Throughout Season 7 of Marvel Rivals, Invisible Woman has been the highest-picked Strategist across PC and Console, and it isn’t particularly close. In Celestial and above lobbies, Sue Storm has a 27% pick rate in competitive, nearly double that of the next most-picked support. That number doesn’t happen by accident. It reflects that her versatile, and what some would call over-tuned kit, is a must pick.
What makes Sue so dominant at high levels isn’t any single ability… It’s the way her kit compounds. Her primary fire heals and damages simultaneously, her shield is one of the most flexible tools in the game, and her push and pull give her a level of fight control that most supports lack.
When all of those tools are working together, and she’s positioned to hit as many targets as possible with every shot, she generates ultimate charge faster than almost anyone in the game and can swing fights before the enemy team has time to react. Learning to play her well is largely a matter of positioning well, and that starts with understanding how her primary fire works.
Orb Projection
Invisible Woman’s primary fire launches orb projections that travel outward in a straight line for up to 35 meters before bouncing back toward her. Each orb deals 30 damage on the way out and 15 on the return, while healing allies for 45 on the outbound pass and 35 on the way back. That means a single orb that hits the same target twice is doing 45 damage or 80 healing in one shot, which is a meaningful number when you’re threading them through a grouped fight.
The rebounding behavior is the mechanical foundation everything else is built around. Sue’s positioning philosophy, her ultimate placement, her whole approach to a team fight, all of it exists to maximize how many targets a single orb passes through in both directions. A shot fired into a bottleneck where your team and the enemy team are stacked on top of each other can heal multiple allies and damage multiple enemies simultaneously with a single input. That’s the scenario you’re always trying to create, and the closer you can get to it, the faster your ultimate charges and the more value you generate per shot.
Aiming at the feet of a close target rather than at chest height causes the orb to bounce off the floor immediately on its return path, guaranteeing both hits connect on the same target in quick succession. At longer range, the orb needs to travel further before bouncing back, so there’s more time for a target to strafe out of the return path. Against a stationary target at range, leading the shot slightly gives the return pass a better angle to connect.
Guardian Shield
Guardian Shield projects a barrier with 200 HP that can be placed on any ally in line of sight, healing them for 50 HP per second while it’s active. It can be recalled at any time, which starts the cooldown early and lets the shield begin regenerating. If the shield breaks completely, it goes on a longer cooldown, so recalling it before it’s destroyed whenever possible is a habit worth building immediately. You can also transfer it instantly to a different ally by targeting them and reactivating the ability, though the shield retains whatever damage it has already taken when it moves.
The default instinct is to put the shield on whoever has the lowest health and leave it there, but the players getting the most out of it are thinking differently. The best placement in a team fight is often on a teammate who is behind the enemy frontline, between their tanks and supports, cutting off healing and line of sight simultaneously. A shield placed there means heroes like Luna Snow or Cloak and Dagger can no longer reach their vanguards, which forces the enemy frontline to either disengage or die without support. A defensive tool used as a zone of control, creating kill windows without requiring Sue to move anywhere.
Additionally, the shield can block offensive ultimates entirely, absorbing the damage until it shatters, which makes it a reliable answer to burst ultimates that would otherwise eliminate a key ally. It can be placed on a duelist, taking an off-angle to make them significantly harder to remove from their position, healing them through chip damage and blocking bursts that would otherwise force them out. It also heals Sue herself when recalled and held, which is relevant when your other support isn’t in a position to help you, and you need a way to sustain without fully disengaging. One interaction most players don’t know about: the shield applies a 35% slow for three seconds to enemies who walk through it, which makes it a surprisingly effective deterrent against divers if you can position it in their path.
Psionic Vortex
Psionic Vortex launches a ball of psionic energy that bursts on contact with an enemy or the environment, or when manually detonated with a second activation. When it bursts, it creates a field that lasts four seconds, slowing enemies by up to 50% at the center and pulling them inward if they aren’t actively moving. It deals damage over time to anyone caught inside and has a 12-second cooldown.
The manual detonation is important… If the vortex makes contact with a shield, it won’t proc, which means in a fight where Magneto or Strange is shielding the enemy frontline, you need to detonate it yourself rather than letting it hit the barrier. Get into the habit of using the second activation deliberately rather than throwing it and assuming it will land where you want.
In terms of where to throw it, the most consistent use in a brawl versus brawl matchup is onto the enemy frontline as they push. The slow makes them easier to hit with primary fire, the pull keeps them grouped for follow-up damage, and the continuous damage builds your ultimate charge whether or not your team follows up immediately.
The ability can also temporarily ground a flyer, though this becomes a risk versus reward usage as there is a high margin for error when you’re attempting to clip someone out of mid air, and they won’t be grounded long.
Against a flanker or diver, throwing the vortex at your feet, jumping clear of it, and then pulling the diver into the field is a reliable way to buy time and set up a pick for a teammate who’s paying attention. The pull and slow combination means a diver caught in the vortex has limited options for getting out quickly.
Force Physics and Agile Strike
Force Physics is the ability that high-level players point to as the difference maker, and it’s easy to see why once you understand the scope of what it can do. Activating it readies a cone in front of Sue that she can use to either push enemies away with primary fire or pull them toward her with alt fire, dealing 50 damage either way on an 8-second cooldown. The push range is 10 meters as of the Season 8 patch, and the pull range is 7 meters.
On offense, the pull is your primary tool, as you can drag an isolated support or an overextended tank into your team’s effective range, which can turn a stalemate into a quick pick. On defense, the push creates distance between a diver and your backline, buying time for your team to respond or for you to get a follow-up shot while the displaced target is repositioning.
Invisible Woman is the most efficient counter to Wolverine in the game because she can pull him off an ally mid-grab, canceling his kidnap before it completes. Another example is against Dr. Strange’s ult, pushing him the moment he activates it, and sending him far enough out of position that the ultimate misses your team entirely. These aren’t situational tricks; they’re core responsibilities when those heroes are on the enemy roster.
Agile Strike, Sue’s melee, extends this displacement toolkit in close quarters. The third hit in the melee combo launches the target upward, and following it immediately with Force Physics push sends them significantly further than either ability does alone, somewhere in the range of 15 meters of total displacement. If a diver has committed to you or your backline, the triple melee into push is a reliable peel option that creates enough distance for your team to respond and for you to reposition. It’s also a way to finish off a target who is trying to escape, melee staggering them while they move, and then pulling them back into range if they’re heading in the right direction.
Veiled Step and Covert Advance
Veiled Step is a double jump that also grants immediate invisibility when used, bypassing the normal delay before Covert Advance activates. Covert Advance is the passive that turns Sue invisible and begins healing her for 30 HP per second whenever she hasn’t taken damage or used abilities for a few seconds. The two abilities are linked in practice because the double jump is your fastest route to the passive state when you need it mid-fight.
The key framing here is that Veiled Step is a survival tool first and a mobility tool second. Using it early to reach a position costs you the cooldown at the moment when a diver, an ult, or a burst damage scenario might actually kill you. Holding it until you need it and then jumping to trigger immediate invisibility is how you survive situations that would otherwise put you down.
Between those danger situations, standing still or disengaging briefly to trigger Covert Advance and recover health before the next engagement means you’re starting fights at full health more consistently, which matters given Sue’s 275 HP health pool.
One thing to keep in mind: Sue’s footsteps are audible while invisible, so players who are paying attention will hear her repositioning. In most ranked games, this isn’t a significant issue, but at higher levels of play against attentive opponents, moving quietly and taking indirect routes to your next position is a habit worth developing.
Invisible Boundary
Invisible Woman’s ultimate, Invisible Boundary, creates a large cylindrical field that lasts 8 seconds, healing everyone inside for 180 HP per second and making them invisible to enemies outside. Enemies who enter or exit the field take a 55% slow for 1 second, which is more disruptive than it sounds in close combat. The field is stationary once placed, which is the primary constraint that shapes how and when to use it.
The highest-value position in most situations is on the objective because it forces the enemy team to fight into the field or give up the point. A team inside the ultimate is healing at a rate that most damage ultimates can’t keep up with, and the invisibility means enemies outside the field are guessing at positions rather than targeting specific players. Enemies whose supports are outside the field have no information on what’s happening inside it, forcing them to blindly fire into the ult, or commit to the potential danger and walk inside as well.
Using the ultimate to initiate a fight rather than to hold or turn one is almost always the wrong call since you can’t move it. If you throw it too early, it lets the enemy team simply disengage, reset, and come back while your ultimate expires. The correct trigger is placing it when the enemy is already committed to a fight on or near the objective and doesn’t have a clean way out. Using it second to counter an enemy ultimate that would otherwise wipe your team is one of the highest-value applications, and it’s worth tracking enemy ultimate charge so you have a sense of when that moment is coming.
There are a few things that it can’t counter though, such as Namor and Rocket as they can pre-select their ultimates before the silence takes effect in a brief window. Moon Knight’s ultimate and Scarlet Witch’s damage can still find targets inside the field under the right conditions. High burst damage from a Hawkeye or Magneto can threaten Sue specifically, even inside the field, since if she dies, the ult ends early. Playing from a protected angle rather than standing in the open inside your own ultimate is worth considering, particularly in games where the enemy has reliable burst.
One timing note from high-level play worth keeping in mind: when the enemy has Cloak and Dagger on their roster and their ultimate is up, waiting until after the third or fourth dash of the Cloak and Dagger ultimate before activating Invisible Boundary means your ultimate will outlast theirs, rather than overlapping with the tail end of theirs.
Psionic Force: Psionite Mayhem Team-Up
Invisible Woman anchors the Psionite Mayhem team up with Dr. Strange, which, when active, provides Strange’s Maelstrom of Madness with a psionic explosion that damages and pulls enemies toward him, providing nearby allies with bonus health based on the amount of damage dished out to the enemies.
The practical value compounds quickly, as every Maelstrom of Madness release now pulls nearby enemies toward Strange and generates bonus health for your frontline based on how much Dark Magic he has accumulated. In a brawl where both teams are stacked, and Strange is cycling his Dark Magic consistently, that’s a meaningful amount of additional survivability being generated for your team on a very short loop. The pull effect also clusters enemies at the moment they take burst damage, which sets up follow-up shots from your primary fire and from your team more reliably than a standard Maelstrom release would.
How to Think About Playing Invisible Woman
Invisible Woman rewards players who think about positioning before a fight starts rather than reacting to what’s in front of them. Her primary fire only delivers maximum value when she’s in a position to hit multiple targets simultaneously, which means the question to ask constantly is not “where do I need to be to stay safe” but “where do I need to be to hit the most people with the least movement.”
The team composition she’s playing with shapes how that position looks. In a brawl vs brawl matchup where both teams are stacked and fighting front to back, Sue’s kit is operating close to its ceiling. Against a dive-heavy comp where the enemy team is spread out and taking multiple angles simultaneously, her effectiveness drops significantly because the abilities that make her special are designed for grouped targets, but she’s still got moves. Recognizing when a team fight is shaping up in a way that doesn’t suit her kit and adjusting accordingly, whether that’s changing position, changing how you use the vortex, or communicating to your team about how they’re spacing, is a higher level habit that takes time to develop but pays off consistently.
Ultimate charge discipline is the other habit worth prioritizing early, as Sue’s ult charges quickly when she’s positioned correctly and using her primary fire actively, and the fastest path to a second ultimate is to avoid sitting on that first one. Placing it when the fight is already in motion, on the objective, in response to an enemy ultimate, or to turn a fight your team is losing, rather than waiting for a perfect moment that may not come, is how high level Sues keep the ability cycling through fights rather than saving it and never finding that right moment.