Each character in Marvel Rivals roster falls into three distinct roles: Duelist, Vanguard, and Strategist. Each of the three classes plays a specific role during combat, giving them team synergies to defeat enemies and achieve certain objectives. We’ll explain how all the Marvel Rivals roles work and how you can leverage them to your advantage.
Duelist
This class is the simplest class to understand. Duelists deal the most damage in the team and are responsible for securing kills. This class usually revolves around having the most mobility to flank team deathballs and dealing burst damage. Characters like Iron Fist, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Iron Man are some of the most iconic Duelists in the game since they can dole out consistent DPS and have a couple of different movement abilities.
Some Duelists have abilities that make them better suited for ranged DPS, such as Black Widow’s sniper, The Punisher’s two guns, and Moon Knight’s boomerangs. While they lack in mobility compared to the other melee Duelists, they make up for it with extreme range to kite enemies with.
Here are all the current Duelist characters so far:
- Black Panther
- Black Widow
- Hawkeye
- Hela
- Iron Fist
- Iron Man
- Magik
- Moon Knight
- Namor
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- Scarlet Witch
- Spider-Man
- Squirrel Girl
- Star-Lord
- Storm
- The Punisher
- Winter Soldier
- Wolverine
Vanguard
As the name implies, Vanguard characters stand at the front of the team to soak up the enemy team’s damage and serve as a big, meaty target for them to shoot. In simpler terms, Vanguards are Marvel Rivals’ tank characters. Every Vanguard character has a way to block or mitigate damage, like Magneto’s shield, Venom’s high base health, Groot’s vine walls, and Dr Strange’s barrier, helping them keep enemies away long enough to secure capture zones.
What all Vanguards have in common is the ability to crowd control the enemy team, having some sort of root, stun, or knock-up ability to make certain targets more vulnerable against your team. If played right, a Vanguard character can start a fight in their team’s favor and set them up for some kills.
The following are all the playable Vanguard characters:
- Captain America
- Doctor Strange
- Groot
- Hulk
- Magneto
- Peni Parker
- Thor
- Venom
Strategist
Strategist characters do less damage than Duelists and are squishier than Vanguards, but they’re some of the most important characters in a team comp. Strategists provide support to the team, whether through healing, damage buffs or debuffs to weaken enemy targets. Each Strategist character provides a different way to support the team.
For example, Adam Warlock can provide high direct healing to his allies and even revive them after they’re downed. Meanwhile, Luna Snow heals are slower and done passively, but she can switch her healing aura to a damage buff for the team if needed. Some Strategists provide other utilities besides healing, like Loki’s disguise and invisibility skills to disrupt the enemy team and sow chaos.
Strategists have a lot of playmaking potential by undoing the hard work of the enemy team’s damage through healing or setting up a team kill with a well-timed damage buff.
These are all the Strategist characters we have so far:
- Adam Warlock
- Cloak & Dagger
- Jeff The Land Shark
- Loki
- Luna Snow
- Mantis
- Rocket Raccoon
Learning the ins and outs of your mains doesn’t just come down to knowing how their abilities work, but also how they should be played alongside your team. If you can master the team dynamics of Marvel Rivals, you’ll be able to win matches more consistently.
