Marvel Rivals‘ launch is almost upon us, and while the roster of heroes we’ll get on day one might be rather densely packed with DPS characters, the devs have teased that the other roles will be getting new additions relatively soon, too.
When NetEase Games’ third-person hero shooter goes live, players will be able to use 33 different heroes plucked from the Marvel universe, but despite the wide variety of characters, their actual in-game roles aren’t quite so diverse. Unlike hero shooters like Overwatch which have traditional DPS, Tank, and Support roles, Marvel Rivals is introducing Duelist, Vanguard, and Strategists, which won’t just match this classic trio of roles, but in basic terms, they’re sort of equivalent. Either way, one role already has way more options than the others – there are currently six known Strategists, eight known Vanguards, and 17 known Duelists (two characters are still yet to be properly revealed).
While this has prompted concern from some, players were recently reminded that the devs “wanted to move away from Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist just being names for the quintessential understanding of Tanks, DPS, and Support,” with Duelists, for example, being able to both “duel and handle themselves” in battle. On top of that, in a recent ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Discord, the devs reportedly hinted that we’ll be getting more variety eventually. That’s according to a summary of the session from Miller Ross on Twitter, who writes: “More Vanguards and Strategists coming, Season 1 name-dropped specifically.”
Ross elaborates: “After acknowledging that people want more Vanguards and Strategists, they coyly gestured at Season 1, implying that characters coming in Season 1 will satiate that demand.”
Despite this, it sounds like the devs are still confident that the Duelists are different enough from traditional DPS characters to keep things interesting regardless. Ross reports that lead combat designer Zhiyong said that having so many Duelists will help teams have more diverse playstyles. There’s no doubt that competitive third-person shooter fans will be working out all the best strategies and team compositions when the game launches in a few more hours.
Be sure to check out our guide to Marvel Rivals’ release time to find out when the third-person shooter is out in your region.