I thought it’d be interesting to look at all the marvel rivals heroes and see what type of gameplay archetypes they have that are missing from Overwatch and could potentially work for a new hero in our game
Overall, 1 I am shocked isn’t in the game, I think 4 and 6 would be the most interesting in Overwatch, 8 and 10 would work good too
- Melee dps
Yeah its actually pretty weird OW doesn’t have any of these anymore now that doomfist is tank (I guess Venture kind of), but Marvel Rivals has like 4 or 5. Some are based on abilities that combo really well together like oldschool doomfist, while others just have the raw sustainability to stay in melee range. Probably works a bit better in 3rd person, but I think OW could make it work
- Up close flier
Starlord is a flying hero with mid range pistols and a short range AoE ability, which is the only attack he can use while flying. The result is that flight is now a tool for diving on enemies or quickly repositioning around the map rather than the more skybox campy playstyles. This has always been my favorite way to play echo anyway, so it’s nice seeing a hero where you just get to constantly be doing this
- Dual weapon dps
Punisher has an assault rifle and a shotgun. Both are powerful enough to be a primary weapon and there is this certain midrange sweetspot where they are both very effective, so its not always just an algorithm of if they’re close enough swap to shotgun you have to play it based on your preferences and situation. Closest thing we have is torbjorn but that’s more of a 2 in one gun and the shotgun feels more like a secondary these days
- Trapper Tank
Penny Parker’s whole schtick is that she can throw landmines around the map and also spread cyber webs around that hide the landmines. This creates an interesting area of denial effect where there are a ton of cyber webs around certian parts of the map and the enemy is not sure if there are mines or not under them so they have to either slow down to sweep the ground for mines, take the risk, destroy the pylon that creates some of the webs, or find a different route. There’s more to her kit, but this is just the main component of it.
- burst AOE healer
Adam Warlock has a decently long cooldown ability that targets an ally and heals that ally and all nearby ones (yourself included) for heavy burst healing. The tradeoff, you are a healer and this is your primary form of healing, though he does have another support ability where nearby allies share damage that also does a bit of healing as well. So you are a healer, but there are ocassionally huge downtimes where you can do 0 healing whatsoever. An interesting design but I don’t think it’d work in Overwatch where burst healing is a lot more problematic
- Mana user
Mantis and Thor both have mana systems where they have some mana currency they generate passively and/or by doing certain actions such as landing headshots, and using certain abilities consumes a point of mana. On mantis its a simple system of 1 mana per ability no cooldowns as long as you have enough, while Thor it’s a bit more dynamic with stronger abilities costing more mana and also having a cooldown on top of it
- retrigger spammer
Marvel rivals have few of these heroes where landing certain abilities either resets or lowers other cooldowns. Black panther marks enemies with 3 of his abilities, and then his 4th dash ability resets its cooldown whenever it hits a marked target. Psylocke has long cooldowns but each time she lands her primary fire they’re all reduced. Its just an interesting mechanic that can reward consistent skill
- dual form
Cloak and Dagger are a two in one hero who swaps between two forms at will, no cooldown just an animation time. One form is mostly a healer with a few ways to deal damage, the other mostly focuses on damage and debuffs but has some support capabilities. This isn’t like moira where you choose the heal and damage versions of the same ability, their abilities are on separate cooldowns from each other so you have to swap in an out to get maximum value out of the kit
- active builder
Deployables that actively interact with other parts of your kit. Hitting an enemy with a trident throw ability causes all his turrets to target them. Moon night deploys ankh totems that he has to then shoot with his other attacks to do ricohceting AOE damage to people in the ankh range. Much more interesting than the set and forget type of deployables OW is full of now
- Rushdown tank
Captain America is sort of a horizontal dive tank. He is fast as hell of the ground but doesn’t have quite as much vertical mobility as an Overwatch dive tank. This results in a rush in and rush out style of tanking that feels similar to dive but has its own appeal
- nonlethal hard sniper
Characters that are undeniably snipers with no elements of other playstyles but can’t just get free kills on you the moment you peak the corner. Black widow’s gun doesn’t have a charge mechanic just a bit of time between each shot, the tradeoff is its just short of being a oneshot, so you have to rely on teammates to finish the job or land a bodyshot.
Hawkeye meanwhile is a bow user who does have a charge mechanic, but it’s unique in that you gain charge only when you have an enemy in your crosshair, so you can’t get someone as soon as they peak unless you were aiming at an ally and then flick which is rather contrived. Overall this pair seems a lot healthier than the corresponding Overwatch widow hanzo duo, though I could still see widow becoming a problem. The two also have a bit more anti-dive which is another nice tradeoff
- Trickster
Loki litters the map with stationary clones of himself. He can mid-fight turn invisible leaving a clone behind or swap positions with one of his clones, causing a moment of confusion where you don’t realize that he swapped right away. It’s an interesting new thing to play around, but it’s by far the one on this list I least think would work in OW