Diamond Rank III-I

Who ever said games were easy?

No one—literally no one. Well, at least for certain games. 

In the past few weeks with my minimal time playing, I deranked out of Diamond to Platinum about twice now. Currently, I've stayed fortunate enough to be back in Diamond, specifically Diamond II. 

While I haven't gotten out of the Diamond rank, and transitioned into Grandmaster—the next rank after—I've decided to share general gaming strategies of Marvel Rivals that have gotten me out the previous ranks, and help me garner points. 

Author's Note: A few images from my Diamond ranked matches.

 

There are 4 main strategies I use as a main strategist in the game—and whenever I'm playing other roles such as DPS and Tank.

Positioning

Positioning is the ability to move or proceed where your character goes on the game map for a higher advantage against the enemy team. 

 

This includes being aware of your surroundings, protecting yourself against projectiles with buildings, learning where in-game resources such as health packets are, and gaining control of area points that holds down your competitors. 

See below a few clips where I do just this!

 

 

Context: Here, I played as Luna Snow, a strategist, and as one, it's imperative to position yourself without drawing much attention to yourself in order to continue healing the frontline.

 

To my left, Moon Knight was routinely picking at the backline, but I stayed around a building to avoid confronting him, and leaving it to the Tanks or DPS to handle him—which they did. 

 

I also spaced up in the frontline a little to help with damage, but I caught this mistake and went back, and actually caught Magneto's attention. There, I was able to freeze him, and he instinctively backed up, and I left it to my team to deal with. 

Game Knowledge 

Game Knowledge is the overall understanding of game mechanics such as knowing what character is nerfed or buffed, learning how long your cool downs are (the length of time you have to wait after you use an ability), and team ups and compatibility of your teammates' characters and the enemy's abilities. 

Here is some game play where I have to strategize just that!

 

Context: This is a continuation of the previous gameplay I showed where, at this point, support ultimates were about to be used. 

The Cloak and Dagger enemy recently had a nerf where it takes more points now (~4000) to get their ultimate, and while Luna Snow had the same thing too, I was fortunate enough to have already gotten it. Additionally, the enemy's Sue Storm most likely had it too. 

Examining their team composition, the enemy had a Punisher and Thing that I could counter with my ultimate, but not against their Magneto who would be most likely saving their ultimate for me (as they can very easily kill me with it even in my ultimate).  

Ultimately, I saved my ultimate for the Punisher or the Thing, thinking the enemy team were going to push up to objective with their support ultimate (Also, never use a support ultimate at once. Save it.). I was correct, and managed to counter Punisher, and avoid Magneto's ultimate.

Prioritization

This is a specific strategy I've learned across games, but in Marvel Rivals, this is almost a necessary component to utilize to judge what is more important and what is the least of importance as to what to do. 

For example, if you're stuck between healing teammate A who is low, but is shielded from the enemy with you, and teammate B who is fighting the enemy—who would you be healing?

A) Teammate A

B) Teammate B

C) No one

D) Leave it to the other healer (if optional)

 

If you chose, B, you're correct! 

 

While healing both teammates are important, and you should never not be healing, and not be solo-healing as a sole strategist (having two strategist is good enough for most games), Teammate B is a greater priority than Teammate A as it's situational despite both being low. 

Taking the few seconds to heal Teammate A may result in Teammate B's death depending on the amount of damage inflicted upon them, and losing the objective or area control, and your team being pushed back. Although there are more factors to consider, let's look at one of my matches of what I prioritized as a DPS, shall we?  

Context: I played as Wanda or Scarlet Witch as to give a 10% damage boost to my friend's Magneto in their fatherly-daughter team-up. 

Here, the enemy team came through the left hand-side hallway and while the objective was at the bottom, we couldn't afford in giving them the high ground and we continued pushing them back while the point (the objective) was opening up. 

In this case, I stopped prioritizing pushing them back, and went to the objective to claim it for my team despite the enemy team fighting them. This action led to the rest of my team following and now pushing them back from different angles.

Adapting    

Playing the game and communicating with others, it sometimes a wonder if people actually read the summary of the game: "Marvel Rivals is a Super Hero Team-Based PVP Shooter! Assemble an all-star Marvel squad, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique" 

Take note of, "Team-Based". 

Unfortunately, some players do not cooperate with the team, leading to them not switching their characters whether they're being hard countered by a certain character or they're going negative (more deaths than kills) as a Duelist (or DPS). 

In this situation, teammates, including you, as the player, have to adapt to what is not working in the game. This forces you to understand game knowledge, positioning, and prioritization, and channels those skills in adjusting to the enemy's team competitive game play. 

See below the clip where I adapted to the enemy team.

 

Context: Here, I first played as Jeff, and while the adorable shark, compared to main strategists with consistent heals such as Cloak and Dagger and Luna Snow, isn't that great for healing, I decided to venture out for different strategists to show some love to. 

Unfortunately, Jeff wasn't the push my team needed. I switched to Adam Warlock with a similar disposition as to Jeff, but it didn't work out as well. 

I eventually figured out there needed to be a more solid backline to distract Hawkeye, remove Peni's mines, and support my team with greater flexibility. Going as Loki, this made all the difference in making the backline more stable and less vulnerable with my abilities against the enemy.

Any other ideas?

With these four strategies, I've been lucky to be employing them effectively as I do with proper communication from my teammates, and ranking up. 

Any characters you'd want a character guide on or need tips with other heroes? Let me know!

Are these strategies that you already use in your matches or are they something you're willing to try out? Comment below!