A couple weeks ago, in anticipation of UMvC3 coming out, I decided to start playing MvC3 again to try and brush up on my skills. Now, I was never that good at the game to begin with (or fighting games in general for that matter), but I quickly discovered that I was getting blown up all over the place by players of every rank and every team combination, with little I could do to stop it. The few times I have been able to win, I generally did so by zoning the other guy into oblivion - once the fights reach close quarters I’m dead.
Part of my problem, I suspect, is that I can’t combo to save my life, which of course is a simple matter of hitting Training Mode more. However, I also am having issues in just keeping any sort of pressure going; either I’m blocking constantly and get nailed by a mix-up, or I go in and try and do something only to get blocked and punished for it. I can occasionally get around someone’s guard but I suspect that’s more due to their poor defense than my offense.
So I guess what I’m asking is how to improve my game? I’m hoping to post a better win-loss record in Ultimate than I am in Vanilla, but apart from improving my combos I really don’t even know how to start. In case it matters, I’ve been using Amaterasu-Storm-Dante as my main team. Thanks!
Edit: What’s the best way to record matches? I think it might help if I could go over my fights afterward to see what I did wrong, but I haven’t heard of a record feature being included in UMvC3 like it was in Street Fighter IV.
If there is anything I’ve learned about Marvel in my short time with it it’s that it’s a game of aggression. If you find you are on the defensive end of things far too often, you probably aren’t playing aggressively enough. If you feel your offense is being punished, you may be leading out of a shoddy defense with an unfocused and hasty offense. Unleashing an early uncombo’d special can be quickly punished and stuff you right back into the corner you’re trying to escape from. Try to combo into special moves, and lead with your light/medium attacks as opposed to heavies in order to begin to register a combo against your opponent. Assists are key, and if you aren’t consistently using your assists then you are are a significant disadvantage against someone who is, as assists can both interrupt an opponent’s offense to give you the lead-in to your own offense, which makes them good defensive tools as well.
I mentioned “shoddy defense” earlier. Try to improve your defensive game by turning the CPU on in training and simply blocking the entire time. While it won’t be as fierce as a typical online mixup, the main thing you’re looking to establish here is reactions to sneaky overheads. I think low attacks aren’t as much of a problem until you become too intimidated by overheads and start to default stand guard as opposed to crouch guards. If you can watch and SPOT the air attacks, you can default to a crouched guard most of the time and stand to block air attacks, which, as far as I know, are easier to punish than ground based attacks. So you know, maybe you see someone jumping for the overhead mixup after a ground based rushdown attempt and you think “alright, stand to block this, lead with assist to initiate offense, combo into the air, end with special/hyper XYZ”.
I’m actually really new to fighting games as well so take this advice with a grain of salt. It’s all I can muster from what I’ve played. Canceling your dash into a normal can help you quickly get inside an opponent’s guard btw, something I’ve discovered can really help you lead into a sick combo.
Thanks for the advice about the defense training, that’s been a consistent problem in my game and it honestly hadn’t occurred to me to use that as a training method. Funny thing is, my problem with assists isn’t that I’m not using them, but that I tend to be way too random with them and wind up putting them right in the path of an attack.
I took a look at the info that DevilJin posted about mixups, and from that alone I can tell that I need a lot more planning in my offense than I even would in SFIV etc. I’m still expecting to be able to make it just on reactions - which hasn’t even worked out well there - and I keep getting punished for it. Hopefully once I take a closer look at the postings on the individual characters I’ll be able to start planning my team out more thoroughly and figuring out my offense a bit better.
Any advice on how to record my matches? Or is that a question for the tech forum?
The timeframe of counterattack after a solid defensive setup in Marvel is ridiculously small in some cases depending on how careless/greedy your opponent is with their mixups and combo attempts. If you feel heavily pressured, try leading one of your assists with an advancing guard to give the assist space and push your opponent out of a familiar & established position. Remember, some characters/assists work better than others in specific team setups – if you are incapable of defending an assist properly with one character you may want to tweak your team a little bit.
Your offense is absolutely planned in this game. It’s less about baiting crummy footsies mistakes from your opponent and more about waiting for the perfect time to strike and get inside their guard, an opportunity which can arise several times in a mere moment due to the fast pace of Marvel. Watch some of the streams on SHK’s right hand side bar on their home page and look for how the pro’s setup their offense. Watching the recently posted Wong v Max exhibition, I can see that Wong is starting to roll on his offense after:
a) He does an air attack as his opponent begins a ground based offense, effectively dodging his opponent’s blow while snaking his own in at the same time. Typical high risk/high reward setup; typical mixup game.
b) He defends until his opponent’s combo string runs out of steam on a heavy attack, leaving them exposed on the frame recovery state of the heavy attack, wherein Wong dashes in and begins his combo before his opponent’s guard is readied.
c) He simply dashes in with a fast attack from an odd range at an odd timing after gaining a feel for how his opponent typically reacts on field. Usually this attack connects just as his opponent is opening to attack himself, but Wong’s attack is a split second sooner.
d) He leads with an unexpected assist. If you use your assists too much your opponent will grow weary of their intrusions. Just like any other strong guard opening attack, they must be thrown into your mixup game along with the rest of your guard opening attacks, as opposed to relying on assists only.
The mixup is definitely one of the strongest tools in your arsenal and you need to use it to the fullest. Conditioning your opponent to block low with a few safer low combo leadins can be devastating moments later when you lead a particularly nasty combo with a quick overhead and slam down a special & super cancel after air combos juggling. Dashing in for a feigned attack and then assisting instead can catch an opponent off guard due to the delayed impact of the assist’s attack when they had anticipated blocking your initial attack already. Mind games in Marvel are just as crucial as they are in SF when it comes to opening your opponent’s guard up.
Really, just assess your mixup game and keep it consistently varied. Overheads, low attacks, throws, dash-in’s and assists are all the methods of getting inside off the top of my head. Run low low assist low high dash-in or something. Remember to play the mind games! Keep changing gears on your opponent to stay ahead of him. The only time you should be doing the same thing somewhat consistently is if you’re trying to condition your opponent for a different setup down the road.
As for how to record your matches you’ll probably have to search the tech forum a bit, I’m sure it’s been posted before. I hope this info I pulled out of my butt helps. I’m mostly theorizing from past experience with MvC3 since I’m still extremely extremely new to the fighting genre so…again, take it with a grain of salt, or you know, based on how good it sounds. Sounds pretty good to me to be honest…