Changing Roles
So as mentioned before, whenever a match starts, the characters will be in one of the three roles mentioned. And as said earlier, the roles will switch constantly throughout the game. But what actions, exactly, cause the orders to change? And how do the roles switch when these actions occur?
Character Swapping
Unlike MvC2, there is really only one re-ordering method that occurs in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Character Swapping. For the following examples, let's say you have this team:
- Wolverine (Point Character)
- Ryu (Assist Character 1)
- Captain America (Assist Character 2)
Whenever Character Swapping occurs, your Point Character will directly swap positions with one of the Assist Characters.
So let's say, with Wolverine at point, you perform a Cross-Over Attack with Ryu, your Assist Character 1. That means Wolverine will exit the game and become Assist Character 1 and Ryu will jump in and become Point Character. So your team will now look like:
- Ryu (Point Character)
- Wolverine (Assist Character 1)
- Captain America (Assist Character 2)
Or instead of that, let's say your opponent performs a Snap Back no Wolverine and chooses to pull in Captain America. Wolverine will now become Assist Character 2 when Captain America comes in as the Point Character so your team now looks like:
- Captain America (Point Character)
- Ryu (Assist Character 1)
- Wolverine (Assist Character 2)
Delayed Hyper Combos and Aerial Exchanges
Interestingly enough, no matter what method you use to change characters, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 only uses Character Swapping. In MvC2, there was also a concept of character rotation with Delayed Hyper Combos. Whenever you canceled into the next character's Hyper Combo, the order of your characters would rotate with the Point Character moving to the bottom as Assist Character 2 and each of the Assist Characters moving up (1 becomes Point, 2 becomes 1).
However, in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, it still performs a Character Swap: if you DHC from Wolverine to Ryu with the example team above, Wolverine and Ryu will just swap positions. Even when you DHC into the third character, Ryu and Captain America will just swap positions, leaving Wolverine as Assist Character 1. That means, unlike MvC2, if you perform only one DHC, Assist Character 2 remains as Assist Character 2.
This same technique is used even when performing Aerial Exchanges. The first Aerial Exchange will swap the Point Character (Wolverine) and Assist Character 1 (Ryu), but the second Aerial Exchange will swap the new Point Character (Ryu) with Assist Character 2 (Captain America).
Strategy Corner
STRATEGIC CHANGES COMPARED TO MVC2
Character K.O.
Even when a character is defeated, only Character Swapping takes place. So let's say Wolverine gets defeated as the Point Character. Ryu will actually swap in and replace Wolverine and Wolverine will swap into Assist Character 1's slot. Captain America will remain as Assist Character 2 even though there technically is no more Assist Character 1! So your team will look like:
- Ryu (Point Character)
- Wolverine (K.O.'ed)
- Captain America (Assist Character 2)
That means you actually have no one in the Assist Character 1 role. Even if, in the original team order, Ryu is called in via Cross-Over Assist and is defeated as an Assist Character, no re-ordering will take place and Captain America remains as Assist Character 2. So your team would look like:
- Wolverine (Point Character)
- Ryu (K.O.'ed)
- Captain America (Assist Character 2)
In MvC2, if a character was defeated, the defeated character would always take Assist Character 2's position and everyone else would move up. This is no longer the case so players who come from an MvC2 background will have to grow accustomed to this change.
Ways to Change Order
Here is a list of the actions that can cause your team's order to change:
- Performing a Cross-Over Attack
- Performing a Cross-Over Counter
- Performing a Delayed Hyper Combo
- Performing an Aerial Exchange
- Getting your Point Character Snapped Out by a Snap Back
- Having your Point Character get K.O.'ed.