This page is written with the assumption that the reader has a basic understanding of fighting games but is new to UMVC3. There may be game specific terms that the reader will need to look up in the glossary.
Team Building
The number one mistake new players make when getting into UMVC3 is trying to construct a team with 2 or 3 characters they like without considering how well they work together as a team. Players that are new to team games may feel like this would limit the fun of a team, but on the contrary, constructing a fun and synergystic team is its own reward. For many, the best way to approach creating your first (or first few) team(s) is to pick a character you really like, and find support characters that cover their weaknesses or enable their gameplan.
There are two primary elements to consider when building a team: Character position and synergy.
Position
There are traditionally three roles in a team:
- Point
- The first character on your team. This role is generally filled by characters that are at their strongest backed by two others and often these characters don't provide a lot to the team in terms of support outside their value as a point. Often they have mediocre assists, lackluster DHCs, or don't function well without other characters to cover the holes in their gameplan. Once these issues are addressed by constructing a good team they shine and often form the primary gameplan of your team.
- Mid
- The second character on your team. This role is filled by a character that provides strong support to your point character, including a useful assist as well as a good DHC for combos and safety. Many point characters will struggle to kill off of scaled hits or on high health characters without a Damage Engine, this is another role the mid can fill by having some way to extend a combo after the point has done all they can. This can be via a DHC into a combo that works in high hitstun decay, a TAC combo / infinite, or by setting up a hard tag into your anchor. Additionally, a mid should be able to function well with just the anchor as support if your point character dies, forming a secondary gameplan.
- Anchor
- The final character on your team. This role is covered by characters of a few types. Generally they will have good support value, offering a strong assist. Anchors also serve as a means to mount a comeback. Most good anchors are threatening all on their own, not needing any support outside of Meter and/or X-Factor to kill off an entire team. Sometimes you may see anchors that are not meant to be played, these characters often provide a lot of value to the point and mid but are weak when actually played. Iron Fist and Haggar are the most common examples of this archetype.
This is not the only structure for a team but is how the meta has evolved during the long life of the game. The other most common form of team is Point/Point/Anchor where the two points don't provide much to each other, but the anchor enables both to function and be played interchangeably based on gamestate or matchup.
Synergy
Just picking three characters that fit a given position on putting them together does not form a good team. This is where synergy comes in. Synergy comes in many forms but boils down to characters covering the weakness of other characters on the team while also allowing them to enforce their gameplan. Some of the primary things to look for in synergy is:
- Assists allowing a character to shine
- A neutral assist helping a character rush the opponent down or keep them away.
- An assist with a lot of blockstun allowing a mixup heavy character get a high/low mixup.
- A combo assist allowing a character to optimize their damage and convert off hits they normally couldn't.
- Sometimes an assist can be more than one of these or do even more.
- Hypers cancelling into other Hypers (DHCs)
- Hypers comboing into each other at the end of a combo, preferably through all three characters.
- A support character having a DHC that is safe in case an unsafe Hyper happens.
- A damage engine character being able to combo after a DHC from another character.
- Resource usage
- If your mid or anchor needs meter to function well you want a point who can build meter well or function without spending any.
- If an assist or post-DHC extension requires a wallbounce or groundbounce your point needs to not use those resources.
- If your anchor is very X-Factor centric, pick two other characters who aren't commonly in a position to need to use it early.
- Unique character considerations
- Unblockable characters often need a character with an assist that has a lot of blockstun to make unblockables a real threat, additionally they often need very meter efficient teammates to make killing off an unblockable a possibility.
- Characters like Frank or Phoenix Wright need specific partners to make their character gimmick viable to actually use in match.
- Team Hyper Combos
- Some combination of two or more characters on your team having a particularly notable THC. Can be useful for combo extensions, mixups, or as a reversal option.