Top 5 Most Underrated/Slept on characters for UMVC3 (cause I like lists and discussion on them):
Not in any order and will probably change once the Capcom changelog is released.
1) Captain America: The sleeper character of MVC3 that is about to finally awake. Ok so I throw out tons of tier lists and stuff without much explanation on particular characters (even for me that's a lot to get off my chest). I think I listed Captain America as Low Mid or Mid tier. Fact of the matter is that Captain America is a much more match up dependent character that others. Certain characters he blows up for free, others blow him up. Again zoning specialists it's easy mode for Captain America and he's a legitimate tank as not only does he have good health he does above average damage (combos are a bit execution heavy), has some great normals, one excellent but underrated assist and plus he is able to convert combos from a distance many characters can't. You haven't experienced MVC3 until you have been TOD'd by a Captain America player from a stray Shield Slash that you never thought would convert into a kill.
His weaknesses were still many in MVC3. No comboability off of air throws solo meaning his general throw game was ass. No reliable/easy way of finishing an air combo with a hyper without using extended and difficult shield slash combos. Recovery on shield slash meaning he had to space himself properly or he gets blown up. No air mobility made his approaches predictable. Cartwheel was ass outside of close range cross ups using assists (although effective and his only real way to mix up opponents).
90%+ of those problems are essentially fixed. Captain America now has easy mode combos if he wants to fall back on that gives him options in the corner (Captain was ass in the corner) thanks to his new OTG. It allows him to finish combos after a standard air combo and MOST PROBABLY allows him to do substantial damage off of an air throw (even if it's just OTG Shield Slash into HCS that's still around 350K damage that he didn't have before). Better recovery on Shield slash means his slash spamming is safer and he has an easier time hit confirming into a combo for longer spacing. Double jump means he has better combos, better mobility and better mix ups (double overhead fuzzy guard with air d+H should be possible for Captain America). Soft knockdown on his Charging Star is HUGE as it amplifies his zoning shutdown even more AND this means his Charging Star assist is hella buff too as it's basically an old Akuma Tatsu now (blows through projectiles with priority and causes soft knockdown for easy hit confirms). Invincible cartwheel is NO SHIT SHERLOCK good... that's an S tier tool. Captain America is basically the ultimate fuck you to zoning characters now and if zoning is going to be more viable expect to see more Captain America's around. I personally can't wait to try Captain America in UMVC3, I already have stuff planned for him on the side.
In a game where DHC glitch is removed, HSD upped for many characters reducing overall damage output, lowered meter gain and X Factor is nerfed... you are going to feel good with a tanky character like Captain America on your team. I say the same for She Hulk.
2) Haggar: People are too quick to write off Haggar now based on a couple nerfs to his BROKEN ASS assist. Granted he is still largely not that great as a point character but he is going to get some buffs (not substantial but some) and his OTG could give him options after throws or stray Lariats. But let's get back to his assist... yes it's vulnerable for a whole 2 frames now as he's coming in and yes it doesn't cause a hard knockdown now... doesn't mean that the assist is ASS nor does it mean that Haggar himself is ass.
2 frames of vulnerability means it's not a brainless GTFO assist anymore. It will still beat out 90% of the stuff that people throw at it but it's not going to just go through a beam hyper or EXTREMELY TIGHT rushdown. You gotta think before you press that button. No hard knockdown basically means you don't have a day to hit confirm into a combo. This is pretty much a nerf to other characters rather than Haggar IMO. Characters like Doom, Wesker and Dante went on auto pilot mode with this shit where as others had to catch the character before they hit the floor. Now it's equalized but since it's soft knockdown meaning you still have enough time to pick up characters after a Haggar hit. Haggar is still going to be excellent for corner resets and still extremely useful for shutting down teleports which you guys are going to see a lot of.
Once people realize that zoning isn't easy mode in UMVC3 and they get pummeled down by endless teleport rushdown.. they are going to want a GTFO assist and right now Haggar is still looking like an S tier assist to have on your team. At the very least I know as a teleport character player, I am going to have to think when I go for resets against a team of character which has Haggar on their team. You CANNOT sleep on the nerfed Lariat. It merely went from BROKEN BEST ASSIST IN GAME to STILL ONE OF THE BEST ASSISTS in the game.
3) Akuma & Wolverine: OK I sort of cheated with this but I feel that both have the same problems facing them as far as people just simply writing them off. Nerfs are relative and a nerf on a S tier character that maybe brutal for a mid tier character wouldn't be that big of a deal for a top tier. People get too over dramatic over nerfs these days and forget what the character was still good at and just concentrate on the nerfs. Wolverine is still fucking good, as in you cannot sleep on this character at all. He still has brain dead easy combos that do tons of damage, he is still extremely fast with the capability to get even faster, has invisible mix ups against in coming characters, great priority on normals, still has a dive kick and still has an excellent air throw game. OMG he can't easy mode go through beams by doing a reverse fireball motion so he is going to be free to zoning... no he's not. Wolverine has options to close in the distance and in a game where so many system changes only tweaked XF really changes Wolverine (because he can't 2 for 1 characters anymore).. the rest actually benefits Wolverine in the meta. He is pretty much unaffected by HSD changes because his combos are simple, DHC glitch never really mattered to Wolverine even though he abused it and execution/health/damage attributes are still in his favor. Derperine is here to stay.
And so is his best friend. Losing soft knockdown on Tatsu assist is pretty big and affects characters ability to get a hit confirm off of a stray Tatsu. Doesn't change the fact the assist still comes out fairly fast, with great priority and nullifies projectile or sets up excellent mix ups to open up characters (or as I like to call it the "blender). On point Akuma actually is IMPROVED IMO... with better aerial options and mix ups (overhead dive kick anyone?). I will gladly take 50K health reduction for more tools at my disposal. Still a great comeback character with tons of damage on BnB combos, still has fast start up beam hyper and high priority Tatsu and still has a great assist for numerous teams to use. Akuma and his great assist aren't going anywhere and in fact.. Wolverine + Akuma will still be a go to team pairing that many people will continue to use because it's still highly effective.
4) Viewtiful Joe: I probably touched upon this before but apparently the word didn't spread on this guy. Joe was... one of the underrated characters in vanilla. He had a lot of good tools at his disposal but a weird play style, execution level, no OTG/air throw game and low damage output held him back a lot (does this sound familiar? It should). Some of this is changed and until the final changelog is reveal on Joe it's hard to comment on him because a lot of stuff on him is merely suspected not confirmed.
What I know for a fact is that having a move that gives Joe i-frames that can be cancelled into a special which starts combos for him... is HUGE. It's one of those S tier tools that I am talking about. You can't mindlessly rushdown Joe in fact you can't even do it with a high priority assist because it can get you blown up HARD (like happy birthday'd even though you performed your tight rushdown properly). If he misses it he can just do Voomerang which may have gotten a damage buff as well. This pretty much makes a hard to hit character even harder to touch.
There is also murmurs of damage buff on Joe overall which I personally some what believe (it appears to me that his specials are buffed in damage and most of his combos use a lot of special attacks). Fact of the matter is that he should end characters in 2 combos with his BnB and having the ability to set up a guaranteed mix up on a character is also very significant (and if he fails the mix up the character is still slowed down). There is also rumors of his Bomb now exploding on contact giving him a possible reliable OTG now... if Joe does in fact get some way to reliably OTG that will up his overall tremendously (throw game buffed, combos buffed, options buffed).
Yeah he still has stubby normals but he can go toe to toe with the best of them thanks to his Slow Dodge into Groovy Uppercut tech. I know people are going to sleep on Joe anyway because he's Joe... but I pray people would not.
5) Dante: Currently known as the "second son of Sparda" thanks to his elder brother stealing the spotlight as the hot new cool kid at school. Overall nerfs to Dante aren't helping things either and by the time the changelog is revealed I expect more nerfs discovered on Dante. Most of the system changes also affect Dante greatly including DHC glitch removal, lowered meter gain, XF tweaking and HSD changes. Basically everything that could be abused in vanilla MVC3... Dante pretty much abused it.
And guess what... not even Capcom knows how to nerf this character as hard as they try. This isn't because they love the fuck out of the character and the series (they do but that's aside the point) it's that they fucked themselves up when they gave Dante a metric ton of tools at his disposal. Widely known at "Ace Hardware Dante" or "Swiss Army Knife" or "He only does everything"... that part of Dante is still unchanged. He still has absurd frame traps at mid range, he still has great ranged normals (nerfed a bit in the anti-air department), great combos/damage, a tracking teleport that sets up dirty mix ups with a blender assist, excellent space control, excellent chip damage game, still has one of the few invincible specials in the game (Vortex), full screen AG immune beam, a mode that heals him and give XF likes boost, full vertical reach specials, multiple OTG moves, dirty cross ups (the "Ryan Hunter" ain't going nowhere ladies and gentlemen), projectiles for zoning and a near full screen poke... plus about a dozen other things that I didn't mention in this paragraph.
Fact of the matter is that other characters still cry for half as many tools as Dante. He is still unexplored and more WILL be discovered on him that Capcom hasn't found yet. Let's not forget his couple buffs like easier to execute moves and better mobility in DT mode. The barrier of entry has been lowered on him which means more people playing him and potentially more technology on him is found. At the end of the day when things have settled... people will realize why Dante is the main lead of Devil May Cry and not Vergil. The "new" king of Marvel sway is FOR FUCKING SURE ain't going NO WHERE.
