Whether your goal is to counter flankers or just simply wreck people with turrets, Namor is gonna be your go-to pick in Marvel Rivals. He has a very diverse kit and a lot of potential to carry a game, though the latter will require some pretty good projectile aiming. With that in mind, I’ll be going over what he’s capable of and giving you a few tips to get started with him!
Namor’s Playstyle in a Nutshell
Namor is often picked as an “anti-dive” hero to counter people like Spider-Man, Psylocke, or Black Panther, but he’s also just generally a pretty strong duelist overall due to his simple set of abilities and what’s essentially “free” damage of sorts with his turrets.
Unlike most other duelists, he doesn’t have damage drop-off, which means he can deal the same amount of damage from any distance. This makes him a viable pick in any map, though your mileage will vary on how well you can aim his tridents, and he’s not going to perform too well against good shield vanguards.
He has a decent defensive ability in the form of his protective bubble, which can also be used aggressively to reach high ground and get a better view of the enemy team. His ultimate, is great for mass knockdowns or even taking out a valuable target in a flash.
With all of that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Namor’s abilities…
Namor’s Abilities & Team-Ups
As with my other guides, I’m gonna do this in list format so I can insert tips with each individual skill:
- Trident of Neptune (Primary attack) – Namor throws his tridents at enemies, and it’s a deceptively fast projectile.
- As mentioned earlier, this deals the same damage at any distance. A quick tip for this is to aim slightly above head level if you’re throwing it at long range.
- Whenever you land a headshot, your turrets are boosted. More on this below.
- You have infinite ammo, so you never need to think about reloading.
- Wrath of the Seven Seas (Secondary attack) – This is similar to your regular attacks, but hurts slightly more and does a bit of splash damage to nearby enemies.
- When this hits an enemy and you have turrets active, they will each shoot an enhanced attack at the closest person that got hit. You will hear a whistling audio cue when this happens.
- Landing this also boosts your turrets’ attack speed for a brief moment, making it a great way to execute divers like Spider-Man.
- You don’t need to hit the diver to buff your turrets! If you’re struggling to hit small moving targets, throw it at the enemy’s vanguards to activate the buffs.
- Aquatic Dominion (E) – Namor will throw a Monstro Spawn, which I’ll refer to as turrets for the sake of simplicity, at the target location. They attack nearby enemies and will expire after several seconds or when destroyed.
- You can hold up to two charges of these, and each will regenerate every few seconds.
- Landing your primary attack very slightly reduces the cooldown for each charge. This is part of why having a somewhat consistent aim is very important.
- These can stick to any surface, but you should also be mindful of how fast it falls down whenever you throw one out.
- Aim high if you’re trying to stick these to walls. Seriously, they drop down fast.
- Place them in unusual spots (walls, pillars, ceilings, etc.), but make sure they have line of sight. Turrets on the floor tend to get noticed and destroyed much earlier!
- Trident headshots or secondary attack hits will temporarily increase their attack speed by a lot.
- This buff is huge, so try your best to activate it frequently.
- You can hold up to two charges of these, and each will regenerate every few seconds.
- Blessing of the Deep (Shift) – Upon activation, Namor will launch up in the air and temporarily encase himself in a protective bubble that will render him invulnerable.
- While active, you can hover up or down very slowly. Personally, I use this sometimes to get to high ground whenever I feel safe playing aggressively.
- You can recast the ability to cancel out of it early.
- Remember, this is your only defensive skill, so try not to always use it for mobility.
- On the topic of mobility, you should also know that Namor can slow down his descent by holding the jump button while in the air.
- Horn of Proteus (Ultimate) – Namor summons Giganto, who will crash at the target location and deal a ton of damage to enemies caught in it.
- This ability’s radius has two rings. The smaller inner circle deals significantly more damage. Either way, all targets hit by any part of the ultimate will be knocked down.
- Upon casting, anyone inside the ability’s radius cannot use movement abilities. They’ll have to try and walk out normally before Giganto lands.
- This is particularly strong when used alongside Groot’s ultimate, as it can guarantee that you get the full inner circle damage on a large group of enemies.
His only team-up at the moment is with Luna Snow the Hulk as of season 2. When both of them are in the same team, he gains the Gamma Monstro bonus ability. This is special turret that has its own cooldown and more health.
One important thing to note, though, is that you are still only allowed to have two turrets max. If you already have two turrets out, deploying this will still remove the oldest one.
Future updates can add or remove team-ups, so always be mindful of major patches. Whenever a new seasons rolls out, they might remove or change this again.
Chokepoints Are Your Best Friends
Just like Squirrel Girl, Namor can easily hold down a tight corridor or just any objective in general with some good turret placement. A prime example of this is when you’re defending the first point of Klyntar, as you can keep throwing turrets at the tall walls while enemies funnel in.
If your enemies push up and further expose themselves to your turrets, you can throw out a Wrath of the Seven Seas to buff your spawns and apply even more pressure. Places like these also make it hard for flankers to do their job, as turrets will automatically aim at them if they pop out.
Don’t forget to keep throwing your tridents to reduce Aquatic Dominion‘s cooldown. As long as you keep hitting enemies, you should be able to keep spamming turrets all over the place. Most enemies can’t or won’t get rid of them in some cases, as they’d need to divert their attention away from your team to find them.
Stick With Your Strategists
Since you’re just getting started, your ideal position as a Namor player is going to be between your healers and tanks. This will let you apply constant pressure to the enemy frontline while also making it easier for you to react to any flankers.
As your aim improves, you can start playing more aggressively and try to pick off enemy backliners by flanking and/or flying up and very quickly dropping and buffing two turrets. I personally prefer just sticking with the team, but this is a completely viable way of playing Namor too.
Shields? Hit Them Too!
Whether it’s a team running Dr. Strange & Magneto, a Groot plopping down walls, or even just an Invisible Woman using her right click, any form of shielding is going to be really annoying for a Namor.
His attacks are just too slow to effectively deal with stuff like this, but it doesn’t mean you should just keel over and stop until it goes away. Aside from trying to find an off angle to deal damage around the shields, attacking them is also completely valid.
Remember, unless you’re isolated, you have five other teammates who will very likely be applying pressure on enemy barriers too. Stuff like Invisible Woman‘s or Dr. Strange‘s shields will need time to regain their full strength once shattered, so keep hitting them with your tridents and turrets if you have any to spare.
This tip in particular applies to most of the other characters too.
And that’s all I have for Namor, which should be enough to get you started! Start queueing up quick matches and practice aiming his tridents at real players, because it’s the only way to truly get better at landing them and buffing your turrets.
If you’re looking for other DPS characters to try out, consider reading my blog post on “which duelist is right for you?“ to see all of your options right now!