Marvel Rivals is Already Fixing a Problem That’s Plagued Overwatch For Nearly a Decade

Marvel Rivals’ third Season is quickly approaching, and with its debut comes plenty of content to be excited about. Jean Grey looks like an incredibly powerful Duelist that will be especially deadly to characters who have summons in their arsenal, while Blade will finally make his debut with the midseason update. Marvel Rivals’ Season 3 map looks promising, while the Symbiote and Pheonix Force skins featured within the battle pass are already turning heads. Throw in some UI improvements, a much-needed Emma Frost nerf, and some welcome progression changes, and it becomes clear that Season 3 is shaping up to potentially be the game’s best yet. However, one small change is perhaps the most exciting for the Vanguard role.

Said adjustment is to the punch-throwing tank The Thing, and it will see the biggest Fantastic Four member being able to throw himself into the air and directly lock onto flying enemies with Embattled Leap. Once he gets close, he can deliver a big punch to knock flying Marvel Rivals heroes out of the sky, and this brief stun should be more than enough for Ben Grimm and his teammates to pounce on the flyer and whittle down their health bar. Perhaps the best thing about this change is that NetEase has promised that it’s the first of many, as it will continue to investigate ranged options for Vanguards in future seasons. Whether this means more ability reworks like this Thing feature or new Vanguards that are built around ranged gameplay is unclear, but any Overwatch 2 Tanks will likely feel a bit jealous upon seeing this announcement.

I Desperately Want To See Marvel’s Most Hated Character Come to Rivals, and You Should Too

While one Marvel character has only grown less popular in recent years, I could see them being one of the best possible additions to Marvel Rivals.

Overwatch 2’s Anti-Air Tank Options Are Painfully Limited

To be clear, Overwatch 2 has a few options for Tank players hoping to attack flying characters from a distance. However, all of these counters have significant flaws.

As part of his Overwatch 2 rework, Winston was given a charged shot for his Tesla cannon that can be fired a fair distance. While this was a rare case of Tanks being thrown a bone in the endless fight against flying heroes, the charged shot is hardly something to fear, as it’s not the biggest damage dealer.
Ramattra’s Ravenous Vortex can pull down heroes like Pharah or Mercy that fly into it, but it’s easy for flying characters to avoid and difficult for Ram to successfully land.
Orisa can shoot or Javelin enemies out of the sky, but the latter is near-impossible to land if flying characters are high enough in the sky, and the former’s damage will be very limited if the distance is too great.
Sigma’s Hyperspheres aren’t powerful enough for most players to consistently take out Pharah, while Mauga’s miniguns are far too inaccurate to kill flyers unless they’re trapped in his Ultimate.
Hazard can leap great distances and create structures to climb on, helping him briefly chase Pharah, but his shotgun makes it so fully killing her is easier said than done. Doomfist can provide similar chases, with equally lackluster results.
While a skilled D.Va can chase down a Pharah quite easily, this leaves her team without a protector, and she’s simply not enough if the Pharah is pocketed by a good Mercy.

Every Tank not mentioned above – like Zarya, Reinhardt, Junker Queen, Roadhog, and Wrecking Ball – are effectively useless against flyers.

For players who main the Tank role, it can be incredibly frustrating if the other team has a good flyer on their side, as Tanks are essentially stuck relying on their teammates to deal with the problem. While it’s true that Overwatch 2 and the hero shooter genre in general requires and rewards teamwork, being completely useless at any stage of the game is frankly unfun. A skilled Tank should not have to hope that their Soldier 76 or Cassidy will deal with the Phar-Mercy combo, as they should instead have the option to switch to a ranged hero to deal with the problem themselves. For a Tank, few things are as annoying as having to hope that the hitscans on the team will do their job, and with Supports now having a way to fight back with Illari, it’s time for Tanks to finally get the same treatment.

Marvel Rivals’ Thing Overhaul Should Be a Wakeup Call

Hopefully, Blizzard will take note of the positive reception to Marvel Rivals’ anti-air Thing ability and ranged Vanguard plans, using its competition as motivation to address the Tank community’s longest-running complaint. A Tank with a highly accurate railgun of sorts could be one option, while another would be a new Overwatch 2 hero that locks on to flyers just like The Thing will soon be able to do in Marvel Rivals. Alternatively, existing heroes could be reworked. Perhaps the damage on Winston’s charged shot could be significantly increased, or Sigma’s Hyperspheres could do more damage to a target the further away he is from them. At this point, even a hitscan Tank with an assault rifle would be welcome, so long as the issue is finally addressed in a way that goes beyond band-aids and half-measures.