A gaming associate of mine has collecting these thoughts after playing the game for 1.5 days like crazy. They are a good authority on UMvC and it should be a good read for MvC-Gaf.
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*Overall impression is that the game is AMAZING/GODLIKE!!! Off the bat meter reduction feels more than 90% (it's closer to 80% and in some cases 75%). Jintor's impressions were really accurate. A combo that builds 1 bar builds 3/4th bar in UMVC3 and a combo that builds like 2 bars builds less than 1.5 bar in UMVC3. No longer eating a LVL3 at the start of the match. No longer characters surviving a combo and they have 3 bars for the kill or they have 2 bars for a safe DHC. This has increased overall survivability in the game and the value of good health characters is even greater now. Please note that the overall damage still feels high because of mashable hypers and most characters can do more damage now if they have the bars. For pad players, if you just map L+M+H to a Trigger button you can just tap that and it will allow you to get the full hits. It was what I was doing. You can also just like press one button to mash as well, it's not a big deal.
*Balance is also much better. Thing is that the top 5 are still near godlike (and yes that includes Wolverine who I will get into more depth later). Everyone in A/High tier to upper B/B tier has been buffed and as you guys know how I love tiers... right now no character feels S tier-ish and it's just A TON of A tier characters (like approaching 20 which is absurd but the game does have 50 characters). And some characters who even I thought weren't going to be that good ended up being better than I expected (Haggar, Iron Fist, She Hulk, Jill, Morrigan). Hsien Ko still feels like the worst character in the game (she is pretty much in her own tier unless there is something I am missing) but everyone above her has something to say in this game. I am starting to believe Justin's comparison to SSF4 although don't be fooled, the game WILL have it's tiers but the line is fairly blurred unless of course broken tech is found. Also EVERY CHARACTER IN THE GAME has some new technology to work with from the best to the worst character. You guys are going to be surprised at the new tech.
*Hit stun/push back really messes with you. Very prominent when you are doing like anti-air launcher into BBCS with a straight jump up, your combo might miss because of push back. Dante's ABCS doesn't work most of the time, too much pushback from H (just like LHK and many people said).. you have to do ABS in an anti-air situation. Combos with assists also need to be much tighter because of the mechanics change. The air dash block thing isn't terribly huge, surprisingly it affects Doom more than I thought (although understandably most of his offense is through dashes) but it normalizes the cast way more than one expects.
*Air X factor is HUGE AND AWESOME!!! The amount of new tech that I have found with air X Factor already (well I did peak into Mission mode
) is astounding. Some really crazy but overall it adds a whole new depth to the game and layer of nuance that a player has to master. Every character has some tech/trick they can do with air XF. This is also another one of those things which helps balance more. X Factor in general is pretty powerful but the scaling to 35% has mitigated a lot of issues.
*There are A LOT of changes on characters that aren't listed in the changelogs. Some more subtle than others.
Some character impressions. A few I played myself, others my friends were playing around with and my impressions were based off of playing against them.
Vergil: Vergil is going to be a problem people have to deal with in their near future. Vergil has better mix ups than almost 90% of the cast and even his Rapid Slash is harder to block than I thought. His air normals Helm Breaker and Starfall aren't as unsafe as I or other people initially thought and Starfall is way better than Dante's Killer Bee. Ground normals are unsafe of course but you can cancel them into his block string HSHS, Judgment Cut and Round Trip. Judgment Cut L is my preferred way to keep his strings safe, the block stun after Stinger makes it almost impossible to punish Vergil in between Stinger/JC. His teleports catch people by surprise more than you would think. Combos are nice, he does good damage and air throw game is SICK. So much reset potential, I get giddy inside when I play him. Vergil + Wesker, Vergil + Dante and Vergil + Strider are all solid combinations. Haven't figured out how to do the RT glitch yet. Also I heard PRBalrog talking about some unblockable set up with Vergil + Wesker... well I already know what it is and let's just say I have hinted to it in the past if you guys followed my posts closely.
His assists get hella buffed in DT mode with stupid large hit boxes. One thing I am sort of disappointed in is that during his air dash, his air normals don't cross up like Dante (except Starfall). You can play Vergil on point fine or really any position. One thing that I have started using is Vergil on point, DT out into Wesker for the power up (LOL!) so I get a juiced up Vergil with a juiced up Vergil DT assists. Then I save meter with Wesker for anchor Vergil and go DARK VERGIL RISING! Lots of technology in Round Trip and SS formations to explore, I still haven't gotten down to the nitty gritty outside of a few combos (those Isedelica combos are fairly difficult for day 1 play). AND HIS NORMALS DESTROY PROJECTILES LIKE DORMAMMU! Verdict: A tier
Akuma: Played a ton of Akuma. The soft knockdown assist nerf is sad but it's not that big of a deal. What he has gained far outweighs what he has lost. He has easier BnBs now thanks to aerial flip moves and his mobility is better. Tatsu with teleports is STILL godlike and I am thinking of keeping Akuma on my Wesker/Vergil team if I can find more synergy. Air X Factor is godlike on him as one would expect. Now I can FINALLY follow up a forward air throw with Akuma into a combo although it's still better to go for a back throw due to larger frame advantage. His XF boosts are still REALLY good and is still one of the best anchors in the game. His old combos still work except for the really advance stuff which I didn't try. Verdict: A tier
Ryu: Got a lot of time in with Ryu. One thing to note right off the bat is that you have to be careful doing wall bounce follow ups with him when you wave dash in... it activates his Kakousei power up (that's the name in the game). So you have to do like d/f + 2 buttons like with Wolverine. But yeah he's buffed... SSOOO good. Tatsu assist of Ryu is on par with Akuma. You get less hits and more hit stun with the assist at the expense of no projectile nullifying so it's a good tradeoff. Ryu's pressure game is great now and his zoning is improved. Mixing up fireballs is fun. Don't know the utility on his new SRK move but it does have i-frames. The power up from what I can tell gives him a small speed boost and boosts up his hypers in properties and damage. Wave dash is SO GOOD, cancellable overhead is SO GOOD and there is technology with his SRK moves if you employ air XF but it's situational. Kakousei allows Ryu to do X Factor like combos like follow ups after his L Tatsu. Overhead into Kakousei is the "new" Overhead into XF.
Verdict: A tier
Wolverine: LOL... Wolverine AIN'T GOING NO WHERE BUB! I see no talk about him already but yeah... still respect him. I originally thought that nerfed hit box on his j.L meant no more instant overheads... that's not true. You can still do it but what you can't do is like mash j.L and get like two overheads in a row. Remember when I talked about new technology with air X factor? I discovered that you can do j.L into air X factor into a combo if you really need to on certain characters. THAT'S HUGE! Tornado Claw appears to have different recovery and frames, this wasn't stated in the changelog. I was unable to do the Fatal Claw loop but I think the timing is just different. Wolverine does more damage in BnBs thanks to mashable hypers. As long as you have an assist that lets Wolverine gets in... he is a fucking menace. People talking about Wolverine players getting exposed have another thing coming. You just have to play smarter with Wolverine. Also Wolverine's biggest nerf is that stupid Swiss Cheese move. I have to train myself to do two cr.Ls and then put a gap in between to bait the advancing guard. That move got in the way A LOT and it activates on all 3 of his buttons. Verdict: A tier
Wesker: Wesker is the same... minus stupid bull shit like DHC glitch, gun shenanigans and LVLXF stuff. What's different is that he does better combos/damage now thanks to Jaguar Kick buff and Palm Strike teleports. I have already developed a new BnB with him involving Jaguar kick and it's awesome! Phantom Dance does much better damage now and of course comes up with the power up. His glasses mechanic is stupid.... Capcom dropped the ball on that one. It's unnecessary and I am totally against it. I didn't think it was going to be that bad but it kinda is. Justin was jizzing over 600K with Wesker meterless but you can go over that easily. Now people have more excuse to put him at the back for Dark Wesker rising shenanigans... lame. The best way to deal with Wesker is to keep him out and just not let him get a hit. Verdict: A tier
Haggar: Friend was playing it so this is 2nd hand impressions. Haggar is buffed. With an assist Haggar can convert into scary damage off of his throws and pile driver (he TOD'd me with Pile Drive plus an assist). The way to combo is assist, cr.H, pipe -> cancel into that Hoodlum launcher. His punching hyper does way more damage now as well. His assist is still godlike.. it beats 99% of stuff in the game and the 1% is an already active beam hyper on the screen. Hard knockdown removal is really a nerf to characters who took advantage of that (Wesker/Doom/Dante), for everyone else it's still good old S tier assist Haggar. Haggar is still a shit anchor but a problem at point when backed with a projectile assist to get in/combo with. Haggar has technology with air X factor too. Verdict: B tier (pretty much where he was before, if you played Haggar before you shouldn't be dropping him at all but rather try to play him up front more if the match up allows)
Iron Fist: Everyone is sleeping on this character and so was I but now I have awakened up to him. It's going to take a while for people to unlock him but he's pretty much the new She Hulk. Iron Fist has NO PROBLEM getting in and staying in. His pressure game is SICK! On the ground you can't match him. Most people don't know this but he can empty cancel/kara cancel his rekkas and this allows him to complete negate advancing guard. He does stuff like M (moves him forward), H (moves him forward), QCF+L (moves him forward) kara cancel into QCF+B or QCF+M. With this he is able to put in high low mix ups WHILE GETTING in. If any of you guys end up fighting a good Iron Fist player you aren't going to know how you keep getting hit or how he keeps getting in. He basically maintains the momentum of his rekka cancels and that completely negates AG. He can also fake his rekkas but overall he needs execution is going to take a while to crack him open but his high/low mix up game is MUCH better than people are thinking. The next part of his game is basically how to deal with aerial characters and in that regard he needs help with assists like She Hulk but his air throw game is good. Verdict: A-B tier (match up dependent, some characters Iron Fist is going to straight up body and others he will have a hard time against)
Iron Man: I need more lab time on Iron Man and I didn't get to play much of him on point because he was at the end. Zoning is improved with Iron Man, his dash cancellable normals need a lot of lab time because they aren't easy, his forward dash is alright and so is his up to down dash but tri-dash is meh of course. There is some technology that needs more exploration but again I just need time with him. At surface he isn't too remarkable or outstanding so he's looking B tier-ish right now. He should still be able to combo off of his throws and stuff. Cr.H cancellable is easily his best buff right now and his flight cancel change really makes his combos easier but you still need execution. Oddly enough this Iron Man feels closer to the older Iron Man of MVC2...
S TIER = No one yet except Dark Phoenix when she transforms. Transformation criteria is much more difficult now with the overall changes. Some of the A tiers may end up here once they are grinded out or have some broken tech found.
A/HIGH TIER = Phoenix, Wolverine, Magneto, Wesker, Wolverine, Dante, Zero, Viper, Amaterasu (you can weapon cancel to block during an air dash if you really need to), Spencer, Vergil, Hawkeye, Taskmaster, Firebrand, Dormammu, Doom, X-23, Akuma, Ryu, Chris, Nova, Dr Strange, Storm, Trish, Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool, Ghost Rider, Felicia (she is on the edge... her assist is actually nerfed but she is still a top anchor), Spider Man (he's buffed trust me.. all he really got taken away was bull shit from Web Throw unscaled damage)
B/MID TIER = Nemesis, Iron Fist (may move up to A tier), She Hulk, MODOK, Super Skrull, Thor, Captain America, Haggar (point buffs + assist still S tier), Viewtiful Joe, Jill, Frank West (he's really good, might move up with more lab time), Phoenix Wright, Hulk, Sentinel, Iron Man
C/LOW TIER = Arthur, Morrigan (her buffs are good, have more faith guys), Shuma Gorath, Tron, Chun Li (buffs are really good but still requires execution. Can combo off of almost all her throws and her assist is still pretty good)
D/Hsien Ko TIER = Hsien Ko
Some of the C's might move up to B's after more exploration. Some of the B's might move up to A's. Some of the A's might drop to B and some of the A's might make up the S tier. However.... anyone from B tier can body anyone on A tier under the right circumstances. Like Iron Fist can absolutely body Vergil... Vergil can't do shit about Iron Fist rekkas in his face. The characters comprising of A and B all are capable of being in a tournament winning team. C Tier even being labelled low tier are still very viable in the current meta of the game. Hsien Ko is still viable as an assist character.
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He is also a huge fan of a series that I work on here at gaf. Why
does that
matter? I
can't seem to recall actually...