Marvel Rivals tier list: The best characters in each role

Bringing together the MCU’s best and drawing even more from the depths of Marvel’s rich comic history, Marvel Rivals already has a stacked roster of 33 characters—a feat Overwatch only achieved with its sequel over two years later. Naturally, this makes putting together a Marvel Rivals tier list highlighting the best characters in the meta more challenging than any other hero-shooter at launch.

The good news is that almost all of the Marvel Rivals characters are well-balanced and fun to play. The best place to start is figuring out which of the three roles you enjoy the most. Duelists (Duel) are primarily damage dealers, Vanguards (Van) are play-making tanks, and Strategists (Str) are healers, buffers, and all-around support heroes. While the roster is undeniably Duelist-heavy, you’ll need a healthy mix of classes to win—especially in competitive play.

Marvel Rivals tier list 

S-tier

Adam Warlock

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: Three

This genetically engineered warrior harnesses quantum magic to soothe souls and sling spells. There’s no better example of his power than Soul Bond, which is a great heal-over-time and an effective damage mitigation tool as damage is shared between bonded allies. Adam Warlock can also revive allies using his ultimate, which can easily turn the tide of a fight in your favour.

While Warlock is first and foremost a healer, his more hands-off healing allows him to spend a significant amount of time damaging enemies. You’d be surprised by just how much damage he can dish out using Cosmic Cluster and his primary fire.

Captain America 

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Three

Enhanced by the super-soldier serum and equipped with his trusty vibranium shield, Steve Rogers AKA Captain America is a highly aggressive brawling tank. 

His main strength comes from his ability to dive into action and disrupt the enemy with overwhelming might. Leading Dash, Liberty Rush, and Super-Soldier Slam can all be used to engage enemies, with the latter also launching enemies. Once in range, Cap can bounce his shield between foes and dish out heavy melee damage before then retreating to safety if needed.

Captain America is all the more impressive when paired with Thor thanks to the Charged Aegis team-up ability. With this, Captain America gains additional movement speed and his shield will electrocute nearby enemies, further enhancing the strong brawler nature of the hero.

Cloak & Dagger

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: Three

Effectively functioning as two characters in one, Cloak & Dagger is all you could ever want from a Strategist. Dagger is a strong off-healer with healing over time, while Cloak is more of an offensive debuffer. Most importantly, these two forms have separate cooldowns, meaning you can dance between Cloak and Dagger to constantly buff your team and debuff the enemy. Naturally, this does result in Cloak & Dagger requiring strong ability usage and situational awareness.

Dagger’s Veil of Lightforce is invaluable when holding or pushing objectives, launching a healing wall that also increases the healing that allies receive. This pairs well with Dagger Storm, which provides passive healing to allies inside it. While Dagger’s healing isn’t enough to instantly heal an ally and save them near death, it will keep your team topped up. When played alongside a burst healer like Jeff the Land Shark or Rocket, your team won’t have an issue staying alive.

Cloak’s Terror Cape ability will blind enemies to reduce their vision while also applying vulnerability, increasing the damage they take. Dark Teleportation can be used to speed up allies and make them invisible temporarily, which is perfect for strong pushes. Buff your team as Dagger then immediately debuff the enemy before collapsing on them to send them back to spawn.

Doctor Strange

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Three

Including a team-wide teleport, high burst damage, a protective shield, and a crowd-controlling ultimate, Doctor Strange brings a lot to the table—so long as your team is organised.

His primary attack can be somewhat awkward to use, but it deals great damage when you land hits. Doing so will also charge Dark Magic, which can be used to cast Maelstrom of Madness; a strong area-of-effect attack. However, fail to flush this overwhelming magical energy out of Strange and you’ll take the damage instead.

Hawkeye 

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Four

Hawkeye might not have any fancy superpowers but he sure is good with a bow—so long as you’ve got the accuracy to pull it off. With this in mind, Hawkeye’s four-star difficulty is somewhat misleading, as playing him well comes down to your aim much more than mastering his kit.

Hawkeye’s bow deals additional damage based on its charge level, which increases by maintaining view of your target. Once fully charged, a headshot is more than enough to kill most enemies besides Vanguards in a single hit.

While Hawkeye’s standard Piercing Arrow is all you’ll really need, he does obviously have other abilities to complement his kit, such as Blast Arrows and Hypersonic Arrows that bring much-needed area-of-effect damage.

Iron Man

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Two

As you’d expect from the flying tank, Iron Man can deal massive aerial damage using a suite of high-tech weaponry. Keep in mind though, that he’ll be easy prey to hit-scan opponents like The Punisher, especially without anything akin to a dash.

What makes Iron Man shine is his consistent AoE damage from his primary fire, micro-missiles, and his devastating ultimate. In other words, he’s the perfect solution to those pesky teams that group up into a ball in an attempt to overwhelm you. On the other hand, Unibeam allows Iron Man to burst down specific targets, particularly when Armor Overdrive is activated.

Moon Knight

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Moon Knight is one of my favourite DPS heroes simply due to the strategy and AoE potential he brings. His primary fire and Moon Blade both bounce between enemies, and Ancient Ankh (which is also a great grouping tool), make him incredibly easy and satisfying to play. In fact, you can even kill enemies cowering behind cover by shooting a smarty placed Ankh instead. Paired with high mobility and a great ultimate, there’s little Moon Knight can’t do.

Squirrel Girl

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Two

If you’ve played Overwatch before, then you’ll immediately feel right at home with Squirrel Girl; she’s a mobile and devastating DPS that demands you get to grips with her arced projectiles, just like Junkrat.

Much of Squirrel Girl’s power comes from her acorn slingshot that acts like a grenade launcher. While she can wipe out non-Vanguard heroes in just a few hits, I’ve found she excels at dunking on tanks due to their larger size and her incredible per-shot damage. Squirrel Girl also has an on-demand stun with Squirrel Blockage, which can be activated for a second time using Mammal Bond. 

Wolverine

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Wolverine combines the damage and mobility of a Duelist with the survivability and crowd-control potential of a Vanguard. What more could you want? Just keep in mind that his small stature and claws don’t give him the greatest melee range, so you’ll have to get up close and personal. Thankfully, Undying Animal provides damage resistance, and Wolverine’s two passives grant bonus health, which makes this less risky.

Wolverine’s strength comes from his ability to single out opponents. Get in range with Vicious Rampage before using Feral Leap to pick up an enemy and cut them off from their team. Once isolated, you can use Feral Leap’s enhanced basic attacks to quickly eviscerate your foe. This is best used against enemy healers or ranged damage dealers since they have lower health yet provide lots of value to the enemy.

A-tier

Groot

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: One

On the surface, Groot is a simple tank that’s perfect for blocking paths and hunkering down on an objective. While this is undoubtedly one of his greatest strengths thanks to his two walls, he’s much better when played more actively. By placing Ironwood Wall and Thornlash Wall behind your enemy, you’re able to cut them off from healing and other support, making it much easier to take them down. 

Groot’s ultimate, Strangling Prison, is perfect for immobilising the enemy and setting up game-winning combos. With 900 health, Groot is also incredibly hard to put down.

Hela 

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Hela is a devastating DPS in the right hands, though you’d expect nothing less from the Goddess of Death. To make the most of her though, you need to hit precision shots. With the abundance of aggressive melee heroes, this isn’t always easy. That’s where Astral Flock comes into play. This is an amazing repositioning tool that can get you out of the action in a pinch or be used to reach advantageous positions. On the other hand, Soul Drainer draws in enemies and applies a stun, making them easier targets for the entire team.

Iron Fist

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Four

Martial arts master Lin Lie, better known as Iron Fist, is an agile and surprisingly resilient Duelist. However, you’ll need to understand his combo to get the most out of him. I’ve found the most success playing Iron Fist with a dive/brawling team, featuring the likes of Captain America and Wolverine.

With the ability to wall run and leap, as well as the powerful K’un-Lun Kick (which also doubles up as an execution move), Iron Fist has no issue instigating a fight. Simply dash in and start punching away. Once the enemy notices, activate Dragon’s Defense to block damage and, more importantly, grant bonus health and an amped-up primary attack. Keep in mind that you can also heal on demand with Harmony Recovery, which also converts excess healing into bonus health. 

Loki 

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: Four

Loki lives up to his moniker as the God of Mischief with his army of illusions. While these aren’t all that convincing, they can use some of Loki’s abilities and give the trickster a great deal of mobility. You’ll need a solid understanding of his kit, but his unique method of staying alive and active in a fight goes a long way in ensuring good up-time on his healing. All in all, Loki is a complex yet competent Strategist who can slot in almost anywhere.

Luna Snow

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: Two

Harnessing the power of ice and music, Luna Snow is a strong healer with crowd-controlling capabilities. This begins with Ice Arts, which can be used to amp up your damage or healing, while also restoring your own health. This can be paired with Share the Stage to mark an ally, restoring their health whenever Luna Snow heals others. If I have a particularly mobile or aerial ally like Iron Man, Spider-Man, or Wolverine, then I’ll often give this to them. Crucially, her approach to healing gives you more freedom to go on the offensive—something Luna Snow is chillingly good at. 

Magik 

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Even without Darkchild on the field, Magik is a terrifying melee bruiser. Her ability to teleport into melee range before spinning and slashing nearby enemies is a great fight opener. Plus, the heavy damage she dishes out is further rewarded via her Limbo’s Might passive that converts this damage into bonus health. While her combos can be tricky to get to grips with, this survivability gives her more breathing room than other melee bruisers.

Magneto

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Two

Magneto is one of the most resilient tanks on the roster due to his numerous defensive abilities. Metallic Curtain is great for cutting off sightlines while his two Bulwark shields block damage to individual allies and charge his rings in the process. These rings can then be spent on Mag-Cannon for much-needed burst damage.

One thing to keep in mind is that Magneto’s team-up ability with Scarlet Witch adds an additional ability. While he’s strong enough without it, Metallic Fusion is a significant power spike for this tank.

Mantis

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: One

Of all the Strategists, Mantis is one of the most fun and fast-paced—though her one-star difficulty rating is rather misleading as you’ll need to earn and spend your Life Orbs carefully.

From applying a heal-over-time to granting a damage boost to herself or allies, almost everything Mantis has at her disposal costs a Life Orb. To get Life Orbs faster, you must land critical hits, which aren’t always easy when you’re in the thick of it and your team is low. However, when you’re hurling heals and dishing out damage boosts, your allies will be firing on all cylinders and have a clear advantage over the enemy. A good Mantis player will certainly turn the tide of a match.

Rocket Raccoon

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: One

This savvy space raccoon brings a great deal of utility to any team—including the rare ability to revive allies. The most important tool at his disposal is the Battle Rebirth Beacon, which periodically produces armour packs and jet packs, as well as reviving a fallen ally. The only thing to keep in mind is that the BRB can be destroyed, after which you’ll have to wait almost a minute before you can place another.

With two Jetpack Dash charges, an easy-to-use and spammable heal, and a reliable primary fire, Rocket is a great support in any team composition.

Spider-Man

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Five

Spider-Man is perhaps the most popular superhero on the roster simply to due his personality, so it’s good news that he backs up this strong charm with equally strong damage. That said, he more than deserves his five-star difficulty rating. 

Spider-Man is the most potent assassin on the roster, though achieving this requires a very rigid and unforgiving combo. Beginning with Web-Cluster which attaches a Tracer, you then need to reel them in with Get Over Here! before launching them with Amazing Combo and finishing them off with some punches if necessary. When Spider-Man is harassing the enemy backline, there’s almost nothing that can be done to stop them. He can kill non-Vanguard heroes in the blink of an eye before web-slinging away to safety.

Storm 

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Storm is a very unique Duelist, walking the fine line between dishing out damage and supporting her team. This support comes in the form of Weather Control, which allows her to swap between a speed-boosting tornado or a damage-boosting thunderstorm. These buffs alone are enough to sway fights in your favour, though it obviously works best with organised teams. In this way, Storm acts more as a force multiplier than an outright carry.

Venom

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Three

Venom has been toned down from the pre-release playtests, though this slimy symbiote is still a force to be reckoned with. This is largely due to his exceptional survivability when Symbiotic Resilience is active. He’s effectively a damage sponge that will waste the enemy’s time and ability charges before swinging to safety. However, Venom can also deal a fair bit of damage using his primary attack, Frenzied Arrival, and Celluar Corrosion (which also slows enemies.)

B-tier

Black Widow

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Four

Black Widow is the primary sniper hero in Marvel Rivals, akin to Widowmaker in Overwatch. Crucially, Black Widow is unable to one-hit kill any target, which, while balanced, significantly reduces her power as you’ll need to land a second shot against a full-health target. Though Hawkeye also needs multiple shots to kill, it’s much easier to accomplish with his bow than the Room Room rifle. The number of mobile melee bruisers doesn’t make this any easier.

Jeff the Land Shark

• Role: Strategist
• Difficulty: Two

Everyone’s favourite supportive shark, Jeff, has seen quite the turnaround from pre-release playtests. With buffs to his healing and a movement speed boost on Healing Bubble, Jeff is a capable healer. Jeff’s biggest issue is that allies need to collect Healing Bubble if you don’t directly launch it at them, making it somewhat inconsistent. On the other hand, Jeff’s ability to dive under the ground, as well as his passive reduction to critical hit damage, make him as slippery as he is adorable.

I’ve found that Jeff grows in power quite significantly when paired with Luna Snow due to the Frozen Spitball team-up ability, granting Jeff’s primary attack a slowing field.

Peni Parker

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Three

While Peni Parker is one of my favourite Vanguards, in large part due to her unique trap-laying playstyle, it takes a lot more effort to get the same value out of her as other tanks. The fatal flaw in her kit is that you need to have Bionic Spider-Nest active to spew out mines and webs, yet it has limited range that often demands it be placed in harm’s way. That said, when Peni’s playstyle works, it works—especially since her webs provide healing, bonus health, and a movement speed boost. I’ve found her to be a great counter to melee heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Thor.

Psylocke 

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Five

This psychic warrior is undeniably one of the most flashy and cool heroes on the roster, though they, unfortunately, struggle to back that up with consistent damage. Her primary attack, Psionic Crossbow, requires you to be in close range due to its shotgun-like spread, but she lacks survivability outside of Wing Shurkien’s light bonus health. Thankfully, she can dash often and turn invisible, making retreat a reliable albeit annoying option. A tighter spread on her primary fire would go a long way in making Psylocke a more consistent DPS against non-Vanguards.

Scarlet Witch

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: One

Though she wields ominous chaos magic, Scarlet Witch isn’t a standout damage dealer. Her primary fire is easy to use but—since it scales based on the enemy’s health—it’s more annoying for the enemy than it is scary. In fact, that’s Wanda in a nutshell. Dark Seal is handy for repeatedly stunning enemies and denying movement, but other heroes can do the same with raw damage and intimidation. Likewise, her ultimate is heavily telegraphed and relatively easy to counter.

Star-Lord

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Two

Star-Lord maintains his signature swagger but it’s not enough to compete with similarly mobile Duelists like Wolverine or Magik. This largely comes down to Star-Lord’s general lack of damage. Elemental Guns fire exceptionally fast but deal low damage per shot, and Star-Lord lacks an execution-type ability to deal high burst damage. With that said, Blaster Barrage does work wonders to soften up the enemy team. He’s by no means a bad choice, just one that’s often outmatched.

The Punisher

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: One

If there’s anything The Punisher excels at, it’s being a breeze to pick up and play. Equipped with an assault rifle and a shotgun, The Punisher is able to hold his own at any range. In fact, his shotgun in particular is perfect for shutting down tanks or pesky Duelists like Spider-Man who sneak into the backline.

Unfortunately, The Punisher’s turret is less consistent. While it’s certainly capable of burning through the enemy line, it also makes you a massive target that a tank can block if you’re not already dead. I can’t deny that his ultimate isn’t absolutely terrifying though.

C-tier

Black Panther

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Four

Oozing elegant lethality that’s hard not to enjoy, I really wish Black Panther was stronger than he is. Unfortunately, his clunky combos make the King of Wakanda effectively a worse alternative to Wolverine or even Iron Fist. Furthermore, Black Panther’s short claws give him a maximum range of just three meters, which isn’t easy to maintain in fast-paced fights against mobile heroes.

Bruce Banner/Hulk

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Four

Hulk absolutely has his uses, namely in disrupting the enemy and locking a specific target out of the action for a short duration using Radioactive Lockdown. What Hulk brings to the table simply isn’t enough to compete with the damage, survivability, and additional utility of Vanguards like Captain America, Groot, or Magneto. To make matters worse, Hulk also has multiple forms that make him feel more clunky than he needs to be, with Bruce Banner being the biggest culprit.

Thor

• Role: Vanguard
• Difficulty: Two

With massive muscles and the mighty Mjolnir, the God of Thunder brings his fury to every fight. Unfortunately, though, his kit feels oddly disjointed. The majority of Thor’s abilities require Thunderforce to activate, which demands you either hit multiple targets with Lightning Realm or wait for them to passively recharge. What’s more, Storm Surge and Hammer Throw, while both only costing one Thunderforce, feel incredibly weak. In fact, Awakening Rune is the only ability that truly feels worth spending your precious Thunderforce on, so much so that it almost redeems him.

As the cherry on top of his weak kit, Thor has low base health and his large frame and limited range make him easy pickings for virtually every character on the roster.

Winter Soldier

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Three

Despite the Winter Soldier’s intensive training and enhanced mechanical arm, this brainwashed assassin is simply washed. Like a handful of the Duelists, the Winter Soldier is intended to be an assassin, with complex combos rewarding high burst damage. While Bucky is closer to a brawler due to more restrained mobility, his combos lack the damage to consistently burst down even the most vulnerable heroes. Sure, you can charge Bionic Hook to deal additional damage and any bionic arm action will both reload your high-powered pistol and grant bonus health, but it’s not enough to help bionic Bucky beat out the competition.

D-tier

Namor

• Role: Duelist
• Difficulty: Two

Namor may be the unrivaled King of the Seas but he’s dominated by the rest of the roster. Following buffs after pre-launch playtests, Namor is better than he was but he fails to make a splash in most situations. This largely comes down to turret-based playstyle, which lacks damage and is easily countered. His Frozen Spawn team-up with Luna Snow certainly turns up the heat but it’s not enough to truly compete with the exceptional Duelists above him.