Black Panther = Doomfist + Genji
Black Panther’s primary weapons are his Vibranium Claws. Players who enjoy battling up close and personal with their enemies should give The King of Wakanda a try. Genji mains will feel right at home with Black Panther’s dash reset ability, “Sprint Rend.”
First, a player must attach a Vibranium Mark onto an enemy by hitting them with his flying kick or spear. Dashing into a Marked enemy instantly resets the ability's cooldown! Maximizing damage and evasive movement from Sprint Rend feels very similar to how Genji’s dash cooldown resets any time he confirms an elimination on an enemy with the attack.
The same way Genji can quickly slice and dash between multiple enemies during his Ult is how Black Panther can repeatedly dash attack between multiple enemies after using his ultimate to attach a Mark to all enemies in its AoE. As part of his movement kit, Black Panther can also double jump and wall climb like Genji.
Playing as Black Panther also feels similar to playing as Doomfist in that they are both melee heroes who rely on generating shield health from landing their abilities. Every time he lands Sprint Rend on a marked enemy, Black Panther also receives bonus temporary shield health that can be stacked repeatedly like Doomfist's bonus health.
Black Widow = Widow Maker
All widows are snipers. Natasha Romanoff jumps into Rivals as the first and only scoped-in sniper! Just like Widowmaker, Black Widow controls long lines of sight through her threat of critical hit burst damage. Unfortunately for Widow mains, Black Widow can't KO with a headshot unless she is being damage boosted by an ally.
Also like her OW2 counterpart, Black Widow can choose to shoot without scoping in. Unlike Widowmaker, however, her sniper retains its same single-shot bullet whether or not Natasha is ADS.
Hawkeye = Hanzo + Zen
The two archers share an abundance of similarities. Both Hawkeye and Hanzo use a bow and arrow that need to be drawn and charged for maximum damage. A sniper playstyle will be the primary use for Hawkeye, although, like Hanzo, he has extra abilities that let him be effective in close-range engagements as well.
Hawkeye can deal much higher damage than Hanzo with a single arrow. In Marvel Rivals, the archer can oneshot all non-tank heroes whereas Hanzo is currently limited to being able to oneshot 250HP heroes. Players will need to be in range to activate Archer’s Focus and then land a critical hit in order to oneshot.
Crescent Slash functions like Zen’s kick because it's a strong, “get off me,” tool that can be used to set up easy follow-up shots against the CC’d target. Positioning for Hawkeye is essentially the same as Zen or Hanzo because he wants to abuse his superior range damage while preventing the enemies from closing in on him.
Hela = Widowmaker + Cassidy + Sojourn
The Goddess of Death is a fitting title for Hela’s feature in Marvel Rivals. Her primary fire headshots deal insane damage and two taps all 275HP heroes. Her Overwatch counterparts are Widowmaker, Cassidy, and Sojourn.
The rate of fire of her primary fire feels similar to Cassidy but with not recoil. The power and range of her primary fire feels more similar to Sojourn's Railgun alternate fire.
Hela is extremely versatile and can be played like Widowmaker, sniping from behind your team, or like Sojourn and Cassidy in mid to close range. Also like Cassidy, she has a stun. Unlike any of these OW2 comparisons, Hela also has an invincible fade escape which makes her more difficult to dive than Widowmaker.
Human Torch = Echo + Torbjörn
Echo mains will feel right at home playing Human Torch. Both heroes have similar flight mechanics and use SHIFT to boost their aerial speed. Additionally, their primary fires are a projectile with a shotgun spread. Where they really feel similar is in playstyle. Each has long-range capabilities but performs best at medium-close range where they can use their deadliest abilities.
The way Human Torch uses flames to control and deny space gives him a similar function to Torbjörn as well. These two use their offensive power, auto-damaging abilities to hold down choke points. Torb uses his turret and overdrive, and Torch uses Flames and Pryo-Prison.
They also have similar ults where fire burning flame or lava at a location to either get a kill or force enemies away. In the same Torb’s ult is crazy powerful to blast all over payload in overtime, Human Torch can shoot all of his tornadoes to take over the cart.
Iron Fist = Lucio + Doomfist
Empowered by Shou-Lao, Lin Lie uses his martial arts to defeat all who stand in his way. Quickly navigating the environment by wall riding and jumping around feels very reminiscent of skating around as Lucio. He also has a great boop ability where he kicks the enemy to launch them backward like Lucio’s Soundwave.
When Iron Fist goes in and gets met with the enemy's retaliation, he can block enemy damage and convert blocked attacks into bonus health and an empowered attack. Compared to Doomfist’s Power Block, Iron Fist converts more damage into bonus health, and also empowers his primary fire.
Iron Man = Pharah + Echo
Combine Pharah’s and Echo’s kit into one person and you basically have Iron Man. His primary fire, Repulsor Blast, is essentially Pharah’s primary fire, and his secondary fire, Unibeam, is literally Echo’s Focusing Beam.
When using Ammo Overdrive he can fire a barrage of missiles like a miniature version of Pharrah's ult.
Hyper-Velocity (SHIFT), propels Iron Man forward through the air as you’d imagine from cartoons and movies, but at a much slower speed.
His SHIFT functions more like Echo’s SHIFT except that it lasts much longer. A major difference between Iron Man and his OW2 counterparts is his ability to permanently fly.
Magik = Reinhardt + Doomfist
One day Reinhardt decided to trade in his shield to gain Doomfist abilities; He then became Magik. The Soulsword wielder has an awesome and unique design that every Rein main needs to experience.
While not a Giant Tank like Rein, Magik’s large arching sword swings are reminiscent of the way Rein swings his hammer and her right click is even a wind-up into Fire Strike.
Similar to Doomfist, however, she relies on gaining shield health from successful attacks. Umbral Incursion dash attack looks like Doom punch but ends with his OW1 uppercut.
Magik has an install ult which transforms her into Nano-Reinfist, er… I mean, the demonic Darkchild!
Mister Fantastic = Orisa + Reinhardt
If you enjoy walking right into the face of the enemy while being a great unkillable annoyance to the enemy team, Mister Fantastic is for you. The stretchy Reed Richards gameplay loop is to cycle through his crowd control and damage mitigation cooldowns to make yourself unkillable. An extremely familiar feeling will come over you if you’ve spent time playing as or fighting against Orisa.
He also has a slow lingering stretching arm swing which players flick around their crosshairs to cleave as many enemies as possible. Mister Fantastic’s primary fire, especially when in Inflated state, actually is the closest attack to Reinhardt’s swinging hammer.
Moon Knight = Echo + Hanzo
Moon Knight, the Fist of Khonshu joins the battle! His playstyle resembles Echo as both heroes play at a distance and utilize their superior mobility flank and disengage during team fights.
You can use Moonlight Hook similarly to Echo’s flight since both abilities give the heroes a sudden burst of movement and sets them up to use their glide passives and continue their aerial assault. Also like Echo, Moon Knight wants to play around his big damage cooldowns, go aggressive when they're online, and passively when they are recharging.
Hazno shares qualities with Moon Knight as well with the ability to control high ground and a high damage AoE ultimate that gets maximum value when combined with another CC stun ability.
Namor = Orisa + Torbjorn + Mei
Imagine that Orisa's Javelin throw wasn’t super annoying and didn’t stun you; that's Namor's primary and secondary fires. He also has up to three Torbjörn turrets which he throws out but Namor turrets can stick to walls.
Finally, take Mei’s Ice Block but trade out self healing for the ability to fly and move around. Now you have Namor's SHIFT ability called Blessing of the Deep. Thankfully, he can be healed by allies while in the invulnerable water block.
Psylocke = Sombra + Venture
The wandering warrior was the first hero in Rivals to feature a stealth ability like Sombra’s. Psychic Stealth grants a movement speed boost while invisible for a duration of just a few seconds.
Her primary fire is hitscan like Sombra, but instead of Virus, she has Wing Shurikens which grant bonus shield health similar to Venture’s passive when using Venture’s abilities. Psylocke also has an attack dash like Venture, and her Primary fire reduces her other abilities CDS, similar to how Burrow does with Venture.
The Punisher = Soldier: 76 + Widowmaker + Mauga + Bastion
The Punisher brings his full arsenal to the fight with four different guns at his disposal. He is the Call of Duty archetype or Marvel Rivals's Soldier: 76. The primary fire assault rifle called Adjudication has zero spread and zero recoil.
Compared to Soldier: 76, aiming and hitting shots with The Punisher is even easier. Similar to Widowmaker, he also has a grappling hook but his attaches a zipline he can ride back and forth as many times as he wants making for creative quick maneuvers mid-fight.
Press Q and Frank Castle becomes Mauga with a gun in each hand and a smile on his face. The Punisher’s double chain gun form, Final Judgement, is more like if Mauga was holding two turret form Bastion's in his hands because that is how fast he deletes enemies during the Ult.
Scarlet Witch = Moira + D.VA
Moira mains are feasting in Marvel Rivals right now. Scarlet Witch’s left click is nearly identical to Moira’s and has a large area of auto-aim attached to the targets.
She also has two charges of a Moira-style Fades which she can fly during to escape and reposition herself safely and freely. As with Moira’s suck, Scarlet Witch’s primary fire refills her secondary fire resources.
The only difference is Scarlet Witch isn’t concerned with healing her allies so her secondary fire is a ranged AoE explosive missile of magic. For her ult, she turns herself into a D.Va bomb where the player can slowly control her flight for a few seconds until she explodes and instantly kills any enemy in range.
You’ll need to treat using her ult like using Pharrah Barrage because you can be killed before detonating and are moving so slowly in the air she can easily be shut down.
Spider-Man = Genji + Doomfist + Roadhog
Spiderman has the highest skill ceiling, and being in total control of his vast movement abilities is the most important skill to possess. Genji players skill set carries over nicely to Spider-man with his wall climbs, double jumps, dash attack, and even his Web-Cluster fires like Genji’s shuriken primary fire.
Additionally, Spiderman can use his webs to pull his opponents to him like a Roadhog hook, then uppercut them into the air for followup damage like OW1 Doomfist.
The main thing Doom mains and Spidey mains have in common is memorizing map rollouts. You can't just fly face first into the enemy. Both heroes abuse their mobility to create sneaky surprise attack angles and traverse that map quicker than anyone else.
Squirrel Girl = Junkrat
This one is pretty on the nose. Squirrel Girl's primary fire lobs a projectile that bounces off walls like a Junkrat Frag Launcher. Her secondary fire chucks a large slow moving projectile which traps a hit enemy in place as if they were caught in Junkrat’s Steel Trap.
Instead of launching out an explosive tire, Squirrel Girl sends out a squirell stampede into a group of enemies. Both ultimate are best used from off angles and positions that catch the enemy team by surprise since both ults can easily be destroyed if the enemy sees it coming.
Star-Lord = Tracer + Reaper + Soldier: 76
Star-Lord and Tracer are practically 1:1 clones of each other. He literally dual-wields fast-firing pistols and blinks around the map. Instead of recall, Star-Lord has a mini Reaper Death Blossom ult on cooldown, which exactly like Death Blossom auto-fires at every nearby enemy.
When he ults Peter Quill flies up like Illari ult and uses the Soldier: 76 Tac Visor from the air. Players who enjoy Tracer's flank and assassinate playstyle, 100% should be picking up Star-Lord as he is essentially a more aggressive version of Tracer.
Storm = Echo + Pharah + Lucio
Storm flies through the air while launching wind blades at her enemies. As a flying damage-based hero, she shares her play style with Echo and Pharah. The lack of burst movement in the air makes her flight mechanics feel more like when you briefly fly as Illari during her ult.
Two different separate damage and speed boosts are available to Storm. One cool down boosts her allies and a separate cool down gives the boosts to herself. Just like Lucio, her ally speed boost effect is an AoE aura whose range is visually indicated on the screen in a circle around her.
Winter Soldier = Roadhog + Doomfist
Bucky controls the pace of a fight with his Bionic Hook that pulls enemies to him like a Roadhog Chain Hook. If you’re already used to hook & turn with Hog, you’ll feel right at home since Bucky can also turn to pull the enemy to his side or around a corner. He also has a low ammo gun that fires explosive projectiles like Hog and shines at close range.
When using his ultimate, Kraken Impact, Winter Soldier gets his slam instantly reset if the targeted enemy dies from or just after being hit by the ult. Getting a team wipe by dashing from one enemy to the next will give your enemies Dragon Blade PTSD if they’ve ever been wiped by Genji’s ultimate.
