Table of Contents
The meta of Marvel Rivals is constantly shifting, so what is the best characters to play, ban, and pair together? This analysis studies the games of the top ranked players in the world. The best players will constantly use the strongest options available, and their meta will gradually move down to the regular meta. By analyzing the top players' meta, you can get ahead of the curve and pump up your rank.
Top Team Comp Structure
The most used team composition is the standard 2-2-2 distribution. Now that healer ults aren't as potent as they were at the first half of the season, there is more emphasis on DPS over healing ults. Within this comp, your DPS consists of 1 ranged character and 1 diver. This lets you put pressure on opponents in both directions without over-committing.
Some games will have 1 diving tank like or [item]Venom, while the other tank is more of an anchor tank. Other matches will keep 2 anchor tanks and skip out on a diving tank. Your team may need to swap in or out a diving tank depending on if you need to protect your backline, or dive the opponent's backline.
The second most used team comp is 1-3-2, with 1 tank and 3 DPS. This is useful if your opponent is playing more defensively and you need to secure some kills. It may be a comp that your team swaps into momentarily to break through a strong hold, but depending on your opponent’s adapting, you may not keep the comp long term.
The 3 healer meta has died down quite a bit from Season 1.0. Tanks like Thor and Captain America require more DPS to take down, so having 3 healers really doesn't help your team as much as extra damage would. Groot's walls are also becoming more popular, which completely block healing, so you need more assistance breaking them down.
Most Played Characters
For the Vanguards, Magneto, [item]Doctor Strange, and Groot headline as frequent picks. Each of these tanks have incredible abilities that can block damage and negate ultimates. They all have incredibly strong ultimates that can eliminate healing ults and lock in team wipes. The Thing is a runner up tank pick, but appears to be gaining rapid popularity.
For the Duelists, Winter Soldier, Magik, Namor, Psylocke, and Hela[/item] see the most frequent picks. Winter Soldier and Namor are often paired with Rocket Raccoon and Luna Snow for their strong team-ups. They also have strong ults that can give your team a great deal of momentum. Magik and Psylocke are proving to be very strong diving options that can let you dive in, secure a kill or two, and escape without being killed. Hela may not be the powerhouse she once was, but she still packs a punch. She often gives a free revive to Loki and Thor as well, making her much more popular at top level play.
Mister Fantastic and Spider-Man are close runner-ups, seeing frequent but less consistent picks. Spider-Man is used as a way to target low HP opponents and lock in kills. They aren't specifically targeting the backline like a typical Spidey, but they are watching for opponents with lower health to swing in on and lock the kill in. Mister Fantastic is mostly used as crowd control. With his damage absorbing ability and multiple self-heal options, he's great at causing distractions and taking focus off your team.
As for the Strategists, we have Luna Snow, Invisible Woman, Rocket Raccoon, and Loki. These characters all have strong team-ups, great ultimates, and options for escaping danger. None of these characters are that surprising. The biggest question is where are Cloak & Dagger?
Less Frequent Characters
Cloak & Dagger have seen a sharp decline in play, which is likely due to Magneto. C&D have a great ultimate, but the stall between each dash make them an easy target for Magneto to ult on, thus eliminating the healing ult entirely. With the 3 healer meta fading out, C&D naturally became the least consistent and sees less picks.
Bruce Banner (Hulk) used to be the premiere tank pick with Doctor Strange, but the nerf of the Gamma Charge Team-Up made it much less necessary. Hulk isn't being played anymore at high levels, even though he isn't banned. The Thing is also taking his place as the fast-moving brawling tank.
Storm is also seeing a lot less picks this season. Her recent nerfs made her worse, but still playable. With so many good DPS options, playable doesn't always make the cut. Her ultimate is also very counterable if the healers are prepared for it, making it less impactful than someone like Winter Soldier.
Moon Knight wasn't nerfed lately, but his pick rate has dropped quite a bit. With less focus on anchor tanks and triple healers, Moon Knight has less groups of people to target. He doesn't excel in 1v1 combat, so teams being a bit more spread out makes him less viable than other DPS.
Most Banned Characters
Wolverine remains the king of getting banned. Any good tank knows Wolverine can single-handedly ruin your day, so it's just safer to ban him every time. Teams fear him so much, he frequently gets banned by both teams!
Namor is frequently banned so divers have less to be countered by. It used to be Luna that got banned to prevent the team-up, but her nerfs swapped the target to Namor directly. Magik and Winter Soldier both are also seeing a lot of bans, simply because of their high pick rate.
Groot and Doctor Strange are the most banned Vanguard. Removing the utility of portals and walls blocking healing is much easier than trying to play around them constantly.
Most Used Team-Ups
For offensive Team-Ups, Ammo Overload is frequently used since Rocket Raccoon and Winter Soldier see such high pick rates. It gives Winter Soldier an easy way to farm his ultimate charge while littering the objective with his bullets.
Chilling Charisma is frequently used to give Namor an extra octopus turret, which gives a huge advantage when defending.
Ragnarok Rebirth and Planet X Pals are very frequented passive Team-Ups. As mentioned before, Hela sees a lot of play right now with Thor and Loki being prominent in the meta.
Planet X Pals specifically is good for Rocket Raccoon and Groot. If gives Rocket extra healing, and Groot gets a larger base health. With Rocket working with both Groot and Winter Soldier, it's no wonder these Team-Ups are used so frequently.
