Special 3 vs Safeguard Buff

icm4266

I've noticed that when fighting an enemy with safeguard your special 3 is counted as a single attack regardless of how many times your attack hits. Is this something new or is this a bug?

SirTodd_83

Pretty sure it's the norm for SP3s to be classed as one hit

Ashburn

It's like how iceman can take an L3 to the face even when it's a multiple hit move

Magrailothos

Yes, this is how it works - SP3 always counts as a single hit, and can't cause critical hits. Certain abilities like Iceman's armour or Magnetos Refraction are very effective against SP3s. The hit rate does count towards your combo meter, in characters for whom that's helpful (like Star Lord, Joe Fixit and Cyclops).

The special 3 often ends up doing less damage than the special 2; but has the advantage of being completely unavoidable.

Take a look at the descriptions that each attack grants for each character to help you decide whether to use SP2 or SP3. For example: Awakened Storm gets bonus damage to all her specials equally; whereas Awakened Cyclops only benefits on his SP1 and 2.

Awakened Gamora should avoid her SP3 like the plague - no criticals and no assassination.

Other champs (not an exhaustive list):
Good SP3s:
Dr Voodoo's SP3 power leech ability is incredibly useful; and well worth using.
Iron man, Sup Iron man, Hulkbuster, Thor - awesome SP3 damage.
Magneto does decent damage and multiple debuffs.
Venom's SP3 grants a good chance to duplicate beneficial effects if your opponent has them.
Winter Soldier and Punisher have good bleed effects; and Frank does extra damage at lower health.
The Hood's SP3 does great damage if the opponent is at high power.
For Awakened Psylocke, her SP3 can do huge damage, stun and power burn if she's stacked up a bunch of Psi-charges.

Think twice SP3s:
Mordo, Hyperion and Joe Fixit cause extremely poor basic SP3 damage; but can have useful effects such as healing and bleed damage. Mordo and Hyperion can boost damage with Fury or cosmic charges.
Vision has a far better power burn on his SP2; but the damage is dependent on the opponent's power. Their SP3 does reasonable damage, but OG Visions power burn still doesn't function despite this being known for well over six months. It clearly isn't going to be fixed any time soon.
Venompool's SP3 isn't bad, but lacks the bonus abilities of his SP1+2.
Characters who benefit from high critical rates or effects lose out significantly on their Special 3 attacks: Gamora, Cyclops, Daredevil, Spiderman (OG, Sym, MM), Moon Knight, Awakened Scarlet Witch or Electro.

For a lot of other characters, the trade-offs between SP2 and 3 are more balanced, and very situational. Either can be a useful option; such as Black Panther, Archangel, Gwenpool, Hulk, Rulk, etc etc.

Any other particularly good/bad special 3 attacks people want to mention?

Wubbie075

LOVE Dormammu's SP2 with power burn/direct damage (if you built the charges) and power lock. I feel like his SP3 is only really useful in a very long fight, and I'd usually just want to go with multiple power locks anyway. Although if you can get to SP1 after doing the SP3 the nullify with degen when he's awakened is nice too but I rarely find myself in a position to do that.

SenorPants

Doc Oc. He takes a lot of getting used to, but for long fights, he's exceptional, and the SP3 is key. For a regen champ, land a heal block, fire SP3 and they're locked for 15 seconds, which is usually enough time to get back to an sp1 so you can refresh the debuff for 15 seconds. Power gain champs? Land power lock, sp3, and lock 'em up for the rest of the fight. (Not saying he's great against safeguard, just calling out his unique sp3)

Tomichiwar

Special 3 are always counted as only 1 hit, even if the hit counter says otherwise