Class Breakdown: How Many Tanks and Healers are in Marvel Rivals?
Marvel Rivals is a (literal) hero shooter coming out in just a couple of months on December 6, 2024. Inspired by Team Fortress and Overwatch, Marvel Rivals will aim to compete in the same space of other competitive titles. It's important to note that characters in Marvel Rivals are referred to as "Heroes" regardless of whether or not they are a hero or a villain.
It had a fairly successful closed beta test a couple of months back, which has resulted in many people eager for its full launch. With so many iconic and powerful superheroes and villains, and the fact that all of them will be free and playable immediately, forever, many players are going to want to jump right in and try out a bunch of characters that are available. Let's look at all the heroes that will be available at launch.
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What characters are available in Marvel Rivals?
Heroes in Marvel Rivals are broken down into three roles. These roles are healer, tank, and DPS. In game, however, they are not referred to as healers, tanks, and DPS. Healers are known as "Strategist", tanks are known as "Vanguard", and DPS are known as "Duelist".
Here's every hero in Marvel Rivals:
Strategist | Vanguard | Duelist |
|---|---|---|
Rocket Raccoon | Doctor Strange | Spider-Man |
Jeff the Land Shark | Magneto | Winter Soldier |
Loki | Captain America | Magik |
Mantis | Hulk | Black Panther |
Luna Snow | Thor | Punisher |
Adam Warlock | Peni Parker | Hela |
Venom | Iron Man | |
Groot | Scarlet Witch | |
Star-Lord | ||
Storm | ||
Namor |
Who are the healer characters in Marvel Rivals?
There are currently known to be six healers (or strategists) that will be available in Marvel Rivals at launch. These six strategist heroes are:
- Rocket Raccoon
- Jeff the Land Shark
- Loki
- Mantis
- Luna Snow
- Adam Warlock
Are healer characters in Marvel Rivals strong?
In the closed beta test, healing felt impactful. A well-used and timed healer ultimate can change the outcome of a fight. The most important aspect of healing that was felt, though, was that they did not feel like just ultimate pushers. In Overwatch, at times, as a healer, you'd be doing such little actual moment-to-moment healing that it was all just trying to charge your ultimate up as quickly as possible so you could press the button and win the fight.
In Marvel Rivals, the ults are impactful but not the entirety of your worth to the team. Good positioning and the ability to recognize and track priority targets could allow a healer to singlehandedly keep their tank or a DPS in the fight for longer, maybe long enough to change the momentum of the teamfight.
Who are the tank characters in Marvel Rivals?
Currently, there are eight tanks (vanguard) in Marvel Rivals. These vanguard heroes are:
- Doctor Strange
- Magneto
- Captain America
- Hulk
- Thor
- Peni Parker
- Venom
- Groot
Are tank characters in Marvel Rivals strong?
In an Overwatch-styled game, tanking can be a weird thing to balance. You must strike a proper balance between having much higher survivability than everyone else without being completely immortal. There needs to be a balance between being able to take care of themselves and not being so independent healers are unnecessary. There needs to be a balance between dealing decent damage so they don't feel like sponges and nothing more and not dealing so much damage that they're basically just DPS that can't die.
From playing various tanks in the closed beta test, there was a sizeable difference between the tanks that felt extremely durable and the ones that didn't, though user skill-level likely played a large role in that. Venom and Magneto felt extremely strong. Peni Parker felt weaker than them, but a lot of fun and still fairly durable.
As a tank, it felt like you could take space efficiently without getting immediately blown up, but also like you still had to be aware of your surroundings and what was going on with your healers. There was a decent ebb and flow to the moment-to-moment tank gameplay. There was impact and lots of room for skill expression.
Who are the DPS characters in Marvel Rivals?
As of writing this, there are eleven DPS (duelist) in Marvel Rivals heading into its launch. These eleven DPS heroes are:
- Spider-Man
- Winter Soldier
- Magik
- Black Panther
- Punisher
- Hela
- Iron Man
- Scarlet Witch
- Star-Lord
- Storm
- Namor
Are DPS characters in Marvel Rivals strong?
At its most fundamental level, a game like this has two core types of DPS characters: "Playmakers" and "Workhorses."
Scarlet Witch is SUPER overpowered in 'MARVEL RIVALS' pic.twitter.com/VZaXrLOmXH
— ScreenTime (@screentime) May 12, 2024
It's important for the game to have a nice balance between the two. If every DPS is just trying to hit an insane flick for an instant kill, the game becomes nothing more than whack-a-mole while waiting for ults to charge. If every DPS is just trying to lay down constant damage at all times, then it becomes an arms race between DPS balancing and HPS (healing per second) balancing.
Having a balance between the two allows for a healthy composition that includes one of each. A team can have one DPS constantly putting damage down range to keep enemies suppressed and healers occupied as much as possible. At the same time, the other DPS looks for a maneuver to dive the backline and get a pick or an angle to find a powerful shot from afar (ala Widowmaker in Overwatch).
The DPS heroes in Marvel RIvals had a lot of impact and influence on the map. Playmakers like Spider-Man could find an angle to use aggression and then dive and harass healers. Workhorses like Storm could be incredibly oppressive and make the other team miserable.
