There are lots of Marvel Rivals characters to choose from and our ranked tier list should help you pick the best superheroes/villains for you. The roster has expanded to an impressive 35 heroes with the arrival of Season 1 bringing with it Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman alongside well-known Avengers and X-Men, such as Thor, Spider-Man, Storm, and Magneto, fighting alongside or against Marvel oddities like Jeff the Land-Shark. And there's plenty more Marvel Rivals upcoming characters on the way to build on what's there.
Almost every character in Marvel Rivals has the potential to be great in the right hands, but there are some clear heavy hitters that you'll want to prioritize. Here’s our Marvel Rivals character tier list to help you get a leg up on the competition.
Marvel Rivals characters and heroes explained
All Marvel Rivals characters have a primary attack and several abilities that have limited charges and cooldowns. Many also have access to passives, and when put together with the right rotation of active abilities, they can create devastating combos. Each character also has a powerful Overwatch-Ultimate-style ability that charges up as you play and can turn the tide of a fight when unleashed.
Each character also belongs to one of three roles that you'll want to bear in mind when forming your team, particularly if you're playing through Marvel Rivals ranks. There's no rolelock like in Overwatch either so it will be up to you and your team to put together a reasonable composition. As a rule of thumb, two of each role is a generally balanced approach, but there are other variances that can work - just try to avoid six Duelists.
- Vanguard – These are the tanks of Marvel Rivals, packing massive health pools and abilities that suit fighting on the frontline, protecting allies, and taking space.
- Duelists - Varied, damage-focused characters whose main job is to apply pressure to the opponent and pick off key targets when the opportunity arises.
- Strategists – These Marvel Rivals characters are the support characters, providing healing and other buffs to allies. That said, all of these characters can also hold their own in combat.
What characters your team picks can also determine the Marvel Rivals Team-Up abilities that are available. These can be passive or active abilities, with one or all the heroes involved gaining some sort of benefit. For example, having Venom on your team grants Spider-Man and Peni Parker an entirely new symbiote spike ability. While, when Black Panther and Magik are on the same team, Black Panther gains the ability to create a Limbo Disc, allowing him to teleport.
Marvel Rivals character tier list
With lots of different abilities, character roles, and Team-Ups, choosing which Marvel Rivals character speaks to you can be tricky. However, one deciding factor for you might simply be how good a character is. While any hero can work with enough perseverance, there are definitely heroes who excel in their current state. If you want to jump into one with some pre-built-in power, here are my recommendations for the current meta picks.
- S-Tier: Supremely powerful characters that work in almost any team composition and have the ability to often decide games.
- Doctor Strange
- Hulk
- Hela
- Luna Snow
- Mantis
- A-Tier: Great heroes who bring plenty of power but either require a bit of support or practice for maximum effect.
- Groot
- Magento
- Thor
- Iron Man
- Namor
- Psylocke
- Star-Lord
- Storm
- Winter Soldier
- Wolverine
- Loki
- Invisible Woman
- B-Tier: Good characters with solid abilities that are effective in the right hands and some game knowledge.
- Peni Parker
- Venom
- Black Panther
- Hawkeye
- Magik
- Moon Knight
- Adam Warlock
- Cloak and Dagger
- Rocket Raccoon
- C-Tier: Middling heroes that can still contribute to the team effort and win games but often need one-trick specialisation or support from a team.
- Captain America
- Iron Fist
- Mr. Fantastic
- The Punisher
- Spider-Man
- Squirrel Girl
- Jeff the Land Shark
- D-Tier: These heroes are not awful, but they are the hardest to get consistent value out of. They can work, and even excel with enough perseverance, but most will struggle to get a lot of value.
- Black Widow
- Scarlet Witch
MARVEL RIVALS S TIER HEROES
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange is one of the most reliable Vanguards in the game and is the definition of a barrier tank. His massive Shield of the Seraphim provides ample protection and absorbs a lot of punishment. He also fires precise ranged attacks, releases short-range, area-of-effect blasts, and can fly – is there anything he can't do? Oh yeah, and his Pentagram of Farallah is a teleport that can essentially be placed anywhere on the map (even though it is funny, I’d encourage you not to teleport your team off the map). His Daggers of Denak can be tricky to aim and Dark Magic buildup needs to be carefully managed, but his versatility makes him fit to lead any team.
The Hulk
The Hulk has really flourished as players have gotten more time with him. His mobility is exceptional, meaning he can get from the front to the backline very easily and while he is a big green target, he has a lot of options to survive, with his bubble shield being excellent for jumping into a team, stunning them, brawling out, and then leaping away. He also has excellent team ups with Iron Man and Doctor Strange, making him a natural partner to both. From damage to utility to mobility, The Hulk just has a lot going for him and he’s one of the more multifaceted heroes in the game.
Hela
The Norse Goddess of Death has jokingly been referred to as the ‘server admin’ in Marvel Rivals, hinting towards just how powerful she is. Her Nightsword Thorns, Piercing Night, and Queen of Hel abilities reward accuracy with massive damage, and she can very often take over entire games. It is oppressive when an excellent Hela is in a lobby, and her ceiling is higher than any other character. She shuts down a lot of other duelists, especially melee characters, and without a Hela of your own, she can be very difficult to contest at the ranges she operates at. She is also essentially perma-banned in higher-elos when bans come into play, which should hint at just how powerful she is.
Luna Snow
K-Pop sensation Luna Snow packs exceptional healing and is able to flip team fights with her Fate of Two Worlds Ultimate. She’s able to apply healing across heroes, allowing for big team heals too. She can also freeze enemies making them easier for your team to hit while allowing her to create distance between her and enemies.
She packs a punch and many of her abilities also heal herself, giving her very good survivability. That’s on top of having one of the smallest character models too, so she is going to be a pain for any Duelist to finally put away.
Mantis
Mantis can have a massive impact on games, capable of providing plenty of healing and damage buffs to herself and allies. She’s truly fitting of the Strategist moniker, as she really can change fights by healing and applying the buffs at just the right moment in a team fight. She can even stun enemies with Spore Slumber, and unlike Ana in Overwatch, it’s not much of a skill shot. This makes putting pesky flankers into a snooze very easy. She needs to get critical hits to restore her all-important Life Orbs, so she does have to be alright at aiming, but she’s otherwise a highly effective support character in almost any team composition.
MARVEL RIVALS A TIER HEROES
Groot
Specializes in placing several plant-based barriers at once, shaping the battlefield to his advantage. Fittingly, enemies will feel like they are chopping through dense forests to be able to even start doing damage to a team. Groot is arguably the most defensive Vanguard hero there is and if others get too close, he can pack a punch. He can block off any major flanks, as well as threats coming down the main lane with his walls. If you want to control the battlefield at your pace and make it a slog for the enemy to get at you and your allies, Groot is as good as it gets.
Magneto
Magneto's slow-firing iron projectiles make him one of the better-ranged Vanguard characters, suited more to poking approaching characters and keeping enemies at arm’s length. He also provides nearly unparalleled protection with his Metallic Curtain shield and Bulwark bubbles. His Ultimate can be hard to get kills with, but it actually counters bullets too, so is a great counter if you hear The Punisher letting loose his Ultimate.
Thor
Wielding Mjolnir, Thor is a good brawler tank with potent melee combos and a few ranged attacks that all synergize nicely. He can do a lot of damage when his abilities are cycled properly, and he is threatening to most other heroes in the game. He also has a bit of mobility and exceptional team-ups with Storm and Captain America that are really, really good. He’s also just very fun to play which doesn’t hurt either. If you want to enable your team while putting out your own damage, he’s an excellent Vanguard to run with. You may just need a more traditional Vanguard to pair with him.
Iron Man
Iron Man is doing very well right now, and while he has strong counters, if played smart he can become a nuisance to an enemy team. A lot of his power comes from his Armor Overdrive, with the Unibeam in particular melting opponents. It’s one of the easiest abilities in the game to secure kills with, and if you can dive from the skies and vaporize a Strategist, you’ll be getting immense value. Smart players who understand the push and pull of working around his Armor Overdrive will get value, but you will need to play with cover when the enemy team is inevitably forced to switch to a ranged hero to deal with you.
Namor
Namor is Marvel Rivals’ resident turret Duelist, with his Monstro octopi he can place on the battlefield applying damage from range. He’s great at defending points and coupled with good aim to hit his tridents, he often can put out the best damage in a game. He’s also not the most popular, meaning many sleep on how good he actually can be. If you can learn to hit your shots and place his turrets in excellent positions, you will terrorize teams pushing into your space. He also has a surprising amount of range which not every hero has, meaning he can contest and deal a lot of damage, all while remaining relatively safe. And even if a pesky flanker comes for him, his turrets will make their life difficult.
Psylocke
Psylocke is one of Marvel Rival’s strongest Duelists. She is an excellent flanking hero, able to sneak into enemy backlines by becoming invisible and utilizing her dashes. This also makes her exceptionally hard to pin down, with a lot of escape options if the fight becomes stacked against her.
What’s more, she has a lot of lethality, with high damage, meaning she’s a real ninja that can tear backlines apart. Her ultimate is also exceptional against grouped-up teams, meaning it can come in clutch in tight, objective-based scenarios.
Star-Lord
Tracer players in Overwatch will definitely gravitate toward picking Star-Lord as his entire kit focuses on movement tricks and his short-range Element Guns. He's easy to learn but hard to master as he can be caught out if he doesn’t manage his cooldowns properly. In the right hands though, he’s one of the best flankers in the game, alongside sporting one of the best ultimates. If you get great with Star-Lord, you will be able to carry games by shredding anyone who is isolated.
Storm
What a difference a day makes. When Season 1 launched, Storm went from one of the worst heroes in the game to one of the best overnight. She received several buffs which pushed her into overdrive, making her exceptionally strong. Her damage buff to her team means as long as she’s near her allies, everyone has an implicit advantage over the enemies if they don’t have a matching Storm. She has the strongest damage ultimate in the game which rounds out her very strong kit.
Since the start of the season, players have become more comfortable fighting against her, as when she got strong, most had never even played against her. This has clipped her wings just a little bit, but she is still an exceptionally strong option for any team.
Winter Soldier
Bucky is a very powerful duelist who can do a lot. The Winter Soldier can act as a tankbuster once his abilities are cycled properly, but he can also work as a 1v1 flanker or someone who sits on his supports and looks after them. There is a rotation to learn around his attacks, and thus isn’t always going to be the absolute strongest, but he’s a very versatile damage dealer.
His big weakness is movement, as only his Trooper’s Fist gives him any mobility. Even then it’s a short distance and it’s a long cooldown, so positioning is key to stop him from getting into any bad situations. Once he’s in a bad position, it’s hard for him to get out without blasting his way through.
Wolverine
At the game’s launch, Wolverine was seen as a really weak hero compared to the rest of the Duelists - however, as players have learned his strengths and weaknesses, his quality has become apparent. Wolverine is not the most dynamic of heroes, but he has one very basic job - kill tanks. He does increased damage to Vanguards, and his kit is custom-built to displace the front line, and then in a flurry of adamantium claws, dispatch them. He also has a surprising amount of mobility as his dash is on a very short cooldown, which allows him to get in and out of engagements. It’s a little bit of a tightrope walk as you need to not overextend, and really learn how to play around ranged heroes. However, if you do great with him, you will make the life of tanks totally miserable.
Loki
Loki is a great support character in Marvel Rivals with one of the most unique kits but he is also probably the most complex. As the god of trickery, he’s suitably hard to pin down, both being able to turn invisible, but also places several decoys on the field that he can teleport to. The enemy will struggle to figure out exactly where Loki is. His healing output is modest but can be massively increased with the effective use of his doppelgangers, especially when choosing to deploy his very powerful Regeneration Domain. Still, Loki will often have the least healing, so he needs to offset it by doing equal amounts of damage.
His ultimate, God of Mischief, can also be a game changer as it allows him to copy another hero, enemy, or ally and use their Ultimate immediately. There are a lot of strong Ultimates in the game, so you have a wealth of choices to turn fight - if you know how to use other characters properly anyway. You will have to work a little harder to get maximum value out of Loki, but if mastered, teams won’t know where you are, or how you’re keeping your team so unkillable.
Invisible Woman
Susan Storm has a lot going for her. She has a lot of utility, damage, and healing, giving her the trifecta any character could hope for. Her invisibility makes her very survivable if she is ever in danger, and her push and pull are exceptional for repelling flankers, with her outright canceling many of their mobility abilities when timed right. The shields she provides are very useful too. Her ultimate is very strong as well, both giving a lot of healing and concealing her team, making it very hard to kill anyone. She has it all going for her, and while she may not reach the peaks of both Mantis and Luna Snow, she can just do so much for her team in different ways, she will always find value.
MARVEL RIVALS B TIER HEROES
Peni Parker
Thanks to her SP//dr mech suit, Peni Parker is the Vanguard hero with the most range, but her Cyber-Webs and traps also make her exceptional at holding an objective. She’s a very unique character, focused on her cybernetic webbing and robotic spiders, so it may take some getting used to. Her Bionic Spider-Nest, which creates a large Cyber-Web and spits out Spider-Drones, can be devastating if left to fester by the enemy team. Coupled with her Arachno-mines, she is exceptional at controlling objectives and space, with opponents having to really think twice about pushing into her webbed areas. In the right hands, she can lock down the map and make it impossible for the enemy to get comfortable.
Venom
Venom is robust, even for a Vanguard character, due to his Symbiotic Resilience ability. It instantly generates bonus health when at low health, buying Venom time to get a kill, escape a fight, or wait for a healer to arrive. When managed properly, it can make it pretty hard to kill. Additionally, his Venom Swing allows him to dive on backlines and apply a lot of damage to Strategists before he swings out again. That said, he’s fallen off a little since the game launched as players have learned how to deal with him, and his one-dimensionality hurts his overall kit. Specialists have a lot of escapes, and teams have learned if they work together and all shoot him at once, he can be toppled. However, if you are wise with your engagements and stay in line of sight of your own healers, he can be a real threat that disrupts his enemies.
Black Panther
T'Challa is an acrobatic, melee-focused hero with exceptional mobility. His kit revolves around applying Vibranium Marks to enemies and then hitting them with Spirit Rend to gain bonus health and fully recharge the ability. For many, this won’t be an intuitive power, as if you miss a Spirit Rend while diving on a hero, you will be stuck there, exposed with no out. This makes Black Panther vulnerable if you can’t hit your abilities. That said, in skilled players’ hands, he tears apart backlines. He has some of the highest lethality of all the flankers, and the mobility to get out when the going gets tough. When you play against an exceptional Black Panther, you will feel it.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye was once one of the strongest Duelists in the game. However, a combination of minor nerfs and the playerbase understanding the game more means he isn’t as oppressive as he once was. He still retains one-shot potential on smaller targets though and that is always dangerous. If he can find vantage points, he can rein down immense damage onto enemy teams and also has some escapes for when others inevitably come to contest him. His exceptional neutral game means he’s not reliant on abilities, meaning if you can hit your shots, he can still be a handful.
Magik
Like Black Panther, Magik is a melee-focused Marvel Rivals character, delivering slow but powerful attacks with her Soulsword. The variety of attacks, including a dashing uppercut and a wide spinning slice, means Magik has the potential to deal great damage with the right combos. She is a hero that specialists will gravitate towards, and those who put the time in to learn her combos, they will excel. She can be very lethal and a total handful for enemies to deal with. If you're good with Magik, your opponents will hate you as you dive in, tear up the backline, and get out, all before they know what hit them. That said, it’s probably going to take quite a bit of practice.
Moon Knight
Moon Knight is a powerful duelist who can take over games if there enemy team ignores the source of his power. That comes from his Ankhs, which he can place in the middle of grouped-up teams to bounce his Crescent Dart off. If these are not dealt with quickly, it can obliterate entire teams. However, enemy teams have gotten much better at destroying Moon Knight’s Ankhs quickly, meaning his power is much more limited.
His movement is okay, but his Moonlight Hook takes a second to activate, and he’s still susceptible to being shot when gliding away, really hurting him if his positioning is bad. His Ultimate did receive a buff though and is much easier to get kills with now.
Adam Warlock
With his quantum magic powers, Adam Warlock has solid healing abilities that let him keep several allies topped up at once, but longer cooldowns mean you must use these powers wisely. His Regenerative Cocoon and Karmic Revival abilities, which let him resurrect himself and his allies respectively, are hugely useful in any match too, able to utterly reverse lost fights. Because of this, expect to be the focus of many Duelist’s ire. They don’t love it when you reverse their hard-won kills.
Cloak & Dagger
Cloak & Dagger is a really interestingly constructed hero that lets you switch between the two personalities at will. Cloak is more offensively minded, doing damage and making enemies vulnerable, whereas Dagger is more healing-focused. There is a skill to knowing when to be one or the other and when you should get aggressive or focus on healing. However, if you master it, you will be putting out a lot of healing and damage, and affecting the battlefield in massive ways. Their ultimate can negate some of the biggest damage in the game while making it hard for enemies to contest. That said, they struggle to output the same built-in value as the very best healers in the game.
Rocket Raccoon
With a range of deployable gadgets, Rocket Raccoon supports the team with healing projectiles, revives, armor packs, damage boosts, and jet packs. Pair all that with his surprisingly punchy machine gun, jetpack dash ability, and climbing and Rocket Raccoon is one of the most varied Strategist characters in Marvel Rivals, capable of supporting the team in the most important ways – best of all, he's quite easy to play too. While he doesn’t have the insanely powerful ultimates of the likes of Mantis and Luna Storm, he can offer an ungodly amount of healing and a lot of varied bonuses to his team that are all welcome at the right time.
C-Tier Heroes
MARVEL RIVALS C TIER HEROES
Captain America
Captain America is a quintessential brawler Vanguard in Marvel Rivals. He does all the things you’d expect Steve Rogers to do - shielding, punching, running, bashing, and throwing his shield like a frisbee. Characters who are being charged down and beaten on will need to give him attention or risk falling to Steve Rodgers. That said, he does not offer a lot of damage so his threat isn’t that of other more lethal Vanguards, and if he engages too eagerly, he can be isolated. It’s a push and pull with Cap, and finding the sweet spot is exceptionally important. Even if that happens though, you may be a little underwhelmed with his impact on a game.
Iron Fist
Iron Fist appeared to be a menace at the start of Marvel Rivals. His ability to lay into backlines and 1v1 most characters in the game meant that if you were isolated, he could relatively quickly dispatch you. The problem is as players have gotten better at the game, those real 1v1 opportunities have become rarer. Teams now peel much better, and he is much less intimidating than he was at launch. That said, if you learn the sweet spot of when to strike, he can still terrorize isolated enemies like no one else.
Mr Fantastic
The leader of the Fantastic 4, Mr. Fantastic is perhaps the strangest character in the game. His kit, centered on his elasticity, is very goofy, coming together to make him a bit of a hybrid character. He can absorb a lot of damage as a Duelist, and can even end up in a larger, Vanguard-esque form if you build his meter properly. He can even reflect damage when used correctly, making him potentially quite spooky.
That said, his ultimate is silly as hell, acting like Winter Soldier’s by way of a circus. He also lacks a lot of damage for a Duelist, even if he has ways to manipulate other characters in 1v1s. This is a conservative ranking, as it’s entirely possible, if not likely, that people will find great use as they get better with him, but right now, he’s just a very odd character whose power isn’t immediately obvious.
The Punisher
The Punisher is the basic rifleman of Marvel Rivals but don’t take that as meaning he’s one dimensional. He packs a versatile assault rifle, a shotgun that shreds at close range, smoke grenades, a zipline for fast movement, as well as a deployable mounted turret – that's pretty much everything you need in a DPS character. He's very easy to play and packs plenty of power for minimal effort. He also becomes downright vicious when powered up by Rocket Raccoon's Team-Up Ammo Overload Device. Still, he can find himself a little isolated if pushed without his zipline, so always be thinking about your positioning when taking on the role of Frank Castle. He’s also kept in check but many other ranged heroes are overall quite a bit stronger than he is. While never a bad pick, there are often a lot of better options on the table.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is the ultimate hit-and-run flanker in Marvel Rivals. He's easily the most mobile character in the game thanks to his web-swing, double-jump, and wall crawl, which allows him to get over and around enemies with ease (even if it is a bit janky to use). From here, you can use his Web-Cluster to target one foe, then follow up with a range of melee attacks to form a devastating combo.
All that said though, his ceiling isn’t that high and you have to work far harder than many other Duelists to get value. He’s easily the hardest to learn in the role, and you are going to have to put in twice the effort to get the equivalent output of an easier to use Duelist. He is a feast-or-famine character, but you really have to be a one-trick specialist to take over games with him.
Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl has arguably one of the simplest kits in Marvel Rivals, but don’t note that down as her being weak. Her Burst Acorns can do a lot of damage around chokes and corners, especially to burn down bunched-up teams. Her Squirrel Blockade is also a death sentence in most cases, as she can apply a ton of damage at once on trapped heroes. However, she struggles in a lot of matchups, essentially unable to interact with flyers and often lacking the precision to take on other heroes one on one. She can definitely be pretty spooky in the right map against the right heroes, but she is somewhat limited in her effectiveness.
Jeff the Land Shark
Jeff is a simple healer with excellent healing output. He's a solid all-rounder but is best when he can heal multiple allies at once with his Joyful Splash. If he ever finds himself jumped on by flankers, he can use his Hide And Seek ability to evade danger. The "It's Jeff!" ultimate ability is also great as you can gobble enemies and then spit them off the map for easy kills. That said, his kit is very one-dimensional and he lacks any real utility that makes the strongest Specialists thrive. He’s a bit of a healbot, but doesn’t offer much else to a team in the way of buffs and debuffs or lethality like the others in his role.
MARVEL RIVALS D TIER HEROES
Black Widow
Black Widow needs more help. Despite some big buffs in Season 1, she is still arguably the worst hero in the game. The problem is, since she doesn’t have the ability to one-shot characters, she has to prepare each shot. She doesn’t have the lethality to take out heroes fast enough before they are healed again, and she doesn’t do enough sustained damage to make a serious dent into team healthpools. If you are exceptional at aiming you will get value and kills, but right now, without one-shoting heroes (which wouldn’t be great for the health of the game), she is hurting quite a bit. If you do want to play as a sniper character, Hawkeye and Hela are just much better options right now.
Scarlet Witch
Wanda Maximoff is easy to use and has the potential to do well – but largely only against players who don’t know the game yet. The Scarlet Witch's primary fire does increased damage against non-Vanguard heroes, though she lacks the spikiness of other Duelists meaning that unless the other player misses, she often will lose 1v1s. Her Mystic Projection allows her to get out of bad situations, but it’s easy to track and many will follow up on you after you use it. She struggles at range, and many can whittle her down before she gets on top of them. Also, while her Ultimate was super strong in the beta, most are learning how to avoid getting killed by her Reality Erasure, or just kill her outright before it goes off.
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