Marvel Rivals: How To Play Doctor Strange

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Quick Links

  • Doctor Strange Offensive Strategies
  • Doctor Strange Defensive Strategies
  • Doctor Strange Team-Up Abilities
  • Doctor Strange Counters & How To Deal With Them
  • Best Team Comps With Doctor Strange

As a seasoned player of Marvel Rivals, I can wholeheartedly vouch for Doctor Strange as one of the most intriguing and versatile characters in the game. With his unique blend of defense and damage potential, he’s a character that demands respect from both newcomers and veterans alike.

Doctor Strange has easily become one of my favorite Heroes to play in Marvel Rivals.

Though appearances might mislead, he turns out to be quite an effective tank, boasting a robust set of tools. In the role of a Vanguard, Doctor Strange excels as a strong defensive ally for his comrades.

As a genius, playing Doctor Strange necessitates strategic planning to identify the optimal time to unleash heavy damage on your opponents with his powerful spells.

In this guide on Marvel’s Doctor Strange, you’ll learn about his unique powers and gain valuable insights and strategies to make you an immovable ally for your fellow players.

Doctor Strange Abilities

As a gamer, I start off with a character who isn’t exactly a power machine, but he’s got a unique trick up his sleeve. Instead of relying on raw strength, I build up energy by casting spells and dealing damage. Once I’ve gathered enough power, I unleash it all in one massive burst!

As a gamer diving into the world of Doctor Strange, I’ve found his two-star difficulty rating to be somewhat misleading. While he seems straightforward at first glance, his gameplay style is subtly complex, offering challenges that aren’t immediately apparent from the get-go.

Ability Description
Daggers of Denak Basic attack. Cast a spiral attack of five magical projectiles in front of you. Each attack deals 18 damage and generates 17 Dark Magic. This attack does not crit.
Eye of Agamotto Ultimate Ability. Separate enemies’ souls from their bodies for three seconds. Damage dealt to these souls is transferred to their physical bodies.
Cloak of Levitation Ascend and enter a brief state of sustained flight for eight seconds. 15-second cooldown.
Maelstrom of Madness Release accumulated Dark Magic to deal damage to nearby enemies in an 8m spherical radius. Each point of Dark Magic deals 1.3 damage. 8-second cooldown.
Pentragram of Farallah Open portals between two locations, enabling all units (and projectiles) to travel through them. Lasts 20 seconds. 180-second cooldown.
Shield of the Seraphim Create a protective barrier of 800 health in front of you. Putting down the shield creates a one-second delay before you can cast it again. If the shield is destroyed, it regenerates 80 health per second.
Price of Magic (Passive) If Dark Magic is full for too long, Doctor Strange will be cursed with Anti-Heal, where he cannot be healed. This lasts for two seconds. Melee attacks also generate 10 Dark Magic.

Doctor Strange Offensive Strategies

One key aspect of Doctor Strange lies in his primary form of damage, which is the Maelstrom of Madness.

Gathering a complete charge of Dark Power and discharging it will inflict roughly 130 points of damage, enabling you to quickly eliminate weaker opponents if you’ve previously dealt some harm to them.

It’s important to understand that Doctor Strange struggles in one-on-one duels and has limited mobility. However, he excels when working alongside his teammates, using defensive tactics like shielding damage and launching magical daggers. The optimal time for aggressive play is typically when you have a tank or healer supporting you to help manage damage while you accumulate your Dark Magic.

  • Because your daggers are slow, and you only have eight of them before reloading, focus them on enemy Vanguards to easily build up Dark Magic due to their larger hitboxes.
  • While we’re on the same topic, d o not try to snipe at the enemy. Your basic attack has an effective range of about 10 meters before it starts to suffer from damage fall-off.
  • Your daggers are essentially a slightly longer-range melee attack. Use your other melee attack (the whip) immediately after your basic attack to deal some quick extra damage.
  • On the same note, your melee attack strikes in a cone in front of you, allowing you to hit multiple enemies in a single swipe.
  • When it comes to bursting down enemies with the Maelstrom, I found that it’s best used for Strategists and Duelists caught in the crossfire. If there’s a Mantis or Luna in the fight, I’ll focus my daggers on them and release my Dark Magic to finish them off. Take away their main source of healing, and it’s easy pickings for you and your team.
  • Be conservative with portal usage, as it has a three-minute cooldown. Preferably, you’ll be coordinating with your teammates, but if you’re playing in a solo queue, try to find an opening where the opposing team is distracted by your team. You can create a portal, drop in from above using your Ultimate, and catch them all off guard.
  • Never start a fight with the Maelstrom. Throw a few daggers and build up your dark magic. Ideally, you’ll want to be in the middle of several enemies at once before you unleash all your Dark Magic at once. Do this right, and you could net a couple of instant kills.
  • Don’t use your Maelstrom when you only have less than 50 Dark Magic. Build it up more if you want to deal actual damage

Doctor Strange Defensive Strategies

Doctor Strange’s main disadvantage lies in his limited mobility, making it difficult for him to extricate himself from dangerous predicaments without relying on the help of his teammates. His role as a tank primarily involves using his shield to absorb damage and protect his allies as effectively as possible.

In a role as a steadfast protector of the mysterious, any player embodying Doctor Strange stands the highest chance of enduring among their teammates.

  • With the Cloak of Levitation, you can float around defending any flying allies or lay down suppressive fire on your foes. I personally do not recommend this, as this automatically makes you an easy target for any ranged DPS enemy (like a Black Widow or Hawkeye). You can’t defend your teammates if you’re dead.
  • When it comes to seizing the objective as a Vanguard, you are most annoying (to your enemies) when you’re constantly putting up your shield and jumping around. I’ve often held down the objective for minutes by holding up my shield whenever it’s available and running around while a healer tops me up. If you’ve played Reinhardt in Overwatch, you’ll know what I mean.
  • Speaking of your shield, remember that it only blocks ranged damage (including Venom’s tentacles). Direct melee attacks bypass your shield.
  • Your Ultimate is a stun. Use this to disrupt your enemies, especially those who charge up devastating supers. This can stop any pesky Scarlet Witch or Iron Man players from annihilating your team.
  • (Addendum) When you’re on the defensive on Convoy maps, a funny strategy to start off the match is to reposition the starting portal at the main doorway of the opposing team and carry them out of bounds. Keep in mind that this is incredibly risky and is more of a joke strategy. Of the five times I’ve tried this, it’s only worked twice, and I’ve managed to net 3 kills on average.

Doctor Strange Team-Up Abilities

Team Up Heroes Needed Description
Gamma Maelstrom Hulk Hulk charges Doctor Strange and Iron man with gamma radiation. When Doctor Strange uses Maelstrom of Madness, he unleashes Gamma Maelstrom. When Iron Man uses Armor Overdrive, he will initiate a gamma upgrade.
Doctor Strange and/or Iron Man

Adding the Hulk to your team transforms your Chaos Vortex into a Gamma Vortex, amplifying its power to inflict 1.4 points of Dark Magic damage for each point instead of 1.3.

possessing Gamma Maelstrom offers a practical advantage since it shields you from the adverse effects of anti-healing magic. Instead of being affected by these effects, when your dark magic reservoir reaches its maximum, it gradually depletes instead.

Leverage this during team battles when consistently causing harm. Collaborate with your Hulk to immobilize opponents using his Radioactive Lockdown skill, allowing for rapid infliction of approximately 140 damage instantly.

As a fan, I often ponder if it’s wise to have Hulk occupy the Vanguard position. The answer lies in the skill level of the player and the mastery of Dark Magic. To be frank, a 10-damage difference during peak Dark Magic isn’t a significant factor to consider.

Doctor Strange Counters & How To Deal With Them

While Doctor Strange can create a strong barrier, he is awful at dealing with melee damage. Melee attacks bypass shields, and any Hero who uses melee as their main form of attack and has high mobility is a natural counter to Strange, as they can simply close the gap and melt him down.

Here are a few enemy Heroes to watch out for:

  • Vanguard
    • Thor
    • Venom
  • Duelist
    • Iron Fist
    • Black Panther
  • Strategist
    • Jeff the Land Shark
    • Luna Snow

Given your high damage output needs significant setup, and you lack many options for evasion, you become a prime target for close-combat Heroes. Therefore, it’s best to stick with your team and maintain a safe distance from potential attackers.

In group battles, Doctor Strange shines by absorbing damage with his dark magic and unexpectedly delivering high-impact attacks.

Best Team Comps With Doctor Strange

From my gaming perspective, I’ve noticed that Doctor Strange is quite versatile, fitting seamlessly into almost any team composition and scenario, except for when it comes to Conquest mode.

In many situations, Strange pairs effectively with various Vanguards. For instance, Groot and Magneto, much like Strange, are frontline characters. By having these tanks lead the charge with their defenses, it allows the rest of your team to inflict substantial damage while staying securely protected.

As a gamer, I find that having Hulk on my team with his team-up ability is great, but if you’re skilled at handling Dark Magic, you might not necessarily need the additional ten damage and anti-heal mitigation. Instead, consider Venom as your Vanguard ally. He has a knack for attracting a lot of attention, which allows me to stay tucked away in the backline.

Doctor Strange is most effective when teamed up with long-range fighters such as The Punisher or Hela, since both characters perform optimally when they have a substantial amount of health protection.

From my perspective as a devoted player, Jeff’s unwavering flow of healing is consistently beneficial, while Rocket’s B.R.B. device offers a swift means to resurrect me in the nick of time for a decisive Ultimate activation.

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2024-12-13 19:40