Advanced Guides | Marvel Rivals
General
As you already probably know Marvel Rivals is a Hero Shooter game, but it is not as easy as just shooting enemies in the head. There are a lot of things you need to think about such as heroes that you pick, game modes that you play, team composition, movement, positioning, and so on…
And after you finish all of that there is a lot of advanced stuff if you want to get to higher ranks. But don’t worry we are gonna cover it all here.
Character Pick
Even though in Marvel Rivals, just like in Overwatch, you can change the character mid-game. If you are a new player I don’t recommend that. You should always take time with the hero you want to play, to get used to his abilities, aim, movement, and all of that.
Because the basics of the game can be learned with every hero, and it takes a lot of time to get really good even with one, until you get to higher ranks where they can ban champs, you should always practice them one by one.
When you learn most of the basics in this game it’s not that hard to translate it to other characters.
Counter Picking
After you have covered all the basics, as I mentioned before, in this game, you can switch characters in the middle of the game as many times as you want, with small penalties, like an ult charge.
There are a lot of characters that have their counters. Even tho you can sometimes outmaneuver them if you are much better at your champ, most of the time it is smarter to just counter-pick.
For example, flying characters like Iron Man and Storm, it’s very hard to kill if you play someone like Magik or Black Panther no matter how good you are. Because they are both close-range, melee, it’s normal to have a hard time against people who can keep their distance all the time.
In those situations, you should switch to something that is countering them like long-range hitscans.
Hela or The Punisher are really good choices here. They are great at killing enemies at long range, especially ones that move as slow as these two.
Another good example is when your team has problems against dive comps, like Spider-Man and Venom. It’s very hard to get rid of the bugs and they can be very annoying.
If u play a Strategist role because they suffer the most against these kinds of comps, you should switch to characters that have more self-sustain or crowd control, like Luna Snow or Mantis. And if u play duelist Namor is a great option here because he can stay alive easily against them and he can protect your Strategists with his turrets that are very hard to kill in some spots.
Positioning
People don’t realize that this is the most important thing in every hero shooter, aim comes with practice, but if you don’t know how to utilize it to take space your headshots will do you no good. That’s why you will see a lot of insane aimers in low ranks that are hard-stuck.
The character’s most important ability in this game is its ult. Ultimates easily win fights so you should have them as soon as possible. Believe it or not, you do this by positioning.
Always be in spots where you can be active, never be AFK in this game and I repeat never. No matter which role you play, or if you are attacking or defending, be in a position to do damage and take space.
People always make this mistake in support roles, they think that they can not impact the game that much and it depends on their teammates to do the job, although sometimes it is the case that some teammates are just beyond any hope, most of the games, if you play your cards right, will go your way.
Even if u play a Strategist role, and don’t get me wrong your job is still to heal your team in the first place, but if your friends are not in dangerous spots and have most of their hp, be sure that the best thing you can do is shoot enemies. You get mosquitos away not by waiting for someone else to do it for you. When Spider-Man gets hit a couple of times before he tries to get you, he will think twice before attacking next time, be sure of that.
If you do damage more than enemies support, and heal more by being active all the time, you will get your ult faster and that instantly wins you a fight. For example, if Luna Snow gets her ult before enemy support, your whole team has free push.
I know it sounds stupid but it’s easy as, if your enemies push forward you move back, if they go back you push forward and take space.
Aim and Movement
Like in any shooter, the aim is very important but not as important as people think. There are a lot of characters in Marvel Rivals that need little, almost to no aim, to get good at. But if you play characters like Hela or Punisher of course you need to hit your shots. My best advice here is to play a lot and practice whenever you can to get muscle memory, but more on that you can check our Improve Your Aiming page.
Most of the players forget the movement part, and it’s as important, if not more, as the aim. Always try to break the ”ankles” of your enemy. Don’t move like NPC, it’s so easy to hit the target that moves predictably.
Use your A and D in weird patterns and your movement abilities, a lot of characters have them in this game, which makes enemies confused and their crosshairs can’t follow you. Then if they can not shoot you, they become prey, an easy one.
Game Modes
No matter which game mode you play there is some basic stuff you can implement on every one. When you have an advantage push the enemy, to spawn if you can, the more time you get free to cap or push, the better. You stagger them, it takes more time to regroup that way, also don’t let them do the same thing to you. The more time you need to assemble your crew the more percentage of objective you lose.
Domination – this game mode is played in a best-out-of-three format. Teams battle to capture the objective, and after that, it starts ticking slowly to 100%. The first one to get there gets the point.
Important stuff in this mode is, that when you capture the point, nobody needs to be directly on it to gain percentages, it’s better to position yourself to deny space from the enemy team. And if they stand on point you need just one to contest it and not let them capture it. It’s far more important to win the whole fight.
Sometimes it is even good to let them get some percentage for your team to regroup, but most of the time it’s even good to try to contest alone, even to use ult if you have to, as much as you can because as long as they don’t have full capture they will not get any percentages, and they can not get capture as long as some of your team members is alive on point.
Convoy – here you are in one part attacker in the other you defend the payload. Which team pushes payload further wins. Again you only need one player directly on the payload to push it. That’s why again when you have an advantage in the team fight push your enemies as far away from it as you can.
Convergence – this mode is just a hybrid of two before, in the first part you capture the point, and after that, you push the payload. The same principles apply here.
