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With Marvel Rivals' Season 2.5 update dropping on May 30, the community has been talking about the newest Strategist character: Ultron. But here's the thing: most players who've gotten early access are calling him underwhelming, and frankly, they might be right. Let's break down whether he's actually viable or a disappointing release.
Players Think Ultron Is Weak
The early reactions haven't been kind to our metallic villain. Content creators and early testers are saying there's "no reason to pick him" over characters like Luna Snow or Invisible Woman. The main complaints? His healing output is too low, his utility feels limited, and he doesn't bring enough to the table to justify a team slot.
How Ultron's Kit Works
Let's take a look at Ultron's kit. He's is as a flying Strategist with a focus on long-range damage and area healing. His main ability, Imperative: Patch, lets you deploy a drone that constantly heals everyone in its radius.
His Encephalo-Ray (left click) is a beam with REALLYYY long range and no damage falloff, and Dynamic Flight ability gives him mobility, though it comes with a long cooldown that leaves you pretty vulnerable afterward.
The Imperative: Firewall (right click) provides bonus health to nearby allies, but the shield amount isn't exactly impressive (or even close). His ultimate, Rage of Ultron, summons multiple drones that can either damage enemies or heal allies, but even this feels weaker than what other Strategists bring to the table.
The Real Problem
Here's where Ultron runs into trouble. He's labeled as a Strategist, but he plays more like a DPS character with a minor support ability (in the current state and without his team-up and ultimate, as it won't be available all the time).
Ultron's healing output simply can't keep up with the high sustained damage. When you've got characters like Hela and the Punisher dishing out massive damage, Ultron's drone healing feels like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.
One potential bright spot is Ultron's team-up ability with Iron Man, which turns his beam into the Nano Ray, a piercing attack that damages enemies while healing allies. The problem? You're now dependent on having an Iron Man on your team, and if Iron Man isn't a good pick for the match, you're stuck without this enhanced ability. This dependency makes Ultron feel incomplete as a standalone character. Meta Strategists can function well in most team compositions, but Ultron seems designed around specific synergies that might not always be available.
Some players think Ultron might actually work in triple support compositions, where you'd run him alongside two main healers, letting him focus more on damage while providing healing through his drone.
However, there's a counterargument to this strategy. As one Reddit user said: "Issue is that he barely out heals the bots in the practice range, so multiply that by 6 and I'm pretty sure no one is going to notice his heals. Why bother having him as a 3rd healer instead of just going for a second/third dps?" This perspective highlights the major problem - if Ultron's healing is so minimal that it's barely noticeable in team fights, you might be better off just running another damage dealer who can actually secure more eliminations.
Potential Buffs and Changes
The community on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter/X has plenty of ideas for making Ultron more viable. The most common ones are:
- Increasing his shield/bonus health (RMB).
- Improving his drone healing radius and output.
- Adding a small burst heal on his drone when it is deployed.
The Verdict
Right now, Ultron looks like he'll struggle in standard team compositions. His healing isn't strong enough and his damage isn't high enough to justify taking a DPS slot. However, it's possible that once players get their hands on Ultron and figure out some strategies, he might perform better than these early impressions suggest, but in our opinion, he will still need a slight buff.
If you're planning to try Ultron when he launches, consider running him in triple support compositions or pairing him with Iron Man for the team-up synergy. Just don't expect him to replace your main healer anytime soon.
NetEase has been responsive to community feedback, so if Ultron really is as weak as early testing suggests, we'll probably see some adjustments in the coming weeks.
