Duelist characters specialize in dealing high damage inMarvel Rivals, but few come close to the injury Hawkeye can inflict with his sharpshooting abilities. Armed with his trusty bow, Hawkeye is the pinnacle of accuracy, using his aim to pinpoint targets and eliminate them quickly. However, Hawkeye comes equipped with more tricks than you would expect, giving him more tools to take out foes.
The archetype of Duelist refers to characters with lower health but high DPS. Unlike supportive Strategists or tank-like Vanguards, Duelists like Hawkeye are designed to dish out damage to targets who threaten their team the most. Similar to other characters likeWinter Soldier inMarvel Rivals,Hawkeye’s abilities are at their strongest when your aim is true, and you hit your enemies consistently.
All Hawkeye Abilities
Stay Focused To Deal More Damage
Hawkeye is rated as a four-star difficulty character, meaning it will take some time to master all his abilities. The skill ceiling for Hawkeye comes from aiming at moving targets with his arrows, which have multiple properties depending on the abilities you use. Despite being a straightforward character to understand,Hawkeye is hard for beginners to usedue to the accuracy needed to wield his skills properly.
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The table below outlines all of Hawkeye’s abilities, as well as how long it takes some of them to recover:
Basic Ability
N/A
Unsheathe a katana and slash forward, Launching Up enemies that get hit.
12 seconds
Shoot a Hypersonic Arrow, dealing two instances of damage to enemies in its path and inflicting them with Slow. This ability can knock down flying heroes.
Passive
Aim at an enemy to improve Focus, enhancing the damage inflicted by Piercing Arrow.
Ultimate
Capture Afterimages of enemies in Hawkeye’s view. Damage dealt to an Afterimage is transferred to the corresponding enemy.
Hawkeye canfreely switch between Piercing Arrows and Blast Arrowswith an input, giving him multiple ammo types to use against enemies. Piercing Arrows cover a greater distance, doing higher single-target damage, especially if you score a headshot. On the other hand, Blast Arrows deal three AoE explosions at mid to close ranges, creating a shotgun-like effect that can be good at disrupting enemy teams grouped up.
The charge of Archer’s Focus builds as your reticle hovers over an enemy character. When they move away or you lose them in your sights, the charge on this Focus is reduced, causing your Piercing Arrow to deal less damage.
Crescent Slash can knock enemies offmaps inMarvel Rivals, eliminating them if they don’t have a way to get back onto a battlefield. The other melee skill of Hawkeye, Ronin Slash, functions as both an attack and a skill to reflect projectiles. However, the timing on this reflection is incredibly strict, so you may not want to risk using it to bounce back powerful Ultimates like Iron Man’s Maximum Pulse.
How To Use Hawkeye’s Ultimate
Never Let Enemies Leave Your Sight
Hunter’s Sight is an Ultimate thatonly works when you can see enemieswithin Hawkeye’s line of sight. To make sure this Ultimate captures as many Afterimages as possible, you need to get to the high ground above an enemy team or in a place where you can see many opponents at once. Try using Hawkeye’s Skyward Leap double jump to reach locations where you have a better view of the battlefield to accomplish this.
As soon as you activate Hawkeye’s Ultimate, you have a limited time to start shooting. That being said,your total Focus charges almost instantlywhen you aim at a target or its Afterimage during this state. This allows you to deal the highest damage possible to a target, who can’t escape you since their Afterimages remain stationary for you to shoot quickly.
Launch Piercing Arrows over and over at targets to eliminate as many targets as you can while Hunter’s Sight is activated. A good strategy for this Ultimate is to aim for the Afterimages of targets with lower health, instead of bulkierVanguards inMarvel Rivals. Youcan still land headshots on Afterimages, so continue to aim for a target’s head to maximize the damage output of every Arrow you fire.
Best Team Composition For Hawkeye
Allow Others To See Afterimages
Some of the best characters to have alongside a team with Hawkeye are:
Black Widow is the only character that has aTeam-Up ability inMarvel Rivalswith Hawkeye, called"Supersensory Vision.“This ability allows Hawkeye toshare his Hunter’s Sight Ultimate with Black Widow when activated, giving the sniper to catch sight and damage enemy Afterimages. This is an enormous buff for Black Widow, allowing her to eliminate targets quickly with headshots to their Afterimages.
Although Hawkeye’s Hunter’s Sight ability lasts for 10 seconds, Black Widow can only see Afterimages for 7 seconds through her Team-Up ability.
Other characters that work well with Hawkeye includeMantis, who can consume Life Orbs to give Hawkeye a damage booston his attacks. This gives Hawkeye the ability to take out targets even faster, eliminating some foes with a single headshot. Doctor Strange can provide a shield for Hawkeye to shoot behind, while Venom can slow targets down with a symbiotic tether that can help Hawkeye hit more mobile enemies.
Best Tips, Tricks Strategies For Winning With Hawkeye
Stay Mobile And Watch Enemy Movements
As of this time of writing, Hawkeye is easily one of the strongest Duelists in the game, mostly due to how his high damage output leads to many eliminations. Hawkeye excelswhen you stay behind your team to shoot targets from afar. When using cover to steadily aim shots, Hawkeye can fire onto contested objectives or choke points to easily pick off a few enemies.
Marvel Rivals: Best Team Comps Tier List
The combination of different characters in Marvel Rivals makes up your team, but a certain number of people in various roles can make a group strong.
However, Hawkeye’s strength can lead to him getting targeted by characters like Spider-Man orIron Fist inMarvel Rivals. To avoid getting defeated by aggressive enemies, remember touse your Blast Arrows or Crescent Slash to knock enemies awayfrom you. This should give you the space to double-jump back to the safety of your team or toward a health pack to recover from being attacked.
As long as your aim is true, you should have little trouble finding success as Hawkeye.Keep your Focus high and target characters with low healthto score elimination after elimination, reducing your opponent’s numbers fast. With Hawkeye’s abilities helping you position yourself to snipe enemies down, you’re able to become a lethal force that enemy teams will fear inMarvel Rivals.
