After reaching Diamond 1 in Marvel Rivals primarily maining Strategist I have compiled my tier list for Season 1. From Season 0 to Season 1 there were a few changes to some of the meta Strategists as well as a new hero, Invisible Woman. The following Tier List is based on everything I have seen up to the Diamond – Low GM rank.
S Tier
Cloak & Dagger: After Season 0 C&D got a few buffs. Their ult went from three lines to four as well as the switching between the two being quicker. C&D can avoid pretty much every ult and save your team from pretty much any ult with your own. In addition to that you can do incredible outputs of healing and your ult charges incredibly fast. Overall this hero is just OP. Watch out for Magneto ult or a gifted Hawkeye when you are in your ult. Also if a lot is going on make sure to stack your ult so the healing stacks and prevents you and your team from dying.
Luna: The debuffs to Luna Snow made it so she cannot change her ult from damage to healing mode so quick. If you try to do this the same way as before you could risk your teammates dying while it is stuck on damage mode. With that being said her “E” snowflake ability is insanely good, especially on flying or dive heroes to get healing while not near the strategist. Their ult essentially pauses the game and is practically invincible while countering nearly every ult.
Rocket Raccoon: If you get a good Punisher or Bucky to really take advantage of the team ups then Raccoon can be absolutely insane. His healing output definitely does not match the Strategists listed above but should rather be paired with one of the two. His ability to revive a teammate, provide armor, and give infinite ammo to his team up heroes makes him incredibly strong. An underrated part of Raccoon is his ult. While it is not a healing ult it can often bait out a support ult on the other side making your teammates next damage ult all the more impactful.
A tier
Mantis: When Mantis first came out she was super super strong. She still is strong but the Tier above has so many more things to work with. Mantis does not have nearly the healing output of other Strategists and is very killable in her ult. A good Mantis will hit tons of headshots to quickly get her abilities back to maximize the time on her cooldowns. If you want to learn more about Mantis’ lore then head to this post.
Invisible Woman: The new hero has come out relatively strong. I think her ability to do damage while also healing teammates can really reward a player with good positioning. Her ult and really all of her abilities will allow a player to be super creative in play style as well combos with other heroes. She has the ability to push people off the map, go invisible to escape or find a flank, & her melee does even more damage than her primary. However on the other side, again her healing does not match that of the first two S tier heroes and her ult lasts for a very short time. Super fun hero to play but easy to get little value if played poorly.
Loki: Now, the reason I have placed Loki here is based on what I have seen up until the Diamond rank. At core I believe someone who can play Loki well, especially someone who can take advantage of his ult which copies any other player’s ult in the lobby, would push him to S tier easily. However, he is not the easiest Strategist to just pick up and play so I have placed him in A tier just based on that.
B Tier:
Adam Warlock: I have easily played the least of this hero out of all the Strategists. He is similar to Loki in that the difference between a good Adam Warlock and a bad one is astronomical. His ult can help save a fight that was otherwise lost or be completely useless. His healing is very different and he can actually do incredibly high amounts of damage. His Team Up with Mantis is pretty cool and gets played a lot in pro play but not at optimized in ranked imo.
C Tier:
Jeff: Jeff is way too hit or miss. Once you hit a certain rank and players understand how to counter and keep track of ults his becomes way less impactful. He can definitely be a menace in a game but can also be way way way less impactful than other Strategist’s abilities and ults.
A Note on Team Ups & How to Combine Strategists:
An ideal team of Strategists would include a main healer and another strategist that compliments other teammates. Now triple support is also a meta going on but we are going to assume to two as that is mostly what I see. So for example a main healer is typically a Luna Snow or a Cloak & Dagger which can be complimented by a Rocket Raccoon if you have Team Ups or maybe a good Loki or a strong Invisible Woman or even a Mantis. Either main healer can be favored based on the players comfortability or Team Ups. If Namor is being played then Luna’s team up with them is quite strong while Cloak & Dagger have a Team Up with Moon Night .
With all of that being said, Team Ups and compositions can give you a competitive advantage but do not guarantee you a win. It is good to understand them so you know what you are playing with and against and how to maximize the effectiveness of your team but so many other factors will affect the outcome of your games.