I scored back to back MVP nods in Marvel Rivals over the weekend. One playing The Punisher and the other playing Hela. I wanted to share the MVP screencaps and some thoughts on each hero.
The Punisher
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| 15 kills / 2 deaths and a clutch quad kill |
The Punisher is the first hero that Marvel Rivals players get to experience in the tutorial and I pretty much fell in love from that moment. He has both range and close up potential as he sports a machine gun and a shotgun. He also can deploy a stationary turret that he can use to mow down the enemy. To help him get in place he can deploy ziplines and use smoke grenades. His ultimate ability turns him into a pumped up machine gunner with shoulder rockets firing down on targets.
The biggest downside to playing The Punisher is his lack of mobility. While the zipline grapple can sometimes get you out of trouble it is far too unreliable to be a consistent escape mechanism. It is far better to use the zipline to get in a better position against the other team. If another duelist or a tank gets in close to me while playing The Punisher it doesn't end well most times but there is something I've gotten better at that helps.
The Punisher has a second weapon with his shotgun and I see many new players overlook this. It is a strong close range weapon and can delete soft targets up close but is slow between shots and even slower on reload so you have to hit your shots. The shotgun is also a remarkable tank killer. You won't win a 1v1 with a tank but if you are pushing an enemy tank or trying to finish one off there is no better weapon to get the job done.
A few things I'd like to see the game fix with The Punisher:
- The grapple zipline is unreliable because it is not clear what parts of a map can be attached to and which cannot. I am sure this affects other heroes like spiderman as well.
- The smoke grenade needs work. The smoke lasts for almost no time at all and it is easy for enemies to just push through. Either add a stun to the smoke grenade if it hits a target or give more control to the player on the pushback so they can use it to juke enemies.
- Many other heroes get some form of health boost or protection when activating their ultimate. The Punisher does not and with his clear announcement that he is entering his ultimate it is not hard to find and focus fire him down before his ultimate finishes activating.
Hela
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| EZ PZ 18 and 2 match |
Hela is probably the strongest duelist (aka DPS) hero in the game. She is sniper-like with her throwing daggers/swords and has outstanding mobility as she can shapeshift into a bird to escape or reach a perch from which to snipe from. She also gets a stun orb and can float slowly down instead of falling. Her ultimate boosts her health and launches her to float above the battlefield while she unleashes bombs.
I honestly only started playing Hela after getting repeatedly wrecked by her in many matches. There is also a lot of feedback in the community that she is overpowered and after playing her a bit I would have to agree. She is easy to play and get kills with. She can lock down areas chokepoints and almost always escape danger with her stun and shapeshifting. She is also very strong against tanks and if you can land headshots she is the "tank killer" most competitive team comps rely on.
She needs a nerf.
