hmm, i was kinda hoping that DFA might just help me out when i catch the point AND assist… i really hate the idea of THC’ing… and OTG grapple only hits 1.
if you’re doing a midscreen otg and then trying to follow it up with a zip line + armor piercer, you’d have already used your wall bounce (which means your options would be Lancer, maybe Maneuvers and that’s it). Assuming Spencer lands quick enough to follow up with a ground combo he’s probably going to have to use a light to hit confirm in time, which may cause flip out for combos which otg later and will -definitely- impact scaling.
If Spencer can’t air attack after a diagonal zip it’s definitely a nerf, the question IMO is just how big of a nerf it’ll be.
spencer looks like the least changed character in umvc3. which is good, considering he’s already a powerful character.
From the changelist:
Spencer
- Increased movement speed of Zip Line.
- Spencer will float higher during Zip Kick.
- Slightly decreased initial startup of Armor Piercer.
- Added new move “Bionic Bomber.”
What I don’t see is “Diagonal zipline no longer recovers in the air.”
Armor Piercer being slightly faster is a change I thought was there but was unsure of; nonetheless, it’s great, 'cause there’s a few combos I had wanted to do but couldn’t because the startup of far armor piercer was just *a couple frames *too much.
I like these changes!
But I wonder about the Zip Kick “floating higher”. Does that mean you won’t have enough time to Kick, Land, Bionic Lancer anymore…?
My personal guess is that Spencer is still going to have Zip kick follow up combos, they just are going to look different (Air Wire Grapple, Straight down Zip Wire into Bionic Lancer perhaps?). I don’t think they’d make him floatier on zip kick and faster on zip wires yet render him unable to follow up.
Even if they did, still strong buffs for Spencer. Armor piercer startup is bound to bring in new tech, a faster zip wire will give him better approaches and Bionic Bomber has potential for ambiguous approaches and combo extensions. Can’t wait to get into the UMVC lab :).
The only thing I worry about is that some combos (such as armor piercer>late bionic lancer>armor piercer) won’t work anymore, but it’ll probably just have to be done differently. I’ll take a faster zip line over doing fancy combos any day though.
I do this now, mostly for ease and to get to DHC glitch with B. Manuevers. It’s the midscreen Lancer followup after a throw or air combo im worried about.
Am I worried? Sure a little, but people are crafty in finding new ways to make things work. maybe we can get back to the ground in time still. Maybe an assist can make it work. Maybe we can zip over and do Bionic Bomber above them. who knows. Until we get to experiment I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic.
Also bear in mind this is a changelog but it may not be a complete changelog for better or worse. The rumors of being unable to attack after a diagonal zip still concern me, and I highly doubt his unscaled reel-in punch is still there. I personally think Spencer will break even or come out ahead relative to vanilla though even if there are other adjustments. Nov 15th can’t get here fast enough =P.
Does anyone know if the Zip Kick float apply to both his ground & air Zip Kicks or not? And that Armor Piercer link is a welcome buff. Not only will it now be extremely hard to miss the link after the overhead but I also look forward to seeing the new tech that people come up with.
Have you seen this video yet…start at 1:44, and again at 9:40. There is always hope 
Kei
I hadn’t seen this yet, thanks. If memory serves me correctly the “no diagonal follow up” scares came from the EVO build (maybe they weren’t used to faster zip line/floatier zip kick if it was in that build?) and since this is NYCC that’s pretty convincing that it isn’t a problem. Right now it sounds like the only nerf Spencer has is to relearn the spacing of Zip kick follow ups lol.
Yea, I was thinking the same thing and was pretty afraid it might have been true since I hadn’t seen proof otherwise. Thankfully while searching through umvc3 videos for Iron Fist this morning, I ran across someone who knew something about Spencer. Once I saw that first diagonal zipline I was watching like a hawk! I cried tears of joy when I saw the part at 9:40 
It seems that out beloved Spencer is safe, c’mon 15th already!
Kei
DANG that’s good to see. Hahaha, pretty happy now! Nerfs? What nerfs?
Well I wouldn’t even call that a nerf. Just a readjustment. This is why it’s best to not jump the gun on changes till we’re either outright told that something in the previous game doesn’t work or we can’t find anything better to make up for it
It appears Spencer didn’t get nerfed in any form but got a mobility buff in the air and increased solo combo potential. Universal air dash nerf evens out his previous air mobility disadvantage as well
Eh, I’ve been playing Spencer on point for months now/do most of my lab work with him and I STILL find myself adjusting/tinkering with zip kick spacing given all the situations you can find yourself in. You’re right it’s technically not a nerf, but I’m not looking forward to re-learning it all lol. Still, a faster zip speed would have offered new tech/learning anyways, so I guess it was going to happen regardless.
That said, even though it wasn’t in the change long I still think unscaled L followup is going to be removed. If by some odd twist it isn’t…I’m learning a Spencer/Doom/Whatever team, end of story.
Yeah I was playing in the evo build and both mine and every other spencer player’s zip line relanches were not connecting properly.
My guess however, is that you have to be much more above the ground.
When I do the relaunch, I normally land first, dash, then TK otg grapple wire, then zipline. Problem with this is that I land before I can get that S.
In the video that Kei posted, he was doing the “proper” (I call it that way anyways) to do the relaunch. If that works, I should begin converting right away.
Death From Above might be useful, but if it’s signficantly unsafe on block, I don’t see much applications.
Also what’s with Armor Piercer in that video?
Man I’m happy seeing that video. Although I’m still gonna drop my other characters I’ll have to keep going with my boy Spencer.
I hope his Slant Shot assist isn’t changed. I’m getting the grasp of it, and I don’t want the hit stun deterioration change on assists effect it.
I don’t want that to change, either.
I’ll ask in the “What do you want us to test?” thread if he can still follow up with Zip Kick.