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Marvel Rivals tier list of best charactersDiscover the strongest characters in the current meta with our up-to-date Marvel Rivals tier list
Discover the strongest characters in the current meta with our up-to-date Marvel Rivals tier list
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
What are the best characters in Marvel Rivals right now?It’s always a tough question with games likeMarvel Rivals, not only because the roster and hero abilities are ever-changing, but because a tier list of heroes naturally changes over time as you climb higher up the player skill ladder. But will that stop us? Clearly not!
Free-to-play team-based hero shooter Marvel Rivals has launched with a grand total of 33 iconic Marvel heroes to choose between, and while the balance on the whole has been fairly decent so far, a meta is still starting to emerge. Fans of Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk may be a little disappointed, but they’re not quite the powerhouses they are in the MCU. And meanwhile, unexpected entrances like Jeff The Land Shark and Squirrel Girl are getting all manner of attention right now. And not just because Marvel fans be thirsty.
In the guide below, you can read through our full Marvel Rivals tier list,ranking all 33 characters from best to worst. Further down, we’ve also included a write-up on each hero, their strengths and weaknesses, and why they are ranked as they are in the current meta.
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Marvel Rivals tier list of best characters
There are many different factors to consider when ranking the currentMarvel Rivals characters rosterfrom best to worst. You must consider both the quality and the quantity of game-winning opportunities that playing as each character will give you, as well as how easy or challenging they might be to utilise properly. This is intended to be a tier list to help fairly new players get to grips with the roster, so it doesn’t reflect the very top levels of Marvel Rivals play. To take two random examples, Iron Fist’s effectiveness drops as player skill increases, while Spider-Man’s effectiveness dramatically increases with player skill.
Hopefully though, this tier list can help you to make more sense of the current meta in Marvel Rivals, and give you a more informed opinion on who you might want to learn to play next. Just remember: even D-Tier heroes can be used to great effect with enough practice and communication; and even S-Tier heroes can be a liability to your team if you play them ineffectively and neglect your team.
So, if you’re looking to start off your Marvel Rivals journey slightly ahead of the game, here is our currentMarvel Rivals tier list ranking all 33 characters from best to worstin the current meta:
Jeff The Land Shark
Jeff’s kamikaze team-swallowing Ultimate is the greatest menace in Marvel Rivals right now. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Adam Warlock
Adam Warlock can easily turn losing fights into winning ones with his resurrection and heal combos. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Adam Warlock’s constant danger is that everyone is learning to focus him first, because he’s just too powerful to be kept alive during a teamfight. Not only are his healing abilities all geared towards keeping the entire team fighting fit with very little effort, but his group resurrection Ultimate is quite obviously a game-changer when used at the right moment. It’s very hard to convincingly win a fight with Adam on the opposite team, unless you deal with him right away. And with a good team taking the heat off him, that’s a tall order. The cherry on top is that Adam’s left-click and right-click attacks are both startlingly powerful, allowing him to output as much damage as some Duelists in 1v1 situations. If you’ve been avoiding Strategists until now, Adam and Jeff are your clear starting points for realising just how dominant the “support” heroes can be in Marvel Rivals.
Iron Fist
Iron Fist is one of the strongest 1v1 Duelists in the game right now. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
S-Tier Duelist Iron Fist is an absolute nuisance, and one of the most baffling heroes to try and play against right now in Marvel Rivals. His game plan is to use his high mobility (wall-running and triple-jumping) to get right up in the face of a squishy Duelist or Strategist, bait them into attacking him while his Dragon’s Defense is up, and then unleash his devastating combo of punches and kicks to end the fight quickly while his damage reduction and bonus health are at their peak. Iron Fist’s abilities synergise seamlessly together to allow him to 1v1 nearly any equivalent-health hero in the game and end up on top. He requires a bit of practice to avoid confusing his multiple similar moves in the heat of the moment, but after that he’s one of the scariest characters to find yourself facing alone.
Winter Soldier
Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl is entirely too easy to play as, considering the damage she can output. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
There’s been a lot written (and drawn) about Squirrel Girl since Marvel Rivals released. This comparatively little-known Marvel character has shot to the top of not just the popularity contest but the meta thanks to her low-skill-floor explosive artillery role, which borrows more than a few ideas from Overwatch’s Junkrat. She’s at her weakest when drawn into a 1v1, but when the focus is not on her, there are few better heroes for quickly weakening the entire enemy team or picking off a key target with the easy-to-master combo of Squirrel Blockade and an endless supply of Burst Acorns. It’s tempting to call her a “noob-killer”, one of those heroes that only excels against players who are new to the game. And she does excel at that, very much, so. But Squirrel Girl’s Mammal Bond gives her kit a surprising amount of flexibility, allowing you to double up on Tail Bounces for quick escapes, or lock down multiple threats at once for some quick hit-and-run kills.
Venom
Venom is easily the strongest dive tank Vanguard in Marvel Rivals. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Cloak And Dagger
Cloak And Dagger are a complex hero to learn, but they have enormous potential. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Cloak And Dagger is not a character that you will play very well to begin with, and that’s okay. Twice the number of heroes in a single character? That means twice the complexity. But spend time with them, and they’ll repay your patience with some absolutely game-changing opportunities. Cloak’s Dark Teleportation can shield the entire team from otherwise devastating ultimates, and his Terror Cape is the only ability currently in Marvel Rivals which amplifies received damage - and it can affect the entire enemy team at once. Meanwhile, switching to Cloak gives you a selection of fairly strong healing abilities. Alone, they wouldn’t be S-Tier. But the flexibility that switching between them affords makes them an incredibly dangerous, potentially match-winning force in the hands of a player who can juggle both heroes effectively.
Doctor Strange
Few heroes are better at keeping the team alive and healthy than Doctor Strange. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Doctor Strange is probably the strongest Vanguard for directly protecting his team. The current meta seems to slightly favour Venom’s dive-tank approach, but Doctor Strange earns his second-place spot in the Vanguard roster with his two game-changing abilities: the Shield Of The Seraphim, which provides a Reinhardt-esque cover for the whole team to hide behind; and his iconic portals, which he can use to reposition the entire team in seconds if the need arises. Strange really excels with a team who plays together, so he may end up offering a frustrating experience if you’re playing with random allies that like to go off and do their own thing. But when everyone rallies around Strange, there are few heroes that offer a more concrete route to victory. His abilities are just extremely solid.
Moon Knight
Moon Knight’s ricocheting attacks and very high mobility make him a nasty Duelist to face. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Moon Knight’s power comes from his ricocheting attacks, and the fact that he can place down an Ankh to act as another ricochet point, allowing him to aim for a completely static target (as opposed to a tiny sprinting one) and still deal full damage. As long as you learn not to panic in heated moments, Moon Knight is a fantastic 1v1 character thanks to this Ankh, and when he’s in danger he has a variety of synergistic movement abilities (double-jump, grappling hook, and cape glide) to help him reposition and stay alive. He’s still squishy, like most Duelists, but he probably has the greatest chance of winning a 1v1 fight out of any Duelist except perhaps Iron Fist.
Hawkeye
If you want to delete enemy heroes with a single shot, Hawkeye is your go-to hero. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Hawkeye’s ability to snipe unsuspecting backline enemies is nearly unparalleled in Marvel Rivals. His charged bow shots deal more damage than Winter Soldier’s or even Black Widow’s shots, and a well-placed headshot can kill almost any Duelist or Strategist in the game. His Ultimate also allows you to deal very consistent heavy damage to whomever he likes, and from the enemy’s perspective it can be very easy to overlook Hawkeye as a threat when this is happening. And when timed right, his deflecting melee attack can make him seem much tankier than he really is. The thing is, while Hawkeye’s abilities are very straightforward, they’re so reliant on timing, accuracy, and skill that he can often end up being a liability unless you really know what you’re doing with him. Still, an accurate Hawkeye is an absolute terror.
Luna Snow
Luna Snow has fantastic healing potential which effortlessly splits across multiple allies. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Captain America
Captain America offers players a very strong balance between damage and survivability. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Captain America, as you might expect, is a very well-balanced and powerful Vanguard. His shield offers you a lot of power both in offensive and defensive situations, and his Dash, Leap, Slam combo gives him a lot of mobility for a tank. It’s quite challenging to stay alive while Cap is focusing you in melee range, and if you try to disengage, he has multiple options. He can leap into you to close the distance, or he can fire off his shield for an extra burst of ranged damage to finish you off as you attempt to run. His role, in Vanguard terms, lies somewhere between Doctor Strange and Venom. His Dash and Leap do allow him to dive quite effectively at times, and with a decent Strategist behind him, it can be extremely difficult to burst him down before he ends up doing major damage to the team with his ricocheting attacks and his Freedom Charge Ult.
Black Widow
Black Widow’s sniper rifle makes her an ever-present threat in the current meta. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
To no one’s surprise, Black Widow’s main asset is her Red Room Rifle. To the uninitiated, she’s Marvel Rivals' version of Widowmaker, armed with a powerful scoped sniper rifle that can very quickly eliminate Duelists and Strategists, but whose effectiveness is limited when she allows enemies to get close to her. It’s a curious one, because Black Widow is designed to have fallback options in case of melee-range trouble. Her Edge Dancer spinning kick can knock back enemies that get too close, and her dash and jump theoretically gives her the mobility to escape. The truth is that neither of these will consistently stop a determined Duelist from tracking you down and killing you. But Black Widow’s sniping potential is still so powerful that she can only be classed as A-Tier in my mind.
Magneto
Magneto is another Vanguard all-rounder, with a variety of defensive abilities and enough offensive potential to punish enemies that stay within his range. That offensive potential is dialled up to 11 when combined with Scarlet Witch, whose team-up ability gives Magneto’s primary attack greatly increased range and damage. Magneto’s main strength and weakness is that the more damage he absorbs with hisBulwarkshields, the greater his damage output. It allows him to at times deliver startling amounts of damage, but on the flipside, decent opponents will know to limit the amount of damage they send at those Bulwarks, keeping Magneto as weak as possible. Despite this built-in weakness, Magneto is a solid pick who can seriously increase the survivability of his team using a fairly simple and intuitive skillset.
Loki
Loki’s Ultimate-stealing ability gives him the highest skill ceiling in the game. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Loki is one of the hardest characters in Marvel Rivals to master. This guy’s skill ceiling is higher than any other hero, because his Ultimate allows him to transform into any ally or enemy he sees, and use all their abilities (including Ultimates). This is obviously an ability with enormous potential, but it requires a hell of a lot of knowledge and game sense to pick the right character for the right moment, and then use their abilities in the correct ways for the situation. Ult aside, the other part of Loki’s skillset also adds a huge amount of complexity. His duplicates offer extra damage and confusion, as well as a good escape tool at times if you can position a duplicate in such a way that you can teleport to it when trouble reaches you. Loki’s potential is huge, but it’s extremely tricky to use his skills very effectively.
Psylocke
Psylocke offers high damage and an Ultimate that can tear through unprepared backline heroes. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Psylocke is a menace thanks mainly to her Ultimate, which is hard for new players to read and even harder for them to counter. Clearly modelled after Genji from Overwatch, Psylocke is a highly mobile hero thanks to her multiple charges of dash, and her shuriken primary attack deals very high DPS at mid-to-close range. She’s hard to pin down, and when she lets loose her Ultimate on a group, it’s very likely that at least a couple of enemy Duelists or Strategists are going to die before they can do a thing to save themselves. The downside is that Psylocke herself is quite squishy, even despite her right-click attack offering her some bonus health as a buffer. She’s very strong at picking off members of a team, but in a 1v1 against another Duelist, it’s a toss-up.
The Punisher
The Punisher’s simple and intuitive arsenal of guns makes him a formidable fighter in any match. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
There’s a reason The Punisher is the character you’re given in the tutorial. His skillset is incredibly simple, intuitive, easy to follow. He’s Marvel Rivals' equivalent of Soldier 76. His gameplan is quite simply: lots of sustained firepower. Everything in his arsenal supports this. He can switch between the solid DPS of his assault rifle to the powerful burst potential of his shotgun, and his turret allows him to continue outputting damage from behind cover, at the cost of rendering him very vulnerable to flank attacks. And when Punisher’s Ultimate is in effect, most enemy heroes will have no choice but to hide to avoid dying very quickly to the incredible damage of those two gatling guns. It’s a simple skillset that is brutishly powerful enough to earn Punisher an A-Tier slot in our tier list.
Mantis
Mantis has a strong single-target buffing skillset which involves both a strong healing factor (HealingFlower) and a decent damage boost (Allied Inspiration). Generally speaking, the current meta favours Strategists that can heal the entire team at once rather than an individual ally, which is why Mantis has slipped into the very top of our B-Tier. However, she is still a very strong Strategist pick who can also hold her own in a fight with a powerful left-click attack that rivals some Duelists in strength. Mantis’s Ultimate is quite similar to Luna’s area-of-effect heal, but while Luna has the stronger heal, Mantis overflows the healing into bonus health, which can add some much-needed temporary tankiness to squishy characters.
Wolverine
Wolverine follows Iron Fist’s example in closing distance very quickly. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Magik
Magik’s unusually high tankiness puts her in a unique position as a Duelist. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Magik is a slow, hard-hitting, unusually tanky and survivable Duelist. She’s a bit underrated at the moment, because a lot of newer players don’t realise how long she can spend in the line of fire, tanking attacks and dealing high damage with her sword strikes - each of which gives her bonus health, hence the tankiness. Not everything in her skillset is a win - I consider Demon’s Rage to be a bit of a nothing ability - but her portal gives her some good dodging and distance-closing power, and the simplicity of the rest of her kit makes it easier for anyone to pick her up, run at an enemy Duelist, and just hack away at them until they die.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man’s movement gives him a huge skill ceiling, but can also be his undoing. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Spider-Man has enormous potential, if you can master his movement and all the hidden tricks up his sleeve. If you can do that, then your own personal Spider-Man will likely be high A-Tier. The trick is getting that good with him. Spider-Man obviously has great mobility and excels at locking down threats with his webbing, and darting around to pick off backline targets. He also has the fan-favourite ability to reel in enemies while hovering off the edge of the map, sending them plummetting to their death while he swings back to safety. Aside from the complexity of his combos, the difficulty comes in keeping himself out of harm’s way. It’s easy to feel hard to pin down while you’re swinging above the action, but you’re actually highly vulnerable to sniping Duelists, particularly those with abilities that can knock enemies out of the air.
Hela
Hela has plenty of damage to output, but she can be burst down fairly easily. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Hela lives up to her name as the goddess of death with her wide range of high-damage abilities, some of which are very hard to see coming before it’s too late. Her Nightsword Thorns offer a very consistent way to deal very high damage to Vanguards to burst them down and leave the team vulnerable. She’s also probably the most likely hero in Marvel Rivals to kill you after she herself has died due to her multiple time-delay damage abilities. She’s a solid pick, as is the case with all the B-Tier characters in this tier list. The only reason she isn’t higher is because she lacks mobility, is quite vulnerable when using her Ultimate, and can’t quite match the ferocious burst potential of other snipers like Winter Soldier and Hawkeye.
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch’s DPS is great at whittling down tanky enemies, but other areas of her skillset are a bit underwhelming. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Groot
Groot’s Mei-esque wall building toolkit is obnoxious but not amazingly powerful. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Groot has a finicky skillset which relies on a few too many things being done in just the right way in order for him to reach his full potential. With perfect use of his walls he can nearly double his damage and up his max health to a maximum of 1100 instead of his base 850 HP. But it’s all very dependent on what’s happening around both Groot and his walls. He’s great for holding chokepoints at particular moments during a Convoy push, for example, but a focused team will quickly take down these walls, and if you know what you’re doing, you’ll understand the capabilities of an enemy Groot’s wall and distance yourself from it or focus it to nullify his advantage. Having said that, Groot’s Ultimate keeps him solidly in B-Tier, as it’s quick, easy to use, and delivers very high area-of-effect damage, particularly when you use it to send enemies into a group of Thornlash Walls.
Iron Man
A glass cannon in the extreme, Iron Man packs enormous damage but can be killed very easily. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Iron Man delivers a lot of sustained damage, even for a Duelist. His left-click and right-click attacks are very potent indeed, even before overcharging them with Armor Overdrive. If he’s left alone, he can wreak havoc. And his Ultimate has near-team-killing potential. Why, then, is he down in B-Tier? Like Pharah from Overwatch, his flight makes him a very easy target for snipers and burst attacks, and in the air his movements are much more predictable than a hero on the ground. Particularly when playing as a hero that can tear characters from the sky, like Winter Soldier, Iron Man is one of the easiest characters in the game to eliminate. If there were a single glass cannon in Marvel Rivals, it would be Iron Man. Be very careful with him.
Star-Lord
Star-Lord has a good set of skills, but lacks the consistency in delivering damage that top-tier Duelists enjoy. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Tracer fans will feel very much at home playing as Star-Lord. His fast-firing, low-capacity dual firearms are powerful, but easy to misuse. His dodge and flight abilities - yeah, fair enough, they’re pretty great. They feel great, and they give Star-Lord a lot of mobility, which he needs, being so squishy. Where he falls a bit flat is his Blaster Barrage, which deals nowhere near enough damage to be considered a worthy alternative to just shooting your pistols at the enemy. His Ultimate, Galactic Legend, gives him 8 seconds of free-flight and auto-lock-on perfect accuracy with his pistols, which is great, as long as you stay alive long enough to make use of it. He’s a good flanker, but in my experience it often feels like he lacks the reliable damage output to be considered one of the greats.
Peni Parker
Peni Parker’s proclivity for fortifying an area is fascinating but ultimately unsuited to the current meta. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Peni Parker occupies a strange space in the Vanguard meta right now. Her toolkit is built around static defences that synergise together to create a home-ground advantage for her team. When the floor is littered with Cyber-Webs and invisible Arachno-Mines, it’s a very dangerous prospect for the enemy team to attack, and Peni can output a lot of damage to the enemy team if they dare approach. But the meta in Marvel Rivals isn’t really favouring this approach at the moment. Peni herself is not the tankiest of Vanguards, and a decent team will know to keep their distance from her webs and whittle her down from afar. It’s a unique set of abilities that’s worth playing around with, but they don’t make her the most powerful Vanguard right now.
Black Panther
Black Panther is hard to pin down, but he often doesn’t do the job as well as Iron Fist or Wolverine. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Rocket Raccoon
Strong competition in the Strategist role forces us to look harshly on Rocket’s survivability. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Rocket Raccoon is actually not a bad hero at all. His healing orbs offer decent healing to multiple allies at once, his toolkit is simple and easy to use, and his Rebirth Beacon can situationally turn the tide of a bad teamfight. What’s more, his Ultimate provides a great temporary damage boost to allies, and his team-up ability buffs the damage output of Winter Soldier and The Punisher quite significantly. The only reason Rocket is so low in this tier list is because the Strategists in the current meta are so strong across the board. Even with his dash, Rocket is just so vulnerable that it isn’t usually too difficult for enemy Duelists to take care of you while a big teamfight is brewing.
Storm
Storm’s Ultimate is fantastic, but the rest of her skillset, far less so. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Thor
Thor’s low damage isn’t worth the complex resource management involved in playing as him. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Thor is surprisingly underwhelming as a Vanguard. He can hold his own against the likes of Groot, Peni, even Magneto or Cap - but I’d still rather play as any of them instead. Thor’s abilities require a fair bit of resource juggling thanks to their Thorforce costs, and while none of his abilities are flat outbad, they lack the power you’d expect from the God of Thunder. Storm Surge requires too much of a wind-up, and Awakening Rune lasts too little time. Even his Ultimate, while powerful, is lacking compared to other area-of-effect Ultimates because it’s harder to position correctly, and leaves you hanging for a bit too long in the air while you’re trying to line it up properly. He’s tanky and survivable with a good healer behind him, but he’s still one of the weakest Vanguards.
Namor
Namor has the makings of an intriguing ability set, but it lacks power in its current state. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Namor’s damage output would be tolerable for a Strategist, but as a Duelist he is well under par. The reason for this is that he has the potential to deliver much better DPS with the help of his Monstro Spawn minions that he can spawn around him, which synergise with his attacks, gaining increased power and fire rate as he uses his right-click or lands a headshot. The difficult is that these minions are too easy to kill, and it’s easy to miss a right-click or never land a headshot as Namor unless you’re very accurate. And if you’re that accurate, hell, why not play Winter Soldier or Hawkeye? Namor isn’t unusable, but his skillset is far removed from the power of the strongest Duelists. He’s very hard to work wonders with.
Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner/Hulk’s abilities are underwhelming, and overly complex. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
In what universe is the Hulk the weakest Marvel hero? This one, apparently, although it’s a toss-up between him and Namor. Bruce Banner’s overly complicated skillset involves transitioning between three states - puny Banner, Hero Hulk, and Monster Hulk. The issue is that Hero Hulk’s damage is surprisingly meagre, and his large frame makes him a very easy target. Even Monster Hulk’s attacks leave something to be desired, as the knockback of each attack makes it hard to just keep hold of an enemy to kill them quickly. Add to this the unnecessarily long transition animations between these states, and the fact that most other Vanguards can provide much better overall survivability for the team, and Bruce Banner unfortunately takes the bottom D-Tier spot in our ranking.
