The Ultimate Storm Thread v2.01 (Updated 2020.07.25)

[Yannick]

The Basics, Page 4

Specials:

Whirlwind (Air) - 236 + [L] / [M] / [H]

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 3 / 5 / 7
• Damage: 67,000 / 102,300 / 130,200
• Meter Gain: 6.00% / 10.00% / 14.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 15 / 20 / 25
• Active Frames: 22 / 30 / 38
• Recovery Frames: 30 ground, 35 air / 37 / 40
• Frame Advantage on Hit: 0 ground, -5 air / +4 ground, +3 air / +13 ground, +12 air
• Frame Advantage on Block: -2 ground, -7 air / +7 / +13

Properties:
• Type: Projectile (3 / 5 / 7 projectiles)
• Durability: 3 low durability points per projectile

Discussion:
• Whirlwind stands out among all projectiles in the game because of its unique properties. This move is known to blow through almost every other low durability projectile because, although the move looks like a beam, the move is actually a series of small projectiles that rise from the ground moving forward. Each small whirlwind is an individual projectile and not linked to the others in terms of durability; what this means is that as opposed to beams, which can be eaten away over the course of their active frames, in order to have an opponent overcome Whirlwind, each individual projectile of this move would have to be destroyed. As you can imagine, not many low durability projectiles are capable of this.

• This move rarely sees use in Storm’s combo game and is used more for keepaway and chip damage. Whirlwind has incredible pushback and ending a blockstring with Whirlwind is an almost surefire way to put your opponent mid-screen again. While not a “zoning” tool per se, Whirlwind can cut off horizontal lanes of traffic on the screen and limit the ways in which your opponent can approach you. If Storm has an assist to cover the specific areas that are made available by Whirlwind, getting in on her can be a little trying.

• The biggest weakness of this move is the recovery. Be careful for moves that can destroy projectiles regardless of durability or are projectile immune and be aware of the fact that Whirlwind can be jumped over or dashed under if used at certain altitudes, so you should always factor in the opponent’s size and movement options when determining the heights at which to throw Whirlwind.

Double Typhoon (Air) (OTG) - 214 + [L] / [M] / [H]

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 6
• Damage: 140,300
• Meter Gain: 14.40%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 63
• Active Frames: 30
• Recovery Frames: 15 or until grounded
• Frame Advantage on Hit: +40
• Frame Advantage on Block: +21

Properties:
• Type: Beam (6 frames)
• Durability: 5 low durability points per frame

Discussion:

• This move is hard to use properly. The numbers above tell a confusing story about this move. The move has over a second of startup time, but grants massive plus-frames on block, can be used in the air, and OTGs. In truth, this move has two purposes; offensively, you can use this move after the hard knockdown caused by a very low altitude launch-started j.[S] to tack some damage in before using a hyper and defensively, you can use this move in conjunction with an assist that forces the opponent to block to inflict some healthy chip damage.

• Comboing with Double Typhoon is very tricky. When Storm does combo into it, though, she gets to cancel into Hail Storm. Since Double Typhoon brings the opponent up to jump height while Hail Storm is going on, Storm can link into Elemental Rage when Hail Storm is done to tack on some additional damage while the opponent is falling. In X-Factor levels 2 and 3, Storm can s.[S] after Double Typhoon and start or continue a combo.

• As the data implies, Double Typhoon can only be used once in the air like Lightning Attack–afterward, Storm drifts to the ground and is unable to act. To circumvent this, activate Flight before using Double Typhoon to use as many of this move as you like before your Flight expires and, when it does expire, Storm can move and act as she pleases in the air. Similarly to Dormammu’s Purification, you will probably want to be more predictive than reactive when using this move, but if you have an assist that forces your opponent to block, you do not have to guess and will be free to apply the chip damage that this move offers.

Lightning Sphere (Air) - 623 + [L] / [M] / [H]

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 5
• Damage: 110,100
• Meter Gain: 9.76%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 20
• Active Frames: –
• Recovery Frames: 40
• Frame Advantage on Hit: -1
• Frame Advantage on Block: -3

Properties:
• Type: Projectile (1 projectile), Beam (20 frames)
• Durability: 5 low durability points per projectile, 5 low durability points per frame
• Special Effect: This move cannot be pushblocked.

Discussion:
• This move is a potent but fragile move in Storm’s arsenal. The sphere thrown by Storm is just a delivery mechanism for the real beefy part of the move; once the sphere hits Storm’s opponent or is destroyed or blocked, the sphere erupts into a burst of lightning with terribly high durability. The sphere is represented by projectile durability and the burst is represented by beam durability. For better or for worse, however, the move travels at a painfully slow pace–this means Storm has time to advance behind the projectile, but it also means that opponents can weave around it pretty easily.

• This move has the unique property of disabling pushblock. The opponent can still use Advancing Guard on this move to get rid of some of the chip damage, but Storm will not be pushed back at all. If you can force an opponent to block, this becomes an extremely powerful, if not equally situational, tool to guarantee some forward movement on Storm’s part. You can also use Lightning Sphere to create guard breaks on incoming characters; since Storm won’t be pushed back, if the opponent blocks the projectile (regardless of their decision to employ Advancing Guard) Storm can dash in for a quick air throw.

Fair Wind - 623 + [S]

Details

Spoiler

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 13
• Active Frames: 24
• Recovery Frames: 19

Discussion:
• This move adjusts the opponent’s horizontal momentum away from Storm and has limited uses. Storm’s strengths as a ranged character mean that this type of move is designed with pretty steep recovery frames, so be cautious when using this move.

• This move can be used to merely push opponents away, but aside from the obvious, Storm can use this move to position the opponent closer to on-stage traps or to make their planned forward advancement stop short of their intended destination. Be careful, though, because certain moves in the game have physics applied to them such that they negate momentum-changing tactics; using Fair Wind against such a move means you’re donating approximately an entire second’s worth of time to your opponent for them to hit you.

Foul Wind - 421 + [S]

Details

Spoiler

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 13
• Active Frames: 27
• Recovery Frames: 1

Discussion:
• This move adjusts the opponent’s horizontal momentum toward Storm and has more general uses despite being much riskier. The implied risk means that this move has lower recovery time, so you don’t have to worry too much unless you start using this move blind.

• This move can be used to simply drag opponents to you, but players will likely press buttons on the move even if they don’t know what’s going on, making a dry pull a very unintelligent idea. This move sees most of its use in conjunction with assist calls, pulling opponents into assist attacks. This tactic’s strength is amplified when the opponent is airborne because Storm can insert herself between the opponent and her assist to make blocking a guess for the opponent once Storm pulls them past her. Even if they block correctly, Storm can use the low recovery to immediately press whatever advantage she can from having the opponent block her assist.

• As with Fair Wind, a cautionary note here is that some moves in the game may not negate momentum changes, but may have their physics exacerbated by the sudden momentum change and fly further or faster toward Storm than expected. Always be smart about employing the winds as a battle tactic; blindly tossing the opponent around may not be worth it if it gets Storm injured or knocked out.

[Yannick]

The Basics, Page 5

Hypers:

Snapback - :qcf: + :a1: / :a2:

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 1
• Damage: 50,000
• Meter Gain: 5.00%
• Meter Loss: 100.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 2
• Active Frames: 5
• Recovery Frames: 12
• Frame Advantage on Hit: –
• Frame Advantage on Block: +5

Properties:
• Special Effect: This move forces in a different opponent.

Discussion:
• This move is the universal mechanic used to force in a different member of an opponent’s team. Snapbacks are used to either force out a potentially bad matchup or to force in a potentially good matchup. Snapbacks can also be used to erase the incoming character’s red health or to quickly dispose of the trouble character on a team.

• Storm’s snapback animation is her s.:h:. Although the frame data is different, the reach and look of the move are similar, so you can judge the likeliness to hit based on s.:h:.

• Two important things to remember about snapbacks are that you can hit a point and assist character at the same time to get limited juggles on an assist and that you can take a gamble against an opponent’s X-Factor guard cancel by buffering a snapback during the cancel to preemptively blow the opponent off the screen before their guard cancel attack can interrupt your attacks. Another cool, but more situational note, is that having the killing blow on an enemy be the snapback lets you decide which character on the enemy team comes in next; snapping in the opposing anchor after KOing their point character may turn the tides of the match in your favor.

Lightning Storm (Air)- :qcf: + :atk::atk:

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 15-29
• Damage: 289,000-344,400
• Meter Loss: 100.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 18+1
• Active Frames: 50
• Recovery Frames: 53
• Frame Advantage on Hit: –
• Frame Advantage on Block: -42

Properties:
• Type: Beam (15 frames)
• Durability: 1 high durability point per frame

Discussion:
• This move is supposed to be Storm’s standard combo ender, sacrificing utility for damage. The problem here is that this move doesn’t do significantly more damage than Hail Storm and is extremely difficult to combo into after a long enough combo to make it matter. The move doesn’t OTG like even Elemental Rage does, further limiting its uses. DHCing into and out of this move is also hard because this move does not cause any soft or hard knockdown states. Storm is even left in a pseudo-mixup state when this move is used in the air–opponents will recover right next to her and can and throw if Storm does not back away or tech the throw immediately.

• This move essentially has two basic functions. The first is to finish a combo (preferably a KO) in style or to finish an X-Factor combo that is too scaled to perform the hard knockdown sj.:s:. The second function is to finish low altitude combos during which Storm was, somehow, unable to land a hard knockdown or to serve as an XFC or DHC point for low altitude “Happy Birthday” (2-for-1) combos. Either because of current combo hitstun or incoming hazards, Storm may not have time to launch in order to end a combo with Hail Storm–in this case, you can quickly cancel into Lightning Storm to protect Storm with the hyper projectile durability (if a projectile hazard is incoming) and either end the combo or cancel out with an XFC or DHC. Note that with Storm’s low damage output and meter gain, this may not always be an intelligent tactic, so be sure to examine the situation to see if the meter and damage are worth the resources spent.

Hail Storm (OTG)- :qcb: + :atk::atk:

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 35-69
• Damage: 282,900-338,800
• Meter Loss: 100.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 40+1
• Active Frames: 80
• Recovery Frames: 1
• Frame Advantage on Hit: –
• Frame Advantage on Block: +7

Properties:
• Type: Beam (25 frames)
• Durability: 1 high durability point per frame
• Special Effect: This move causes soft knockdown.

Discussion:
• This move is one of the biggest reasons to put Storm on a team. The utility this one move offers is sometimes more than what entire characters can bring to a team. This move does great combo ending damage, does great chip damage, hits fullscreen (up to slightly below super jump height), generates + frames on block, hits instantly after the flash, OTGs, can be DHC’d into and out of with incredible ease, makes a deliciously dangerous THC with the proper teammates, is probably the most dangerous move in the game for opposing assists and is one of the few hypers that you can XFC to still get the full effect of the hyper while moving your point character around (the buttons you press will even count toward mashing for damage–you can even perform ANOTHER Hail Storm after the XFC to REALLY clean house).

• As with all projectile hypers (fullscreen, in particular), be careful for opposing hyper activations that are invincible (or even just projectile invincible) or that can instantly pump out more durability than Storm is able to dish out. Opposing Level 3 hypers are prime examples of things to be careful for, even when using Hail Storm as a DHC or THC.

• To end combos with Hail Storm, you need to hit the ground just as your opponent gets put into hard knockdown or just a bit after. The lengthy startup for Hail Storm means that opponents can recover from the hard knockdown state before getting hit by the hyper if your timing is off. Perform combo ending Hail Storms is not difficult, however, and simply requires a small amount of practice and knowledge of how early you can buffer motions before your character actually touches the ground from a flying screen aerial finisher.

• To take advantage of DHCs, you’ll want to make sure you have a steady source of meter. If you plan on DHCing into Storm, you’ll want the point character to have a quick hyper with which to DHC out of (install hypers or reversal hypers are ideal). Hail Storm will strike on the very next frame after the DHC, meaning potentially crippled assists and heavily injured point characters that whiff or throw things from fullscreen. After the hyper finishes, Storm will be fullscreen and the opponent in a forced tech roll, giving Storm the time and space she needs to begin setting up her gameplan. If you plan on DHCing out of Hail Storm, you will typically want to use Hail Storm as a combo ender; using Hail Storm by itself is certainly not recommended, but limited situations in the game can present themselves in such a way where you can take advantage of them by performing a raw Hail Storm. DHCing into a character with an install hyper or another projectile hyper is recommended; since Storm drifts to fullscreen distance, physical type hypers that do not move the character a significant distance forward will whiff almost entirely, but even that may serve a function depending on how quickly the hyper recovers. An important nuance about DHCing out of Hail Storm to note is that while the hyper covers the screen fully, it only covers the “current” screen fully. If Storm DHCs out into another character that can move forward, as the camera pans forward, the opponent getting hit by the ice storm will eventually get pushed out of the hyper’s hitbox earlier than you might anticipate, meaning you’re sacrificing damage and advantage. This can be circumvented by getting close to the corner of the stage in order to prevent the camera from panning forward and pushing the enemy out of the hyper.

• To take advantage of THCs, make sure your team composition is designed to abuse Hail Storm. In order to get Hail Storm as a THC, Storm will need to use either her α or β assist since these are the assists that grant Hail Storm for the THC. Due to Hail Storm’s lengthy startup time, you’ll want Storm to not be on point unless you’d like to risk a “Merry Christmas” (3-for-1) where your entire team positions itself to get knocked out while Hail Storm charges up; ideally, you want whoever is on point at the time (doesn’t have to be the team’s “point character”) to have a THC hyper that starts up very very quickly (invincibility is preferred, but optional as long as you can space yourself). To this end, you’ll need to make sure your other characters’ assists are aligned such that they will yield the expected THC hyper. Storm can be anywhere else on the team, but having her in the middle is recommended since getting the Hail Storm THC means only spending 200% meter instead of 300% if she’s at the back of the team. Use the Hail Storm THC to punish assists, whiffed enemy attacks or even opposing hypers, DHCs and THCs. The Hail Storm THC only does everything and even on block, if your point character recovers quickly enough, they can get an opportunity to mix up the blocking opponent under the cover of Storm’s continuing ice.

• To take advantage of chip damage, we’re going to crunch some numbers and make some determinations about resources spent and advantage gained. Chip damage is a potent source of damage in UMvC3 when applied properly and knowing how much damage can be required to KO a dangerous opponent, even when they’re blocking, can be critical.

Minimum hits: 35 – Without mashing, the hyper will strike this many times at a minimum.
Maximum hits: 69 – Hits can be increased by mashing, even when the opponent is blocking.
Full damage: 282,900 – The hyper will reach this damage at a minimum if all minimum hits connect.
Chip damage: 136,500 – The hyper will reach this damage at a minimum if all minimum hits are blocked.
Chip damage per hit: 3,900 – The hyper does not decay the damage of each hit when they are blocked, meaning a consistent stream of damage.
Chip damage modifier: 48.25% – This special modifier overwrites the standard 30% chip damage value for blocked special attacks.

Normal chip damage: 3,900 per hit / 136,500 total
X-Factor Level 1: 4,800 per hit / 168,000 total
X-Factor Level 2: 5,400 per hit / 189,000 total
X-Factor Level 3: 6,000 per hit / 210,000 total

Some things to note:

• Even when the opponent is blocking, chip damage can be amplified by mashing. This amplified damage is considered bonus damage and does not suffer damage decay regardless of whether the opponent is blocking or not.

• Storm has an exceptional modifier for her chip damage on Hail Storm, but this damage is calculated without taking Advancing Guard into account. You can count on these values being a little lower if your opponent values their lifespan.

• If you are able to hassle an opponent with assists or force them to block certain specials between Hail Storms, you can chain Hail Storms on characters that are not able to punish you. As you can see, in X-Factor these add up very quickly and can net you a win without ever having to actually touch the opponent.

Elemental Rage (OTG) - :dp: + :atk::atk:

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 15
• Damage: 266,900
• Meter Loss: 100.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 8+2
• Active Frames: 23
• Recovery Frames: 32
• Frame Advantage on Hit: –
• Frame Advantage on Block: -28

Properties:
• Type: Projectile (1 projectile)
• Durability: 5 high durability point per projectile
• Special Effect: This move causes wall bounce.

Discussion:
• Elemental Rage is another utility hyper for Storm. This hyper does much less damage than the others and Storm is not able to take advantage of the wall bounce herself, but the hyper is fast enough to be considered a punisher at any point across the ground at any time. The OTG property makes this hyper an ideal attack when Hail Storm just isn’t fast enough.

• Elemental Rage’s largest strength is its ability to punish moves that are between ground height and just below normal jump height in 10 frames. Magneto’s EM Disruptor is probably the most common example of a type of attack you’ll be punishing with Elemental Rage on block. Is an opponent acting a fool fullscreen? Elemental Rage will change that.

• Elemental Rage causes a wall bounce and while Storm cannot take advantage of this, a proper DHC will let a teammate capitalize just fine. Install or quick hypers can be DHC’d into either before or after the wall bounce; DHCing out before the wall bounce will put the opponent into a spinning hard knockdown state and is useful if you want to preserve the wall bounce for the teammate you are DHCing into.

• A cool nuance of this hyper is that if you tag an assist with the ice column the hyper creates or if Storm is hit as the ice column appears, the hyper will end, but the high durability ice column will remain on the screen for short while. As a stationary projectile, it will act as a projectile and block opposing projectiles from passing through it, but enemies are also unable to walk through it, creating a small wall on the stage for a short while!

Assists:

α: Whirlwind

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 5
• Damage: 102,300
• Meter Gain: 10.00%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 44
• Active Frames: 30
• Recovery Frames (This Assist): 129
• Recovery Frames (Other Assist): 99

Properties:
• Type: Projectile (5 projectiles)
• Durability: 3 low durability point per projectile
• Team Hyper Combo: Hail Storm

Discussion:
• This move is Storm’s go-to assist. This move is a great counter to incoming projectiles with its ridiculous durability property. You can use this move during a blockstring to push the opponent almost fullscreen if you need the space. You can also use this assist with characters who cross opponents up easily; when you cross the opponent up, if they get hit by Whirlwind, the move will deliver the opponent right to you, making follow up combos very easy. Please be careful as Storm is still quite vulnerable while she’s tossing wind at your opponents.

β: Double Typhoon (OTG)

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 6
• Damage: 140,300
• Meter Gain: 14.40%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 87
• Active Frames: 30
• Recovery Frames (This Assist): 107
• Recovery Frames (Other Assist): 77

Properties:
• Type: Beam (6 frames)
• Durability: 5 low durability point per frame
• Team Hyper Combo: Hail Storm

Discussion:
• This move had lots of potential, but it has two huge strikes against it. First, this move still takes more than an entire second to start up. Forget ideal, the startup for that as an assist is simply unreliable. Next, the move is the version of Double Typhoon, meaning that in the rare instance you do get to use this assist offensively in a combo or as an OTG, you will be limited to certain spaces on the screen and cannot use this move in the corner. The move is just lacking in impact, even though the utility is present in theory. Only specialized teams will be able to actually make regular use of this assist.

γ: Lightning Attack :uf:

Details

Spoiler

Attack Data:
• Hits: 1
• Damage: 60,000
• Meter Gain: 4.80%

Frame Data:
• Startup Frames: 37
• Active Frames: 13
• Recovery Frames (This Assist): 121
• Recovery Frames (Other Assist): 91

Properties:
• Team Hyper Combo: Lightning Storm

**Discussion: **
• This move is an old school MvC2-style assist used for converting off of empty crossups or for sneaky camera tricks to hide the assist. Unfortunately, the merits of this assist did not translate over quite well. With no adjusted knockdown properties, no adjusted hitstun, no adjusted invulnerability or destruction properties and a THC that is decidedly undesirable, this is an assist you should probably avoid unless you have extremely specialized and situational setups like catching opponents with anti-air grabs during their air tech recovery.

[Yannick]

General Strategy, Page 1

Foreword:
Storm is a fragile active support character who can settle into a variety of playstyles. Storm’s list of options for a given scenario might not be very long, but the options she does have are usually quite reliable and powerful if she can get the rest of her team involved. On her own, Storm is quite weak but her overall utility is very good, so she needs to actively weave in and out of the point and assist positions in order to bring out her best assets while helping her teammates out to the best of her capacity (hence “active support”). While Storm’s options are not terribly numerous, she has plenty of nuances that you’ll need to be aware of to use her effectively–even the act of constructing combos with Storm comes down to character knowledge more than execution! Armed with the proper help (and built to help out in return), Storm can truly be a treasure and a resource for a well-constructed team while being an annoyance and a roadblock for the enemy.

Table of Contents:
Page 2
• Playstyles
• Approach Methods
• Hit Confirmation
• Advantage Over Time

Page 3
• Ranged Options
• Cross-ups, Mix-ups, and Setups
• Resets

Page 4
• Air Juggles
• Running Away
• X-Factor
• Team Aerial Combos

Page 5
• Risk Assessment
• Team Dynamics

[Yannick]

General Strategy, Page 2

Playstyles:
Storm has a few distinct styles that she can use to mold herself to her team, her opponent and her current situation. The important thing to remember about Storm is that she is extremely flexible. While she doesn’t excel head and shoulders above the cast in many areas, she can do a little (quite a bit, actually) of everything and always being aware of how you can transition into a different way of playing is a critical part of playing the character.

This section will detail Storm’s playstyles in a vaccuum; her teammates will not be considered directly, although her team is an important part of the equation. Rather, this section will attempt to tilt the camera from Storm’s team to focus on how her playstyle can help her in her matchups, which can range from great to nightmarish. Even the good matchups can turn sour very quickly if Storm doesn’t utilize certain tools, so focusing on how her styles interact with her matchups is a good look.

Rushdown

Rushdown

[details=Spoiler]As with most 8-way air dash characters, Storm can be played in a rushdown style. Storm possesses both the quick lows and quick aerials needed to run an effective tridash offense and has a great plink dash to cover ground (or air) as necessary. She has decent abare, meaning her ability to convert from random hits is above average, but the pool of moves from which she can covert is relatively small. Storm’s rushdown is quite average, but is bolstered significantly by proper team construction. Regardless of the team, however, Storm has to be aware of a few holes in her rushdown style of offense.

The first major issue, and probably the biggest, with Storm rushdown is that Storm generally is lacking hitstun on many of her normals. Normals that would induce a certain amount of stun on average with other characters just don’t do nearly as much stun for Storm. What this means is that your offense and your tridashes especially, have to be airtight to prevent reversals, reversal assists and up-backs to ruin your chances at a confirm or to keep someone blocking. Your tridashes have to be pretty deep and your confirms have to be moderately close in order to connect for full combos.

Another issue Storm has is that her rushdown move pool is a bit small. Storm has a blatant separation between quick moves and slow ones, between air-to-air moves and tridashing moves. Fortunately, Storm can pre-empt her oppponent’s actions with relative safety, but she will more or less be using only tridash moves when tridashing and only air-to-air moves and option selects when air dashing. Even out of these small groups of moves, Storm does not have a crossup, so your side-switching, should you choose to employ it, has to be very on point.

In contrast, Storm has some definite upsides to her heavy offensive game. First is that Storm is one of the few characters that can stick resets in almost any part of her combos. As a generally low damage character, Storm often cannot justify spending meter to end a combo and resets can be an attractive option, especially against characters that have little to no escape options. Another upside is that, even when the opponent is blocking, Storm has the great ability to push opponents to the corner. The corner is where panicked players go to die and Storm has no problem reaping souls here; the corner represents limited options and that’s just what Storm needs to run a safer offense. With the opponent having specific routes cut off from them, Storm can more easily and more safely apply pressure against the options that are remaining to the opponent.

Finally, when Storm has an opponent blocking, you MUST make use of her jump-cancelable normals. Jump cancels are not just used to apply more pressure…they’re used to keep you safe! A situation where your opponent is not locked in blockstun or hitstun is generally an unsafe one and Storm relies on these moves for outs when her offense goes sour. When you have opponents in the corner of the camera or the corner of the screen, you can make extra use of jump-cancelable normals to perform instant overheads with Storm’s float, which adds another layer to her high/low game. Floating low to the ground even gives you enough advantage to perform another low altitude float after landing form the initial one if you like and doing this all behind the cover of an assist can make it close to impossible to guess Storm’s next move for an extended period of time.

Rushdown Storm is reliant on solid team construction and tends to be vulnerable to reversal assists.
[/details]

Runaway/Keepaway

[SPOILER NAME=Runaway/Keepaway]
In truth, runaway and keepaway are two different styles of play, but I don’t think they’re different enough to warrant their own sections each. Runaway focuses on putting obstacles on the screen to cut off the paths available for your opponent to chase after you; once they eventually make their way to you, your obstacle course should have been set such that you already have a moderately safe way out of the situation and can position yourself to make the opponent chase after you again. Ideally, you’ll be doing this while draining their resources in some fashion (most commonly through chip damage) in order to slowly tilt the match in your favor as time goes on. Keepaway also a defensive playstyle, but focuses on making sure the opponent never actually gets to you and, if they try to approach, end up putting themselves at extreme risk to land a hit on you. Keepaway is less fluid than runaway in general and is more pattern-oriented, making it a bit easier to break if not designed solidly.

Runaway Storm can be played solo simply on the merits of Storm’s mobility. While she cannot control multiple areas of the screen at once, she has tools that reach almost any corner of the screen at any one time and the best part is that whether you’re just putting an object on the screen as an obstacle or you’re punishing a poor approach, your moves almost all push the opponent fullscreen again, forcing them to redo the whole trial just to get to you. Fortunately for Storm, she has great ground and air mobility and can hustle out of a telegraphed approach very cleanly. The weakness for Storm here is that she has to pick her moves very carefully when performing them; Storm needs to ask herself some very important questions before committing to runaway. How quickly can your opponent get to you and do they have to respect projectiles? What are their angles of attack and angles of approach? Can the opponent intercept you while you’re running away or lay a trap at your destination even if they don’t catch you directly? The answers to these questions will determine which options Storm can use in specific situations to make the enemy’s approach frustrating, if not difficult.

Keepaway Storm is much harder to play and, by virtue of her frame data alone, needs to be played with team support to make it possible. Keepaway Storm uses the great pushback on her moves combined with assists and DHCs to push opponents fullscreen while also closing off multiple areas of the screen, assuring Storm that the opponent has to have specific ways to counteract the keepaway or succumb to death by chip. A key element of keepaway is spotting the punish on a poor approach or attack. While your goal isn’t necessarily to frsutrate your opponent and force mistakes, it happens from time to time and Storm should always be ready to punish. Whether you need to plink dash in for a ground combo or fullscreen punish with Elemental Rage (or even assist punish with a DHC out from Lightning Storm to a more suitable hyper), you need to make sure that when the opponent pushes their way in without covering their vulnerabilities, you can send them right back out again to force them to approach a different way or with different cover. This style is all about limiting options but making it SEEM as though you are actually removing options. Having Storm’s team back her up means that she can cover multiple different approaches in variable ways with only slight adjustments needing to be made from either herself or her assists in terms of timing and vertical spacing. Don’t forget that, depending on your team, you can also use Fair Wind and Foul Wind to manipulate your opponent’s position on the screen.

Runaway Storm is reliant on an acute sense of both the opponent’s options and Storm’s paths of escape when pressured and tends to be vulnerable to absolute rushdown.

Keepaway Storm is reliant on team construction slanted toward assisting keepaway and tends to be vulernable to projectile negation and mid-screen instant offense and assist punishment styles.
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Hybrid

Hybrid

Spoiler

The legendary hybrid style is a truly flexible style that requires situational awareness first and foremost, combined with above average reaction time with a little bit of prediction thrown in. A hybrid style of play allows Storm to flow between offense and defense seamlessly and in the lowest-risk fashion possible. Hybrid Storm does not have to bear the burden of team construction because the team does not have to be built around her necessarily to make her successful, but she, in turn, risks becoming a burden to her teammates because the hybrid style offers the least amount of up-front advantage out of all her styles, so Storm has to fit in more with her team for this style than her team fitting in with her.

Hybrid Storm should present the following idea: always be moving. Whether this means moving around on the screen or moving characters around through DHCs and TACs, things needs to always be in motion. The idea is to not be playing any one particular game, but to play enough of one to make the opponent understand something that’s not actually happening. For example, if you plink dash back four times into the corner and start chucking Whirlwinds and other projectiles, the opponent will assume you’ve taken up a defensive posture (it’s a safe guess). What the hybrid style of play would do from here is to rely on both prediction and reaction to spot if the enemy takes certain actions in response to certain styles and capitalize on that. Even the simple action sequence of jumping and throwing a Lightning Sphere :l: (predicting that the opponent will run underneath the projectile if they are able) and then performing an ADDB j.:s: on reaction to this move is a low-level example of the hybrid style of play. It’s not so much a bait-and-switch as it is establishing what the opponent can perceive as a constantly changing reality. Remember, this doesn’t just have to be a <take a defensive action> <change to an offensive action> <run away> sequence–the idea is to shift your actions such that the opponent doesn’t actually know what’s coming next or if you’re even planning anything at all. The style sounds really cerebral, but Storm can make good use of it as long as she and her team remain healthy enough to abuse it.

The strength and the weakness of the hybrid style are in the prediction/reaction space. Storm needs to be able to have an idea of what her opponent will do when she assumes a certain posture. If the opponent acts truly unpredictably, then Storm needs to take risks to either force them into a more predictable line of play or to react to the opponent’s commitments and at least make them more passive. Storm can gamble, but the problem with this is that because of her limited amount of truly effective options for many scenarios, the burden of predictability now tends to shift from the opponent over to Storm as she attempts to work her way out of a situation she didn’t really want to get into in the first place. Storm now has to deal with the opponent in a manner that may be easy for the opponent to read unless Storm has specific low-risk outs that make predictability not a heavily influencing factor.

Hybrid Storm relies on solid team construction and tends to be vulnerable to truly unpredictable play.

Approach Methods:
Storm has mostly straightforward approaches with the mixup being where she will hit you instead of how or when. Storm’s main approach methods consist of the plink dash, the tridash and the air dash.

Plink dashing (in this case, referring strictly to ground approaches) is Storm’s main easy way in when the opponent has done something unusually silly in the air and you need to cover ground for a full punish. Plink dashing is also great when used in conjunction with assists–certain players or characters will feel the need to jump and plink dashing gets you right in range for air throws. Storm can also employ the traditional shimmy-shake by plink dahsing up to a character, dashing back when predicting an attack or throw meant to intercept her, and then dash back in for a punish. The shimmy-shake is especially effective against players that use grabs as their main form of close-range offense! Speaking of throws, plink dashing is a great throw option select, so be sure to hold either or :f: while dashing to snag a throw when the opportunity presents itself.

Tridashing is an MvC staple and is the foundation of the concept of “the mixup”. Tridashing brings the high/low/throw guessing game to a whole new level with terrifying speed. When used with assists that cover the point character, poor visibility also makes the reaction or guess increasingly difficult and many players will just resign themselves to committing to blocking a particular direction until they get opened up. Without the ability to get full combos from ground throws, Storm relies heavily on the tridash mixup to prevent opponents from blocking her all day.

The air dash is different from the traditional tridash in the sense that air dashing can come before or after projectiles meant to provide cover or frame advantage and can cover more angles than tridashing does (a tridash only approaches from one angle while an air dash can go eight ways and approach from four of those ways). air dashing is used to get a less rigid position in the air than tridashing would give and is a tool for a slightly more passive style of play; indeed, some tridashes are punishable or grabbable on reaction so there will likely be times where you want to move forward in the air without putting all your offensive cards on the table. Mix air dashing with Flight and Float to further vary the speed and angle of Storm’s approach.

Hit Confirmation:
Hit confirmation is important with all characters, but low damage characters like Storm that have the ability to force situations with projectiles and assists need to be able to squeeze damage out of every opportunity. To be clear, hit confirming is not “the initial part of a combo”, but rather the string of attacks used to determine if the opponent is blocking or not before dialing your combo in and proceeding to what would otherwise be unsafe button territory.

For ground confirmations, Storm has a few simple options. The safest and lowest damage options is to chain c.:l: into itself until you can spot the block, which is usually within two strikes. The next option up is c.:l:, s. to make use of Storm’s jump cancel. The other option up is c.:l:, s., c.:h: to give yourself two jump cancel situations to work with–be careful with this chain because if all three hit, your following jump loop combos will need extreme precision to complete. If you are able to confirm into s. alone, Storm has more variable combo options from there that tend to do more damage and gain more meter. Chaining c.:l:, c. is usually not a good idea and the c. doesn’t even hit low, so while c. is better for actual combos, you don’t want to use it unless you confirm straight from c.:l:.

Air confirmations with Storm are a bit tricky. Your main air to air normal is j.:h: with some limited use from j.. A standard confirm is j.:h:, air dash, j.:h: or j.:h:, j.:s:, air dash, j.:h: but you have to be careful here. Dashing forward out of any of these on block can get Storm grabbed (especially the j.:s: variation–remember that j.:s: has less hitstun than j.:h:) so you may want to dash into either j.:l: or j. and cancel into Flight once the opponent has blocked these faster moves that they shouldn’t be able to grab as easily. Performing j.:h: into a Lightning Attack in the direction of your choosing is also a solid idea and Storm having three Lightning Attacks means she can attempt an offense and back away if the need arises while still retaining the ability to net a full combo if the Lightning Attacks connect, depending on height. As a less used option, canceling j.:h: into Lightning Sphere :l: will also score a full combo if it confirms while keeping Storm safe.

Advantage Over Time:
When talking about advantage over time, which is an important concept to understand with characters like Storm is that because Storm doesn’t kill in one touch by herself without X-Factor, DHCs or THCs, the opponent will almost always be given the opportunity to respond once Storm is done hitting them. Storm’s contributions to a team, therefore, have to be weighed in such a manner as to determine if what she’s doing at any one time is worth the opponent most likely not dying if they get hit. The keepaway style of Storm, for example, probably offers the most up-front advantage out of any of Storm’s playstyles. By closing off several areas of the screen at once and forcing reactable approaches, Storm is doing chip damage (right now) and gaining some meter (right now) while forcing the opponent to establish a counter strategy (which is a less immediate benefit) along with opening up the possibility of tagging opposing assists that try to help the enemy point character bully their way in (also a less immediate benefit). Over the long run, however, when comparing Storm’s life total to most other characters (meaning she eats chip at a higher risk to her health than high HP characters) and examining Storm’s meter efficiency (meaning the shreds of meter you gather up to make a whole bar could be spent without making a meaningful dent in the match) and the opportunities in which she gets to spend meter, regardless of efficiency for this particular style (alpha counters and snapbacks are good, for example, but don’t complement this particular style of play; the opponent shouldn’t be able to get to you, remember?), then the benefit Storm offers gets weaker and weaker. RIGHT NOW, that is to say IN THE CURRENT MOMENT, Keepaway Storm is doing very well as long as she’s keeping the opponent away.

Rushdown Storm offers a more balanced advantage over time to her team. While she’s rushing down, she’s doing damage (right now) and gaining meter (right now) and can possibly set up for aggressive DHCs or THCs (less immediate). Over the long run, she’s not doing terribly high damage, but as the match wears on and her teammates may or may not fall (less immediate to far off), her ability to rely on X-Factor to close up the gaps in her game jump up with each level, effectively balancing out the advantage offered more or less. As her X-Factor levels increase, her ability to effectively use meter also increases and so you can see how Storm needs to be cognisant of what she is offering to a team at different stages of the game. When you examine the style with which you want to play Storm, the team with which you want to equip her and the advantage she offers over time and at any one point in the game, you can more accurately tailor your gameplan for an optimized approach instead of formulating a very generic gameplan and wondering why it doesn’t work (if it doesn’t). Advantage over time isn’t a catch-all for team building, but it can serve as an early warning system to a player building a team if all of the members of a team playing in their individual styles do not offer little or no advantage in certain points of the game or in certain situaitons. A good question to ask yourself is, “If Storm isn’t offering an advantage at a particular point in the game, then who on my team can?”

[Yannick]

General Strategy, Page 3

Ranged Options:
Storm has ranged options to cover a variety of situations, but her options themselves are quite limited and also linear. Storm’s options tend to shine for their oftentimes singular intended purpose and are not super flexible. Knowing the different situations that call for different ranged attacks is key to exposing Storm to as little risk as possible, but remember: not all situations that allow Storm to use a ranged option should force Storm to use a ranged option. Every time Storm uses a ranged attack, she is fully committing herself to that action and when situations are capable of changing or reversing quickly, Storm has relatively few outs to keep herself safe.

Storm’s primary ranged attack is Whirlwind. The damage, the chip and the incredible durability properties of this move make it largely uncontested as a projectile in a head-to-head firefight. The speed, linear motion and recovery frames, however, spin a different tale and should encourage caution when employing this move at any height. Proper use of different Whirlwind strengths and different Whirlwind heights is essential for optimizing use of this move. Whirlwind and :h: are your primary offensive tools, but you can use Whirlwind :l: to establish some mid-range spacing and to destroy projectiles that are close to you; if an opponent throws a projectile, Storm can fire Whirlwind :h: to destroy it and travel across the screen to hit the opponent, but if the opponent can recover before Whirlwind :h: reaches the other end of the screen, Storm is now at risk. Using a Whirlwind :l: in this situation can destroy the projectile without burdening Storm with heavy recovery frames for a projectile that wouldn’t hit the enemy anyway, keeping Storm safe and in the fight with less risk. When adjusting Storm’s Whirlwind height, keep the matchup in mind; if Storm is in a firefight with an opponent that has a low ground projectile, Storm can indeed fight with Whirlwind :h:, but instead of fighting the enemy on their terms, Storm can use Whirlwind at a height such that she can hover over the enemy’s projectile while throwing her own fullscreen projectile, effectively telling the opponent that they now have to change gears if they wish to fight Storm.

Double Typhoon is definitely not a go-to move by any means, but has some uses in Storm’s overall gameplan. Mostly a matchup dependent move, Double Typhoon is best used in conjunction with assists and camera tricks. By using an assist to make the opponent block, Storm can usually get enough time to fire off a Double Typhoon to deal some decent chip damage; aside from the chip damage, however, Storm is sending a message to the opponent that reads, “Don’t move.” Especially useful against characters who have low air mobility or can’t cancel their ground dashes, Double Typhoon is used less for damage and more for keeping an opponent in place (preferably away from Storm), where she can fire off her other ranged options to actually deal damage. Large characters or characters with low mobility will also find Double Typhoon frustrating if Storm lifts the camera such that the enemy isn’t visible anymore. By doing so (and in conjunction with an assist), Storm can make the opponent guess if the Double Typhoon will appear where they are currently or where they want to be (estimated based on their mobility options, of course) and low mobility characters will be hesitant to move forward knowing that blocking during movement is not an option that is as readily available to them as it is for other character types.

Lightning Sphere is where Storm’s ranged options get a little more complex. Storm can use tiger knees, Flight and air dashes to adjust the three basic angles from which she throws this projectile. This projectile has a plethora of uses, but its speed and size stop it from being an overwhelmingly convincing option. Best used when at a positional and situational advantage (that is, when your position on the screen doesn’t leave you incredibly vulnerable for the projectile’s duration and when you are not fighting through overwhelming pressure or through poor frame advantage), Lightning Sphere is the tool that will allow Storm to move forward behind it thanks in part to its durability and in part to its ability to negate pushblocking. Clever use of tiger knees, especially, will give Storm interesting anti-air and normal jump height options that do not carry the general risk that Whirlwind does while offering Storm more angles of attack.

Lightning Attack technically isn’t a projectile, but its ability to reach the other end of the screen and yield a full combo on hit, makes this a fantastic ranged option and serves as a situational mid- to full screen meterless whiff punish. You can use Lightning Attack as a punish primarily horizontally, but from mid-screen, diagonal Lightning Attacks can also punish well. Don’t forget to turn to safety if you can confirm that the opponent is blocking.

Elemental Rage is Storm’s metered anywhere punish (from the ground to just under normal jump height). This move is critical to Storm’s punishment game and primarily tells your opponent to be more cautious when near the ground. As long as Storm has meter, she can punish anything that is -8 or greater on block (the most popular example being Magneto’s EM Disruptor). While the meter spent and the damage dealt usually isn’t worth it if your opponent is persistently calling your bluff on whether you will use the move or not, if Storm has a teammate that grants a combo or the ability to raw tag from Elemental Rage’s spinning knockdown or wall bounce, then Storm can make it worth her while to commit to the punish.

Cross-Ups, Mixups and Setups:
By herself, Storm has zero crossups. The closest you’ll get is some wonky footwork using j., but that’s hardly reliable or consistent. Storm can, however, make use of assists in conjunction with her fantastic air dash to create faux cross-up opportunities on which she can capitalize. Storm can take this tactic to the next level by using slow assists or assists that are multi-hitting without being a true blockstring and perform several cross-up air dashes in a row to further confuse the enemy’s blocking.

While Storm does not have a standing overhead, she possesses a powerful mixup tool with Float. By canceling into Float from any jump-cancelable normal, Storm can perform overheads while still being close enough to the ground to perform empty Floats into low attacks and have the timing be similar enough for the two tactics to be ambiguous. Tridashing and Float are critical for opening up opposing players who are not afraid of j.:l:. Float is a strong mixup tactic for Storm and is made even better by the fact that most Float aerial attacks that you will perform for your overhead (j.:h: and j.:s:) give great starting proration to combos where a j.:l: or c.:l: would otherwise have scaled Storm’s already low damage down even further. Standard tridashing tactics apply to Storm’s mixup game, giving her high/low/throw options when in close proximity to the opponent.

Most of Storm’s setups involve convincing the opponent to block instead of risk moving out of the way of her attacks, granting her the advantage of some meter and some healthy chip damage. Storm does have some interesting full damage setup potential with Foul Wind and Lightning Sphere, however. Especially against incoming opponents, Storm can employ Foul Wind to yank the opponent past her and into a helpful assist with the hopes that the opponent, if they are blocking, would be blocking the wrong way after Storm crosses under the opponent. Lightning Sphere’s powerful anti-pushblock property also gives some interesting guard break setups. By using Lightning Sphere , Storm can convince an opponent to block the projectile while she moves forward and can then jump up and snatch the opponent with an air throw for a short combo–remember that on incoming, characters are usually immune to grabs until they perform an action, including blocking. By forcing the block and moving up to the opponent during blockstun, Storm can time her air throw to pick the opponent out of the air as soon as she is able to. If the opponent decides not to block, Lightning Sphere will yield a short combo by using j.:h: and j.:s: to bring the opponent to the ground.

Resets:
Storm is a very low damage character and also does not build very much meter in her combos. As such, it’s very difficult for Storm to always justify spending meter at the end of her combos for Hail Storm or Lightning Storm. Under these circumstances, resets become an enticing option for both conserving meter while taking a shot at more damage. Storm’s main reset tools are j.:l:, j. and s. and her main reset combo pickup tools are j.:s: and air throw.

The strength Storm has when it comes to resets is that because her combos almost always have hitstun pushed to the brink, she is capable of fitting in a reset attempt at almost point in a combo. Having many unpredictable “breakpoints” in a combo where resets can be employed keeps the opponent on edge and forces them to expend lots of energy focusing while they’re being comboed instead of letting them mentally prepare for when the combo is done; furthermore, the opponent has to be ready to guess at a moment’s notice AND they need to guess right or be tossed right back into another combo.

The weakness Storm brings to the reset game is that one of her main reset tools, j.:l:, requires precision timing and spacing to apply properly due to its small hitbox and low hitstun and that resets, in general, put Storm at significantly high risk, especially when the opponent has reversal assists available to them. If the opponent guesses right on your reset attempt and blocks your attack or evades your air throw, Storm has to quickly find a way to get to safety while avoiding the opponent’s mashed out reversal assist.

[Yannick]

General Strategy, Page 4

Air Juggles:
Rather than discuss launcher combos, this section is designed to give insight into Storm’s juggles and how they work; knowing why and how things work in UMvC3 is important because you as the player gain insight into why other things might work and you’ll know when something is going to fail, even in the middle of an attempt, and you’ll know how to salvage that situation.

Storm’s main juggle tools are j.:h: and j.:s: with j. being a minor juggle tool. You won’t see too much of j. in Storm juggles just because her moves have very little hitstun, so j. only has uses very early on when juggling. J. is used primarily to float opponents high enough to begin to take advantage of her air dash juggles for later in combos and has no other notable uses for juggles. J.:h: is the go-to juggle normal for Storm–this move has the most hitstun and gives Storm the ability to control enemy height during juggles. Time the air dash out of a j.:h: differently to control the opponent’s height. Air dashing early into another j.:h: will float the opponent higher and air dashing later into another j.:h: will float the opponent lower to the ground. J.:s: has some uses in basic Storm combos but many more uses in some of her intermediate and advanced juggles. This move doesn’t have as much hitstun as j.:h:, but has a downward angle unique to Storm’s moveset and float enemies up just a little bit, making some very fancy juggles possible when used with air dashes properly. Lightning Attack gets some burn here because of its ability to direct Storm and the opponent to the ground where the opponent can be picked up for a full combo in most cases.

j.:l: – No effect on opponent, low hitstun
j. – High float, low hitstun
j.:h: – Low float, high hitstun
j.:s: – High float, medium hitstun
Lightning Attack – Medium float, high hitstun

Storm doesn’t have jump loops like most air dash characters and relies on ground re-floats to extend her combos. Storm’s primary goal with an air juggle is to stun the opponent long enough and low enough to the ground to land some ground normals ending with either c.:h: or s.:s: and jump cancel out of those to extend the combo. Typical air strings with Storm might look like < j.:h:, j.:s:, air dash, j.:h:, land, s., … > or < j.:s:, air dash :df:, land, s., … >. Also unlike most other air dash characters, Storm cannot abare her way into a Flight combo; if Storm intercepts her opponent in the air with a random j.:h:, do not attempt to cancel into Flight for an air dash combo because it will not work. The exception to this rule is if you are able to abare with super jump normals–those have more hitstun and will allow you to go into a Flight combo if performed quickly.

Running Away:
Running away is an essential part of life. Running away means that you’ve recognized a situation in which you cannot compete and doing so would injure or destroy you. This sort of self-awareness is important and getting out of a bad situation can make or break the match for a player. As noted previously, Storm has the basic runaway tools, but they are quite good at doing their job. Storm has arguably the best air dash in the game combined with great ground plink dashes. Storm can flee with the best of them, even using Lightning Attack to further her runaway potential. Unfortunately, Storm cannot mount an offense while running away due to the static nature of her moves and their recovery data; Storm’s specials leave her too still for too long and cannot be used to reliably pester the opponent while you’re moving around. Fair Wind, while only useable on the ground, actually gives Storm an option while running away, but beware for its recovery and for moves that negate momentum change.

X-Factor:
Storm is a fantastic candidate for X-Factor. While her power boosts are among the lowest in the game for X-Factor, he speed boosts are decent and she becomes much much harder to block even solo. Storm also gets real character combos complete with actual hitstun and OTG extensions. Most notably, though, Storm is famous for X-Factoring her Hail Storm hyper and activating another Hail Storm, dealing massive amounts of damage to opposing characters and their assists.

In X-Factor level 1, Storm gets access to extended combos and modified jump loops. Please be aware that Storm’s normal combos will not work button for button in XF1. The combos will have to be modified slightly, but XF1 is essentially Storm with a normal character’s combos and faster movement.

In X-Factor level 2, this is where things get interesting. Storm now is fast enough to get extreme damage in the corner with Double Typhoon loops by initiating a hard knockdown, then landing and firing a Double Typhoon and hitting the enemy with s.:s: as they descend from the Double Typhoon.

In X-Factor level 3, Storm becomes a good deal harder to block and still uses the same combos as XF2. Work may have to be done in the near future to optimize X-Factor Storm combos outside of jump loops and Double Typhoon loops.

Team Aerial Combos:
Storm has two immediately obvious uses for being the recipient of a TAC tag-in. First, she is capable of ending “happy birthday” combos with a quick air series into Hail Storm and DHC out from there for the KO on both characters if necessary. Next, she can initiate her TAC infinite combo variations from almost anywhere on screen from most TAC directions. The TAC infinite is especially important for Storm, as it is a viable resource-free way for her to score big damage that should would not otherwise be able to output normally.

Storm doesn’t use wall or floor bounces in her combos, so she can come in for her combos off of any TAC directional tag-in and perform the combo of her choice just fine. Beware if you plan on ending your combo with Elemental Rage, however, as you will not receive the wall bounce that is applied at the end of that hyper.

When initiating a TAC tag-out, Storm has the benefit of slipping TACs into many different areas of her combo, similarly to her resets. Keep the opponent on edge by attempting TACs in various areas and sometimes replacing those TAC attempts with resets–you’ll find that not giving the opponent a moment’s rest can force some second guessing and over-thinking on their part.

[Yannick]

General Strategy, Page 5

Risk Assessment:
One word that has been ever-present throughout this writing is “risk”. If Storm has one concept that would measure her as a character and by the rule by which all her actions were measured, it would be risk. Storm, having the handicaps of low damage and low meter gain very often has to ask the question, “Is this action that I’m about to take…worth it?” As you can imagine, the answer is not always clear and can vary greatly based on the tiniest external factor. When playing as Storm, risk assessment needs to be a pillar of your gameplay and decision-making. While she’s not an absurdly strong character, Storm bring a great deal of powerful utility to a team and can very quickly become an indispensable member of the team if used at her maximum effectiveness. Every action with Storm entails some risk factor, however, so the player needs to be an effective judge of scenario construction while also being able to see beyond the immediate effects of any particular decision.

The notion of risk implies the idea of commitment; that is, the idea that once you begin an action, you are stuck seeing that action through (for the most part) and are responsible for the outcomes of that action, be they negative or positive. Storm only universally commits during two general scenarios: tridash approaches and projectile use.

Tridashing is different from ground dashes and Flight plink air dashes because once you start, there is no real way to back out or cancel out of your action within a reasonable enough time. When you tridash, you are tridashing and can’t really feint that. You can choose to not use an attack or to alter the timing of your attack, but when you perform that air dash, no matter what you do after that, you are in that lane of motion until you hit the ground. Tridashing is extremely vulnerable to reversal assists, mashed out anti-airs and instant air grabs.

Using projectiles needs to be as much about the risk Storm exposes herself to as it is about the risk the projectile poses to the enemy. When looking at projectile situations this way, projectiles hardly seem worth it, but it’s good to have a minimalistic view of Storm’s projectiles just because she becomes so vulnerable during their use. Of course situations exist when not only is throwing a projectile what Storm should do, but is also the best option; however, it’s important to realize that just because Storm has many good projectiles, that doesn’t make her a projectile character. She needs to apply their specific uses very intelligently not only to make the most out of those options, but to also minimize the chances that she’ll get KO’d for committing to some wind throwing.

Team Dynamics:
In this section, without turning this into a “team building” discussion, we’ll examine how Storm fits into teams, what she needs in a team and what she can offer to a team.

Team Needs

”Team Needs”

Spoiler

When considering what a fragile character like Storm needs for a team, the first idea that comes to mind is stability. Storm needs something that can mitigate her risk and let her flex on her opponents a little bit without worrying about making the safest possible approaches and extremely immaculate spacing. Next, she needs a boost. If Storm were to receive a report card with grades relating to her performance in UMvC3, she would score highly or admirably in several areas except areas where numbers are involved: frame data, damage and meter gain. Having something available to push her numbers game past its limit is a boon for her. Finally, Storm needs some help in executing a particular gameplan. Some characters can just sort of dash around and hit buttons and then KO people, but Storm definitely needs more of a gameplan and that gameplan needs to be flexible enough to adapt to different matchups but solid enough that it can fit within the framework of a team without becoming a detriment to the other members of that team.

In UMvC3, nothing adds quite as much stability as a beam assist. A strong beam assist is capable of letting Storm advance on the ground mostly unhindered and can serve as an opener for her combos if she is fast enough to capitalize on it. Stability can also come in the form of a reversal assist or a DHC into a safe hyper. Assists that can also be Crossover Countered into are valuable–anything that can help keep Storm safer and work to keep her alive so that she can continue offering the team utility and support.

Boosting Storm’s numbers game can happen in a few ways. Her frame data problems can be adjusted (not alleviated) with help from time-altering hypers. Storm’s damage is difficult to boost on its own; her combos already do miniscule damage, so extending them isn’t a highly viable option, but having a teammate who can tag in from a TAC or a DHC to pick up where Storm left off for big damage is a fantastic tactic and adds to the “fluid” nature of Storm teams. Storm’s damage can also be boosted indirectly through assists that also directly boost her meter gain. More meter for Storm to throw at enemies means less worrying about meter efficiency and more hail and more damage.

When it comes to gameplans, Storm’s needs should fit into the general mold of the team, but if she is the focus of a team, then by all means prioritize her, but be sure to do it intelligently. If your goal with Storm is to camp and throw projectiles and you want an assist that lets you do that, make sure that assist can also work with your other teammate so that you’re not having Storm be the team’s lynchpin. If your goal is lockdown, then make sure you’re using an assist that can be transitioned into a similar role or at least a functioning role for your other teammate. You want a flexible team that can commit to a solid goal.

Team Offerings

”Team Offerings”

Spoiler

Storm is one of those characters that brings almost pure support to a team. She is a capable character that can abuse many of the game’s mechanics, so she can likely successfully play the support role for a number of teams.

First, she has a solid assist. Just one solid assist, but as with everything else about Storm, that one option is super solid. Along with this assist comes an incredible THC hyper in Hail Storm. In fact, Hail Storm is one move that provides most of Storm’s utility for different situations. It’s a great THC, a great DHC both in and out and is perfect for sniping assists and fullscreen shenanigans.

Next, she has a relatively easy TAC infinite, making her a great candidate for receiving TAC tags. The ability to perform even extended combos without exactly comboing to a KO from almost any direction is important, especially for the lower damage characters, and Storm makes good use of this. Storm can also end TAC combos, infinite or not, with Hail Storm to finish off low HP enemies or to finish a TAC “happy birthday” combo.

Finally, Storm offers something a little less tangible to a team, but something that is important nonetheless. Storm can set pacing. If you need to slow the match down or to speed it up, Storm can do both of those things and as long as her team isn’t being completely overwhelmed, Storm can usually control the pace at which the match flows with relative ease. Whether you want to run down the clock or buy time for red HP to heal, Storm can take to the skies to slow things down or rush the enemy down with assists and tridashes. The ability to have a match proceed at your own pace is incredibly important as some characters are entirely reliant on their own rhythm to succeed. If you can not only remove another character from their pacing, but also put them into a pacing of your own design, you’ve gone a long way to finding success in that match already.

Team Order

”Team Order”

Spoiler

To make a long story short, Storm’s ideal position in a team is the second slot. If you’re wondering about where to put her, just put her there. Remember, however, that knowing why things work the way they do is important, so this section will still detail what Storm can do and what her strengths and weaknesses are in those positions. Who knows? You may find a different spot for your team in which Storm can realize her full potential within the framework of that team.

Point

[SPOILER=”Point”]
The point slot on a UMvC3 team is both the most dangerous and the most rewarding. A point character can easily set the tone for the rest of the match and, in some cases, completely decimate an entire team by itself. On the other hand, point characters are the most vulnerable characters on a team because they have to be able to deal with a team that has all its resources and as the first ten to twenty seconds of a match elapse, both teams will be gaining more resources in the context of meter and character-specific power ups. Point characters need to be able to effectively remove themselves from threats or to at least be able to survive dangerous situations.

Storm’s strength in this position is that her high mobility helps her move around so she is not totally susceptible to enemy tactics. She can also start the match by slowing things down a bit once she gets to a corner of the screen and starts throwing projectiles. Storm also has immediate access to both assists and a bar of meter without relying on a special tag in to let her start playing.

Storm has more weaknesses than strengths here, unfortunately. First, Storm’s opposing matchups against common point characters are between “average” and “pretty bad”. She has dominates very few point matchups and is especially vulnerable at the start of the round. Once Storm gets away from the enemy, she has an easier time, but that initial choice of when to jump or when to dash is the instant in which she can get tagged and KO’d with relatively minimal effort thanks to her low HP. Even if Storm is able to snag the first hit against the enemy and go into a full combo, there is a very high chance that she will not be able to KO the opposing point character without a DHC and the chances are still very high that she will not have built up the meter necessary to actually DHC out if the first hit she lands in the hit that leads into the aforementioned combo. Storm essentially has to hit the opponent twice to get rid of them and that is one time too many when looking at all the different strengths that other point characters will be using to bear down on you.

Support

”Support”

Spoiler

The support slot is probably the most important slot in a UMvC3 team. This character is the bridge between your point and anchor characters, so if your point character is KO’d and your support character cannot block the incoming mixup, your team is now sliding down a slippery slope with only your anchor left to play; if your support character has a way to make themselves safe on incoming, then you can at least halt the opponent’s momentum and try to get back into the match. Support slots are also generally where your best characters should be placed to avoid having your strongest character deal with the opponent at full resources while still offering that character an assist to help them out when they have to play. Supports are also some of the most fluid members of a team, meaning that they will be coming in and out as necessary to do damage or to keep teammates safe; support characters should have a good way to DHC in and out of the main stage.

Storm’s strengths in the support role are truly innumerous. Good DHC in. Great DHC out. TAC infinite tag-in from almost anywhere. Can perform ambiguously placed TAC tag-outs. Capable of buying time or stalling. Good assist. Strong THC. Playstyle flexible enough to suit multiple team styles or gameplans. Extremely strong use of XF2. These are all extremely strong traits and for one character to have them is fantastic. Storm is only really eclipsed by a few other characters in such an absolute support role. They key to having Storm in this position if you choose to house her here is to keep her moving. TAC in and out. DHC in and out. Crossover Counter when it’s warranted. Look for raw tag opportunities (Storm can combo off raw tags, by the way). That’s how you get the most utility out of such a fantastic support character.

Storm’s weaknesses in this area are only her main character weaknesses…low damage and low meter gain. Thankfully, these weaknesses are somewhat mitigated by the fact that DHCing into Hail Storm is a high-damage KO option and uses the meter that any other team would have spent on the DHC KO anyway, DHCing out of Elemental Rage gives some characters an opportunity for a full combo to beef up that damage and TACing into Storm also boosts damage and meter. What Storm needs to really be careful with in this position is making sure that she’s not a burden to the team once she’s in. If the point character has been KO’d, can she still function with the anchor as an assist? If the anchor got snapped in and KO’d, can she still function with the point as an assist? Answering these questions is vital because things don’t always go as planned and it’s very easy for a general support character to not operate strongly enough for the team once Plan A starts to fall apart.

Anchor

”Anchor”

Spoiler

Anchor characters are truly an enigma. The best characters suited for anchor are the most self-sufficient characters. Characters than can run, hide, rush and attack at almost any time. Anchors need easy and reliable hit confirms, especially into X-Factor and possessing a level 3 hyper helps to pull out clutch situations. High mobility is essential, as is the ability to combo from throws. The job description for an anchor character is pretty lengthy, but they pay back in spades when they win matches, often through the use of level 3 hypers or XF3 (sometimes both).

Storm’s strengths here are that her weaknesses as a character, which are few but overbearing, are minimized with the use of XF3. Furthermore, XF3 exacerbates her strengths and lets her also explicitly abuse her chip damage game faster and safer than she could otherwise.

Storm’s weaknesses here are that while she has good XF2 usage, it’s largely unchanged from her XF3 usage, so this means the only real benefits you’re getting from it are the extended time and the small damage boost. Storm’s combos still scale pretty hard and also take forever, so even though you’re pumping out actual damage, the combos will eat up a good deal of your X-Factor time and Storm may only be able to take out two characters on average. The bright side here is that Storm’s X-Factor combos in level 3 are mostly not optimized for level 3 as of this writing, so Storm may yet have improvement for this area.

[/details]

[Yannick]

Gameplay and Combos

Foreword:
This section is designed to highlight Storm-specific information regarding gameplay and combos. This section will feature Storm players, different Storm teams and even Storm concepts or proofs of concept. It’s important to remember that several characters retain the possibility for limitless discoveries to be made about them and what they’re capable of; don’t limit Storm to what you read and see here and always be thinking of ways to improve the character.

The combo section will be updated as new ways of comboing are explored, but keep in mind that the combos listed are mainly bread-and-butter type combos, meaning that you can expand and complicate these combos at your leisure; these combos are not the be-all and end-all of Storm’s combo game. Combos are sorted based on type, damage and position with resource requirements and damage done listed along with full notation and any extra information needed to perform the combo correctly.

A bonus combo theory section follows afterward which details why Storm combos work the way they do and highlights what to look for when creating and constructing Storm combos.

Combo Videos:
Storm BnB Compilation (Xero18)
Storm Launcher Variations (Xero18, PacStrife)
Storm/Dante Assist Combos (Xero18)
Storm X-Factor Combos/Loops (scandiumtrioxide)

Gameplay Videos:
Chris Matrix

Chris Matrix

Spoiler

v. Lud (XBox Live, 2012)
v. Lud 2 (XBox Live, 2012)

Dios X

Dios X

Spoiler

v. Flocker (EVO, 2013)

Fanatiq

Fanatiq

Spoiler

v. Combofiend (Comboratory, 2012)

Justin Wong

Justin Wong

Spoiler

v. IFC Yipes (EVO, 2012)
v. Nerses (EVO, 2013)
v. Angelic (EVO, 2013)
v. Filipino Champ (EVO, 2013)
v. Flocker (EVO, 2013)

Mike Ross

Mike Ross

Spoiler

v. Nemo (EVO, 2013)

Remix

Remix

Spoiler

v. Flux (Summer Jam 7, 2013)

Concept Videos: (Updated 11/7)
TAC Concepts
Lightning Sphere TAC Proof of Concept (Xero18)
Optimized Corner TAC Infinite (Xero18)
Lightning Sphere Left Side TAC (Xero18)
Down TAC Infinite, Regular Size (Xero18)
Midscreen TAC Starters (Xero18)

Team Concepts (Updated 11/7)
Storm/Sentinel Proof of Concept (Xero18)
Storm Raw Tag Setups (Xero18)
Storm Double Hailstorm Concept (Xero18)

[Yannick]

Gameplay and Combos, Page 2

Generic Notes (Updated 11/7)

”Generic Notes”

Spoiler

Here are some basic notes regarding Storm’s combos. Please refer to the in-depth combo theory section for more information.

Common Starters:
Common combo starters include…
• s.:l: (Chain)
• c.:l: (Chain)
• j.:l: (Link)
• s.:h: (Link)
• j.:s: (Link)
The moves listed above are common combo starters. Of course, you can start a combo with almost any normal, but these are the normals you’ll have the highest chances of hitting the most often. With the link-type normals, make sure to learn the timing for your followups from multiple ranges.

Double Typhoon Enders:
To end a combo with << Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm >>, one of two conditions needs to be fulfilled for Storm. She must either be below her opponent when she initiates the hard knockdown or she must be extremely close to the ground when she initiates the hard knockdown. Either scenario gives Storm enough time to land and fire off the Double Typhoon.

Hyper Substitution:
For any combos that end with << sj.:s:, land, Hail Storm >>, you can always replace the Hailstorm with Elemental Rage or even the entire ending sequence with << sj.:h:, Lightning Attack xx Lightning Storm >>. Adjust your combos for spacing and special situations like incoming opposing assist projectiles or “happy birthday” combos.

Double Hypers: (Updated 11/7)
For any combos that end with << Double Typhoon xx Hail Storm >>, you can always link an Elemental Rage at the end, provided the opponent is high enough off the ground when you canceled out of Double Typhoon. If you have a slow long-lasting fullscreen assist (like “Sentinel Force (Charge)”), you can forego the Double Typhoon to call the assist, activate Hail Storm, land, and then activate Hail Storm again while your assist is still hitting the opponent.

The winds of change are blowing and Storm can now perform double hypers using Double Typhoon and some common assists! More specifically, Storm can perform:
<< Double Typhoon xx Hail Storm, :a1: + Lightning Attack xx (Hail Storm or Lightning Storm or Elemental Rage) >>
Operating from the same basic tenets as Hail Storm to Elemental Rage, this setup relies on the Double Typhoon to lift the opponent high enough to allow for the Lightning Attack to connect as the opponent is still falling. The opponent should be hit by your assist immediately afterward and while the opponent is getting hit, Storm can cancel the landing recovery from Lightning Attack into any applicable hyper. Remember, you want Hail Storm for okizeme, Lightning Storm for damage and Elemental Rage for DHCs (you should have enough time to DHC once Elemental Rage finishes).

Following is a list of assists which allow double hypers to go off. The list is broken into those who can offer double Hail Storm and those who cannot (as a universal rule, you can always perform a secondary Lightning Storm or Elemental Rage interchangeably with all of these assists, but Hail Storm is assist-specific).

Assists that can offer Hail Storm:
Akuma (Tatsumaki Zankyaku)
Dante (Jam Session)
Deadpool (Quick Work)
Ghost Rider (Chains of Rebuttal)
Iron Fist (Rising Fang)
Spencer (Wire Grapple (Horizontal Shot))
Sentinel (Sentinel Force (Charge))
Doctor Doom (Hidden Missiles)

Assists that offer Lightning Storm/Elemental Rage:
Iron Man (Repulsor Blast)
Wolverine (Berserker Barrage)
Hawkeye (Quick Shot (Greyhound))
Vergil (Rapid Slash)
Dormammu (Dark Hole)

TAC Infinite Unfly :h:: (Updated 11/7)
In order to complete TACs, Storm has to perform the following sequence:
<< f.:h:, ADD, f.:h:, slight pause xx Unfly + j.:h:, land, j.:l:, … >>
In order to perform the << Unfly + j.:h: >>, the following inputs are needed:
:qcb: + :s: + :h:
The :s: and :h: have to be hit simultaneously. If done correctly, Storm will Unfly and immediately perform j.:h: as she’s descending. If done incorrectly, Storm may or may not Unfly, but will perform Double Typhoon :h:, which is probably not what you want. An important thing to note is that if this technique is not perform close to the ground, Storm will perform multiple Lightning Attacks instead. Make sure you’re close to the ground.

Beginner Combos

”Beginner Combos”

Spoiler

s.:h:, c.:l:, c., c.:h: xx :h: Whirlwind xx Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j., j., j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, ADDF, sj.:h:, land, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(Corner) c.:l:, c., [c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land]x5, c.:h:, s.:s:, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., s.:s:, sjc, sj., sj.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s:, land, Hailstorm

Advanced Combos

”Advanced Combos”

Spoiler

c.:l:, c., s.:h:, s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:h:, ADF, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j., j., j.:s:, land, s.:h:, c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j.:s:, ADDF, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADDF, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j.:s: xx :df: Lightning Attack xx :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j.:s: xx :df: Lightning Attack xx :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., jc, j.:h:, j:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack x2 xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:h:, ADF, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

Anti-Air Combos

”Anti-Air Combos”

Spoiler

(Anti-Air) :uf: Lightning Attack xx :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, [land, s., jc, j.:h:, ADD]x3, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

(Air to Air) sj.:h:, sj.:s:, ADF, sj.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s: xx :uf: Lightning Attack x3 xx Lightning Storm

(SJ Air to Ground) sj.:h:, ADD, sj.:h:, land, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

Throw Combos

”Throw Combos”

Spoiler

(Ground Throw) Ground Throw, Hailstorm

(Air Throw) Air Throw, land, Double Typhoon, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

(Air Throw) Air Throw, ADDF, j.:l:, land, s.:l:, s., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

(SJ Air Throw) Air Throw, ADDF, sj.:s:, land, s., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack, :d: Lightning Attack, land, c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, ADF, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

(SJ Air Throw) Air Throw, ADDF, sj.:s:, s., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, s., c.:h:, jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Hailstorm

X-Factor Combos

”X-Factor Combos”

Spoiler

(X-Factor 1) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, XFC, [s., jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land]x2, s., jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(X-Factor 2/3) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, XFC, s., s.:h:, [s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon]x2, s.:s:, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(X-Factor 2/3) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, XFC, [s., jc, j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land]x2, s., jc, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx :l: Lightning Sphere, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon, s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, sj.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

Assisted Combos

”Assisted Combos”

Spoiler

(Long-lasting assist, “Eye of Agamotto”) c.:l:, c., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h:, ADDF, sj.:h:, land, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s. + :a1:, c.:h:, s.:s: xx Flight, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm
23.c:l: c:m: c:h: jc j:m: j:m: j:s: s:h: c:h: jc j:h: j:s: plus Sentinel Assist ADF j:h: s:m: :s: xx Fly [f:h: ADF]x5 sj:s: land Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(Long-lasting assist, “Hidden Missiles”) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, j.:s: + :a1: xx :df: Lightning Attack xx :f: Lightning Attack xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., s.:s: (:a1: connects) xx Flight, f:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(Corner)(Forward carry assist, “Tatsumaki Zankyaku”) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack x2 xx :d: Lightning Attack, land, s., jc, j.:h:, ADD, land, c.:h: + :a1:, s.:s: xx Flight, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s:, land, Double Typhoon xx Hailstorm

(Fullscreen horizontal assist, “Sentinel Force (Charge)”) c.:l:, c., c.:h:, jc, :f: Lightning Attack x2 xx :d: Lightning Attack, s., s.:s:, sjc, sj.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x5, f.:s:, land, :a1:, Hailstorm, (:a1: connects), land, Hailstorm

TAC Combos

”TAC Combos”

Spoiler

(Midscreen)(TAC Infinite: Basic) f.:h:, slight pause xx Unfly + j.:h:, land, j.:l:, j.:h:, ADF, j.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, ADDF

**(Corner)(TAC Infinite: Basic) f.:h:, slight pause xx Unfly + j.:h:, land, j.:l:, j., j.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x3, ADD

**(Corner)(TAC Infinite: Lightning Sphere) f.:h:, slight pause xx Unfly + j.:h:, land, j.:l:, j.:h: xx Lightning Sphere :l:, j.:l:, ADU, j.:l:, j., j.:h: xx Lightning Sphere :l:, j.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, ADF, f.:h:, ADD

(Up TAC Infinite) Up TAC, slight pause, ADD (until level with opponent), sj.:h: xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x3, ADD, Infinite xN

(Down TAC Infinite) Down TAC, ADDF xx Flight, f.:l:, f.:h:, [ADF, f.:h:]x3, ADD, Infinite xN

[Yannick]

Gameplay and Combos, Page 3

Combo Theory:
More important than actually being able to perform combos is knowing why and how they work. Not only does this knowledge make you, the player, more in tune with your characters and the game in general, but it gives you insight into whether or not combos will drop, how you can prevent or rescue those drops and how you can salvage situations that don’t seem to be in your favor. First, this section will discuss engine-specific combo theory and the next section will discuss Storm-specific combo theory.

Marvel Combo Theory:
Combo Length

Combo Length

Spoiler

Combo length in UMvC3 is determined by an invisible timer within the game that inflicts a status called “hitstun deterioration” (HSD) upon the victim of a combo. As HSD begins to stack, the hitstun of your attacks will begin to deteriorate and make many chains and links invalid. The opponent will auto-tech to safety when their hitstun ends and you’ll have dropped your combo if you were swinging for the fences when HSD maxed itself out. First, before we discuss further specifics, some rules:

• Hitting an opponent on the ground starts the HSD timer at some unknown value.

• Hitting an opponent in the air starts the HSD timer at some smaller unknown value.

• Hitting an opponent on the ground continuously drastically stacks HSD in a short amount of time.

• Hitting an opponent in the air gradually stacks HSD over a long period of time.

• Hitting an opponent while in a super jump state inflicts much more hitstun than in a normal jump state; this bonus hitsun also applies to launcher-based combos.

• Hitting an opponent while in the air inflicts an additional stun separate from the move’s stun frame data called untechable time which is affected by HSD.

• Some characters’ HSD will reset completely when launching a standing opponent.

• Some characters have moves which inflict static stun, no matter what the opponent’s HSD status is.

• Knockdown states will ignore HSD but the timer will still stack while the opponent is falling down. Ground and wall bounces are considered knockdowns and, as such, are not affected by HSD.

• When performing a TAC, the enemy’s HSD is forced to 0 for the duration of the TAC or until the attacker touches the ground. Once released from the TAC state, the HSD will jump to its accumulated value, including the time spent performing the TAC.

Now, what does all this mean? Put simply, combos must be completed as quickly as possible in most cases with short ground strings and as many juggles that include super jump normals as possible. When HSD has started stacking up significantly, use bounces, TACs and knockdowns to extend combos past their normal limits. That is the long and short of it, but let’s go into the details.

Most combos start from grounded crouching normals. You’ll find that if you pick a character that has a quick c.:l: and position them next to the enemy, you can mash c.:l: and the enemy will be able to block after a couple hits even though you can start a legitimate combo with chains and links that carry on for fifty hits or more from the same c.:l:. Grounded strings are designed to be much shorter than air juggles in part because they have a history of leading to problematic infinites–you’ll notice that most moves in this game cause a float state on the opponent that lifts them from the ground. Standing resets are also incredibly potent and have the potential to put the defender in a 4-way mixup that airborne opponents don’t have to defend against (airborne resets only make you block left/right and not high/low as well), and that’s not counting high/low unblockables and command grabs. For these reasons, ground strings are kept very very short.

Striking an opponent in the air to start a combo starts with the HSD timer with a much shorter “fuse” than a combo started with a ground string. You’ll find that if you anti-air an opponent with a particular jump string, you can get a short combo, but if you start with a ground string and lead into a jump-cancelable normal that transitions into that same jump string from earlier, your combo will last much longer. Shorter anti-air HSD timers enforce the idea of getting a punish from an anti-air, but not one that can lead to a full-fledged kill combo (usually).

So what’s the connection that links ground strings to air juggles? The flow is as easy as A B C. Or, rather, :l: :h: :s:. Think about the two timers as different kinds of decay; the ground timer gives you a larger value with exponential decay while the air timer is shorter–you lose a lot of time up front, but the remaining time ticks away much slower, making it seem longer. Since ground strings give you a greater starting time, you want to always start your combo there and pack as big a string in as you can before your transition into a float or a launcher to begin your air juggles. The combos from here are mostly character-dependent with regards to whether you should launch or float and how you continue from there. Either way, you want to pile as many moves into your combo during this time as possible; remember that air juggles have much longer timers than ground strings. You should also remember that if you intend to float or launch an opponent that you should avoid floating them earlier than you have to–for example, if your hypothetical character’s main float move is c.:h: and you can either choose to use your s. (a normal move) or your c. (which happens to cause float), your combo will be served better to chain from s. to c.:h: instead of from c. to c.:h:. Again, floating an opponent early shortens your HSD timer considerably up front, so only float or launch once you’re ready to and not anytime beforehand if you can help it.

As your combo goes along, HSD will eventually stack to some upper limit and get to the point where continuing a combo will just not work; the enemy will pop out of your combo due to deteriorated hitstun. When you get to the later portions of combos, this is where you need to start cheating. By using moves that have properties that ignore HSD in order to extend your combos beyond their normal limits. Keep in mind that even though moves “ignore HSD,” what this really means is that the HSD timer will still shorten while the move’s stun is taking place, but that stun itself will not be interrupted by HSD. The most common types of moves that ignore HSD are knockdowns. Knockdowns are simply moves that guarantee that no matter how high the opponent is off the ground, they will fall until the hit the ground. Soft knockdowns mean the opponent will recover immediately once they touch the ground and hard knockdowns mean the opponent will not recover immediately and you can OTG them in this state to continue a combo. Wall and ground bounces are also considered knockdowns and they also ignore HSD. Remember, though, that the timer will still be ticking while bounces are going on–if you can pick an opponent up from a bounce or a knockdown any faster and still continue your combo as planned, you should do that to preserve as much precious time as you can. Time is a resource when it comes to combos (unless you are part of a select group of characters who almost completely ignore HSD). Once you have used up as many special knockdowns as you can, it’s time to end your combo or to pass it on via TAC or DHC.

Combo Damage

Combo Damage

Spoiler

Combo damage in UMvC3 is determined by a per-attack proration system in which the damage of any move is only affected by the number of hits in the combo and modifiers based on strength of attacks. Before we go into specifics, some rules:

• The first hit in a combo will always deal full (100%) damage.

• Subsequent hits in a combo will undergo the following damage calculation:
Damage = (BaseDamage * StrengthModifier ^ ComboCounter) / 100

Base damage is the listed damage of an attack.

The strength modifier is applied as follows, based on the attack:
:l: = 0.75
= 0.80
:h: = 0.85
:s: = 0.90

All special moves, command normals and hyper combos count as :s: moves.

The combo counter is simply the number of hits currently in the combo.

• Damage for any one attack can never be lower than 10% of its base value.

• Max scaling for :s: moves will kick in at hit 23. Lower strengths will reach their max scaling earlier.

• The individual hits of hyper combos are not affected by their own scaling.

What does this all mean? To make this particularly long story short, this means to score the best damage, you should use as many high strength moves as possible while inflicting as the least amount of hits necessary to keep the combo valid. With that out of the way, let’s look at the nitty-gritty.

First, let’s debunk a myth. Unlike many other games with the scaling proration system, UMvC3 does not have damage for its moves calculated in proportion with the other moves used in that combo–each move contributes its own damage to the combo independent of the damage of other moves! In many other games, part of the proration calculation is based on the damage of all previous moves used in the combo; an additional percentage modifier is applied to the moves such that starting combos with light attacks will negatively affect the total damage of the combo overall when compared to starting a similar combo with a stronger button (outside of the lower damage of that light attack). In UMvC3, the difference between a combo starting with a light attack and a medium attack (if both combos are identical and both the :l: and are 1 hit moves) is actually the difference between the damage of the :l: and the damage of the …likewise, moves used in the middle of a combo do not negatively affect moves later on down the line…they only affect themselves.

Many ideas are going to converge at once when it comes to damage scaling and they all seem to jostle for priority when creating combos, so it’s important to be able to understand these ideas individually while being able to see the links between them. To squeeze the most damage out of a combo, you want to clearly hit as hard as you can. What you need to combine with this idea, though, is the notion of hitting as seldom as possible. This is the area where moves in one part of a combo can negatively affect the others–multi-hit moves add to the combo counter and part of the damage calculation is based on hits, so you want to keep the hit count down for as long as possible for how many heavy attacks you can use.

The next idea to toss into the mix is the idea of max scaling and knowing when to avoid risking the validity of the combo for the sake of damage; by hit 23 of any combo, not matter the character, if an :s: move is used in that spot, it will have reached its max scaling value. Any other lower strength of attack will reach its maximum scaling value a bit earlier in the combo. Time to debunk another myth! No move will ever do less than 10% base damage for any character. Special moves have a per-character minimum damage percentage and hyper combos also have a per-character minimum damage percentage. Normals have an across-the-board minimum of 10%. Now that we know the deal about minimums and maximums, let’s apply this. For a standard combo, you can start with whichever attack you like, regardless of strength, but you want your hit confirm to be as short as possible. Once you confirm into your combo, you want to pile as many big hits in before you reach your maximum scaling and from there, any hits you do are considered bonus damage–your combo’s damage can’t scale any further, so you want to put as many hits as possible in at this point and extend the combo for as long as you possibly can because penalties are already maxed out at this point.

A small note to put here regarding the scaling of hyper combos: most hyper combos are multi-hit. The individual hits of hyper combos will still increase the combo counter, but the damage of those individual hits will be calculated from the combo counter’s value at the time of the first hit of the hyper combo. What this means is that multi-hitting hyper combos will not scale themselves just because they hit so many times. Combos performed after hyper combos will resume scaling as usual.

Constructing Strong Combos: Abridged Edition
Let’s put everything we learned together. To construct an ideally strong combo, lead into your combo with a ground string while keeping your hit confirm very short with as few hits as possible. Extend this ground string for as long as possible before launching or floating. Once the enemy is in a juggle state, you want to hit as hard as you can, using special moves when you can, as fast as possible. After a while of juggling, minimum damage will have been reached, so you can forfeit hitting hard for consistency or combo validity. Once the combo begins to reach the limits of hitstun, start abusing knockdowns and bounces to extend the combo and add even more bonus damage. End your combo with a hard knockdown to apply an okizeme game, an air tech to attempt a reset or a hyper combo to add heavy damage.

Knowing why combos work and how damage is calculated will help you in constructing your very own combos or in improving the combos of others.

Storm Combo Theory:
Critical Moves

Critical Moves

Spoiler

Storm has some moves that are absolutely essential to her combo construction. These moves are:

s. (Jump cancel)
c.:h: (Soft knockdown, jump cancel)
j.:h: (High hitstun)
Lightning Attack (Special attack, positioning)
Lightning Sphere :l: (Special attack, positioning)
Hail Storm (High damage, OTG, fullscreen)

Not every Storm combo will contain all of these moves, but most of the high damage combos will contain most of these moves. The moves I want to focus on in particular are c.:h: and j.:h:. These moves are, without a doubt, the cornerstone of Storm’s combo game. In particular, c.:h: is a fantastic move–the jump cancel combined with the soft knockdown make this move essential in every facet of Storm combos. With its high hitstun and height control properties, j.:h: is also an extremely important move for Storm combos.

Critical Damage

Critical Damage

Spoiler

The first thing people tend to realize about Storm is that she does “low damage”. Well, why is that? At first glance, most Storm juggles do about 350K damage before application of Hail Storm. This is after jump loops and all sort of shenanigans. Why the low damage? Aside from the fact that Storm’s moves all have much lower base damage than the rest of the cast, her moves typically have low stun and also take forever to start up–what this means is that her combos are very fragile because the HSD timer is getting used up by the time it takes for her moves to start up and that HSD is applying itself to moves that already have very low stun; Storm’s combos aren’t “short”, but these properties stunt the length of her combos considerably when compared to other high stun characters like Magneto.

Another factor for Storm’s low damage is that she doesn’t get to really take advantage of the game’s scaling system that counts special moves as high strength :s: moves. The only special moves Storm ever gets to use early enough for damage to matter are Lightning Attack and Lightning Sphere. Without more ways to use high strength moves, Storm’s combo damage remains almost artificially low by having to rely on slow low damage normals. Using Lightning Sphere and Lightning Attack are critical for scoring higher-end damage with Storm.

Critical Positioning

Critical Positioning

Spoiler

Storm is one of the characters in this game that has to control the enemy’s height during her juggles or risk dropping the combo. Your primary height control tools are j.:h: and j.:s: in conjunction with air dashing. For example, many Storm air juggles contain the << j.:h:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., … >> string. Going by the rules of generic combo construction, you would normally want to perform the j.:h:s and the air dash as fast as possible, but if you do, the opponent will be too high for s. to connect and the combo will become invalid. In order to control the opponent’s height, you’re going to want to time your air dash with a slight delay in order to let the opponent drop a little bit to allow your s. to pick them up; with this, you can see how Storm has to sacrifice some HSD time up front to extend her combos later on. Knowing when to sacrifice speed for consistency is important and even more easily visible with Storm’s << f.:h:, ADF >>xN combo in Flight; perform the combo too fast at an incorrect height and Storm will travel right under the opponent and drop the combo.

In instances where Storm might actually be going too fast (X-Factor, for example), you will need to keep your opponent higher in the air rather than lower and this is where j.:s: comes in. The previous string can be modified to look like << j.:h:, j.:s:, ADF, j.:h:, land, s., … >> and be performed as fast as possible to both increase the damage and consistency with the added float of j.:s: to keep the opponent in the air longer.

Horizontal positioning is another facet of combo construction that Storm needs to adjust as her combos go on, though not as much as height control. The rules of thumb for horizontal positioning are as follows:

• If you are attempting to hit confirm, use multiple c.:l:s instead of chaining into attacks.

• Use s. for blockstrings only and c. for combos only.

• If you plan to perform a float juggle, chain into c.:h:.

• If you plan to launch, skip :h: attacks and go straight for s.:s:.

Since Storm’s attacks have so much pushback, you’re going to want to keep hit confirms to an absolute minimum as necessary. By using multiple c.:l:s for a hit confirm instead of chaining into attacks, you are able to keep the enemy close while still retaining safety for blockstrings. attacks have tons of pushback, s. in particular, and that move should be chained into for a blockstring because of its jump cancel property. If you have confirmed a combo, you want to chain into c. because of its lower pushback–this move is much less safe on block than c.:l: and is not jump cancelable, so only use it when you have confirmed into a combo.

For float juggles, you only solo option is to use c:h: and jump cancel from there for your combo. For launches, you may be tempted to climb your way up the chain into the launcher, but you need to beware. First, we learned in Marvel Combo Theory that floating before a launch is not optimal because it shrinks your HSD timer when you can just go straight into a launch and preserve some of that timer for later on in the combo. Next, c.:h: has a lot of pushback on its own and makes some launcher-specific combos very difficult (and some impossible) to perform if you chain all the way into the launcher and include c.:h:. If you have a confirmed combo, go straight from c. into s.:s: and you will find your combos to be much easier and more consistent. Normally, I would suggest using s.:h: as a substitute for c.:h:, but that move has even MORE pushback and often makes s.:s: whiff unless Storm is extra close to the opponent.

Critical Construction

Critical Construction

Spoiler

To close the book on Storm combos, they follow the general rules of Marvel combo construction, but you have to be mindful of Storm’s inherent limitations which seems to almost directly conflict with the provisions of the combo system. You have to make due and fit as many heavy hitting attacks and special attacks as early as possible. Mind your speed so that your ground-based pickups don’t whiff and drop the combo; control your opponent’s height so you can extend the combo for as long as you can. Carry your opponent to the corner, end with a hard knockdown and trigger Hail Storm for max damage.

[Yannick]

Special Thanks

Foreword:
This thread was made primarily not only to service the Storm community with updated information, but also to showcase the hard work done by Storm contributors who have been diligent and thoughtful even though their work does not always get the spotlight. We play Storm because we genuinely enjoy the character and the contributors make everything easier for all players and use knowledge as the building blocks to construct a more thorough understanding of the character.

Thank you.

The List:
@Karsticles - Thread template and structure.

@xero15 - Foremost video content creator for Storm.

@The Matrix367 - Bringing an old school perspective of hard work and combining that with a drive to optimize.

All Storm lab monsters - Even if you don’t go to tournaments, just experimenting with the character helps everyone in the long run.

All Storm tournament players - Every match played with Storm is a lesson learned to help everyone succeed.

Thank you for reading!

[RLAAMJR]

Nice!

[Jaxxx]

THANKS FOR ALL THE HARD WORK!
it’s great to see.

[AKZuM]

Thank you, BasedYannick

[xero15]

Damn that’s a lot of info. Good job organizing it. I’m working on new Storm tech that’s more team related. Once I understand it fully I’ll share but I put a small clip called Storm Shenanigans on my page with very general ideas.

[Yannick]

Nice, I look forward to it!

Going to update in a week or two with damage and meter data for combos and add some generic Marvel tech and how it applies to Storm (Kubota escape, TAC glitches, etc.).

[xero15]

Also Storm and Iron Man on Repulsor Blast can set up double hailstorm setups

[xero15]

Here you go. Raw tag concepts I feel she’s been missing

[xero15]

Here are more double hailstorm concepts

[Yannick]

Sweet, I will put these up when I get home.