The best characters in Marvel Rivals

By Jesse Lennox Published December 9, 2024

With a roster of over 30 iconic heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe, it would be difficult to decide who you want to play as even if every hero was created equal in Marvel Rivals. There are a lot of essential tips and tricks to learn, but the most important thing to do is decide on who you want to main. With a roster this big, testing each and every one would take hours to figure out their strengths, weaknesses, and team-up abilities. Instead, we’ve ranked the full roster and broken them down into a final tier list so you can go straight for the best characters first.

As with any live-service game, especially a cross-platform one, balance changes and new characters will upset the tier list over time, so we will do our best to keep our rankings current.

Every team can use a good Adam Warlock on it, full stop. This Strategist hero has some incredibly powerful tools at his disposal, with his two greatest assets being his Soul Bond and Karmic Revival. The former creates a bond between all teammates within range that provides some passive healing and also spreads damage taken equally between all those heroes. Used in the right circumstances, this can help your team steamroll even the strongest defensive lines. Karmic Revival, meanwhile, allows him to revive allies while temporarily turning invincible. There are few ultimates as valuable as an AoE revive.

Support characters tend to feel decent at most things, but not especially great at anything either. Luna Snow is the exception in a lot of ways thanks to her effective healing abilities tied to her regular attack. Instead of needing to juggle multiple abilities to heal and attack, all you need to do is change your aim from an enemy to an ally to go from DPS to healing. She also has some great damage-buffing effects and is highly mobile.

Venom is an absolute menace on the battlefield if you encounter one who knows what they’re doing. He has all the best traits of a tank and DPS rolled into one thanks to high mobility, damage, and his Symbiotic Resilience that allows him to regenerate his HP the more damage he dishes out.

Don’t let her looks fool you; Squirrel Girl is one of the most potent DPS characters in Marvel Rivals. She launches arcing shots that deal crazy splash damage that is awesome for single target and crowd control if you can land your shots. It is tough to hit faster-moving heroes, but she has a decent stun move to help you get a clean shot off.

Winter Soldier is S tier, but only in capable hands. He only shines if you can learn his combos and pull them off to disrupt enemy lines. He’s not the most mobile character but is effective at all ranges and has a great ultimate that causes all enemies in range to take extra damage.

Similarly, Magneto has a lot going on that can feel overwhelming at first. He’s a fantastic tank thanks to his high HP and his Metallic Curtain shield, which you need to use to power up his Mag-Cannon. His DPS is slow, but landing critical hits while protecting your team can lead you to victory.

We all love Spider-Man, but not everyone is cut out to handle this web-slinger. He’s one of the most fragile characters in the game, but also the most mobile. If you can learn to control his swinging and master the hit-and-run tactics, you’ll have a blast with him. If not, you’ll be spending a lot of time waiting to respawn.

In our eyes, The Punisher is the perfect example of a jack-of-all-trades character that is great to learn with, but not suited to be the best. He has good options with his rifle and shotgun, and his turret is easy to use but leaves you immobile. His ult is fairly strong, but this character doesn’t have much that contributes to a team effort.

Much like Spider-Man, Iron Fist is a fast character that thrives on taking the enemy by surprise and bursting them with damage. While he lacks the web-slinger’s ability to zip out of danger, he does have healing options to keep him alive.

Wolverine is a bit of a mix of a tank and DPS, but you need to deal with his incredibly short range. He does compensate with damage resistance and healing passives, but you need to carefully hunt and leap onto isolated enemies to avoid being overwhelmed.

Flight is a gift and a curse in Marvel Rivals. Iron Man can be an excellent support unit by pelting enemies from above, plus launching missiles, but he’s also an easy target due to his slow movement speed. Even when you go into flight mode, a DPS with good aim can snipe you out of the air fairly easily.

You might find Cloak & Dagger to be S tier after a lot of time with them, but not everyone will jive with the need to swap forms. Each has their own specialties and skills, so you have double the options of a normal hero, but it does take a lot of brainpower and knowledge to use properly.

Odds are you’ve been sniped by a Hela more than a few times already. For as strong as her default attack is, you need to be accurate to make it work since the rate of fire is so slow. You can also rely on your one movement ability to get out of trouble, but you’re otherwise defenseless if a DPS gets in close.

Good-old Cap is by no means bad, but just doesn’t do anything other heroes do better. He’s not the most powerful tank, nor the best dive character.

We had to put Hawkeye in B tier because of just how skill-dependent he is. Unlike other heroes, Hawkeye is almost completely focused on his default attack and without much variety in his abilities. You need to be patient and strategic to make his charged shots work, but if you can pull it off, he’s incredibly deadly.

Besides Strange’s teleport, he’s an odd character who can end up being more harmful than helpful on a team. His normal attack is unreliable for most players, and you can even end up damaging yourself if you let your dark magic fill up too high.

We had fun playing as Rocket at first, but quickly realized his guns and abilities weren’t all that. He deals chip damage at best, has a disappointing heal, and abilities that only buff specific characters.

The resident sniper of the roster, Black Widow is almost exactly like Hawkeye in the sense that it all comes down to your aim. Hitting your shot is hard enough, but she can’t even one-shot any opponent, so you will usually need to land two if another hero hasn’t softened up your target first.

Storm is an all-right support unit, but buffing speed isn’t all that useful to have. You can swap to a DPS boost, but it isn’t as fun or engaging since it is a passive aura rather than something you can target.

Adam Warlock

Luna Snow

Venom

Squirrel Girl

Winter Soldier

Magneto

Spider-Man

The Punisher

Iron Fist

Wolverine

Iron Man

Cloak & Dagger

Hela

Moon Knight

Captain America

Hawkeye

Doctor Strange

Rocket Raccoon

Black Widow

Storm

Groot

Loki

Magik

Mantis

Star-Lord

Jeff the Land Shark

Psylocke

Scarlet Witch

Black Panther

Hulk

Thor

Namor

Penni Parker