Here’s the follow up to the team building concepts article series, it’s a rather short one due to it mostly being about preference, but hopefully it sheds some light on how to use X-factor, or how to build a team around it.
Love it or hate it, X-factor is a huge factor in Marvel vs Capcom 3. Knowing when to use it, how to use it, and who to use it with are all key in being a successful player.
At this point, most people are aware that characters get specific stat increases during X-factor. Just as a quick example, Chris Redfield gets a higher damage bonus than Zero, who gets a higher bonus than Amaterasu. There’s a comprehensive list of which character gets what bonuses on the Shoryuken.com MvC3 Hyper Guide.
Obviously, you shouldn’t let those stats dictate your character choice or X-factor usage, because the mechanic makes virtually every character a deadly powerhouse.
I would argue that the individual stat boosts are probably the least important factor at work here, and that the characters style carries more influence on his or her X-factor usage. For example, Wolverine can OTG by himself and cancel that with X-factor, allowing him to continue the combo and kill any character with time to spare. This makes using an early X-factor a very viable strategy, but should be noted that not every character has the efficiency that Wolvie does in doing something like this.
On the other side of the coin, we see players postponing X-factor usage in order to have a very strong anchor character (think Sentinel or Dark Phoenix.) I think this is where individual stat boosts matter more, but it’s still not the most important factor.
These playstyle decisions definitely have an impact on your team composition. If you like to rush that s*** down, you may want to consider using Wolverine on point, or if you like placing your faith in a strong anchor, it’s never a bad choice to use Sentinel or Phoenix.
Typically, it’s harder to find character who are efficient at using early X-factor than it is to find characters who make strong anchors. It’s also smart to have characters with good assists in your anchor position, so picking someone like Doom makes for a good assist and a great X-factor anchor.
It’s wise to play around with your point and anchor characters to see who you like best and try to develop X-factor usage strategies with them.
A final note on characters and X-factor usage is that it’s never a bad idea to find out which characters that you like can finish off assists with the simple “Hyper, X-factor, Hyper” formula. Being able to do this can really make life easy against people who don’t think before calling assists.
SAV Mega Crash 