In this Marvel Rivals Cloak and Dagger guide, you’ll learn the fundamentals of their abilities, unique play styles, and fundamental tips.
Marvel RivalsMarvel Rivals Cloak and Dagger Character Guide
Cloak and Dagger Overview
Shadow and light come together to form the perfect duo – Cloak and Dagger are the two-in-one hero of Marvel Rivals! One kit is focused purely on healing while the other kit focuses on damage.
Players have to learn how to manage the two separate sets of abilities and cooldowns to find success within the Shadows. Typically, Dagger’s uptime is much higher than Cloak’s as the primary role they serve in a team is to provide high amounts of healing.
Their long range and auto-tracking healing allows them to position on off angles in the backlines where they are safer from the enemy’s spam damage coming into their team.
As a Strategist, Cloak has good damage especially after Landing his Terror Cape, and is great for securing KOs in the cleanup phases of a fight.
Find out where Cloak and Dagger ranks in our Marvel Rivals tier list.
TLDR
As
- Take advantage of your auto tracking healing to support your team’s flankers.
- Using your ultimate for healing is way stronger than using it for damage.
- Never stay as either Cloak or Dagger for too long. Make sure you are getting use out of both of their abilites
Against
- Most heroes have the advantage in a 1v1 duel. Look for opportunities to flank them.
- Focus on aim rather than dodging. Since both of their primary fires have a large tracking area, standing still to make it easier for you to hit your shots proves to be helpful.
- KO her during her ult a big single instance of damage like Magneto’s ult.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Auto Tracking Primary Fires
- Even the most skilled players don’t hit every shot. No matter your ranking, having an, “attraction effect,” on both primary fires significantly raises total your total output and consistency. The auto tracking also makes Cloak & Dagger good with and against high mobility heroes.
Large AoE Effects
- Veil of Lightforce, Dagger Storm, Terror Cape, Dark Teleportation, and Eternal Bond all have large areas of effect. Even Lightforce Dagger has splash healing. All of these abilities help C&D players to have a massive impact on team fights and out poerform the rest of the cast in closely grouped teams.
Balance of Healing and Damage
- The best defense is a good offense. Depending on the situation, they can be outputting high amounts of healing, or assisting with consistent damage when their team needs offense over defense.
Weaknesses
Vulnerable Against Vangaurds
- When an enemy Vanguard gets in their face, Cloak’s only option is to phase away in an attempt to escape. Without a stun or damage high enough to be threatening to a Vanguard, Cloak & Dagger have to run away or rely on their team's peel to survive against an enemy Vanguard.
Managing Two Heroes
- Determining when to heal as Dagger or damage as Cloak is the most challenging aspect of their kit. Although having such a versatile kit seems like a benefit, the two separate kits often cause players to tunnel vision rather than adapt to the situation. The tunneling then in turn costs their teams many lost fights.
Struggles to Save Teammates
- While their group sustain is really good, Cloak & Dagger struggle to save teammates when they are in immediate threat of dying. Without any displacement tool, stun or burst ability, they are not very good at peeling for their teammates.
Cloak's Ability Tips
Primary Fire: Darkforce Cloak
DESCRIPTION | Inflict continuous damage on an enemy |
KEY | Left Click |
CASTING | Cylindrical Spell Field |
SPECIAL EFFECT | Attacks will target the nearest enemy to the crosshair, dealing damage |
DAMAGE | 75/s |
RANGE | 20m |
AMMO | Unlimited |
CRITICAL HIT | No |
Tips for Darkforce Cloak
- Focus On Mobile Duelists And Strategists
- Often you will find that your teammates struggle to deal with highly mobile Duelists and Strategists. Many other heroes have a slow rate of fire or slow projectiles that make it difficult to fight enemies with high mobility.
- Your Auto tracking Darkforce Cloak becomes very crucial to winning games in these scenarios .
- Don't Tunnel Vision on Damage
- While it's a great feeling to hear the “tick tick tick” of Cloak's primary fire, focusing too much on damage will have you missing out on the even greater value that Dagger’s kit brings to your team.
- Limited Range
- The Limited range of dark force cloak means that you will often have to extend in front of your team to continue attacking your target.
Be mindful that when chasing an opponent you may unnecessarily expose yourself to danger. Consequently, you may have to waste Dark Teleportation just to regroup with your team.
- The Limited range of dark force cloak means that you will often have to extend in front of your team to continue attacking your target.
Secondary Fire: Dark Teleportation
DESCRIPTION | Enshroud nearby allies in the Darkforce Dimension, plunging them into the Phased state, making them untargetable and invisible to enemies and granting them a Movement Boost |
KEY | Right Click |
CASTING | Persistent Spell Field |
SPECIAL EFFECT | Allies within the area gain Invisibility and Movement Boost |
DURATION | 2s |
RANGE | 10m spherical radius |
COOLDOWN | 12s |
Tips for Dark Teleportation
- Save For Escaping
- 99% of the time you want to have Dark Teleportation available and only use it to escape from specific enemy threats.
- Depending on the enemy's ability, you will have enough time to switch from Dagger to Cloak, an still phase out.
- Track Enemy Ultimates
- You have a team AoE phase ability that makes everybody in a 10m radius untargetable, invisible, and grants a movement boost. Therefore, it is Cloak and Dagger’s responsibility to track enemy ultimates they can save their team from with a simple 12-second cooldown.
- You Can Fly
- While it is not listed in his abilities, Cloak can fly or descend for the entire duration of dark teleportation. This is especially useful when running away from a flanker.
[E]: Terror Cape
DESCRIPTION | Deploy a Veil of Darkforce to damage enemies upon touch, applying Blind to narrow their sight and Vulnerability to amplify damage received |
KEY | E |
CASTING | Spell Field |
SPECIAL EFFECT | The spell field advances along the casting path |
DAMAGE | 55 |
BLINDING DURATION | 1.5s |
RANGE | Visibility is obstructed beyond 10m |
VULNERABILITY | 20% |
VULNERABILITY DURATION | 3s |
RANGE | Width: 6m, Height: 4.5m |
MOVEMENT SPEED | 20m/s |
MAXIMUM DISTANCE | 25m |
COOLDOWN | 12s |
Tips for Terror Cape
- Shut Down Enemy Abilities
- The blind effect of Terror Cape shuts down tracking abilities such as Star-Lord's ultimate.
- Damage Boost Your Team's Ultimates
- Every enemy hit by Terror Cape takes 20% extra damage for 3 seconds. The 20% damage boost will often be the breaking point which allows your ally's ultimates to damage through the enemy's sustain.
- Buy Extra Time For Allies
- 1.5 seconds of blind may not sound like a lot. That time can create a crucial window for your teammate to escape an enemy attack that would have eliminated them.
Dagger's Ability Tips
Primary Fire: Lightforce Dagger
DESCRIPTION | Unleash a bouncing Lightforce Dagger to damage enemies and heal nearby allies |
KEY | Left Click |
CASTING | Single-cast projectile that generates a spell area upon impact |
SPECIAL EFFECT | The projectile features an attraction effect, pulling in the closest target to the crosshair and creating a spell field upon impact. This spell field provides healing effects |
DAMAGE | 15 damage per round |
HEALING PER HIT | 10 per hit |
AREA OF EFFECT HEALING | 18 per hit |
RANGE | 8m spherical radius |
FIRE RATE | 2.27 hits per second |
AMMO | 12 |
CRITICAL HIT | No |
Tips for Lightforce Dagger
- Compliment ally Strategists Abilities
- Example: If you are playing with an invisible woman for example you know that she has very limited range on her healing therefore you'll want to focus on healing your allies that are outside of her range.
- AoE Splash Healing
- Focus on healing allies close to one another to gain the most benefit from her plash healing.
- Helps charge their ultimate much faster.
- Self Healing
- Dagger can actually heal herself with the splash healing as long as she is close to the explosion of light Force Dagger
- The self healing works whether she is targeting an ally for healing, or damaging an enemy.
Secondary Fire: Dagger Storm
DESCRIPTION | Launch a volley of daggers, creating a Healing Over Time field in the impact area |
KEY | Right Click |
CASTING | Single-cast projectile with delayed impact that also generates a spell field |
HEALING AMOUNT | 55/s |
DURATION | 6s |
RANGE | 5m spherical radius |
COOLDOWN | 12s |
Tips for Dagger Storm
- Look for Grouped Allies
- Since everyone within the AoE gets the same amount of healing, having multiple allies within Dagger Storm compounds your healing output.
- Choke Points
- Choke points are an area where your team slowly pushes through. Using Dagger Storm at choke points is a good way for your team to utilize the entire 6 seconds of healing.
- Allies on off Angles
- Throwing Dagger Storm on an ally at an off angle or a high ground separate from your team gives them passive sustain.
- Enables them to attack from their position for longer
- Allows you to continue using the rest of your abilities and focus on everyone else.
[E]: Veil of Lightforce
DESCRIPTION | Deploy a Veil of Lightforce to heal allies upon touch and grant them a Healing Boost |
KEY | E |
CASTING | Spell Field |
SPECIAL EFFECT | The spell field advances along the casting path |
HEALING AMOUNT | 45 |
HEALING BOOST | 15% |
DURATION | 4s |
RANGE | Width: 6m, Height: 4.5m |
MOVEMENT SPEED | 20m/s |
MAXIMUM DISTANCE | 25m |
COOLDOWN | 12s |
Tips for Veil of Lightforce
- Healing Boost Applies to all Healing
- Time when your other Strategist is healing for maximum effect.
- Throw Out Before Switching to Cloak
- If you’re going to focus on damage for a bit, giving your allies the healing boost first will help them to survive without Dagger’s direct healing.
- Line up Allies
- Standing behind your team on level ground helps to line up as many allies as possible to be hit by Veril of Lightforce.
Synergies
Team Comp Synergies
Team comps built around Cloak & Dagger are built to benefit from their multiple AoE abilities. This means team comps who play grouped up are the perfect fits for the light and shadow duo.
Having a grounded frontline is especially important for Dagger. Magneto and Doctor Strange for example play right on top of each other, trading off damage mitigating abilities.
That guarantees at least two allies will always be in the AoE of their abilities. Alternatively, the auto tracking quality of Dagger’s primary fire pairs perfectly with distant and fast-moving heroes like melee flankers.
Due to their lack of CC, they also look to have a 2nd Strategist with displacement or stuns to help ensure they are not overly vulnerable to dive attacks.
Team Comp Example
- Vanguards: Magneto, Doctor Strange
- Duelists: Spider-Man, Winter Soldier
- Strategists: Cloak & Dagger, Mantis
Hero Synergies
Vanguards: Magneto
Magneto’s ally bubble, Metal Bulwark, makes Eternal Bond safe to use against burst damage. Enemy Magnetos have gotten really consistent at killing Dagger during her ult.
Having a Magneto on your own team is the best counterplay. The master of magnetism also provides a great frontline to position behind. Teams tend to line up behind Magneto so you’ll get plenty of value from your AoE effects.
Duelists: Spider-Man
Spider-Man can be really difficult for Strategists like Luna Snow to heal while he’s attacking the enemy. The auto-tracking quality of Dagger’s primary fire makes keeping Spider-Man up and healthy a breeze. The longer he can stay in a fight, the more lethal his dives become.
Additionally, landing a Terror Cape blind prevents Peter Parker from getting stunned by a counterattack. No matter how far away he is or how fast he is moving, Dagger can always assist his dives.
Strategists: Mantis
Mantis and Cloak together make a lethal backline that is extremely dangerous to advance upon. Their damage together quickly wipes out flanking Duelists. Mantis’s sleep is the most vital asset she brings to this backline. Hitting Spore Slumber on an enemy Vanguard gives both of you time to evade and start melting away their health.
Table of Contents
Base Stats
Role | Strategist |
Difficulty | 3/5 Stars |
Health | 250 |
Movement Speed | 6 m/s |