New online shooter Marvel Rivals is launching with an impressive roster of 33 comicbook heroes (and some antiheroes and villains), giving players plenty of options to choose from.
Figuring out where to start might be overwhelming for new players. Rivals buckets its heroes into roles, but their names aren’t especially helpful — using “vanguard,” “duelist” and “strategist” in place of more familiar terms like tank, damage/DPS and healer/support. And even within those roles, heroes play very differently.
If you have a favorite Marvel hero, that’s a great place to start. I immediately locked in Doctor Strange the first time I played and had no regrets. If you’re more undecided, don’t panic. I’ve played dozens of hours in the closed beta and have thousands of hours in both Overwatch games, which heavily inspired Rivals. I’ll walk you through what you need to know about the different Marvel Rivals heroes and roles and give you recommendations for every single one.
Black Widow is the best option for FPS players who just want to frag.
Marvel Rivals roles
Rivals divides its roster into three roles, all of which can deal damage and secure kills, but each has a different focus.
You can swap to any unpicked hero in the middle of a match, so you’re not limited to playing a single role during the game. However, sticking to one role (and only one or two heroes) is a great way to learn the game by reducing some of the variance and chaos from match to match. If you’re struggling with which role to focus on, here are my recommendations.
Doctor Strange has the largest shield in the game, which he can use to help his team drive enemies back.
Play vanguards if… you like being the tip of the spear during fights or you enjoy being able to soak up damage while doling it out.
Vanguards are your tank heroes — characters with large health pools and ways to block or otherwise absorb damage. Sometimes that takes the form of a shield, like the ones Strange and Magneto wield to hold the front line, and sometimes it shows up as temporary overhealth that lets more mobile tanks like Thor and Venom keep fighting in the back line. Good vanguard play is about claiming and controlling space on the map and commanding attention from the enemy team so your teammates have room to make their own plays.
Squirrel Girl can rain explosive acorns from a distance and chuck stunning acorns at enemies, making them easier to take out.
Play duelists if… seeing your name dominate the killfeed gives you a dopamine rush, you just like to point and shoot, or you enjoy playing heroes with complex ability combos.
Duelists are your DPS in the game — characters who can output high damage per second. There are more duelists than any other role in Rivals, even relative to other hero shooters — the cast is about 55% duelists, compared to Overwatch’s roster being about 40% damage heroes.
Each hero has a different style of putting out damage: Spider-Man wants to get up close and combo opponents; Hela wants to stay in the backline and click on heads; Iron Man wants to rain down damage from the skies. Good duelist play is about finding opportunities to put pressure on opponents, taking flanks or high ground that let you drive the other team away, eventually sending them back to the spawn room.
Here are three Lokis shooting at a fourth (enemy) Loki from different angles.
Play strategists if… you enjoy keeping other players alive, you like having abilities that do things other than damage or you want to control the battlefield from the back lines.
Strategists are your support units — characters who can heal other heroes and provide additional utility to the battlefield. For example, Loki can use his Regeneration Domain ability to let teammates survive bursts of otherwise lethal damage, and Luna Snow can freeze enemies for a few seconds.
And don’t underestimate the offensive ability of strategists: Heroes like Adam Warlock and Mantis can be seriously lethal even while keeping their teams alive. Good strategist play is about weaving together healing with damage and other abilities, prioritizing targeting hurt teammates in the best order and knowing when to use your ultimate to deny enemy pushes or turn fights.
Who are the best Marvel Rivals characters for beginners?
Matches tend to be chaotic, so the best beginner characters in Marvel Rivals generally have simpler kits, giving you less to worry about on the battlefield. My recommended starting points for new players are:
- Doctor Strange (vanguard)
- Groot (vanguard)
- Hela (duelist)
- Scarlet Witch (duelist)
- Squirrel Girl (duelist)
- Adam Warlock (strategist)
- Luna Snow (strategist)
Strange and Groot both have pretty large means of mitigating damage, making it more intuitive for them to lock down a specific part of the map.
Hela and Scarlet Witch both have easy-to-learn kits that include escape abilities, which makes them more forgiving than other duelists. Squirrel Girl’s primary fire is a slower-moving projectile, but its explosion radius is beginner-friendly, as is her ability to stun enemies with a giant acorn.
Adam Warlock and Luna Snow both require decent aim mechanics, but the core gameplay loop for either of them is pretty straightforward, whereas other strategists have more to juggle during fights.
Which Marvel Rivals heroes to play
Curious about individual heroes? Here are my quick recommendations about why you might be interested in each hero.
Vanguards
Captain America: Cap’s shield can deflect damage and ultimates, and he’s perfect for people who want to dash around, leading their teams until they’re up in opponents’ faces and pummeling them with melee attacks and shield tosses.
Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme has a slow-but-steady playstyle that will appeal to people who want to establish a sturdy front line and block tons of incoming damage with Strange’s shield.
Groot: This colossal Guardian excels at locking down areas with walls that either deal damage or grant bonus health, making him a good fit for players who like Fortnite’s building elements or who want their Rocket-playing friend to sit on their shoulder.
Hulk: Hulk jump in. Hulk punch. Hulk jump out. Hulk make everyone turn around and panic, letting Hulk’s team push forward and shoot for free. HULK SMASH.
Magneto: The master of magnetism is a good choice for players who want lots of ways to block incoming damage and negate enemy ultimates while still putting out plenty of hurt.
Peni Parker: Peni and her SP//dr mech are great if you want to run around the battlefield laying traps that buff you and hinder enemies, making you feel like a spider weaving a web to catch your opponents.
Thor: Play the god of thunder if you enjoy the minigame of managing global cooldowns and building Thorforce for future payoffs. (The payoff is punching people in the face with lightning.)
Venom: The lethal protector is all about swinging behind the enemy team, attacking them from somewhere unexpected until he’s almost dead, gaining a billion overhealth and escaping to do it all again.
Duelists
Black Panther: The king of Wakanda is a good choice for players who want to prowl around the battlefield, marking enemies from an unexpected position before dashing in for a quick kill.
Black Widow: Natasha can defend herself in close quarters with stun batons and a kick-plus-grapple combo, but her real value is scoping in and shooting people in the face for massive damage (but not quite enough to kill in one shot) — a good fit for snipers from first-person shooters.
Hawkeye: The Avengers’ archer is all about his bow, which requires a charge-up time and constant crosshair tracking to reach max damage, but he can one-shot most of the roster, making him a good hero for projectile aim enthusiasts (i.e. Hanzo mains).
Hela: If you just want to click heads, the goddess of death should be your go-to option; her primary fire deals instant damage and can devastate the enemy team if you’re able to consistently hit headshots.
Iron Fist: Lin Lie likes to get up close and personal with enemies before pummeling them to death and parrying damage, and his wall-run and triple-jump abilities will also appeal to anyone with an affinity for platformer games.
Iron Man: If you like being a flying arsenal as you soar around the battlefield, you can deploy pulse cannons, missiles and beams from the sky as Tony Stark.
Magik: The Soulsword is the heart of Magik’s playstyle, giving her overhealth as she damages enemies, making her a good option for people who enjoy brawling in melee combat against other heroes.
Moon Knight: The Fist of Konshu has a complicated-but-devastating kit that requires some setup with his ankhs, but once things are in place, he can deal major area-of-effect damage with his ricocheting projectiles — good for people who like to set up dominos before toppling them.
Namor: If you like deployables, you might enjoy the Sub-Mariner’s ability to toss out two octopus allies that can stick to walls and auto-target enemies — or his ultimate, which just chucks a whale at your opponents.
Scarlet Witch: Wanda has a forgiving primary fire beam and is a good choice for beginners or anyone looking for less demanding aim requirements or a free-flight escape button ability.
Spider-Man: The friendly neighborhood webhead will appeal to anyone who enjoys high mobility and quick bursts of melee combos — he’s faster than Black Panther and Magik, but he has less staying power than they do.
Star-Lord: If you enjoy spraying down enemies with bullets, the leader of the Guardians is one of your only options here, and he’s a great choice for people who want to zip around the battlefield looking for duels.
Storm: This iconic X-Men member will appeal to people who want a little utility with their damage — she can speed up or damage-boost nearby allies — or who want to float imperiously over the battlefield.
Psylocke: The psyblade-wielding ninja is another powerful flanker whose invisibility and dash abilities will appeal to people who want the hero fantasy of using stealth and positioning to eliminate enemies before they even knew what hit them.
Punisher: If you’re in the “just shoot things” camp but one gun isn’t enough, you might be drawn to Punisher’s loadout of assault rifle, shotgun, smoke grenade launcher, zipline launcher, stationary turret and his double-Gatling-guns ultimate ability.
Squirrel Girl: Another hero for people who want simple kits with minimal abilities, Squirrel Girl’s slingshot will appeal to players who enjoy explosive weapons, and her stun ability will be good for people who like shutting down pesky enemy flankers.
Winter Soldier: Bucky’s an excellent option for players who want a mix of midrange and melee combat — his abilities allow you to reel people in and finish them off with a few shots and abilities, but you’ll generally need to use his primary to soften up targets first.
Wolverine: Look, bub, if you have a bunch of pent-up rage and want to be all up in someone’s business, you’re gonna like Wolverine’s berserker rage passive that boosts his damage and self-healing, and the three different abilities (including his ultimate) he can use to get up close and shred people.
Strategists
Adam Warlock: If you like healing but you like shooting even more, Warlock might be your best bet for strategist — his healing abilities are pretty simple, allowing you to spend most of your time clicking heads while also keeping teammates alive.
Cloak & Dagger: Managing two entirely different kits is at the core of of this hero’s gameplay — using Cloak to heal up teammates and Dagger to damage enemies and protect allies — so check them out if that kind of back-and-forth appeals to you or if you want to wield a wide range of utility.
Jeff the Land Shark: Most players will pick Jeff the Land Shark because he’s a cute li’l land shark named Jeff, but his gameplay is good for people who want to set up areas of safety with his healing bubbles or who want to cruise around the terrain with his Hide and Seek ability.
Loki: The god of mischief can set up copies of himself that damage the enemy or heal the ally he’s currently targeting, and he can swap places with any of them, making Loki a good fit for people who enjoy the strategy of clever map setups (or anyone who wants to temporarily become copies of other players with Loki’s ultimate).
Luna Snow: A Marvel newcomer, Luna has a pretty straightforward kit that focuses on shooting enemies and allies alike, which means she’s another good choice for people who enjoy aim-based healing.
Mantis: My personal vote for most fun strategist, Mantis is a pretty high-damage hero with the ability to damage-boost herself or allies and temporarily put enemies to sleep, making her a good fit for people who want to control the tempo of the game from the backlines.
Rocket Raccoon: Groot’s BFF is one of the most mobile strategists, with a jet pack and a wall climb ability, and he can deploy a resurrection beacon to bring back the next enemy that dies — he’s a good option for players who want to scurry around and weave between damaging shots and bouncy healing orbs.
And that’s all 33 heroes. My biggest advice is to experiment until you find something that feels fun and manageable.
For more on Marvel Rivals, check out my guide to getting started and my early hands-on with Bucky and Cap.
