The Marvel Rivals “Hero Hot List” just dropped, breaking down character pick rates

The first official season of Marvel Rivals is kicking off really soon, but we have just been given 🎀the character pick rates in Season 0 (or the pre-season) of the game. NetEase Games went ahead and called it the “Hero Hot List”, showing us how often people picked each character in the game along with win rates.

breaks this down by platform, game mode, role, and rank. It’s inteไresting to see what’🉐s consistent and what changes per each filter.

While we won’t list everything here, we’𒁃ll mostly go over thওe top and bottom of the list to determine why each character is there. 

Who has the highest and lowest Quickplay pick rates in Marvel Rivals?

As it stands right now, PC and Console are lumped together in terms of picking stats here. However, that being said, these are the top five picked heroes fo✨r this section along with percentages:

1. Jeff the Land Shark – 21.18%
2. Venom – 19.09%
3. Cloak and Dagger – 18.81%
4. Mantis – 15.75%
5. Peni Parker 15.65%

It’s not surprising that there are no duelists until 16th place, which is The Punisher. Given that there are more Dueli🎉sts than Vanguards and Strategists combined, this makes sense. There’s more variety in DPS cha♏racters than in these other roles.

Looking at the top five in Quickplay stats doesn’t really say much. As we’ll see a bit later, Jeff the Land🉐 Shark does start to slip away in the ranks.

Now it’ll be interesting to see what the bottom five heroes look like i𒀰n this selection:

1. Black Panther – 3.39%
2. Wolverine – 3.23%
3. Black Widow – 2.93%
4. Namor – 2.76%
5. Storm – 1.66%

Trying to remain impartial here, butജ the least-picked heroes show a bit of a trend h🍸ere. 

To start, Black Panther, Bla൲ck Widow, and Wolverine are characters with high-skill ceilings. They, especially Black Panther, have higher-than-average win rates in Ranked play. When used optimally, they can be very difficult to fight against.

As for ꩵNamor, he’s oftentimes overshadowed by other, more popular DPS characters in the mix. He has his✨ turrets and infinite ammo, but he doesn’t really shine unless he has a Luna Snow to buff him up a bit.

For Storm; she was one of the weaker heroes in S🍌eason 0. She’s an inferior version of Iron Man, which gives almost no incentive to play her. With some buffs coming to her kit🎃, she may rise in the ranks.

Now, If you break each ꦡQuickplay role down, here’s what you get for the top five of each:

Duelist

1. The Punisher – 8.14%
2. Moon Knight – 8.05%
3. Iron Man – 7.69%
4. Scarlet Witch – 7.44%
5. Star-Lord – 7.20%

Strategist

1. Jeff the Land Shark – 21.18%
2. Cloak and Dagger – 18.81%
3. Mantis – 18.81%
4. Luna Snow – 15.48%
5. Rocket Raccoon – 10.48%

Vanguard

1. Venom – 19.09%
2. Peni Parker – 15.65%
3. Thor – 13.36%
4. Doctor Strange – 12.52%
5. Captain America – 10.33%

Everything here is pretty standard. Since it’s Quickplay, there isn’t 🉐much to gather from this. 

You can assume that people play The Punisher the most as a DPS because he’s the close༺st standard-issue or “Call of Duty-esque” character in the game. It can also be assumed that people play the other four characters because they’re oftentimes considered “noob stompers”.

For example, in lower-skill lobbies, players tend to ignore Moon Knight’s ankhs or an airborne fighter dealing massive amounts of damage until it’s too late. These characters a🧔re also sustainable enough to fly in the air and run away before being shot down.

Similar things can be said about the Strategists or Vanguards. Jeff is a noob stomper beca๊use of his ult, while the rest of his Strategist counterparts can just throw stuff out to support teammates.

The Vangua💙rds here a🐬re all quite hard to kill, with Venom having an edge because of all the overshield and mobility he has. It triggers casual players to see an unkillable Venom, but in higher-ranked play, he starts to falter. The others are just easy to spam or face-tank a bunch of damage with.

What are the Competitive pick rates like in Marvel Rivals?

Now, for the juicer stats. We’ll show you what the top five heroes are in Competitive modes between PC and Console. Thꦗere is some variation here.

When filtering this by all ranks, the 𒀰same characters appear at the top, just in different placements. 

Luna Snow is an exceptional healer, also having utility like being able to freezཧe enemies which can stop ults. Her own ultimate is also one of the best support moves in the game, being a top-tier push for an objective.

Cloak and Dagger is an interest🎃ing one on this list given that they’re receiving buffs in Season 1. They can♏ dish out a lot of damage and provide great burst healing. 

Mantis is also in the same vein as the previous two supports. She can dish out a lot of damage, incapacitate opponents, and provide excepti🐬onal burst ꦡhealing in a large radius for her ult. 

Pe🌠ni is the best tank for holding down defense objectives and guarding chokepoints. Her potential was greatly misunderstood in early-game tier lists. Even for push objectives, Peni can set up traps, deal massive damage, self-heal, web-sling away, and climb walls. Her mech can kind of do it all.

And Dr. Strange’s got a lot of damage potential, crowd-control, push potential, and crazy portal setups that have already been nerfed prior to the first major balance pat🌃ch. What lies in﷽ store for him next season is yet to be seen.

Lastly, let’s get into the win 🌠rates for Competitive on🔜 console and PC to see how different things look.

The only consistent picks here between pick rates and win rates are Mantis and Peni💙 Parker (for console). However, it also shows that Magik, Hela, and Adam Warlock are strong in their rights and could also be potential team carries. 

This can prove that Mantis is probably one of, if not the best healer/support role in this game. Her damage output can outdo some Duelists in this game while her healing and damage-boosting potential can be the difference between a 🥃win or lo🤪ss.

Hela is one of the strongest DPS character♏s in the game, receiving nerfs in Season 1. That isn’t a shocker. Why would you pick Black Widow over her? 

What is a shocker is that Magik is on this list. She’s oftentimes considered middle or bottom tier from early tier lists. If these win ratios are an indicator of anything, it’s that she’s another♕ underrated cha🍨racter. Her damage and face-tanking potential as a DPS give Wolverine and Black Panther a run for their money. 

And as for Adam Warlꦅock, well, he has that Mercy from Overwatch comeback potential. The team rez mechanic is always going to be a godsend, even if getting revived only brings you back with a fraction of HP. There is never a time when picking him as a staple support on your team is a bad idea. 

What lies ahead in Season 2 will be interesting. Will the meta be shaken up with the upcoming hero balancing and the introduction to the Fantastic Four? We’ll just have to wait and see as the pick rates will be updated every half season in Marvel Rivals.