Marvel Rivals Season 5 has begun, and that means a new hero joins the ranks. With the last season’s offering landing in the DPS and tank roles with Daredevil and Angela, it only made sense for this season’s first new character to take on the role of support. Gambit (A.J. LoCascio, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai) has one foot firmly in that role but also sports a fair amount of offense, giving him a split personality that makes him a versatile second or even third pick in either category.
If you find yourself thinking Gambit is a strange choice for a support, you aren’t alone. Remy’s abilities have only ever been offensive, so adapting his kit to the class requires some creative interpretations, but that is something that has to be.
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Few major Marvel characters are centered on support-style powers, so bending character concepts is going to be a frequent event. But the developers did a great job of taking what Gambit has always been known for and making it fit into the role.
The Marvel Rivals support class gets a new edge with everyone’s favorite Cajun in Season 5.
At the core of Gambit’s kit is his playing cards. His standard attack sees him fire three cards forward in an arc, spreading apart as they travel. Each card can either heal an ally or damage an enemy. This gives Gambit’s primary attack an interesting form of dropoff. When he hits a target at point-blank range, he gets all three cards, amplifying the effect, while further targets will only get hit with one.
But while the effect can be deluded with range, having the spread can give it a wider area effect, helping several characters in the early moments of a clash. When range units are still just poking at each other, Gambit can stand a little further back and hit several tanks or DPS, keeping them topped off for when the fight fully joins. Getting used to how far away from the action Gambit wants to be in any given situation feels like an important element of his playstyle.
Gambit’s abilities make up what may be the most complex kit in Marvel Rivals. His powers interact in interesting ways, and two of them run off a special resource he generates for himself, Sleight of Hand. Before we jump into the complex stuff, let’s first look at his more straightforward pair of abilities.
The Cajun Charge changes from a simple dash to something with impact if you combo it just right.
First is the Cajun Charge. This is a simple forward dash. Gambit can store a pair of uses for it, so he can get a solid burst of speed when he needs it. Although it has a sizable cooldown, it’s best to leave a charge on standby for emergencies.
His second ability is Bayou Bash. Gambit slams his staff into the ground, creating a shockwave. This shockwave damages nearby enemies while healing allies. However, if you use Bayou Bash immediately after Cajun Charge, Gambit will perform Big Easy Impact instead. This will propel the Cajun further forward as he spins through the air, damaging enemies as he goes.
This is one of the trickier elements of the kit to get used to. In my first several games, I repeatedly tried to dash towards my comrades and do the AOE heal on them, only to find myself flung deep into the enemy’s ranks and soon dead. It’s something you just have to get used to.
When playing Gambit, you will notice four playing card icons in the center of the screen. These represent Gambit’s Sleight of Hand (SoH). When one or more stacks are spent, they gradually recharge over time. These are the fuel for the remaining abilities in the new hero’s kit.
Gambit isn’t a healer; he’s true support, making a difference as a Strategist.
Healing Hearts uses one stack of SoH to heal and activate the Healing Hearts deck. While he has this deck available, he can spend another stack of SoH to use either Bridge Boost or Purifying Pick Up. Bridge Boost sees Gambit fire a full deck of cards that bounce between his allies. Every ally hit receives healing and gets a healing boost. Purifying Pick Up creates an AOE effect that heals nearby allies and purifies them.
In case you are familiar with how Purify works in Marvel Rivals, let me explain. Purify removes any negative status effects. These can be debuffs that lower stats, or status effects like stun or immobile. For example: If Groot uses his ult to lock down Gambit and his teammates, Purfying Pick Up will cancel the ult, allowing them to move freely.
Gambit’s core healing abilities make him a second-tier healer. While his rates are respectable, he’s not going to allow characters to weather heavy damage for long. He’s not looking to challenge Luna Snow or other main supports as the anchor of a team, but he does provide some strong secondary healing, and his interaction with status effects, as well as his healing boost, give him a role to play, even alongside the more powerful and focused support characters.
Gambit isn’t as strong as others in the Marvel Rivals support class, but his secondary effects have the right bite.
Gambit has another set of abilities he can access, the Breaking Spades deck. Triggered, just like Healing Hearts, this deck activates another pair of abilities: Bidding Barrage and Explosive Trick. Bidding Barrage costs a stack of SoH and causes Gambit to fire an arc of cards in all directions on a horizontal plane.
Enemies hit by these attacks take explosive damage and are launched. Explosive Trick spends one stack of SoH to fire a shot at an enemy. If it hits, it deals damage and reduces the amount of healing the character receives for a short time.
Much like Healing Hearts, Breaking Spades doesn’t do as powerful as other abilities in its class, but makes up for it with its powerful secondary effects. Being able to launch enemies as they try to dive at an ally, or reducing the healing a tank receives in the middle of a hard fight, can tilt the scales from defeat to victory if you can manage Gambit’s resources correctly.
Tracking Gambit’s Sleight of Hand can be tricky.
Despite having the icons right in front of you, keeping track of how much SoH you have at all times can be tricky. With casts frequently costing you two stacks, one to switch decks and one to activate the ability, being frugal with the resource is a must, or you will find yourself waiting for it to charge at a critical moment.
The final trick in Gambit’s deck is his ultimate ability. Ragin’ Royal Flush sees Gambit affect all allies in range and line of sight. All are healed and purified, as well as sent into Kinetic Transfer. While in this state, both gain boosted speed and jumping range, and allies gain a boost to their ultimate charge rate.
This ability brings a fun twist to Gambit’s energy-based powers. As he’s always manipulated kinetic energy, this feels like a clever interpretation of that. It allows him to fit the role of a support really well, while not feeling too far from the character’s actual power set.
Gambit is a bit difficult to master, but pays off.
From a functional standpoint, the ability can be tricky to use. Keeping track of when players may be close to their ultimates in the middle of a protracted fight when Royal Flush comes online can be tricky if not on comms. Also, it can be a bit of a surprise to allies when they are targeted with it if they aren’t expecting it.
This feels like an ability that will frequently be best utilized by organized teams at higher ranks of play. Though it can still be fun, even if not fully utilized in more chaotic environments.
Gambit brings a fun mix of damage, heals, and status manipulation to Marvel Rivals. His ability to cancel out powerful effects will be game-altering for those with the patience to hold onto the resources to use them and the reflexes to respond at the right moment.
Marvel Rivals is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
