ULTIMATE MARVEL VS CAPCOM 3 BALANCE CHANGES DISCOVERED/SUSPECTED THUS FAR
Read changes as:
+ = Buff
- = Nerf
+/- = A change in mechanics that can be either a buff or a nerf and needs more experimentation to determine which it is
General Changes
X-Factor:
X-Factor is now usable in the air, which means aerial hyper combos are now X-Factor-able, you can instantly recover after breaking a Aerial Exchange, you can cancel aerial blockstun, survive chip damage on an incoming character at low health, etc.
X-Factor boosts are now standardized; all characters receive the same boost when activating X-Factor. Characters which did not receive a speed boost in MvC3, such as Hulk and Amaterasu, will now receive one. However, characters such extreme power boosts, such as Sentinel, are now toned down. X-Factor still scales based on the number of remaining characters on your team, but it appears as though X-Factor one boosts are either very minimal or non-existent now.
Team Aerial Combos (TACs):
In MvC3, an upward TAC provided a damage boost, a sideways TAC provided half a bar of meter, and a downward TAC provided a full bar of meter. In UMvC3, upward TACs appear to be unchanged, sideways TACs now drain a bar of meter from your opponent, and downward TACs provide meter.
New to TACs now is a color-identification system. When a TAC takes place, the character being hit will briefly flash one of three colors: red (up), green (side), or blue (down). The flashed color is an indication of which direction the TAC was made, making TAC counters based more on reaction time than luck. Several players have also reported that TAC counter time is longer than in MvC3 in accompaniment with this change.
Whether hitstun scaling is negated post-TAC until your incoming character touches the ground is unknown, but several post-TAC combos which work in MvC3 were seen dropping on-screen, such as Sentinel's Rocket Punch series. This may have been due to execution errors or changes in attack frames, however.
METER GAIN
Through some testing of the preview builds of UMVC3, it appears that overall meter gain has been reduced. Overall the same moves/attacks in MVC3 now give 75-80% meter and on hit you receive around 50% meter gained from the damage that is inflicted. Essentially on damage inflicted, the player receives around 75-80% of meter off of 1 bar (when 1 million damage is inflicted non-scaled) and on damage received, the player receives around 50% of meter off of 1 bar.
CHARACTER SPECIFIC CHANGES
Akuma
+ Akuma is able to use Demon Flip and moves in the air now.
+ Akuma has a Demon Flip Command Throw now (?)
+ Teleport seems slightly better but no real confirmation on this (?)
- Tatsu Assist is no longer a soft knockdown, so it's a bit more difficult to extend combos with it
- Does not have a light Tatsu infinite in LVL3 XF anymore
- Health nerf
Amaterasu
+ Cold star appear to be faster when on point and as an assist
+ Can switch weapons in the air now
+ Counter/Reflecters come out faster
+ Air sword charges faster (?)
- Amaterasu is unable to block out of the entirety of her air dash
- Can no longer do instant overhead with jumping L canceled into Down-Forward + H in Glaive stance
- TAC gitch gone
Arthur
+ Increased overall health
+ J.S drops him downward more quickly for easier OTG after air combo
*His j.S diving down isn't just good for relaunches, it helps him combo in general, since against some characters, he does have to rush
+ Arthur's Boomerange/Scythe attacks have much better start up now and are much better for their "get off me" purposes
+ Range on Scythe seems to have been increased
+ He can now jump in the middle of throwing items, like Goddess Bracelet (?)
+ Gold Armor lasts around 5 seconds longer
C. Viper
+ New move described as a laser coming from C. Viper's eye (like Optic Blast). Has to be charged with the attack buttons like Zero's Mega Buster. Can only be released on the ground. It's super cancellable.
- It's possible her infinite from MVC3 is removed but it's not confirmed yet
Captain America
+ Shield Slash specials are faster and possibly pull the character in more on hit
+ L Shield Slash now hits OTG and it is possible to combo a hyper after it or relaunch.
+ Has a Double jump now
+ Captain America overall is a faster character (?)
+ M/H versions of Charging Star now cause Soft Knockdown
+ Captain America's Back Flip/Cartwheel move has start up invulnerable frames now
Chris Redfield
+ Chris can now cancel out of his gun attacks by doing another special move. f+M, cr. H and j.d+H are all special cancellable. An example is that Chris can OTG cr.H into Magnum easily.
+ Chris has a proper wave dash now.
+ H Grenade fire puddle seems to last longer/pops the enemy up more
+ Has faster start up/recovery on his specials including his Flamethrower
Chun-Li
+ Appears to do overall more damage in combos
+ Chun-Li appears to be no longer vulnerable after doing her up kicks in the air (?)
+ Chun-Li has a new attack which is a different version of her Spinning Bird Kick. It's instant, doesn't move her forward and appears to have invincibility similar to her EX SBK in SF4.
Dante
- Dante overall appears to do less damage/meter building in his lengthy combos.
- st.L jab has a smaller hit box meaning it's not as effective as an anti-air (still good for that purpose but not as godly as before)
- st.H hit box nerfed. Less vertical range
- Smaller hit box on QCF+L Killer Bee Dive kick
- Hit stun scaling has been changed a bit for Dante which has affected some of his combos. Some of his more advance combos have stricter timing to them and less time to perform OTG follow ups. There are numerous examples cited but it was getting out of hand so I am just making a general statement here.
- Possibly invincibility reduction on Hammer
+ During Devil Trigger, Dante gains Triple Jump and Double Air Dash.
+ Input on moves for Dante involving Rekkha like motions (like Dante's Hammer which was QCF+L~QCF+L) are just simply changed to a double tap (so new Hammer input would be QCF+L ~ L). So far this has been noticed for Acid Rain, Hammer and Beehive. It is suspected that this is an across the board chance for Dante and this makes some of his specials have faster start up times like Hammer.
Deadpool
+ Quick Work: The distance/range/speed of this attack is said to have been increased.
+ Supposedly faster specials and Ninja gifts (?)
+ Guns have less recovery time/better start ups
+ Deadpool can now cancel special moves into his Teleport which include Quick Work and Trigger Happy
- Bolo Loop is removed
Dormammu
+ His zoning specials have become better in speed and recovery including Dark Hole and Purification.
+ Dark Matter (f+H) can be special canceled into Mass Change (his teleports) and Dark Spells now. In fact, Dark Matter can pretty much be special canceled into any of Dormammu's special moves.
+ Dark Dimension has a larger hitbox. No longer passes under bouncing opponents.
+ Increased distance on backdash
+ Ground dash is significantly faster
+ Ground throw now causes a hard knockdown
+ Dormammu can now chain his cr.M into cr.H
+ Can charge Dark Spells while airborne. Can only charge one at a time and is vulnerable until he lands. He stops in the air when performing this special, in the same manner as Dark Hole.
Liberation in the air causes him to teleport to the ground and then perform the release.
+ Can attack out of down-back airdash. Most likely up-back too.
- Reduced hitstun on cr.M
- Dorm puts Flame Carpet slightly further out & hitbox change(?). Can cause OTG to hit once and knock people away mid-screen. Causes corner Flame Carpets to hit once on some characters because of the distance it's laid out. Flame Carpet also disappears when Dorm is hit.
Dr. Doom
+ Doom is generally a faster character now especially on his dashes.
+ Overall, Doom's projectiles (Photon Shots) are faster now along with j.H laser beam.
+ Doom's forward throw causes a hard knockdown now
+ Air S moves faster vertically
+ Air S causes an exaggerated bounce in an anti-air situation but is not a true ground bounce (too low for it). Enough time to OTG after it into a full combo. Can be canceled into Flight and go into Doom's M&M combos, either from a Jump or Super Jump state.
+ Doctor Doom's Photon Array does more damage when mashing
Felicia
+ Rolling Buckler no longer bounces off your opponent on block, increasing her pressure game by giving her another way to close the distance
+ Can use Delta Kick in the air now
+ Delta Kick in the air causes Ground bounce when used as part of an air magic series.
- Toy Touch now causes less hitstun decay, making the cancel into Dancing Flash more difficult
Haggar
- Lariat assist no longer causes Hardknockdown (it causes Soft knockdown)
- Double Lariat assist is now vulnerable during startup for around 2 frames. It still beats just about anything but it's not going to go through a beam hyper for example
+ cr.H now hits OTG or it knocksdown
+/- Haggars f+H now causes bounce rather than huge hitstun (?)
+ Has some frames of start up invincibility on his Rapid Machine gun punch hyper
Hsien-Ko
+ Chiretou seems to have faster start up. No specific timing after an air combo was needed for this hyper to connect. It can be mashed for more additional hits and damage.
+ Gongs come out slightly faster.
+ f+M AND f+H normals are now jump cancellable
+ Appears to do slightly more damage due to less hit deterioration from her previously multi-hitting normals (some of them still have multi-hitting properties)
+ General hit stun changes allowing her to do easier combos in the corner involving cr.H, f+H, M Henkyo ki for 3 reps on opponents.
+ Grounded Henkyo Ki recovery is faster
+/- She has new projectiles from Anki-Hou:
* Oil drum(the wooden log everyone thought it was). Supposedly has high projectile durability points but given the randomness of items, it's hard to test this out.
* Hunk of meat. nothing special at least from what I saw.
* Samurai Doll/Cat doll. Causes stagger.
* Chris's stun rod. Also staggers with an electric effect.
* Snowman. Freezes opponent, rather, it just has an ice effect similar to Ammy's Cold Star. It doesn't actually freeze you ala Chris's grenade launcher hyper.
Hulk
+ St.H has 3 points of super armor now
+ Has a new charge move now where he charges up a straight punch which has a ton of super armor and causes wall bounce on impact. Can follow up after an OTG move/assist.
+ Gamma Quake rocks fall faster, and the punch he does to cause them to be in a ground bounce-like state. (?)
Iron Man
+ Iron Mans UniBeam is faster and recovers faster, spammable. Both as an assist and as a point character (Update: Newer build has Iron Man's L Unibeam at about the same speed as vanilla MVC3 so it's back to where it started. No data on speed of other beams)
+ Ground dash moves him at least 1/2 screen across. Before it moved him about 1/3rd distance. Possibly Iron Man can do a proper wave dash now.
+ Repulsor Blast/Spread activate faster. Upon hit Repulsor Spread causes a hard knockdown.
+ Iron Man can now cancel his normals into dashes in the air like Magneto allowing him to perform new flight/dash cancel combos
+ Even faster flight cancel
+ Iron Man's cr.H is now SPECIAL CANCELLABLE. Can even be canceled into flight mode.
- Triangle jump/air dash mechanics reworked. Seem to have different trajectories and acceleration. Possibly different types of dashes. In any case most players seem to agree that Iron Man's tri-jump game has been significantly nerfed because of this change due to the general speed of it is greatly reduced.
- Removal of double jump
Jill Valentine
NOTHING TO REPORT
M.O.D.O.K.
+ MODOK has a new air Psionic blaster done with S (?)
+ MODOK can cancel moves in the air with a dash
+ MODOK has new abilities allowing him to drain meter
Magneto
+ New move, that modifies your momentum anywhere on the screen (similar to the wind effect from Storm, or like Rachel's Wind Drive in Blazblue). Can pull you forward, push you back, or force you to stay more-or-less stationary. HUGE buff, due to the free nasty mixups on people jumping in. Pull them closer so they accidentally cross you up. Punish.
- Air dash reduced in range, and reduced in speed. Slightly affects some ROM midscreen combos of Magneto. Triangle jumps overall appear to be slightly slower.
- J.H pushes enemies away more and combined with the dash range reduction, combos are harder to do. He still has access to his Grav loop in the corner but you get less repetitions out of them. Other fly cancel/air dash loops like the Magnetic Blast loops aren't as reliable or just may not be possible anymore.
- Disrupter start up slowed down and is generally slower but still a dominant projectile
- Throw trap time decreased slightly
+ Magnetic Tempest can be mashed for more damage
Morrigan
+ Does more damage on combos due to her base damage being increased
+ Flight cancel combos appear to be more reliable/useful
+ New meter sucking fireball QCF+S that steals about 1/3rd of the opponents meter. The fireball itself has very slow start up though so it's difficult to use it in combos but it has high durability.
+ Astral Vision is much faster on startup. She can use her new meter sucking move during Astral Vision and the clone DOES steal meter in this mode.
+ Finishing Shower has faster startup, faster missile travel speed, and you can control their trajectory much more than before. For example, in MvC3, if you hold up after using Finishing Shower, the trajectory will "slant" up a bit, and the whole thing is pretty minor. In UMvC3, a player can curve the missiles upward to the top half of the screen and then swerve them back down to the bottom against a crouching opponent. They may even be able to reach superjump heights now.
+ The minimum height/frames for her airdashes has been decreased which allows for better rushdown and mixup opportunities at close range. Boosts her overall mobility a bit as well since she has more opportunities to dash in general.
Phoenix
- Only one action per jump. No more multiple fireballs, no more fireball into teleport.
*You can do 2 actions per flight mode as it is now longer. You can do Air H Shot into Teleport if you went flight mode first but there is longer start up on H Shots.
- Air H Shot has longer start up and slower recovery. Air M Shot is pretty much the same. Air L Shot has faster recovery.
- Even more reduction in health (like 400K to 350K rough estimate)
- TK Shots dissipate when Phoenix herself is hit
Ryu
+ Ryu now has a "buff" super (d, d+ two attacks) that enhances everything he does in terms of properties and gives him a bit of a speed boost. This was seen in the UMVC3 trailer, when his Hurricane Hyper looked like a level 3 - its because of this buff. This buff also enhances his hadoken, which is best noticed in his Hadoken assist. It gets ridiculous Projectile Durability, and it seems harder to knock Ryu out of it. It also allows his Shinkuu Hadouken to bounce off of walls and his Shinkuu Shoryuken LVL3 hyper does more damage in this mode. Overall, it makes him a much more threatening character. The buffs persist on tag out.
+ Ryu's New Hadoken and Shoryuken can be charged for additional effects (QCF+S, DP+S), such as making Hadoken so fast it's invisible and causing wall bounce. Can be used in the air. At low charges it just dissipates at a distance, at medium charge it causes a hard knock down and at full charge it causes an invisible fireball launch with explosion and wall bounce.
+ Ryu has a variation to his new fireball if you mash it (QCF+S Mash). The QCF+F is just a generic fireball but when you mash it you get a bunch of those fireballs on the screen.
+ His new Shoryuken has better anti-properties and fires off a projectile vertically up after the SRK (sort of like Cyclops' anti-air move). The motion is DP+S and mash buttons. It launches them above launcher height even.
+ Ryu can cancel his overhead into specials now. He can finally combo his overhead into a launcher.
+ Ryu's movement on the ground and dashes have been improved. Better speed and recovery allow for easier follows up after a wall bounce.
Sentinel
+ Cr.M now has 3 hits of super armor. Launcher has hyper armor.
+ M Rocket Punch wall bounces now apparently (?)
+/- Sentinel drones have been sped up. They are now a true block string.
- Air combo into L Rocket Punch into HSF does not work anymore or at least isn't reliable. He can still do qcf.L into HSF still works after throws, and he can still TK rocket punch into Hard Drive after a combo.
+ Rocket punches and overall speed of Sentinel has been increased
- Health slightly reduced from 905K to 900K (most people playing the game didn't notice a change in Sentinel's health so it's assumed that the change is just rounding it off or slight at best)
She-Hulk
+ New lampost projectile move that causes wall bounce on impact. Has considerable start up and recovery but it can be canceled into Runner stance for follow up options
+ She Hulk's Taking out the Trash has quite a lot of invincibility frames now
+ Emerald Cannon now makes her jump forward a bit on the dropkick AND has a few hits of armor. Easier to connect after a DHC
- Slide now covers less distance
- TAC glitch removed
- She Hulk is unable to chain numerous cr.L in order to hit confirm into a full combo
Shuma-Gorath
+ Grab now absorbs/steals Meter
Spencer
+ New OTG Dive bomb move "Death from Above" that Spencer can combo after connecting
Spiderman
+ Spider-Man's webs travel faster which includes his Web Balls and his Web Zips
+ The Web Ball, Web Swing and Spider-Sting (all of his specials essentially) can be canceled into Web Zips
+ Crawler assault, button mashing during this does more damage now
+ Spider Man's Web Zip is now able to hit OTG and you can go into Maximum Spider after it
+ Web Throw tosses opponents high enough, slow enough and short enough so that Maximum Spider is easier to follow up after it. It is possible that you can do more stuff after it
- Due to changes on Web Ball property after catching opponent (no more neutral teching only) it is very difficult or impossible to do the infamous UWT reset with Spider Man now
- Web Throw does not cause fully unscaled damage anymore
Storm
+ New Move: DP+S = Fair Wind, pushes opponent away
New Move: RDP+S = Foul Wind, pulls opponent towards her
+ Appears to do better damage overall
+ Hailstorm covers more space on the screen making it harder for opponents to jump over it
+/- Changes to her normals/jump loop combos. Seem to have better overall normals with altered jump loop combos. (?)
- Cannot call assists while floating from super jump. She can still call assists while floating if done after a normal jump
Super Skrull
+ Meteor Smash is doable from the air now
+ LVL3 causes massive stagger, allowing you to combo after it (?)
+ Stone Smite now has at least one hit of armor when the move (non-charging version) goes off
+ M version of Tenderizer causes a wall bounce on final hit (?)
- Orbital Grudge assist does not cause soft knockdown anymore (works like how Akuma's Tatsu in Ultimate)
Taskmaster
+ New Move: Stab n Grab can be linked into Shield Charge
+ Shield Charge has its distance increased
- Damage from aerial arrows (hyper) after a throw has been reduced
- Generally speaking, Taskmaster appears to do less damage overall
Thor
+ Range on air Mighty Hurricane command throw increased. Possibly increased range on ground version as well.
+ Thor's Might Spark projectiles have faster start ups
+ Thor has a new move which is a variation of Might Spark. It arcs out and upwards to hit the opponent on their head.
Trish
+ Recovery on air and ground Hopscotches reduced
+ Recovery on air and ground Peakaboo reduced
+ Peakaboo assist comes out faster
+ Low Voltage projectiles have faster start ups
+ Air Hyper Maximum Voltage now hits OTG
Tron Bonne
+/- Tron Gustaff Fire assist has been nerfed, it is now vulnerable on start up. However on point, it is now bufferable so it has been slightly buffed as a point move so you can go into a launcher after it.
- Tron's j.H knocks away making it difficult to hit confirm into a combo. You can still follow it up with a combo if you do Bonne Strike (Drill Rush) after it.
+ Trons Bonne Strike has quicker recovery
+ Servebot projectiles come out much faster now. She can chain them together so fast that the models seem to overlap
+ Tron can cancel out of Bandit Boulder on her own, means she can combo out of throws and relaunch solo
Viewtiful Joe
+ New Dodge move is full invincibility, but has vulnerability on recovery, hence canceling it into Mach Speed in the trailer.
+ Move that Wall bounces opponent (?)
+ DHCing out of Godhand keeps the slow status inflict (?)
+ Possibly better range on j.S (?)
Wesker
- Much lower health overall. Estimates put him in the 800-900K category now. We are talking at least a 200K drop in health.
- Appears to have slower teleports
- Air throw and backwards air throw pushes the opponent all the way to the corner making it harder to follow up.
- Gun Shot when used as an anti-air doesn't float the enemy on hit as much or just simply causes less hit stun which makes follow ups difficult
+ When Wesker is low on health (or when he loses his sun glasses during the fight) his speed is increased (?)
Wolverine
- Seems to have less health (?)
- Berserker Slash is slower, lost invincibility
- Seems slower overall perhaps to make Berserker Charge more balanced overall
- The Dive Kick has a much smaller hit box, some launchers/anti-air moves beat it out cleanly now
- Contrary to popular belief, Wolverine can still relaunch after a Dive Kick in the air combo the ground bounce may just not work if a dive kick stagger was used to start the initial combo
+/- Some sort of button-mashy Swiss cheese move. He can combo after it with a launcher
+ Berserker Barrage hyper is mashable for more damage
X-23
+ OTG slash seems to have a slightly larger window, making OTG + assists easier
+ X-23 Rage Trigger hyper is faster
+ X-23's Talon Attack will allow her to cancel out of her other air specials (like her DP move in the air).
Zero
+ Zero can cancel special moves into Buster now (like his DP move)
+ Can charge his buster before the fight even starts
+ Zero Rekkoha hyper is now wider and covers more ground (?)
- Zero's lv.3 Buster causes soft knockdown now (was hard knockdown before).
- Tweaks to his loop combos where some attacks push the opponent too far away to be able to combo or just general changes to hit stun deterioration.
