MARVEL Rivals From a Casual’s View
Have you ever wanted to fly around as Iron Man, crawl over buildings as Spider-Man or Venom, and even jump on others as a fricking Hulk? Well, good for you, coz NetEase Games just released a game in collaboration with MARVEL Entertainment, MARVEL Rivals. Now, you can be the hero (or villain, if you’re feeling edgy) in UHD, no less.
Sup gamers, Sloth here, and if you haven’t guessed already, today I’ll be talking about how you can squirt out other MARVEL characters as Jeff, or gangbang people as Loki, or even throw… nuts as Squirrel Girl. Me? I like to bust out huge loads on the opponents with Iron Man’s Invincible Pulse Cannon, and manhandle players with Hulk’s World Breaker. But hey, to each its own.
There are three classes in this game, namely Vanguard, Duelist and Strategist. Vanguards are like tanks, with their huge health pool. They are always at the front, taking damage and tearing through enemy ranks. If you wanna be a vanguard, please don’t stay at the back. I once had this Hulk on my team and he was constantly in his Banner form, shooting people from his gun from the back. Meanwhile, my Iron Man was getting killed over and over without a proper vanguard, and the Dr. Strange on my team used his Pentagram of Farallah to troll us, his own team. He placed one portal just in front of our spawn point and the other on the edge of the map… Yup, we lost that match, and cussed the hell outta him in the chat.
Make way, for here they come! The main damage dealers, the Duelists. “Ahh, those juicy kills! Wait, no… How tf did I die suddenly?” is me almost every match I play. It’s the epitome of “Go big, or go home!” Considering I’m an Iron Man main, I’ve mastered the art of hitting from afar and running away at the slightest feeling of danger. And Repulsor Blast is amazing! Feels like you’re sniping but also has an AOE effect so gamers with shit aim (like me, I know) can play too. I have many triple kills with the billionaire playboy and one quad-kill, but no penta-kill. There’s Scarlet Witch for those who can’t aim at all. And, yeah, her Chaos Control is too OP. I’ve died so many times to that.
The ones at the back, both here and on the battlefield, are the Strategists. A proper team should generally have one Vanguard, two Duelists and two Strategists. This is because healers are extremely important for any team, especially when the matches are fast-paced and players don’t have much health. They remain behind and heal the rest of the team, preventing the long run from the spawn point all the way to the line of conflict. My favourite Strategist is definitely Loki. You do need to understand all his abilities properly before playing him, but if you do that right, he can turn the tide of the battle. If you do it right, that is.
Those were the classes. Let’s talk about team-up abilities. See, in this game, if you have certain heroes in your team, you get power-ups. That’s great for those who co-ordinate their heroes depending on what the rest of the team chooses. There’s one between Hulk, Iron Man and Dr. Strange, where Hulk charges the other two with his gamma radiation, making them more powerful. When Doctor Strange uses Maelstrom of Madness, he unleashes excess gamma energy. When Iron Man uses Armor Overdrive, he will initiate a gamma upgrade.
Another favourite of mine is the one between Hela, Thor and Loki. When Hela lands a final hit in defeating an enemy, she can instantly resurrect Loki and Thor in the respawn phase, or grant them Bonus Health if they are still alive. That’s a huge game changer if used at the right time. And, a close third would be the one with Groot, Rocket and Jeff. They seem so cute on his shoulders, an also get damage reduction, so that’s another plus.
While team-ups are provided by the game itself, you often have to be a lil bit more innovative to get that upper edge. This is where combos come in. For example, you can use Dr. Strange and Iron Man’s ultimates together. As soon as you see more than three enemies grouped up, you can land between them as Strange and ultimate them while Iron Man throws his projectile at the location. This will leave them helpless, granting you both easy kills. You can also shoot his projectile through Strange’s portals as the enemies will definitely not be expecting that. You can also combo Jeff and Scarlet Witch’s supers like this. The problem with her super is that she’s in a vulnerable state while charging it, which enemies use to defeat her before she can fully charge up. Jeff can help her by gobbling a group of enemies before she starts charging up. Then he can throw them at her when she’s ready to explode. This helps especially in matches where Jeff can’t throw enemies out of the map.
So, you’re a beginner and don’t understand which hero you should start playing with. While its entirely a matter of personal choice, there are some heroes that are easier to play with when you know nothing or very little about the game mechanics. First, of course is the Scarlet Witch. Well, no surprise there, for she doesn’t even need to aim. You just have to stay close to the enemy and she’ll drain their HP like I drain a can of chilled beer on Friday night.
The Punisher is another valuable choice. He has guns for both short and long range, and a zipline that can take you from one place to another quickly, which can be helpful for escaping divers. I can’t talk about the best starters without mentioning the cutie-pie that Jeff is. His basic attack is just a splash of water that heals allies, and his ultimate is him gobbling up enemies and taking them away or throwing them off the map, which leads to a lot of funny moments. And for an easy tank, there’s Venom. Do remember to turn off automatic swings before playing him, for this will allow you to swing from wherever you want. You can swing into enemies and start hitting them, and that’d be enough. You do need to make sure there’s someone healing you, though.
That was it for today. Moral of the blog? I found the game boring so I uninstalled it after playing fifty matches or so (I definitely don’t suck at it). So long, peeps. Happy procrastinating!
