Marvel Rivals: All 23 Hybrid Heroes Explained
Guys, what’s going on? I’m Librarian Husky, today we’re breaking down all hybrid heroes for ya’ll!
Understanding Hero Roles in Overwatch
Players, myself included, have a tendency to gravitate towards a particular play style or a particular role. I like playing DPS. Other people love playing tanks and they’re masochist. Other people like playing supports. Some heroes, however, fill more than one role than what is listed.
These are what I call hybrid heroes. And today, what I’d like to do is I’d like to talk about each of these characters that tend to fit into more than one category based off of my own personal playtime and the wisdom of friends who play these heroes a lot more than myself. There’s a lot of situations where you might be doing okay in a particular role.
Maybe you’re playing tanks, but your DPS are kind of struggling and you need to pick up their slack, but you need to make sure that you still do your job as a tank. Picking these heroes can help you do more than just one job and maybe get more victories underneath your belt. But first, we need to understand what each of these roles are and what really like defines each of these roles.
The Role of Tanks
The job or commonalities or responsibility of tanks tend to fall into two primary categories. The first off is the obvious one, which is just simply to block damage. Tanks do tanking things. Something that’s important though is that I’m saying blocking damage, not absorbing damage. Just like how we’ll see with DPS’s, how everyone kind of is a DPS in their own right. Tanks are in a similar category.
Everyone is kind of a tank in their own right because of course everyone can take damage. But where tanks are unique is in their ability to specifically block damage in a way that no other class really can. The next thing that is pretty unique to tanks, it’s sort of shared by supports as well, and that’s crowd control. The ability for tanks to take up space is the thing that makes a good tank a really good tank.
DPS is of course their big thing is that they have high DPS. The average DPS within Marvel Rivals is about 75 to 85. Anything that can exceed that is likely going to be considered in the hybrid DPS category. But it goes more than that because every DPS, no matter how slow, no matter how long of a cooldown, has some access to increased mobility. Mobility that goes above and beyond what you’ll see out of the tanks or especially out of the supports. And lastly, something that we have to do because there’s so many DPS’s, we have to make sure we have more of a categorization for them is their ability to have options with their damage. Every other character, of course, will have something that they can do that has a different way of doing some type of damage. But for DPS’s, this is a lot more available to them.
Understanding Overwatch Roles
Whether that be something like splash damage versus direct impacts or something as simple as swapping weapons, the DPS’s tend to be more flexible in what they’re trying to do as a damage dealer.
And of course, lastly, the supports. The obvious one here is that they can heal others. While some characters can give themselves over health or even in some rare categories heal themselves, supports are the unique role that can actually supply this to other people, not just themselves. And the other thing is that they enable the team.
This is a little bit harder to define what enabling a team is, but I’m hoping for something a little bit more direct when I’m looking at the categorizations of these. Not just something as simple as, well, I dealt a lot of damage, so my own team can follow up. I’m going to try to be cautious of over-categorization here as I don’t want this to be anything that could be potentially harmful information.
The scale is going to be between partial, hybrid, and multi-class with partial being, yeah, they’re kind of in this role, but not really. They can maybe help if you’ve got somebody who’s kind of struggling in the other categories. The hybrid role, which is they’re pretty much a 50/50, pretty much right down the middle. It can really help out that other role. And then there’s the multi-class, which is they really are not categorized correctly. They really do belong in their own separate subcategory because of how unique and how diverse their character design really is and their abilities really are.
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s start with the tanks and then we’ll work our way through the DPS’s and the supports.
Tanks
Starting with the captain. The captain is a partial support. Mostly this is coming from his ultimate. The captain has one of the most unique ultimates in the game for a tank in that he allows people to stay alive by directly influencing their health. All of the other tanks will obviously modify this or give some sort of damage block, but for the cap, he gives it as a way of enabling the rest of the team. Something that normally is only found on a support. So something that makes him strangely and uniquely a partial support.
Next is Doctor Strange, which I am very, very cautiously putting as a partial support, and that’s only because of his portal. Realistically, he probably doesn’t belong in the partial category even still, but I feel like it’s at least worth talking about as his portal is a sort of way of getting back from a spawn point to wherever your team is or finding new ways of enabling your team. So, I figured that at least is worth talking about.
I’m also cautiously putting Emma Frost as a partial DPS. I’m putting Emma Frost in here not necessarily because of her damage, although her damage of course in her diamond form can be really good, but mostly because of her flexibility. She can either be point blank and brawling, or she can be slightly at a distance and keeping things at arm’s length. Something that again is more indicative of something that is a DPS and something that the other tanks don’t have the flexibility for. I’m specifically not including Groot, Hulk, and Magneto.
Marvel Rivals Character Analysis
Tank Characters
Although, there’s an argument to be made for them to be a DPS or support in some capacity. I feel like they just don’t quite fit the bill enough in that they either don’t have enough flexibility, whether they be for DPS or some type of more direct or team enabling support. Something that you’d see, of course, with the strategist. Next is Penny Parker, who I have is a hybrid DPS. Penny is actually less of a tank than I feel like a lot of the other tanks are.
The only reason that she makes up for that is her personal self-sustain. She’s a lot better off actually going and trying to find kills and deal damage, which puts her more in that truer category as a DPS and a tank. And of course, this is coming from her mines and her unique access to range. No other tank currently in the game has as much range access as she does. Something that is typically only reserved for DPS’s or sometimes supports.
Next is the Thing who has a similar position to Emma Frost is a partial DPS. The difference here is that he actually has a lot better mobility and trades that off for the flexibility of his damage. Next is Thor, who is a true multi-class DPS. Thor is just as much of a DPS, I believe, as he is a tank. Obviously, you’re going to want to pick him first as a tank, but that does not necessarily discredit him for his ability to find kills, deal damage, and have flexibility when he needs to, especially with his latest changes.
I really do believe that the Marvel Rivals devs are really trying to push him into this DPS category. And lastly, I have Venom, who has the best mobility of every tank in the entire game, which of course can’t be ignored as something that is pretty similar to how other DPS’s operate. And his damage isn’t bad, but it’s not DPS category levels. But again, it’s the mobility that really pushes him not even into the partial, but into the hybrid category.
Moving on to the DPS’s. And as you already saw, a lot of other characters really wanted to be DPS’s. Everyone can deal damage in this game, right? So, I had to be really, really picky about the DPS’s in here. So, if you see less overall representation of these categories, I hope you understand why. Let’s start with Iron Fist, who is a hybrid tank. So, right in the middle, and that’s mostly because of his ability to block damage. His ability to pull aggro away from the rest of the team can’t be ignored. He has the ability uniquely to also sustain himself, something that is not really present on any other character, save for a very small handful. His ability to self-sustain as well as his ability to literally block incoming damage definitely puts him into this hybrid tank category. For a very similar reason, Magic, but where Iron Fist had a lot of ability to block, Magic has some, but she also has a lot of crowd control.
Character Categories Summary
Each character in Marvel Rivals possesses unique traits that define their role on the battlefield. From versatile tanks like Penny Parker and Venom to multi-class DPS characters like Thor, the game offers a diverse range of playstyles. Understanding the nuances of each character’s abilities is crucial for strategic gameplay. Iron Fist and Magic exemplify the hybrid nature of some characters, blending tank-like survivability with DPS or support capabilities. As the game evolves, developers continue to refine character roles, creating an engaging experience for players.
Brawl DPS and Tank Characteristics
When she pops her ult, she demands her space, something that again is really indicative of a tank. And while yes, this is something that is shared between all Brawl DPS’s and such, it’s something that Magic has a unique lock in on. And of course, she also has the ability to turn off damage as well as partially self-sustain herself with the blue over health with the overshield health. And of course, you guys saw this one coming. Mr. Fantastic is a multiclass tank. This character is the truest representation of sitting right down the center of the fence.
He is just as much of a tank as much as he is a DPS. He has the ability to block damage. He has the ability to give overshields. He has the ability to negate what would be otherwise lethal damage while also still not being half bad at getting kills all on his own. A true multi-class character. Definitely a great pick if you’ve got a tank that’s kind of struggling and you’re in the DPS role.
Next is a little bit of a weird one, but bear with me. Neymar. And this is mostly for his ability to crowd control. Yes, he has the ability to turn off damage with one of his abilities, but his ability to demand space makes him strangely kind of like a squishy tank. It’s something that forces the other enemy DPS’s to slow down and deal with, which again, very indicative of a tank. Next is Storm, who is the only partial support. I hope we end up getting more DPS’s that have a partial support or hybrid or multi-class support in here because there’s a big lack of representation in here. But I think that this one’s relatively self-explanatory. Storm can supply buffs, something that’s pretty unique to typically only needs strategist, only other supports, which allows her to enable the team, which again is a very strategist or support type of thing to do.
Next is the Punisher, who I know this is an odd one to put in here, but if you’ve played Punisher as long as me, you know he can take some damage, especially with that turret, but not a whole lot. So, I’ve put him in the partial tank category just again for the ability to just ignore big chunks of damage at any given period of time. Next is Winter Soldier, who is a partial tank, not only for his blue over health. That’s something that is very, very common on him, but also for his ability to crowd control.
Something that is again a bit unique to the DPS is something that not a lot of DPS’s actually have, which I think at least helps the Winter Soldier kind of help out the tanks, even if it’s in a sort of roundabout way. And lastly for the DPS’s, hopefully this is to no one’s surprise, the Wolverine. Yes, while the Wolverine is absolutely a DPS character, his ability to absorb incoming damage, especially to stay alive with effectively over 500 HP, is pretty darn helpful. It’s pretty good for him to stay and tank with the rest of the team and can help out the rest of the team if need be, especially of course if the enemy team has a tank of their own.
Tank and DPS Interplay
The interplay between Tanks and DPS characters in a Brawl setting is crucial for team success. Tanks like Mr. Fantastic and Magic play a pivotal role in creating space and providing protective measures for their team. On the other hand, DPS characters such as Neymar and Wolverine bring unique abilities like crowd control and damage absorption that complement the tank’s efforts. This synergy between tanking capabilities and offensive prowess is essential for overcoming challenges in competitive gameplay. By strategically combining the strengths of both tank and DPS roles, teams can maximize their effectiveness and secure victories against formidable opponents.
Support Characters Overview
All right, and now we come into the supports who all of the supports, and I think this is why the supports are so fun to play in rivals. Their ability to be very multi-class. Now, I’m going to be cautious with a couple of these here. So, starting out, I know a lot of people like to think of Adam Warlock as a DPS, but I think his DPS isn’t flexible enough. If he had some kind of close-range damage dealer, for example, that would help.
If he had any form of mobility, that would help. I just don’t think he fits the bill as any of those right now. So, I don’t have him in the DPS category, not even as a partial. I’m debating putting Cloak and Dagger in here as a partial tank, mostly for their ability to block or in this case technically evade incoming damage.
But Again, I’m cautiously holding off on them just because it’s not necessarily as available as some of the other characters might have, and it tends to be more of a selfish thing anyway. But of course, what we can agree on is Invisible Woman as a hybrid tank. Her ability to both crowd control as well as literally block damage makes her very unique and is what’s kept her so relevant in the meta for so long as that’s those two roles the tanks and the supports really love each other really like to have that bond between each other, and Invisible Woman bridges the gap between them so effortlessly.
Next is Jeff who used to be a multiclass DPS but now I think he’s been more pushed into a true support category, a true strategist category, so I’ve dropped him down from multiclass to partial DPS. Again, obviously mostly for his mobility and his ability to deal half decent damage, but again, that’s been recently adjusted. So, eh, RIP DPS Jeff. Next is Loki, who is, I think, the true multiclass of multiclass.
His damage can be really good. His ult can be whatever he wants it to be, and he has the ability to turn off damage with his little regeneration field. I think that Loki is the truest form of an actual character that can kind of do whatever he wants, of course, with his primary function being to heal the rest of the team. I think this is why you see him so often in a triple support meta, and this just because of how flexible he really is while still doing his job pretty darn well.
Next is Luna, who recently got a lot of changes that pushed her more into the partial DPS category. Although, I’m skeptical of pushing her in here because she really does have to pick and choose what she wants to do. She really has to prioritize either being a support or being a DPS, which I argue is not a true DPS category hybrid thing. I think it’s more just that she has that as an option.
So, I’m cautiously putting her in the partial DPS category for her ability to deal damage. But what I do feel a lot stronger on is Mantis as a multiclass DPS. Mantis does not need to sacrifice anything. In fact, her kit encourages her to go and try to find damage and go to try to find kills while she’s still able to do her job as a support. She also has a decent increased mobility based off of her passive, which allows her to move around faster when she has full health.
DPS Heroes Overview
I think that Mantis, if you really want to help your DPS’s out, which is pretty rare, or if you’re like me and just like playing DPS and are being forced to play support cuz nobody else wants to, Mantis is absolutely the way to go. She’s got a little bit of everything and really does fit that bill.
And next is of course Rocket, who pretty much is in the same category as Jeff as he used to be a more higher tier DPS-like character, but as time has gone on and buffs and such have gone through, he is much more of a partial DPS now, mostly again for his okay damage, but mostly his mobility. And lastly, to hopefully no one’s surprise, Ultron is another multiclass DPS.
Yes, his heals can be good if people are grouped up and around, but really where he sees a lot of his value is in his ability to by himself go find and get kills on targets.
Thank you for diving into our guide! Discover our exceptional Marvel Rivals boosting services and elevate your gaming experience with our top-tier boosts.