Out of the three character archetypes inMarvel Rivals, theStrategistrole is significant, featuring heroes and villains who support teams and keep them alive. However, some Strategist characters are stronger than others due to their powerful abilities. While every Strategist can help your team a lot, some stand above others with skills that can instantly change the course of a match.
Withno role queue inMarvel Rivalsever likely coming to the game, the players who pick Strategist characters need to consider their skills carefully. Like Vanguards, specific Strategists have powerful synergies with different characters through Team-Up abilities. These can be game-changers, making nearly every Strategist strong under the right circumstances.
7Rocket Raccoon
Useful In The Right Place And Time
The weakest Strategist inMarvel RivalsisRocket Raccoon, whose abilities are arguably more suited to a Duelist character in some cases. While Rocket Raccoon’s primary weapon deals decent damage, he hasvery few options to support his team consistently. His Repair Mode spheres bounce around to heal allies, but these orbs oftentimes bounce in awkward directions that make it hard for allies to receive their restoration.
Marvel Rivals: Groot Character Guide (Abilities, Ultimate, Tips & Tricks)
Knowing how to use Groot’s character well in Marvel Rivals requires knowing how to use his abilities and ultimate so you can dominate the game.
The strongest ability of Rocket Raccoon, his Battle Rebirth Beacon (B.R.B), can revive players in a pinch, but it is surprisingly limited. For starters, only one ally can be revived from it before it disappears on a long cooldown timer. The only other benefit of this device is the armor packs and jetpacks that it drops, but theseonly benefit a handful of characters who lack good mobility options.
Groot, aVanguard inMarvel Rivals, is a character that should always be used with Rocket Raccoon, as they make the Strategist able to survive longer with their Team-Up ability. The Punisher and Winter Soldier also become stronger thanks to Rocket’s other Team-Up, which can give either character infinite ammo.
Although Rocket Raccoon does sport good mobility with his jetpack, he isn’t hard to pin down, like Jeff the Land Shark or Loki. Rocket’sUltimate is underwhelming, only giving allies a small damage boost. While not"bad,“it is far weaker than some of the powerful Ultimates that other Strategist characters get to use.
6Loki
Master Of Deception Until The Illusion Breaks
It takes a lot of preparation for the StrategistLokito perform strongly in a match. This tricky character is very complex, making it difficult for players to get a grasp on all their abilities to use them consistently. Despite having good healing and damage with their primary attack,Loki struggles to balance supporting his team and keeping himself alive.
Loki’s signature ability is that he can summon multiple clones to various locations. Loki can teleport to these clones to escape danger or use them as sources of extra healing since they still perform basic actions. That being said,enemy teams often destroy Loki’s clones quickly, limiting Loki’s options if rival groups understand the character’s gimmick going into a match.
The fact thatLoki’s healing rune aura and clones can easily be destroyed by attentive teamsforces him to be clever with his tricks. This makes the character far from straightforward, as you have to juggle good clone placement with healing your team simultaneously. Combined with an Ultimate that transforms Loki into another character for a short time, you need to have a lot of game knowledge to use this Strategist effectively.
5Jeff the Land Shark
Not As Menacing As You Might Think
Jeff the Land Shark inMarvel Rivalsis easily one of the most talked about characters in the game as of this time of writing. With a powerful Ultimate that swallows friends and foes alike, Jeff can easily wipe out a captured enemy team by leaping off the map. Although hehas one of the strongest Ultimates in the game, Jeffdoesn’t have anything too powerful outside his strongest ability.
When within his Ultimate, allies restore their health and enemies take small amounts of damage over time. Beyond his secondary attack, this is Jeff’s highest source of single-target damage.
Jeff has above-average healing potential and serviceable damage with his primary and secondary attacks respectfully. Among Strategists though,Jeff is barely a threat beyond his Ultimate, with very little health and only an annoyance on his own. Jeffneeds other team members to support him, otherwise characters like Iron Fist or Hela can make short work of him when he’s unprotected.
Thankfully, Jeff has more abilities to help him survive compared to weaker Strategists. While Jeff"swims"on a map, he recovers his health passively while reducing his size, making it hard for enemies to hit him. Jeff is a basic,balanced healer who doesn’t have any specialtiesbeyond his Ultimate, making him a solid Strategist who isn’t too powerful most of the time.
4Cloak & Dagger
Difficult To Learn, Powerful When Mastered
One of the most unique characters in all ofMarvel RivalsisCloak & Dagger, two heroes in one that can swap between each other at any point. BothCloak and Dagger have separate move lists that can support their team. Dagger uses homing projectiles and barriers to heal her team, while Cloak inflicts shockingly high damage and debuffs enemies.
Dagger can create a healing bubble with her secondary attack that restores the health of anyone within it at a rapid rate. This ability also affects herself, giving Dagger some of the highest self-healing among all the Strategists.
Cloak can use the power of the Darkforce to make himself and allies near him invisible and invulnerable. This abilitycan nullify enemy Ultimates or stunning abilities, such as Doctor Strange’s potent Ultimate move. Cloak can also blind enemies with his projected barrier, making it impossible for some foes to target weaker characters on your team.
The only weakness of Cloak & Dagger comes from the complexity of their kit, asall abilities share a cooldown between both forms of the character. This makes it hard to juggle every skill at once, especially during chaotic fights between twoteam comps inMarvel Rivals.
The strong AoE Ultimate of this character and automatic lock-on of attacks to heal and damage is easier to use than other Strategists.It can be hard to tell when to use Dagger and when to use Cloakeven when you master all this character has to offer. Although this character is hard to learn, mastering their limited mobility and shared cooldowns can help you become one of the hardest Strategists for enemy teams to eliminate.
3Adam Warlock
Resurrect Your Team To Fight Again
Adam Warlockis a character who ensures his team survives fights with more intensity than any other Strategist in the game.Warlock has the Ultimate ability to revive allies, allowing many characters to get resurrected at once when used correctly. Despite revived characters coming back with low health, this single ability makes Adam Warlock the conduit of second chances for your team to seize victory.
Those who playAdam Warlock inMarvel Rivalswill also find that the character candeal a shockingly high amount of damage. By charging their secondary attack, Warlock can tear through health bars when hitting opponents. This allows the character to work well on maps where your team is on the offensive or defensive, giving him a level of versatility.
Another strength of Adam Warlock is how he canlink the health of multiple characters togetherandheal multiple targets at oncewith his supportive abilities. By linking together health bars, Adam reduces the damage of attacks targeted at one ally, helping them survive. Even though Warlock has very low mobility compared to other Strategists, his multi-heal and revive Ultimate makes him a great pick for many different situations.
2Luna Snow
Maximize Your Healing Potential
While all Strategists have some way to heal their allies,no character has higher healing potential than Luna Snow. The only character inMarvel Rivalsnot originally from comics, Luna Snow uses projectiles to injure enemies and restore the health of teammates. Unlike Dagger, Luna does have to hit her targets to apply damage or healing, giving the character a slightly higher skill ceiling.
Who Luna Snow Is In Marvel Rivals
Luna Snow may not be as popular as fellow Marvel Rivals heroes like Spider-Man or Iron Man, but she is one of Marvel’s most unique superheroes.
Luna Snow has multiple ways of applying healing, like attaching an Idol Aura to allow more than one ally to regain health from her. This Strategist can also enter a state called Ice Arts where she deals more damage and heals more with larger ice shards that she fires. Since this also restores her own health,Luna Snow has consistent ways of healing herself, making it hard for opponents to take her down.
Luna Snow has two powerfulTeam-Up abilities inMarvel Rivalswith Jeff the Land Shark, Namor, and Iron Fist. This gives the character a lot of synergy with other characters, including another Strategist for a strong team comp.
To top everything off,Luna Snow has an Ultimate that makes her impossible to defeat, as it allows her to regain health continuously for as long as it lasts. Although this Ultimate allows Luna to create a large AoE aura of healing or damage, it is always better to use the restorative aura. This Ultimate prevents anyone around Luna Snow from being defeated due to its absurd healing rate, giving your team endless vigor to win fights.
1Mantis
Fulfill Any Role With Little Effort
Mantisis, by far, the strongest Strategist inMarvel Rivalsdue to how she can practically fulfill the role of Duelist and Vanguard with her versatile abilities. Mantis candeal damage, heal allies rapidly, and survive for far longerthan any other character in her archetype. Her Ultimate is stronger than any other Strategist’s as well, providing nearby allies Healing Over Time and Movement Boost buffs for a long duration.
Mantis is also one of the best characters at interrupting Ultimate attacks with her Spore Slumber ability, which stuns a target she hits with it.
All Mantis' attacks deal extremely high damage, rivaling characters like Hela orWinter Soldier inMarvel Rivals. With critical hits, Mantis can wipe out life bars, especially when she consumes a Life Orb to give herself a Damage Boost. With four different Life Orbs Mantis has access to from spawning, she can grant this Damage Boost to allies as well, giving them more ways to eliminate enemies.
Granting allies Life Orbs can help them Heal Over Time as well, giving hermultiple ways to buff her teammates. Mantis even receives a Movement Boost and passive healing when not injured, so she can stay alive for much longer than other Strategists. If combined with Adam Warlock’s revival Team-Up ability, Mantis becomes the strongest Strategist inMarvel Rivalsby a long shot, giving her a second chance to support her team.
