There are 33 different characters in Marvel Rivals, but not every hero (or villain) is equal. In the competitive shooters season 0, which is called Dooms Rise and is significantly shorter than a regular season, every character is viable but there are some who are obviously more powerful than the rest.Below, weve compiled a breakdown of the current Marvel Rivals meta by noting the nine best characters (three from each role: duelist, vanguard, and strategist) who are performing very well in season 0. And while the meta will of course continue to shift, with new heroes rising to the top, all of these are great characters you can take into any match once youve mastered them in order to increase your chances of winning.In this Marvel Rivals guide, well walk you through the best characters in Marvel Rivals, tell you what makes each of them so powerful, and how you should (ideally) build your team with them. Weve also listed out all currently available heroes in a table below.The best characters in Marvel Rivals season 0 metaThe best characters in Marvel Rivals right now (in alphabetical order) are:Cloak & Dagger (Strategist)Doctor Strange (Vanguard)Iron Fist (Duelist)Jeff the Land Shark (Strategist)Mantis (Strategist)Moon Knight (Duelist)Thor (Vanguard)Venom (Vanguard)Winter Soldier (Duelist)After testing out each hero in the game, weve put together the above list of best heroes based on the power of each characters kit (their active and passive abilities), their consistency, their ease of use, and their ability to carry a team. There are some other incredible heroes in Marvel Rivals that will likely make it onto this list in the future, but they are currently only really dominating at higher levels, and are therefore higher skill floor heroes that are difficult to recommend unless youre an incredible shot (such as Hawkeye and Hela).As far as how these characters fit into a team, lets take a quick look at the current composition meta in season 0.The best team comp seems to be that solid 2-2-2 two of each class which gives you a nice balance of everything. This allows you to have a beefy main tank like Doctor Strange and an off-tank like Thor, a powerful throughput healer like Jeff the Land Shark paired with a healer that also increases damage like Mantis, and a group damage dealer like Moon Knight paired with an assassin like Iron Fist. The 2-2-2 seems to be the most consistent composition because it offers the broadest coverage in terms of what a team generally needs. And before we get the meta settles with a season 1 balance patch, you need to be prepared for anything. This comp will do it for you.The one alternative team composition that weve seen do well is the 1-3-2 comp, with just one tank, three damage-dealers, and two healers. This forces you to dedicate a healer almost entirely to your one tank to keep them alive, but gives you the flexibility of a bonus damage dealer to deal with a problem player on the other team, like a sneaky Scarlet Witch or a sniping Hawkeye. This team composition does rely heavily on the duelists to capitalize on opportunities quickly, and will likely fall off at higher ranks when teams are coordinated enough to just burn the one tank down as quickly as possible, giving them a lot of room to navigate objectives.Below, weve broken down what makes each of the nine best heroes in the game so good. Cloak & Dagger (Strategist)Cloak & Dagger are two very simple heroes in one, making them more complex to play than either Jeff or Mantis. However, Cloak & Daggers abilities when woven together can create a very powerful storm of healing and damage, which can be difficult to overcome for most enemies. What makes Cloak & Dagger a stellar support, however, isnt even their ultimate ability, but Cloaks Dark Teleportation ability, which makes allies briefly invisible and untargetable. This single ability can negate ultimates like Jeffs Its Jeff! or even Scarlet Witchs Reality Erasure. Even better, it requires nothing from Cloaks allies other than to be close to him, so its a potentially game-saving ability that you can pull off without any voice chat or coordination.Doctor Strange (Vanguard)Doctor Strange is a tank who seems weak on an initial look, but is actually extremely powerful in the right hands. Where Thor and Venom allow you to drag your team to victory by killing squishier characters, Doctor Strange is able to lead the team where he wants them to go with his powerful shield and massive stun ultimate.But the real power of Doctor Strange especially when youre playing with friends over voice is the Pentagram of Farallah portal. This thing allows your entire team to move to another area of the map in seconds, allowing for a powerful flank. You can even shoot powerful attacks like Iron Mans ultimate through the portal and onto an unsuspecting team below.Doctor Strange is a very high-skill tank, but if you know how to play him, you can lead your team to victory without much effort.Iron Fist (Duelist)Iron Fist is a damage-dealing machine, specifically very good at diving into the backlines of enemy teams and wiping squishy duelists and strategists off the map. This is usually due to his Yat Jee Chung Kuen enhanced melee attacks, which deal extremely high damage in a short amount of time.His triple jump, kick, and wall-run abilities also make him very difficult to escape for most characters, and impossible to catch for most vanguards.Jeff the Land Shark (Strategist)In season 0, Jeff the Land Shark is the best character in Marvel Rivals, largely due to his ease of play. His Joyful Splash healing waters have unlimited range and can heal multiple characters at once if theyre stacked up, making Jeff one of the most efficient healers out there. His Aqua Burst primary attack also does very high damage for a strategist, making him difficult to take on solo if you cant get the drop on him.But the reason most people hate playing against Jeff and what makes a Jeff with good map knowledge so dangerous is his Its Jeff! ultimate, which sees the shark swallow everyone in a small area. Jeff can then safely spit out his allies before carrying everyone from the enemy team off a cliff. This is a potentially game-winning ultimate that is very difficult for you and your teammates to counter or escape.Mantis (Strategist)Mantis is a potent healer in Marvel Rivals, capable of enabling both herself and her allies to deal high amounts of damage. Her kit is relatively straightforward, as she uses healing orbs to either heal allies or significantly boost ally damage. But those two abilities paired with her powerful stun give you incredible tools to work through almost any situation.On top of her raw healing throughout and damage capabilities, Mantis ult essentially makes your allies invulnerable with how powerful its healing is, and the bonus health it brings can help counter many other powerful ultimate abilities if timed correctly.Moon Knight (Duelist)Moon Knights sheer ability to deal damage in a large group of heroes makes him extremely potent in the current meta. A well-thrown Ankh paired with an accurate Moon Blade and some Crescent Darts can eliminate entire teams of low-health characters in seconds. Moon Knight users who are able to hide their Ankhs in unpredictable or difficult-to-reach spots can create a kill box that is very difficult to avoid for strategists, and can make incoming damage unpredictable.Moon Knights Hand of Khonshu ult also charges very quickly, does a ton of damage, and can be difficult to escape for slow-moving characters.Thor (Vanguard)Thor is an absolute powerhouse of a tank, capable of soloing squishy targets in seconds while using his Awakening Rune ability. But Thor is a lot more than just his awakened state, and all of his abilities can generate team wins very regularly if you know what youre doing.All of his tools make him significantly more complex than a tank like Venom, so not every Thor on your team means a free win. But a Thor on a rampage is capable of diving into a team, eliminating strategists, and diving back to their allies without even getting close to going down.Venom (Vanguard)Venom gets the award for simple but powerful. Just by being in the fray, hes a massive threat, and learning the timing on his Symbiotic Resilience ability which gives him a massive bonus health shield based on his missing health takes very little practice to master.Beyond just being easy to get online, Venom has a decently high skill ceiling with his swing and ground pound, and hes capable of acting as both frontline tank and surprise backline assassin depending on what you need in the moment.Winter Soldier (Duelist)Winter Solider has a lot of things going for him, which makes him both difficult to master, and extremely powerful. His primary attack deals so much damage that it can kill several low-health strategists and DPS in two shots. His hook ability also makes him great for surprise eliminating characters like Adam Warlock or Mantis. But what really makes Winter Soldier scary is his Kraken Impact ultimate, which not only enables a powerful execute that can make all heroes easier to take down, but resets on each kill. An effective Winter Soldier can chain ultimate after ultimate until the entire team is eliminated, allowing you to clean up the objective and win the match.All characters list in Marvel RivalsBelow is the full roster of 33 Marvel Rivals heroes as of season 0.CharacterRoleDescriptionAdam WarlockStrategist A healer who specializes in reviving himself and allies with his powerful ultimate.Black PantherDuelistA diving duelist able to assassinate squishy characters with ranged spear attacks and melee claws.Black WidowDuelistA sniper character whos able to scope in and deal with squishy characters in the backline.Bruce Banner (Hulk)VanguardA transforming tank whos able to leverage massive health bars and multiple lives to stay in the battle.Captain AmericaVanguardA dueling tank whos able to go toe-to-toe with some duelists and strategists, making him an effective assassin who can also defend his allies.Cloak & DaggerStrategist A duel support whos able to swap between a damage-dealing character and a pure healer mid-battle.Doctor StrangeVanguardA shield-first tank, whos able to protect allies and carry them around the map quickly via portals.GrootVanguardA wall-focused tank, able to build massive barriers that protect himself and his allies.HawkeyeDuelistA sniper with the capability to one-shot squishy heroes with well-placed arrows.HelaDuelistA long-range precision character whose able to quickly destroy foes with knives to the head and explosives from the air.Iron FistDuelistA diving assassin whose able to quickly push his way behind tanks and eliminate duelists and strategists in seconds.Iron ManDuelistAn aerial damage dealer able to rain down explosive shots and powerful lasers on unsuspecting enemies.Jeff the Land SharkStrategist A healer whose able to give allies health and movement speed boosts while swallowing enemies whole.LokiStrategist A trickster healer whos able to dish out decent damage while being very difficult to track down.Luna SnowStrategist A popstar healer whos able to freeze enemies, and both heal and damage boost allies with her powerful ultimate.MagikDuelistA melee duelist who uses portals to slide in and out of the enemy backline and assassinate squishy characters.MagnetoVanguardA powerful tank that uses shields to block damage, which he can then redirect at his enemies.MantisStrategist A support that is able to heal allies as well as boost their damage for long periods of time.Moon KnightDuelistA damage dealer that specializes in area of effect attacks, and is able to ricochet boomerangs between enemies.NamorDuelistA pet-focused duelist whose able to throw out octopuses to do his bidding and take down powerful enemies from afar.Peni ParkerVanguardA defensive tank whos able to lock down an area with mines and healing webs.PsylockeDuelistA swift duelist whose able to use her ranged attacks to deal damage from afar, while also dashing into the backline.Rocket RaccoonStrategist A gadget-focused support who can deal decent damage and has the power to resurrect allies.Scarlet WitchDuelistAn up-close duelist whose able to drain the life from enemies before disintegrating them with her one-shot ultimate.Spider-ManDuelistA mobile duelist whos able to weave in and out of the enemy team, getting quick kills before retreating to safety.Squirrel GirlDuelistAn area-damage focused duelist, whos able to launch explosive nuts into the enemy team and rack up big damage.Star-LordDuelistA mobile duelist whos able to fly around the battlefield dealing consistent damage with his duel pistols.StormDuelistA damage dealer who brings some support-like bonuses to her team and is able to fly around the battlefield at will.The PunisherDuelistA more traditional shooter character whos able to use his powerful arsenal of weapons to take enemies down.ThorVanguardA high-damage tank whos able to weave his abilities together to quickly kill enemies while keeping himself alive.VenomVanguardA highly mobile tank whos able to dive into the enemy backline and live to get back to his team.Winter SoldierDuelistA high-damage character whos able to use his ultimate multiple times in a row to secure kill after kill.WolverineDuelistA tank-busting duelist whos able to survive for long periods of time and shred the health of bigger targets.For moreMarvel Rivalsguides, heres a list of all knowncodes, allTeam-Up abilities, allmaps and modes, and a look at the gamesroadmap.