Cedric Pabriga 
Black Widow is a Marvel Rivals hero specializing in long-range encounters and players might need a bit of a guide to understand how to play her.
In a hero shooter like Marvel Rivals, there are often characters who want to stay in the backline and deal damage from afar. One of them is Black Widow. She wields a sniper rifle and a dual baton as a melee weapon, getting cut from the same cloth as characters like Team Fortress 2’s Sniper and Overwatch’s Widowmaker.
This makes Black Widow is one of the hardest characters to play in Marvel Rivals. Players can’t just rely on her abilities like most other characters. All of her damage comes from aim and skill, which can turn off a lot of players.
How to play Black Widow in Marvel Rivals
Black Widow is a vulnerable sniper in Marvel Rivals who can deal devastating damage to the opposing team if left alone.
Positioning and aim are the main reasons players find Black Widow hard to play. Marvel Rivals is a game with a lot of slippery heroes. Iron Man players can fly, Spider-Man players swing across the map quickly, and so on. Black Widow players will have much more difficulty landing shots on those elusive foes.
One way to alleviate this problem is to position Black Widow at a high vantage point. This allows her to see much of the field, and any large fights that are taking place. This makes it easier for her to aim as players moving fast from afar require only a slight scope adjustment compared to players moving fast in front of her.
However, positioning Black Widow like this opens her up for dives from heroes like Iron Fist and Spider-Man. She needs support from her strategists in close-up combat because of this. If Black Widow is getting dived endlessly, it may force her to fall in with teammates.
Table of contents
All Black Widow Abilities
Black Widow’s abilities are more focused on player skill rather than abilities that play the game by themselves.
Black Widow doesn’t have the area-of-effect damage of Squirrel Girl or the mobility of Star-Lord. She has few tools to get heroes off of her. Her main way to deal damage heavily relies on the user’s aim as it only comes from her sniper rifle. This means that she needs to deal damage from afar with as little support as possible, as she’ll consistently lose any one-on-one that happens.
Widow’s Bite Baton and Red Room Rifle
Black Widow has two weapons she can freely switch between. Her rifle is her main source of damage, which can be hip-fired or scoped by holding the alt-fire button. Hip firing deals reduced damage from a long distance, forcing players to scope in.
Her baton is a melee weapon used to deal with heroes diving her. It deals decent damage, but will still leave her at a major disadvantage in an up-close, one-on-one fight.
Fleet Foot
Fleet Foot is Black Widow’s only ability to get her out of dicey situations. This is a dash ability that allows her to super jump and reach high places. It’s an odd ability that isn’t really thematically appropriate for Black Widow, but it’s an integral part of her kit both offensively and defensively.
Edge Dancer
Edge Dancer is a two-part ability. The first hit knocks opponents airborne. If the first part of the ability hits, she can use the ability once more to stun the opponent.
Like Fleet Foot, this has both offensive and defensive utility. Players can use that stun to escape, or to pin an opponent in place for a devastating headshot.
Electro-Plasma Explosion
Black Widow’s ultimate. This ability allows her to shoot an electro-plasma blast for an area-of-effect explosion. After the explosion, the ability leaves plasma on the ground which slows enemies. Naturally, this synergizes with her sniping, allowing her to lock down areas singlehandedly.
All of Black Widow’s team-up abilities
Unique to Marvel Rivals, team-up abilities allow heroes to interact at a much deeper level. Most of the time, team-up abilities provide passive buffs. However, there are also special ones that provide more benefits than passive ones.
Supersensory Hunt
This team-up ability only pops up when Hawkeye is with her on the team. Activating this will allow Black Widow to see the afterimages of enemies when Hawkeye uses his ultimate. This can help players predict when and where enemies are coming, letting Black Widow dominate an entryway or passage.
