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When it comes to Vanguards inMarvel Rivals, you have a bunch of sub-archetypes that define their playstyle — anchor, frontliner, and dive. As a complete brute, Venom falls in the latter category, swinging around the map and waiting for the right moment to divebomb into the enemy’s backlines. Although a niche pick, he can absorb a bucketload of damage and ensure the team has at least one hero standing firmly above the objective.
Alongside his monstrous defense, Venom is also an offensive powerhouse. His primary fire, the tendrils, can land devastating blows if aimed properly, and when combined with his movement-afflicting grab, it becomes much harder to escape. Fortunately, he’s not immortal, and a few strategies can certainly put him in his place.
How To Counter Venom
Venom’s kit encourages him tobe ferocious and inflict as much collateral damageas possible with his AoE attacks. His divebombingFrenzied Arrival ability is a nightmare for Strategistssince it’s immediately followed up by his grab and primary attacks, resulting in a quick kill.
Venom’s Ultimate Ability is another thing to watch out for— on top of exceptional range, it deals damage equal to 50 percent of the target’s health with an additional 50 points of impact.
Since Venom’s ult scales with the enemy’s maximum HP, he can use it against Vanguards and full-health heroes for a tremendous affliction.
However, the best part about Venom’s kit is undoubtedly hislast-resort bonus health ability,Symbiote Resistance. His base HP of 800 is already a beefy number, but this ability lets him gain100 bonus health and an additional 120 percent conversionof lost health into bonus health. As such, the lower his HP, the more health bonus he’ll get, which will likely exceed his colossal base HP.
With Venom being a close-quarters behemoth, your best chance against him is toattack from a far range and try to separate him from his support. His defense is, by far, the biggest crux of the issue, and he’s nearly unkillable if his teammates regularly heal him. As such, the quicker you sever Venom’s ties with his healers, the more youforce him to either retreat or pop his bonus health early.
Venom also relies heavily on chip damage, whichyou can easily outheal if you have an ally Strategist nearby. The most he does isstall for time by absorbing your damagewhile giving his teammates an opening to go for a swift knockout. If you can collectively maintain pressure on him as a team, he’ll haveno choice but to swing away and try again, which is quite a lengthy cycle.
Stun-locks and immobilizing abilities work extremely well against Venom because they prevent him from escaping at a crucial moment.
How To Counter Venom As A Vanguard
Looking at Venom’s stats,only a handful of Vanguards can consistently take him downin a one-on-one scenario. Since he’s a diving character,Peni Parker has a better chance than anyone against him,deploying her Spider-Nest and placing traps around herself. When Venom tries to lunge in,Peni can instantly snare himand trigger the nearby drones and mines, unbinding gargantuan damage.
Groot is another strong counter against Venom, specifically because of his weakness towards the Thornslash Walls. Venom’s sluggish nature makes itharder for him to escape traps, so if he decides to engage the sentient tree from up close, Groot cansimply encircle him with the wallsand let the vines melt away his health. The fact his base HP rivals that of Venom also lets him outlast the tendril attacks.
Other melee and ranged Vanguards, although not as potent,can stilltry and stall for time.HulkandMagneto, for instance, have strong durability and defense,like when they’re using Indestructible Guard and Metal Bulwark, to brawl with Venom, with the latter hero even having ranged abilities he can use while spacing the symbiote out.
How To Counter Venom As A Strategist
Strategists are a primary targetfor the overgrown black monster, but while they don’t have the health to outlast his attacks, they canuse their mobility and abilities to run away. This wouldinclude things like Luna Snow’s Absolute Zero,Mantis' Slumbering Spore,Rocket Raccoon’s Jetpack Dash, and more.
Out of all the Strategists,Mantis is definitely your best betto classify as Venom’s counterpick. Her Slumbering Spore, on top of being an escape tool, isperfect for denying a breakaway opportunity. Her attacks are also the most DPS-oriented in her class, so when you couple them with her rapid movement, you have a solid loop of creating a gap and attacking from afar.
Ideally, though,you’ll want to stay close to your team as much as possibleand aid your ally Vanguards and Duelists from a safe distance. Venom is an AoE-focused character, buthe can’t normally deal significant damage to more than one opponentsimultaneously, so use that fact in your strategy.
Jeff The Land Shark’s Ultimate Ability is another great wayto tackle Venom, preventing him from using his last-resort bonus health mechanic.
How To Counter Venom As A Duelist
Venom’s slothful agility and giant hurtboxmake himfairly vulnerable to several Duelistarchetypes in Marvel Rivals.Wolverine, as always, remains the top counterpick, living up to his reputation as the ultimate tank shredder. Once he isolates Venom with his Feral Leap, he canunleash a flurry of slashes and destroy Venom’s defenses.
Other melee duelists,like Iron Fist,Black Panther, andMagik, canuse their movement speed to weave aroundVenom’s attacks. Still, Wolverine’s percentage-based damage output gives him the upper hand, and you can make it even better byattacking after the symbiote exhausts his swing, ensuring he doesn’t have a split-second escape route.
With range being his weakness, you can also use characters with high single-shot damage, likeHela,Hawkeye, andNamor, to snipe Venom from a safe zone. However,if you want damage and safety,Iron ManandStorm are great choicessince they can strike from the one place neither Venom nor his projectile-based attacks can reach — the skies.
As Storm, you should aid friendly melee Duelists by empowering them with a movement speed boost. Dodging Venom’s attacks is arguably more important for them than inflicting more damage than him.
