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.

Team Aerial Combos (TACs):

Up exchanges seem to work the same, side exchanges now drain 1 bar of meter from opponent, down exchanges still build 1 bar of 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.


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 more useful, 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.
- Demon Flip dive kick OTG ground bounce relaunch is much more strict.
- Does not have a light Tatsu infinite in LVL3 XF anymore
- Health nerf


Amaterasu

+ Cold star appear to be faster when on point
+ Can switch weapons in the air now
- 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 can throw 3 lances out (?)


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 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 in the air 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


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.
+ Chris has a proper wave dash now.
+ H Grenade fire puddle seems to last longer/pops the enemy up more.
+ Appears to have faster start up/recovery on his specials (?)


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.


Dante

- 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. Examples are given below:
*f+H BC Volcano BnB still works but the timing is tighter for the airplay, j.H, land H.
D/F H, H, H xx f+H: (Stinger) wallbounce in corner is a bit higher than it used to be. Bold Move j.S seemed to almost always cross up.
*j.S/Hammer BnB requires instant Volcano after the knockdown for the airplay, j.H, land H to combo, and even then it's very tight. If you delay the Volcano even a moment, it won't work due to the hitstun deterioration timer.
*Pop Shredder drops the opponent much lower making it more difficult to follow it up with Teleport into 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. 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
+ Deadpool can now cancel special moves into his Teleport
- Bolo Loop is removed


Dormammu

+ Reports that his Zoning Specials have become better in speed and recovery.
+ Dark Dimension has a larger hitbox. No longer passes under bouncing opponents.
+ Increased distance on backdash
+ Can use Purification in the air
+ 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 slighty 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

+ Dooms j.H laser is faster
+ Faster cr.L
+ Launcher appears to be safer on block
+ Overall, Doom's projectiles appear to be faster now
+ Doom's forward throw causes a hard knockdown now
+ Air S moves faster vertically
+ Air S causes ground bounce on juggle (?)
+ Doctor Doom's Photon Array does more damage when mashing
+ Doom's mid-air special moves will always knock down now. Jumping Hard has a new variation.


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)
+ cr.H now hits OTG or it knocksdown (needs more explanation on which it is or both)
+/- Haggars f+H now causes bounce rather than huge hitstun (?)
- Double Lariat assist is now vulnerable during startup


Hsien-Ko

+ Chiretou seems to have faster start up. No specific timing after an air combo was needed for this hyper to connect.
+ 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.
+ f.M has slight better recovery (?)
+ Senpuu Bu seems faster (?)
+ Grounded Henkyo Ki recovery is faster
+ Anki-Hou has faster startup (?)
+ 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 (don't know what it is but it's confirmed he has a new move)
- OTG Gamma Wave into Gamma Crush is tighter noq


Iron Man

+ Iron Mans UniBeam is faster and recovers faster, spammable
+ Ground dash moves him at least 1/2 screen across. Before it moved him about 1/3rd distance.
+ Even faster flight cancel
+ Triangle jump/air dash mechanics changed. Seem to have different trajectories and acceleration. Possibly different types of dashes. It appears that he can cancel his air normals into a dash now opening possibility for Magneto like combos.
+ Iron Man's cr.H is now SPECIAL CANCELLABLE (YES THERE IS A BASED GOD!!!!)
- Removal of double jump


Jill Valentine

+Who cares?


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


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 maybe slighty 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.
- Disrupter start up slowed down and is generally slower but still a dominant projectile
- Throw trap time decreased slightly


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.
+ Astral Vision is much faster on startup. She can use her new meter sucking move during Astral Vision and it 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.


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)


Ryu

+ Ryu now has a "buff" super (d, d+ two attacks) that enhances everything he does. 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 threatening character.
+ 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.
+ Ryu can cancel his overhead into specials now
+ Can now cancel his Tatsumaki's into other specials (?)


Sentinel

+/- 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.
+ Rocket punches and overall speed of Sentinel has been increase
- 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 executed with RDP motion and causes wall bounce on impact. Has considerable start up.
- Slide now covers less distance
- TAC glitch removed


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.
+ The Web Ball, Web Swing and Spider-Sting can be cancelled.
+ Crawler assault, button mashing during this does more damage now.
-Web Zip negative on block (was +15 in vanilla MvC3, so this is a very drastic nerf)
-Launcher sj cancel into Web Throw only works in corner, nerfs a huge majority of Spider Man's damage potential and combo potential.
-Ultimate Web Throw set up gone
-Web Throw no longer causes hard knockdown


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
+/- Slight changes to her jump cancel loops
- Cannot call assists while floating


Super Skrull

+ Meteor Smash is doable from the air now
+ LVL3 causes massive stagger, allowing you to combo after it
- 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


Thor

+ Range on air Mighty Hurricane command throw increased. Possibly increased range on ground version as well.


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.
- 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.
+ Possibly faster mobility/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 pushes the opponent all the way to the corner making it harder to follow up.
+ Wesker has a new move where if he hits you with his sunglasses, his overall speed increases


Wolverine

- Seems to have less health
- Berserker Slash is slower, lost invincibility
- Seems slower overall perhaps to make Berserker Charge more balanced overall
- 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


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 Rekkoha hyper is now wider and covers more ground
+ Zero can cancel special moves into Buster now (like his DP move)
- Zero's lv.3 Buster causes soft knockdown now (was hard knockdown before).


New Challengers

Ghost Rider

- f+H, H - whips his chains around at a wide angle, covering a decent amount of the screen. Appears to have some sort of grapple stun mixed in, to allow some sort of comboability afterwards.
- M, M - whips everywhere, can combo into S, but does not appear to combo into H.
- b+H - breathe fire, I think it OTGs.
- c.M is a standing shoulder bash.
-Penance Stare - Level 3 Hyper, grab super.


Strider Hiryu

- QCF+A (QCF+P) causes ground bounces and wall bounces on hit. Questionable value.
- QCB+A, may be HCB+A (formerly qcf+K) animal summons are very fast and safe, and actually somewhat spammable for zoning.
- QCB+S (formerly sonic boom) summons the missile, can be fired later. This move now OTGs, but relaunch is difficult at the moment.
- RDP+A (RDP+K) teleports are as good as ever.
- teleport dive kick (unsure of commands) are actually quite good now, dive-kick hitstun for free confirms.
- j. QCF+A (j. QCF+P) can now perform attacks and block after move before touching the ground, leading to very interesting combos (especially in x-factor) and setups.
-Running slide OTGs. Value is questionable, needs more research to see if its super cancelable, or if it requires assist backup or XFC to make it more useful.
- Legion Hyper - QCF+AA (formerly qcb+KK) he now jumps away, sends one smaller wave of animals, but they OTG. Mostly an improved version, oddly enough, outside of chip damage.
- Ragnarok - DP+AA (DP+PP), level 3, quite fast, very invincible - the equivalent of Weapon X.
- Ouruboros - QCB+AA (qcf+PP), level 3. This thing hurts like hell, x-factored its ridiculous. In addition, the way hitstun decay works in MVC3 means that teleports and assists while in Ouruboros mean constant resets.


Firebrand

- QCF+A - Hellfire Spit - Depending on the button pressed, he can spit in several angles. If an angled-down spit hits the floor, it turns into a moving wall of flame, that can hit up to (I believe) 5 times.
- DP+A - Demon Missile - If I recall correctly, this is his move that functions similar to the psycho crusher, and different buttons cause different angles.
- QCB+A - If I have my commands right, this move (at least the heavy version) performs the elliptical swoop that is the signature of why Arthur hates Arremers. Scoop, divebomb, irritation.
- QCF+S ...it might be QCB, needs verification - A comboable, moving command grab. On the ground, it moves forward, in the air, its a dive bomb. On hit, Firebrand drags the enemy along the floor for about a full-screen distance. If they reach the wall, he smashes them into the wall for a wallbounce. This then allows for a relaunch, which can then lead to a TAC, corner combo, dead character.
- QCF+PP - Dark Fire - Sweeping flame breath super.
- QCB+PP - Luminous Body - It's a mode change buff, but you got me as to what exactly it does.
- DP+PP - Level 3 Hyper - Oh man, this is awesome. Firebrand summons an additional Red Arrmer to harass the opponent. This move is the equivalent of a Level 3 version of Felicia's Kitty Helper.


Hawkeye

- Trick shot - QCB+A - Here is what makes Hawkeye so interesting. This move. Each button used for trick shot causes Clint to dodge / jump in a different direction. After the jump, the button you press determines what type of arrow he shoots: A is a poison arrow that slowly drains opponent health for a duration, until the timer runs out or Hawkeye gets hit; B is an ice arrow that freezes the opponent for a moment, like the first shot of Chris' grenade hyper.
His level 1 arrow Hyper is an incredibly fast shot that targets the opponent (auto aim), and stuns them heavily for great DHC potential.