Marvel Rivals Duelist Tier List: Best DPS Heroes Ranked

Duelist is easily the most overstuffed class in Marvel Rivals, with 20 different characters to pick from. The heroes under this category are tasked with racking up eliminations by putting their offensive abilities to good use. They vary in complexity since some Duelists have relatively simple kits while others require a ton of practice. No matter the difficulty, some characters are just more in line with the current meta, making them more effective in battle. Want to know which one to pick? Check out our Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list to find out the best heroes to use in Season 2.

S-Tier Marvel Rivals Duelists

Characters in the S-Tier sit at the very top of the current Marvel Rivals meta. Be it causal or competitive play, these heroes represent the best the class has to offer. There are multiple reasons behind their placement, ranging from overpowered abilities and impressive damage output to excellent mobility or Ults that can shift the tide of battle instantly.

Hela

Despite facing significant nerfs in Season 1, Hela is more than capable of dominating lobbies. The Goddess of Death can carry team comps on her back thanks to her ridiculously accurate primary attack, which couples precision with a rapid fire rate. In most cases, you’re looking at three-shot kills, and that’s with the damage falloff nerf.

Her kit also includes the Soul Drainer ability, which can be thrown at a cluster of enemies to pull them together and inflict a brief stun. This is great for crowd control, and you can also use the window to soften up enemies caught by the orb. When cornered by enemies, the Duelist can use her Astral Flock ability to transform into a Nastrond Crow and fly away from the heat of the battle.

Lastly, Hela’s Ult sees her take to the skies and fire exploding crows in any direction for 10 seconds. The ability needs to be used strategically since you’ll be exposed and vulnerable for its duration. Moreover, Season 2 buffs to Soul Drainer and Piercing Night have further solidified her status in the S-tier.

Wolverine

Just like his comic book counterpart, Wolverine in Marvel Rivals is a no-nonsense brawler. There really is only one way to play the Duelist, and it boils down to closing the distance on enemies before sinking your claws into them. When it comes to close-quarters, 1v1 combat, no Duelist can crank up the intensity quite like Logan. His abilities, such as Feral Leap and Vicious Rampage, will thrust you towards enemies with the former concluding in a flurry of claw strikes.

His passive, Berserker Rage, complements his kit perfectly, allowing the character to fill up a Rage meter with every hit landed or received. As the meter fills up, Wolverine’s damage output and health regeneration will increase, making him an absolute nuisance for a cornered enemy. The character is especially adept at tearing through Vanguards; all you need to do is keep up the pressure.

Namor

The Sub-Mariner was comfortably in the bottom tier during Season 0, but thanks to a series of buffs, Namor has surfaced to the very top. He can be used as a pure DPS Duelist, but there’s undoubtedly more nuance to his kit. For starters, the character is surprisingly evasive and can fly out of harm’s way using the Blessing of the Deep ability. It’ll take a while to perfect the timing, but the ability can be used to fly out of the vicinity of AoE Ultimates or incoming Dive heroes. Pair this with his long-range spears, and you have a firm counter for the likes of Magik, Spider-Man, and Venom.

When it comes to dishing out damage, Namor relies on his Monstro Spawn squids that serve as stationary turrets. You can deploy two squids at once, and they’ll focus their fire on the closest enemy. To manually direct their fire, you can use his alternate attack, Wrath of the Seven Seas, causing the squids to fire rapidly at the selected target. A combination of the alternate attack and focused fire from the Monstro Spawns will be enough to eliminate most Duelists.

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is a high DPS Marvel Rivals Duelist that has consistently landed in the A-tier for a while now. But Season 2 finally sees him climb to the vaunted S-tier on the back of some significant buffs. For starters, the projectile speed of his Ankhs receives a slight boost alongside a new health gain effect for his secondary, Moon Blade. The character’s grappling hook now comes out more quickly, which significantly improves his evasiveness. But what really propels him to the top of the pack is the buffs to his Ultimate, Hand of Khonshu.

The ability was already quite powerful, and now it’s verging on OP thanks to an extension of its duration coupled with an increase in the fall speed and number of talons in the circle. All these buffs make Moon Knight more deadly while also improving his defensive capabilities.

There’s still a skill ceiling attached to the character, especially since the Ankhs require top-tier accuracy to be consistently effective. With that being said, investing hours into him is more than worth making him our last entry in the S group in Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list.

A-Tier Marvel Rivals Duelists

A-Tier Duelists are strong picks that offer plenty of utility but don’t feel nearly as overpowered as the heroes in the S-Tier. These characters are still worth using, and seasoned players can find plenty of success with them. However, they currently fall outside the game’s meta. That said, here are the second best characters in our Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list.

Winter Solider

Winter Soldier is among the best all-around, best Hybrid Duelists in Marvel Rivals. The character excels in several areas, including single-target lockdown, crowd control, and raw damage output. While his kit can be difficult to grasp at first, investing hours into learning it will pay dividends.

Bucky shines when he’s on the offensive, chasing enemies and catching individual heroes with his combos. The Roterstern, his trusty revolver, carries three shots that hit hard at medium ranges, allowing the Duelist to pepper enemies from afar. He can then pull softened enemies towards him using the Bionic Arm to finish them off quickly. Combining revolver shots with any of his abilities will see the gun reload automatically, thanks to the character’s passive, Ceaseless Charge. This also grants him a health buff, making it all the more important to master Winter Soldier’s combos.

While most of his kit emphasizes single-target lockdown, his Ultimate sees the character dive fist-first towards a pack of enemies. Heroes affected by the AoE will immediately be hit with the Execute debuff, meaning they’re only a bullet away from the grave in most cases. If used strategically and followed up with precise shots, the Duelist is capable of wiping out teams by himself.

While Winter Soldier sat comfortably in the S-tier for months, he’s now been pulled down a notch because of his nerfs to his Bionic Hook and Ultimate in Season 2.

The Punisher

The Punisher’s simplicity, combined with his solid damage output, is why the character lands in the A-tier of our Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list. His kit is highly accessible and easy to master, featuring the right blend of evasive and offensive abilities.

He can quickly reposition using the zipline or get out of jail by throwing a smoke bomb. He can also bunker down and hold positions using the armored turret. And once the meter is filled up, he can unleash a relentless bullet storm that is capable of taking down multiple enemies through a single maneuver.

Star Lord

Star Lord greatly benefits from having one of the best mobility kits in Marvel Rivals, allowing him to move vertically and horizontally through the air at all times. The Duelist can also execute a swift dodge and consume energy to gain a movement boost.

If it isn’t apparent by now, Star Lord is built around positioning and movement. He can dive in and out of combat, engineer surprise flanks on the enemy team, and target the Strategists sitting at the team’s rear. Mastering movement is the key to getting the best out of the character, especially since his Element Guns aren’t anything to write home about.

Iron-Man

The billionaire genius relies on his aerial capabilities and raining AoE damage from above. He’s not the most agile of characters to control, and his DPS isn’t anything to rave about. Still, strategic players who have no qualms about softening up enemies for their teammates will find use in him.

His alternate attack, Unibeam, recently received a buff, increasing its damage output, and spamming it at every turn is a surefire way to get some easy kills. That said, you’ll need to be mindful of your positioning and duck out of engagements where the character is overpowered or outnumbered.

Hawkeye

The character was borderline broken during Season 0, but a series of nerfs have dragged him down to the A-Tier. Hawkeye is a straight shooter in the literal sense since his arrows hit hard and suffer from no damage falloff. Arrows can be charged to dish out even more damage and catch enemies by surprise. To keep pesky 1v1 duelists at a distance, Hawkeye can make use of his Crescent Slash or deflect incoming projectiles using the Ronin Slash.

The real ace up his sleeve is the Hunter’s Sight Ultimate, which turns a live game into a relaxed shooting range for the character. During its 10-second duration, Hawkeye’s arrows deal maximum damage without needing to be charged, and enemies leave behind stationary after-images, which are easy targets for Hawkeye to focus on. For all the character’s merits, your accuracy needs to be pinpoint to avoid getting pummeled into the ground by close-range brawlers.

Human Torch

Human Torch wasn’t a surefire hit upon release, but Season 2 has been kind to the Duelist. The attack interval for his primary has been increased, allowing players to throw out Fire Clusters at a quicker rate. Aside from this, the cooldown of his dive attack has also been improved, along with a new bonus health effect after triggering the ability. These buffs iron out many of the character’s core problems and help elevate his status.

You’ll still be using him like an aerial Duelist to control chokepoints and crowd control while avoiding close-quarters confrontations. It’s now safer to dive using Flaming Meteor thanks to the 75 bonus health, making him much more effective at disrupting opposition lines.

Magik

Magik’s kit is difficult to grasp and even harder to master, but she’s worth sticking with for multiple reasons. She can teleport in and out of combat with each slash of her sword, dealing a significant amount of damage. You can also mix up her melee combos using animation cancels that further increase the damage output. Keeping up the momentum will cause the damage she inflicts to be added to her health, meaning she can’t tussle with the most powerful Vanguards and tank through their attacks. All this, combined with a forward dash that also thrusts enemies in the air, results in a kit that isn’t just effective but also fun to use.

However, and I cannot stress this enough, learning the character requires a ton of dedication. For new players, Magik will almost definitely feel clunky and slow at first, which is why you’ll need to invest time into learning her combos and animation cancels. If you’re up to the task, Magik has her merits to make it into our Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list and then some.

Mister Fantastic

A pretty tame Ultimate and low DPS render Mister Fantastic quite ineffective as a Duelist. However, the saving grace for the character is his tank-like nature, as he can over-heal and elongate his body to soak up damage for his teammates. After beefing up his body, the character can also deflect damage back onto his enemies, which can prove to be effective if you’re standing in the front of the line. Season 2 buffs played into his hybrid-tank capabilities further by increasing his base health and adding a new slowdown effect to characters within range.

Ultimately, Mister Fantastic is a specialist character that will require positioning knowledge and a thorough understanding of his role. But if you’ve got that nailed down, he is now better than ever.

B-Tier Duelists

Despite sitting just above the bottom tier, B-Tier Duelists are still strong enough to be competitive in casual games or low Elo lobbies. A high-level player can squeeze ranked success out of them in specific roles, but you’ll be better off picking a character from the A tier from our Marvel Rivals Duelist tier list.

Psylocke

Invisibility, seamless movement, and high DPS, Psylocke has all the makings of a top-tier Duelist in Marvel Rivals. In the hands of a skilled player, Psylocke floats like a butterfly through the battlefield, dropping in to execute flanks and finish off enemies before vanishing into thin air. Her invisibility also renders her immune to being crowd-controlled.

Unfortunately, most players aren’t decisive enough or as adept at positioning as required to utilize Psylocke’s kit properly. No matter the player’s skill level, her overpowered Ultimate can still wipe out teams in an instant. That said, you’ll end up being a detriment to your team if you don’t commit to her stealthy playstyle. She’s also very squishy and easy to counter, a recurring theme among most characters beneath the A-tier.

Black Panther

Another character that requires trained hands to get the best out of, Black Panther is a melee Duelist with a frankly unimpressive kit. Besides wall running, his abilities consist of dashes and a ranged spear, which can be effective if executed as part of a combo.

T’Challa’s B-Tier placement has a lot to do with how squishy the character feels. For a melee-based, combo-centric Duelist, Black Panther is overpowered in close-quarter engagements far too often. He’s also way too heavy on the execution side of things, which means missing even a single attack will leave open glaring windows for the enemy to capitalize on.

Iron Fist

Iron Fist is all about movement since he has an assortment of jumps and dashes in his arsenal. His melee abilities can also prove effective against Tanks, and having the ability to self-heal is always welcome. Selecting the Duelist on a comp with Luna Snow is a no-brainer as their team-up ability creates a chilling Chi field, allowing for both crowd control and team healing.

When it comes to throwing hands, only a few can keep up with the character. However, Iron Fist does lack versatility due to a one-note combat approach, leaving him susceptible to being countered by the likes of Mantis and Iron Man.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man’s kit is actually pretty solid, offering a nice mix of crowd control, burst damage, and mobility. His unpredictable web-slinging allows him to get the jump on support heroes and drive 1v1 combatants insane. But with the web-slinging being so central to the character, there is a high skill ceiling to overcome that most players likely won’t bother with.

There are few things more annoying in Marvel Rivals than controlling how Spidey slings around. Depending on your annoyance threshold, the swinging controls can feel downright infuriating. While it isn’t impossible to overcome this barrier, I just don’t think the character is worth investing all that time into.

Storm

Storm suffered from nerfs in the Season 1.5 update, with the increase in her damage falloff being particularly harsh. She’s still a solid character but needs the right team comp to shine truly. The X-Men member is not a Rush or DPS Duelist, and she instead plays a support role thanks to her weather-changing abilities that can buff the movement speed or damage output of her teammates. Her ultimate also combines nicely with the Human Torch, creating a combination that can be decisive on the battlefield.

Important buffs to her primary attack’s projectile speed and damage have increased her potency on the offensive side of things. However, the character lacks the required mobility to bail herself out of trouble.

Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl is really fun to use since she’s armed with a slingshot that flings explosive acorns at her enemies. It also helps that the slingshot can be used from 40 to 50 meters away without losing DPS. That’s really where the praise ends, as the rest of her kit isn’t all that impressive. It also doesn’t help that her third ability is solely used to refresh the cooldown on the other two. And dealing with flying enemies using Squirrel Girl is just a brutal experience.

C-Tier Marvel Rivals Duelists

C-Tier Duelists fall at the end of the pack, meaning they’re not worth using in almost every scenario. The reasons for their placement range from low damage output to bland character kits, and everything in between.

Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch’s kit has more variety than most Duelists, but her ultimate immediately negates any credit it could’ve earned her. It leaves the character vulnerable for far too long and can also be easily telegraphed by enemies, making it almost entirely ineffective.

She’s still a solid option for casual players just getting their bearings since the Duelist doesn’t require precise aim and can tap into a brief immunity phase to get out of tight situations. But for players looking to climb the competitive ladder, I’d recommend looking the other way.

Black Widow

It’s hard to justify using Black Widow at all when Hawkeye is simply better in any way. Yes, you can station yourself at a distant vantage point and deal damage with the character’s sniper. But without any chance of a one-shot kill, I fail to see the point.

It’s also worth noting that you lose peripheral vision while peering into the scope, unlike Hawkeye, who can unleash arrows on the fly. Unless you’re feeling extremely confident in your aim and situational awareness, I’d steer clear.

That’ll do it for our Marvel Rivals Duelist Tier list. What placements do you agree with? Which ones do you vehemently oppose? Let us know in the comments below.