Marvel Rivals has three class roles for characters, including the Vanguard, whose archetype is perhaps the strongest in the game. Vanguard characters have higher health than anyone else, using self-sustaining abilities to their team and stay alive. However, not every Vanguard is created equal, as some tend to struggle more than others against enemies.

Thankfully, almost every character in Marvel Rivals can be successful with the right team. As of this time of writing, the balance of the game allows any Vanguard to succeed under the right circumstances with specific characters on their side. With enough coordination and communication with your team, you can play any Vanguard and achieve victory.

8 Captain America

Assemble The Stars And Stripes

Unfortunately, Captain America is the worst Vanguard in the game solely due to how little damage he deals. Although the leader of the Avengers has an infinite sprint that he can use to traverse battlefields in seconds, that skill will mostly be used to hunt down health packs. Captain America has a shield slam ability in this sprint that knocks back enemies in a shockwave but does very little AoE damage on impact.

All characters are given a difficulty rating out of five stars. The more stars a character has, the more difficult they are to play with their abilities. For example, Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals is a five-star character due to how complex his kit is.

Despite his faults, Captain America's greatest strength comes from his shield, a 400 health protection that can reflect projectiles. This includes Ultimate attacks, such as Iron Man's Maximum Pulse. This can keep the Captain alive for longer, allowing Strategist characters to keep him active. In solo fights against low-health enemies, Captain America can thrive, but his long ability cooldowns cause him to struggle against multiple foes.

The melee strikes of Captain America eventually become attacks where he throws his shield to hit enemies from mid-range. The shield bounces can catch retreating targets, but the damage is also less than desired here. Overall, Captain America struggles to secure eliminations, even with one of the most fun collections of abilities in the game.

7 Hulk/Bruce Banner

The Supposed Strongest There Is

The Incredible Hulk is a surprisingly weak Vanguard in Marvel Rivals, even though the character has a lot of merits. Hulk's multiple forms of Bruce Banner, Hero Hulk, and Monster Hulk with his Ultimate make the character survive in fights for a long time. However, Hulk's leap ability offers only a little mobility, making it hard to close in on enemies you want to attack in any of these forms.

Hulk can stun targets, but it prevents both him and any other character from attacking whoever he exiles using gamma radiation. This is a baffling weakness since other characters like Mantis and Luna Snow in Marvel Rivals can stun opponents while damaging them with their basic abilities. With only a small projectile as a ranged skill, Hulk will find it hard to reach enemies he wants to fight.

When you are trying to reach enemy teams, they will notice Hulk as such a large target to hit with all of their attacks. With only one defensive barrier skill on a long cooldown, Hulk has a hard time staying alive despite how he can regain his Hulk form if he stays alive as Bruce Banner. More often than not, you'll find that Hulk sponges up damage and dies quickly without having the speed to retreat.

6 Peni Parker

It's Spider Time!

An extremely underrated Vanguard, Peni Parker has both decent damage attacks and mobility options not available to most characters in this class. Peni can use her mech suit to lay areas of webbing throughout a map, dashing toward them to climb up walls with good mobility. With multiple traps that deal additional damage to targets who trigger them, Peni can be a great choice for defending objective points.

Peni is a harder Vanguard to play than some others due to how her traps have to be placed in specific spots around the battlefield. The Bionic Spider-Nest and Arachno-Mines can easily be destroyed by enemies if they are placed in obvious locations. Even the ability to stun individual enemies won't prevent their entire team from getting rid of your traps, making Peni much weaker as a result.

You should always consider using Peni Parker with Venom due to their Team-Up ability in Marvel Rivals. When both of these characters are together, Venom gains 150 extra health and Peni Parker gains a new ability that allows her to damage targets better.

Peni Parker's greatest strength is her Ultimate, which seems to charge up faster than most characters. This Ultimate lays down tons of webbing on the ground to heal Peni while giving her Bonus Health as she runs and damages opponents. At best though, this Ultimate doesn't deal enough damage to be powerful and acts as an annoyance to an enemy team as you try to stall contested areas.

5 Groot

Plant-Based System

One of the easiest Vanguards to play is Groot, whose signature ability comes from plant walls they can place around a battlefield. These walls are among the strongest tools of any Vanguard in Marvel Rivals, as they can do a bit of everything. You can trap enemies away from their team, block opponents from reaching contested points, or even prevent an Ultimate from ever reaching you.

Groot is an incredibly balanced Vanguard, whose strong defensive abilities are offset by weaker offensive skills. Groot needs to have high-damaging team with him to make up for his lackluster damage output and score eliminations. Characters like Rocket Raccoon or Jeff the Land Shark in Marvel Rivals also help Groot a lot with their combined Team-Up ability.

The ability to stun targets in a large AoE with their Ultimate is a great skill for Groot, but it won't get the job done alone. Groot can defend allies but needs help getting kills, as mobile characters can escape him easily. Groot works best when his walls help the rest of his team survive and take down his enemies.

4 Magneto

Fear The Wrath Of Mutant Kind

Another straightforward Vanguard is Magneto, who has some of the highest damage in this class of characters. Magneto's basic attacks build up a ring of metal around his head, which can be shot forward as a projectile. When fully charged, this projectile can wipe out health bars of Duelists and Strategists, allowing Magneto to be more aggressive than other Vanguards.

One of Magneto's abilities grants him a forward-facing shield. Unlike other shields like Captain America's or Doctor Strange's, this shield doesn't have a set health value but rather negates all damage until its timer is spent.

However, this doesn't mean that Magneto doesn't have defensive abilities. Magneto can give defensive bubbles to himself and enemies to negate all damage for a short time, making him the perfect example of a defensive tank. This balance between offense and defense is what makes Magneto very strong, even if his toolkit is relatively simple.

3 Thor

Master The Thor Force To Become A God

Beginners may struggle to use the Vanguard Thor in Marvel Rivals, but those who master his abilities will find one of the best characters in the game. Thor relies completely on his Thor Force, a unique resource he builds ively over time. Instead of having traditional ability cooldowns, each one of Thor's skills is tied to how much Thor Force you have, giving the character more options than other Vanguards.

Thor's abilities give him mobility and damage across multiple ranges, giving him versatile options for many situations. For example, one ability of Thor's that costs three Thor Force causes the god of thunder to enter a stance where all their attacks become highly damaging ranged strikes. Thor stays alive longer than most Vanguards because each Thor Force ability generates Bonus Health, giving him above-average survivability.

Thor Force is an unorthodox mechanic in Marvel Rivals, making Thor a hard character to manage well. You need to keep an eye on your cooldowns and Thor Force meter to use this Vanguard effectively.

Thor's only glaring weakness is that he relies too heavily on Thor Force, making him a very weak character once that resource has been burnt out. Proper management of his skills is necessary for utilizing Thor's high-damage and surprising mobility​​​​​​, so it takes time to master this Vanguard's skill set.

2 Venom

Fastest And Bulkiest Lethal Protector

Venom and the final strongest Vanguard are interchangeable in strength, with each being extremely powerful in their own right. Venom is, without a doubt, the most mobile Vanguard in the game, with a web-swing that allows him to rapidly reach anywhere on the map where he wants to go. From above enemy teams, Venom can dive into opposing groups to disrupt and slow down enemy characters for his team.

When playing as Venom or Spider-Man, make sure to turn off the "Easy Swing" feature in these characters' settings. This will allow you to swing with more precision around a map.

Venom's damage is shockingly high for a Vanguard as well, especially if he can target a weaker Strategist or Duelist away from their team. Although he has a slow attack speed, his sheer amount of health will help him win battles or escape them once his web-swing recovers. Venom has incredible survivability through an ability that gives him more Bonus Health when his HP is low, sometimes giving him over 1,000 total health.

It also helps that Venom is very easy to play effectively, as the character's basic strategy is simple to understand. Swinging, diving, and then slowing enemy teams is a straightforward but brutal combination that can set up enemies to die quickly to the rest of your team. With an Ultimate that also increases Venom's Bonus Health, this character is almost impossible for enemy teams to eliminate alone.

1 Doctor Strange

Unlimited Creativity With The Mystic Arts

The best Vanguard in Marvel Rivals is Doctor Strange, who has highly damaging attacks combined with the strongest defensive ability in the game. Doctor Strange's shield is incredibly strong, with tons of health, and capable of blocking projectiles and Ultimates in equal measure. One Doctor Strange with the right positioning can negate the Ultimates of Hela, Star-Lord, or even Iron Man to name a few.

The Ultimate of Doctor Strange in Marvel Rivals is also incredibly powerful, capable of stunning multiple targets. However, the true strength behind Doctor Strange comes from his portal ability. This skill can place an entire team anywhere Doctor Strange wants, either transporting his team for a surprise attack or tricking an enemy group to their demise.

A Doctor Strange player is only limited by their creativity with portals, which can set up Ultimates for other team . Even with magic build-up causing an Anti-Heal effect, Doctor Strange has easy ways of escaping his self-imposed debuff. The endless versatility of Doctor Strange makes him the strongest Vanguard in Marvel Rivals, reliable with many different team compositions.