Vanguard plays a crucial role in Marvel Rivals, which, at times, is necessary to pick. Vanguard picks are vital; you must choose the one that synergizes with your team composition.

They fight enemies head-on and block damage that can shred your team in a few seconds. That’s why it’s essential to have at least one Vanguard to control the flow of the battle.

A usual team composition will have two from each class. However, does it usually happen? You know the answer. With no role queues or locks in Marvel Rivals, you’re at the mercy of your teammates’ mood and may need to pick a Vanguard character to support the team.

That needs a decent understanding of Vanguard heroes, who shine in niche situations and help you achieve victory. That said, let’s review our ranking for Vanguards in Marvel Rivals and see which can help you manage unique circumstances on the battlefield.

8 Hulk

Here He Comes

If you’re not being aggressive with Hulk, you’re really not Hulking at all. He’s not someone you play defensively, since most of his abilities focus on diving into the enemies’ backline and disrupting their formation. I prefer to dive into the enemy’s backline and focus on their Strategists, the most important targets. However, you won’t get far unless you have a pocket healer.

Most of his abilities have a short duration, and if you transform into Bruce Banner, chances are, you’re going back to spawn. You have Hulk’s Incredible Leap, which allows you to evade potential traps, but you must account for the battle’s casting time.

However, Hulk’s really not as good as a Vanguard because you have to be really close to enemies to hit them. Unless you’re in their face, your melee attacks won’t affect them, and if you fumble a leap, you’ll be in their backline, where you’ll possibly melt in a fraction of a second.

He can shield allies, but who will you shield in the front? Unless you plan to flank enemies with your Duelists, I don’t see the use of a shield. I think the developers must buff Hulk’s damage or rework an ability or two. He feels underwhelming to play as a Vanguard.

The main focus while playing Hulk is to gain as much energy as possible to transform into Monster or Hero Hulk.

7 Thor

The God Of Thunder

Like Hulk, Thor’s playstyle focuses on being active at the frontline, fighting other tanks. However, you have to rely on Thorforce to activate your abilities, which may be cumbersome for those unfamiliar with precise technical gameplay.

Thor is quite technical to play because you have to manage abilities, such as cooldown, positioning, and combat, and Thorforce, a mechanic to enhance your abilities. However, the higher the risk, the higher the reward. You can Knock Back enemies and buff your damage in an instant.

You can gain Bonus Health in the Awakened state, but you must maintain enough Thorforce to have decent uptime. That’s why I suggest requesting the Strategist to fuel enough healing to fight enemy tanks head-on.

But if you’re not pocketed enough, you may not have enough time to recharge your Thorforce. Unless you’re in the Awakened state, you’re just a damage sponge.

Sure, you have a quick dash with Mjolnir and a damage boost in the Awakened state, but managing all that alongside requires experience, which isn’t for everyone when we have better options.

6 Magneto

Mutant Power

I haven’t seen any Magneto players for a while; where are you guys? No offense, but I’m yet to come across decent Magneto players in ranked matches. Magneto’s kit is entirely defensive, which makes him a damage sponge.

His shield, which you can summon after a short cooldown, can block any incoming damage and has abilities that help shield him and his allies, but that’s all about it. Sure, he has a basic knockback attack, but that doesn’t compensate for his lack of mobility and offensive skills.

However, he’s not that bad. With such abilities, you can pocket your flankers and shield Duelists to melt down enemy tanks. Sure, you won’t dish out much damage, but you’ll be soaking enemy Duelists’ bullets in exchange for protection for your Duelists.

When it comes to protecting teammates, he’s a solid option alongside Groot; however, the short duration of the shield often makes him vulnerable. He lacks mobility and has too much defense in his kit. Even the ultimate is defensive in nature, as it can absorb incoming projectiles.

He perfectly fills the role of a point tank, a Vanguard that holds the objective but doesn’t have enough damage to slay enemies, which is disappointing.

5 Captain America

Avengers Assemble

A hypermobile dive tank that can easily disrupt the enemy team’s flow and escape finicky situations when the moment arrives sounds simple, but it isn’t. I’ve been having fun with Captain America in games; however, his playstyle is entirely selfish, just like Venom, who can’t protect the team.

Sure you can ricochet Iron Man’s ultimate with Captain America’s shield, but you cannot protect your entire team like Groot. What I suggest with Captain America is to ask your healer to pocket you for flanking the enemy team. You can go in and out at your will and surprise dive at them to throw them off.

However, make sure to put up the shield before you plan for an evasion tactic. The shield isn’t instant, so you have to bear the delay. Never stay in one place while playing; keep fighting while moving and gather intel on enemies’ locations.

Playing as Captain America is fun, but you’re out of options as soon as you’re stunned. You’re risking everything to dive into enemies’ backlines and fight them head-on. The Vibranium shield can tank some damage but doesn’t have enough HP to protect you for long.

Unlike Venom, who can survive the brunt of heavy firepower, Captain America doesn’t have many options to survive in enemies stronghold.

Captain America’s Sprint has no cooldown; use that to your benefit.

4 Penny Parker

It’s Spider Time!

Penny Parker is a pretty underrated Vanguard, in my opinion; sure, people on High ELO can counter her Bionic Spider-Nests and Arachno-Mines, but she dominates low-rank matches.

What’s crazy is her snare skill, which immobilizes enemies and their ultimate forms (some heroes’ ultimate). And that can be recast every 3s, which makes it a pretty insane skill.

You can stun a tank or flanker for a few seconds, have the team focus on them, and voila! They’re not a problem on the battlefield.

Her Cyber-Webs grant her Healing Over Time, Movement Boost, and Bonus Health, which are exceptionally valuable while fighting at the frontlines.

If you want a Vanguard who punishes people for mistakes, she’s a good pick. However, you don’t have any defensive skills. Enemies will have a clear line of sight, and you’ll have to tank the damage. You need a dedicated healer to stay alive or position yourself behind walls.

Though you can use Cyber-webs to close some distance, it’s not enough to avoid enemies’ sight. Duelists like Squirrel Girl or Moon Knight can easily destroy your mines and punish you for being in the open.

Playing Penny Parker is risky unless you have a Vanguard who can shield you. You can solo tank with her against squishy heroes, but you need to be aware of your equipment’s positioning against other Vanguards. Losing your equipment is a major blow to DPS, and you don’t want that on the battlefield.

3 Venom

Chaos Incarnate

Like Captain America, his primary role is to be a dive tank that helps flankers take out Strategists. You’re out of options if you don’t have heroes with Crowd Control abilities on your team to deal with Venom.

Venom’s aggressive playstyle allows him to drop into the enemies’ backlines, throw them in chaos, and tank massive damage with his abilities. He can dive in the backline and come back with the Venom Swing, allowing him to traverse through large distances.

All you need to do with Venom is to focus your basic attacks (which can be shot) on enemies, use abilities at the right time, especially the bonus shield, and get out of the combat for a quick regroup.

A good Venom player can easily flank a Duelist or Strategist and return to the team, pretending nothing happened. Venom’s mobility is a godsend in a game where a tank like Groot has to walk from the respawn to the objective.

However, don’t dive blindly into the enemy’s backline if they have a Luna Snow, Mantis, or Penny Parker since they can easily stun you for a while, making you a vulnerable target. Wherever you dive, you have to be in healers’ sights.

You have a lot of survivability as Venom, but you’re prone to crowd-control abilities. The bonus shield isn’t permanent; if it runs out, you’re often 1 HP. The swings may be a hit or miss, and if you dive too deep into enemy territory, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

In a nutshell, mobility is a double-edged sword; you can go on a quick reconnaissance mission or give them a free kill; there’s no in-between.

You can turn off Easy Swing in settings to have more control over your Venom Swing.

2 Groot

I Am Groot

Anytime I go solo tank, which is 70% of my ranked gameplay, because my team choose to go with 4-5 Duelists, and I have to take one for the team, I go with Groot.

Sure, he’s not as agile as Venom, Captain America, or Penny Parker, but what he does is something no other Vanguard can do. That is, zoning an area.

Groot’s walls are indispensable when isolating heroes from their team. When you see a Vanguard like Thor rushing at you, you can immediately place walls around them, leaving them no chance to run back and melt them with your team.

The walls work in tandem with your abilities, granting you Bonus Health and Healing effects, which are fantastic when you fight head-on. His ultimate can imprison and group multiple enemies at one spot, making them vulnerable to your team’s Duelists.

What’s more interesting is that you can place his walls to shield your team and have them healed by your Strategists, giving you breathing room to read the room and focus on potential flankers or Duelists.

Groot is a formidable tank that is really hard to kill. His ultimate can group up enemies and set them up for a team-kill. However, he suffers from slow movement. He’s in the same boat as Magneto, who has to walk from the spawn point and lacks movement skills.

You can lose an objective if your Vanguard isn’t present around it. The Squishy heroes will melt in a few seconds, and by the time Groot arrives, enemies have reached another checkpoint.

The walls can potentially shield enemies from your Duelists’ line of sight, which is another problem. If you don’t have a good game sense and spatial awareness, you’re bottlenecking your team’s damage and giving an advantage to the other team.

However, you’ll learn on the go, and once you’ve gotten the hold of basic gameplay, Groot will work wonders. Squishy heroes will be afraid to step into your melee zone, and you’ll be stopping tanks from rushing to the objective.

1 Doctor Strange

The Power Of Magic

What I like about Doctor Strange is the portal that can be used to flank the enemy team. You can teleport your entire team behind enemies’ backlines and instantly take out their Strategists, quickly securing your objective.

Doctor Strange’s massive regenerative shield helps him tank massive incoming damage. With his game-changing ultimate, Doctor Strange can shift the tide of battle in one go. Instead of one, you essentially get two hitboxes on enemies in hit ultimate, which lets you focus more on the damage and less on the aim.

Though he cannot swing like Venom, he’s not slow, either. You can use Cloak Of Levitation to ascend in the air and fly back to your team, or even better, survive a bad Jeff ultimate (Good luck if Jeff plans to dive off the map).

You can also absorb a Hela ultimate with your shield, which is a boon since her ultimate’s AoE range is massive and can take out your Strategists and Duelists in a second.

However, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. There’s one thing that you should keep in mind, and that is managing Dark magic stacks.

It would be best to manage Dark Magic stacks to avoid Anti-Heal, which effectively counters the healing received. Doctor Strange doesn’t have technical gameplay as Thor has, but it’s not that simple, either.

If nothing works out, you can always summon the portals, send your team or an Iron Man ultimate into it, and secure the objective. He’s a very strong Vanguard who can shield his team, reposition them, and escape from a fight whenever he wants.