Strategists play a key role in keeping your team alive. Sure, you can avoid Vanguards in your team and go with Duelists instead, but you need at least one Strategist to help the team survive during the match. They heal, shield, and debuff enemies at will and help you get an edge over the enemy team.
Not only do you need to have a strategist on the team, but you also have to play around with them to claim victory. Protecting them is necessary since enemies will focus on them to counter your team’s aggression.
With that said, let’s go over all the Strategists we have in Marvel Rivals and see what they bring to the table in our Marvel Rivals: All Strategists Ranked.
7 Adam Warlock
Reincarnation Baby!
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
Karmic Revival |
Revive allies with lower health and invincibility for a short period |
Soul Bond |
Forge a soul bond with allies, granting Healing Over Time and distributing damage taken across the bond. |
Avatar Life Stream |
Target an ally for bouncing streaming of healing energy, which also heals himself upon casting; self-targets if no ally is selected. |
Cosmic Cluster |
Gather quantum energy into a cluster and then swiftly launch it at the enemy. |
Adam Warlock’s abilities work in tandem with the chaining effect. You can link enemies with each other and distribute incoming damage while also healing them simultaneously. However, unlike other Strategist characters, he doesn’t have enough mobility to outwit a flanker.
If a Black Panther, Magik, or Spider-Man is on him, chances are, he won’t be able to avoid the fight and will likely perish in the encounter. His team-up ability with Mantis and Star-Lord is pretty insane since they’ll be able to use the cocooned revival.
In my opinion, the most important scenario where Adam Warlock shines is in Overtime, where he can revive the entire team on the objective and give them one last shot to win. With him, you really have to stick close to your teammates and hold a defensive stance because you really don’t have much mobility.
If enemies try to lock onto you, you can’t evade them unless you die and trigger the passive, allowing you to roam freely and reforge at a chosen spot.
Ultimately, the healing is great, but the long cooldown on Soul Bond and low mobility make him a very niche pick.
6 Rocket Raccoon
Healing Spheres? Or Balls?
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
C.Y.A. |
Deploy a Cosmic Yarn Amplifier that grants allies a Damage Boost |
Jetpack Dash |
Dash forward |
B.R.B. |
Deploy a Battle Rebirth Beacon that revives a fallen ally and periodically produces armor packs and rocket jet packs. |
Rocket Raccoon is a pretty simple Strategist to play. He reminds me of Overwatch’s Moira, who throws healing orbs to support her allies. Just like her, Rocket Raccoon shoots bouncing spheres that heal allies. You can deploy his C.Y.A. ability to give allies a Damage Boost and revive a fallen enemy with the B.R.B. device.
However, most of the equipment he deploys is destructible, which means a smart enemy DPS will target the equipment to counter his abilities. Even his healing spheres are a hit or miss if you’re targeting ally Flankers, as they have high ability and are hard to target, even with Mantis or Luna Snow.
You can use his team-up ability to grant Infinite Ammo to The Punisher and Winter Soldier and spam the bouncing spheres in tight corners.
It’s up to you; I find it difficult to play with two different weapons, and juggling between them is quite a hassle. I highly recommend having a dedicated healer while playing with Rocket Raccoon, since most of his skills grant buffs to allies.
5 Loki
Full Of Tricks
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
God Of Mischief |
Shapeshift into any hero on the battlefield and use their abilities except for Team-up ones |
Regeneration Domain |
Use Rune Stones to create a field that grants Healing Over Time and converts incoming damage to further healing |
Doppelganger |
Project an Illusion to cast some of Loki’s abilities |
Devious Exchange |
Swap with the selected Illusion |
Deception |
Become Invisible and conjure an Illusion to deceive enemies |
Loki deploys destructible Rune Stones to burst-heal allies. I like how you can summon multiple Illusions or fire his basic attacks to heal allies.
You need to think smart to place his clones. Unlike Adam Warlock, Loki has quite some tricks up his sleeve. He can switch positions or go invisible to avoid a flanker, which is a must for a Strategist. Without evasion skills, a Strategist is a sitting duck waiting for a hunter.
However, a smart enemy Duelist, especially the ones who can do AoE or bounce attacks like Moon Knight or Squirrel Girl, will melt his clones pretty fast. But you can respawn Illusions and keep them busy due to the short cooldown. So, it’s more like a double-edged sword.
Lastly, what I love about him most is his ultimate, which can copy a hero’s abilities (the ones on the battlefield). Shapeshift into a hero who can secure multi-kills and secure your objective.
All this seems good on paper, but when you’re against a smart enemy team, they’ll destroy your Illusions and Rune stones and cripple your healing in a second. That’s why, Loki is good in low ELO matches, but not on higher ranks.
Related
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4 Jeff The Land Shark
Cute But Dangerous
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
It’s Jeff |
Deep dive and resurface to swallow heroes within range, and eject them forward |
Hide And Seek |
Dive into the scene with the exposed fin, granting himself a Movement Boost. Can heal himself while submerged and gains a wall-crawl ability |
Healing Bubble |
Spit a bubble that heals the ally who collects it, granting them Movement and Healing Boost, while also Launching Up nearby enemies |
Jeff mains are a different breed. Either they will die as soon as they enter the battle or obliterate everything in their path; there’s no in-between. Jeff’s healing has a massive range and can easily heal your tanks to full HP in a few seconds.
All you need to do is sit in the backline, heal your tanks, spit bubbles that give Healing and Movement Boost to allies, and swallow enemies to throw them off the objective. What’s more hilarious is his ability to go under the scene or wall-crawl, which can be used to help flankers.
Though he doesn’t have Vulnerability effects like Cloak & Dagger does, his insane healing makes him one of the best-dedicated healers in the game. You can also use his Team-up abilities to ride on Groot’s shoulders or borrow Luna Snow’s ice energy to unlock another ability that applies the Slowing effect on enemies and hinders their movement.
Though his kit helps him to escape from a potential flanker quickly, there’s nothing you can do to damage them. The hitbox is smaller when you go underground, but you’re unable to heal your team at all. What’s the use of survivability if you can’t heal?
But again, Jeff’s far better than healers mentioned above and can potentially rival the top picks when it comes to healing throughput.
You can jump off the map along with enemies to stop them from using their abilities to come back.
3 Cloak & Dagger
Mult-Talented
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
Eternal Bond |
Perform three dashes, healing allies, and damaging enemies along the path |
Shadow’s Embrace |
Switch to Cloak/Dagger |
Veil Of Lightforce/Terror Cape |
Deploy a Veil to heal allies upon touch/apply Blind and Vulnerability on enemies. |
Dagger Storm/Dark Teleportation |
Creates a Healing-Over-Time field in the impact area/Enshroud allies, making them invisible and untargetable with a Movement Boost |
Cloak & Dagger, in my opinion, is the toughest Strategist to play because of how versatile their kit is. With Dagger, you can access healing abilities with your basic attacks: Veil Of Lightforce, a rectangular aura that phases through allies, and Dagger Storm, a hemispherical Healing-Over-Time field.
While you’re in Dagger form, your gameplay will be defensive; however, with Cloak, you can Blind enemies and apply the Vulnerability effect to them, thus increasing your damage. Just like Scarlet Witch, you can damage enemies and use Dark Teleportation to enshroud allies and give them a Movement Boost.
However, I personally feel the healing isn’t that great when it comes to intense battles. If you’re focusing on switching to Cloak or Dagger, you’ll lose heals and teammates will be left vulnerable.
Even if you use the Veil to hide yourself, it doesn’t have enough duration to escape the enemy team. That’s why, it’s good to use Cloak & Dagger alongside another dedicated healer like Jeff, Mantis or Adam Warlock.
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2 Luna Snow
Swagger
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
Fate Of Both Worlds |
Toggle between Healing or Damage Boost |
Ice Arts |
Fire ice shards for a short duration, damaging enemies or healing allies while restoring her own Health |
Share the Stage |
Attach Idol Aura to an ally which restores their health while Luna Snow heals others |
Absolute Zero |
Cast a clump fo ice to Freeze an enemy and restore Health |
One to the left, one to the right, keep on the fight! Well, that was good, wasn’t it? Luna Snow’s basic attacks are amazing. You can heal your allies or damage enemies with them, which is superb since a lot is happening on the battlefield with 12 characters.
Like Mantis, she’s quite mobile, restores her health, and gets a Movement Bonus, which makes her a strong contender for top spots. Like Mantis, she’s got a crowd control ability, which can Freeze an enemy for a short while. However, her best ability is Share The Stage, which can be used to pocket Flankers, who are usually away from the team.
You can mark them to heal them automatically when you heal other characters. This will help them survive in enemies’ backlines to target their Strategists. Overall, her abilities are really amazing, and her Ice Art’s piercing effect is the cherry on the cake. You can heal your allies and target enemies in a straight line, which complements her kit.
Though you’ll suffer from less vertical mobility, her crowd control can help you immobilize flankers. Overall, she’s perfect for healing, crowd control and moving around.
1 Mantis
Go To Sleep
Abilities |
Description |
---|---|
Spore Slumber |
Throw a spore to sedate the nearest enemy |
Soul Resurgence |
Provide Healing Over Time and Movement Boost for surrounding allies, converting excess healing to Bonus Health. |
Allied Inspiration |
Consume Life Orbs to grant allies a Damage Boost |
Natural Anger |
Consume Life Orbs to grant herself a Damage Boost |
Healing Flower |
Consume Life Orbs to grant allies Healing Over Time |
Mantis’ abilities revolve around Life Orbs, which can be obtained after landing a critical hit with your basic attacks. Unlike other healers like Luna Snow, Cloak & Dagger, her basic attacks don’t heal allies, which, in my opinion, is a good decision since her healing is very potent and her basic attacks pack a solid punch.
There’s no cooldown on her healing; all you need are Life Orbs. What I like about her the most is her Sedate ability, which can put an enemy to sleep for a short duration, making them an easy target. I always target Black Panther, Psylocke, or Spider-Man with this because they can easily close the distance and pick me out.
Not only can she grant Damage and Movement Boost to herself and her allies, but she can also receive a Movement Boost and Healing Over Time just by consuming Life Orbs, which makes her survivability go off the roof. If there’s one thing you should remember, it’s to get used to her agile gameplay.
You can still use other abilities during Mantis’ ultimate, Soul Resurgence.
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