Marvel Rivals Scarlet Witch Quick Guide – Tips & Tricks

The Scarlet Witch may be a powerful reality warping superhero in the comics, but in Marvel Rivals, she’s one of the more beginner-friendly duelists who’s seen as a menace in casual play. I’ve been playing her a lot in quick matches recently and she’s actually really fun. Having said all that, here are some tips to help you get started with her!

Scarlet Witch’s Playstyle in a Nutshell

The Scarlet Witch, or Wanda for the sake of simplicity, is a duelist who excels at short to mid-range engagements. Her primary attack is a sort of auto-lock energy beam that very rapidly deals damage as long as there’s a target within your crosshairs. On the flip side, her secondary is a projectile that explodes on impact that gives her a burst damage option.

Mystic Projection lets her slip in and out of combat. With it, you can play her as a flanker that can just go in, delete a backliner, and fly on back to safety. In general, this gives her an extra bit of survivability and what’s essentially a “get out of jail free” card against any potentially lethal ability or even ultimate.

Speaking of ultimates, Reality Erasure is a bit of an oddball of an ability. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the strongest ultimate in the game or one of the weakest. I lean heavily on the latter, but I also believe it has niche uses as a zoning tool or a cheeky combo ultimate, but your mileage will vary depending on the lobby’s skill level.

With all of that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Wanda’s kit…

Scarlet Witch’s Abilities & Team-Ups

As with my other hero guides, abilities are going to be presented in list format so I can insert tips for each individual skill. Here are Wanda‘s skills:

• Chaos Control (Primary Attack) – As mentioned earlier, this is an auto-locking beam attack that deals damage in ticks. As long as you aim near enemies, it’ll target the closest one in your view.
  • This deals both a base amount of damage and a small percentage of your target’s maximum health per second.
    • Because of this, vanguards actually take significantly more damage from the beam.
    • Against duelists and strategists, the %HP effect is barely noticeable.
  • The beam has infinite ammo, so you can just hold it down forever if you really want to. Don’t do that, though.
• Chtonian Burst (Secondary Attack) – Her secondary is an aimed projectile that deals damage on impact and then again in a small area.
  • Think of it this way: Direct hits deal the full amount, while hitting the ground beside your target will deal half of that.
    • This also means that enemies very close to somebody that you hit directly will also take a bit of damage.
  • This has four charges, which regenerate over time.
    • Charges are regained faster by actively dealing damage with Chaos Control!
  • As long as there are charges available, treat this as your main damage dealing ability. Once you get used to landing these, you’ll find yourself securing more eliminations than before.
• Dark Seal (E) – Wanda throws an orb that will detonate and turn into a sphere of chaos energy, which will periodically stun enemies who touch it.
  • Although it will automatically detonate upon hitting an enemy or a part of the map, you can also manually activate it by pressing the ability’s button again.
  • It has a delay of a little under a second before the sphere appears, so it can be a bit clunky if you’re trying to use it in the heat of battle.
• Mystic Projection (Shift) – Upon activation, Wanda becomes untargetable and she enters a free flight mode for a few seconds.
  • This gives you a significant movement speed boost, so it can be great for both escaping and chasing.
  • The ability has two charges that are replenished relatively quickly, so don’t be afraid to use it to get around the map.
    • If you want to be extra safe, save one charge for emergencies.
  • “Untargetable” applies to your teammates as well. Your healers can’t help you while you’re in Mystic Projection form!
• Telekinesis (Passive) – While in the air, you can hold the jump button to slow down your descent.
  • With the help of Mystic Projection, you can become a pseudo flying character.
    • Gaining verticality and then using Telekinesis can make it easier to throw Chtonian Bursts at people below.
    • Be careful of certain heroes that can swat you out of the sky with ease, like Hela or Punisher.
• Reality Erasure (Ultimate) – Wanda charges up for a few seconds before releasing a large burst of energy, which deals a ton of damage to enemies within range.
  • This has a relatively long charge time, which is enough for others to disrupt or kill you.
    • You are not immune to crowd control. Luna Snow can freeze you, Spider-Man or Peni Parker can web you up, etc.
    • You can freely fly while casting it.
    • Enemies will have a warning icon showing your location as you charge it up.
  • I prefer using this as a zoning tool to discourage enemies from getting to the objective rather than forcing them off.
    • Mind you, I usually play with and against players who can easily shoot targets out of the sky. In less sweaty lobbies, you can get away with using this almost whenever you want.
  • You can also use this shortly after an ally uses their own offensive ultimate to force a 50/50.
    • For example, in the animated clip below, I immediately used it after a friendly Hela used her ultimate. In this case, I secured three kills after the other team had already spent resources blocking Hela at the opposite edge of the objective.

Her team-up is called Chaotic Bond, and it mainly just benefits Magneto. If her father is in the team, he gets a bonus active ability that temporarily turns his basic melee into a ranged attack that functions similarly to Chtonian Burst, but with even more damage.

Use That Secondary Often!

Don’t fall into the trap of relying on your Chaos Control too much. Sure, it does hurt quite a bit and is hilariously easy to land, but by weaving in some of your Chtonian Bursts or dumping all of them whenever possible, you’ll be doing a lot more damage as long as you get direct hits.

Luckily for you, you’ll likely already be close to your targets due to your primary’s limited reach. This should make it really easy to slap people with your secondary. Make a habit out of landing direct blows to secure kills faster and prevent healers from completely invalidating your damage.

That brings me to an additional point as to why you shouldn’t rely on your beam too much. If you’re using your beam while your target’s getting healed, directly or otherwise (e.g. random Rocket Raccoon orbs), you’re essentially just feeding their strategists extra ult energy. It also gives your target more time to fight back, which you obviously won’t want.

Even if you’re doing slightly more damage than they can heal over time, bursting enemies down with Chtonian Burst will prevent any unnecessary feeding and give them fewer opportunities to escape.

Don’t Go For “Big” Ultimate Plays

Reality Erasure may be a bit of a pub stomper in lower level lobbies, but you will eventually encounter a lot of players who can just kinda shoot or disable you out of the sky every single time. Remember, your ultimate slows you down and is heavily telegraphed.

Now I’m just speaking from personal experience, but team-wiping Reality Erasure plays are almost impossible against competent players because nearly the entire roster has an answer for it that doesn’t involve taking cover. Spider-Man or Peni can shut you down with little effort, ranged duelists can easily hit you due to your speed, and heck, I’ve taken down a lot of ulting Wanda players as Mantis.

Instead, as I pointed out in the ability list, use it in conjunction with your teammates’ ultimates. Yes, you’re essentially spending two ults at once, but think of it this way: Would you have even gotten any if you used Reality Erasure on your own? If doing it this way takes out half of the other team or at least a couple of key targets, that’s already huge value.

If you really want to, you can sneak around the enemy team and hide behind a wall. From there, start charging your ultimate and pop out before it goes off. You might be able to get a couple of picks doing this, but they’ll still have time to react. I managed to do this in the clip below, but I got lucky cause the Winter Soldier (abilities on cooldown) didn’t hit a headshot and the Spider-Man ran away:

And those are most of the essentials you’ll need in order to get started with the Scarlet Witch! My only closing tip is to learn other duelists too, because there’ll be times where Wanda just won’t work at all. The Punisher is my recommendation if you need a backup pick, as he’s incredibly versatile and easy to learn!

Wanna learn more? I have a whole blog post all about choosing which duelists are right for you that sums up what each of the other DPS characters are capable of!