A new season in Marvel Rivals means a new playable character is available. With the addition of Angela (Brittany Cox, Fena: Pirate Princess) to the Vanguard role, Marvel Rivals Season 4, developed and published by NetEase Games, gains something entirely new: a flying Vanguard. Ready to soar through the sky and mix it up on the ground, Asgard’s assassin looks to carve her own niche out of the meta thanks to her maneuverability and durability.
By default, Angela is an airborne character. She has a good default speed, and her melee attack gains damage if she hits an enemy after moving forward for a few seconds. This encourages hit-and-run tactics to harass enemies, since hovering over a foe’s head and stabbing at them is much more likely to get her killed, while doing less damage. When maneuverability isn’t an option, however, Angela can look to the first of her abilities to help keep her alive—her shield.
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Angela’s shield sports a healthy 300 hit points, but it effectively just protects her. This means that Angela won’t be offering much protection to her teammates in Marvel Rivals, unless they are willing to get in line behind her. The shield does have a brief cooldown, so raise it only when you need it. Her shield is available to her both in the sky and when Angela takes her battles to the ground.
Angela’s shield won’t offer much protection to her Marvel Rivals teammates.
While her shield isn’t giant, she can utilize its small size to significant effect if she has the reflexes and skill to do so. Her ability to soar means that, if appropriately positioned, that small shield can shut down fight-winning ultimates like Iron Man’s, or take a lot of the damage from Hela before she can start raining death on a team. These types of plays will be tricky to pull off in Marvel Rivals and require a smidge of opportune placement, but they’ll look great on highlight reels.
The primary way Angela returns to terra firma is through her Divine Judgment ability. When activated, Angela crashes into the ground, creating an area of glowing spikes. While within the spikes, Anegla’s damage increases, and her attacks grant bonus health to herself, as well as nearby allies.
When she is on the ground, Angela exchanges her spear for a pair of axes. Her attack speed is noticeably increased with her axes, allowing her to dish out a lot more damage. Angela can remain on the ground indefinitely if she chooses, while using her Wingblade ascent skill will pop her back up into the sky. It is important to note that Divine Judgement’s cooldown doesn’t start until after Angela takes flight. So if you want to benefit from the ability quickly, it behooves you to return to the sky soon. The 12-second cooldown ensures there is always a solid wait.
The most dangerous ability Angela offers in her Marvel Rivals kit is the Assassin’s Charge.
This ability is the linchpin of Angela’s kit in Marvel Rivals. Picking your moment to drop from the sky and bring both pain and sustenance to a melee around a point will be crucial. Dropping onto squishy targets like supports will help guarantee Angela gets the most out of her power before returning to the sky.
Once back in the sky, Angela’s other standard ability, Assassin’s Charge, can be brought to bear. This ability increases her movement speed significantly. When Angela collides with an opponent, she grabs them, bringing them along for the rest of her speed burst. When the ability expires, the foe will be propelled forward, away from Angela, and perhaps into an unfavorable position, like off the edge of the map.
This ability is the most dangerous in Angela’s Marvel Rivals kit. It’s so fun to scoop up a tank and break an opponent’s formation, opening up opportunities for your team. However, make sure you have a natural escape path. Angela can take some hits, but if she gets caught out of place by a few enemies, she’s likely to accomplish little more than feeding their super meters. And speaking of supers…
Angela is a powerful ally to have in Marvel Rivals.
Angela’s super ability, Heaven’s Retribution, is an amped up version of her Divine Judgement. When activated, she throws her spear at a target location. The same field of spikes appears and provides the same bonuses, but this time, nearby enemies are harnessed to the spear, making it so they can’t escape. Angela then immediately follows the spear into battle, donning her axes, ready to slice up some Marvel Rivals foes.
This super not only provides a potentially devastating impact in a fight on its own, but it can be combined with so many other supers for great effect. Whether it’s an offensive ability like Phoenix’s Endsong Inferno, or a defensive one like Invisible Woman’s Ultimate, it’s almost a certainty that on a team of six, there will be at least one other ultimate, not to mention standard abilities, that will work great with this. Heaven’s angel is truly a team player.
With a greater focus on damage and breaking up formations than on keeping teammates alive, Angela falls solidly into the off-tank role. She is ill-equipped for keeping a team on its feet through a big fight, so if you find yourself solo-tanking, there are other options you should probably lean towards. That said, her disruption capabilities are pretty strong, making her a powerful ally.
Angela brings a truly one-of-a-kind kit to Marvel Rivals. Her versatility allows her to strike from both the sky and the ground, making her a great new option for the Vanguard class. Her ability to disrupt enemy formations gives her a fun and dynamic approach to the game, as long as you are sure you aren’t flying into a fight you can’t fly out of.
Angela is now playable in Marvel Rivals, which is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
