But, why even play as Support? What does a Support Hero do in Marvel Super War?
The term, "Support", means many things to many games and many players.
So, before we proceed in ranking Marvel Super War's Top 10 Best Supports, let's first quickly look at what it truly means to be a Support Hero, and how to play these Support-class Heroes specifically here in MSW with the game's distinct mechanics and current meta.
When you play as Support here in MSW (either by choice or by unwanted necessity), here are the things that you are expected to do:
- You NEED to buy the recommended S.H.I.E.L.D. Badge as your FIRST ITEM. This item would actually take away some of your gained coins/exp and give it instead to another ally hero in your lane during the early game. But why? It’s simple math, really. With 5 total heroes but only 4 total “lanes” (including the jungle), two of the heroes will have to share a lane. And the best way to distribute the limited resources efficiently with this setup is for one of the heroes (yes, you, the sacrificial Support) to give up some of your earned coins/exp, and give it to your other ally heroes who need it more during that time. If there's no acting Support Hero in a team, and two item/farm-dependent heroes equally share the coin/exp in a single lane, both heroes would be left behind in their farm (compared to having a Support+Carry tandem in a lane). In most MOBA games, a Support's skill set and battle effectiveness is usually good enough even when they have little to no gear, so it's quite common and actually okay for them to be at the bottom of the coin/exp tally throughout the match.
- During the early-game laning phase, go with your team’s Marksman at the BOTTOM LANE. With that, the best lane where you, the underappreciated side character, can go is at the Bottom Lane, to team up with your more gear-dependent, squishy, needy Marksman-class Hero, who would require some protecting for them to be more effective later on. Other meta laning strategies from other MOBAs are not really compatible here in MSW. Yes, trust us, we already tried.
- During the mid game, start ROAMING around the map, with or without your Marksman, assisting lanes that best need your help. As the game progresses, you can continue babysitting your MM as they farm and push lanes, but if needed, and as long as you’re sure that your MM is in no danger of being left alone for a short while, you can roam a bit, to back up your Jungler when they’re nearby, or visit your Mid/Top Laners for a quick assist, etcetera. Just make sure you get back to your MM and cover them at least until they become more independent in farming and split pushing.
- During the late game, focus on contributing to TEAM CLASHES and advances. Towards the endgame, you should then stick with your main ally force, supplying them with whatever skills and abilities you have to win clashes and secure objectives. A Support Hero is not usually built to do split pushes or do random enemy pickoffs on their own, so, please, stay with your team, do not overcommit, prepare to disengage and retreat, and be ready to protect your base when needed.
What then makes a good Support Hero, good? And how can we score/rank them?
Now that we know and understand the responsibilities of a Support Hero, we can then compare the capabilities of these heroes in performing their main tasks, as described below, so that we can also finally score and rank them accordingly.
To be a good Support, you need to be able to (1) provide opportunities for your allies to farm quickly and safely via NON-DAMAGE UTILITY skills and ability effects, and (2) disrupt your enemies' farm and force enemy retreats/downtime via DIRECT DAMAGE HARASS skills and ability effects. Let's further specify/categorize these into four:
- Protection Skills: Utility skills that provide team sustain and protection, such as healing and shields, and anti-gank or counter-initiation responsive abilities.
- Utility Skills: Other non-sustain utility skills that enable allies and let them farm easier and more freely, such as ally buffs and enemy debuffs, positioning and mobility advantage, vision and safety zones.
- Harass Skills: Damaging skills that help defeat enemies, or at least force them to retreat or maintain distance from their farm. We will also look at other abilities that make enemies become inefficient with their laning in general, such as ranged pokes and direct damage, debuffs and crowd control, zoning, and general area control by imposing some kind of threat to enemies.
- Post-Laning Skills: General skills and abilities of the Support Hero during the mid and late-game phases that contribute towards winning team clashes, such as roaming and ganking, initiation/counter-initiation/follow-through skills, and general late-game damage output (as some supports perform better early game but not so much during the late game, or vice versa).
These four aspects and capabilities for Protection, Utility, Harass, and Post-Laning, are what make Support Heroes great in their role and position. We will be using these characteristics as our main criteria in choosing and ranking our best and most powerful Support-class Heroes in MSW.
Phew! Now that’s all said and done, here’s our list!
Our [Top 10] Best Supports in Marvel Super War, as of the latest patch:
10. Colossus
UNDERRATED TANK - Colossus Ranked Gameplay
While they commonly lane as Solo Top, many Tank-class Heroes in MSW are quite awesome to partner with their team’s Marksman down at the Bottom Lane to play as Support. The X-Men’s Piotr Rasputin, code-name Colossus, is no exception, ranking 10th.
As Support Colossus, you can offer some protection to your allies using your first and second skills that alter/adjust your enemies’ position, peeling off attackers from your more vulnerable allies with these skills, and offering yourself as a meat shield able to soak up damage, thanks to your base toughness and passive damage reduction skill.
You have some utility and mobility from the targeted jumps given by your second and ultimate skills, while also having good area-of-effect and single-target damage+CC. This makes your enemies wary of you even with your limited attack range as a melee-type character. Your skills have a mid range that you can use in dealing quick damage bursts to harass and reposition your enemies, hopefully defeating them or forcing them to retreat, but just don’t over-commit into forcing kills during the early-game laning stages.
Once you’re able to roam and participate in team fights and clashes, it’s where you can shine best in playing as Colossus. Your extreme durability and great damage+CC output during fights, self-mobility boosts for good initiation/counter-initiation/follow-throughs, and good team protection by shoving and wrestling enemies around, all make your Support Colossus truly a solid choice for a Tank/Support-class Hero.
What Makes Colossus a Great Support:
- Can protect allies by pulling and tossing enemies about
- Good damage output and CC plus some movement, which makes for good initiation
- Great durability for soaking damage and maintaining enemy beatdown during clashes
Colossus full details: MARVELSuperWar - Video of Colossus
9. Invisible Woman
Underrated Utility Support Invisible Woman
At number 9 is more of a situational utility+damage Support-class Hero. The Fantastic Four’s Dr. Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, makes an appearance here in our Top Supports list.
When playing as the Invisible Woman, your unique passive invisibility mechanic alone gives you some great utility with vision and positional advantage, keeping your enemies on their toes as you can suddenly appear out of nowhere and shoot your psionic energy blasts to harass or gank unsuspecting enemies. Your damage output and crowd control is truly not something to be ignored, as you can even have the potential to carry your team towards the late game.
Team sustain-wise, you do offer some protection to your allies via shields, but it’s not instant and it’s not too reliable, and that’s the main reason she has this rather low placement in our rankings even with her great utility, damage, and post-laning scores.
Speaking of post-laning, once you’re in the mid phase of the game, you have a great capability to initiate and assist ganks on other lanes, allowing you to build up gear that further enhances your damage-dealing capabilities as you start racking coins and experience yourself. During the late game, you also tend to be your team’s main initiator with your great ultimate skill, following it up with your high damage, crowd control, and team shields.
What Makes Invisible Woman a Great Support:
- Has excellent utility from her invisibility, mobility, crowd control, and shields
- Excellent harass and overall damage output, having skills that all deal damage
- Her ultimate is one of the best initiate skills in the game, especially when coordinated properly with her team
Invisible Woman full details: MARVELSuperWar - exclusive skin - Invisible Woman
8. Pixie
Pixie Support - EARLY BLOODBATH!
The X-Men’s Pixie, Megan Gwynn, pops in 8th on our list, as another high-damage-dealing Support-class Hero with a great utility kit and carry potential.
With Pixie, you can give your allies shields from your third skill directional dash, which opens up plenty of possible utility and survivability applications for yourself and your team. Your second skill is also a gimmicky ground-targeted blink, and your ultimate disrupts enemy positioning by knocking back all opponents within close range. With all these utility skills that can be used both offensively and defensively, your kit as Pixie is indeed quite good when applied to different situations.
Your first skill and passive also give good poke/harass damage and are your bread and butter when you play offensively as a damage dealer. So, if you prefer more of a damage-dealing Support Hero that has the potential to act as carry late-game, Pixie is indeed a great choice, but if you want a more protective Support Hero, even with the bit of shielding that Pixie applies, our other supports can better fill in the job.
What Makes Pixie a Great Support:
- Has carry potential with her high damage and good utility skills
- Can provide some protection with shields and enemy positioning disruption
- Her mobility makes her difficult to deal with, being able to jump and dash around, as she jukes and kites and bursts down enemy heroes
Pixie full details: MARVEL Super War - Pixie - Secret Garden
7. Groot
Groot's Unlimited Sustain | Marvel Super War
I am Groot.
I am Groot, I am Groot. I am Groot!
I, am Groot. I AM Groot.
I am Groot.
What Makes Groot a Great Support:
- Groot has the best terrain-ignoring enemy hook skill in the game. His first skill hooks a hero towards himself, which empowers his next basic attack to deal extra AOE damage+CC if it connects. When used skillfully, it can easily pick off key enemy heroes hiding in the backlines during the early game, or pull an enemy off of an ally or back into the fray during a mid-game gank or late-game clash. Good points towards protection, utility, harass, and post-laning.
- His second skill gives him a triggered move speed boost, and unlimited passive HP regeneration when he’s chilling in the bushes, making him able to never go back to their base for healing. Great self-sustain utility.
- His ultimate is a continuous AOE energy damage+CC to nearby enemies, which is great during a clash, especially in conjunction with his speed boost and hook+CC combo. Great during clashes as it adds some zoning and good damage+CC.
- He also has a passive utility skill that gets triggered when he gets KO’d. Groot is not as durable as the other Tank-class Heroes, but with that, if he gets defeated, he gives all nearby allies a very thick layer of shield. He also transforms into his Baby Groot sapling version, able to roam around and give vision to his allies, and eventually providing positional advantage as well, as he spawns into that location instead of at the base when his respawn timer runs out. Talk about a sacrificial martyr who’s still able to help his team even after being KO’d. Aww, Groot.
Groot full details: GROOT Rework? China Beta Server MARVEL Super War
6. The Thing
The Thing Support + Gambit Penta KO
It’s still clobberin’ time for the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, even when he positions as Bot Support instead of laning Solo Top Tank here in our Wakandan Battlefield. Another bulky Tank/Support dual-class Hero makes it to our Top Supports list, settling at 6th place.
The Thing offers more significant and more reliable post-laning support capabilities than the other mentioned Support-class Heroes above, mainly with the help of his ultimate skill. It’s a ranged ground-targeted charge+AOE+damage+CC, which makes it one of the best initiation skills in the game. Coupled with his second skill, which is an uninterruptible, continuous, AOE damage+slow skill that also gives him stacking shields as it hits enemies, the initiation and follow-through from The Thing’s main skills make him a great player in team fights.
In choosing to play this hero as a Support, during the early game, you can protect your Bot Lane MM by deterring enemy heroes from coming too close with just your presence. Let your enemies know that when they do get too close to you and your ally, you can jump in on them and shake them down with your attacks and abilities. Your first skill is also a ranged poke that you can use every now and then to harass your enemies from afar, slowly but surely chipping on their health bars and eventually forcing them to retreat and recover.
You also have good mobility as The Thing due to your passive skill, which lets you leap onto a target every ten seconds, applying damage and slowing enemies in range after jumping. Just make sure that these jumps are calculated, to avoid any unwanted advances to your enemy team.
What Makes The Thing a Great Support:
- Excellent post-laning score due to his great ultimate skill, giving him awesome initiate and follow through capabilities useful in ganking and team fights
- Durability, mobility, and crowd control skills make him good at protecting his allies
- Ranged pokes and hit-and-runs help in controlling their lane during the early game
The Thing full details: MARVEL Super War - Pirate Thing
5. Hulk
Support Hulk in Ranked Game!
Dr. Bruce Banner smashes onto our list as the Incredible Hulk, placing 5th as an honorary Support Hero. While not officially classified as a Support-class Hero in the game, the Top/Tank-class Hulk has an extraordinary skill set that also allows him to play excellently as their team's Support, good enough for him to even surpass other pure Support-class Heroes and grab this top 5 spot.
When playing as Support Hulk, your offered protection is more of threatening the enemy that if and when they come at your allies while you’re in the vicinity, they will be smashed. Your first skill causes the Hulk to grab or peel off a nearby enemy hero and thrash them overhead three times, reversing the relative positions of your two heroes after the skill. This makes it also technically an “enemy pull” on the skill’s melee version. The same skill defaults into a ranged AOE damage+CC boulder throw that provides a ranged harass/poke when there are no nearby target enemy heroes to thrash about. Your second skill also does AOE damage+CC to nearby enemies, adding more threat towards your opponents should they choose to get within your effective range. His basic skills do good damage and harass, as well as protection via crowd control and effective zoning.
Your ultimate is a ground-targeted blink+AOE+damage+CC, and it is one of the best initiation skills in the game, making you a great opener and follow-up for ganks and team clashes. Your added durability, move-speed boost, self-healing/sustain, and AOE damage+CC as you continue your rampage all make you good at making teamfights last, being able to soak in hits that would have otherwise been directed to your puny allies.
Overall, whether laning as a Tank-class Hero at the Top Lane, or as Support at Bot (some players even play him as a Jungler Tank), the Hulk remains to be a great hero that has excellent presence throughout all phases of the game, whatever role he may initially start with.
What Makes Hulk a Great Support:
- Excellent initiate, counter-initiate, and follow-through with his ultimate, basic skills, and enhanced normal attacks, making him especially great during post-laning ganks and team fights
- Can act as a bodyguard for his allies, countering enemy advances by peeling away enemy heroes, and offering his own body as a shield as he rampages about, should opponents choose to dive in
- Able to harass enemies via ranged pokes and dive-and-retreat attacks with his move-speed boosts and self-sustain, to maintain lane control during the early-game laning phase
Hulk full details: MARVEL Super War - Hulk Hero Spotlight
4. Professor X
New Support Hero Professor X | Marvel Super War
The founder of the X-Men, Charles Xavier, Professor X, possesses some of the best crowd control skill lineups throughout the game, making it indeed a no-brainer to put him among our top Support Heroes here in MSW as our 4th placer.
Sleeps, slows, stuns, and literally a “crowd-control” - these are the CC skills you have in your kit when playing as Professor X. Your passive skill also decreases the armor and resistance of your controlled enemy heroes, making it easier for your team to defeat them while they're under your control effects. Your third skill conjures a wide zone around you that not only gives damage reduction to your allies, but also applies continuous damage and slows/stuns to enemies within that area. Your ultimate is a global skill that affects all enemy heroes, gaining their vision and adding mini-zones that deal damage and sleep debuffs on enemies who find themselves still within those zones after the skill’s brief activation period. What a great skill set so far, full of various utility, crowd control, and harass effects.
Your first skill is an AOE damage+slow skill used for harassing and poking. Your second, a directional projectile that lets you briefly control the movement of the first enemy hero it hits, forcing them to move towards your specified direction. Move them where, you ask? You can skillfully puppeteer them either towards you and your teammates to close the gap if they’re running away or if your team is advancing, towards your team’s conjured zones especially those you put yourself, or, even away from you and your allies, if that target hero is actively chasing you or is moving in for the kill.
With Professor X, all your skills deal damage, apply some form of crowd control, and are useful from the early to late game phases. Your utility skills also provide great protection for your allies, albeit having no direct healing or shields. Prof X’s amazing kit, everyone.
What Makes Professor X a Great Support:
- Great harass damage output and excellent crowd control with all his skills
- The utility and protection provided by his skills (while missing some direct heals/shields) are highly varied and top-notch
- All skills are relevant on all game stages, making him valuable from the early to late game phases of the match
Professor X full details: #MARVELSuperWar - Professor X
3. Polaris
Polaris Support in Ranked Game
Another hero from the X-Men franchise drifts and levitates her way through our list, latching herself here on this 3rd spot. Magneto’s daughter, Polaris (Lorna Dane), uses her inherited and specialized magnetic abilities to effectively support her team with great harass damage and crowd control.
In playing Polaris, you constantly apply Positive and Negative polarities to enemy and ally heroes (including yourself) using your skills. The charged enemies then get pulled towards or away from other charged heroes, applying damage and a mini-stun as they get pulled and pushed apart. This highly disrupts enemy movement and applies effective zoning throughout the entire game, which is a truly annoying mechanic for your enemies to work with when playing against you. Just this aspect of your skill set alone already gives big points towards your ability to protect allies, harass enemies, and be effective during the post-laning stages
As for utility and sustain, your third skill gives some move-speed buffs and shields to you and a target ally hero, as well as adds a Negative polarity for you both. It doesn’t look too flashy, yes, but when comboed with your other skills that add either a Positive or a Negative polarity on up to two different enemy heroes, this can be used as an offensive or defensive tool to push and pull your enemies in the middle of ganks and clashes.
Towards the late game, your bonus damage and overall damage output would scale nicely, allowing you to deal significant damage paired with your great crowd control. Your ultimate, having one of the longest stun durations for a ranged AOE damage+CC ult, is also great for initiates and follow-throughs, or even in doing counter-initiates when placed well.
What Makes Polaris a Great Support:
- Has excellent crowd control and enemy movement disruption with her passive, plus good utility from her basic skills that allow her to protect her allies in her own way
- Has high damage output for a support hero, great for poking and harassing enemies
- Her ultimate AOE damage+stun is a great ability to have during the post-laning game stages
Polaris full details: MARVEL Super War - Polaris
2. Mantis
Eastern Emerald skin - Mantis Ranked Gameplay
Yes, generic healer supports are easy to use and can tend to be overrated at times, but when we look at the skill set of the Guardian of the Galaxy’s Mantis, we can see that she is indeed still one of the most capable Support-class Heroes in MSW, making her worthy to be placed 2nd on our list.
The core aspect when you play as Mantis is your consistent heals. Your second skill actively gives healing to nearby ally heroes, and has an extra passive effect of triggering that healing once you deal ability damage a certain amount of times as well. This excellent sustain is useful early game to top off your MM, directly countering enemy pokes/harass and minimizing your team's retreats to your base for recovery. Your team healing is also beneficial during the mid-late stages of the game by lessening the need for your allies to go back to your base as your team roams around the map, making pushing and taking other objectives much more efficient than without having team heals. During pick-offs and clashes, the HP regeneration you provide to your team prolongs fights, maximizing your team’s combat output by making you and your allies outlast your enemies in battle.
Your first skill bounces damage between enemies a good couple of times, and it makes for good harass, even able to last-hit retreating enemies or dying enemy heroes under their tower trying to recall themselves back to their base - targets who should have been already normally out-of-reach. This skill along with the damage-over-time from your ultimate triggers your passive heals as well. You also have another passive ability that gives some utility by providing vision to the nearest bush, which helps against enemy ganks, surprise attacks, or Surtur/Bast steals.
Your ultimate is a single-target 2.5-second hold/CC, one of the longest-duration crowd control skills in the game, able to situationally shut down key enemies during a clash, offensively capture an isolated enemy during ganks, or defensively counter a lone enemy initiator/Fighter/Assassin dive. This skill needs a bit of team coordination since it can only target one enemy hero, and it makes you immobilized along with your target (but compensates a bit by giving you damage reduction while under the skill). This is truly useful as a good follow-through or counter-initiate after a clash or during enemy/ally ganks, while providing a bit of implied/effective zoning as well, as this indeed makes you a threat to enemies who want to charge in if this skill is available and off-cooldown.
What Makes Mantis a Great Support:
- Consistent team healing and sustain, excellent protection/utility scores
- Good harass and lane control via pokes, vision, and some effective zoning
- Has a long-duration single-target CC hold (ultimate) that can be used defensively or offensively
Mantis full details: Marvel Super War - Dark Mantis
Bonus: Underperforming Supports
Since only a few remaining Support-class Heroes didn't make the cut, here's a short explanation as to where each of these heroes fell a bit short for them to be not included in our Top 10 List:
- Cloak and Dagger - has a very good kit with healing+shields, good damage/poke, has various CC (slow/silence/immobility/mini-zone), but sadly, her sustain, damage, and CC output are all below that of the other heroes who made it on this list. Also, her ultimate may be a great lifesaver during the early-mid game, but late game, it's much more tricky to use with everyone's amped gear. Many heroes might not need her saving by then, and a hard-hitting geared DPS/DD ally hero disappearing mid-fight might instead cost them that clash.
- Ebony Maw - also a good character with good damage, utility, and crowd control. He has a unique mechanic/gameplay with his skills, and his Support style focuses more on dealing damage to his enemies. However, this hero is only great when mastered, and only if his team has good composition/coordination.
- Iceman - has excellent poke/harass with his AOE pokes and CC, plus some zoning, but relatively lacks the utility needed to protect his teammates more reliably.
- Ronan - has good AOE CC and durability for team protection, but lacks mobility, making it difficult for him to connect his basic skills and ultimate. With that, he’s actually great for follow-throughs, but then his team would need another more reliable initiator on their hero lineup to pull that off.
- Cull Obsidian - has an interesting enemy pull, and has some positioning disruption mechanics and skills, but in practice, it's too chaotic, it's not that strong in teamfights, and it sadly doesn't fit the current meta. He’s arguably the worst Support-class Hero at this time, so he might need a rework or at least some buffs to be more competitive.
And now, our top Support Hero for Marvel Super War:
1. Sersi
Sersi Ranked Gameplay - INSANE DAMAGE for a Support Hero!
The Eternals' Sersi wields broad and extensive situational utility skills, pushing her to be at the top of our ranking list as the Best Support Hero for Marvel Super War.
She has healing, shields, def-break debuffs, slows, knockdowns, stuns, zoning, ranged pokes, and she can deal significant damage under the right circumstances. She simply has it all.
Okay, maybe not all, but the only thing missing in her utility toolkit is some kind of mobility buff. However, her defensive/protective/counteractive playstyle that is highly reactive to enemy advances totally makes up for it, being able to briefly shut down advancing Assassins, Fighters, or Tanks, or providing cover against ranged attacks and skills from Marksman or Energy heroes. No need for mobility, as she will stay and hold her ground, protecting her team and attacking her enemies, able to counter any hero.
Damage-wise, she does have good ranged AOE poke skills that hurt during the early to mid-game phases of the match, but towards the late game, her damage output would not scale as high (unless the clash happens near a bush and/or monsters). Her passive and active abilities have layers of underlying mechanics, applied effects, and combinations, so playing this hero may not be as straightforward for inexperienced players.
Overall, if you do play Sersi, you will have an amazing skill set that brings excellent Protection and Utility, good Harass, and great Post-Laning Scores, making you truly an essential member of your team.
What Makes Sersi a Great Support:
- Excellent utility coverage for any situation, able to counter most enemies
- Provides great protection via healing, shields, counters, zoning, and some vision
- Good harass and general damage+CC output, making her excellent during clashes
Sersi full details: #MARVELSuperWar - Sersi
Final notes for Support-class Heroes in Marvel Super War:
Support Heroes and Characters across many different games are indeed usually underrated, and ironically lack the support they themselves need.
But hopefully, as we understand the importance and strengths of these unsung heroes, more and more players would hopefully appreciate and learn how to be effective in this role and position, especially here in Marvel Super War.
So, for all the Support Mains out there, kudos to you and your undervalued work of holding the team together and making sure they live up to their best potential.
Now, let’s go play and queue!
Credits and thanks to Althanor Gaming (and KyouiTV) for the great Marvel Super War gameplay footages: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlthanorGaming
