The true test of how far a marksman hero is willing to go with his squad is how he handles the support role. Overwatch it’s proof that champions like Mercy – and later Brigitte – can control the pace of a match, and therefore the entire game, destroying metas and creating fresh ones. Marvel Rivals Season 1 continues to gain momentum Overwatcha story of balance with the release of the Invisible Woman, a champion who seems destined to flex the meaning of playing as a support.
It would be difficult not to do so, considering the multitude of skills it brings. Susan Storm can heal, damage, push, pull, leisurely, shield, and, oh, right, turn unseen. Compare this to the Mantis, a support that can heal and shoot, and sometimes root enemies in place. Or Loki, who is a 4-star hero and focuses on misdirection. However, the Invisible Woman is a 4-star hero who can simply do anything.
The problem is that she’s really difficult to play. Her primary fire is a projectile that passes through enemies or allies and returns to her, dealing a second hit on its return. It sounds uncomplicated, but it has more depth than it might seem at first glance, because where you aim determines the ricochet speed. Reflecting your shots off the ground, close to everyone’s feet, reduces the delay between two hits and allows her to knock people down quickly (or get back up quickly if you’re healing). But if you ever have an ally between you and an enemy, you want to line them up so you can hit them both at the same time. Something as uncomplicated as aiming depends on where you are standing, where your targets are standing, and what type of damage or healing effect you want in a given situation.
In other words: The Invisible Woman is made for people who feel restricted by the relative simplicity of the other supporting characters. And even as someone who’s brand fresh Marvel Rivals (with over 3000 hours in Overwatch), it’s refreshing to have a hero who can solve problems that treatment can’t. Her Psionic Vortex is a huge annoying ball that stops enemies trying to charge your team, and her Force Physics can pull enemies towards her or knock them off the map. These are the types of skills that other champions, like Jeff the Land Shark, need to apply their entire Ultimate for. She can also shield allies to block damage, and her ultimate cloaks allies in a huge circle. You feel like you can do anything.
I imagine playing the Invisible Woman is like being the pilot of an airplane and knowing what all the knobs on the control panel do. The Overwatch The gamer in me cringes at the overwhelming complexity of her kit, even as someone who gravitates towards these types of champions. It’s certainly frosty to kick Spider-Man off my team or have Hulk disappear from my team while he’s going crazy, but I’m extremely curious to see if future supports will be as numerous as hers.
Overwatch Heroes usually have several skills and can be used in many ways. Ana’s healing grenade heals her, increases the healing of allies, and cancels the healing of enemies. It’s all packed into one all-encompassing skill, which means that misusing it can really do you harm. Skill in Overwatch depends on how good you are at using these skills and using them to make up for your weaknesses. Marvel Rivals it seems to go in a different direction and gives the characters so many abilities that they can sometimes be ignored. Invisible Woman takes this to the extreme and is much more powerful than other supports as a result. It’s possible she was just overhyped as one of the first fresh champions added to the game, but I fear that’s a bar that future support won’t be able to meet, especially as players improve over time.
Despite the differences, Marvel Rivals it really speeds up Overwatcha turbulent history of balance. Mr. Fantastic, who joins the lineup with the Invisible Woman, is a tank disguised as a damage dealer. Overwatch he had this problem with Doomfist and turned it into a tank in the sequel. All it takes is a few more of these kinds of role-breaking heroes to threaten the goofy atmosphere that hero shooters have Marvel Rivals apparently it’s going.
