Rocket Raccoon Guide: How to Play, Tips and Tricks & Matchups

My Credentials

I am a Grand Master player who primarily plays Invisible Woman as a main. I also main Peni Parker for a Vanguard and Punisher for a Duelist. I also study top level streamers, tournaments, and data published by first and third party sources to help deliver the most accurate information I can.

Basic Ability Guide (For Beginners)

Rocket is a simple but effective healer. His ability set is focused around utility, rather than direct offensive or defensive abilities like other healers. More often than not, you will be running away from combat situations, which also is different from the other healers.

His primary healing is actually his alternate fire. It shoots slow moving healing orbs that will pass through players, but bounce on objects up to 10 times. The orbs will fly through the air for a maximum of 5 seconds before disappearing. If an orb gets near an ally, it slows down to more effectively heal. For most Rocket players, this is what you will be using for 95% of every game.

His primary fire is a machine gun that has separate ammo from your healing orbs. It can shoot about 12 bullets a second at 16 damage each at close range (so about 192 damage per second). It's a very effective weapon, so despite popular belief, you do actually want to use it from time to time.

His utility abilities come in the form of two jetpack dashes. These will be primarily used as an escape tool to dodge divers. You can use it to climb ledges to sit on, but there isn't much need. Rocket has a passive ability that lets him run up walls, so you can climb ledges instead of wasting a jetpack charge. He also has a second passive ability that lets him slowly jetpack down instead of falling. This works as a way to stay in the air if you dash upwards.

His second ability is his revive station. This will revive the first teammate to die within a 50 meter radius of the station. They revive at full health with no respawn countdown. Not only does the station revive, it will shoot out armor packs and jetpack charges every 3 seconds. Once the station revives someone (or is destroyed), any packs on the ground will instantly disappear.

For his ultimate ability, you actually don't get any healing utility. Instead, he places a damage amplifier that gives all nearby allies a 40% damage boost! It can be destroyed if opponents shoot at the amplifier, but it has 800 hp to help survive the targeting.

How to Play

Rocket lives in the backline. So much so, you can often play from way behind the normal healer backline. Since his healing can be shot from such long distances, you can sit safely away from the battle. You can often position yourself on high ground, making it very difficult for divers to find you.

If you get spotted, don't fight back unless they are near death already. Simply dash upwards or in the safest direction. If you need to be extra evasive, jump on a wall and scurry around. Just be careful not to spend too long running. You likely aren't healing if you're running away, and a running healer might as well be a dead healer as far as your team is concerned.

Make sure your revive station is deployed at all times. You want to keep it close to your objective, but in a discreet location to avoid being destroyed. Holding onto it just means you are wasting potential revives that could keep your push or defense going. The moment it recharges after a use, place a new one down as soon as possible.

Your ultimate isn't used like other healers, so you aren't trying to save it for when everyone else is ulting. Instead, use it when opponents are starting to make a decent push. That extra damage can let your team confirm some kills before they start using their ults. If you're lucky, you may bait out a healer ult early!

Tips and Tricks for Gameplay

Rocket's weapon can rapidly kill tanks like Thor or Groot. His damage and shot speed is so high, you can often win a 1v1 if you are landing some critical hits (headshots). I'm not suggesting you play Rocket like a DPS. I'm just highlighting that you can make a bigger impact by killing sometimes than just exclusively healing.

Anytime your team is waiting for the doors to open at the start of a match, throw down your revive station. It will give you and the team Armor packs and jump packs then can use going into battle. Once the doors open, pick up the revive station so you can redeploy it at the objective (it only has a 5 second recharge if you pick it up).

If you don't want to use Rocket in a match, you can actually still get value from his revive station! Pick Rocket at match start and throw the revive station. Right as the doors open, swap to the character you want to play. Even though nobody is playing Rocket now, your team gets to keep their armor and jump packs after you swap characters!

Your healing heals multiple allies at a time, so try to position yourself where the team is mostly in the same path. This should let you shoot a single healing orb and get significantly more value than if it just passed by a single ally.

When healing, try not to just stand in place. Pace around, jump, or simply strafe side to side. Even though you aren't under fire, you don't want to give divers or snipers a chance to one shot you. A diver like Black Panther or Spider-Man would love for you to sit still so they land their combo perfectly.

If you have Punisher or Winter Soldier on your team, you get a new deployable that gives them unlimited ammo and rapid fire. It's an incredible team-up, but your team can only use it in a small radius you deploy it at. What I'm getting at is be careful where you throw it down. Placing it too far back from the action makes it useless. Placing it too far forward puts them in more danger than necessary.

Pros & Cons

Matchups

Good	Bad
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Struggles to kill you, but you can kill him with crits	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Mines can quickly kill you, web snare can keep you from escaping danger
Flying Allies Very easy for you to heal them compared to other healers	Divers You aren't safe being alone in the backline
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... He can't pull you away, you can still heal allies he pulls away	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Anhk and ult will quickly kill you with no needed accuracy
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Hard to hit you, and easy to escape if she does land a hit.	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Walls will completely block healing orbs

Settings

For a more detailed guide on the optimal settings for Rocket Raccoon, check out this guide:

Best Rocket Raccoon Settings, Crosshair & Reticle Code