Marvel Rivals’ Tanks, Ranked From Worst To Best

Screenshot: Marvel / Kotaku

A hero shooter’s tank is often harder to define compared to the more obvious damage dealers and support characters. Tanks are typically expected to be defensive bullet sponges that pull aggro from their squishier teammates. But the role splits into two: some are main tank protectors, others are off-tank supporters, who run into a team fight hoping their healers are paying attention. Marvel Rivals’ Vanguards similarly fall into several different archetypes, and each has a niche they occupy. But who is the best? While it can depend on the situation, a few heroes are more versatile than others, letting us love them more. Here’s our ranking of the eight tanks that are in the game now. We’ll update this ranking when the Thing is added later in Season 1.

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As far as Vanguards go, I consider myself a Captain America main. Because I’ve spent a decent amount of time wielding his vibranium shield I’m confident in saying that America’s Ass is easily the worst tank in the game that I keep using because I haven’t found another character I gel with. When Steve pops off, it feels incredibly satisfying—more often than not you jump into a fight, slap someone around for a little bit, then jump out as your health rapidly deteriorates. Cap is one of the most disruptive heroes in Marvel Rivals, but it’s hard to get that much value out of him when his melee-based kit lacks that certain punch you need to make the most of his dives. If his attacks were a little more powerful and he could reliably get kills, he could be a contender, but right now, he serves as little more than a distraction while other heroes pull off more impressive plays.

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The Master of Magnetism is one of the more methodical Vanguards in Marvel Rivals. Sure, his slower kit isn’t as exciting as barreling through enemy teams as Thor, or setting up an ambush as Doctor Strange—hence his lower place in this list—but if you need someone to exert enormous amounts of pressure onto an enemy team and stop your team from getting dived on, Magneto’s an excellent pick. His shield-based moveset is all about absorbing damage and throwing it right back at the enemy team. He requires more patience than other tanks on the roster, but in the right hands, he’s a fortified frontline fighter.

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On his face, the Hulk can come off like a gimmick character, clearly taking a page from Overwatch’s book. Like D.Va in Blizzard’s shooter, the Hulk has two forms, one much weaker with only a pistol to pester enemies until he can return to his massive, more impactful form. Despite this, The Hulk is an effective dive hero with good crowd control, mobility, and ways to convert damage into power, and he has better damage output than Captain America, so you can actually reliably smash your way through a team fight. His Super Hulk ultimate is an incredible survival tool that heals you to a whopping 1500 health, and altogether he’s just a really bulky brawler that can wreck shop when you know how best to cycle your abilities. However, Hulk’s team-up abilities make him one of the most desirable off tank picks with certain teammates. Pairing Hulk with Doctor Strange and Iron Man gives the two sarcastic geniuses an incredible damage boost that can make even half a team a force to be reckoned with.

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One of the more entertaining spins Marvel Rivals puts on Overwatch archetypes is making Venom the equivalent of the robot-piloting hamster, Wrecking Ball. The symbiote-journalist duo is all about swinging into the battlefield, causing a bunch of chaos, and then feeding on all the incoming damage to get a second wind. He’s got great crowd control as he slows enemy movement, and can disrupt an enemy team formation better than most other heroes on the roster. Admittedly, he is one of the more independent tanks, and doesn’t have much in the way of supportive abilities to help his team, lacking something like Magneto or Hulk’s shields, but that mostly means you need a good team comp to compliment him when he swings into battle.

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Peni Parker is an absolute menace on defensive maps. Her mine-based kit allows her to set up traps, claim space, and has enemy teams walking on eggshells as they try to push onto an objective and avoid her explosive traps. Her abilities are less useful when you’re pushing toward an objective yourself, but her mech is powerful enough to handle scraps and push alongside more brawl-based heroes. While she may be a bit situational, Peni is easily one of the best Vanguards in the game for holding an objective and countering teams that carelessly dive on a point. Also, setting up mines in front of the enemy spawn and blowing up half their team never gets old.

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The God of Thunder is easily the best off tank in Marvel Rivals. His mobility attacks let him dive in and out of fights easily, but they also double as a means to isolate and assassinate enemies, even as they’re grouped up. Thor’s entire kit feeds into itself, gaining power, health, and a stronger transformative state just by smartly utilizing all of his abilities. Where some tanks are more slow-paced, rewarded for intellectual play and setup, Thor is an unstoppable force, encouraged to stay in the brawl and reliably deal some of the most devastating attacks with short universal cooldowns. The catch being all of this is powered by a unique passive called Thorforce, required to pull off some of Thor’s most impressive abilities. Managing those mechanics is the difference between getting shredded immediately and swiftly taking out the enemy supports and cutting your foes off at the knees.

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The Guardians of the Galaxy’s talking tree is one of the more straightforward Vanguards in Marvel Rivals, but Groot is also one of the most reliable at what he does. He uses his branch-like limbs to build walls anywhere on the map. This can be a defensive measure, but it’s also an excellent way to stall enemies from reaching an objective. Toss those suckers up in front of an enemy spawn door and it will take them at least a few seconds to shoot their way through. Not to mention his ultimate ability has some of the best crowd control, as he groups enemies together and sets them up for a quick and easy wipe. Groot is just good at getting in the way, and when the enemy team finally does make its way to him, he’s a strong brawler who can become near-invincible when Rocket is riding on his shoulder and pumping him full of health. Groot is the platonic ideal of a defensive tank, and I’m always thrilled to see one on my team.

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Stephen Strange is easily the Vanguard who has gotten the most buzz since Marvel Rivals was in beta, largely because his portal ability led to some hilarious viral moments of tricking foes into walking off the side of the map out of spawn. But that’s a microcosm of what makes him a compelling tank, because the experimentation he allows is unmatched by almost any other character in the roster.

Baseline, Doctor Strange is one of the most effective defensive heroes because his shield is a big Reinhardt-style wall that can protect multiple heroes at once. But after you pair that with the sorcerer’s flight-based mobility, his possibilities as a shutdown character make him an excellent counter to some of the greatest threats in the game. Is your enemy’s Hela about to unleash a devastating ultimate on your team? Fly up in her face, throw up your shield, and give your team a chance to take cover before she can rain damage down on you. Is the enemy team putting too much pressure on your team to successfully get out of spawn? Throw up a portal and ambush them from behind. And yes, a well-placed portal can play incredible mind games with the enemy team, tricking them into walking off into a chasm, or forcing them into a loop by placing both ends of the portal in front of their spawn room doors.

Doctor Strange is the kind of hero you need to keep a game like Marvel Rivals interesting. Right now, NetEase hasn’t been shutting down too many of the shenanigans players have been uncovering in the game’s first month, and for the sake of its longevity, I hope Doctor Strange remains one of the most unique and experimental characters in the game.