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I’m sure we’ve all experienced the unbridled rage in Marvel Rivals that comes with repeatedly getting jumped by Magik, Spider-Man, Iron Fist or whoever the enemy team’s designated diver is. As someone who predominantly plays Strategist, I encounter this pretty much daily, which is why Emma Frost in all her brawling, dive-countering glory is so much fun to play.
I’ve never been able to gel with a Vanguard. I’m not quite sure what it is, as I play tank in Overwatch 2 quite often. But for whatever reason, things are different in Marvel Rivals and no matter how much I try to force Groot or Doctor Strange, nothing seems to work. For this reason, I wasn’t expecting to love Emma Frost as much as I do.
Her ability set can be a bit tough to familiarise yourself with at first, as she works a little differently from the other heroes. Like Ramattra from Overwatch 2, Emma Frost has two sets of abilities depending on what form she’s in.
In her regular form, Emma Frost has the Psychic Spear ability, which allows her to seize an enemy’s “sentience” and deal damage twice as quickly, as well as having Mind’s Aegis, which lets her put up a shield. However, in her diamond form, which also has damage reduction, she gets access to two different abilities, Carbon Crush and Crystal Kick. These let her grab an enemy and choke slam them to the floor, and kick enemies, dealing knockback damage.
Emma Frost’s normal form and abilities are pretty good for standard play: Her Telepathic Pulse has enough range on it that you can reach flying heroes up in the sky and keep other tanks at arm’s length. But it’s not nearly as fun as her diamond form.
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With this, you become a really brawly tank, much like Captain America or Hulk, as your primary fire shifts to Faceted Fury (you throw punches), which can be devastating when you couple it with Carbon Crush, something that I like to use as a finishing move.
This second form gives Emma Frost a good amount of freedom to shift as fights change, being a normal mid-range tank when your team is holding their own and then quickly changing to a close-range brawler if your backline is getting jumped by Spider-Man or an enemy Vanguard tries to get too close.
But her diamond ability isn’t just of use when fending off flankers, it can also be used to stun enemies out of their ultimate abilities.
Emma Frost probably won’t stay all-powerful for too long.
As long as you get to enemy players before they can stun you with their ultimate like Doctor Strange or Groot, then you can stop their ult in its tracks. Or for other heroes like Peni Parker, Black Panther, or Spider-Man, you can just slam them to the floor in the midst of their ultimate, instantly stopping it, and maybe even killing them in the process. The only hero I’ve come across so far who I can’t seem to knock out of their ultimate is Magneto, but if he hits you while you’re in diamond form, he won’t be able to kill you, so it’s not a massive problem.
It’s all fun and games being able to ruin someone’s game by messing up their carefully timed ultimate, but like most new heroes added to Marvel Rivals, I can foresee some balance issues with Emma Frost.
The devs working on Marvel Rivals haven’t been shy about wanting to prioritise fun over balance. They’ve explained how the most important thing is to ensure players are having fun with the game, and they aim to ensure this by providing heroes with unique, powerful, and interesting abilities. Emma Frost ticks all of these boxes, but she’s so strong that playing against her will likely be a bit of a chore.
Human Torch had the same issue when he was added alongside The Thing in Season 1.5, where he became the new meta thanks to his team-up ability with Storm, which turned her ultimate into a fire tornado.
But like Human Torch, Emma Frost probably won’t stay all-powerful for too long. Either she’ll be nerfed slightly when the next hero balance patch rolls around, or the devs will just add an even stronger hero to the mix. I’ll be sure to take advantage of her unbridled strength until that time comes.
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Kurt Indovina
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