These Marvel Rivals Stats Should Be A Wake Up Call

Marvel Rivals has a serious issue, but hopefully, some new stats about the game’s top-performing players will start to change some attitudes. Marvel Rivals is a hero shooter in the same vein as Overwatch, and while Rivals is seemingly a huge success, it is still facing some of the same issues that plagued Overwatch in its earlier days. As of now, it doesn’t seem like the developers are working on a specific solution to Rivals’ woes, so it will be up to players to change how they play to make things better.

As a team-based game, Marvel Rivals requires a certain level of cooperation between players. It also means that some players may need to fill less flashy roles for the good of their team. Unfortunately, many players seem to be unwilling to do so. However, new statistics collected since Rivals‘ launch in early December will hopefully convince some players that making more selfless choices can be better for their performance in the long run.

Many Of Rivals’ Top Performing Players Pick Support Roles

Too Many Marvel Rivals Players Don’t Want To Play Anything But Duelist

By Katarina Cimbaljevic

One of the biggest complaints about Marvel Rivals right now is players’ unwillingness to play as Vanguard or Strategist heroes. Many players will quickly lock into Duelist heroes, who typically get the most eliminations thanks to their high damage output. This leaves teams without a tank to soak up damage, or a healer to support the rest of the team. Players seem to be prioritizing personal performance over the well-being of their entire team. However, looking at stats from the top 500 players in the game shows that Duelists aren’t the only Marvel Rivals heroes who can perform well.

Thanks to stats collected by Reddit user Aggravating_Job9976, it is clear that the top 500 Marvel Rivals players pick Vanguards and Strategists about as often as they pick Duelists. In fact, some of the top picks for the game’s best-performing players are not Duelists. Looking at the graph of pick rates provided by Aggravating_Job9976, the top four most frequently picked characters among these elite players are Doctor Strange (Vanguard), Luna Snow (Strategist), Mantis (Strategist), and Magneto (Vanguard).

This isn’t to suggest that Duelists aren’t still picked at a high rate. The next two highest-picked characters – Hela and Psylocke – are both Duelists. That said, it’s clear that Marvel Rivals’ top 500 understand the importance of diversifying their picks.

Marvel Rivals Teams Need Diverse Team Comps

Vanguards And Strategists Keep Teammates Alive

Including a Vanguard or Strategist on a Marvel Rivals team can make a huge difference in how a team as a whole performs. To understand just how much of an impact these characters have, it can help to look at the numbers provided for damage blocked and healing done on average. Both healing and blocking damage prevent players from being eliminated, which is vital for a team to keep up their momentum and put pressure on objectives.

Looking first at damage blocked, Aggravating_Job9976’s stats show the average Groot blocks around 38,000 damage in a game. Magneto – the most popular Vanguard in this group – is slightly lower at 34,000. To put that into perspective, the Duelist heroes have around 250–300 health. That means that Groot soaks up enough damage to prevent nearly 130 eliminations per game. Now, this isn’t a perfect calculation. Groot is easier to hit than a Duelist, so every point of damage he blocks doesn’t necessarily equate to damage done to a hero. Still, Groot is likely preventing a decent number of deaths.

Similarly, Strategists heal a lot of damage, which also prevents heroes from being eliminated. Luna Snow heals an average of 25,000 per round when played by one of these top-performing players. Unlike a tank blocking damage, this can be calculated one-to-one, since players need to have taken damage for it to be healed. This also doesn’t account for the added benefits of having a Strategist, like Rocket’s ability to resurrect fallen heroes, which saves a ton of time waiting for them to respawn and get back into the action.

These Stats Should Make Role Lock Unnecessary

Players Should Take Cues From The Game’s Best Players And Self-Correct

There has been a lot of talk about Marvel Rivals adding a role lock feature, similar to how Overwatch solved its issues with team composition. There are some issues with role lock; for example, it does sometimes make sense to switch to a DPS character in certain situations, and role lock prevents making this type of on-the-fly call. Additionally, players can’t swap roles if one is having a difficult time with a certain match-up but doesn’t know how to play another hero of their chosen role.

It also seems like, as of now, Marvel Rivals’ developers are not planning to add a role lock feature. This means it is up to the players themselves to figure out the current team comp issues. That said, looking at these stats should hopefully convince some players to switch to a different role. Not only do Vanguards and Strategists make a demonstrable difference in a game, but many of the game’s top-performing players choose to play them.

Source: Aggravating_Job9976/Reddit