Marvel Rivals needs to take a lesson from Overwatch with its support characters

Marvel Rivals has one big problem with its support characters, but it can take a page from Overwatch’s book to fix this.

A Reddit thread on the Marvel Rivals subreddit illustrated one major problem running rampant through the game right now. Support ultimates are not only too strong and lack sufficient counterplay, but there’s also just not a great variety of them in the game.

Luna Snow has a controversial ult where essentially no one can die unless you manage to one shot her. Other characters like Mantis, Invisible Woman, and Cloak and Dagger, similarly have defensive ultimates used to save your team from death. Even a character like Loki, who can copy any ultimate in the game, often gets more mileage by simply copying the Luna Snow ult.

While these ultimates are necessary to introduce some counterplay for Tanks and Duelist ultimates, players have stated there are not only too many of them, but that they are too strong and poorly implemented.

How can Marvel Rivals fix this? By taking a page from Overwatch.

Overwatch does support ultimates better

Overwatch has its fair share of defensive ultimates, like Lucio’s Sound Barrier and Zenyatta’s Transcendence. However, these ultimates have strong counterplay and are generally less impactful. Transcendence can be anti-healed by characters like Ana and Junker Queen, while Lucio’s ultimate has a decently long windup where he can be stunned out of or killed before finishing his ult.

Meanwhile, with no sufficient anti-heal in Marvel Rivals, the only way to counter Luna Snow is by one-shotting her with another ultimate or Hawkeye. These ultimates also barely have any windup, so it’s generally difficult to counterplay these abilities.

Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch also has a wider variety of support ultimates. Newer strategists seem to be simply based on survivability, while Overwatch manages to introduce newer concepts with their ultimates. Kiriko’s Kitsune Rush has a speed boost and cooldown reduction, Brigitte can stun and go on the offensive, and Ana’s Nano Boost is one of the most iconic ultimates in the game.

Even simpler support ultimates in Overwatch have a stronger identity than ultimates in Marvel Rivals. Mercy’s Valkyrie builds off her unique movement by allowing her to zip across the map, and Moira’s Coalescence allows the player to strike between defense and offense at will.

In Marvel Rivals, there is less variety in unique support ultimates like Adam Warlock and Loki. And when you do see variety, many times, it just doesn’t compare to the defensive ultimates in the game.

While Luna Snow can make your team invulnerable and damage boost at the same time, Rocket Raccoon simply damage boosts with his ultimate, and it can be destroyed. (It’s also worth noting that Rocket and Luna damage boosts for the same amount, leaving Rocket’s ultimate mostly obsolete.)

Some players in the thread have taken issue with ultimates in the game overall and the lack of skill expression required for many of them.

“A lot of ult design in the game is ‘hit Q and do AoE damage/healing,” said one user. “Even Psylocke is like ‘what if we made Genji, but made Dragonblade autopilot.’ Like the lack of skill expression in ults especially is a huge issue.”

Some players have cited Duelist ultimates as a reason as to why Support ultimates are too strong, as some of them simply do too much damage. Generally, ultimates in the game do not seem to be designed with counterplay in mind.

DPS ultimates in Overwatch can be countered through skill expression, as abilities like “Death Blossom” or “Dragonblade” can be interrupted through stuns or pure damage. Marvel Rivals simply has less room for counterplay outside of other support ultimates.

Marvel Rivals, ultimately, should be open to more reworks and introducing a wider variety of ultimate abilities and counterplay moments. It’s something Overwatch does well, and something Marvel Rivals can fix to improve the state of the game.