Marvel RivalsBest Heroes in Marvel Rivals: Tier List Rankings (Season 2)

Welcome to our tier list of the best heroes in Marvel Rivals!

This list is based on the game’s Season 2 patch that launched on 4/11/25. We will continue to update as the meta develops and balance changes are added.

As always with our tier lists, we recommend starting with whatever heroes you feel best suit your personal preference, playstyle and strengths.

Without further ado, here are our rankings for the best heroes in Marvel Rivals. Use the Table of Contents to jump to the explanation for any individual hero or tier.

Captain America (B both lists)

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 or slam to chase down enemies and keep them in melee range. Cap is more difficult and inconsistent than he is bad. The Season 2 rework to his base and shield health, and the seasonal 5% damage boost have made him the strongest he's been yet. He's one of the best at time stalling and rushing down enemy backlines.

The meta Vanguards simply provide more value and have an easier time finding their value. The newly added Emma Frost also ruins his day with a single grab and kick.

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.

For the first time since launch, Strange has truly fallen out of the meta. His solo playmaking abilities have greatly decreased from the Season 2 nerfs. Additionally, The Thing, Emma Frost, and Groot all have favorable matchups against Strange.

He's not completely out yet, however, as his ultimate 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.

Groot (S+ both lists)

Groot has great damage when assisted by his walls, but his power lies in his incredible survivability and unique ability to manipulate the environment. Using wood walls to cut off choke points and isolate heroes from their allies is difficult for the enemy to play around at every level of play.

His ultimate, Strangling Prison, also enables huge team wiping ult combos depending on what allies he’s paired with. The Groot Moon Knight wombo combo is back in Season 2 and is one of the easiest ways to secure wins.

The best way to counter grounded Vanguards like The Thing and Emma Frost is to wall them off from their team and cut off their escape routes. Damage, survivability, and walls easily make Groot a contender for the best Vanguard in the game across all ranks.

Hulk / Bruce Banner (A Diamond+, B Below Diamond)

You won’t like him when he’s angry, but he's really not that scary. More often than not, Hulk ends up being a giant ult battery for the enemy team. His shields and lock-down find much more value in the ranks above Diamond as opposed to the ranks below.

Even after his considerable buff in the Season 2 update, 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.

Although he's lost his Team-Up with Strange, and his Team-Up with Iron Man is inconsequential, the new Gamma Monstro with Namor will have Hulk becoming a common ban pick once again.

Magneto (S+ Diamond+, S Below Diamond)

As one of the most powerful mutants in existence, Magneto makes his mark on the battlefield. He can quickly solo kill 250HP heroes ever since his Season 1.5 damage buff. Landing all three attacks in quick succession has shown to be difficult and inconsistent for players in the below Diamond ranks, however. He's considered to be one of the strongest and most difficult Vanguards to use.

Magneto is also the best solo Vanguard in Season 2, and unfortunately, often times Vanguard players find themselves going in alone. Even though his ult takes 9.7% more energy to charge, it's still one of the best ults in all of Marvel Rivals as it absorbs enemy damage and healing, and is very good at eliminating Strategists.

In the current Meta, having Magneto's Metal Bulwark ally bubble is practically a requirement. Cloak & Dagger die nearly every time they ult without it, and if an ally gets grabbed by Emma Frost or Wolverine, Mag is one of the few who can actually keep them alive.

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.

With Emma Frost Team-Up, Magneto deletes enemies with a quick 325HP combo. Unmatched Vanguard Lethality.

Peni Parker (S Diamond+, S+ Below Diamond)

After struggling in the first Season, huge buffs came through for her in Season 2. She can now headshot, which greatly increases her lethality. Combined with an extra 100HP and increased movement speed while firing has shot her way up the tier list across all ranks.

Sp//dr and Peni Parker transform the map into a literal minefield. Understanding where the enemies want to be is crucial for Peni to get maximum value from her traps. She's unmatched in her ability to control space and fight on the objective. Peni’s mines are extremely annoying to have to deal with, and enemies are forced to play around destroying her Spider-Nest.

For the below Diamond ranks, she has been doing especially well. Teams in these matches do not typically understand 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!

The Thing (S Diamond+, A Below Diamond)

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. Season 2 gave him a slight 5% damage reduction nerf to his Embattle Leap, but that hasn't dropped him out of the meta.

In the below Diamond ranks, The Thing players often struggle to balance when to go in, how far to go in, and being too passive. Moreover, their teammates typically do not follow up on his aggression, leaving him with no allies in range to disengage leap to.

The Thing wins many Vanguard 1v1s when both have Strategists healing them. If people aren't saving their stuns and escapes for the Thing's charge, they are goners when he slams them.

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. There isn't a whole lot of counterplay for the divers if the enemy The Thing is saving slam for their engages.

Thor (C Diamond+, B Below Diamond)

Wielding Mjolnir, Thor swings the mighty hammer across the battlefield. All of his abilities share the same resource called Thorforce, displayed as hammers just below the crosshairs. Players need to manage their Thorforce to be effective with the god of Thunder, but when used properly, Thor has some of the highest burst potential of any Vanguard.

The main areas Thor struggles compared to the other Vanguards are not being very tanky, having no damage mitigation abilities, and having no way to counter CC. After Emma Frost and The Thing were added to the game, Thor immediately fell off as they destroy him with little effort.

The movement speed buff from Season 2 and combined with the Awakening Rune buffs from Season 1.5, still makes Thor very efficient at eliminating Strategists if they're not being protected. Due to his burst damage and independent playstyle, he's definitely stronger in the ranks below Diamond.

Venom (S Diamond+, A Below Diamond)

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

With the rise of Rocket Raccoon, Venom is one of the few heroes who can chase the mobile Strategist down and eliminate him. Hela's increased cooldown to her escape fade also means Venom can swing slam, (Hela escapes), and then swing slam again before she gets her fade back.

Due to his need to consistently land critical hits with his primary fire and correctly manage his survivability tools, Venom struggles a bit in the below Diamond ranks. You’ll often see Venoms get CC’d over and over until he dies. Symbiotic Resilience gives Spider-Man a super easy one-shot combo against 250 HP heroes, so if your teammate is a one-trick, Spidey plus Venom can be a worthwhile swap.

His gameplay loop of swing, slam, Bonus Health, swing away is easy to understand and execute. Now is a great time to learn Venom if you have yet to do so!

Black Panther (B both lists)

 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. The nerfs to his shield health generation and max overhealth have notably lowered his viability as he heavily relied on the extra health to survive his dangerous flanks.

His biggest issue in Season 2 is the existence and power of all the anti-dive heroes like The Thing, Namor, Winter Soldier, and now Emma Frost.

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 (B Diamond+, C Below Diamond)

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 extremely 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 Natahsa and raise the power level of this unique duo considerably. With all the 250HP heroes in the game, she has plenty of targets to oneshot 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 someone like Hela.

Hawkeye (S+ Diamond+, A Below Diamond)

Hawkeye, the only hero capable of one-shotting every Duelist and Strategist, received a much-needed range nerf at the beginning of Season 1, but has now received multiple buffs in Season 2. He has instantly shot up to being one of the strongest Duelists in high-ranked games where players have cracked aim.

Cloak & Dagger feels nearly unplayable into a good Hawkeye as he easily KOs her with a headshot every time she ults.

Hawkeye has one of the highest disparities in power level between the above and below Diamond ranks. Most of his lethality lies in the ability to consistently land headshots, so the lower ranks struggle to bring consistent value to their team with him.

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

Human Torch (A both lists)

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. Held back by poor range and low survivability, he's a bit of a glass cannon.

After buffs in both Season 1.5 and Season 2 updates, he's finally burning up the competition and steals the spot as the strongest flier in Season 2.

Faster fire rate, and much-needed Bonus Health from Flaming Meteor make his close-range and flanking playstyles much more effective.

The ultimate Team-Up Ability with Storm deals insane damage, lasts a long time, and is enough to win many fights. Forcing your team to play two fliers with similar roles and then dumping two Duelist ults at the same time makes it an extremely all-or-nothing strategy.

Hela (S+ Diamond+, S Below Diamond)

Hela has the most carry potential for mechanically skilled players who are confident in their aim. Many of the top-ranked Duelist players are Hela mains, and she's the most banned hero in pro play.

Hela’s consistent ranged damage output has kept her a strong hero as she retains the ability to kill most heroes with 2 headshots from long range. No one knows what the devs were cooking when they buffed her for Season 2. Higher damage and lower stun cooldown have her dominating games.

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.

She also has a great Team-Up Ability with one of the best Strategists, Loki. The 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 (A both lists)

Reworked once again, Iron Fist is slowly rising up the ranks. 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.

Season 2 has Iron Fist seeing much more success across all ranks. The biggest buff this season is the decrease in cooldown for his K'un-Lun Kick. It's his best finisher and best disengage tool, so the 20% uptime increase is huge for the martial artist.

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

Iron Man (C Diamond+, B Below Diamond)

Iron Man got massively buffed as a solo hero in exchange for a nerf to his Gamma Team-Up. He's the only hero to be buffed by the Season 1.5, mid-Season 1.5, and Season 2 updates.

Unfortunately, his counters have all been buffed as well, and their prevalence gatekeeps him from being playable. His extremely loud jets make flanking an unviable option, and constantly alert the enemy of his position.

He's still viable in the below Diamond ranks, where players tend to have difficulty with vertical aim. The new Season 2 Bonus Health from Overdrive allows him to be more aggressive with his most important ability. At higher ranks, he moves so slow the extra health doesn't matter, and he just gets deleted by the likes of Hela and Hawkeye.

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

Magik (B both lists)

The Soulsword wielder slashes through the enemies she slays. For a melee hero, Magik has huge hitboxes and 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.

Specialists of Magik are still performing well right now, but the player base is slowly getting better at understanding how to counter her. The Season 1.5 buff still has her generating ult a bit faster, so learning Dark Child specific tech is more important than ever.

Her inconsistency holds her back more than anything. Although she has great pick potential, opportunities are few, and execution needs to be perfect. Anti-dive is also super strong in Season 2 so expect to always be playing into coutners.

Mister Fantastic (A 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.

After the worst nerfs ever in Season 1.5, Season 2 comes in clutch with giga buffs! The new slow effect added to Flexible Elongation makes him a great anti-dive choice and equally good at keeping enemy Vanguards in vulnerable positions.

Top it off with more health, increased damage, and automatic Bonus Health when ulting, and Dr. Reed has stretched himself from the worst hero in Marvel Rivals to a strong hero!

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, and Moon Knight farms the enemies.

After being heavily nerfed in Season 1.5, Season 2 shoots him back to a meta pick. He received buffs to projectile speed, new Bonus Health generation, and multiple buffs to his ultimate.

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

Namor (S both lists)

The power of the trident-throwing King of the seas resides in his octopus turret, Aquatic Dominion. Equally effective at tank busting and countering flankers, Namor has rapidly risen in power after receiving several buffs and many other heroes getting nerfed.

After having his ice turret swapped out for a Gamma turret, Namor was also secretly nerfed and has lost the ability to deploy all three turrets simultaneously. With the Gamma Team-Up, he's still one of the best heroes in Marvel Rivals. Without the Team-Up, he's still strong but much less powerful.

He also lost the ability to one-shot all 275HP heroes anywhere inside of his ultimate with damage boost from Rocket. (Rocket's ultimate damage boost nerf).

Having autofiring turrets allows Namor to be a great pick at all levels of play. He’s the perfect way to counter and shut down high-mobility flankers if someone is having difficulty tracking them. 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.

Psylocke (S Diamond+, S+ Below Diamond)

The best flanker in all of Marvel Rivals, Psylocke combos her targets for quick eliminations. When caught, she instantly turns invisible with Psychic Stealth to escape. An even stronger use of stealth is sneaking up on enemy backlines for her quick bursts of close-range dash combos. Wing Shurikens not only deal multiple instances of damage but also give self-healing for every round hit.

Her ultimate, Dance of the Butterfly, can be countered by any of the healing Strategist ults, and makes it a bit more difficult to get value out of in the highest ranks. The auto-tracking mechanic and difficulty of escaping the huge AoE make it a reliable means of securing fight wins in the below Diamond ranks.

Many players are misunderstanding the previous patch note, “Dance of the Butterfly checks for shields.” Yes, her ult can now be blocked and damage shields. Shields will only block her attack if facing the direction of her dash, and can't block consecutive hits, so her ult is still strong, just not as strong as previously.

Pair her with the new meta Vanguard, Emma Frost, and she becomes even stronger with the new Team-Up ability.

Scarlet Witch (B 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 makes her an absolute menace in Season 2!

The most recent patch took away her percentage-based damage in exchange for an increase to her base damage. Both primary fire and secondary fire were majorly buffed and have transformed her into a backline assassin.

Moreover, her new Team-Up, Sorcery Surge, with Doctor Strange is really good! (see Scarlet Witch Guide). With a relatively short cooldown, she scores much more consistent KOs when empowered by the sorcerer supreme.

Unfortunately, her damage over time remains too low to out-duel enemies in the highest ranks, where players' mechanical skill gives more value than her auto-tracking.

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 both lists)

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, but for the vast majority of players, a good Spider-Man can absolutely run a lobby. Venom and Spider-Man are being played quite a bit more after their Season 1.5 buffs, but pulling them off requires a lot of skill and coordination.

Many of his counters have been nerfed, so playing the web swinger is more viable in Season 2 than ever. Contrary to most players' expectations, he has become one of the most banned heroes. 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 one of the meta-defining Vanguards increases Squirrel Girl's viability as her kit performs well into his. The barrage of acorns and squirrels makes quick work of Groot and his walls.

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 and invulnerability makes it an oppressive ability. More top teams are running Star-Lord as he harasses backlines better than anyone. 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 below Diamond ranks players.

Season 2 brought big nerfs to the damage of Blaster Barrage and has dropped him out of the S+ tier for both ranks. He's still a very strong hero, you just need to time his ult around the enemies' defensive ults of combos with an ally Emma Frost.

Storm (B Diamond+, S Below Diamond)

Causing quite the storm with her giga buffs in Season 1 and only being tuned down slightly with the Season 1.5 update, Storm rushed into the flying meta throughout the first Season. Increases to her health, projectile speed, and damage instantly took her from a throw pick to one of the best heroes.

The changes brought about to the rest of the roster in Season 2, however, have made winning with Storm much more difficult. Buffs to long-range heroes like Hela and Hawkeye make the skies a dangerous place to be, and she often dies when using her ultimate.

The inconsistent aim for players in the below Diamond ranks allow her to play more aggresive and attack more safely. Plus her ult tends to be an insant fight win as it can easily take out one or multiple Strategists if they don't have a healing ult ready.

Her Team-Up Ability with Human Torch can increase her ultimate from a 5-second duration to an 11-second duration! The Team-Up is ridiculously powerful and can't be countered by Mantis or Invisible Woman's defensive ultimates since they both only last 8 seconds long.

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 easy climbing in competitive mode as his first-person-shooter type kit is simple to understand and powerful.

Heroes with shields keep getting nerfed, and every time that happens, The Punisher gets a little bit stronger. Equipped with a shotgun and an assault rifle, a prepared Punisher can handle any situation.

Rocket Raccoon is hard Meta in the below Diamond ranks, and very strong at top ranks as well. Their Team-up is stronger than ever and feels like having a second ultimate on cooldown.

Winter Soldier (S both lists)

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.

During a team fight, Bionic Hook is one of the best abilities available to any hero to quickly turn the tides 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.\

Despite his Season 2 nerfs, Bucky remains one of the best Duelists. He's just less oppressive than he was in Season 1. His Hook is easier to play around with the extra 4-second cooldown.

The new Team-Up with Cap isn't as strong as if he retained the Ammo Overload with Rocket, but if you're team has a Cap, don't sleep on the AoE damage and slow debuff of the Team-Up. You can get really good value out of Stellar Impact.

Wolverine (S Diamond+, A Below Diamond)

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.

Season 2 changes were certainly a net nerf to Wolverine. Overall, he builds Rage slower, and if his ult's slam doesn't KO the enemy, they are more likely to survive now because of the decreased stun duration.

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 Doctor Strange, Groot, and Venom, Wolverine is the bane of every Vanguard’s existence.

The difficulty of staging, engaging, snatching, and disengaging with Wolverine holds him back significantly in the below Diamond ranks compared to top-level play. Players in these ranks often struggle to find value, and usually end up slowly feeding without actually killing anyone.

If Wolverine is giving you trouble, The Thing hard counters him and keeps Logan's power in check.

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, resurrect his Team-Up heroes Mantis and Star-Lord, and use his ult to bring his entire team back to life if they all die quickly.

Where he struggles is the limited stocks of Avatar Life Stream and the terrible Season 2 nerf to Soul Bond. Now on a 40-second cooldown, the enemy team has a massive window where they know you're team is vulnerable to their attacks.

As a minor compensation, Season 2 update buffed his ultimate. He's not terrible by any means, but he's weaker this Season than last.

On the upside, Warlock has better damage output than some Duelists, especially since his Season 1.5 damage buffs. He requires high aiming precision to get the maximum value. Most teammates in the below Diamond ranks are dependent on raw healing stats to stay alive, so Warlock has a lot of trouble in these lobbies.

Cloak and Dagger (A Diamond+, S+ Below Diamond)

To the joy of all, the Season 1.5 update severely nerfed their ultimate. The healing no longer stacks, the duration was shortened, and the cost to charge the ult was increased. Eternal Bond ultimate is still good as an escape tool, for AoE damage, and for team healing.

Now her ult got buffed in Season two as the first three dashes linger until the final dash expires. More often than not, the buff doesn't actually matter as players have gotten really good at eliminating Cloak & Dagger whenever they ult.

Magneto's save their ult, Hawkeye has multiple chances to land a single headshot, and other heroes have fairly consistent means of wiping them during their ult. All of this will happen far less in the below Diamond ranks, and this contributes to her higher power level here.

Both of their auto-tracking primary fires make them one of the best choices in the ranks below Diamond. Their kit is a powerful combination of offensive and defensive capabilities; there is nothing the duo of C&D can’t do.

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

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. The 50HP nerf to her barrier in Season 2 hasn't affected her power level too much.

The limited range of her primary fire and the complexity of her kit are holding her back a bit in non-ban ranks. But 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.

A strong ult paired with Force Physics carries her in higher ranks against melee heroes like Wolverine. A well-timed displacement easily shuts down heroes like Wolverine, who have just one chance to catch their prey.

Jeff the Land Shark (C Diamond+, B 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 healing abilities both have great AoE effects. Healing Bubbles are good for teams to play around and keep their health topped off and even give allies some agency on getting healed whenever they need it.

Jeff is actually better as a solo flanker, who occasionally heals his team, rather than as a heal bot. This playstyle, however, is difficult to pull off and rare to see.

The height nerf to his ult has made it very easy to avoid for all the heroes who have some type of vertical mobility. Additionally, when comparing the usefulness of his ult to the rest of the Strategists, Jeff lags way behind in what he provides for his team. If the map has no ledges nearby, his ult is even worse.

Strategists are very, very strong in Marvel Rivals, and Jeff is unanimously agreed to be the weakest Strategist. You'll need to put in extra effort to match up to the rest of the support cast.

Loki (S+ Diamond+, A 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. Typically, Loki players use their ults to give their team an extra defensive ult.

Regen Domain not only provides temporary immortality but converts would-be damage into healing, which gives Loki multiple instances of making his team unkillable. The 5-second nerf from Season 2 is significant, but not enough to drop him from being a meta-pick.

Managing clones, Regen cooldown, knowing when to focus on dealing damage or output healing, and planning out the target for his ultimate have Loki struggling to keep up in the below Diamond ranks. Most of the other Strategists provide easier and more consistent value to their team in comparison.

Luna Snow (S+ both lists)

Luna Snow provides the highest amount of average healing for any team comp. When she has a high mobility hero on her team or someone who wants to play behind enemy lines, Share the Stage healing aura allows her ally to stay in the fight longer and gain a crucial advantage in dueling their target.

The true power of her kit lies in her ultimate, Fate of Both Worlds, which basically makes her team immortal for 12 seconds and provides a massive 40% damage boost to all allies in its AoE. Many ultimates like Namor, Venom, and Thor become one-shots when paired with Luna's.

Ice Arts piercing effect and self-healing paired with her freeze stun make Luna a very dangerous target to flank or dive as she can outplay any enemy attacker.

Mantis (A both lists)

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 new ability to stack durations in Season 2 greatly increases Mantis' effectiveness in dive comps. Allies have 16 full seconds to go anywhere and take her healing and damage boost with them. An incredibly strong utility to add to any team.

Slow healing over time does prevent her from being able to save low health allies with burst healing like most of the other Strategists can. Unfortunately, unless the comp is specifically built around Mantis, she lags behind the rest of the Strategists simply due to raw healing numbers. The Season 2 decrease to her max HP didn't help either.

Rocket Raccoon (S+ both lists)

Rocket Raccoon got a nice buff in Season 1 to his healing over time. Now in Season 2, he's been giga-buffed and given burst healing that outclasses all over Strategists! Overall, the rework to his ultimate makes it more forgiving and easier to get value out of.

While his Jetpack Dash range and CD were nerfed, a small hurtbox combined with still lightning-fast movement from wall runs and Jetpack makes him a difficult Strategist to eliminate.

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 will have to be eliminated twice.

Rocket offers super consistent AoE healing to his team and has good damage at close range. No contest, he is the best Strategist in the below Diamond ranks, and also one of the best period.

Compared the other of the 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 easily one of the best Strategists to use at every rank.

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 creating opportunities to properly Feral Leap an enemy Vanguard makes Wolverine weaker in lower ranks, but extremely 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 worst in Silver and Bronze not only due to his difficulty of use but also because Spidey mains can't ban his counter like Namor out of their games.