Marvel Rivals Competitive Meta Analysis: Season 2 Week 4

Welcome back to my Marvel Rivals Competitive Meta Analysis series! If you missed the latest  report last week, get caught up here. There’s a lot of meta trends to discuss, so let’s dive in.

In this series, I’ll examine and analyze week-over-week shifts in the Rivals Competitive meta across the entire roster, all ranks, and all platforms. I’ll discuss trends and identify opportunities for heroes that may be positioned to outperform relative to the rest of the roster. 

Before we jump in, feel free to review how everything works directly below.

Expand to read how my analysis works.

How are heroes scored and weighted?

My analysis uses a simple weighted scoring system to evaluate hero performance. Data is centralized and snapshotted from multiple third-party tools. Win rate, pick rate, and ban rate are locked in for each hero at the start of the week, then again after seven days have passed. I then examine the shifts in performance and pass everything through a weighted scoring system.

There were no changes to the weighted scoring system this week.

Hero Rankings Weighted Scoring = (8.5x win rate) + (1x pick rate) - (0.5x ban rate)

The idea is simple. Win rate should be the most significant factor in ranking heroes. Pick rate is evaluated and factored in. How often players are picking certain heroes can be indicative of power or at least preference.

Why is ban rate penalized in the weighted scoring model? Aren’t heroes that are being banned more frequently more likely to be OP?

Ban rate can be a decent proxy for power level—or at least annoyance to play against. Unfortunately, it also works against you when selecting which characters to play and specialize in competitive. There is an opportunity cost to picking, practicing, and playing a character that is likely to get banned. In general, the more you play on a hero, the more you can expect to improve and for those improvements to be represented in your overall win rate with a hero. If you are unable to play your main over a third of competitive games you play, you are potentially hamstringing your performance and practice time with improving and mastering those heroes. 

Another thing to note is that ban rate effectively reduces the pick rate of heroes. While a banned hero would not always have been picked for play in a game, the higher the ban rate, the more likely it is that a player who wants to cannot play that character in a match. Therefore, I’ve factored in a penalty for ban rate in my weighted scoring model. The lower the ban rate, the lower the penalty. Ban rate penalty currently represents 5% of a character’s weighted score.

Movers & Shakers

There were no adjustments made to the Movers & Shakers weighted scoring formula this week.

This weighted scoring system looks at the change or delta (Δ) between the current week's data and the previous week's snapshot. This gives us a good trend of how heroes are progressing and allows us to identify the biggest winners and losers of the week. In this category, heroes who are winning more, being picked more, and being banned less will receive more of a lift. Heroes who are performing worse week over week will be ranked lower in this list. 

The scoring system weights for this category must be different from base rankings. Hero win rates remain relatively stable week to week without a balance patch, but pick rates vary drastically as the meta evolves. Using the same weighted system for rankings would result in scores being almost entirely driven by changes to pick rate alone, which paints a severely skewed and flawed glimpse of actual performance.

Movers & Shakers Weighted Scoring = (20x Δwin rate) + (2x Δpick rate) - (3x Δban rate)

Once Mover & Shaker values are created, I run a z-score analysis to determine how many standard deviations (σ) each data point is from the mean of the set to look for statistical outliers and put everything on a comparable scale for analysis. This helps with machine learning and data smoothing/reliability over time.

The Movers and Shakers category highlights the biggest winners and losers of the week, and often, the changes and weekly shifts are very subtle, especially as the meta starts to stabilize. But every marginal advantage you can stack in your favor can make a huge difference in your climb, amplified and compounded over the number of games you play. Likewise, every marginal disadvantage you continue to play will adversely affect your results. Here’s a simple graph that illustrates the concept:

The limitations of weighted scoring systems

With the amount of data to gather, compile, calculate, and analyze, it would require substantial effort to segment everything into different Elo brackets for ranked play. To overcome this limitation, I’ll provide callouts in my analysis for certain heroes who are performing well in various competitive rankings. For example, Hela is arguably the best DPS character in the game in Celestial+ lobbies, but is much less frightening in the hands of a Silver player. Less than 8% of the player base is competing in Celestial+ lobbies anyway, so an overall view of the competitive landscape and all its rankings is by default normalized across the entire distribution of the player base.

Improving the model over time

With community and pro feedback, I’ll improve the weighted scoring system over time. It’s likely this is not the optimal form, but it does give a good baseline to compare data over time and early shifts in the Marvel Rivals Season Two Meta. Any additional changes to the weighted scoring system will be called out in future articles in the series.

Note on team-ups: Due to the nature of some third-party data capture tools, some Team-Ups that involve more than two characters are split into individual pairs while others are captured by the full set. This creates some issues with data accuracy, which I’ll work to smooth out in future articles in the series through my own tooling and possible improvements in third-party tools.

Patch Discussion & Meta Commentary

There was a recent balance patch that saw a number of changes to certain heroes across all roles. Now that we have a full week of data behind us, we can examine the effects of the numerous balance changes and how the meta has been impacted!

Powerful Data Insights to Take Your Game to the Next Level

We’ve massively overhauled the meta section on the site.

It’s populated with all my data analysis tables used to write this series. With Premium, you can help support our content (and enjoy it ad-free) and unlock incredible insights across the entire hero roster and all team-ups. You can filter by metrics and get a full glimpse of the competitive landscape through my weekly reports. Previous week reports are always free, but you can get ahead of the competition and unlock the latest report right away. Take your rank to the next level and help support our content today!

Marvel Rivals Hero Rankings (Weighted Scoring) Top 5 - 5/9/25

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon has been making a huge impact in the competitive meta since his rework at the start of season two and has held the top slot in our rankings for three weeks in a row. He is a clear and consistent top-performer in the Strategist role and has done so throughout the entire season. Rocket’s overall win rate sits at 53.71% for the week, with his pick rate falling to 42.15% and ban rate dropping to 1.26%. Rocket is notable for a low skill floor and has quickly distinguished himself as the premium strategist pick for the season.

Rocket’s strength comes from the utility of his B.R.B beacon and effectively turning fights into 7v6s, or erasing an early mistake from your team and giving you a shot to turn around the team fight. He has great healing output and plenty of utility to help his team. Rocket is performing well against most of the roster, but should prioritize banning Iron Fist and/or Captain America based on individual matchup data and week-over-week shifts.

Rocket remains the strongest Strategist pick in a vacuum, but has seen an overall decrease in his performance two weeks in a row as the meta adjusts. His overall win rate decreased by 1% from last week, his pick rate decreased by 3%, and his ban rate decreased by 23%. It’s clear that Rocket is still a great addition to almost any team composition. Interestingly, both his team ups: Ammo Overload with The Punisher and Planet X Pals with Groot produce slightly lower win rates than his blended win rate across all ranks, not entirely surprising given the drastic gap in win rates between Rocket and these other hero picks.

Rocket struggles against Captain America, Groot, and Iron Fist. Since Iron Fist is one of the strongest Duelist picks at the moment and has dominant matchups against many characters, he should be the ban priority for Rocket players—though a Groot/Cap ban could also be extremely beneficial for your climb.

Storm

Storm is a hero that has been flying under the radar for some time and has been vastly under-represented in pick rate compared to her consistently high win rate and impact in ranked play. As a niche pick, Storm is still extremely dominant in games where she goes unanswered.

Since her season one buffs, Storm has enjoyed a high win rate with a pick rate that has clearly lagged her performance and impact. This week, Storm has achieved a 54.29% win rate, a super low 4.68% pick rate, and a ban rate of only 0.29%. With a good vantage point and aerial cover, Storm can switch between peeling and providing overwatch protection to the backline and pressing forward and pressuring the opposing team from range. Storm is underutilized based on her performance and is a hero to consider for inclusion in your personal hero pool.

From the start of the season, Storm has risen through the ranks with our weighted scoring algorithm each week, and holds the #2 slot just behind Rocket for the second week in a row. Surprisingly, Iron Fist is one of Storm’s worst individual matchups and should be a prioritized ban due to his strength against the majority of the roster. Bruce Banner is a great secondary ban for Storm players due to the power of his team-ups with Namor and Iron Man, both of which can give Storm a hard time contesting the air.

Week-over-week, Storm’s win rate decreased by 1%, her pick rate increased 1%, and she enjoyed a 15% drop in ban rate. More players are seeing the latent potential of Storm, but I’m surprised that her pick rate still remains so low. One thing to note is that despite the power of Storm in combination with Human Torch, one glaring weakness of the composition is less bodies to contest the objective. Flying characters perform much better from afar and must allow the rest of their team to take and defend the objective in most cases. Yet the data still shows that Storm, Iron man, and Human Torch are still winning more games than they are losing.

Mister Fantastic

Mister Fantastic was a notable hero I flagged the past three weeks, and is performing consistently well within our weighted scoring algorithm. His weekly win rate was 53.23%, he was picked in 13.35% of games, and his ban rate increased to 1.29%. With the prominence of dive-based compositions, Mister Fantastic is a reasonable foil to the opposition and can complement a number of play styles as a scrappy frontline brawler. Mister Fantastic’s Flexible Elongation ability allows him to quickly peel and shield allies on the backline, or jump forward to damage an escaping diver or quickly join the frontline of battle with the Vanguards. As such a versatile and powerful option, it’s no wonder that he is excelling in the season across nearly all ranks.

With the rise of Iron Fist, Mister Fantastic’s second worst matchup behind Magik, players who want to play MR. F will want to prioritize banning Iron Fist. Iron Fist is being played in many more games than Magik and is creating a real problem for Mister Fantastic, even more so than fliers like Storm and Iron Man. With Iron Fist out of the way, Mister Fantastic enjoys reasonable matchups against almost the entire roster, perhaps with the exception of Captain America and Peni Parker when examining matchup data.

Week-over-week, Mister Fantastic’s win rate remained constant, his pick rate decreased by 8%, and his ban rate decreased by 10%. He is still a great and consistent pick and seems to be excelling in the duelist role to augment a variety of comps. With the Invisible Woman team-up, his overall win rate increases modestly to 54.59%. This team-up slipped over the week, experiencing a 1% decrease in overall win rate but still remaining quite strong relative to the field.

Iron Man

Iron Man has been soaring through our weighted ranking list throughout the season, enjoying a high win-rate across the board and an excellent team-up that proves to be an incredible tool for winning competitive games. This week, Iron Man’s overall win rate was 53.01%, climbing to an astounding 59.44% with the Bruce Banner team-up. Iron Man’s pick rate was 14.87%, and his ban rate was only 1.04%.

Iron Man is in a good spot, though great Iron Man players must know how to play vertical cover and also have Strategist players on your team who know you exist and are willing to look up. Right now, Human Torch, Magik, and [Item]Captain America[/item] are Iron Man’s worst matchups. Still, with how Iron Fistis performing against most of the roster, your bans as Iron Man should likely go to plug the worst matchups the rest of your team has, given that Iron Man has reasonable and mostly comfortable matchups against the entire roster.

Week-over-week, Iron Man’s win rate remained static, his pick rate increased by 4%, and his overall ban rate increased by 28%. Iron Man remains a solid pick to climb with in the Duelist role and is a hero to continue to watch. If you can duo-queue with a good Hulk player and can slip past bans, you’re in for an efficient climb.

Mantis

Mantis recently received a 10% buff to her primary fire damage, after being hit with a couple of nerfs to both her movement speed and overall health that diminished her ability to be a scrappy skirmisher and aggressive strategist weaving powerful healing over time and damage increases for allies and damage potential via her primary fire. Mantis has always been a strong hero, and now looks poised for new heights this season. This week, Mantis enjoyed a 53.23% win rate, an 11.63% pick rate, and a ban rate of only 0.06%, the lowest of any hero for the entire week.

Mantis also enjoys being a part of the strongest team-up in our weighted scoring algorithm—Guardian Revival. With this team-up, her win rate climbs to an astounding 66.37%, an incredible 24.6% differential from her blended win rate. This team-up got even stronger and was already winning a ton of games before the latest buffs.

Examining her individual matchups, Storm, Iron Fist, and Peni Parker were her worst matchups this week. Of the list, Iron Fist should be a prioritized ban. Consider also banning Human Torch to help your team and plug a slight individual weakness for Mantis.

Week-over-week, Mantis enjoyed a 2% increase in her win rate, a 10% increase in pick rate, and a 28% increase in ban rate after her latest buff. Mantis will be a hero to continue to watch as we continue through the season and give it more time for her recent buff to ripple through the meta.

The Hero Ranking (Weighted Scoring) Watchlist

Right now, Groot, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Iron Fist, and Human Torch are all being banned in more than 10% of their matches. Heroes on this watch list got significant lift given that ban rates are penalized much less in the updated weighted scoring formula. We will continue to watch these heroes and ensure the weighted scoring algorithm improves over time to accurately reflect power level.

Marvel Rivals Hero Movers & Shakers Top 5 Winners - 5/9/25

Winter Soldier

Winter Soldier is back after getting a buff in the form of an extra charge of Tainted Voltage. Early in week one, his win rate decreased drastically, but he has slowly risen throughout the season. This week, Winter Soldier’s overall win rate was 47.02%, his pick rate was 20.22%, and his ban rate was just 0.87%.

Compared to last week, Winter Soldier’s win rate climbed an astounding 5%, his pick rate increased by 59%, and his overall ban rate increased by 28%. Our weighted scoring system flagged him as the biggest winner of the week. And while there’s no arguing that he has been dethroned as a top-tier DPS option, it’s clear the recent buff has led to a comeback and once again makes the character a strong pick. 

It’s no surprise that Z-score analysis flagged Winter Soldier as a statistical anomaly week-over-week. Of all the heroes who were changed in the latest patch, Winter Soldier experienced the greatest win-rate impact.

Stars Aligned was one of the biggest weekly winners in metric changes for team-ups and presents a compelling option given how the team-up was buffed, and that Captain America remains a strong Vanguard pick. Prioritizing this team-up boosts both Captain America and Winter Soldier’s win rate to 55.8%, a great delta for both Winter Soldier and Captain America—though Winter Soldier players will experience the greatest gain in their overall climb.

Wolverine

Wolverine was the second biggest winner of the week in terms of weekly metric shifts. His win rate this week was 47.94%, his pick rate was 8.74%, and his ban rate was 4.2%.

This week, Wolverine experienced a 1% increase in his week-over-week win rate, a 14% higher pick rate, and a 14% decrease in ban rate. While he’s clearly not the Vanguard-slaying menace he once was, Wolverine still appears to be a reasonable niche pick in some matchups and is performing reasonably well in the right hands. Most notable is the fact that Wolverine has been improving gradually every week of the season so far and is making a slow but steady comeback.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange has been hit by a number of nerfs to his survivability and damage and but still remains a reasonable Vanguard pick. His portal’s utility is still excellent and can allow for a Hail Mary play to contest the objective after a lost team fight that would otherwise end the game. Doctor Strange got a buff in that he gains his ultimate ~9% faster than before. And while this won’t be enough to make him a top-tier Vanguard pick, it has helped close the gap slightly. This week, Doctor Strange’s overall win rate climbed to 49.05%, his pick rate was 17.60%, and his ban rate was only 0.80%.

Emma Frost has been a dominant and strong-performing tank this season and has overshadowed Strange in a lot of ways. It will be interesting to see if Emma can maintain her popularity, especially as fliers become more dominant and present a challenging matchup for Emma players. With his flying ability, Doctor Strange can more easily contest fliers and threaten them in a way that Emma and other tanks cannot. This could lead to Doctor Strange continuing to enjoy a spot on our weekly winners in the Movers & Shakers category of the report.

Doctor Strange’s week-over-week win rate increased by 1%, his pick rate increased by 7%, and his ban rate decreased by 18%. With relatively stable performance and a large decrease in ban rate, Doctor Strange was still one of the biggest week-over-week winners on our list for the third week in a row.

Star Lord

Star-Lord was another weekly winner. Outside of Guardian Revival, Star Lord can be an underwhelming pick. But with both Adam Warlock and Mantis receiving buffs, Star Lord is lifted as well.

This week, Star Lord’s overall win rate was 47.19%, his pick rate was 9.54%, and his ban rate was 0.40%. Week-over-week, his win rate increased 1%, his pick rate decreased by 3%, and his ban rate dropped by 20%. When prioritizing the Team-Up, Star Lord is a fantastic pick for players looking to climb in the current meta. With a near-zero ban rate, groups queuing together can expect to get to run the team-up in almost every game they play, which data indicates will make for a smooth and consistent climb.

Rocket Raccoon Luna Snow

I want to break etiquette and talk about the #6 weekly winner instead of Rocket, who was number 5. Luna Snow also received buffs this week in her damage falloff range for her primary attacks. This was a minor change and resulted in a less than 1% improvement in win rate week-over-week, a 4% increase in pick rate, and a 14% decrease in pick rate. Of the heroes adjusted in the recent balance patch, Luna is the most unaffected of the lot. Still, remaining mostly flat for the week did help her rank favorably in the Movers & Shakers category. Luna will likely need additional balance changes heading into the midseason patch—so far, this change has had close to zero impact on improving her performance. I'm certain that's something the developers will take note of.

Marvel Rivals Hero Movers & Shakers Top 5 Losers -5/9/25

Adam Warlock

Adam Warlock received a slight offensive buff, but it unfortunately didn’t translate into any notable impact in his win rate, which improved less than 1% week-over-week. But more players wanted to try Adam in competitive this week, increasing his pick rate by 31% week-over-week. His ban rate also increased 39% as more players sought to block the Guardian Revival team-up. Adam is quite strong, and incredibly so with the team-up, but appears to perform best in a triple support composition. Outside of high elo, players can struggle to generate enough healing and value with Adam’s kit to make up for his fundamentally lower healing ability. Soul Bond performs more like a pocket ultimate than his actual ultimate ability, which puts Adam in a tight spot outside of his team-up. This is especially true in lower elos where mechanical skill can be lacking.

Psylocke

Psylocke’s win rate was flat week-over-week, but her pick rate decreased by 8% and her ban rate increased by 15%. Many players consider Psylocke one of the top Duelist options at the moment, and her team-up with Emma Frost has proven popular as a means to boost damage output and lethality on the field. And while her kit is skill-intensive, players who take time to master this character and can reliably partner with an Emma player are in for a comfortable climb. Psylocke’s week-over-week performance degradation was minimal, and this week, there are few true losers or major shifts in the meta week-over-week.

Iron Man

Iron Man was brought down this week by a 28% increase in ban rate. Still, players are banning Bruce Banner much more often than Iron Man, and his increase in lethality is tied closely to the option of running both a Gamma-infused Iron Man and Namor on the same team. Iron Man’s week-over-week performance also resulted in a static win rate, and a 4% boost to pick rate.

Invisible Woman

Invisible Woman is a strong strategist pick, but experienced a 5% decrease in pick rate, a static win rate, and a 24% increase in ban rate week-over-week. Mister Fantastic has lost a little bit of ground each week in his performance metrics, and Human Torch is being banned in more and more games. Because of this, there are other high-value strategist picks to pursue outside of Invisible Woman in the case she is not the best fit for a composition. The prevalence and performance of Invisible Woman will likely be tied to Mister Fantastic and Human Torch as long as Rocket Raccoon remains so dominant.

Mantis

Mantis’s was the biggest weekly loser, looking at the percent change in ban rate. For the week, Mantis had the highest percent change in ban rate, but also still has the lowest ban rate of any character in the game across all ranks. Mantis is a powerhouse right now, and her most recent buff has made a big impact. Mantis players must be incredibly mindful of their positioning, however, after the nerf from 275>250 health. Mantis is more fragile than ever and feels like a much different character to play in season two compared to season zero. It will be interesting to see how she tracks through the remainder of the season.

Marvel Rivals Top 5 Team-Ups (Weighted Scoring) - 5/9/25

Performing weighted scoring puts these team-ups as the top 5 this week! Even with the most recent balance changes, our top five team-ups didn’t change week-over-week, and the top five of last week held their same positions this week. More commentary below!

Guardian Revival

Despite a heavy-handed nerf to Adam Warlock at the start of the season, Guardian Revival remains the top-performing team-up in competitive play based on our weighted scoring system with a staggering 66.37% win rate. This team-up gives Mantis and Star-Lord an on-demand rez on cooldown that can shift team fights in your favor. This week, the team-up’s win rate increased a staggering 4% (on top of a 3% increase last week, and a 4% increase the week before that), its pick rate increased by a whopping 58%, and its ban rate increased by 2%. 

As I mentioned last week, this is a diamond in the rough and is something to prioritize in character selection with your team if you want to win more games. Even better if you can practice and play consistently with a squad that can pull this off. But just as I said, players are taking notice, and the opportunity gap may close if this team-up’s pick rate increases drastically. In other words, keep buying it while it’s cheap!

With recent buffs to Mantis and Adam Warlock, this team-up has soared to new heights and is borderline oppressive to opponents. Let’s hope Netease doesn’t take a baseball bat to Adam Warlock’s knees for this one. In the midseason balance patch, I could see a nerf to the team-up itself and an increase to respawn cooldown being implemented to reduce the win rate.

Ragnarok Rebirth

Ragnarok Rebirth is again ranked #2 on our team-up list for the week. With a 61.63% win rate, it’s a clear performer even after adjustments to each of the heroes in the team-up. This week, Ragnarok Rebirth’s win rate decreased by 1%, its pick rate increased by 31%, and its ban rate dropped by 16%, reflected in a drop in Hela’s ban rate across the board. This continues to be a strong option, and even without Voltaic Union, Thor can be complemented with either Captain America or Emma Frost to form a well-rounded and consistently-performing team. This team-up can also be run with just Hela and Loki, and perform extremely well. Loki is one of the best supports in the game, and a good Hela player can boost an already strong character to incredible heights.

Symbiote Bond

Spider-Man is still strong, but the most-recent nerf did hurt his performance and this team-up. Week-over-week, Spider-Man’s win rate decreased by 2%, his pick rate dropped by 8%, and his ban rate fell by 12%.

This team-up is still pushing up his win-rate to 60.51% and is a high-performer, but it has fallen quite a bit. Week-over-week, this team-up experienced a 3% decrease in win rate, a 5% increase in pick rate, and a 12% decrease in ban rate. It’s still strong, but the slight nerf to Spider-Man’s combo range had a lot more impact on the overall meta than I was expecting. Notably, this team-up gives players much more incentive to play Venom as a means to boost Spider-Man's lethality and overall win rate for the team. Outside of the team-up, Venom can be lacking in the Vanguard role compared to stronger options like Captain America and Emma Frost.

Dimensional Shortcut

Black Panther is in an interesting spot. He is very strong in low elo but falls off heavily toward higher ranks. His team-up with Magik, however, is still performing well across the board. As dive continues to be successful, this will be a strategy to watch. This week, Dimensional Shortcut enjoyed a 58.59% win rate, 2.86% pick rate, and a 5.42% ban rate. Week-over-week, the team-up’s win rate was constant, its pick rate fell 3%, and its ban rate was constant. It’s held strong and is a solid pick for dive-based compositions. Consider pairing with Captain America and another sturdy Vanguard to help lead the charge and mount the aggression.

Storming Ignition

As mentioned earlier in the article, Storm is great. Pair that with an incredible team-up with Human Torch and you’re cooking with fire. This team-up is posting a 59.62% win rate, a 2.01% pick rate, and a 22.41% ban rate.

Storming Ignition was a big mover for the week. Week-over-week, this team-up’s win rate decreased by 2%, its pick rate decreased by 14%, and its ban rate increased by another 17%. Human Torch’s ban rate has been climbing significantly each week from the start of the season, and he remains an extremely popular ban choice. Storming Ignition has an even better win rate than Fantastic Four (Human Torch); put the two together, and your odds of winning improve even more.

Wrap Up

That’s it for week four! We’ll continue to evaluate the meta and how it is evolving next week, keeping an eye out for top performers and rising synergies. There is so much insight to be found, and I’m hopeful the data from this week gives you some ideas of how you can capture an edge in your own competitive Marvel Rivals play!

I encourage you to explore our new Meta section and unlock even more insights to take your game to the next level and achieve the rank you've dreamed of. Data can be a powerful ally in stacking the deck in your favor during the grind.

What did you think about the fourth week of meta-analysis? Have any suggestions for the reporting going forward? Any metrics you’d like to see? Let us know in the comments below!