Marvel Rivals Psylocke Character Guide

Marvel Rivals Psylocke Hero Guide

The psychic warrior known as Sai sneaks into Marvel Rivals from the X-Men universe. Using her telepathic abilities and armed with her Psychic Blade, Psylocke assassinates unsuspecting enemies. Her basic gameplay loop centers around getting to close range on a flank, then dumping all her resources into confirming a kill and escaping. At mid ranges, her effectiveness diminishes quickly as her ranged attacks have a very wide bullet spread and her dash (Psi-Blade Dash) only reaches a short range.

Players who wish to see success with Psylocke will have to master her combos and animation cancels (see Tips & Tricks below). As her ninja persona implies, she wants to sneak around the battlefield rather than taking engagements head on.

Strengths

Incredible Burst Damage

While no single ability deals massive damage, stringing her attacks together quickly gives Psylocke some of the highest close-range burst damage in the game. The ability to shorten or extend the combos also gives her the unique ability to adjust how much damage and how long the damage takes to be output.

Ability to Cycle Cooldowns Quickly

Most heroes have set cooldown values. Psylocke’s cooldown value can vary greatly as they are shortened by the amount of Primary Fire projectiles hit an enemy. In light of this, Psylocke can use her cooldowns much more quickly than the average hero.

Versatility

Having a hitscan Primary Fire combined with a short ranged dash and melee cancels means Psylocke never has to sit and watch. At every range and in every scenario she can participate in a fight. Even though she specializes in close range flanks, she can easily take down flying heroes where other close range flankers typically struggle.

Weaknesses

Poor Range

Although Psionic Crossbow technically has infinite range, the wide projectile spread and fall-off damage make it extremely weak at farther ranges. Her dash is also one of her best tools and only reaches a very short distance, making it nearly useless in a mid-range fight.

Combo Execution Dependant

Messing up a combo or miscalculating a cooldown typically means your targeted enemy will escape with their life. Her combos are not particularly mechanically demanding but can be difficult to land depending on the speed at which the target is moving.

No Invulnerable Escape Tool

Psylocke wants to be behind enemy lines as much as possible. Psychic Stealth can trick the enemy team and escape, but if they are watching closing, Psylock can be an easy kill. Being primarily a close-range engager but not possessing a guaranteed escape means Psylocke always has to be planning ahead to create opportunities to disengage after her attack.

Abilities

Primary Fire: Psionic Crossbow

Tips for Psionic Crossbow

• Animation Cancels
  • The most important tip for mastering Psylocke’s Primary Fire is to utilize her animation cancels.
  • Anytime Psylocke lands a Primary Fire she can cancel its recovery animation by activating any other ability, including melee.
  • Melee hits can also be cancelled back into Primary Fire
  • On whiff, Psylocke is locked into the full recovery animations.
• Keep a close eye on cooldowns.
  • Psylocke’s unique passive ability enables hits of her Psionic Crossbow to reduce Wing Shuriken’s and Psi-Blade Dash’s cooldowns. Don’t waste the opportunity to increase their frequency of use.
  • Even if you are at a further range where damage is low, hitting an enemy with Primary Fire still generates the same amount of cooldown reduction.
  • Each of the 4 projectiles reduces cool down by .25 seconds, meaning landing all 8 of her double shots reduces by a full 2 seconds.

When to use

• Psionic Crossbow can be used as a poke ability to build ult charge, but only deals significant damage within about 15 meters.
• Attacking at very close range maximizes damage, allows for melee cancels, and tighter spread.
• Always reload before engaging in a flank as you’ll need a full clip to ensure you can get your other cooldowns back.
• Against Fliers like Iron Man.
  • When the enemy have fliers, it’s often Psylocke’s job to deal with them since Psionic Crossbow is a hitscan.

Secondary Fire: Wing Shurikens

Tips for Wing Shurikens

• Wing Shurikens first recalls to Psylock’s crosshair and then to herself.
• Even if you stick them in one person or miss completely, recalling while aiming at another enemy causes the Wing Shurikens to hit them as well.
• It can be recalled manually or will be recalled automatically after 3 seconds. Both the firing and recall grant bonus health.
• Best used in combos in order to maximize damage per second from its animation cancels.
• Animation Cancels
  • Activating Wing Shurikens cancels Primary Fire and Melee attacks.
• Bonus Health
  • Recalling Shuriken into multiple enemies counts as additional rounds hit and stack bonus health.
  • 10 bonus health per round
  • Maximum of 75HP bonus health
  • 325HP total health
• Very important cooldown to land, so make sure to take the time to aim and do not spam.
• When attacking a high health enemy or an enemy being healed, try to fire and recall Wing Shurikens immediately as you’ll likely refresh the cooldown in time to use again from Primary Fire.

[SHIFT]: Psi-Blade Dash

Tips for Psi-Blade Dash

• A sudden dash which quickly moves Psylocke and damages enemies. Penetrates all enemies along the travel path.
• Movement
  • It can be used omnidirectionally, which makes it excellent for cashing down retreating enemies or traversing the environment.
  • Equally effective as an attack or as an escape ability.
    • Omnidirectional movement means as long as you are mindful not to get caught with zero charges, most enemy ultimates can be evaded on reaction.
  • The inertia of movement speed lasts until Psylocke touches the ground. When traversing a map, aiming around at 45-degree angle or higher gives faster overall travel speed.
• Activating Psi-Blade Dash cancels Primary Fire, Melee, and Wing Shuriken, allowing for fast combo chains of abilities.This does not apply to cancelling animations with Dash.
• Against Vanguards, Psi-Blade Dash early can allow enough Primary Shots to refresh their cooldowns and get them back online to use again!
• If you use Psychic Stealth to engage, make sure to save at least one Psi-Blade Dash charge to escape the enemy counterattack.

[E]: Psychic Stealth

Tips for Psychic Stealth

• Psylocke instantly becomes invisible, leaving no trace.
• She can still be attacked and damaged, which makes her flicker out of invisibility for a moment.
• Engage or Escape?
  • When using Psychic Stealth to engage, save it for the final portion of a flank to close the last bit of distance and get into melee/dash range unseen.
  • The instant activation makes it a powerful escape ability when both charges of Psi-Blade Dash have been used.
  • Most consistent escape technique is to activate Psychic Stealth, then Psi-Blad Dash over a wall or cover.

Ultimate: Dance of The Butterfly

Tips for Dance of the Butterfly

• After a one-second activation, Psylocke becomes invulnerable and attacks all enemies in the AoE.
  • When multiple targets are in the AoE, the same target will never be attacked twice in a row
  • Eliminating an enemy is easier and faster when less enemies are in the AoE.
• Be careful when activating at low health or in front of an enemy with a stun as Psylocke can be killed or stunned during the start up animation.
• Dashing into the area you want to ult in can be very effective for a surprise attack.
  • Greatly reduces the odds of being stunned out of the start up and gives the enemy less time to react.

Team-Up Ability: Psionic Disc

Tips for Psionic Disc

• The health granted is temporary and will diminish over a few seconds.
• Best used for quick aggressive plays as the 5 second window is more than enough time to go in deep, get an elimination and Psionic Disc rewind out.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Combos

There are nearly endless possibilities of stringing together her animation cancels into combos. Here are three examples of different scenarios we recommend starting with.

Close-range melee combo without Wing Shurikens

Primary Fire → Melee → Primary Fire → Melee → SHIFT

• Deals 270 dmg
• Eliminates 250HP heroes like Jeff the Shark and Hawkeye.

Mid-range combo

Primary Fire → Secondary Fire → Primary Fire→ Secondary Fire

• Perfect for dealing a burst of damage when outside of Dash range.

Max damage burst combo

Primary Fire → Secondary Fire → Secondary Fire → Primary Fire → SHIFT

• Deals 350 dmg
• Eliminates all Duelists and Strategists.

Extended Combos

Using these examples as a jumping-off point, get creative and string together as many attacks as needed to finish off or apply huge damage to a given target.

Synergies

Team Comp Synergies

Ideal comp built around Psylocke do one of two things:

1. Force aggression and attention away from her.
2. Go on a Flank with her for a coordinated attack.

Understanding these two principles will help you in knowing how to position and play with a given team. If the rest of your team is front line heavy and wants to stick together to attack from one angle, Psylocke should sneak around from an angle the enemy isn’t paying attention to.

On the other hand, if your team has multiple flank or dive heroes, you’ll want to coordinate with them in order to correctly time your attack together. Attacking together with another flanker maximizes the speed and amount of damage output. A coordinated flank attack greatly increases the odds of securing an elimination.

Example Team Comp

Vanguards: Groot, Magneto

Duelists: Psylocke, Magik

Strategists: Mantis, Luna Snow

Synergies with Other Heroes

Vanguard: Magneto

Magneto assists Psylocke in multiple ways. First off, he is a very threatening frontline presence which forces enemy attention straight to him. This creates openings for Psylocke to safely sneak up to a target and assassinate.

Secondly, Magneto’s METAL BULWARK can shield Psylocke and extend the amount of time she is able to stay in enemy territory while outputting her huge bursts of damage.

Duelists: Magik

The Team-Up ability with Magik gives Psylocke access to a time rewind portal which teleports her to her location from 5 seconds ago and temporarily gives her back half of the health she lost during that time.

When activated, Psylocke can position and attack in much riskier ways, while still being able to get out alive. Additionally, Magik and Psylocke have the same goal in a team fight. To spend time setting up and staging a coordinated flank in order to suddenly eliminate a target in the enemies backline.

Strategists: Mantis

Psylocke requires ranged healing in order to receive support during a flank engagement. Mantis’ healing abilities are perfectly suited as she can heal from range and continue to passively heal Psylocke even if she leaves her LOS.

Moreover, Mantis’ damage boost gives just enough of a damage buff to make Psylocke’s Close range melee combo without Wing Shurikens lethal against 275HP heroes like Luna Snow (see Tips & Tricks above).