Marvel Rivals Vanguard Tier List – All 12 Tank Heroes Ranked

GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Marvel Rivals launches with a selective Vanguard roster, featuring just a few tank-oriented heroes ready for deployment. These frontline champions boast substantial health reserves and specialize in either protecting allies or creating chaos among enemy ranks, particularly against agile Duelists. Elite Vanguards master both defensive coordination and offensive disruption, wielding diverse ability kits to dominate the battlefield. While the current hero selection remains limited compared to Strategist counterparts, developers have confirmed additional Vanguards will join future updates. In the present meta, every tank character maintains viability, though performance gaps clearly separate the exceptional from the merely adequate. This comprehensive guide ranks Marvel Rivals’ finest protective forces.

Magneto: The Defensive Specialist

Magneto occupies the lower tier position primarily because competing heroes outperform his core functions. His kit centers around protective measures, deploying energy barriers to intercept incoming fire and explosive assaults. These shields withstand moderate damage intake but fall short against sustained heavy firepower from enemy compositions. He can distribute temporary shielding to himself and nearby teammates, simultaneously charging his magnetic projectile ability. When fully energized, this attack displaces opponents but delivers lackluster damage output.

Despite defensive limitations, Magneto maintains respectable damage capabilities, and his ultimate unleashes a massive area-of-effect assault that devastates clustered targets upon successful placement. While not entirely ineffective, Magneto simply cannot match the versatility and impact of superior tank alternatives currently available.

Hulk: High-Risk Close Quarters Brawler

Hulk represents an unconventional tank design, completely dedicated to aggressive enemy line penetration, yet he possesses inferior survivability compared to other dive-oriented Vanguards. He does utilize a personal shield and his transformation ultimate morphs him into Monster Hulk, restoring health reserves while amplifying damage output. However, when opposing teams concentrate fire or healing support falters, Hulk frequently reverts to vulnerable Bruce Banner form—mirroring Overwatch’s D.Va ejection mechanic.

Hulk’s exceptional damage potential enables him to eliminate foes more efficiently than most tank counterparts. In skilled hands with favorable conditions, Hulk demonstrates impressive performance. Successful execution demands precise engagement timing and target prioritization, requiring multiple favorable circumstances to maximize effectiveness.

Captain America: Technical Versatile Protector

Captain America ranks among the most mechanically demanding tanks to master and often delivers unsatisfying performance without comprehensive ability understanding. His attack sequences dynamically change, unlocking shield throw capabilities only after connecting with the second strike in his combo pattern. This design forces players to fully commit to melee engagements to achieve meaningful damage contribution. Additional mobility includes a sprint that transitions into diving strike maneuvers. Cap further employs ricocheting shield throws and can raise his iconic shield to deflect incoming projectiles, offering more tactical flexibility than Magneto’s static defenses.

Managing these complex cooldowns becomes particularly challenging during intense combat situations where Captain America excels. Many abilities feel visually underwhelming despite dealing substantial damage, requiring extended practice to properly appreciate their impact. His ultimate ability lacks dramatic presentation compared to other heroes, providing movement acceleration and health regeneration while enabling rapid punching attacks that feel mechanically simplistic even when strategically effective.

Angela: Mobile Dive Threat

Angela operates as another dive-focused Vanguard, dominating in close-range encounters. While she possesses a robust ability arsenal and can become formidable with proper execution, her reduced health pool and challenging aerial control mechanics create steeper learning curves than higher-tiered dive tanks like The Thing and Venom. Angela’s default movement mode involves flight mechanics identical to Iron Man and Ultron. Her grappling ability consumes meter resources to launch toward enemies, seizing them and carrying them along her trajectory. This proves exceptionally difficult to control accurately, representing a high-skill-capacity ability that becomes particularly punishing when missed during dangerous enemy territory incursions.

Her primary ranged attack in flight mode manifests as a slowly traveling spear that gains potency through sustained movement. At maximum charge, it strikes powerfully but depletes her resource meter, substantially weakening subsequent attacks. Angela’s dive attack grounds her and switches her primary weapon to dual-wielded blades that attack faster and deal increased damage compared to her spear, though she sacrifices mobility in exchange. Unfortunately, her core attack rotation deals barely sufficient damage to eliminate non-tank targets, meaning any healing intervention will prevent eliminations and force retreat. Angela’s ultimate immobilizes enemies in a confined area while inflicting moderate damage, but without teammate support, she cannot secure kills against even single healer opposition.

Team Composition Synergy

Vanguards perform optimally when paired with specific hero types. Strategist supports like Doctor Strange significantly enhance tank survivability through consistent healing and utility effects. Understanding class synergies becomes crucial for maximizing your team’s combat effectiveness. Always coordinate ultimate abilities with teammates to create devastating combinations that can swing team fights.

Common Beginner Mistakes

New Vanguard players frequently overextend without escape options or cooldown awareness. Another prevalent error involves misusing defensive abilities preemptively instead of reacting to actual threats. Proper positioning separates adequate tanks from exceptional ones—maintain sightlines with your healers while controlling key map objectives. For comprehensive team-based gameplay fundamentals, review our complete strategy guide.

In Marvel Rivals, Vanguards serve as the frontline anchors who create space, absorb damage, and control engagement timing. Understanding each tank’s unique mechanics and team synergies is crucial for maximizing their effectiveness in competitive play.

The role demands strategic positioning, cooldown tracking, and matchup awareness—skills that separate average players from elite tank specialists.

Rogue represents the high-risk, high-reward archetype among Vanguards, featuring exceptional mobility tools that enable aggressive dives into enemy backlines. Her multiple dash abilities allow rapid engagement and disengagement, but mastering their timing is essential for survival.

Her damage potential reaches impressive heights, making her formidable in one-on-one confrontations. However, her sustainability limitations create significant vulnerabilities—without consistent healing support, she rapidly deteriorates under focused fire.

The Gambit partnership dramatically enhances her combat effectiveness, transforming her basic attacks into healing sources. Without this synergy, her self-sustain relies solely on ability absorption, which proves insufficient against coordinated enemy teams.

Advanced Tip: Coordinate with Strategist-class allies to maximize healing efficiency during dive sequences. Proper cooldown management between engagements prevents becoming stranded without escape options.

The Thing pioneers the pure brawler playstyle within the Vanguard category, emphasizing close-quarters dominance over traditional tanking. His passive immunity to knockbacks and displacement effects makes him exceptionally durable against crowd control specialists.

His defensive capabilities come with notable restrictions—damage reduction requires teammate proximity, limiting his independent survivability. Beyond temporary shields generated during charges, he lacks reliable self-sustain mechanisms.

Offensively, his punches deliver substantial damage output, while his charge ability provides valuable displacement for creating engagement opportunities.

Common Mistake: Attempting to use his ultimate without proper setup often results in interruption. The extended animation leaves him vulnerable to stuns and elimination, requiring careful timing and team coordination.

His most significant weakness emerges against aerial opponents, where his ground-limited kit becomes nearly useless without ranged teammate support.

Doctor Strange excels as a defensive anchor, capable of neutralizing enemy ultimates while providing setup opportunities for his team. His 800-health shield regenerates rapidly, creating consistent damage mitigation windows.

The shield’s substantial size and ascension capability make it particularly effective against projectile-based ultimates from characters like Iron Man and Hela.

His primary fire accumulates Dark Magic through consistent hits, though it cannot score critical strikes. This resource management introduces strategic depth—accumulating excessive Dark Magic blocks healing reception until expelled.

Optimization Strategy: Use Maelstrom of Madness proactively rather than reactively to maintain healing accessibility.

His ultimate, Eye of Agamotto, provides exceptional crowd control by forcibly separating enemies from their bodies. This creates elimination windows for coordinated teams while temporarily neutralizing key threats.

Emma Frost occupies a premium position as the definitive anti-dive specialist, equipped with tools specifically designed to punish aggressive engagement attempts. Her beam attack features damage scaling based on continuous contact, enabling significant threat elimination potential.

Her diamond form transformation provides the cornerstone of her kit, granting complete immunity to displacement effects while enabling powerful control abilities.

The chokeslam capability within diamond form proves particularly effective against mobile assassins like Spider-Man and Black Panther, immobilizing them for team follow-up.

Advanced Technique: Position near environmental geometry to maximize wall-impact damage from her knockback kick, frequently securing eliminations on non-tank targets.

Psionic Seduction, her ultimate ability, delivers persistent area damage while potentially forcing enemy movement. This disruption proves valuable even during opposing ultimate activations.

Groot establishes himself as a versatile zone control specialist, combining damage output, defensive utility, and enemy containment capabilities. His wall construction mechanics provide both damage blocking and movement denial.

The Thornlash walls deliver 60 damage per triggered hit to adjacent enemies, creating area denial through persistent threat.

Ironwood walls generate up to 250 bonus health for Groot when he or allies deal damage nearby, enhancing his staying power during prolonged engagements.

Strategic Placement: Position Thornlash walls near choke points to maximize damage output, while using Ironwood walls defensively to augment survivability.

His Spore Bomb adds area-denial capability to his projectile-based primary attacks. The ultimate ability clusters and immobilizes enemies, creating perfect setup scenarios for team coordination.

Building effective team compositions requires understanding Vanguard synergies and counter-pick dynamics. Rogue thrives with healing-focused supports, while The Thing demands ranged damage dealers to cover his aerial weaknesses.

Doctor Strange pairs exceptionally with burst damage assassins who can capitalize on his soul disruption ultimate. Emma Frost naturally complements control-oriented teams that can exploit her immobilization capabilities.

Composition Tip: Always consider enemy team structure when selecting your Vanguard—dive-heavy compositions demand Emma Frost’s anti-mobility toolkit.

For comprehensive team building strategies, consult our Class Selection Guide to understand how Vanguards integrate with other roles.

No reproduction without permission：SeeYouSoon Game Club » Marvel Rivals Vanguard Tier List – All 12 Tank Heroes Ranked