In Third Person

Sentinel is arguably the most divisive character in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster. Though he’s wildly popular nowadays, many people consider him to be extremely overpowered. As a Sentinel player myself, I love the fact that he his damage output is insane for the amount of work you have to do (which is not much).

However, Sentinel is not perfect. Though you can’t deny his damage output, he also has holes in his game, which many players are starting to find every day. I actually get excited when I play against a Sentinel player, because in most cases, I can exploit Sentinel’s weaknesses with my own team. It also doesn’t hurt that the majority of Sentinel players I run into have no idea how to use him to his full potential, simply because they’re Sentinel bandwagon jumpers. I’m no pro at Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but here are some words of wisdom for how to beat the machine based on my own experience and information I’ve learned elsewhere.

Block
Though this sounds really stupid, it’s actually extremely important against a Sentinel player. Most Sentinel players come in with the mentality that they’re going to steamroll you, which you can easily negate by blocking. Most of his pressure sequences are easy to block, which you should whenever you can. Even when you jump in, oftentimes it’s best to anticipate some sort of counter and block it before you fight back. Just by thinking block-first, you’ll avoid getting caught in a hyper-armour trap and victimized by the bread-and-butter Sentinel combo.

Punish Blocked or Whiffed Attacks
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the first tip. The majority of Sentinel’s moves come out really slow. You probably don’t want to try to out-poke Sentinel due to his hyper armour, but you oftentimes have a ton of time to attack him as he recovers. The moves that are easiest to counter are his crouching C (the sweep) and the big kick (S). Most Sentinel players will liberally throw these moves out there in hopes of countering one of your attacks. However, if you know it’s coming, then it’s simply a matter of waiting for those moves to come out and punishing them hard with a combo.

Maximize Your Damage Output
In a war of attrition, Sentinel will probably beat you. His high health and damage output are things you do not want to mess with for long periods of time. However, It’s not unreasonable to take Sentinel out in a few combos if you hit the robot with the biggest combos you have. Make full use of your team combos, off-the-ground (OTG) attacks, re-launches and hyper combos to deal damage. If you feel that your opponent’s Sentinel is a serious threat, you may want to burn extra meters on delayed hyper combos (DHC) or even burn your X-Factor early with an X-Factor Cancel (XFC). I normally don’t advise anyone to use their X-Factor early, but if you have a chance to take a good Sentinel player out early, it may be worth it.

Close The Gap
The majority of your Sentinel damage is going to come from you getting inside and landing the biggest combos you have in your arsenal. In order to keep you out, he’s going to use attacks like Sentinel Force and the spit (standing and crouching C). Sentinel Force is easy to get around if you super jump over it. As for the spit, that can be a bit tricky, though it’s absolutely beatable. A lot of the time, you can simply super jump over it to get in. However, there are a number of other creative and character-specific solutions to getting around the spit. Here’s a video showcasing just a few of them. Mess around in training mode and see what your team can do against his ranged attacks.

Punish His Assist Hard
Any Sentinel player worth their salt is going to use Sentinel Force (Charge) as their assist. It’s one of the best assists in the game, as the three drones can help a team control space and set up mix-up opportunities. What you can do as the opposing team is punish that assist when it comes on screen. Most Sentinel players will use it as a way to begin their offense, so keep that in mind when Sentinel isn’t on the screen. If you know it’s coming, be ready to hit it. If you’re at full-screen, you may want to have something like a beam attack or beam hyper combo cocked. Or, if your opponent calls Sentinel on screen and you happen to be close, hit him with anything you have.

Overhead Attacks
Sentinel’s biggest disadvantage is his size. There are a lot of combos and strategies that only work on Sentinel because his hit-box is massive. If you can get inside, Sentinel is highly prone to falling for high-low mix-ups. The trick here is to get Sentinel to block low either through pressure of your point character or your assist, then follow it up with a high attack. Because Sentinel is so big, most characters can use their regular jumping attacks to act as overhead attacks if they quickly hit an attack button after jumping. Once you land that overhead, make sure you’ve got a fat combo ready to make the robot pay!

While I think Sentinel will forever be one of the top-tier characters in this game, he’s still beatable. The above tips are just a few things you can do to blow up a Sentinel player. What are your anti-Sentinel strategies?