Three things in this life are guaranteed: taxes, death, and a fight breaking out in Marvel Rival’s team chat when no one on your team goes Vanguard. No role queue has been a contentious subject for players ever since the new hero shooter was released—mostly due to players not really understanding what makes a good team composition—but despite some pleading from the community, it doesn’t look like the devs are going to change anything.
“We totally get that the community is discussing role lock and role queue,” Marvel Rivals director Guangyun Chen says in an interview with Metro. “At its core, it’s really about the game balance. So, what we want to offer is more line-up or more team-comp possibilities through our hero design and our team-up mechanic. So, we’ll be taking a little bit more of a Marvel-inspired approach.
“It’s all about giving the players the freedom to experiment and find their unique strategies, as we’ve seen in many games and streams. Post-launch, people have been exploring an indefinite amount of team compositions, and we’re excited about what’s coming; we believe no role queue will lead to a richer gaming experience for everyone.” There are definitely plenty of ways to stack a team so that you win, but I don’t think most Marvel Rivals players have cottoned onto that idea yet.
In what seems like every other ranked game I play, there’s always one Duelist who decides to completely lose their head over the fact that we don’t have a balanced composition and, therefore, are throwing the game. I always try to point out that having the classic 2-2-2 comp isn’t necessarily the answer to winning. Oftentimes, a 2-3-1 can work out well, or even a 3-1-2. Just last night, I was part of a team composed of two Strategists, three Duelists, and one Vanguard, and we crushed an opposing team that had two Vanguards because everyone on my team was playing to their strengths, and that was enough.
There are also Team-Ups to take into account when you’re picking heroes. “Each team-up involves two to three heroes, with one acting as the core team-up, which is the one who received the seasonal bonuses,” the director says. “So, when there’s one core hero on the field, any other hero from that specific team-up would activate the whole team-up mechanics.”
For example, when Hela lands a final hit on an enemy, she can instantly resurrect Loki and Thor or grant them bonus health if they aren’t dead. There are tons of these to capitalise on, as you only need two heroes to trigger the Team-Up bonus, meaning you can have three sets on your team.
“Looking ahead as we move on to seasonal updates, we’ll be introducing new heroes and will also be refreshing the team-ups every season,” the director continues. “That includes adding new team-ups, as well as breaking down and reshaping the existing ones to keep the experience dynamic and engaging for everyone.” Even still, creating your team based on these bonus abilities can often be more helpful than just blindly opting for a 2-2-2 composition. But this creativity does have some restraints.
I’ve also played games alongside five Duelists, with myself as the only Strategist or Vanguard. I even had one cursed experience in which everyone on my team decided to go Strategist. Needless to say, neither of these went very well.
I like the idea of allowing players to experiment with different strategies and styles by deciding the team’s composition. However, I’m also conflicted because not everyone can be trusted with such freedom (see above).
Still, I’ll remain hopeful for a little bit longer. As more players join the ranks of Marvel Rivals and get to grips with different effective team comps and strategies, there could be a future in which team comp isn’t needed. But I’ll believe that when I see it.