I don’t entirely agree actually. Sometimes, it’s the low tiers who have the interesting options, but they never get to apply them because the top tiers are just so herp derp. No one thinks Wolverine and Phoenix are interesting, but they can kill you with comparatively little effort. Thor has interesting reset potential, but it doesn’t matter, because any character that can’t kill you in a single combo isn’t viable.
I feel the exact same way. Most of the characters I was most hyped for (Arthur, Haggar, Morrigan, Hsien-Ko, Captain America) I dropped in a hurry because they just aren’t competitive enough. Why train for days to perfect a combo that can do 500-600k when there are characters that can do 100k more damage with combos that can’t be dropped without a controller malfunction? Why use a zoner with bad mobility and no close-quarters combat abilities when there are characters who can zone better than the dedicated zoners while also having fantastic rushdown games and incredible mobility?
Only characters I’ve kept that I was hyped for early on are Dante and Felicia. (Which is appropriate considering each has an assist which greatly complements the other while on point.) My third wheel seemed to rotate constantly until I finally settled on Taskmaster, a character who can zone, rushdown, has high health and braindead combos that do incredible damage. He even has an infinite that can be done in any level of X-Factor - my other characters needed at least XF2 to infinite. He’s so good that it makes me sad that with UMvC3, which has given him a brand new move while nerfing Dante’s Hammer and nixing Felicia’s ability to follow OTGs with hypers, it means if I replace another character, it’s going to be yet another character I was hyped for that gets the boot.
Does anyone else feel that Iron Fist could have potentially been Ms. Marvel? They’re both punchy characters. Add in the ability to fly and they could’ve added a female. This, of course, is just based on how I imagine they would play.
Being unique or having interesting abilities is not the same as being strong though. You’re right when you say there’s a lot of interesting things these low tier characters can do, but they’re not strong enough at the current level of MvC3.
UMvC3 is fixing a lot of problems where there are characters that are just better than everyone else at what they do. Bringing them more in line where unique characters can execute their gameplans and strengths without being DHC glitched or air thrown to death.
But that’s not really what I am talking about. The guy I was referring to was saying there was a lot of talk around certain characters pre-release but people don’t play them. People don’t play the characters because they’re not strong enough (dealing damage) or their gameplan is way too hard to execute. I’m not saying it should be Wolverine’s baby mode, but it shouldn’t be twice as hard to be just as effective as Wolverine with a character’s unique gameplan.
I get you, but still I don’t think that not being Wolverine means not viable, it’s fair to say that in this game you can chose the characters you like the most to play with and succeed.
Not that the game should not be changed, but I don’t think there are useless characters…
Yeah, I never argued that weak characters were strong. I argued that it wasn’t entirely true that weak characters are uninteresting. And yes, people often abandon characters for higher tiered characters. That’s an entirely different point though, and has more to do with following the path of least resistance than following the path of interest.
Well, compared to the other two characters I use, Taskmaster feels very low execution. Captain America didn’t feel like he had enough options to make it worth learning his stuff, but I’ll look forward to whatever buffs he’ll receive.
If Ammy and Taskmaster are high tier (which I’m sure alot of people agree that they are), then so be it. But I chose those two from the beginning when they were announced. I love Okami and I decided to be dedicated to Ammy. I saw Task’s trailer and was “WTF?!” at first (I had no clue who the hell he is). But after seeing the Aegis Counter, I decided to use him (come on, that move is freaking epic). From that point on, I’ve been toying with a 3rd wheel for the longest time. First it was Hsien-ko, but she was WAY too slow against other people. So I switched to Deadpool, but EVERYONE was using him at the time (as well as Wesker). Then C. Viper, but the learning curve was ridiculous and all for nothing (since she was fairly easy to outclass). Next was Spider-Man, who was good, but was easy to punish on blocked moves. So I tried Spencer and stuck with him for the longest time until I found out how much of a meter whore he can be. So I switched to She-Hulk and I’ve stuck with her and Spencer for now (at least until Strider comes out, then I will have my team). I REALLY want to learn Viewtiful Joe (just for his Mach Speed), but he’s so fucking slow that I can’t stand chasing them down only to be super jumped over and having to chase them down again.
There will always be strong characters, average characters and weak characters. This is the way the Japanese “balance” a game or so I’ve been told before, VF being an exception. People do enjoy playing a weak character and the challenge in winning with them.
Even though people do love to scream for balance, balanced games seem to be unpopular in the states.
Looks like they’ll be lessening the gap between strong average and weak for UMvC3. Still team synergy will remain a huge part in UMvC3, so even if they are weak you could strengthen them with some godly assists.
