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Vanguards can be a particularly difficult kind of hero to counter inMarvel Rivals; they’ve got a lot of health, while some of them combine that with either damage mitigation, surprising damage, maneuverability, or a combination thereof.
The Thing is fairly unique in his tanking approach, making him a bit more of an enigma when it comes to figuring out how to counter him. It isn’t impossible, and one or two well-placed picks or timely plays can render him much less effective. But if left uncontested, a good thing can grind your team to a halt with his extremely high health and disruptive potential.
How To Counter The Thing
The thing with The Thing is that, in the right hands, his high health pool and his ability to completely disrupt a large portion of the enemy team at once can make himvery difficult to proactively work against.So much of fighting The Thing is reactive; you’re trying to ensure what he’s doing doesn’t cause too much damage.
A lot of this is because he cannot be displaced like other characters. You can easily push The Thing back, or else impede his movement in many ways that are effective against other characters. If The Thing is combining with another Vanguard, one with movement potential that’s getting into your back line while The Thing punches you from the front, it can be a long match.
The key to fighting against The Thing is tokeep the fight out of his preferred arena. His Yancy Street Charge is going to keep you from using your movement abilities to get out when it’s prudent; instead,keep damage on him from multiple different angles, all at a healthy range.
How To Counter The Thing As A Duelist
Duelists can have a tricky time with The Thing, and it’s going to depend greatly on which Duelist you choose when it comes to how effective you can be against him, at your ceiling.
In general, as a Duelist,you want to be as far away from The Thing as possible. It’ll keep him from essentially locking you into his range so he can punch you into pieces, and he’s a large enough target that staying on him should be easy.Fliers like Iron Man, Human Torch, and Stormcan all cause significant problems for him.
The Thing also often plays in a tight-knit formation with allies, at least one other at a time, if not more. This amplifies that value of any area-of-effect (AoE) attack, particularly ranged AoE, which again, can be true for the fliers listed above, but also Squirrel Girl and Moon Knight.
As a bonus, The Thing is going to be effectively shielding teammates fairly often; The Winter Soldier’s ability to deal damage to enemies behind his target is going to ensure he’s damaging the target just behind The Thing regularly, which is often an opponent Strategist. If you can put that Strategist down, it’s going to put significantly more pressure on The Thing.
Note that Wolverine will not be able to displace The Thing with his abilities like he can other characters; this will make The Thing a unique foe for Wolverine, requiring a little bit of a different style when playing against him. You won’t be able to press The Thing into situations where he has no backup, and instead are going to have to rely on backup, yourself.
How To Counter The Thing As A Vanguard
Countering The Thingas a Vanguardcan be particularly difficult; for one, most Vanguards are going to already be in or near The Thing’s ideal range. For characters likeVenom, Thor, and Captain Americawho rely on timely mobility abilitiesto get in and out of trouble,this can pose a significant problem.
But there are other Vanguards who excel when their opponent is in a predictable location.
Combining Groot and Peni can force The Thing to move into pre-trapped kill-boxes. It’ll cost The Thing time to avoid these, and punish him severely if he doesn’t.
How To Counter The Thing As A Strategist
MostStrategistssimply do not want to enter the same ring as The Thing, and are going to become a veritable punching bag if they try. For Strategists,the plan when approached by The Thing is to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. But because of The Thing’s ability to negate movement abilities, this can prove difficult.
For Strategists like Rocket who rely on crafty movement abilities to stay alive, The Thing can be a massive issue. Rockets should do everything in their power to use their movement abilities to get away from The Thing before the situation becomes an issue.
There are a few different ways to keep this from becoming as big of a problem as it otherwise would.
