Yeah just give us both editing privileges.
For everyone here, I made up a small description of each character that gives a general outline of our methodology for balancing them. I made this in one stretch without much proof reading so please read through this and find mistakes/inconsistencies.
(Thor is missing right now, maybe some other character too I will add that in)
Akuma:
Akuma is mostly a fair character and at times too fair. The main problem with Akuma is that his limbs are too stubby for the health bracket he is in. He has worse normals than Ryu who has 250K health more than him. Improving limbs would generally mean getting new normals/moves or getting big hit box changes. The other problem with Akuma is that he lacks mobility for his health bracket... he lacks an air dash in Marvel which even Oni has in SF4! His Raging Demon also presents the problem of not being worth the investment, when it's better to use meter on his other more useful hypers. We would like to see his point game improved so that he is more viable outside of the #3 slot. As a support character Akuma is mostly fine, he has a great assist and some nice DHCs. As an anchor Akuma is mostly fine as well, he is self sufficient as a character in terms of damage and the ability to get hits/throw combos.
Amaterasu:
Another fairly balanced character that specializes more in support value than as a point character. Amaterasu has excellent DHCs, THCs and a top tier assist but as a point she is lacking a bit. She lacks damage and she lacks good mobility options for her health bracket. In addition, her Bead stance is disappointing and most people just use it for combo hit confirms and Ice shot zoning. We would like to see her point value improved so she is more viable in the 1 or 2 slots while still being the best in slot 3. In addition, there should be more of a legitimate choice in her assist selection as right now it's suicidal to pick anything other than Cold Shots as an assist.
Arthur:
Arthur's only saving grace in this game is that he's a decent anchor and he has one good assist that turns into a great assist on power up. However, his overall flaws as a character are too much for most players and he often ends up being a liability on the team. The main weakness of the character is the way Gold Armor is balanced, the draw backs are too much and the benefits don't really make up for it. We would like to see some of the stringent draw backs of the move lowered. We would also like to see improvements to his frame data on his zoning specials, his normals sped up so that they are actually usable and his less useful moves made more useful (like his counter). While this is a far off suggestion, we would like to see Arthur's mobility improved because that is a big deal for a zoner in terms of creating and maintaining space. Right now Arthur has among the worst mobility options in the game, he does not have any form of dash aerial or ground. We didn't suggest a change because we felt that it was better to try to improve him without giving him a generic air dash.
Captain America:
Cap is a very honest character and in this game that might as well be a euphemism for mediocre character. The overall toolset of Cap is just not that impressive and a lot of his better tools are generally unsafe or situational. He lacks in the mix up department, he lacks good pressure/block strings and he is extremely assist reliant for just about any task in the game. He probably needs new tools but if that is not possible then he needs improvements to him that allow him to play better alone which includes better pressure, better normals, better ways to deal with zoning and better ways to convert off of throws. Finally, he is severely lacking in the assist department. While he is obviously tuned as a point character (most point characters have an invincible hyper that they can use to bail themselves out), he should have some decent assists in situations where you need to DHC him out.
Chris:
Chris is a solid character with a healthy amount of excellent tools and damage balanced with some glaring weaknesses. Chris is exceptionally weak to tri dash type offense and if he doesn't have a mine set up then he is open to getting rushed down easily. Furthermore, he lacks any type of zoning coverage that is air to air. This would pretty much require a new move or changing an existing move to be aimed straight forward but a tool like this would greatly improve his overall zoning game against a wider variety of characters. We also wish to see some tool improvements on the character particularly his Shotgun, his M Grenade (we were unable to find a way to buff the M Grenade), his assists and his hypers. Finally, it is imperative that Chris also have some additional way to open someone up beyond just the standard low or throw mix up (we suggested a standing overhead). If Chris is to receive these buffs then we highly suggest that his Flamethrower damage be nerfed so that he can't easily kill characters off of any touch or throw. This is in line with tweaking damage of the cast to more acceptable levels.
Chun Li:
Chun Li is a high execution rushdown character who essentially personifies "too much effort for little gain". She also lacks ways to get in beyond a fairly linear air dash and for her health bracket this means she is food to most zoners. The best case scenario for Chun Li would be to receive an air OK Hazanshu move that also ground bounces. This would solve a majority of her weaknesses including aerial hit confirmations, getting past projectiles, having a solid air to ground option and it will also allow her to have easier combos that work in a wider variety of situations. Unfortunately, we can't recommend new moves so we suggested a bunch of other buffs that would improve her overall game play. On top of these her Kikosho should definitely hit OTG, it will greatly help her in combos and it would make her a much better THC character. We would also like to see her fireball game improved by giving it a property that allows her to fulfill her design which is to rush down and we would also like to see her Spinning Bird Kicks improved. Finally, we would love it if she acquired her EX SBK as an assist as we feel that move has the potential to be an excellent assist.
C Viper
Viper is a very strong character in the game, top 10 easily. Her chief problem is that she loses in match ups to some of the top tiers. However, in a potential balance patch most of those top tiers would get nerfed and that would mean that Viper climbs up to the very top. In a situation where unblockables are nerfed in the game, a very close inspection has to be made towards Viper's FA unblockable. We feel that while you can potentially get out of ground unblockables through the use of CCs, against air borne opponents it's a free opener and that leads to "single player" game situations where the Viper player just keeps killing characters on incoming by locking them down with an assist and then using FA unblockable. We feel like this should be addressed. Aside from that, we would like to see EX moves be better visualized like in the SF games and we definitely want to see her damage scaling lowered to more acceptable levels (right now her special damage scaling is among the highest in the game). Most players feel that EX Seismo is an immensely powerful tool however we were unable to come up with a good fix other than have it be better visualized like all EX moves. To compensate for these nerfs, we highly suggest that Viper's Optic Beam be available as an assist. This would allow more versatility in picking Viper as a character on a team as she would be able to bring more tools to the table aside from just her strength as a point character. She would still be the best as a point as she lacks safe DHCs but in situations where she is resting... she would still be able to provide some utility.
Dante
Dante is among the most balanced and versatile characters in the game and we wish that all characters were more like him. He requires skill and in depth character knowledge to play at his maximum potential, which is fine. The only buffs we suggest are to some of his normals to bring them in line with the rest of the game particularly his slow jab and the pushback/hit stun on his normals so that he can properly confirm combos. The only nerfs we suggest are slight ones to Jam Session (like decrease push back so grappler characters wouldn't get pushed all the way back after blocking a Jam Session) and Bold move (ability to make everything safe).
Deadpool
Deadpool is a slightly underrated character by most players. However, he still has legitimate weaknesses that need addressing. Most importantly his LVL3 is a dud, it's a joke hyper which definitely needs a major buff (either improved as a LVL3 or made into a LVL1 with less damage). We would also like to see improvements to some of his special moves to improve his neutral games and improvement to some of his normals for better hit confirmations. Finally, one of the most important changes that he needs is the swapping of his assist from Trigger Happy H to Trigger Happy L. This would give him an excellent assist for a lot of characters and would make Deadpool worth picking.
Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom is the most played character in UMVC3 by a huge margin and also enjoys the highest tournament win record. Some claim that he is in fact the #1 character in the game and while that is up for debate there is 0 debate that he is the best support character in the game. His support value is so strong that players can random select 2 characters from the roster, pick Doom for the 3rd and that team becomes surprisingly functional. While there isn't really anything wrong with that, the problem comes when Doom is a no brainer pick over every other support character and thus we feel his support value needs fine tuning. Most importantly, his Hidden Missiles and Plasma Beam (discussed below) need to be adjusted so they aren't so overwhelming. We also feel that his Foot Dive needs to be less brain dead as well as his combos. We couldn't come up with a good enough solution to fix his combos aside from a generic damage nerf, however, it is safe to say that Doom's combos are far too easy and repetitive for the effort. Finally, we wish to see Doom slightly improved as a point character most particularly against heavy zoners. This is very important especially for players like DiosX and Clockwerk who like to play Doom on point, we feel that should be a legitimate strategy if players put in the effort to use the character that way.
Dormammu
Dormammu is a very good character with a good balance of strengths and weaknesses. While his suggested list looks like a lot of buffs, most of the changes were made so that his less useless moves are made more useful and with Hidden Missiles nerfed he would have to work harder anyway. The only real problem with Dorm as a point character is that like Doom he gets easy mode damage from easy mode combos. We feel that Dorm players should work towards coming up with better combos and using them more often to kill... his damage potential with his Spells is already pretty high. We also suggest that the low hitting property on the Flame Carpet be removed as part of the universal change to remove "single player" game play elements as players can set up Flame carpet on incoming to create an unblockable situation. The big changes, however, include his assists. We feel Dorm is an excellent candidate for a tracking vertical assist, most specifically his Purification assist which would allow him to function as the Blackheart replacement that he was meant to be. We feel that this is fine for the character because his design is more as a support/secondary character so he definitely needs improvements in his assists.
Dr Strange
Dr Strange is a character who is mostly picked for his support value over his point value. That is because he has a wide variety of issues that result in him being mauled in the neutral especially against rushdown characters. His inability to create space and pressure with a good block string are key weaknesses that need to be addressed. Most other suggested changes are more fixes than actual buffs. In exchange, we definitely feel that the Flame of the Faltine loops need to be looked at as they provide an absurd amount of damage and meter gain even at max scaling. It inflates damage to a point where characters can get kills off of a throw by comboing into FotF. While not listed anywhere here, it would be very nice for Strange to have a safe DHC in option to complete his role as an excellent support character although we definitely do not want SoV to be safe on block!
Felicia
Felicia is one of the characters in the game that suffers from what we like to call "character archetype" syndrome. That is to say she suffers from the fact that there is another character like her who does what she does only better. We feel that the template is there for a great rushdown character but she is lacking that edge to push her over the top. Most of our changes are aimed towards making her useless moves useful. We also added in one change that is likely to get controversy but it's the type of change that is more than just a frame data change, it's a big addition to the character that would make her unique and interesting compared to the other rushdown characters (that is the ability to special cancel her Cat and Mouse move).
Firebrand
Firebrand is a difficult character to fix/change. In his current state, he is a very powerful gimmick that allows players to win off of a pure "single player" strategy which is to kill the opponent's team via series of unblockable set ups. Without this gimmick he would not get picked at all and he would, in fact, be a weak character. While its easy to suggest that Firebrand just get a damage boost, we feel that is a lazy change to implement and we would rather see improvements to his neutral game and his value as a support character. We definitely want the unblockable removed but we want the removal of the unblockable to come with proper wide sweeping buffs to make him a complete character.
Frank West
Frank West is an extremely difficult character to balance. It is undeniable that Frank West LVL4 is a top tier character and shuts down a wide portion of the cast. However, just like Phoenix this comes at the cost of using LVL1 Frank West, who is a purposely under powered character. We are fine with this type of character being in the game, however, if there are to be TAC rework/changes then we feel that his level up mechanic might need to be looked at again (mostly tweaking in the combo hits required to level up). In addition, we feel that the chip damage and invincibility on his Tools of Survival hyper when Frank is leveled up are a bit gross and need to be reduced a bit. To compensate, we suggest some buffs to his more useless moves and buffs to his assist options as its suicidal to pick anything other than Shopping Cart assist.
Ultimately the strength of Frank is the ability of a team to get him his required levels. If it's too easy to get Frank leveled up then he would be a very good character but if it's hard to level him up then he becomes a huge liability. It is very hard to achieve this balance so that is why we didn't suggest any changes to his level up system.
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider is a bottom 5 character without a doubt. His weaknesses are numerous, and his strengths are lacking. There are really only two ways to fix Ghost Rider... rework the character or give him something big like chip damage on his chain normals. We went with the latter option because we feel that suits the character. Right now, there is nothing stopping players from just blocking all of Ghost Rider's normals until they find an opening... most of Ghost Rider's chip comes from his assist and his damage from standard combos is mediocre as are his mix ups. Another big change we would like to see is a way for Ghost Rider to hit opponents that fly in the air because that is a huge oversight in the design of the character. Finally, we would like to see his more useless moves be made useful in the neutral and his assists + hypers improved.
Haggar
Haggar is the extreme version of the grappler in Marvel. Its hard to get in with him but when he does he makes it hurt. Haggar is a decent character overall but in certain match ups it is a hopeless cause. We want this aspect of the character to be improved the most so that he doesn't have a myriad of 9-1 match ups. We suggested making his roll a way for him to actually get in and bypass projectiles. We also wish to see his LVL3 improved so that he can self combo after it as well as improvement to his Haggar Press LVL1 both of which would greatly improve his solo game. We also wish to see improvements to his non Lariat assist options because it is pointless to pick anything other than Lariat right now.
Hawkeye
If Haggar is the extreme grappler then Hawkeye is the extreme zoner. We like that aspect of the character and we accept that it comes with some weaknesses. The big change we would like to see is his Trick Maneuvers be made into a safer mobility tool for him as it would allow him to escape bad situations, which he gets himself into very easily. We would also like to see his lesser used zoning options be improved and fill an important niche in his toolset... most specifically Ragtime Shot + Jack Rose. Most of his other changes are fixes and we especially want Gimlet to have a second passover because that thing whiffs far too easily in so many situations.
Hsien Ko
Hsien Ko is a bottom 2 character in the game and is the butt of all jokes. Hsien Ko needs an overhaul far more than just frame tweaks or hit box adjustments. She either needs to be a proper zoning/space control character or a rushdown character... we opted to make her a more rushdown type character. This pretty much means that everything about her needs to be faster... which means air dashes, ground dashes, moves and the addition of tools like being able to cancel her Senpu Bu like in the Darkstalkers games. We also want to see changes in her item throw system because it's a pure random gimmick that at times hurts Hsien Ko more than it helps her. Finally, to improve her damage and combo options we would like to see her get a proper OTG move.
Hulk
Hulk is the ultimate armored character in the game and is generally good at what he does. He doesn't need a lot of changes but it would really help if he got a proper attack/crouch cancellable dash to help him move around easier. In addition, we would like to see improvements to his command throw game and his Gamma Quake hyper. Finally, Hulk does an obscene amount of damage which needs to be looked at. He just needs a small scaling adjustment... it is perfectly acceptable for Hulk to have high damage (highest in fact) but even for Marvel standards the damage scaling is out of control at 30% of Hulk's already high base damage values.
While not listed we really think Hulk needs some XF speed bonuses.
Iron Fist
Iron Fist is a bottom 5 character without a doubt. He's a rushdown character with limited means of opening someone up, limited means of pressuring and limited means of getting in. The only 2 good things about him are his Rising Fang assist and his damage out put. Iron Fist would be a great candidate for a dive kick like Wolverine's but we feel that is not an interesting change and if he got new moves he should get moves that are more interesting. It would be far more useful for him to get his Rising Fang and Wall of Kun Lun moves as standalone special moves that he can use whenever he wants. They aren't even that strong as moves because they are unsafe and use up IF's precious wall bounce. Rising Fang also needs to be air OK, which would fix a lot of IF's issues. Most of other IF's changes are really parity changes to bring him closer to being an effective rushdown character like having a fast low, being able to properly combo off of throws, having his only overhead keep the opponent standing so you get a proper combo after it and having useful abilities.
Iron Man
Iron Man on the surface looks to be a good character with a good selection of assists. However, his one huge fault is that his mobility is absolutely horrendous for an air dash character. Even his ground mobility is bad. If Iron Man could get only one changethen it would be better dashes/mobility as it would almost complete him as a character. Beyond that he needs a safer Proton Cannon so that it doesn't get punished on hit as well as Smart Bombs which don't absolutely suck in the neutral.
Jill
Jill has one of the best mix ups in the game but she too suffers from character archetype syndrome. It is difficult to say how she can be improved but one thing everyone agrees on is that Mad Beast needs to be looked at again. In most cases, it's a waste of 3 bars and right now it's only useful as a combo video tool. We also feel that her throw game needs to be drastically improved as well as her ability to move around in the air (suggested air OK Arrow Kick for this reason). We also wish to see improvements in her assist selection because they are extremely lackluster.
