UMVC3/Getting Started

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.

Overview

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This page is still under construction, in the mean time Heffnoff has an excellent three part video guide on UMvC3 Basics from mechanics to movement to combos. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQSCPeTbM38&list=PLmkWH1OmG7iUUWWuHEwsTa59iaEqdu-Yo

Team Building

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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

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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.

MOTHMAN's Character Position chart

Synergy

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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.

General Recommendations

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Play a Strong Support

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It will save you a lot of time and energy to start off on the right foot and play at least one strong support character. There are a variety to pick from with a variety of playstyles. Learning one or several of these characters can make it easy to swap members of your team out to try out new characters while keeping a cohesive team structure. Some of these characters would prefer to be either mid or anchor, it highly depends on what your point character wants and who your third is.

Doctor Doom (Plasma Beam)

You've seen him in every top 8 ever played in UMVC3 and for good reason. While it may be off-putting to play a character that almost everyone else does there are a few reasons you should look past this and consider Doom. First is that he is by far the best support character in the game, there are almost no characters in the game whose top best partners doesn't included Doom. Not even considering Doom is making the game much harder for yourself and not in a way that people will respect. Second is that he has both a low skill floor and also an incredibly high skill ceiling. Every Doom player starts out looking the same but he is such an expressive character that beyond a beginner level no two will ever play alike. You don't have to spend a lot of time learning to have a Doom that can get the job done, allowing you to focus on the characters you feel strongly about.

Dante (Jam Session)

In addition to being one of the most popular Capcom characters ever made in a broad sense, Dante is second fiddle in his support value only to Doom. He has a uniquely strong vertical assist in Jam Session and rounds out teams extremely well. There are even a few characters in the game that almost demand Dante be on their team to facilitate their gameplan. While he is more work to get started than Doom he is not as hard as he is made out to be to play to proficiency. Don't be scared by Bold Cancels.

Sentinel (Sentinel Force Charge)

The Wackbot paid the price for his Marvel 2 sins but is still strong in this game despite being a shell of his former self. While he isn't as widely applicable across teams as Doom and Dante the characters that love his assist make it a extremely difficult to play against. He also brings nearly everything else you would want in a support character while being very easy to pilot with some of the easiest high damage combos in the game.

Vergil (Rapid Slash)

You either love him or you hate him but there is no denying how strong he is. Vergil is slightly lower on support value than some of the other characters on this list, but more than makes up for it with his strength as an X-Factor anchor. Additionally, he can act as a damage engine for most point characters, allowing you to kill off of hits that would otherwise be impossible. He is perhaps the best value proposition in the game in terms of hours invested to results obtained for the majority of the playerbase.

Dormammu (Dark Hole)

Do you love casting spells? This might be the extradimensional being for you! Dormammu is both a support and a pivot point who brings some of the best supers and damaging extensions to a team. He can be a bit awkward to move around with at first, like Doom, but is very simple to play to proficiency while allowing for a lot of creativity in gameplay.

Pick a Strong Neutral Assist

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In addition to (or at least in place of) picking a strong support it can be extremely helpful for new players, especially ones new to team games, to pick a mid/anchor with a strong and easy to use neutral assist. Generally this will take the form of a horizontal beam assist or something similar but there are a few exceptions. Luckily many of these are attached to already strong supports.

Plasma Beam (Doom), Unibeam (Iron Man)

No shocker here but the number one pick is Doom's Plasma Beam followed closely by Unibeam. They have most everything anyone would want in an horizontal assist with little downsides. They are relatively easy to use in combos, neutral, and pressure. Plasma Beam comes in behind your point character making it exceptionally easy to call without fear of getting Doom killed, whereas Unibeam leaves opponents grounded on hit making it very easy to combo. Jump forward + Call Beam Assist then react to what your opponent does forms one of the oldest and most effective core strategies in UMvC3.

Tatsumaki Zankukyaku (Akuma)

The Shoto classic. "Tatsu" is a very fast horizontal assist that goes a bit shy of full screen while nullifying most non-hyper projectiles. It's easy to use for pressure and combos and comes with the benefit of a scary XF3 anchor attached to it. Tastu is most effective paired with characters that can move fast to use its extended blockstun to pressure and mix.

Quick Shot Greyhound (Hawkeye)

Another "beam" assist, very fast and easy to use with a lot of hitstun making it easy to convert on grounded opponents. Similar to Tatsu it comes with the benefit of being attached an easy and strong XF3 anchor.

Bolts of Balthakk (Doctor Strange), Spitfire (Rocket Raccoon), Psionic Blast (M.O.D.O.K.), Dagger Toss (Arthur)

These assists round out the "beam" assists in the game. They all have their quirks and most effective way to be used. However, a basic strategy of calling them while jumping forward or using some sort of strong advancing option on your character forms a great first layer to using assists. Keep in mind that these characters are fairly unorthodox in terms of gameplay so picking them solely for their assist might be inadvisable.

Sentinel Force Charge (Sentinel)

"Drones" is a slower horitzontal-ish assist with a ton of blockstun / hitstun making it very effective for pressure in combos once it is called effectively. The slow advance and slight upward angle of the drones can put pressure on opponents that aren't comfortable with their movement options. The real downside of drones is that it's slow startup and Sentinel's huge body make it hard to call safely, often it will get hit before the drones have a chance to come out. Try to find a attack or movement option to pair with the assist to mitigate this. A basic example is Call Drones, Do your own projectile attack, move towards the opponent as drones advance.

Jam Session (Dante)

Jam Session is a Vertical assist that comes out far ahead of your point character making it by far the odd one out in this list. Using Jam Session on offense is incredibly powerful but also a bit tricky for beginners. Instead try to use it to supplement your point characters zoning options. If you have a strong grounded or horizontal projectile you can Call Jam Session, Do your projectile, evaluate whether to do another. Your own projectile will protect Dante while hopefully netting you some chip damage on the opponent. Meanwhile Jam Sessions huge vertical beam protects your from opponents attempting to jump, superjump, fly, or airdash over your projectile.

Keep in mind there are many extremely good assists that aren't listed here. Assists like Dark Harmonizer, Hidden Missiles, Slant Shot, and Double Lariat are very good but also much harder to use, not applicable across a variety of teams, or both. This list was limited to assists focused on helping new players understand how to use assists and play general Marvel neutral.