Marvel Rivals has a bunch of healers who can pack a mean punch, and the golden boy himself, Adam Warlock, is one of them. He’s got a bit of a learning curve due to his resource-based healing and very cooldown-dependent kit in general. With that said, he’s still a pretty good pick under certain conditions, so here are some tips to help you get started with him!
Adam Warlock’s Playstyle in a Nutshell
Adam Warlock is a powerful healer whose main downside is that he only has two charges of his main healing ability, and it takes six seconds to regain one. He also has the worst mobility of any strategist in the game (as of writing this), as he has literally no way to slip away from danger.
What he lacks in consistent healing and escapes he makes up for with his supplementary damage and clutch potential. With good aim, you can be a bit of a nuisance to the entire team by constantly landing headshots and his multi-shot charged secondary fire.
Rather than focusing on keeping allies constantly topped up, which is what strategists such as Rocket Raccoon or Luna Snow do, his whole thing revolves around dropping sudden bursts of healing to the team and spreading out damage received with his Soul Bond ability. He can even revive teammates!
I gotta be honest with you, he’s very dependent on both team’s compositions, as efficient use of his entire kit carries quite a bit of risk and requires pretty decent game sense. With all of that said, let’s take a closer look at what he offers…
Adam Warlock’s Abilities & Team-Ups
If this is your first time in my blog, we’re going to go through Adam’s abilities in list format so I can insert a few tips for each individual skill:
- Quantum Magic (primary attack) – Adam Warlock is one of the few hitscan characters in the game. For the uninitiated, this means that he has point and click projectiles that instantly land where you’re aiming.
- This deals a lot of damage, and a headshot at short to mid-range distance hits for around a hundred HP. He’s like a mini Hela in terms of damage.
- Get used to hitting with this, because you should be taking pot shots at enemies way more than the other strategists in the current roster.
- Cosmic Cluster (secondary attack) – His secondary fire allows him to charge up and rapidly fire up to five projectiles on release.
- Each projectile deals less damage than his primary and is not hitscan. Instead, they are fired one after another and has a somewhat fast travel time.
- This uses the same ammo pool as your primary!
- These projectiles cannot headshot.
- Avatar Life Stream (E) – This is your main healing ability, and it bounces to multiple allies as long as they’re within range.
- It can bounce two times to allies up to 20m away, which is around mid-range.
- As mentioned earlier, you can only hold up to two charges of this ability, and you only regain one every six seconds.
- Each charge provides much more potent heals than what other strategists can give, and casting both at once will get allies from 1 to almost 200 in a flash.
- Obviously, the downside to this is that you can’t do it consistently.
- Because of his limited resources, the most efficient way to use this is when allies are at around half health or less, if you’re willing to take the risk.
- Upon casting it, Adam Warlock also heals himself by a small amount (less than half of what he gives allies).
- If you aren’t targeting anyone, Adam heals himself significantly more. It will still bounce to nearby allies, if any.
- Soul Bond (Shift) – His shift ability creates a soul link between him and nearby allies. While the link is active, damage received will be spread out among them.
- While the link is active, anyone attached will heal a small amount of health per second.
- This lasts for six seconds, though it can break early under the following conditions:
- If Adam Warlock takes fatal damage through the link, it will break early and leave him with just one point of health.
- It has a damage threshold, and each target can take around 250 health worth of damage before their link breaks. (I’ve no way of testing this extensively)
- The link can also supposedly break if allies run out of its range.
- This ability can let your team tank potentially lethal ultimates, such as Psylocke‘s or even Iron Man’s. Be careful of something like a Punisher ult, though, as he can melt that shared HP pool like it’s butter.
- Do not spam this!!! It has a long cooldown and should typically be reserved for countering heavy damage.
- Regenerative Cocoon (Passive) – When Adam Warlock dies, he can move around as a spirit and revive himself wherever he chooses.
- This has a very long cooldown.
- For some reason, your Karmic Revival aura will continue to be active and follow you while you’re a soul. This is a very niche tech, but it means that you can potentially revive allies while “dead” as long as your ultimate is still active.
- Karmic Revival (Ultimate) – Upon casting, Adam Warlock will revive nearby allies with a fraction of their health.
- You do not need to use it near allies. Stop casting it in the middle of the enemy team!
- When you use your ultimate, Adam Warlock will have a large gold circle aura following him for ten seconds (look at the floor to see the radius). If this aura touches a dead teammate, they will get revived.
- Teammates will be revived at the initial casting spot, not at the point where they died. As such, you can use it behind cover to give you or another healer an opportunity to heal them before they go back into the fight.
- Don’t wait for a “one time big time” full team revival. Depending on the situation, bringing back one or two people before the others fall can make a huge impact.
- This has a relatively long animation, so make sure you are in a safe spot before casting it!
- Below is an animated example of how it works, just for reference:
- You do not need to use it near allies. Stop casting it in the middle of the enemy team!
His only team-up at the moment is with Mantis and Star-Lord. When Adam is in the team, both of the aforementioned heroes essentially get the same Regenerative Cocoon passive, though with a slightly longer cooldown. This can be absolutely cracked, which is why these three are often seen together in high level play.
Always Be Poking!
Adam Warlock is more of an “off healer” rather than a “main” one. To bring value to your team, you should be poking enemies a lot, almost as if you’re an extra DPS hero in the team. Find opportunities to harass or burst enemies down with your Cosmic Cluster and keep trying to score some headshots with your basic attacks.
That doesn’t mean you should just focus on hitting enemies, though. Continue keeping tabs on your team and see if multiple people are getting too low, because you have some really good tools that can help fix that. Otherwise, let your other strategist handle the chip damage and keep shooting.
If you’re against characters that summon stuff, like Loki, Namor, Moon Knight, or even Punisher with his turret, make a habit out of bursting down their stuff too. Since ankhs and minions/clones tend to go unnoticed against some uncoordinated teams, you can be an unsung hero by keeping those in check.
You don’t have to strictly aim for strategists and duelists though. Vanguards are fine targets too, especially if you’re going to be spamming Cosmic Cluster. Your weaknesses really only shine when the other team is running a dive-heavy composition, because you’ll mostly be helpless against them. On that note…
Adapting is Key
Adam Warlock is not ideal in some matchups, but if you insist on playing him, there are ways to play around his weaknesses. If you’re facing too many flankers, stay somewhere between both the vanguards and the other healer. In this case, try to be mindful of where the flankers are at all times. Help peel for the backline and don’t forget to focus on keeping your other strategist alive (if any).
If you’re not against too many divers (or any at all), the backline should be relatively safe. Do note that your primary fire falls off at long range, though the secondary fire does not. If you’re keeping your distance, use charged Cosmic Clusters for better DPS and save the left clicks for close range fights.
In either case, you’re going to be the most effective if your team is sticking relatively close to one another. If your own allies are running a dive-heavy composition, you’re going to have a hard time healing them if they go all over the place. Ask your team to stick if you’re struggling to take advantage of your utility/heals.
If all else fails, switch heroes for the time being. There are times when Adam just isn’t a good pick no matter how hard you try. Heck, if your personal playstyle leans heavily towards pure supporting, you’re better off playing as either Rocket Racoon or Cloak & Dagger instead. Those two are easier to heal with and much less reliant on aim to be helpful.
That’s really all I’ve got for Adam Warlock. He’s a fairly strong pick in the top ranks due to his team-ups, but he’s not really too common below that because of how hard it can be to do well with him. Even in Diamond he barely sees any play, at least based on my own solo experiences. He’s a fun character to use, but you’ll really want to be with a team that can play around his unusual supporting style.
Wanna learn more? My guide on which strategist is right for you should help you broaden your hero pool if you want to try out other support characters as well, and it has links to all the relevant hero guides too!