As someone who plays low-tier characters in 3rd Strike, I sometimes wonder about ways they could be better. I know it will never happen not only because 3rd Strike is 12 years old and Capcom is more than likely not going to do an HD Remix style rebalancing for the newly announced online edition of the game, but a man can dream. I don't want the world. I'm not asking for Q and Alex to get 1/3 screen fierce punches with no recovery that somehow go under high sonic booms. Here are some changes that I think would help Alex:
I know Alex is not a combo character. He has one comboable attack: close MK. I wouldn't want to try to turn him into Yun or something, but the fact you can only combo out of his close MK means he can only really get it on punish or after a meaty jump in HP. So, I'd like to see him be able to cancel his crouch MP. It is already a good poke, but being able to do a qcf + LP or a charge b f K would allow him to add a little extra damage (or a lot with something like cr. MP, db f K, qcfqcf P) after a good poke or keep up pressure on block. This would be good, but since crouch MP is slower than similarly used attacks by other characters (Ken and Chun cr. MK) it wouldn't be broke. Maybe make it so that you can combo into a qcf MP from close MK, but not from crouch MP, therefore giving a benefit to using the close MK on punish.
I'd like to see EX moves that are useful outside of adding an extra hit for a little bit more damage. EX slaps are fine, as well as EX stomps. EX dp + K is worthless. Sure it comes out fast and pull people off the ground, but there just isn't any real use for it. Instead of pulling people off the ground it should change from a hit attack (that can be blocked/parried, which never made much sense to me) to a grab type attack. This would make it much more useful, and because it would be an EX, it wouldn't be abusable. It would still get stopped by well timed air attacks (or claws) but it would win in more situations and would catch people jumping in and trying to parry anti-air attempts.
Power bombs are just too slow to be used in most situations. I think he should have an EX powerbomb that comes out instantly. It wouldn't need huge range (shorter than a Hugo 360 would be okay), but just the ability to do an instant powerbomb would be a great asset. And while we are at it, if we could just make it so that you can't jump out of hyperbomb on super flash, that would be great. Thanks.
His hcb + K. Such a weirdly situational move. I wouldn't take away the fact you can duck it, but maybe it could be given a longer active hitbox, so that it can land throughout the second half of the movement instead of at just the exact landing point. And maybe an EX version that has a really long horizontal range or will catch throughout the entire move's animation.
The EX dash elbow already pops the opponent into the air, so why not allow you to get a free attack after it, like a HK or a dp + K or something.
I don't know. Maybe with the extra combos his damage would have to be scaled to a greater degree. It's not like I'm KSK or anything, and all of my changes could completely break the character/game. It's fun to imagine though. And maybe one of these days Alex will show up again in a game that I actually give a damn about.
