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Character Traits Description and Discussion

PizzaMasta

Hellblazer
With such an important feature of this game being completely new, and probably game-changing compared to MK, in term of controls, I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of everything the trait button could do, and that for every character in the game. As such, I will gather every information we have on each and every member of the roster's gimmick. I will probably add tactics and playstyle information related to the trait later, but as of right now this will summarize the basic details of every trait. If you have anything to add to this list, feel free to let me know.

We could also use this thread to discuss our thoughts on the various traits and speculate on the unknown ones.

  • Batman - Robotic Bats
    As soon as you press the Trait button, three robotic bats come flying around Batman, seemingly having no real purpose. However, by the press of the same button, you can shoot the three bats in succession without any start-up or animation, you can even do it DURING another move. This will no doubt provide a very good pressure option for Bats. You can also use the bats, by inputting a still unknown command, to have them spin quickly around Bats for as long as you hold the button, creating a move that is very similar to Kung Lao's spin in MK9. After they have been used, the bats slowly recharge one by one, as indicated by the meter next to the super meter.
  • Superman - Solar Power
    By pressing the Trait button, Superman concentrates the power of the sun to empower himself, gaining a red hue around his body. The effects of this buff are very similar to the ''Rage'' from MKvsDC, as it gives both a damage boost and makes Supes' moves ignore armor for a short time (which is different from the Rage, which made attacks unblockable). This ''rage'' slowly recovers after it has been used. The buff will keep on even if Superman is hit during it.
  • The Flash - Speed Force
  • When initiated, Flash actually slows down time for about five seconds (not sure), which heavily impairs the opponent and gives Flash opportunities to create new combos or land unsafe moves. The speed force doesn't actually go down as a meter would like Superman's trait, but rather in ''thirds''. When iniated, one of three little lightning bolts next to Flash's super meter disappears, and another one disappears after every third of the Speed Force's duration. This will simply mean that even if only two thirds of the duration are used, you will have to wait for the full recharge to occur. Speed force is stopped as soon as Flash is hit.
  • Solomon Grundy - Chain Grabs
  • From what we've seen from the various previews and the EVO gameplay, it would seem that Grundy''s gimmick is actually his vicious chain throws. Not only because he has tons of them and they can occupy a full button by themselves, but also because his various grabs grant him various buffs, in offense, in defense (and in speed if I'm not mistaken) indicated by a fist, a shield and a feet next to his super meter. It would seem that it his possible to have a x1 buff or a x2 buff, probably depending on the level of the chain you're going through.
  • Harley Quinn - Random Gifts
  • Harley's trait has her pulling out a random gift from behind her back, and there are three possibilities : - A bomb, that damages the opponent - Joker's portrait, which restores a part of her health - Something else.... Help please!
  • Wonder Woman - Stance Change
    By pressing the B/Circle button, Wonder Woman can freely alternate between two stances, her "lasso" stance and her "sword-and-shield" stance. In her lasso stance, she has weaker and faster normals compared to her other stance, while she has much better mobility (including an air dash). Her sword-and-shield stance, on the other hand, has her much more grounded, with strong and long strings. It was mentioned that she would posses stance cancels.
  • Cyborg - Regeneration
    By holding the gimmick button, Cyborg will (accompanied by a start-up animation) enter a state in which he cannot attack nor move, he is completely vulnerable In this state however, he uses his cybernetic upgrades to "heal" himself, slowly recovering his health bar. Being hit will of course stop the health regeneration. At this moment, it is unknown (and unlikely) if Cyborg can recover past his current health bar if he is at his second one.
  • Nightwing - Stance Change
    Using Nightwing's gimmick will result in either him combining his two kali sticks into one long bo staff or him separating the latter into the sticks. In his Kali Sticks stance, Nightwing is much more agile, with a slow walking speed but fast dashes and high and long jumps. It is also much easier to create long strings while in this stance. In his Bo Staff Stance, Nightwing's movements slower, also with much shorter jumps. His hitbox is however shorter, and his normals have very long range, which will provide him very good opportunities to poke enemies out. It has been shown that it is indeed possible to switch between the two stances mid-combo.
  • Green Arrow - Elemental Arrows
    Simply pressing the B button will shoot a normal arrow, with no added effects. Arrows can be held for as long as wanted, with crouching (low shots), jumping and moving still possible while holding an arrow. You can even aim diagonally upward or diagonally downward ( in the air) before shooting. By inputting certain motions before the B button, GA will instead charge up some special arrows. Here are his choices:
    Fire Arrows x3
    He can load up three fire arrows, which deal higher damage and knockback to distance yourself from your opponent
    Shock Arrows x2
    GA can charge up two electric arrows that provide a good amount of hitstun contact, letting you move back or close in after successfully landing a shot.
    Ice Arrow x1
    You can also prepare this one frost arrow, which will, as the name implies, freeze the opponent on place similarly to Sub-Zero's freeze ball. It would seem however that Arrow's freeze arrows always bring the enemy back to ground, even when show in the air.
  • Catwoman - Cat Scratch
    After a certain number of combos have been landed on the opponent or moves have been dodged using Selina's evasive special moves, Catwoman has the opportunity, by pressing B, to unleash an unique combo. This combo starts off with two normal hits (possibly overheads) followed by an unlockable hit, a sort of command grab that lets you pierce your enemy's defenses. The length of this combo depends on the number of ''claws'' gathered so far.
  • Deathstroke - Perfect Aim
    When initiated, Deathstroke is granted a buff that makes all of his gunshot moves unblockable for a short period of time. This can let you finish off opponents, initiate combos and simply zone your foe more effectively. After this buff however, all of Slade's gun moves will miss for a comparable period of time.
  • Joker - Ha! Ha! Ha!
    Joker's trait lets you execute both a high and a low parry. In addition to having these two counter, each time you land a successful parry, Joker's walk speed and jumping arc increases, each buff stacking on one another.
  • Green Lantern - Green Lantern's Might
    Green Lantern's trait has him powering himself using his ring, making him glow green for a short period. For now, all we know is that it ''changes the properties of his special moves''.
  • Lex Luthor - Energy Shield
    Described briefly in a magazine and actually shown in gameplay, Luthor's trait has him SLOWLY activating an energy shield, which does not impair his movement or attacks in any way but grants him an immunity to projectiles for a short delay/a number of projectiles.
  • Bane - Unknown
    We know Bane's trait involves him injecting even more Venom into his veins, which makes his skin turn green, but the effect of this buff is still a mystery.
  • Shazam - Lightning Fists
    When Shazam enhances his fists with lightning, they gain electrical properties, adding chip damage, damage and additional hitstun to all of his physical attacks for a certain duration.
  • Aquaman - Slippery Skin
    On the press of the B button, Aquaman surrounds his body with a veil of water, à la Rain. With this buff, Aquaman will fall off the next juggle he falls into much faster, preventing him from recieving high damage combos for a short time, in a way.
  • Hawkgirl - Unknown
    Hawkgirl's trait is very most likely her flight mode, but this or the flight's details have not been confirmed.
  • Sinestro - Fear Ball
    After a very long starting animation, Sinestro can release a hideous yellow ball that hovers over him, periodically shooting tiny energy beams toward the enemy. They do not seem to have any special properties, and probably don't do much damage, but they let Sinestro extend his combos and interrupt enemy moves.
  • Raven - Demon Form
    Raven can initiate, using her trait button, her demon stance. When activated, Raven's skin turns red and she has access to a plethora of new special moves, including a teleport and rising demons fromt he ground, similar to Shang's skulls. She can also grab opponents and put them in a stun state, from full screen (although it can be blocked). It is unknown which moves she loses/gets or her movelist changes completely. Her trait can also be activated in the air.
  • Doomsday - Tough Skin
  • Not all details have been revealed on Doomsday's trait, but he clearly makes himself more resistant to attacks. Whether he actually has super armor for his whole super or he simply can't be juggled remains to be seen and confirmed.​
  • Black Adam - Lightning Orbs
  • When the gimmick button is pressed, Adam will create three lightning orbs that will orbit around him. These orbs have multiple purposes, as in addition to absorbing incoming projectiles, they will also cause damage (without hitstun) to anyone close enough, although this will destroy them. A meter will then fill back up for BA to use his orbs again.​
  • Killer Frost - Unknown
  • Ares - Unknown
Discuss!
 

PizzaMasta

Hellblazer
Grundy's gimmick is the miasma isn't it?
I was kind of confused about Grundy because we heard a bunch of things, but I referred to one of the first previews of the game from Shoryuken, where they wrote:

''Grundy is the grappler of the game. He is big, slow, and hits like a zombified truck. Grundy was easily the least complete character in the demo, as his throws had not even been made unblockable yet. However, I was assured that Grundy’s throws are being worked on, and that his normal hit-strings and specials will probably be getting super armor frames sometime in the future. Grundy’s gimmick is the ability to chain throw. Pressing the gimmick button will initiate a throw, which can then be transitioned into several different throw extensions, including otg and anti-air throws. Grundy has so many throws for so many different situations, it looks like he will be a grapplers dream… once they actually make him able to grapple.''
 

Circus

Part-Time Kano Hostage
I have a feeling Hawkgirl's is her ability to charge her mace by holding down the trait button then throw it. It sounds simple enough but as we saw in the Battle Arena video, she was able to throw this charged(when she is spinning her mace around) mace on the ground, while jumping, and even during flight. The thing behind it to is that when it lands it leads to a juggle state that Hawkgirl could easily swoop in and combo from.

Like I said in the other thread, this is like Zero's bustershot from MvC3. It's one of the biggest reasons why he is so cheap. If he ever sees you do anything or sees you miss, boom, your shot and juggled. Not only that but if she is able to still use pressure strings while this mace is charged then she'd be EXACTLY like Zero in the way that she could use her mace throw when she thinks you'll press a button or jump away.
 

RYX

BIG PUSHER
nice thread hawkgirl levitate cancels please!!
I don't think she needs it; she can throw her mace while airborne and it's insane priority+her advantage of abusing angles is gonna give anyone a hard time. She looks more like a hardcore punisher than a pressure monster right now. :)
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
I don't think she needs it; she can throw her mace while airborne and it's insane priority+her advantage of abusing angles is gonna give anyone a hard time. She looks more like a hardcore punisher than a pressure monster right now. :)
No, she needs it.
 

Law Hero

There is a head on a pole behind you
I don't think she won't have it. Just pointing out she has some stuff people haven't picked up on.
I kinda just meant to be silly. I'm sure it'll all be balanced out.

On a serious note, things like cancels and the like add depth. I like characters that I can constantly learn new things from, and always feel like they have something new and fresh to offer. Cancels usually help with that.
 

PizzaMasta

Hellblazer
Well, Grundy's was officially described and seen in game to be much more than that, and I don't think these guys have any more "proof" of Shazam and Bane's buffs being damage boosts than we do. They probably just assumed that.
 

Circus

Part-Time Kano Hostage
I feel like they had to purposely make the zoning and footsies characters' traits, gameplans, overall special moves really cheap to try to deal with some of these ridiculously scary options some of the offensive characters have.

Cyborg looks like a full on runaway zoner with his great fireballs that recover fast and could be shot in the air too that could recover some health everything he scores a knockdown from far away if he wants to.

Whereas Deathstoke seems like half offense half zoning with his ability to be unblockable from full screen for a while.
By the way, this is the first time I've heard of this, where did you here it from? Are you sure this is 100%?.
It's also wise to notice that Deathstoke's projectiles have alot more recovery time than Cyborg's do though.

But as far as recovery on projectiles go, Harley's gunshots recover by farrr the fastest. They don't seem to do much damage at all though. I wonder if she'll be a dedicated zoner or some weird mix.

Ugh.... I want more info already fuuuuuuuuuuuu
 

PizzaMasta

Hellblazer
I feel like they had to purposely make the zoning and footsies characters' traits, gameplans, overall special moves really cheap to try to deal with some of these ridiculously scary options some of the offensive characters have.

Cyborg looks like a full on runaway zoner with his great fireballs that recover fast and could be shot in the air too that could recover some health everything he scores a knockdown from far away if he wants to.

Whereas Deathstoke seems like half offense half zoning with his ability to be unblockable from full screen for a while.
By the way, this is the first time I've heard of this, where did you here it from? Are you sure this is 100%?.
It's also wise to notice that Deathstoke's projectiles have alot more recovery time than Cyborg's do though.

But as far as recovery on projectiles go, Harley's gunshots recover by farrr the fastest. They don't seem to do much damage at all though. I wonder if she'll be a dedicated zoner or some weird mix.

Ugh.... I want more info already fuuuuuuuuuuuu
A NRS employee came by the Deathstroke forum and enlightened us while we were speculating, I'm going to bed now but I could try and find it for you tomorrow.
 

Circus

Part-Time Kano Hostage
I think it's pretty cool how it looks like there is going to be dedicated midrange footsies characters with long non-projectile moves. It's something that MK9 lacked and it really bothered alot of SF4 players.

The footsies characters so far look to be:

Catwoman: Her long range whip attacks
Nightwing: Anything in his staff stance
Lex Luther: Long range low attacks, traps, and large aerial attacks
Hawkgirl: Weird air footsies and her charge mace
Aquaman: Long range pokes on everything + floor trident.

Joker also might be a midrange'ish character with his poison flower, but who knows at this point.

If made correctly, these characters could be seriously deadly in the hands of a master of spacing at mid range. Midrange specialists like Ricky Ortiz and Diago would seriously make these characters look like the best in the game. Again though, who knows. Because we don't know the way this game will play out in the highest level yet, there is no way of us knowing which archtype of character fightstyle will end up being most effective(upclose, midrange, grapplers, or keep away).


A NRS employee came by the Deathstroke forum and enlightened us while we were speculating, I'm going to bed now but I could try and find it for you tomorrow.
It's cool, I'll take your word on it.
 

shaowebb

Get your guns on. Sheriff is back.
That Deathstroke gimmick is gonna be a pain in the ass. It guarantees a hit no contest and if he can convert that hit...shit thats cheap.

EDIT: I just quoted all this over on Neogaf BTW. You know...the site where they'd rather bitch about animation than talk about any of the fucking gameplay lol.
 

Circus

Part-Time Kano Hostage
Let me see if I could place all the characters into a generic category so people could see how many different characters there are for different styles. Just speculation, anyone could tell me if they disagree.


Mixup characters:
1.Batman
2.Superman
3. Flash
4. Sinestro
5. Wonderwoman (tiara throw shoots forward then comes back so it works sorta like a weird form of Batmans electric batarangs for mixups )


Grapplers:
1. Solomon Grundy
2. Bane


Midrange Footsies:
1. Nightwing
2. Catwoman
3. Lex Luther
4. Aquaman
5. Hawkgirl (in a weird, air footsies kind of way)


Zoners:
1. Harley Quinn
2. Cyborg
3. Green Arrow
4. Deathstoke


Unknown so far:
1. Green Lantern
2. Shazam
3. Joker

(Luckily all three of these unknowns will be seen this Monday on the next Battle Arena fights so we could possibly see what their traits do and more of their gameplans).
 

Bi-on-iC

I'm innocent, I mean..not guilty.
Harley doesn't have useless flower on her gimmick. it actually either increases her health or meter. or the bomb of course.
 

PizzaMasta

Hellblazer
Harley doesn't have useless flower on her gimmick. it actually either increases her health or meter. or the bomb of course.
Oh ok, thanks for the info! :)

shaowebb Awesome, hope it'll help to change their bitching habits :p

Circus We'll see both GL and Joker on monday, but Flash won the Flash v. Shazam match so we won't know what his trait does for a long long time.