Spider-Man needs a buff in Marvel Rivals for one key reason

Marvel fans old and new have been understandably excited to play as Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals, but its reliance on the Spider-Tracer as part of his kit really holds the wall-crawler back – and ultimately, Spider-Man needs to be buffed.

It’s a shame because any Rivals players who have jumped into the single-player Insomniac games knew how much fun playing Spider-Man can be as they first went into NetEase’s 6v6 hero shooter.

While the web-swinging, gymnastic attacks, and striking foes with web-fluid can still be a great time, the current state of his overall kit makes the need for at least one buff an absolute must.

The Spider-Tracer-reliant kit holds Spider-Man back

Like many other Marvel Rivals characters, Spider-Man’s various attacks and abilities have base damage or effects, with bonuses connected to certain conditions, with Spider-Tracer becoming the only way any of them are useful. Otherwise, Spider-Man is too fragile as a Duelist with his mere 250 Health.

Some players, like this one from Reddit, don’t even realize how essential the Spider-Tracer is to make his kit worth the hassle.

Specifically, an enemy can get a Spider-Tracer attached to them in Marvel Rivals when hit with Cyber-Web Cluster, one of Spider-Man’s projectile abilities that deals 30 base damage. On its own, that isn’t much, but when hit again with the tracer already attached, the move deals a boosted 45 damage instead.

The same applies to his other attacks, which on their own aren’t too powerful but become useful when a Spider-Tracer is in play. Spider-Power, Spidey’s normal attack, deals just 25 and 40 damage with each punch and kick respectively, but all will receive a boost thanks to the Spider-Tracer.

Amazing Combo, the ability that launches a foe in the air with 55 base damage, also gets a buff when one of the devices is fixed onto them. “Get Over Here!”, normally reeling an enemy toward Spider-Man, will have Peter Parker pulled toward them instead, along with a flying kick for bonus damage.

When everything works out, this all sounds great. His lower health can be a drag, but essentially being a glass cannon that can deal high damage is what DPS characters are all about. Hela, Hawkeye, and Psylocke have been fantastic examples of that.

However, during the chaos of a match, while continuously moving to keep Spidey alive, it’s incredibly easy to miss your target with Cyber-Web Cluster over long range, even with its five shots. While waiting for shots to recharge and until players can finally get a Spider-Tracer attached, Spider-Man is just a low-level Duelist character who can’t deliver much damage in return for his fragility.

As one player also explained, he can be still good to use when paired with Venom, but his damage output as it is in the current meta simply doesn’t justify his lower health and cooldowns.

Another point players have made is that speed could be the key to making Spidey better: “I think making his webs Regen faster and make his web yank cooldown shorter would help massively because right now 90% of his gameplay is waiting for cooldowns.”

Spider-Man is a five-star difficulty character with good reason. His super-quick movement makes him ideal for diving into battle, delivering blows of damage, and then swinging away before he can get picked off. On the other hand, you need a constant awareness of your surroundings and decent reactions to use him effectively without getting swarmed.

Without Spider-Tracer buffing his attacks, he loses half of the appeal that makes the risk of using him worthwhile. Even just an HP boost of 25-50, a small buff to his base attack damage, an increase in movement, or even just a lowering of his cooldowns would make him more effective as a fast-paced unit that can quickly cover a map, like Tracer in Overwatch 2.

Spider-Man was one of the few characters who received neither buff nor nerf in the latest Season 1 patch notes. As the second half of Season 1 rolls around, we should keep our fingers crossed that NetEase decides to grant him some extra power to go with all of that responsibility.