Easiest Heroes For Beginners In Marvel Rivals

Key Takeaways

• Marvel Rivals has 33 heroes with distinct classes, ensuring that there’s something suitable for every player.
• Starting out in a hero shooter like Marvel Rivals can be challenging; choosing beginner-friendly heroes is key.
• Heroes like Rocket Raccoon, Doctor Strange, Squirrel Girl, Venom, Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Groot, The Punisher, and Jeff the Land Shark are great for beginners.

Marvel Rivals brings with it a roster of 33 heroes for gamers to pick up and play. With three distinct “classes” of hero; Duelist, Vanguard, and Strategist, there is a hero here for everyone. Duelists are the typical DPS class, with most heroes focusing on outputting consistent damage, Vanguard is the tank, with larger health pools and more utility abilities, and Strategist is the support, focused on healing allies and controlling enemy movement.

Whether a gamer is a complete newcomer to hero shooters or has been playing Overwatch, Team Fortress 2, and Valorant for years, starting out in a new release from the genre isn’t always easy. For those struggling to pick a starting hero in Marvel Rivals, here’s a rundown on three from each class that are perfect for beginners.

9 Rocket Raccoon

Revive Allies And Provide Armor

• Strategist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Rocket Raccoon provides is a great way to begin learning the ins and outs of Strategist gameplay in Marvel Rivals, bolstering a pretty standard primary weapon, an easy-to-use heal, and abilities that can revive allies, provide armor, and get Rocket out of trouble if players finds themselves surrounded.

The main thing to note about Rocket Raccoon is that he doesn’t have a lot of health, which means that if the player is caught out, it is easy to get overwhelmed and die. It’s vital keep an eye on Rocket’s health, stick with teammates, and use his abilities whenever they are off cooldown, and success should be simple.

8 Doctor Strange

Teleport Across The Battlefield

• Vanguard
• Difficulty: 2 Stars

Doctor Strange is a Vanguard character, sporting much more health than the previous entry. His primary fire is a cluster of projectiles, and he has abilities that let him fly, create teleporters around the battlefield, shield himself, and create a bursting area of damage.

Doctor Strange’s ultimate ability allows him to knock the souls out of enemies, which can be damaged to hurt their respective heroes. This can be a powerful ability but requires Doctor Strange to be in the middle of the action, so the player should make sure their team is ready for it before unleashing the ability for maximum effectiveness.

7 Squirrel Girl

Control An Army Of Squirrels

• Duelist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Squirrel Girl is one of the most fun Duelists in the game, and she truly feels like Marvel simply plucked her out of the pages of a comic. Her primary fire can ricochet off walls and deal area-of-effect damage. Her abilities let her control an army of squirrels to root enemies in place, deal damage, and flood the battlefield with adorable critters.

Squirrel Girl can use her tail to maneuver around the battlefield, bouncing high off the ground, and she can also instantly refresh her abilities to be a real menace to the enemy team. As a Squirrel Girl player, getting used to the ricochet of her primary fire will be key to success.

6 Venom

Harness The Power Of The Symbiote

• Vanguard
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Venom is a stereotypical tank, being a beefy character with lots of melee range abilities and ways to get in and out of combat. Venom’s primary fire uses tendrils to attack enemies within point-blank range, and his abilities enable him to remain in combat for longer by providing temporary health and slowing nearby enemies.

Venom’s ultimate ability is a power area denial tool, creating a huge area of effect before Venom bites enemies within it, and he gains extra health based on the damage dealt. While not the strongest Vanguard hero in Marvel Rivals, Venom is a great starting point for any new player.

5 Scarlet Witch

Spread Chaos And Drain Enemies

• Duelist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Scarlet Witch is another powerful Duelist who will draw the attention of many players. Her primary fire is a beam of energy that automatically locks onto targets and refills a meter that allows her to cast certain abilities. Scarlet Witch can also create an area that periodically stuns enemies inside it, and her ultimate charges up before unleashing a devastating burst of energy.

While Scarlet Witch feels great to play and is easily one of the best heroes for beginners to start with, she is quite low on health and can easily get caught out without the support of her team, leading to her getting taken out if the player doesn’t position correctly.

4 Mantis

Put Enemies To Sleep And Buff Ally Damage

• Strategist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Mantis is a Strategist who truly focuses on healing. Her primary fire is a decently strong projectile that refills the charges of her abilities. These abilities can either heal an ally, increase an ally’s damage output, increase her damage output, or put an enemy to sleep. Mantis’ ultimate ability creates an area around her that gives constant healing and a speed boost to her allies.

Mantis is possibly the closest hero to a standard “healer” class, and players familiar with Mercy from Overwatch or Sage from Valorant will most likely drift toward her. The key to success with Mantis is playing with the team; if she is caught on her own, she can struggle to 1v1 more damage-focused heroes.

3 Groot

Build Walls And Trap Enemies

• Vanguard
• Difficulty: 2 Stars

Groot is an incredibly fun tank who focuses less on directly shielding the team with his body and more so on manipulating the battlefield with walls that hinder the opposing team. Groot has slightly more health than the other beginner Vanguards, which he can further increase by using his Ironwood Wall ability.

Groot can also use his ultimate ability to root enemies in a thorny prison, which can be a very powerful way to drag enemies away from an objective. Groot is a great character to get started with, but his wall abilities do take some practice to fully utilize. That said, putting the time in to learn this hero is most definitely worth it.

2 The Punisher

Unrivaled Firepower

• Duelist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

The Punisher is the closest thing to a bog-standard shooter character in Marvel Rivals. He uses guns, grenades, turrets, and a grappling hook to simply do what he does best: slay enemies. The Punisher has two main guns, a standard assault rifle, and a close-range shotgun, both of which do good, consistent damage and handle similarly to any third-person shooter.

The Punisher is the perfect hero for anyone not familiar with the hero shooter genre, with his penchant for unconventional weapons. With simple hit-scan guns, a manned turret, and an ultimate that is simply bigger guns, The Punisher is one of the easiest Marvel Rivals heroes for beginners to learn the game with. There is a reason Marvel used him as the character in the tutorial.

1 Jeff The Land Shark

Swim Through The Battlefield And Consume Everyone

• Strategist
• Difficulty: 1 Star

Jeff the Land Shark is probably not a familiar face for all players, unlike Iron Man and Captain America, but is by far the best Marvel Rivals character for beginners to pick up. With solid damage, great and easy-to-use healing, and an ultimate ability that allows the player to swallow everyone on the battlefield, this adorable little shark pup is an all-around powerhouse.

Jeff can be squishy, finding it difficult to handle one-on-one duels, but if the player sticks with the team and learns how to use Jeff’s projectile weapon as efficiently as possible, this hero will serve them well in any scenario. No matter what the rest of the team looks like, no player will ever be sad to see someone on their side playing as Jeff.