Marvel Rivals Roles Explained

Vanguard: The Tank Role (14 Heroes)

Vanguards are the front line. There are 14 of them in Season 10: Angela, Captain America, Devil Dinosaur, Doctor Strange, Emma Frost, Groot, Hulk, Magneto, Peni Parker, Rogue, The Hood, The Thing, Thor and Venom. The wiki describes them as heroes built for the frontline, with large health pools and crowd control, and says every Vanguard has at least one way of blocking or mitigating damage, whether a barrier or a large pool of bonus health. Their health pools range from 500 to 850, about two to three times the 250 to 300 most Duelists and Strategists have. Their core responsibilities break down like this:

- Create space. Vanguards push forward to claim ground the rest of the team can occupy, forcing the enemy to give up territory or fight on your terms. - Absorb pressure. With large health pools and, in many cases, shields or damage reduction, they soak the damage that would delete a squishier hero, keeping your Duelists and Strategists safe. - Set up the team. Many Vanguards bring crowd control or displacement that starts fights, isolates a target, or peels a diver off your backline. - Protect the healers. A tank that stays near their Strategists and body-blocks incoming threats is worth more than one that wanders off to farm damage.

Rogue is a Vanguard, a reminder that role membership is about the job a hero does, not the fantasy of the character. Vanguards suit players who like to make things happen: starting fights, controlling their pace, and shielding teammates. If you enjoy being the anchor everyone plays around, this is your role. A 2-2-2 team runs two Vanguards, and a front line that folds early leaves the damage heroes with nowhere safe to stand.

A common misconception is that tanking is passive, that you simply stand still and soak bullets. In practice, Vanguard is one of the most decision-heavy roles in the game. You are constantly judging when to push and when to fall back, when to use a defensive cooldown versus saving it, and when to peel home to save a healer instead of pressing an advantage. A good Vanguard reads the whole fight and moves the team's line forward or back based on that read. Treat the role as active leadership rather than a stationary wall.

The pool is less uniform than the label. The Hood, the newest Vanguard (Season 9.5), is described on the wiki as a hitscan off-tank whose main weapons are a pair of pistols, while Doctor Strange and Magneto hold ground behind barriers and Venom and Thor dive into the backline. Knowing which kind of tank you are playing changes how far forward you should stand.

Duelist: The Damage Role (27 Heroes)

Duelists are the largest role by far at 27 heroes, exactly half the roster, and they carry the responsibility of actually winning fights through eliminations. If the Vanguards create the opening and the Strategists keep everyone alive, the Duelists are the ones who convert that setup into dead enemies. Their responsibilities include:

- Deal the damage. Duelists provide the bulk of a team's kill pressure, whether through steady chip from range or explosive burst up close. - Threaten priority targets. Many Duelists exist to reach and delete the enemy backline, forcing the opposing Strategists and snipers to play scared and out of position. - Control range. Every Duelist has an effective distance, and winning a duel usually comes down to fighting at your range while denying the enemy theirs. - Convert opportunities. When a Vanguard lands crowd control or a Strategist commits an ultimate, the Duelists are expected to cash in the advantage before the window closes.

Gorr the God Butcher, who joined with Season 10 as the 27th Duelist, is the newest name in this crowded pool, which spans everything from long-range hitscan specialists to high-mobility divers and burst assassins. The role suits players who want their impact to be direct and measurable. Just remember that raw damage without a plan feeds the enemy; the best Duelists pick their moments rather than fighting constantly.

Because the Duelist pool is so large, it also asks you to specialize. Trying to play all 27 well is unrealistic; a practical approach is to pick a couple of sub-archetypes, say one reliable ranged pick and one dive threat, and get genuinely good at them. That gives you an answer to most maps and enemy comps without spreading yourself so thin that you are mediocre on everyone. The trap that catches many damage players is measuring success purely by eliminations. A Duelist who trades one-for-one every fight is not actually helping; the impactful ones create advantages the team can convert, then live long enough to do it again.

The wiki's own role note is blunt about why the pool is so deep: Duelists fit the "DPS" archetype of similar games, and the role "has the highest number of heroes by far, containing 27 out of the 54 heroes." Of the 21 heroes added since launch, 9 have been Duelists, according to the wiki's release table. Duelists also hold most of the game's free flight: of the five heroes the wiki lists as able to fly indefinitely, three are Duelists (Human Torch, Iron Man and Storm), with Angela the only Vanguard and Ultron the only Strategist.

Strategist: The Support Role (12 Heroes)

Strategists are the smallest role at 12 heroes: Adam Warlock, Cloak & Dagger, Gambit, Invisible Woman, Jeff the Land Shark, Jubilee, Loki, Luna Snow, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, Ultron and White Fox. Their value compounds across the entire team, because a Strategist who stays alive keeps five other heroes in the fight. The wiki describes them as heroes who mainly heal, often with buffs such as extra damage, bonus health or movement speed, and notes that several have offensive abilities to hold their own ground. Their responsibilities look like this:

- Keep the team alive. Sustained and burst healing is the core job, letting your team win prolonged fights the enemy cannot outlast. - Provide utility. Many Strategists bring buffs, bonus health, crowd control or mobility, tools that decide fights beyond raw healing numbers. - Survive the dive. The best supports have a self-peel or escape, because a healer who cannot protect themselves becomes a free kill and drags the whole team down. - Enable the aggression. By topping up divers and shielding forward pushes, Strategists are quietly the enablers of most aggressive game plans.

Gambit is a Strategist, which surprises players who expect him to deal damage; here his kit leans into support and disruption. Strategists suit players who find satisfaction in being the reason a team survives, and who can keep a cool head while under fire. It is a role that rewards awareness over flashy mechanics. A 2-2-2 team runs two Strategists, and a team short on healing struggles to win the long fights that decide objectives.

The most underrated Strategist skill is target prioritization under pressure. When three teammates are taking damage at once, deciding who to heal first, and who to let drop, often matters more than raw output. Healing the diver who is out of position and about to die anyway is usually wasted; keeping your Vanguard and your fellow Strategist alive holds the fight together. Great supports also manage their own positioning obsessively, staying reachable to the team but tucked out of the enemy's most dangerous sightlines. Do that well and you rarely need highlight-reel mechanics; the fight simply goes your way because your side stayed standing and theirs did not.

The newest Strategist shows how varied the role has become. Jubilee, added in Season 9, heals with long-range firework projectiles and energy spheres that follow the nearest target, and her Sparkle Marks raise her fire rate when she shoots marked targets. That is a very different job from a support who stays tucked behind the tank.

Deadpool: The Multi-Role Exception

Deadpool is the one hero outside the three-role split. He joined in Season 6 as the 46th hero and the game's first Multi-Role hero, and the wiki explains how that works: he can be played as a Vanguard, a Duelist or a Strategist, and each version counts as a separate character with its own stats and abilities.

- Vanguard Deadpool has 500 health, against 275 for the other two versions, and swaps damage output for survivability. His secondary fire, Magical Unicorn Shield, lobs a plushie barrier that blocks enemy fire. - Duelist Deadpool has 275 health and trades survivability for damage, with abilities such as Headshot! and Hazardous Hijinx. - Strategist Deadpool also has 275 health, and his pistols and katanas heal allies, with healing versions of the same abilities such as Bouncing Bobblehead and Healing Hijinx.

Two details matter in practice. In Competitive, each Deadpool role has to be banned separately, according to the wiki. And his ability-upgrade experience is shared across all three versions, so if you swap role mid-match the upgrades reset but the experience you earned carries over, letting you spend it on the new role straight away.

For team building, that makes Deadpool a genuine fill pick: whichever role your team is missing, he has a version for it. He is counted once in the 54-hero total, which is why the role counts read 14 + 27 + 12 + 1.

Which Role Should You Pick?

The right role depends on three things: what your team needs, what the match demands, and what you actually enjoy playing. Here is how to weigh them:

- Fill the gap first. In solo queue, the single most valuable habit is filling the role your team is missing. Four Duelists and no tank or healer leaves the team with no one to hold space or sustain it. If nobody has locked a Vanguard or Strategist, being the player who does is often worth more than mastering a flashy Duelist. - Match your temperament. If you like initiating and controlling the pace, play Vanguard. If you want direct, measurable impact, play Duelist. If you find satisfaction in enabling others and reading the fight, play Strategist. - Consider the map and comp. Some maps and enemy lineups reward a particular role balance, and a flexible player who can slot into two roles gives their team far more drafting freedom. - Learn at least two roles. Players who can only play one role get stranded whenever their team needs something else. A primary role plus one comfort pick in a second role makes you far more useful.

A great way to discover which role clicks for you is to stop choosing and let a randomizer decide. Our fan-made hero randomizer can hand you a Vanguard one game, a Strategist the next, and a Duelist after that, which quickly reveals strengths you did not know you had. It is common to assume you are a damage player without having given the other roles a fair run; the only way to know for certain is to spend real games in each seat, and a randomizer removes the temptation to always fall back on the pick you already know.