You’re Playing Storm Wrong in ‘Marvel Rivals’

Everyone is trying to adjust to the new Marvel Rivals meta here in Season 1, and I’m noticing a particular difference in one area. That would be the gap between usage and win rate of the extremely confusing Storm character between Competitive and Quickplay. Storm was previously one of the worst characters in the entire game, but she underwent a series of buffs in Season 1 to make her stronger. These enthusiasts were:

• Increased Wind Blade projectile speed from 100m/s to 150m/s and left click damage from 50 to 55,
• Increased Bolt Rush damage from 70 to 80.
• After Omega Hurricane ultimate, bonus health increased to 450 from 350. After ultimate, health will decrease to 100 per second instead of instantly.

This saw her rise to the top of competitive with a 56% win rate, the highest of any character, and a 44% ban rate as a result. Meanwhile, in Quick Play, it sits in the bottom half of the list with a negative 47% win rate, almost 10% less than competitive.

While these tips won’t produce guaranteed wins, what I’ve seen is that quite a few players actually do one main thing wrong with Storm: They try to play her as a flier.

Yes, her it is a flyer, and she can float freely, so people use her like she’s Iron Man. But unlike Iron Man, this puts her at a significant disadvantage compared to using her much closer to ground level. The main reasons:

• She doesn’t have the mobility options that Iron Man has, so she benefits greatly from more traditional tank protection where she’s less exposed.
• Her lightning attack pierces through enemies, so when you’re on the ground it’s much easier to hit multiple targets in a line, when that’s usually not going to happen at all in the air.
• Finally, and most importantly, the higher you fly, the smaller your circle of fans becomes. If you’re on the ground, it’s a much wider net for things like damage buffs for your team or catching incoming enemies in your lightning strikes. If you are in the air a lot, it will be much less useful.

Yeah, not having Storm play as a flier is definitely counterintuitive since that’s what she’s theoretically supposed to be. But the way her kit is designed penalizes it in a lot of ways, and I feel like most people in Quick Play (I’m not judging!) don’t know that, and I wouldn’t blame them. But if you’re seeing these kinds of comp win rates, that style of play is a big reason.

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