NetEase’s hit hero shooter Marvel Rivals flaunts a huge roster of heroes, and every one of them has a unique set of abilities and a role to play. If you’re wondering what role your favorite hero plays, you’ve come to the right place for an answer.
Being a hero shooter, Marvel Rivals is similar to popular games like Overwatch, SMITE, or Team Fortress 2. While tasting the thrill in its six-versus-six competitive format, you can choose from 37 powerful heroes (and counting) to win the objective and baffle your enemies. Thanks to all the anti-enemy effects you can take advantage of, there’s a lot of room for creativity, so it never gets boring.
While every Marvel Rivals hero offers unique benefits on the battlefield, they are categorized into three roles based on how their kit works in general. For a perfect team, you ideally want every role to be filled as all three of them are all important in their own ways. Here’s everything you need to know about these roles and where your favorite heroes belong.
Table of contents
List of Marvel Rivals heroes and their roles
Like in other hero shooters, all characters in Marvel Rivals are assigned a specific role based on their playstyle. These roles are called:
- Vanguard
- Duelist
- Strategist
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you’d definitely want to know the essence of these roles. Understanding the hero roles will help you build a solid Marvel Rivals team comp and contribute to your dream of winning more games and reaching the highest competitive rank possible.
So, without further ado, let’s start decoding the roles, shall we?
Vanguard role in Marvel Rivals: All heroes and features
Also known as tanks in similar titles, Vanguards make the frontline of your team. They flaunt strong builds and the highest HP among all roles in the game. They are primarily responsible for taking in most of the damage—like a sponge—and holding down an objective. They don’t offer as high of a damage output and mobility as Duelists, but their HP compensates for the same.
If your team doesn’t have a Vanguard in it, you’d have a hard time taking or holding space, so your chances of survival (winning) are slim. In fact, I’d rather surrender than play without a Vanguard on my side.
Considering how important this role is, if you want to increase your win rate in Marvel Rivals, make note of this list of nine existing Vanguard heroes and the advantages they bring to the team based on their kit:
| Hero name | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Hulk/Bruce Banner | Dive hero, excellent melee combat, powerful team-up with Dr. Strange and Iron Man | Low mobility |
| Captain America | Dive hero, high mobility and team support, good team-up with Thor and Storm | Low damage output |
| Dr. Strange | Great damage output, high HP shield, portals, powerful ultimate | Lower total HP, no bonus health, can be cursed with anti-heal if Dark Magic isn’t released |
| Groot | A lot of high walls that can tank heavy damage, good team-up with Jeff The Land Shark and Rocket Racoon | Low mobility |
| Magneto | Good damage output, powerful team-up with Scarlet Witch | Low fire rate, shield can’t be held out for indefinite time like Cap’s or Strange’s |
| Peni Parker | High damage mine traps, anti-dive hero, Duelist-like potential | Low damage tanking potential |
| The Thing | Excellent melee combat, earthbound and stun abilities are way too powerful | Limited in ranged combat |
| Thor | Dive hero, high melee damage output, high damage tanking potential | Limited in ranged combat |
| Venom | Dive hero, excellent bonus health generation capability, Duelist-like potential | Limited in ranged combat |
Duelist role in Marvel Rivals: All heroes and features
This role has the highest number of heroes—20 and counting—and for good reason. You can never have “enough” damage output in your team. The more damage your team can deal, the greater your chances of winning the game—and Duelists make sure of the same.
As the name of the role suggests, Duelists are responsible for dealing the highest damage in the game and securing final hits on your enemies to send them back to their spawn. Besides their high DPS capabilities, they are also pretty agile. They can position themselves at unpredictable spots and, when needed, flee to safety. While Duelists are the most fun heroes to play, make sure you know your responsibilities before you instalock.
Now that you know what this role is about, here’s a list of Duelist heroes and their features:
| Hero name | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Black Panther | Dive hero, high flank potential, abilities can be clubbed to deal significant damage | Low damage output |
| Black Widow | Backline Duelist, high damage sniper rifle, decent mobility | Weak melee combat, comparatively underwhelming ultimate |
| Hawkeye | Backline Duelist, excellent damage output, decent mobility and ultimate | High skill ceiling |
| Hela | Excellent damage output, one of the best ultimates in the game | Low HP, highly dependent on player accuracy |
| Human Torch | Airborne Duelist, lingering fire damage, excellent crowd control | Low mobility |
| Iron Fist | High flank potential, excellent melee damage, powerful ultimate | No ranged ability |
| Iron Man | Airborne Duelist, high damage output, gamma boost with Hulk | Can become an easy target |
| Magik | Excellent melee damage with combos, some ranged abilities, good mobility, powerful ultimate | Weak ranged power |
| Mister Fantastic | Good melee damage, unique kit with damage resistance and team support, can function as a Vanguard with high bonus health regeneration | Weak in ranged combat, low mobility |
| Moonknight | Great for beginners, Ancient Ankhs deal devastating damage, good mobility, excellent ultimate | Weak damage output without his Ankhs |
| Namor | Anti-dive hero, Monstro spawn (Octopus) deal high damage with critical impact | Underwhelming ultimate |
| Psylocke | Excellent flank potential, decent damage output which increases when abilities are used in combos | High skill ceiling |
| The Punisher | Backline duelist, high damage output, excellent hero for defending an objective, ridiculously powerful ultimate | Low mobility, weak in frontline |
| Scarlet Witch | Auto-aim primary fire, can flee situations with Mystic Projection, high damage ultimate | Low damage output, can be easily countered |
| Spider-Man | Dive hero, highly mobile, excellent flank potential | Low damage output |
| Squirrel Girl | Low skill ceiling, decent damage output, great backline Duelist | Ultimate can be dodged easily |
| Star Lord | High mobility and damage output, good frontline choice, powerful ultimate | Low HP |
| Storm | Airborne Duelist, offers damage and movement buffs to allies, strong crowd control with ultimate | Low mobility and HP |
| Winter Soldier | High damage output, ultimate recharges with kills | Low mobility |
| Wolverine | Anti-tank Duelist, strong melee power | No ranged abilities |
Strategist role in Marvel Rivals: All heroes and features
Last but not the least is the Strategist role, responsible for all the heals you get throughout the match. That said, they aren’t just healers. Heroes under this role can offer helpful boosts as well as other support abilities to set up Duelists and Vanguards for success.
Strategists make the backline of your Marvel Rivals team. If it falls, your team’s Duelists and Vanguards won’t get the support they need to survive. So, make sure you have an anti-dive hero on your team to protect your Strategists.
There are eight Strategists in Marvel Rivals at the time of writing, all listed with their strengths below:
| Hero name | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Adam Warlock | Soul bond to heal allies or distribute damage, good damage output compared to other Strategists | Underwhelming ultimate as a Strategist, healing can fall short at times |
| Cloak & Dagger | Dual hero design, short cooldown on abilities, can stack abilities to heal quickly, invincible ultimate, blind and phase abilities are excellent support tools | Healing rate is slow, so for Vanguards, stacking abilities becomes a must |
| Invisible Woman | Can go invisible anytime out of combat and every six seconds with the Veiled Step ability, decent damage output, great crowd control abilities, excellent ultimate | Healing is limited by her primary’s range, not many ways to heal herself |
| Jeff The Land Shark | Decent healing potential, good damage output compared to other Strategists, good speed boost for allies, ultimate capable of turning the tide of the battle | Not many uses other than healing |
| Loki | Expert at tricking enemies, can set up clones that mimic his primary fire, fast and effective healing with domains, ultimate can steal anyone’s kit and turn the round in favor | High skill ceiling |
| Luna Snow | Strongest Strategist ultimate, good combination of damage and healing abilities, good mobility | Not many self-healing abilities |
| Mantis | Skill-based healing and damage boosts for self and allies, good ultimate | Slow healing over time which isn’t very good for Vanguards |
| Rocket Raccoon | Fast healing over time, excellent mobility, revive and armor pack machine, small hitbox makes it hard to take him down | Underwhelming ultimate, low damage output |
We’ll update this story as and when new heroes are released in Marvel Rivals. Until then, check out our list of all upcoming (confirmed and potential) heroes in the game.
Published: Feb 27, 2025 01:29 am