Best Marvel Rivals Characters: Every Hero Ranked Worst to Best

As is the case with most hero shooters, the best character in Marvel Rivals is the one that you are most comfortable with in a specific situation. Winning in Marvel Rivals often means being willing and able to swap between various characters based on what your team needs at any given moment. As such, it’s important to learn as many characters as possible and to be ready to use them as needed. 

However, as Marvel Rival’s season one update takes shape, we’re starting to see some heroes rise to the top of the game’s competitive meta by virtue of their high overall power level. While these rankings may shift slightly based on the situation and your skills, these are the best and worst characters in Marvel Rivals. 

Marvel Rivals: Every Strategist Ranked Worst to Best

Strategists are commonly referred to as Marvel Rivals’ healers, though that’s a simplification of the role. While they should primarily be judged based on their healing output capabilities, the best Strategists bring so much more to the fight. 

8. Adam

Adam Warlock’s awkward skill kit just can’t keep up with the other support characters. His overall healing output is quite weak, and while his damage can catch enemies off-guard, Warlock is far too vulnerable to regularly contribute to the fight in that respect. 

Even Warlock’s mass resurrection ability feels less valuable than it should be in a game like this. It requires exceptional positioning and timing if you’re going to get the full value out of it. Even then, only being able to revive your teammates at partial health makes them easy targets in most scenarios. 

7. Jeff

Now that Jeff’s war crime of an Ultimate ability has been nerfed, most players have fewer reasons to pick him. Jeff’s weak damage output, awkward movements, and largely average healing output can make him a liability in a valuable role. 

In Jeff’s defense, some top-tier players can use his unusual movements and sneaky attacks to frustrate and pick apart the enemy team. Most players will want to look elsewhere, though. 

6. Rocket

There is quite a lot to love about Rocket, a character that shot up the rankings in Marvel Rival’s first season. His resurrection station is invaluable, his healing output is top-tier, he’s mobile, and his team-up ability with Punisher and Winter Soldier makes those already viable DPS characters even better. He can also get some useful damage if you’re able to utilize his mobility. 

Rocket’s biggest weakness is his Ultimate ability. That short-range damage amplifier just can’t compete with the other game-changing Strategist Ultimates. When the match boils down to trading Ultimates, Rocket is going to come up short most of the time. Still, he’s invaluable to the right team (or triple Strategist compositions). 

5. Loki

Playing with a truly great Loki is a revelation. While a bad or mediocre Loki feels like they’re barely in the fight, a great Loki can stay alive most of the match, confuse the enemy team with his clones, save your squad with his powerful AoE heal ability, and deal a surprising amount of damage.

What makes Loki viable on average is his incredible Ultimate. His ability to turn himself into any other character in the match and deploy their Ultimate almost immediately enables powerful swing scenarios that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. He’s certainly worth learning if you haven’t been learning him already. 

4. Invisible Woman

The new Strategist on the block, Invisible Woman boasts one of the most well-rounded support kits in the game. Her Psionic Vortex ability can create distance while dealing damage while her telekinetic skills are surprisingly good at enabling quick kills (especially near the edges of a map). Her Ultimate, which generates a massive healing field that turns your allies invisible, is also one of the most effective support Ultimates as well as one of the most frustrating to deal with. 

Invisible Woman’s biggest weakness is her raw healing output. It’s certainly not bad, but the limited range of her “boomerang” projectile and the static nature of her projected healing shields can lower her overall healing in the average match. She more than makes up for it elsewhere, though.

3. Mantis

Mantis’ kit revolves around a resource system. Her healing-over-time and damage buffs can only be deployed when she has sufficient resources. Those resources gradually refill somewhat slowly, but Mantis can automatically replenish them by landing a critical strike with her projectiles. Thankfully, Mantis always has access to her stun skill and a powerful Ultimate that greatly buffs her and her nearby allies’ total health while generating AoE heals. 

If you can’t land headshots as Mantis fairly regularly, you’re going to have a much harder time keeping your team buffed and healed. It’s especially difficult to rescue a tank with Mantis’ slower heals if you’re not regularly replenishing your resources. Most players will feel up to the task, but Mantis is best paired with someone who can fill those occasional heal gaps. 

2. Cloak & Dagger

The “Dagger” part of the Cloak & Dagger package is the best pure healer in Marvel Rivals. Few can match the raw healing output of her lock-on daggers, helpful healing bubbles, and projectile light veils that grant temporary healing boosts. Her recently buffed Ultimate also allows her to create a massive safe space/danger zone (depending on who is standing in it) that can save your team while forcing your enemies to retreat. 

It’s the “Cloak” part of the equation that determines C&D’s overall power level. Cloak’s debuffs and damage output can help pick off staggered foes, but learning when to sacrifice your healing abilities to transform into Cloak takes time. The wrong swap at the wrong moment can cost you a fight. 

1. Luna Snow

As the most aim-dependent Strategist, Luna Snow’s overall healing output is closely related to your ability to reliably target your teammates in the middle of a fight. If you can’t do that, you’re going to have a bad time as Luna. 

Otherwise, Luna is easily the best Strategist in Marvel Rivals. Her full kit offers an insane combination of stuns, attacks, and raw healing output, but it’s her Ultimate that makes her the terror of the game at the moment. It turns out that being able to make your team effectively invulnerable to most forms of damage for about 12 seconds is pretty good. Until that Ultimate is nerfed, we’re living in Luna’s world.

Marvel Rivals: Every Vanguard Ranked Worst to Best

Vanguards primarily serve as Marvel Rivals’ tanks. While that means that many of them are designed to protect their teams, some tanks are far more aggressive and bring the frontline to wherever they go. The absolute best Vanguards dictate the terms of a fight by creating space, absorbing punishment, and getting in sneaky amounts of damage. 

8. Captain America

While a great Captain America player is a lore-friendly terror to his enemies and a hero to his allies, most Captain America players will struggle to do much at all during most fights. His shield is easily broken, his damage output is inconsistent, and while he’s incredibly mobile, it’s difficult for him to be nearly as aggressive as he needs to be due to his punishing cooldown management demands.

Captain America is probably a few tweaks away from being an absolute menace. At the moment, though, he’s a tough sell as a tank. 

7. Peni Parker

Peni’s ability to lay traps throughout the map makes her an incredible defensive Vanguard option. There are times when you are simply forced to go through or around Peni’s webs of death. Her mere presence is a risk that has to be accounted for, and her stun ability is one of the most consistently valuable CC abilities in the game.

However, Peni is significantly less viable as an attacking Vanguard. Even a good Peni will struggle to push their team forward while laying traps and staying alive. As more and more players figure out Peni’s bag of tricks, she begins to feel like less of a threat and more of an annoyance. 

6. Venom

Much like Captain America, Venom is a mobile Vanguard who can easily wreak havoc behind enemy lines. Unlike Captain America, Venom has the sustainability required to survive his dives and get back to the safety of his team. 

Venom’s biggest problem at the moment is his damage output. His awkward medium-range attacks can sometimes prevent him from being as aggressive and consistent as he needs to be while pursuing the enemy team. Even his Ultimate bolsters his survivability rather than compensates for his damage. At the moment, there are other diving Vanguards that can do more in the backlines. 

5. Groot

A great Groot player can use this Vanguard’s walls to isolate targets, block paths, prevent damage, and generally reshape the map in your team’s favor. On top of that, Groot boasts one of the better Vanguard Ultimates in the game and some surprisingly strong damage output. 

However, a bad or mediocre Groot player will use those same walls to do more harm to your team than the enemy squad. If those walls don’t go up when and where they need to, your team will quickly be overwhelmed while the opposing squad thanks you for the free shields. The swings can be wild, but a great Groot is an asset. 

4. Thor

Thor can practically fly across the map while picking off enemies and granting himself invaluable health boosts. He’s a mobile melee menace. You don’t know fear until you have a Thor hammering away at your head with the confidence of a Vanguard who knows he can get out of trouble as soon as it appears. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Thor can also unleash a devastating barrage of projectiles at the temporary cost of his easily replenished resources. 

While Thor’s Ultimate is still quite bad (the God of Thunder deserves better), it at least offers him another escape option that forces enemies to scatter. 

3. Magneto

As one of the only true “shield tanks” in Rivals, Magneto earns his keep simply by being able to block incoming damage by throwing up a barrier. More importantly, Magneto’s ability to shield himself or project a shield on an ally is one of the best ways to either press an attack or escape a flank. His projectiles are also sneakily strong if you’re able to use them at a moderate distance while tracking your enemies. 

Granted, Magneto is held back slightly by his slow movement speed and weak Ultimate. The former makes it tough for him to get back into the fight and the latter is far too finicky to be more than a situational annoyance. He’s still a true main tank option, though. 

2. Hulk

Hulk is often banned at high levels of play due to his powerful team-up abilities. Even when he’s by himself, a good Hulk will ruin your day with his generous leap abilities, strong shields, and devastating strikes. Hulk is the ideal dive tank; the kind that can get into and out of trouble while causing it all the while. 

While it takes time to learn Hulk’s movements (meaning he tends to get melted at lower ranks), great Hulk players can practically carry a team before using their Ultimate to unleash their final form and slam enemies into the ground like they’re playthings. 

1. Doctor Strange

As the best overall solo tank in the game, Doctor Strange is also the best Vanguard in Marvel Rivals. His powerful shield is equally valuable on attack and defense, his projectiles are surprisingly strong, his ability to fly gets him out of trouble most tanks can’t escape, and his Ultimate has the potential to help wipe a team every time he uses it. 

While great Strange players are separated by their ability to consistently create portals that transport allies or trap foes, he tends to be the best overall tank in every situation at any rank. 

Marvel Rivals: Every Duelist Ranked Worst to Best

The largest class in Marvel Rivals, Duelists are the game’s primary damage dealers. Despite their seemingly simple objective, their diverse designs often make them the most complicated characters in the game. Just don’t assume the most complex Duelists are always the best. 

19. Black Widow

The only truly “bad” character in Marvel Rivals, Black Widow is a traditional sniper in a game not designed to support that role. The cover is too ample and the action is too fast for her to effectively pick off targets in time to change the fight. 

Black Widow either needs a massive damage boost or a rework to become relevant at any level of play. We’ll see which comes first. 

18. Scarlet Witch

While she’s one of the “easier” Duelists in Marvel Rivals, it doesn’t take long to see through Scarlet Witch’s illusion of power. 

Scarlet Witch’s primary fire doesn’t require much aim, but it’s easy to counter her flanks once you know how to look for them. Unfortunately, Scarlet Witch’s other abilities can’t compensate for that core deficiency, and her Ultimate is far too slow to be viable at anything other than the lowest levels of play. 

17. Iron Fist

Iron Fist’s fast movements, quick strikes, and ability to lock on to a target make him a nightmare for new players. Even veterans can occasionally use Iron Fist’s aggressive style of play to generate some havoc at higher ranks. 

By and large, though, Iron Fist can be bested by even the slightest bit of cooperation. It’s hard for Iron Fist to effectively deal with coordinating targets until he gets his Ultimate, which tends to be a problem as players quickly learn to work together. 

16. Black Panther

Black Panther is certainly capable of weaving his way in and out of a fight while picking off surprised enemies. His incredible agility and burst damage potential make him a sneaky favorite among those who favor diving damage dealers. 

Unfortunately, Black Panther is also a combo-dependent character who needs to be able to play a specific way to be effective. If his big combo is interrupted, he typically has to get out or die. He’s also cursed with one of the weakest overall Ultimates in the game at the moment. 

15. Spider-Man

Spider-Man is undoubtedly the most difficult Duelist to learn and master in Marvel Rivals. The top Spider-Man players in the world are truly feared. They can pretty much go where they want and do what they want while causing enemy players to scramble and/or panic. 

The other 99% of Spider-Man players are often a detriment to their team. They will dive too deep, they will do little damage, they will die, and they will probably blame you for it. Those swings in viability—pun intended—make it hard to rank Spider-Man higher. 

14. Mister Fantastic

Though technically a melee character, Mister Fantastic’s outstretched arms are effectively projectiles that can double as sweeping strikes. He’s also one of the most durable Duelists in the game and even has an ability that allows him to eat quite a bit of damage before reflecting damage to the enemy team. 

Unfortunately, the rest of Mister Fantastic’s kit is…not great. You’ll rarely find the chance to use his ability to grab enemies and slam them together, and his Ultimate arguably makes him weaker than he is in his base form. Mister Fantastic is just a bit too limited in a competitive meta. 

13. Squirrel Girl

There are times when Squirrel Girl’s ability to pepper an area with bouncing explosives makes her a feared damage dealer. Hey, it worked for Junkrat in Overwatch. Like Junkrat, Squirrel Girl can effectively lockdown a choke point while using her mobility and traps to stay alive long enough to be a menace. 

Unfortunately, Squirrel Girl struggles to adapt to situations that force her to do more than fill a confined area with explosives. She’s fine to have during the good times and a liability when things start to go sour. Even her recently buffed Ultimate still isn’t quite good enough to turn the tide of a fight. 

12. Star-Lord

Star-Lord functions like Marvel Rivals’ version of Overwatch’s Tracer. Despite his ability to fly, Star-Lord is supposed to get relatively close to enemies, shoot them down, get out of the fray, and do it all again. It’s not until he triggers his powerful Ultimate that he can truly unleash death from above. 

If your aim and movements are less-than-perfect with Star-Lord, you’re going to have a bad time. An inconsistent Star-Lord is too vulnerable and too weak to do more than tickle enemies before floating away to his death. He has a presence at higher ranks, though players skilled enough to use him well tend to favor other options. 

11. Iron Man

Iron Man could lose or gain a couple of spots on this list based on whether or not he’s paired with a Hulk. With a Hulk, Iron Man gains a massive damage boost that makes it much easier for him to sneak behind a team and delete weaker targets. 

Without that boost, Iron Man has to be surprisingly accurate and incredibly evasive to effectively disrupt enemy strategies while getting picks and staying alive. Iron Man’s nuclear bomb of an Ultimate can ignore even the best Strategist Ultimates, but you have to be confident in your ability to both quickly acquire and utilize that ability to get the most out of him. 

10. Magik

Magik is a fascinating melee DPS character. Her kit revolves around her ability to use portals to move between short distances before unleashing sweeping strikes that launch enemies into the air. She’s basically a Devil May Cry protagonist in a hero shooter. 

Is that good? It really depends. Magik is as frustrating as any dive character in Marvel Rivals and generally more durable than most heroes in that pack. However, you have to know how to pick your spots, how to pull off various attack combos, and when to back out to get anything substantial out of her. She tends to be better than Black Panther and Spider-Man on average, though her ceiling may be slightly lower. 

9. Winter Soldier

Winter Soldier is another weird DPS character. While he has a gun, its limited max ammo and precision shots often require you to rely on Bucky’s other, combo-oriented abilities. A good Bucky will hook players out of position, uppercut them into the air, and kill them with a little help from his team. If Bucky doesn’t have a little help from his team (or misses his combos), then he can struggle to do more than chip away at high-health foes while waiting for his next attack window. 

Bucky’s Ultimate makes all those efforts worth it, though. If you kill an enemy with that diving strike (or shortly thereafter), your Ultimate will automatically be reset. From there, you can continue that combo as long as there is an enemy left to kill with that ability. When properly deployed, it’s one of the scariest Ultimates in the game. 

8. Namor 

Namor is defined by his ability to summon two (three if he’s playing with Luna Snow) squids that function as auto-firing turrets. They can be attached to almost any surface and are especially good at targeting otherwise hard-to-hit flying and flanking characters. 

What makes those turrets incredibly powerful is the rest of Namor’s kit. His primary and special attacks can greatly increase the fire rate of his turrets while dealing quite a bit of damage on their own. Properly placed Namor turrets can tear through anything that Namor decides to focus on while disorienting the enemy team. His Ultimate is slightly weaker, though it can easily knock down enemies and leave them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. 

7. The Punisher

As a pretty standard “guy with a gun” character, The Punisher finds himself near the middle of these rankings. There is nothing especially exciting about his third-person shooter playstyle. If your aim is good, you’ll probably be an effective Punisher. If not…well, he’s at least a character who’s easy to understand and get better at. 

Generous learning curve aside, great Punishers have become fixtures at high levels of play. Punisher can upset even the best-laid plans with his raw damage output that tears through shields and sends tanks into hiding (especially when he’s paired with Rocket Racoon). He’s not quite as dynamic as some of the other Duelists, but mechanically gifted players will find him to be wonderfully consistent and occasionally devastating. 

6. Psylocke

Much like Genji in Overwatch, Psylocke is meant to poke at characters from a distance before using her quick strikes to deliver devastating final blows. She also boasts a powerful Ultimate that can quickly eliminate any enemy within a sizeable zone of death. 

Unlike other flanking characters, Psylocke’s primary attacks are effective enough at moderate distances to allow her to pick her attack spots rather than entirely rely on that aggressive style of play. If your aim is decent and you know how to pick your targets, you can easily top the charts as Psylocke with minimal support. 

5. Hawkeye

Hawkeye was the absolute terror of Marvel Rivals at launch, though a recent update made him slightly less effective at greater distances. All that really means, though is that Hawkeye can’t quite take over a high-level game as easily as he once could. 

Otherwise, Hawkeye is an incredibly dangerous sniper who is mobile enough to get where he needs to be and powerful enough to still kill many characters with a single shot. Yes, it helps if your aim is good, but Hawkeye can still pull off “lucky” shots at slightly shorter distances. His Ultimate is probably the weakest part of his kit, but it’s more of a nicety than a necessity. 

4. Moon Knight

Moon Knight’s Ultimate ability just got a buff that verges on being broken. As it stands, his Ultimate ability almost instantly summons a swarm of explosives from the sky that deal lethal (or nearly lethal) damage to anything in their path. It’s incredibly difficult to avoid and often swings a fight in Moon Knight’s favor. 

Outside of his Ultimate, Moon Knight is quite good at prowling the corners of a map and peppering enemies with help from his Ankhs, stationery objects that reflect Moon Knights’ attacks on nearby enemies. If those Ankhs aren’t destroyed, Moon Knight will win the fight. Even if they are, it doesn’t take much for him to get quick kills and build towards his Ultimate. 

3. Hela

The other terror of Marvel Rival’s launch, Hela was hit with a relatively minor nerf that made her only slightly weaker than before. Much like Hawkeye, she is still able to deliver devastating precision strikes from across the map that can melt through tanks and delete most everything else with a single shot. 

Unlike Hawkeye, Hela’s Ultimate is one of the best in the game. If your team cannot focus on Hela and shoot her out of the sky, her Ultimate will kill you or force your squad to run and hide in spots that will often leave them in a bad position. 

2. Wolverine

If you’re going to take the time to learn a slightly more complicated character, make sure it is Wolverine. Like other diving characters, Wolverine is looking to get into the backlines and terrorize isolated targets. Unlike other diving DPS heroes, Wolverine is surprisingly durable. That durability makes it much easier to trap enemies or simply chase them down and catch them in a storm of strikes. 

That combination of abilities makes Wolverine one of the most effective tank busters in the game. If Wolverine gets hold of a tank (much less a weaker character), that tank had better pray their team is quick enough to intervene and save them. Generally speaking, it takes a lot of coordination to defeat a Wolverine who knows how to hit his tackles, dives, and powerful Ultimate ability. That’s why he’s often banned at higher ranks of competitive play. 

1. Storm

When Marvel Rivals launched, Storm was widely considered to be one of the worst characters in the game. Now, Storm is the best Duelist in Marvel Rivals. Storm’s base attacks deal a surprising amount of damage, are incredibly quick, and can hit multiple foes. Her alternate fire abilities allow her to easily finish weakened enemies, and her Ultimate is practically guaranteed to kill multiple targets if the other team doesn’t use their support Ultimates to block it. 

It doesn’t stop there. By simply existing, Storm can provide team-wide damage and speed buffs that turn the tide in otherwise even fights. Once you master her flight movements (it’s actually better to stay closer to the ground with her), you’ll find that Storm is often the top-performing DPS at every level of play.

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