Marvel Rivals Best Heroes in Marvel Rivals: Tier List Rankings (Season 7 Update)

Angela (A both lists)

The first and only flying Vanguard, Angela, slams down and takes over the ground fight with her dual Axes.

Three distinct crowd-control abilities enable Angela to excel at manipulating enemy positioning. Assassin's Charge is basically a flying Feral Leap (Wolverine) and can quickly isolate an enemy from the rest of their team.

High mobility, along with the CC, makes her incredibly good at a snatch & grab playstyle where she focuses on using her cooldown cycle to quickly take out one enemy at a time.

She performs best on maps with many ledges. However, maps that limit her mobility and ability to displace with environmental kills are proving challenging for her.

Captain America (A diamond+, S below diamond)

Steve Rogers, America’s super soldier. Captain America is another one of the melee-based Vanguard heroes with a few unique abilities. Raising his shield not only blocks damage, but also deflects all projectiles, including ults like Iron Man’s Invincible Pulse Cannon.

His gameplay loop centers around using his dash, sprint, and slam to chase down enemies and keep them in melee range. Rush down enemy backlines, get out alive, repeat, and you win games.

After the universal ult nerfs, he's certainly one of the best heroes at time-stalling objectives. With his rework, the deletion of his sprint cancels, and damage buffs, his average power level has increased considerably at the ranks below diamond.

Doctor Strange (A diamond+, S below diamond)

Doctor Strange’s Shield of the Seraphim is the best and largest shield in the game and can be used on reaction to survive entire ults from the enemy team. His shield is particularly useful at countering Emma Frost's ultimate, and buying his team time to either use their ults or reposition to cover.

Season 5 has been the most difficult season for Strange mains who are used to him being a top-tier pick. Buffs to the other Vanguards added to a heavy shift towards melee and mobility meta do not favor Strange.

Eye of Agamotto and portal remain some of the best abilities in all of Marvel Rivals. Even given the 3-minute cooldown, having the unique ability to reposition himself and his entire team anywhere on the map allows for playmaking that is simply not possible without him.

Emma Frost (A both lists)

Emma Frost can switch between her regular and Diamond Form to adapt to the situation. She's a good mid-range poke hero with her standard primary fire and deployable barrier. When the fight gets close range, Diamond Form enables her to excel in melee brawls.

The lunge of Carbon Crush is deceptively far and often catches enemies off guard. Her main limitation is her lack of mobility. She can’t chase after retreating enemies, disengage when it gets too dangerous, and has no way to access high ground. On the frontline, she’s a serious threat and can win most Vanguard duels.

When in Diamond Form, she's CC immune and has multiple CC abilities of her own. This makes her extremely dangerous to get close to, but it also means she has no way to deal with long-range heroes or fliers.

The Season 7 buffs to her decrease the cooldown of Diamond Form have brought her back into the competitive scene after a couple of seasons of falling off. She still struggles a bit against hypermobile comps or teams that can easily play outside her range.

Groot (S+ both lists)

Groot possesses the unique ability to manipulate the environment by creating walls wherever he pleases. Using walls to cut off choke points and isolate heroes from their allies is difficult for the enemy to play around at every rank.

His ultimate, Strangling Prison, also enables huge team wiping ult combos when paired with a high damage ult like Namor's.

Groot's greatest weakness ceases to exist with the addition of Unstoppable status when he's near an Awakened Iron Wood Wall. Focus on hiding the Iron Wall healing wall where the enemy can't destroy it, and you stay in range of it to be Unstoppable, and Groot becomes a hard carry.

There are very few scenarios where Groot would not be an excellent pick right now. His playstyle is fairly simple, so definitely give him a try if you haven't been playing him lately.

Hulk (A diamond+, C below diamond)

You won’t like him when he’s angry. Hulk is an interesting Vanguard because his value primarily comes from ability timing, and careful selection of when to use Guard, and who to stun.

To be successful with the green monster, players must excel in their use of positioning, cover, timing, and mechanics. Hulk’s massive health pool makes him hard to kill, but a huge amount of health paired with a gigantic hitbox means he always has to be careful not to be constantly feeding.

He got serious buffs in Season 7 with a 2nd charge for Gamma Burst and an increase in Guard ult generation (which he'll have more often thanks to the extra Burst). Even with the buffs, he's still not at the level of the top Vanguards, but he is a viable pick now as long as you ban counters like Emma Frost.

Magneto (S+ both lists)

As one of the most powerful mutants in existence, Magneto makes his mark on the battlefield. He can quickly solo-kill 250HP heroes with his three-tap combo.

His ultimate, which was already extremely powerful, got its projectile speed buffed in Season 7. Counters most Strategist ults and getting KOs with his ult will be easier than ever!

In the current Meta, having Magneto's Metal Bulwark ally bubble is practically a requirement. Although the ally bubble got a CD nerf, his solo presence increases with his self bubble at just 10s now.

Against Emma Frost, he outranges her in the poke battle, can bubble himself to counter her grab + kick combo, and his shield and bubbles counter her ultimate.

Peni Parker (B diamond+, S below diamond)

After struggling in the first few seasons, repeated buffs have come through for Peni Parker in the last few patches!

The only thing holding Peni back is that her kit is still niche. When she's played as a counter pick or on her best map areas, she's incredibly strong.

In most situations, however, she lags behind due to her limited effective range, and so many enemy Heroes having the mobility and range necessary to play around her mines.

Sp//dr and Peni Parker are extremely annoying to have to deal with because of her nest, mines, and stuns, which the enemies are forced to play around. In high elo games, her Ult is her biggest weakness, as many fights are determined by Ult economy.

For the below Diamond ranks, she is an absolute menace! Teams in these matches typically do not know how to correctly path, avoid her traps, or destroy her deployable. Her extra health and increased speed have also made her extremely difficult to eliminate.

The true superpower of Peni is her three-second stun. No other hero can stun even remotely close to as often as she can. Her Web-Snare even cancels out projectiles like Iron Man's ultimate Invincible Cannon!

Rogue (S diamond+, A below diamond)

Stealing the spotlight quicker than she steals powers, Rogue comes in as the newest Vanguard from Season 5.5!

Kitted out with an empowered block, deceptively long melee range, and the ability to drain enemy ult charge and steal their super powered abelites makes Rogue a strong and versatile frontliner.

The execution required to master Rogue is higher than the average Vanguard in Rivals, but the reward is quick KOs from her burst damage combos.

When you want to focus on the offense, make sure you steal her DPS passive from a Duelist for the damage boost. Also, it's worth taking a bit of time to get a feel for which powers she steals from each hero she can steal powers from, so you can better plan out your fights.

With the Gambit Team-Up, she's considerably more powerful. The only problem is that Gambit is still a frequent ban. When he is available, Rogue is a solid pick.

The Thing (S both lists)

It's Clobberin' Time! The Thing is perfectly constructed for brawling. With high melee damage, CC immunity, damage reduction, and knock-up abilities, no one can afford to take him head-on.

Ever since the Season 3 introduction of Embattled Leap and Haymaker reworks, The Thing has an easier time playing into his counters.

The Thing also wins most Vanguard 1v1s when both have Strategists healing them. Even if enemies escape his Slam, he can just Leap to them now. He's very difficult to keep away from, and he's deadly up close.

Against dive comps, The Thing is easily one of the best counter picks. Any mobility duelist caught in the movement ability lockout of his slam becomes an easy kill.

In Season 5, the meta has shifted to triple Strategist and heroes who can play outside of The Thing's range, so he's having a difficult time finding value right now.

Thor (A diamond+, S below diamond)

Wielding Mjolnir, Thor swings the mighty hammer across the battlefield. Most of his abilities share the same resource called Thorforce, displayed as hammers just below the crosshairs.

The main areas where Thor struggles compared to the other Vanguards are being less tanky, having no damage mitigation abilities, and having no way to counter CC. Both his rework and shifts in the meta have caused Thor to fall off hard, as there isn't a situation where he would be the ideal Vanguard to play.

Thor is still quite efficient at eliminating Strategists when they're unprotected. Due to his burst damage and independent playstyle, he's always viable in the right hands, even considering his placement on the Tier List.

Venom (A diamond+, B below diamond)

We are Venom! The symbiote has unbelievably high mobility thanks to his Venom Swing and Frenzied Arrival. Venom is really good at not dying, but he often relies on coordinated engagements to secure KOs.

He's good at chasing down poke heroes and snipers. Against Hela, for example, Venom can swing, slam, (Hela escapes), and then swing slam again before she gets her fade back.

Venom was dominant in Season 4.5, but the introduction of Gambit allows you to easily escape Venom, and cleansing the status effect of his ult instantly puts the symbiote in check.

Black Panther (C diamond+, B below diamond)

Still the king of Wakanda, but no longer the king of melee heroes in Marvel Rivals. High risk and high reward sum up T’Challa’s playstyle.

Some much-needed buffs finally came through for Panther in Season 7. The omnidirectional Spinning Kick makes it a great escape tool as he can now use it to access high ground or dash over walls to safety.

When at the beginning or mid-combo, the rework has created some completely brand new combos with great burst damage. He can secure KOs before teams have time to react with healing, but doing so requires precise staging and execution.

Unfortunately, he still has the same issues with the dominance of all the anti-dive heroes like Elsa Bloodstone, The Thing, Namor, Winter Soldier, Emma Frost, and White Fox (the list goes on). He can barely interact with fliers, can't keep up with Loki clones, and can't kill through the healing of multiple Strategists. He's not bad by any means, but getting value with him is harder than with most other heroes.

The high level of mobility makes him very challenging to track in non-ban ranks where players have not learned his movement patterns or mastered 180° flicks. For the dedicated players who master his Vibranium Mark dash reset mechanic, Black Panther has the potential to be a team-wiping machine.

Black Widow (C both lists)

A sniper who can’t kill with a headshot!? Unfortunately for our snipers, head clickers, and quick scopers, landing shots with Black Widow will feel unrewarding when you watch enemies escape with slivers of health. Although she was trained to be a killer from childhood, prepare to be flamed every match just for playing her.

The duration buffs to Mantis' damage boost and healing are a soft buff to Natasha and raise the power level of this duo considerably. With all the 250HP heroes in the game, she has plenty of targets to one-shot while damage boosted.

If you are extremely mechanically gifted and can consistently land headshots in a game with countless movement abilities and destructible environment, you can have a lot of success as Black Widow. At that point, however, you would be carrying every game had you picked Hela or Phoenix.

Blade (A both lists)

The human-vampire hybrid who has dedicated his life to ridding the world of vampires. Blade joins the Marvel Rivals roster as the first hero with an anti-healing ability! Healing is extremely strong in Rivals, which is often seen in long, drawn-out team fights where neither can secure a team wipe.

Being able to apply 7 seconds of 40% reduced healing on a Vanguard all but guarantees the kill, even through many defensive ults. Each dash also knocks the target back. These qualities make Blade lethal to advance on as he easily punishes overextended enemies.

Arguably the most buffed hero in Season 7, the addition of Bonus Health and increased Lifesteal finally gives Blade the sustain to brawl on the frontlines.

Although ults come online less often now, the Healing Reduction inflicted was doubled from 20% to 40%. Enemies caught in your ult can consistently be KO'd even through the healing of many defensive ultimates.

Players who are finding the most success with Blade are using an "off-off-tank" playstyle, focusing on punishing enemy mistakes in positioning rather than going for aggressive flanks, deep dives, or full-on brawls.

Daredevil (S diamond+, B below diamond)

Dare Devil is the newest melee Duelist and was added in Season 4.5. While he's on the more technical side and requires a fair bit of dedicated practice, he's been performing really well.

One area he stands out above the rest is his ability to chase down and confirm kills on highly mobile backline Heroes like Rocket and Jeff. Both of these Strategists have proven to be incredibly difficult to eliminate this season, but Dare Devil excels at preventing their retreat.

His passive also enables him to set up deadly flanks and as well as spot enemy flankers; making him an excellent choice in a meta dominated by triple Strategist.

Deadpool (S+ → C)

Deadpool is one of the most unique heroes in Marvel Rivals, standing out as the only character capable of flexing into all three roles.

From being labeled as a zero-star difficulty hero to farming style points by taking selfies with his KO'd victim, everything about his design and kit matches his personality. Don't be fooled; even these comical abilities are powerful tools, such as his complete invulnerability while taking a selfie. Players are already using this to survive ults and stall for teammate help.

The "Merc with a Mouth" has an extremely high skill ceiling, and all three kits benefit greatly from team coordination, which explains the general reasoning for each of his placements being lower on the "Below Diamond" rankings.

Vanguard Pool's ability to delete enemy backlines with his ult, and shred tanks with his pistols parly carries him to the top. Meanwhile, Strategist Pool performs in the middle or the pack, and we've seen that resetting ult progress on death makes it difficult for his team to shift the odds once they start losing.

Duelist Pool is certainly the weakest role currently even after damage buffs in Season 7. He starts off as the weakest character in the game, and even after leveling up his abilities, the payout doesn't feel worth it.

Elsa Bloodstone (S+ diamond+, S below diamond)

Elsa Bloodstone is the newest hitscan Duelist of Season 6.5 who has quickly taken over the damage meta. She dropped so strong that the devs have already nerfed her multiple times. Even after the nerfs, her kit is insane, and she has the perfect balance of lethality and survivability to excel in Rivals.

Once you get to rank 3 Instinct and get her dash cooldown to 2 seconds, she becomes extremely difficult to KO as she can constantly dodge, generate bonus health, and combo her elephant gun.

Her ult has also been shown to be very powerful for both displacement and KOs. On maps with ledges nearby, the monster just rushes the enemies off the map for a free win. Overall, her damage is among the best in class, and her survivability and mobility give her great versatility.

Hawkeye (B diamond+, C below diamond)

Hawkeye, the only hero capable of one-shotting almost every Duelist and Strategist.

With his recent reworks and damage nerfs, he's struggling to keep up in the current meta. The one good use for Hawkeye is headshotting Cloak & Dagger every time they ult.

Most of his lethality stems from his ability to consistently land headshots, so the lower ranks struggle to provide consistent value to their team with him.

Make sure to save Hypersonic Arrow for his ultimate because he deletes 250HP heroes even through healing ultimates.

Human Torch (B diamond+, A below diamond)

Johnny Storm burns up frontlines and turns choke points into a wall of fire. All of his abilities deal high amounts of AoE damage, and he even has good burst damage from his combos.

Human Torch had been a flaming menace in the highest ranks, but repeated nerfs have dropped his power considerably.

The tweak to his primary fire resource is a big buff to his spam uptime. Now, you can spam all shots, shoot two right-clicks, and your resource will be automatically reloaded to full. Fire never stops burning! This new playstyle is more favorable in the below Diamond ranks, so for the first time ever, we're placing him higher there and lower in the Diamond+ ranks.

Hela (A both lists)

Hela is a popular choice for mechanically skilled players who are confident in their aim.

Hela’s consistent ranged damage output kept her a strong hero regardless of meta shifts, but the falloff damage nerfs in Season 6.5, and the fact that Phoenix is essentially a superior version of Hela, has placed the Queen of death lower than ever.

The Team-Up with Namor is very strong, and they are a solid duo for Duelists. The Goddess of Death ult gives her a get out of jail free card, which instantly activates and places Hela in a first-person bird’s eye view with its own 1000 shield HP. For 10 full seconds, Hela rains death on the battlefield with high AoE damage.

Reliance on aim mechanics, however, does mean that Hela’s viability is very dependent on individual skill, and she's only the best hero in the hands of the highly skilled.

Iron Fist (B diamond+, S below diamond)

Iron Fist has been reworked a few times since the launch of Marvel Rivals. His viability is very matchup dependent as he hard counters some heroes, but is also easy to counter.

Empowered by Shou-Lao, Lin Lie uses his martial arts and triple jump ability to chase down his foes. The strange movement from his Leap and kicks makes him difficult to track in the ranks below Diamond.

In Season 6.5, he's a well-balanced mid-tier hero. Also, he's the only melee Duelist who can deal with fliers, and we keep getting more of them!

Be sure not to shoot him when he’s parrying with Dragon’s Defense, or else he will destroy your team.

Iron Man (B both lists)

Iron Man has been adjusted in just about every major update. Previously, his Gamma Team-Up was nerfed, then removed in exchange for him becoming an Anchor to Ultron's Nano Ray, his flying and Overdrive gets reworked, and now in Season 7 he's buffed once again.

Being able to increase the duration of Overdrive can be a very potent fight-winning mechanic, but unless he is getting hard pocketed by Strategists, the opportunity to stay aggressive to get multiple KOs with one use is rare.

Hitscans are really strong right now, making it difficult to play Iron Man or flyer comps.

The Invincible Pulse Cannon, shot carelessly, gets easily blocked or evaded. When used strategically and sneakily, it reliably elims and is one of the few ways to eliminate enemies during defensive ultimates.

Magik (A both lists)

The Soulsword wielder slashes through the enemies she slays. For a melee hero, Magik has huge hitboxes, deals high damage, but is rather difficult to use. Combo mastery is vital, and she can't afford to miss attacks because she relies on the Bonus Health for survival.

The Season 7 hitbox buff to her projectile makes it more consistent for combos, especially at the intermediate ranks. Magik's specialists are still performing well, but the player base has slowly gotten better at countering her with the constant addition of heroes like White Fox, who can easily survive melee divers.

Additionally, fliers and heroes with escape abilities are becoming more common, which makes it difficult to find value as Magik. Her inconsistency holds her back more than anything. Although she has great pick potential, opportunities are scarce, and execution must be perfect.

Mister Fantastic (B diamond+, S below diamond)

Made of rubber and Bonus Health, Mister Fantastic stretches out to fill whatever role his team needs. Reed Richards has a significantly higher health pool than any other duelist and far exceeds them in damage mitigation.

Season 5 reworks to Inflated State are holding strong. Effectively, every time you exit Inflated State, you'll be at a full 350HP. He's harder than ever to KO. He's difficult to kill, but at the highest ranks, his limited range and damage output hold him back.

For players in the below Diamond ranks, he's especially good because fights tend to be more brawly. Players in these ranks also have a hard time dealing with his CC and self-sustain. Don't be surprised to see Mister Fantastics carrying their team.

Moon Knight (S diamond+, S+ below diamond)

After becoming the avatar of the Egyptian god, Khonshu, Moon Knight dishes out vengeance upon his foes! His kit primarily revolves around his Ancient Ankh, which first pulls enemies into it, then allows his primary fire to bounce off the Ankh and auto-lock onto any targets in the AoE.

Moon Knight is one of the easiest and best heroes for new players looking to quickly do well. In the below Diamond ranks, players forget to shoot the Ankhs, position closely together, and Moon Knight farms the enemies.

Moon Knight's only weakness is his vulnerability to dive heroes like Spider-Man and Venom, and snipers like Hela. If you see an enemy Moon Knight giving your team trouble, play spread out or consider swapping to one of his counter picks. (see Moon Knight guide for reference)

Namor (S Diamond+, S+ Below Diamond)

The power of the trident-throwing King of the Seas resides in his octopus turrets, Aquatic Dominion. Equally effective at tank-busting and countering flankers, Namor keeps getting buffed no matter how strong he is already.

His Team-Up with Hela is ridicuously strong, and scales up in power based on how well Namor and the Hela player are performing. Although she's fallen off a bit, Namor still performs well on his own this season.

Having autofiring turrets allows Namor to be a great pick at all levels of play. He’s the perfect way to counter high-mobility flankers. Create cross-fire angles with turret placement, and be sure to carefully aim his secondary fire, as missing Wrath of the Seven Seas loses a ton of his damage output if you don't enhance them.

Phoenix (S+ diamond+, S below diamond)

Phoenix's fiery kit makes her a great off-angle Duelist because she has burst damage, mobility, and self-sustain.

Telekinesis Burst (Secondary fire) can easily stun targets from nearly infinite range, so her enemies have to always be on guard. The ability is a hard stun, so it can cancel ults like Dr. Strange's Eye of Agamotto.

Once she has ult online, any enemy with a Shield, Bonus Health, or a deployable has to play cautiously and strategically because Endsong Inferno destroys them all with its massive AoE.

Endsong Inferno has lower base damage than most Duelist ults, but its power lies in its destructive quality when used as a counter ult. Bonus Health and Deployable ults are hard countered by hers, so if the enemy team has heroes like Rocket Raccoon or Venom, Phoenix completely negates their ults' effectiveness.

Psylocke (S+ both lists)

One of the best flankers in all of Marvel Rivals, Psylocke combos her targets for quick eliminations. When caught, she instantly turns invisible with Psychic Stealth to escape. Wing Shurikens not only deal multiple instances of damage but also give self-healing for every round hit.

Despite the difficulty of maxing her base kit, the auto-tracking mechanic and large AoE of her ult make it a one of the most broken instant fight win buttons in the below Diamond ranks.

Season 7 brought her even more buffs in damage and cooldowns! She was already pretty strong, and now is once again one of the strongest Duelists across every rank. Just farm ult and kill Strategists with it, and you're going to win a lot of games.

Scarlet Witch (C diamond+, S+ below diamond)

Players who struggle mechanically can pick Scarlet Witch and quickly do well in games. In the Below Diamond ranks, her low-skill floor and consistent damage make her an absolute menace in Season 7!

In light of her Season 7 buffs, her damage still remains too low to out-duel enemies in the highest ranks, where players' mechanical skill gives more value than her auto-tracking.

If you can sneak up close on an enemy, Wanda can get in decent burst damage, but don't expect a mere 5 extra damage /sec at close range to be meta-breaking.

The Team-Up with Doctor Strange is chaotically good! With a relatively short cooldown, she scores much more consistent KOs when empowered by the Sorcerer Supreme.

Reality Erasure also got a much-needed buff where the slowdown starts later, and she retains the Bonus Health from the previous patch. Still not an amazing ult when compared to the other duelists, but comboed with Dr. Strange or Emma Frost's stun ultimates can get you some easy team wipes.

Spider-Man (A diamond+, C below diamond)

Everyone’s favorite web-slinger, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, swings his way into the action. Spider-Man has the highest skill floor and skill ceiling out of every hero currently in Marvel Rivals. He has more abilities than average, difficult movement, and a crazy amount of animation cancels and niche techs.

At the highest ranks, it's rare to see a Spidey finding consistent value outside of lege pulls, but for the vast majority of players, a good Spider-Man can ensnare a lobby. He's difficult to use, but also difficult to track and kill when the enemy is skilled with his mobility.

He got some decent buffs in Season 5 & 6, but he still lags behind most Dueslists in both consistent value and pick potential. However, especially for Strategists, playing against a good Spidey can be extremely frustrating since his job is basically to ruin their day.

Squirrel Girl (B diamond+, S below diamond)

The girl who eats nuts and kicks butts! When taking advantage of the terrain, Squirrel Girl can utilize the bounce mechanic of her primary fire Burst Acorn to attack enemies behind cover where they cannot target her. Squirrel Blockade traps the enemy and is her best ability.

Groot, being a meta Vanguard in Season 7, increases Squirrel Girl's viability as her kit performs well against his. The barrage of acorns and squirrels makes quick work of Groot and his walls. You just need to watch out for when he's Unstoppable, and save your stun.

For players in the Diamond+ ranks, they learn to position themselves around her trajectory and minimize her value. In the below Diamond ranks, however, Squirrel Girls are farming ult crazy fast and securing KOs with virtually every use. The more linear positioning in below Diamond ranks also allows her kit to shine!

When used haphazardly, the stampede of squirrels is easy to evade, and the nerfed low health of the lead squirrel is easy to destroy for ban rank players. Spam the grouped enemy, and especially on tight maps like Klyntary, you'll soon understand why she's strong right now.

Star-Lord (S both lists)

For players with lightning-fast reflexes and incredible aim tracking, Star-Lord is a great pick! When the enemy has a skilled Star-Lord on their team, it feels like there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.

The fact that Stellar Shift instantly reloads his guns while providing a burst of movement, invulnerability, and Bonus Health makes it an oppressive ability. If you land every bullet, he even one-clips 250hp heroes without needing to hit any headshots.

Flying aimbot. What more needs to be said about his ult Galactic Legend? His ult makes up for his high mechanical requirement for our players below Diamond ranks (less so after the universal ult generation nerf). Pair him with Rocket and set up flank ults with his Jump Pad. The sudden TP makes his ult almost impossible to defend against.

Storm (A both lists)

Out of all the Duelists, Storm benefits most from team play thanks to her AoE boost abilities.

Heroes like Phoenix, Hela, The Punisher, and Spider-Man make the skies a dangerous place to be, and she often dies when using her ultimate in high-ranked lobbies.

Bonus Health buffs from Season 6.5 and the lingering ally boosts make her an even better brawler. Her new playstyle is to position closer to the ground. This benefits her team as more allies will be receiving her speed and damage buffs.

For herself, Jeff-nado was more impactful than Cosmic Cylcone, but for the team, Warlock's increased speed and additional AoE healing are strong.

The Punisher (A diamond+, S below diamond)

If one crazy strong machine gun just isn’t enough for you, press Q while playing as The Punisher and enjoy melting your enemy's health bar. Punisher makes for easy wins and quick climbing in competitive mode, as his first-person shooter kit is simple to understand and powerful.

Across all ranks, he's consistent, has high damage output, and burst damage from the shotgun have kept him a viable pick. Although his shotgun was buffed back in Season 5, players have only recently begun realizing the strength of a close-range shotgun-focused playstyle.

His Team-Up with Daredevil is pretty good, and the melee devil is still strong this Season. Overtime stalling with a Dr. Strange Portal and Punisher Turret is another situation you'll commonly see hero swaps with Punisher.

Winter Soldier (S diamond+, S+ below Diamond)

Again! Again! Again! By now, everyone has been in a game where a single use of Winter Soldier's Kraken Impact turns into an endless barrage of team-wiping slams.

With two charges of Tainted Voltage, his uptime and survivability are pretty great. Bonus Health! Top it off with his Cap Team-Up, and you rarely find yourself without Bonus Health.

During a team fight, Bionic Hook is one of the best abilities available to any hero to quickly turn the tide of a fight. Landing a hook uppercut combo to quickly displace any individual enemy in a 20m range is a crazy strong game-winning interaction. If the enemy doesn't play around Hook, you are going to win.

He pairs well with Groot since a Hook + wall is gernally a instant kill, or at least forces high value CDs and ults. He can also counter Groot granted Bucky tracks Ironwood Wall and plays around Unstoppable.

The damage nerf to his primary fire in Season 7 is worth mentioning, as it significantly impacts his spam damage and ult generation against grouped up enemies. The rest of his kit is still super soldier solid, so he's not out of the higher tiers just yet.

Wolverine (A both lists)

The effectively immortal Adamantium X-Men claws and shreds the otherwise unkillable Vanguards. The damage of Wolverine’s primary attack, Savage Claw, scales up with the max HP of the target, meaning he deals higher damage to Vanguards.

Sneaking up behind a Vanguard to Feral Leap them into his own team is still one of the fastest ways to guarantee an elimination and secure a quick fight win.

A hard counter to any hero without CC immunity or stuns. However, there are so many strong heroes that counter Wolverine right now, such as Unstoppable Groot and Invisible Woman, that it's more difficult than ever to be successful with Logan.

Anytime you play Wolverine, ask your teammate to pick Phoenix because the lifesteal Team-Up is crazy OP.

Adam Warlock (A diamond+, B below diamond)

Using Quantum Magic to connect the souls of his allies together, Adam Warlock excels at prolonging team fights. He can instantly resurrect himself once every two minutes and use his ult to bring his entire team back to life if they all die quickly.

Every primary fire headshot and all secondary fire hits reduce the cooldown of Avatar Life Stream. Warlock players who can farm critical hits on Vanguards are dishing out crazy amounts of healing.

Due to relying on critical hits, Adam is notably stronger in higher ranks. His low and infrequent healing makes him struggle in traditional 2-2-2 comps. For most players, he works better in triple Strategist comps, and that seems to be the go-to right now, so Warlock is getting a lot of playtime.

Warlock has better damage output than some Duelists. However, you aren't popping off; you aren't bringing much value to your team. Teammates in the below Diamond ranks are dependent on raw healing stats to stay alive, which makes Warlock the worst Strategist in these lobbies.

Cloak and Dagger (S+ both lists)

One of the most consistent Strategists, thanks to their auto tracking damage and healing, Cloak & Dagger are never a terrible pick.

The Season 6 buffs to Dagger's burst healing, and the ability to double-stack healing or blinding veil are massive improvements that more than make up for the slight heal-over-time nerfs. Easily one of the best heroes this season!

With its relatively short cooldown, Dark Teleportation has to be named as one of the best defensive abilities in Rivals, as Cloak phases themselves and their team into being untargetable.

Gambit (S+ both lists)

Kinetic energy is not the only thing Gambit manipulates; the powerful utility of his kit has overhauled the meta of Rivals since his addition in Season 5. Even after a few notable nerfs in Seasons 6 and 7, his ult is still too powerful to consider him as anything other than top tier.

With a cleanse and anti-heal, there simply is no better enabler in Marvel Rivals. He can single-handedly swing fights into his team's favor with proper timing of his cooldowns. Purifying Pick-Up negates every status effect-based ult in the game, not to mention the plethora of regular stuns Heroes have.

If his teammates are diving the enemy backline, he can launch Explosive Trick and Bridge Boost all the way to the back and give his flanking allies an easy win.

For a Strategist, his damage is insane, so he always has the option to duel or assassinate. When he gets attacked, two charges of Big Easy Impact make for a smooth getaway.

Invisible Woman (S+ both lists)

You can’t see her, but you’ll definitely feel her impact. Invisible Woman appears and disappears on the battlefield as seamlessly as she moves her forcefield from one ally to another.

She wants to keep her teammates in front of her, where her Orb projection can pierce as many targets as possible before returning to her. Through her combination of healing, shielding, and crowd control, she simultaneously protects her allies and enables easy eliminations.

Against dive and brawl comps, her CC can completely shut down the enemy's plans and keep your team alive. The HP and healing nerfs to her shield in Seasons 6.5 and 7 are notable, but don't make her a less impactful hero.

Having an ult that generates a gigantic blue field of healing is particularly useful in the below Diamond ranks, where players benefit from having an obvious visual cue to go aggressive.

Jeff the Land Shark (B diamond+, A below diamond)

The cute and lovable shark provides consistent healing to his entire team and a nice speed boost from his bubbles.

Jeff the Land Shark pairs best with teams that want to play grouped together since his primary fire pierces both allies and enemies for simultaneous damage and healing.

His survivability has made him a top-tier choice in a game where Strategists are powerful. He also has a good Team-Up with Deadpool, and the Vanguard version is still a top pick this Season, so you can often expect to have the team-up activated when playing Jeff..

Loki (S+ diamond+, S below diamond)

Even if the rest of Loki’s kit was weak, being able to become any hero on either team in a match with instant access to their ultimate would still make Loki a solid pick. Currently, copying Gambit's ult is partly keeping Loki a top meta pick.

Regen Domain not only provides temporary immortality but converts would-be damage into healing, which gives Loki multiple instances of making his team unkillable.

After multiple balance changes to Loki over the last few patches, he's sitting at the top of the game as his kit is well-rounded and fits perfectly in the current meta. A big part of his strength comes from a solid base kit, and the ability to copy Gambit's ult.

Luna Snow (S both lists)

Luna Snow has always been one of the best Strategists, but after a Season of falling off, she got some really powerful buffs for Season 7.

Decreasing Ice Arts cooldown whenever herself or ally with Idol attached get a KO or Assist significantly increases its uptime. In turn, this increases her AoE healing and survivability.

When she has a high mobility hero on her team or someone who wants to play behind enemy lines (e.g., Daredevil), Share the Stage healing aura allows her ally to stay in the fight longer and gain a crucial advantage in dueling their target.

In the current meta with so many backline threats, Luna struggles to keep herself alive compared to meta Strategists. Also, considering the power of the meta Strategists and how easy it is to be consistent with them, there are simply fewer reasons now to play Luna, who has to work harder to hit shots and bring value.

Two primary fire headshots eliminate 250HP heroes, so feel free to be a DPS Luna in Season 7. Also, never complain as a Luna player about teammates not destroying enemy deployables because you quickly take them out.

Mantis (S diamond+, A below diamond)

Mantis is a resource-focused hero with strong ally-empowering abilities. Her ability to constantly give herself and her allies a damage boost is her best utility. While the 12% boost isn’t completely overpowered on an individual hero, having multiple allies and herself repeatedly given the boost compounds the impact of Allied Inspiration.

The ability to stack durations made Mantis' resource management much easier. Allies have 16 whole seconds to go anywhere and take her healing and damage boost with them. An incredibly strong utility to add to any team.

Mantis has been really dominant lately, largely thanks to shifts in the meta that once again favor triple Strategist comps. When a Groot is on your team, their Team-Up is really good. Groot farms ult from the healing, and it helps make up for her low healing per second.

Rocket Raccoon (A diamond+, S+ below diamond)

Rocket Raccoon has been reworked a few times and currently sits in a good spot. At lower ranks, his consistency and ease of use make him the best Strategist, but at higher ranks, he falls off a bit, but not by too much.

B.R.B. sets up his team with over health, jump packs, and rez before the fight even starts. Rocket effectively turns every team fight into a 6v7, as one hero must be eliminated twice.

Rocket offers super consistent AoE healing to his team and has good damage at close range. The double-bounce tech enables high-burst healing with every orb.

Compared to the other Strategists, Rocket demands extremely low resources from the rest of his team as he takes very little damage, plays from relatively safe positions, and is extremely self-sufficient.

He's received multiple small nerfs in a row, without any notable buffs. Regardless, he's a good Strategist to use at every rank.

Ultron (B diamond+, A below diamond)

Ultron is the only flying Strategist! He's a hybrid mix of damage and healing capabilities, who is an excellent choice for anyone who likes to play aggressively.

The passive AoE healing of Imperatice: Patch fits into any team comp as it is useful for healing slow-moving teams that play grouped up, and for healing high mobility allies who want to dive deep into the enemy backline.

Where he really shines is his poke damage and powerful ultimate. Encephalo-Ray is a hitscan beam with high damage even at range, thanks to its minimal falloff damage and the burst explosion at the end of every shot.

The slow rate of fire is perfect for peeking in and out of cover in the sky, as it enables Ultron to deal consistent damage while minimizing his exposure to enemy attacks. Make sure to his the range damage and healing to assist your teammates deep in enemy territory.

Most importantly, manage both Imperative: Patch drones to keep constant healing to enable your team as you blast away at the enemy. In Triple Strategist comps, his power level increases considerably, but he struggles in 2-2-2 comps.

White Fox (S both lists)

White Fox is the only hybrid melee and ranged Strategist in Marvel Rivals. Sly like a fox, she excels at evading enemy dives and flanks with her teleport and dashes.

In Awakened fox form, she can go on the offense and burst down targets with quick combos and crowd control abilities. Fox's form is also an amazing anti-dive tool, allowing her to even the playing field by counterattacking.

One of her notable weaknesses compared to the meta Strategists is that her ult feels a bit limited in comparison. To keep healing herself and be able to continuously send out fox blessings, she needs to constantly claw-slam enemies. However, her huge hurt box and inability to be healed by any other sources makes this a double-edged sword that is equally dangerous to Kumiho.

In the current meta, she fits in triple Strategist or when paired with a high healing output Strategist like Cloak & Dagger. The bounce mechanic gives her unique playmaking capabilities, especially around corners. Pick her up, and even if you don't main White Fox, she's definitely worth learning as a counter pick against the divers like Black Panther that are harder to deal with than ever thanks to the universal CC resistance introduced in Season 7.

Due to the wide spectrum of strategy, skill, coordination, and meta implementation, we feel that having two separate tier lists best reflects the true power level of each hero.

The difficulty of hitting a double headshot with Hela makes her weaker in lower ranks, but strong in the high ranks. A hero like Scarlet Witch, on the other hand, is very easy to pick up with her auto-tracking primary fire, and this makes her strong in the ranks below Diamond. At very high ranks, her viability falls off as her damage per second struggles to keep up with other heroes when players with high mechanical skill hit most of their shots.

Since bans are not a reality in Silver and Bronze, every hero will always be available, which also means counter-picks are always available. Spider-Man, for example, performs worse in Silver and Bronze not only due to his difficulty of use but also because Spidey mains can't ban his counters like Namor out of their games.