long-winded combos for characters i don’t even like just to stand a chance at winning… i guess i’ll just wait for 3S:OE and try that.

Memorizing a combo is basically just muscle memory. Being smarter than a teacher or any other person is irrelevant. It’s just practice. When you counter footsie against people, you dont look at your pad/stick and then press fierce or roundhouse correct? Why? Muscle memory, just learn the timing and start small. Some character combos are flowchart, but others require you to think if you mess up or decide for a reset.

As for setting a pace? If you feel like you want to play fast, rush down; slower; turtle. If you like a team play it, you may have odds stacked, but who cares. Just learn your team and the synergy and everything will be fine. A friend plays Hsien-ko and X-23 he does fine, because he put effort into the character. Long winded combos are for people who want to kill a character. You can just do bnbs and find resets. It’s the same, but less work.

Play GGPO 3s and check it out.

Looks like you’re more of a Street Fighter player. Marvel just isn’t your game.
You will probably enjoy 3S as said above because it’s a great footsie game and has a great momentum to it.

One, Starcade isn’t a douche, he is a great asset to this forum.

So do you have trouble keeping rhythm? Do you play instruments or anything like that? One thing you could try is practicing with a metronome. It might not work, but who knows, maybe it’ll give part of your mind something to focus on for timing and the rest of your mind will be able to pick up on the combo.

It’s posters like you that makes me think twice about helping people in this forum. Two paragraphs to say “I give up”. You obviously don’t want to take help from others if it means you have to put in the hard work. If you do have a legit impairment, you should be doing your best to work through it. Instead, you feel that he sounds like a douche for trying to help you. I really hope you don’t give up though. Just break down parts of the chains. Little by little, day by day.

I started playing fighting games for real with SF4 too, but I’ll be damned before I call myself good at them. Thank God I have this little thing called patience.

spend more time:in training mode/offline to perfect your combos. Hopefully when you’re “in the hot seat” online, you won’t choke & be able to perform them in your sleep.

Wow I didn’t know anyone around had trouble with mvc3 combos. Here’s something to try… go play marvel 2 for a couple months solid… then come back to marvel 3 and just laugh your ass off at how easy the combos actually are for the most part. Truth told forget long combos… some shit like short, short, launch, 1,2,3, S… land… super… is about all you need for low to mid level play. Shit works for like 90% of the cast and in many cases requires NO TIMING at all… just mash dem inputs in and it works.

And you say your a ssf4 player and that works out fine for you? Brotha truth told that tells us a lot about your skill at any fighting game. SSF4 requires you to link a lot of 1 or 2 frame links to be able to do more than mash jab or do random specials. Yes there are a couple characters that doesn’t really apply to… but I’d bet dollars to donuts your a jump back fireballer/wakeup dp masher/jab masher/jump in roundhouse to cr.roundhouse sorta guy. Why? B/c without any manner of combo execution that’s all you could be in ssf4 for the most part. Either that or you expect us to believe that you can pull fadc’s and 1 frame links all day in ssf4 but can’t manage magic series combos in marvel 3…

It sounds to me that you are trying to apply on what you know about SSF4 and carry that same knowledge over to MvC3. Only certain players have that gift, and it doesn’t seem to be working for you. I think you should approach MvC3 entirely different, you say people can’t win with X23, Spiderman, generic characters but the truth of it is that anybody can win with said character if they put forth the time. Many people can’t expect to jump into another game understanding the mechanics right off the back. You shouldn’t be fustrated about losing, you will lose from time to time and that’s how you learn to get better.

This. Absolutely this. Without a doubt, this.

As for your point of there not being many matches of your team on youtube; if you are talking specifically about tournament footage, you have to understand that most players who go to these events have the mindset that hey will not only play the game at an extraordinary level, but also to ensure they win the large pot of money in the end. That being said, you will seeing a lot of the same teams for a while. Now keep in mind that, there are thousands of combinations with characters, order, assist types. It would be quite the hassle for players to find their own choices and still worry about competing with the same level in mind. It is much easier to just follow suit with the choices of more well known and consistently ranking players. If someone were to show up to a tourney and crush everyone with your team, you can be sure that a lot of people will feed off from that strategy and gameplay. There are a lot variables that factor into making tier lists. That’s why people are still discussing them in the MVC3 boards. There are no concise measurements of each characters of each characters pros and cons, save for the tippy top gods, Phoenix, wolverine, etc. Added to this are balance patches! Yes, significant alterations to a character is now possible. Thought Sentinel was without a doubt, SOL God Tier? Welp, hope you enjoy typing TL;DR paragraphs as much as the next guy, because after that health nerf, his placement is now debatable.

I think the problem a lot of people have, can’t speak for the OP, but people like myself, is that this is not a “from time to time” thing. This is a match after match after match thing. With the frenetic pace of the game, there’s hardly any way to figure out what someone did wrong, like if you watch that hour and a half video about MvC3 basics (forgot what it was called) and you see those matches, it’s obvious the second guy was pissed because he felt he couldn’t press a button and had no idea what was going on. And that was just 3 matches with a friend. Imagine that for 10-30+ matches in a row. You don’t learn anything from that and sitting in training mode wont help either because you’re not against real live people.

Team building or not, practice or not, losing a ridiculous amount of times isn’t fun for anyone, especially if they feel all they can do is just press dial-a-combos or not be able to press a button at all.

Like, I lost probably 50 or so matches in a row the first time I tried SSF4 online. I was mad as heck, but at least that game has a pacing where you can actually see what you did wrong and as the game has been out longer, there’s a lot more resources for it. Maybe MvC3 will be more beginner friendly after a couple years once people make better tutorials / how-to’s, but until then, I think a lot of people will be put off on how tedious this game is and how much memorizing combos is a major player. How is it fun when you’re just pressing 123S in some ridiculous way constantly game after game?

Not really. A match after match thing works just fine, though I tend to just get lazy myself in learning stupid long combos and typically try to win by simply out smarting the other guy.The thing is most players only focus 100% on just input so instead of trying to land a move, they make up some trap like gameplay to desperately land a combo. But oddly enough I got better at blocking and avoiding traps seeing how that’s what I tend to play against nearly all the time now.

I wouldn’t call that beginner friendly if it takes that long.