Marvel Rivals’ Damage Heroes, Ranked From Worst To Best
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It’s time for everyone’s favorite class. Marvel Rivals, much like its direct inspiration Overwatch, is plagued with players who just want to collect kills on a scoreboard. That means, if you’re running with randos, that it’s entirely possible you’ll end up with a team of people who instalock their favorite damage-dealing Duelist character and leave you to babysit. Rivals’ roster makeup is a factor as well, with Duelists accounting for nearly 20 slots of the 35 playable heroes in the game. It’s only natural that many players would land on one of them as a favorite.
Credit where credit is due, Marvel Rivals plays around with the core elements of the DPS role. It has a great mix of melee, snipers, and everything in between. Which characters you gravitate toward will undoubtedly boil down to your playstyle, but we’ll try and be fair to everyone as we rank the best and worst of Marvel Rivals’ Duelists.
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Natasha, who is clearly meant to be the Widowmaker character in NetEase’s hero shooter, is one of Marvel Rivals’ most unfortunate Overwatch knock-offs. The inevitable direct comparison highlights that, for as much as she may have been modeled on Blizzard’s sniper, Black Widow is nevertheless a significantly inferior version of the archetype. Unlike her Overwatch counterpart, Black Widow can’t one-shot with her rifle. That makes her a lot less frustrating to go up against, but it also means that she’ll often be more reliant on her teammates to shave off enough damage that one well-placed headshot can take out a foe. And when so many characters in Marvel Rivals are incredibly mobile and can rush her down in seconds, she just isn’t as dominant as she could be. If NetEase does decide to give her a one-shot kill, the community will lose its mind. But until then, she gets to kick off this ranking at the very bottom.
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Logan, the comic-accurate short king, is a decent rush-down character who is greatly outclassed by most others in the role. He’s got some okay tankiness for survivability, he can slice a squishy enemy hero to bits if he manages to corner them, and his Feral Leap ability is pretty forgiving of even the least accurate aiming. But that’s kind of all he’s good for. His Team-Up ability with Hulk in which the big green guy throws Wolverine so he can get in close is fun, but he’s a little too easy to counter.
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Wanda was always destined to become less impactful as players spent more time with Marvel Rivals. On the plus side, Scarlet Witch has decent damage and an explosive ultimate that can be very effective if you find interesting ways to combo it with the right abilities. In the early days, her Reality Erasure ultimate, which nuked anyone within a decent radius, was terrifying in the same way D.Va’s Self-Destruct is in Overwatch. However, it has so many more weaknesses to exploit that it has made Scarlet Witch one of the least optimal picks in Marvel Rivals right now. Wanda has to charge up the attack, move slowly through the air while exposed to get into position, and as she screams “Pure! Chaos!” she’s so vulnerable that she can be crowd-controlled or just killed before she even gets a chance to set it off. She’s just too predictable these days. Her own CC ability is decent, but ultimately there are better picks who don’t leave themselves open to wasting an ult every team fight.
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Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has one of the most devastating ultimates in the game, but he’s otherwise a bit finicky. Swinging around the map is as satisfying as it’s been in any game starring the web-slinger (if you mess around with the settings, at least), and it’s always fun to yank an enemy into a chasm with your web, but Spidey sometimes feels map-dependent and can be easily punished for poor play. That ultimate, though. When I hear “Don’t mess with the Amazing Spider-Man!” I know I have only a few seconds to move before I’m about to see Uncle Ben.
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When Tony Stark has a Hulk on his team, he can rain down a ton of damage from the skies. Otherwise, he still does that but it’s a lot less impressive. Iron Man can be a real pest in the right hands, but his air-based playstyle leaves him more static than you might think. A good hitscan hero can ground him pretty easily and even in the best circumstances, he often has to choose between damage output and the slightest mobility. It makes him a well-balanced hero in the grand scheme of things, but it also means that one of the smartest men in the Marvel universe is constantly leaving himself open to anti-air fire.
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Every hero shooter needs a standard point-and-shoot guy, and the Punisher is that in Marvel Rivals. He’s the most straightforward character on the roster, and that means he’s good at looking down the barrel of his gun and shooting whatever’s in front of him. His turret and gatling gun ultimate can shred through even the tankiest heroes on the field, but the latter also makes him easy to flank, and by the time you’re out of your turret and mobile again, you’re probably already dead. Overall, the Punisher is solid and will do exactly what he needs to.
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Namor’s turrets are some of my favorite tools in Marvel Rivals, but they can also frustrate me as a user just as much as they probably annoy my foes being pelted by the octopus-like monstro spawn shooting them from whatever vantage point I can place them in. The King of the Seas is a defense-driven builder character who is good at setting up a fortified space on an objective. You can throw his turrets into any nook and cranny you can reach and they’ll automatically pepper enemy foes with decent damage and push them back as they attempt to advance on the point. His trident throws are slow but strong, and while his whale-summoning ultimate only does okay damage, it’s a quick deploy with good crowd control. That being said, if someone dives on you, you’re probably fucked, and his turrets aren’t static fixtures you can set and forget. They disappear after only a few seconds, and it makes it harder to create good setups and get value out of them; if you set up too early, you’ll lose time with them on the field, and if you set up too late, you’re probably going to end up just throwing them somewhere to do even a bit of damage while you’re getting swarmed. Playing Namor well requires game sense and timing, and I wouldn’t be mad if NetEase made it so his turrets stayed present until they were destroyed, but for now, he’s good at what he does.
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I have become a Mister Fantastic main since he launched last week, and I was surprised to hear most people think Reed Richards is one of the worst characters in Marvel Rivals. Based on his placement here, I obviously disagree. Mister Fantastic is surprisingly tanky, with most of his kit being focused on survivability and slow but strong swings of his stretchy arms. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year’s time, Reed has been moved to the Vanguard role considering his entire schtick is absorbing damage to send it back to enemies and raising the defenses of his teammates through shields. But for now, I still find myself wrecking shop in his inflated state, zipping around by latching onto friends and enemies, and being an absolute bother as I bounce on the point with my ultimate. He’s one of the most interesting and effective brawlers in the game if you know how to use him.
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NetEase has taken some time to figure out Storm’s place in Marvel Rivals. She started out Season 0 with the lowest pick rate, but has received some pretty substantial buffs in Season 1. Since then, the flight-based hero has become a much more reliable Duelist with higher damage output and sustainability. Storm also has some decent supportive abilities to empower her teammates, so she manages to stand out among the other flight-based heroes. Her ultimate is also still one of the most useful for clearing a group of enemies, as she’s able to unleash heaps of damage while not remaining stationary the way other heroes with high-damage AOE attacks have to. She’s got a lot of potential, so I’m interested to see what she looks like in a season or two.
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Squirrel Girl can pack a punch and she’s been helped by the Season 1 buffs that made her ultimate something actually worth fearing instead of just a mild inconvenience. Her explosive abilities are great at keeping people at bay without you having to be a living aimbot. She’s basically Marvel Rivals’ Junkrat, and it’s good that NetEase has its own silly gremlin to occupy that playstyle.
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A good T’Challa can be absolutely vicious in the enemy’s backline. His Vibranium Mark, which marks enemies after they’ve been struck by most of his abilities, allows him to immediately recharge his dash-based attack and helps sustain him with bonus health. The best way to use Black Panther is to master combos that maximize cooldowns and let you maintain a neverending onslaught of damage and mobility, zipping around enemy teams so fast they don’t have time to react. That chain-based kit does leave him vulnerable, however, as fumbling those combos will leave you without available abilities and open to enemy fire. That precision can be a lot to manage, but Black Panther is a force to be reckoned with when the player knows what they’re doing.
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Moon Knight is the kind of setup character who can wreck an enemy team before they’ve realized he’s done anything. His playstyle revolves around ankhs he can place anywhere on the map that, when fired upon with his primary attack, will bounce around and do damage to enemies within a radius. If you place one of these and it escapes a foe’s notice, you can rack up so much damage before anyone on the enemy team even catches on. Making the most of him is a bit reliant on positioning and the good fortune of not drawing your enemies’ attention, but sneaking around, getting a good ankh placed, and going to town on a group of enemies never gets old, and also never stops being frustrating to deal with for more stationary heroes.
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Again!
Again!
Again!
You heard that vividly in your head every time, right? Bucky is great at picking off multiple enemies very quickly thanks to his high damage and crowd-controlling maneuvers. He can pull people in close and/or punch them in the air, and each of these attacks puts them in the perfect position for a well-placed headshot. But really, the bread and butter of his moveset is his repeatable ultimate that lets him jump into the air and strike down on foes multiple times, as long as he’s landing kill shots within an incredibly gracious window. Winter Soldier’s ultimate has several interlinking systems that determine just how many times you get to bring the hurt down on unsuspecting foes on the ground, but when all the stars align and enemies are positioned just right, it deletes entire squads groveling underneath your mechanical fist.
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Peter Quill is hands down one of the most fun characters to play in Marvel Rivals. He’s a more mobile evolution of Tracer from Overwatch with a little Reaper and Soldier: 76 sprinkled in there to fill out his kit. The dual-pistol-wielding smartass zips around the map with a fluidity not afforded to pretty much any other flight-based hero on the roster. His hit-and-run playstyle lets him get in close, spray enemies with a barrage of bullets, then quickly escape to reposition and do it all over again. Hit ultimate ability automatically locks onto enemies from a good distance as he gains infinite flight. It’s one of the best flanking abilities in all of Marvel Rivals, but it’s also well-balanced enough that it’s not an instant win button. He’s the kind of character that feels good to play, but also feels good to play against.
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Speaking of hit-and-run characters, Magik is all about mind games at close range. Her slower sword swings are offset by her mobility, allowing her to cleave through enemies and then pop back to safety through a teleport. Despite her melee-based playstyle, she’s not a brawler per se. Trying to beat up an entire enemy team as Magik is how you end up back in spawn, but a strategic dive can take out your enemy’s backline in seconds. When she pops her ult, her entire kit becomes more destructive and that’s when she’s able to really deal some damage. But even without that, Magik can reliably get picks no matter what.
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If you’re looking to get right up in an enemy’s face, you can’t go wrong with Iron Fist. He’s arguably one of the best melee-based characters in Marvel Rivals with a focus on survivability, quick hits, and mobility that even lets him keep up with an Iron Man as he flies away in fear. No one in the game is able to incessantly pester people like Iron Fist can. When he’s not throwing punches and kicks, he’s blocking enemy attacks and recycling all that incoming fire into shields so he can punch and kick them some more. His entire kit fuels a repeating cycle of fists and feet barraging an enemy until they’re either dead or they start running away. Iron Fist’s ultimate cranks all of these already incredible abilities up to 11, allowing him to pummel enemies into the ground with speed and simplicity. He’s a menace, and any character without the mobility to avoid him (and even some who can fly out of a fight) hates to see him coming.
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The last of the X-Men on this list is one of the most efficient assassins in Marvel Rivals. When Psylocke gets into the thick of a fight she can take out squishy heroes with a few shuriken tosses, then quickly escape and hide thanks to her invisibility. She’s a ninja, and her kit reflects that. She’s all about quick, precise strikes and retreating to safety and secrecy when needed. A sneak attack by a Psylocke is pretty much a guaranteed kill, and that ferocious killing intent extends to her ultimate, which is one of the best in the game. As she strikes down enemies in a pretty wide area of effect, even the most powerful heroes in the game will still get sliced up like butter under a hot knife.
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Everyone’s least favorite Avenger is easily the best one in Marvel Rivals. Clint’s bow is somehow one of the most powerful weapons in the Marvel universe, capable of one-shotting most characters in NetEase’s shooter. Part of this is because of Hawkeye’s passive ability Archer’s Focus, which increases the damage of your arrows the longer you aim at a specific enemy, allowing you to easily clear the threshold of a one-shot kill if you land a headshot. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as the immediacy of dying by Hawkeye’s hand. You’ll be in the middle of a team fight, living your best life, and starting to make some headway in capturing an objective when-boom, you’re dead. Even after the nerfs at the beginning of Season 1, Hawkeye still has almost everyone in Marvel Rivals in his sights. Well, all except for one…
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I can’t believe NetEase watched the devastation the Marvel goddess of death was raining down upon the Marvel Rivals player base and thought a 25 HP nerf would be sufficient in Season 1. With a flick of her wrists, Hela can send hit-scan daggers across the battlefield that will two-shot most of the roster without all the focus you need to pull off something like that as Hawkeye. On top of her insane damage output, having a brief CC and some decent mobility means Hela has responses to most other playstyles. If she gets dove on, just hold an enemy in place and fly away, then throw daggers at their heads as you gently float down. If all of this wasn’t enough, her ultimate lets her leer over the map with a whopping 1000 HP as she lobs down chaos and destruction at her ant-like foes, cackling as she destroys them like the meaningless insects they are. Somebody call Surtur to start Ragnarok. I need this woman dead expeditiously.
