Marvel Rivals tier list: The best Duelists, Vanguards, and Strategists

A Marvel Rivals tier list is almost essential, given how many characters NetEase’s multiplayer game has to choose from, and while you can make most characters work, some are definitely better than others. The likes of Spider-Man and Luna Snow perform several functions and play vital roles on any team, while some, such as Namor and Thor, have a harder time proving their worth. Then you have those who fall in between, characters with strong kits that maybe just don’t have enough features to work well in every situation or who only shine under certain circumstances.

Our Marvel Rivals tier list breaks down every playable character in Marvel Rivals and what makes them worthwhile – or not, as the case sometimes is.

These are the best of the best, though that doesn’t mean they’re easy to use. Some, such as Spider-Man, take a lot of practice to use well, but the results are well worth the hassle.

Squirrel Girl (Duel)

Squirrel Girl is absurdly powerful and so easy to understand that we recommended her as one of our picks for beginners as well. Not only do her acorns deal heavy damage and make quick work of beefy Vanguard units, but she can instantly reload her ammo and use her tail to escape or find the perfect vantage point. Her stun acorns are tough to aim well, but stop enemies in their tracks for about a second and make it a useful crowd control ability.

Cloak and Dagger (Strat)

Cloak and Dagger are just exceptional. Dagger’s healing is among the best in Marvel Rivals’ launch roster, with multiple ways to keep allies healthy and still damage opponents, but her best skill is Dagger Storm. Dagger creates a field of healing that lingers for several seconds and is incredibly useful if your team is trying to break through the opposing team’s line. 

Cloak has more of a debuff support playstyle, with two abilities that obscure enemy vision – perfect for letting allies escape – and a moderately powerful primary attack that whittles an opponent’s HP. You can switch forms at any point without a cooldown, making this duo one of the most versatile Strategists.

Iron Fist (Duel)

Iron Fist and his routine take a little getting used to, but his damage ceiling is so high once you get there. Iron Fist’s primary attacks are moderately powerful punches, but he has a counter stance that blocks incoming damage, generates overhealth based on damage received, and, once he exits the stance, powers up his primary attack tremendously. He can also restore his health, and none of his cooldowns are particularly long. You still don’t want to leave him alone in the middle of a fight – he’s not a Vanguard, after all – but he’s one of the most capable Duelists in the game.

Captain America (Vanguard)

Captain America has a fantastic set of skills, including a melee combo that lets him throw his shield to hit distant enemies – or keep up the attack as he retreats – and a jumping smash that gets him into the thick of things and deals a fair amount of damage. His shield is also unique in that it deflects projectiles, so you can harm the opposing team with their own missiles. The captain won’t wow with big numbers, but he’s imminently capable of disrupting the opposing team and forcing them to change strategies.

Iron Man (Duel)

Iron Man is simple, but brilliant. He flies, fires energy bursts, and launches a laser beam, and when you enhance his flight, he can use an even more powerful beam and fire missiles. That’s pretty much it, but his long range and high mobility mean you don’t really need much else.

Spider-Man (Duel)

Spider-Man blends swift strikes with calculated targeting and high mobility, and if that sounds complicated, it’s because it is. His ability ties a foe in webs and drags them to him, which is useful. Spider-Man applies a Web Tracer to a single target with his secondary attack, and if he uses his ability on a Web Tracer-marked foe, it teleports Spidey to them instead. He also has an uppercut with two charges and a short cooldown, and it deals greater damage to enemies marked with a Web Tracer. 

Naturally, he can also swing around on spider silk, which makes it easy to escape danger. The idea is to debuff enemies, teleport to them, attack as much as you can, and use his web mobility to get away before they fight back. It takes practice, but it’s highly effective.

Moon Knight (Duel)

Moon Knight is just plain fun to play, with his ricochet projectiles and high mobility. His primary attack is decent enough on its own, but Moon Knight can amplify it by laying ankhs on the battlefield. If the target enemy is within the ankh’s zone, Moon Knight’s attack ricochets off the enemy, back to the ankh, and then to the same or a different enemy. He can wear down any opponent quickly this way, and two ankh fields can exist on the field. That’s the big draw, but he also has a strong, three-strike melee attack and a grappling hook to get around quickly.

Luna Snow (Strat)

Luna gets a bit of everything. She can heal and damage with the same attack, mark allies so they receive healing when she’s helping someone else, and lob a chunk of ice that freezes one enemy for a couple of seconds. Luna has high mobility – move for a few seconds, and she’ll start skating quickly – and a handy passive that temporarily gives her infinite ammo. The only downside is that her healing skill that heals a second ally only provides a fraction of the healing, so make sure to balance who’s getting your attention.

Groot (Vanguard)

Groot is one of the most enjoyable Vanguards to play, once you figure him out. His primary attack – big vines – is decently strong, but what makes him special is the series of walls he can build. Groot creates two walls made of branches that attack one nearby foe when Groot or allies attack them, and since he can make these independently of each other, you have room to get creative about how you’re using them. Groot also creates a wall that, when struck by enemies, gives him and nearby allies overhealth. Not that Groot needs it. His base HP is 900.

Dr Strange (Vanguard)

Dr Strange has one of the best shields in Marvel Rivals so far, one that covers broad areas and has a fair amount of health, and he can make Symmetra-like portals that help allies escape tense situations or get them closer to a target. Dr Strange builds dark magic when he attacks and can unleash it in a burst after it builds, though this part of his kit feels a little underdeveloped. The damage a fully charged burst deals is comparatively small, though it’s useful as a complement to your Duelists’ efforts. Still, his shield, HP pool, and teleport abilities make him one of the best defenders.

A-rank characters are just a slight step below their S-rank counterparts, characters we believe have plenty of utility on the battlefield, but perhaps not quite as much. They may have only one primary skill that works effectively or be missing self-sustain options to keep themselves going.

Psylocke (Duel)

Psylocke won’t rival the likes of Punisher for damage output, but she can shorten her cooldowns and maintain a steady stream of moderate damage, all while keeping herself safe. Landing hits with her primary attack shortens all her cooldowns by one second. Her crossbow’s range is surprisingly long, so she’ll rarely unable to shorten those cooldown timers. Psylocke can sneak around while invisible, and her shuriken attack – which deals damage on hit and when recalled – even gives her bonus health. 

Wolverine (Duel)

Wolverine is powerful, though he needs support. His playstyle is exclusively close-range, and he only has one self-sustain ability, which comes with a long cooldown timer. The idea is to maintain his rage state by constantly attacking enemies, and when you do, he can bring even the strongest Vanguard down in a few hits. His lunge skill can quickly remove a pesky foe from the field if he makes contact, too. He just needs someone to cover for him or a dedicated healer to avoid getting overwhelmed, which means taking one Strategist away from the rest of your team.

Jeff the Land Shark (Strat)

Jeff is an easy Strategist to learn and has two useful, long-lasting healing abilities up his… well, not sleeves. Anyway, his primary attack launches a beam of healing water, while his secondary damages enemies, and his skill lets him spew healing bubbles for allies to pick up. It’s a bit awkward having to rely on an ally to touch the bubble, but good planning – and cooperative teammates – make it work quite well.

Magneto (Vanguard)

Magneto’s high HP pool and several shield skills make him an excellent defender. He can generate a shield for himself or a single ally, which powers up his basic attack, or create a powerful shield wall to stop all incoming damage for a short time. The only downsides are that his single-shield cooldowns are quite long, and despite what his skill description says, his secondary attack is just as powerful with two rings as it is with one. Still, it’s strong either way, and he can certainly hold his own in battle.

Hulk (Vanguard)

Folks are divided on Hulk-slash-Bruce Banner and for good reason. He’s a more situational tank than most Vanguard units and one who requires careful planning of his burst phases to use well. Bruce Banner gets a ray gun and a little burst grenade, but using his ultimate turns him into the Hulk, who has a big punch, a big smack, and a jumping attack that takes down flying enemies. He remains in this phase until his HP drops to zero – which takes a while with 800 base HP – or until he uses his ultimate again, when he turns into an enraged Hulk with even stronger attacks. 

That’s where most of his damage comes from, and at the right moment, he can wipe out an entire team. Even regular Hulk is strong enough to absorb damage, harass the opposing team, and leap away to safety if need be.

Storm (Duel)

Storm is a Duelist with support capabilities. Her ever-present storm increases movement speed in wind form and raises ally damage in thunderstorm form, and her skill summons additional lightning strikes when she attacks, but only if her storm is in thunderstorm mode. Storm can also fly to get a better angle on her opponents, but her storm’s buff still remains for grounded allies. There’s not much use for her windstorm, admittedly, but her attack abilities are potent.

Winter Soldier (Duel)

Bucky the Winter Soldier has one of the most cohesive ability sets in Marvel Rivals. His primary attack is a powerful handgun that can deal with most Duelists in a few shots, but most of his utility comes from his arm skills. Bucky delivers a strong uppercut, can fire off a blast that affects a wide area and slows enemies, and even latch onto one enemy and bring them to him. That’s perfect for getting them in range of his uppercut, but it also works for grouping enemies for allies to attack or even for his burst. He’s much more versatile and effective than he seems at first glance.

Venom (Vanguard)

Venom exists to cause chaos. He has high base health and good mobility thanks to a web-slinging skill, making it easy to swing into enemy ranks and use his skill. That skill binds itself to nearby enemies, slows them, and deals damage if they don’t get out of range quickly. Venom also has an overhealth skill that lets him stay in combat for longer. He’s perfect for disrupting enemy formations distracting them while your allies get to work.

Hela (Duel)

Hela would be in the S tier if she had better cooldowns. Her primary attack launches thorns that make short work of squishier opponents, and she can fill enemies with thorns that explode after a few seconds, dealing much heavier damage. Her sole mobility skill turns her into a crow, but has a 12-second cooldown, and she gets a stun sphere as well, which has a long cooldown and frustratingly loose trajectory. If you have good aim, though, you’ll be just fine with her thorn attacks alone.

Mantis (Strat)

Mantis is excellent when you figure out how her patterns work. Her kit centers on generating Life Orbs to buff her allies and herself, and she can spend them to heal party members over time as well. Her healing is a little on the low side, but with good resource management, you can keep a steady stream of buffs and healing on almost continuously. It helps that her own primary attack is quite powerful when buffed, putting her almost on level with some of Rivals’ stronger Duelists. The only downside is how limited the range of her sleep spore grenade is.

Punisher (Duel)

Punisher is Marvel Rivals’ Soldier 76, but with bigger guns. He has a shotgun, a rifle, and a turret that only disappears once someone destroys it or he uses all 200 ammo rounds. It’s usually the latter. He can also ride a zipline of his own making, but the movement is rather bizarre with this skill. If he collides with a wall, he goes flying up into the air, which is a bit annoying, especially if you’re near a ledge. The real issue keeping Punsiher out of the S tier is his lack of self-sustaining skills. Sure, he can deal heavy damage, but he’s completely reliant on a Vanguard or Strategist to stay alive.

Adam Warlock (Strat)

Adam is one of Marvel Rivals’ most popular Strategists at launch, though my experience has left me rather less impressed with him than some. Adam has two healing skills. One heals several nearby allies for a substantial amount for about a second, and it has two charges before entering cooldown. The other creates a bond between Adam and nearby allies that heals them and splits incoming damage, and this one lasts about three seconds with a longer cooldown. Both abilities are useful – but only if your allies are nearby. If Adam isn’t in the middle of a fight – and he’s not the most robust Strategist, so that isn’t always a good idea – or if allies are too far away, he can’t heal them.

His ultimate is a redeeming feature, though, as it can revive downed allies.

B-rank characters take more effort to reach their full potential and don’t have quite as much going for them as the others.

Peni Parker (Vanguard)

Peni’s kit works very well, but only in specific circumstances. It relies on her techno-web to function, a web she can only have one of on the field at any point. The web spawns small mines that seek enemies, and Peni can hide additional mines in there as well. Mines that Peni spawns outside the web are visible and easy to bypass, making them less useful. She excels in close quarters or if you’re stuck in a bottleneck, but struggles to keep up with more versatile Vanguards otherwise.

Magik (Duel)

Magik would be much more powerful if her animations weren’t so slow. Her kit is fun to use, with abilities that change depending on whether she’s used a portal for movement, and she can even summon a little demon who claws everything in front of itself. It’d be more useful if that demon could move, though. Anyone who sees it can just not step into the whirl of claws. More importantly, her sword slashes are slow and a little weak, so even though she can reach far with her weapon, it takes several hits to deal with even just a Duelist.

Black Widow (Duel)

Black Widow is Marvel Rival’s Widowmaker, but with a fatal flaw: Even headshots don’t defeat weak enemies. Even with good aim, you’re having to land at least two shots – one of which is perfect – to take down highly mobile foes. She’s fun, but it’s such an unwieldy quirk to have to work around. On the bright side, she’s more mobile than Widowmaker, so repositioning and escaping are much easier.

Black Panther (Duel)

Black Panther requires too much setup for too little payoff. His kit marks a single enemy, and then he has one attack that deals more damage to that enemy. All of these skills have cooldowns, though, and his damage output is just average without the marks.

Rocket Raccoon (Strat)

Rocket Raccoon is one of the strongest buffers thanks to a little turret he creates that pops out overhealth-granting armor packs. His primary fire takes down Duelists and Vanguards quickly – bit odd for a Strategist, admittedly, but useful – and his healing is, theoretically, useful. He fires bouncing healing orbs, but the motion and trajectory are bizarre. They move slowly sometimes, then pick up speed at random, and there’s no way to control the healing. Combine that with weak overall healing output, and you’ve basically just got a useful buffer.  

Loki (Strat)

Loki’s kit is all about the duplicates he creates, which sounds fun, except they’re so easy to spot. His doubles never move and only attack when he does, and they just stand there otherwise. He can heal a bit, and swapping position with one of his many doubles is useful – but not that useful.

Scarlet Witch (Duel)

Scarlet Witch is good for learning how Marvel Rivals works and can deal with weaker Duelist and Strategist enemies. She’s just not equipped to do much else. Her primary attack does too little damage against robust opponents, so she has to rely on her chaos energy burst to deal damage, which takes time to refuel. Scarlet Witch’s stun orb doesn’t stick to enemies, either, so when it explodes, it might not even stun the target you were after.

Star-Lord (Duel)

Star-Lord suffers from a similar problem. He’s highly mobile, and his rapid-burst primary attack makes short work of less sturdy Duelist and Strategiest opponents. That’s about all he’s got, though. His skill is far too weak to be practical, and he literally has no other abilities.

Hawkeye (Duel)

Hawkeye is basically just Hanzo from Overwatch, with the same strengths and limitations. His charged shots are powerful if you land them properly, and his double-jump makes him fairly mobile. That’s all he’s got, though, aside from a close-range sword slash. NetEase gave Hawkeye a secondary fire mode that sends out three explosive arrows, but they deal such low damage that it hardly matters. His sonic arrow has a long delay before firing as well, which makes it easy for foes to evade.

C-rank characters just don’t work well at all.

Thor (Vanguard)

Thor’s kit sounds exciting on paper. He has a close-range hammer attack and a ranged hammer throw, along with an area-of-effect attack that makes his other two skills more powerful. Even in their enhanced state, though, they do very little damage. That, plus a middling overhealth ability and no mobility skills make him hard to recommend.

Namor (Duel)

If anyone needs a reworked kit, it’s Namor. His primary attack is weak, his secondary attack’s cooldown is too long, and his little octopus summon is a little pointless. Worst of all is how slow every attack animation is, which makes it hard to use him effectively and also an easy mark.

And that’s it for our Marvel Rivals tier list. If you’re just getting started and want to know who’s best for newcomers, head over to our guide to the best Marvel Rivals characters for beginners for some tips.