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Marvel Rivals has a pretty sizeable roster, and the duelist role happens to be the one with the most characters right now. With the first season (not counting S0) halfway done as of writing this, new players are still flooding in. If you’re struggling to pick a DPS character, check out some of these recommendations based on different playstyles/archetypes!
Individual hero guides are linked in their names. If they don’t have one yet, that means it’s either still a WIP or not being made for varying reasons (e.g. I’m just not good at it or I don’t enjoy the hero).
Type #1 – Guns? Guns.
First up, if you’re looking for the definitive “shooter” characters, look no further than the ones who straight up just use guns. Not only are most of these viable in all levels of play, but they’re also perfect for those who are still new to this specific genre of shooter:
- Punisher – This man is literally the generic soldier character of the game, though there’s a lot of potential for skill expression due to how deceptively versatile his kit can be.
- He has an assault rifle for mid to long-range combat, and he can swap to a shotgun if he has to fight up close.
- He can be surprisingly mobile if you know how to launch yourself with his zipline. On the flip side, Punisher can also be stationary defender with his turret, which he can also set up on the vehicle in escort maps.
- Winter Solder – Bucky is a strong pick overall due to how loaded his kit is. He can hook and slow enemies, ground fliers, push people around, and deal a ton of damage in between all of that.
- His weapon fires explosive rounds that aren’t hitscan, but they travel fast enough that you shouldn’t have any trouble landing hits. The only real downside to his gun is that it can hold just up to three shots.
- Using any of his abilities will refresh his magazine, and he also gains temporary shields even if he misses.
- Black Widow – She’s the mandatory sniper character of the game, though much less oppressive than her counterparts in other hero shooters.
- In order to one tap enemies, not only do you need to land headshots consistently, but you’ll need constant Mantis buffs. Without it, you have to hit everyone at least twice from full health.
- She can be great in the hands of a really good aimer. In her current state though, she’s outclassed by everything else.
- Star-Lord – Unlike the others in this category, he’s a flanker who can fly in, deal a ton of damage, and dip. He’s reliant on good tracking as he burns through ammo quickly.
- His jet boots grant him insane mobility, and as of the latest update, this just got buffed to have even more fuel.
- Hela – Okay, I know she doesn’t use guns, but she’s one of the few hitscan characters in the game. She is quite literally a “point and click” character, so if you’re experienced with shooters, you can destroy lobbies by tapping heads.
- She has a decent mobility tool for both escaping or repositioning, and her mini stun ability can help her deal with flankers or secure kills.
- Although she received nerfs in season 1, she’s still a pretty strong pick as long as you have decent aim.
Type #2 – High Fliers
There’s a handful of characters who can rain fire from the skies… Sometimes literally. Those of you who like the idea of free flight should consider adding some of these to your hero pool:
- Human Torch – Johnny’s one of the latest additions to the roster, and he can do an insane amount of both burst and sustained damage.
- He’s great for zoning, as his abilities allow him to force enemies off the objective or completely shut off chokepoints for a brief moment.
- His diving ability is a high-risk, high-reward move that can deal a lot of damage in a small radius. It requires a bit of setup, but if you can pull it off, you could get some quick picks.
- Storm – Although she hovers around slowly, Storm can be incredibly oppressive and annoying to kill. In most cases, her ultimate can also guarantee kills in the backline, and she can build it up rather quickly.
- She doubles as a support of sorts, as she provides passive buffs to nearby teammates that can boost both her and others’ damage or speed.
- Despite being a flying character, she’s often better when positioned somewhat close to the ground as her projectiles are piercing.
- Iron Man – Tony has a ton of damage potential, though he’s also incredibly easy to shut down if played recklessly. By playing around cover and finding opportunities to flank, he can be an absolute menace.
- His Unibeam is really powerful, but you have to find ways to catch people off guard as he’s vulnerable while channeling it.
- Iron Man‘s ultimate ability is one of the few things that can one shot almost anything in the game. There’s a few ways to completely negate it though, and he can be killed while casting it!
Type #3 – The Flankers/Divers
Do you like playing as an assassin who jumps in and out of the backline to take out key targets? You have a lot of choices in this game, and in the duelist role, they are the following:
- Black Panther – In the right hands, he’s a monster who can slip in and out before you can even hit him. He’s one of the best backline harassers in the game, but his effectiveness falls off a bit against players with good awareness.
- Even if he doesn’t secure kills, forcing cooldowns out of strategists brings a lot of value as long as his team can capitalize on his distraction.
- He relies on resets, and a single slip-up could result in his untimely demise.
- Spider-Man – He has a really high skill ceiling, and once you get used to him, this web-swinging menace can be a pain in the rear to deal with.
- He has really good mobility, but it has quite a bit of a learning curve. You really have to turn off the “automatic swing” option to fully utilize his webs, which means you’ll need to aim it at surfaces manually.
- His abilities require some good projectile aiming too, so you’ll definitely need to practice a lot with him.
- Iron Fist – The Iron Fist is another character that boasts insane mobility, and he can be deceptively hard to kill due to his parrying and bonus health generation.
- He’s incredibly annoying to shake off due to his inherent lock-on mechanic, though this can also works against him sometimes.
- Despite the game’s 4* difficulty rating for him, I personally think he’s fairly beginner-friendly.
- Psylocke – She’s basically the ninja character of the game, and her abilities encourage you to zip around the backline and harass key targets with your immense burst damage.
- The best way I can describe her primary attack is that it’s like a two-shot shotgun, though its rounds have a pretty tight spread and a set pattern.
- With her stealth and dashes, she can easily pop in and delete a player before disappearing almost immediately. Her ultimate is also good at guaranteeing kills in the backline, or forcing people to use a defensive ult.
Type #4 – The Brawlers
There’s no shortage of melee characters in this game, and not all of them are built to be assassins. Some are made for brawling in the frontline or harassing the backline without having to be sneaky about it. If that sounds like your cup of tea, here are your options:
- Wolverine – Logan got a lot of undeserved disrespect in the first month or two, but people eventually caught on to the fact that he’s actually a pretty strong tank buster.
- His attacks deal a percentage of his target’s max health. Because of this, he can melt vanguards while also being a bit of a tank in his own right.
- He can snatch enemies with his leaping ability, and this allows him to displace vanguards or even isolate squishier targets. When he successfully lands it, he also gets a beefed up version of his normal attacks that are incredibly fast.
- Magik – She’s a bit odd as she can be played as both a flanker and a brawler. It all depends on what’s going on in the match, but generally, her job mainly involves diving in and disrupting the enemy team.
- Although her kit seems pretty straightforward, Magik has a pretty high skill ceiling because of the different combos you can pull off with the help of animation cancels.
- Mr. Fantastic – He’s essentially a bruiser who may as well be classified as a vanguard with how his kit works and how awful his damage output is.
- Despite having lackluster damage, he makes up for it by being able to grant shields and become a literal shield himself.
- He can still be disruptive, as you can’t exactly ignore him even with his relatively weak hits. Sure, he isn’t particularly lethal, but he will kill you eventually if you don’t stop him.
Type #5 – Projectile Slingers
These characters, unlike the ones in the very first category, have slower projectiles. Despite this, they make up for it by having a lot of other utility or ways to deal a lot of damage without direct hits. They are the following:
- Namor – He’s the anti-dive character due to his ability to create turrets that he can buff by using his secondary attack or getting headshots.
- Players who are good at landing his relatively slow projectiles can carry hard with this guy, especially if you’re hitting headshots frequently.
- Even without stellar aim, his turrets can compensate for missed shots. One trick you can do is use his secondary on an easy to hit target, like a vanguard, to trigger the turrets’ attack speed buff.
- Hawkeye – Okay, technically his projectiles are really fast when charged up, but actually being able to consistently hit people with them is another story entirely. He’s basically just another sniper, but with extra steps.
- He can kill some people with one headshot, but this requires maximum “focus” from his passive ability. You build this up by aiming at enemies within a certain range.
- Although his season 1 nerf made it harder for him to build up focus from afar, he’s still generally good if you’re a demon with the bow.
- Moon Knight – He excels at dealing a ton of damage to clumped up targets with his bouncing projectiles. Anyone can do decently well as him, though he typically crumbles whenever he gets focused.
- Newer players can use his ankhs as a crutch, as it’s basically a form of auto aim that most lower level teams tend to ignore.
- Once you get better at landing his projectiles, he builds up ult charge so fast. Speaking of his ultimate, it’s a powerful AOE ability that can absolutely wreck people if they don’t react fast enough.
- Squirrel Girl – She fires bombs that bounce around, and this often results in her dealing a lot of unintentional damage. Squirrel Girl is really easy to get value with, but she can be wildly inconsistent.
- She has an ability that can snare enemies, rendering them vulnerable to direct hits with your bombs or just your teammates in general.
- She’s the perfect duelist for those who are completely new to shooters in general. You could blindly lob explosives at the general direction of your enemies and you’ll probably get a couple of eliminations.
- Scarlet Witch – I’m lumping Wanda in with this bunch because her secondary fire (which is a projectile) is technically what you should be using as a main attack. With that aside, she also has an auto-lock beam attack.
- Like Squirrel Girl, she is a great choice for newbies because her primary fire doesn’t require good aim. She becomes much better once you learn how to land her burst projectiles!
- Her ultimate is a powerful tool that can delete groups of people in one go, but it has a really long wind-up and a lot of ways to avoid it. Even with her season 1.5 buff, she’s still very vulnerable while using it.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, there’s a wide variety of duelists that you can play as in the game, and it’s completely normal for you to not be able to master every single one of them. If you’re new to the game, I highly recommend trying out at least one from each category here so that you can adjust whenever necessary.
Just pick a set of characters that you find interesting and start practicing from there. Even if you’re not interested in playing the competitive game mode, having backup picks can make matches less miserable if the other team counters your favorite.
If you want to branch out into the support/healer role, I also have a similar blog post that answers the question: Which strategist is right for you?