Previewing Ultron, The New Strategist Joining Marvel Rivals May 30th
Officially revealed in the Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 Dev Vision video, one of Marvel Rivals’ worst kept secret, Ultron as a playable character, has been confirmed. Dataminers had been mentioning Ultron as far back as a year ago, when players first got their hands on the Marvel Rivals alpha test, with the leaks mentioning that Ultron would be a Strategist role character around that same time.
Joining Marvel Rivals officially in Season 2.5, Ultron will accompany the new Arakko map, a twisted version of Krakoa’s sister island which has been overtaken by Ultron, a number of new teamups and balance changes, and a experimental autobattler game mode similar to Teamfight Tactics or DotA Underlords.
Let’s start by breaking down Ultron’s kit.
Abilities
Ultron’s primary fire his his Encephalo-Ray, a beam attack that functions as a burst fire shot, which appears to do the most damage with the final shot of the burst. Ultron has six bursts before reloading. The good news is, the range is exceptionally long, and it appears to be hit scan, but there is some damage fall-off at longer ranges. You will need solid tracking ability to really make the most of that damage output.
The primary heal in Ultron’s kit is the Imperative: Patch ability. This ability sends a drone to follow an ally, healing the designated target with a lesser heal in a short AOE range around that targeted ally. This ability has a fairly short range, so you cannot set it and forget it on a diving teammate; they will lose the healing drone if they get too far out of range. This ability has no cooldown however, and the drone cannot be damaged or removed by enemies, so there is some give and take here.
His alt fire is Imperative: Firewall, this grants allies bonus health on cast, and it works in tandem with Imperative: Patch, but there are some limitations. If you have an Imperative: Patch heal drone active, it will grant bonus health to the designated target as well as anyone within the radius of the drone heal. Without an active drone, you will only be able to grant the bonus HP to yourself and targets that are extremely close to you, maybe 5 or so meters range. The upside is, you can use the healing drone and the short radius together to grant bonus health to a number of teammates at once, but it’s gone as soon as it’s damaged and then you’re waiting out the cooldown again.
Mobility wise, Ultron is a flying character similar to Iron Man, so he’s perpetually hovering. By using your movement ability Dynamic Flight, you get a short dash and a brief time where Ultron enters an Accelerated state, where he moves slightly faster, though you should still pay close attention to any hitscan heroes nearby such as Punisher or Hela as they will likely be focus firing you immediately.
Ultron’s ultimate ability, Rage of Ultron, is an interesting one. Ultron summons a number of drones around him, all of which fire burst of the Encephalo-Rays, except these heal allies that are targeted, as well as damage enemies. The healing output here is quite strong as long as you’re making good use of your aim, but it lacks that passive overpowering support ult functionality of say Luna or Invisible Woman where you are instantly creating a constant heal in an area. The damage output isn’t particularly special, it could be good to mix it up in a big mosh pit melee fight, but it’s likely better used for healing.
Finally, Ultron’s team up, the Nano Ray with Iron Man, offers some much needed functionality. The Nano Ray is an enhanced version of the Encephalo-Ray, which can heal allies and damage enemies, all with penetation, meaning you’re hitting multiple targets in a row. This is a beam fire attack, that lasts a few seconds before it’s on cooldown.
Final Thoughts
The general consensus from the content creators and professional players who had the opportunity to test out Ultron is that he’s quite underpowered at the moment. There is potential, but most are saying he will best fit into a Triple Healer set-up, which isn’t encouraging out of the gate. There’s also a debate about what healer you would pick Ultron over, with arguments going in multiple directions. Expect Netease to do a quick tune-up on Ultron, if not before the May 30th patch, likely within the next update, just something to make him slightly more alluring than a Strategist that a player is more comfortable with to begin with.
There is potential here for sure, and one thing about Marvel Rivals is that we are constantly writing off characters (such as Wolverine early on for example) before players figure out where that hero accels specifically. It’s possible that Ultron’s true fit in the meta just hasn’t been discovered yet, and he may be extremely powerful in those scenarios without any official buffs. We’ll keep our eyes peeled.