As Marvel Rivals‘ newest support character, White Fox/Ami Han (Jennifer Sun Bell, The Outer Worlds 2) brings her magic and charms to her matches. While she primarily looks to sustain her allies, when the claws come out, she can hold her own, allowing her to slash back at pesky dive characters, giving her a bit of self-preservation, along with her team support.
Like the early support option, Cloak & Dagger, White Fox brings two sets of combat abilities. Depending on whether or not she is in her Awakened state, Ami Han will have access to different specials and primary fire. Her Awakened State is more aggressive than her standard kit, but the transformation is temporary.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
Under your targeting reticle, players will see three fox tail icons. These icons will gradually fill over time. When the Awakened state is activated, the amount of energy in these icons determines how long it lasts. Maintaining this special state isn’t the only thing this energy is used for, making it an important commodity to properly manage.
White Fox’s primary attack can be used for ranged or close-up combat.
White Fox’s primary attack can take the form of either a ranged attack or a melee attack, depending on her state. In her standard form, she fires a ranged shot that can bounce off of characters and surfaces, though only once. This attack heals allies and damages enemies.
While the shot itself flies straight, the bounce direction of this attack doesn’t follow true trajectories. The bounce will go in the direction of the nearest target, making it much more useful than a true bounce would be, though still requiring some aiming on the player’s part.
In her Awakened state, Ami’s claws come out, and she slashes away at her opponents. As she does, AOE healing expands out from her, providing a sustaining heal for nearby allies. This allows her to protect herself without completely sacrificing her team to do it.
Spirit Sanctuary and Predatory Pounce add movement abilities to White Fox’s kit.
In her base form, White Fox has a movement special called Spirit Sanctuary. When an ally is targeted, Ami is teleported to their side. Once there, she provides immediate healing and erects a barrier. This ability can work great both for getting White Fox back into a fight faster and, in some cases, for teleporting out of a losing situation to the safety of a nearby teammate. The range of this ability is fairly long, allowing the support to move around when needed.
A movement ability is still an option when White Fox is Awakened, but it is far shorter and more aggressive. Predatory Pounce causes Ami to dash forward in a straight line. If she connects with an enemy, she damages them and flips them over. This maneuver activates a follow-up attack that allows her to dash again in the direction she came from, this time carrying her target back with her.
Despite its fairly short range, this ability looks like a great way to break up enemy formations. Grabbing tanks or snatching an out-of-position healer and pulling them back towards your team spells instant death in many scenarios.
The Charmed effect is a great source of crowd control.
When in her standard form, her second ability costs her one of her Spirit Fox charges to use, but it is worth the cost. Spectral Surge fires a Fox Spirit directly away from her, passing through friends and foes alike. Allies are healed and granted invulnerability, while enemies suffer damage and become charmed. Charmed makes the affected character do nothing but walk towards White Fox for a couple of seconds. And when the ability is activated, a great visual aid highlights what the Fox Spirit will pass through, making it easier to line up your shots.
Everything this ability does is great, but the true winner here is the charm. Removing a major damage dealer or critical source of healing from a team fight, even for just a couple of seconds, can be fight-winning. It feels likely that the biggest thing that separates good White Fox players from great ones will be how effectively they can land these shots. Never forget: DPS wins duels, crowd control wins team fights.
In her Awakened state, Ami’s second ability is Tail Sweep. This is a fairly basic ability. It sweeps across a large area in front of her, launching hit enemies straight up. While not exciting, it can still do some great work for positioning in the midst of a fight. Popping a Doctor Strange up could leave a team open, or knocking a DPS up just as they get ready to fire a powerful ability could send a team-fight-winning attack off course. Tricky timing in some instances, but it’ll be great when it works.
Her ultimate, Kumiho Unleashed, turns Ami into a giant nine-tailed fox.
Whether she is Awakened or not, White Fox’s ultimate ability stays the same. Kumiho Unleashed sees Ami transform into a giant, nine-tailed fox. While in this form, her only attack is a stomp that injures all enemies around her. She also constantly heals allies nearby, whether she is attacking or not. In addition, she gains 600 hit points while in this state, but cannot be affected by healing.
This ability is very powerful in grinding team fights. When there is just a constant barrage of damage coming in, this ability can help weather the storm, while also applying solid amounts of damage to the entire enemy team if in range. The only problem is that it just never feels exciting to use. Transforming into a giant fox should be cool and dynamic, but unfortunately, something gets lost in translation, making it one of the less thrilling ultimates in the game.
White Fox brings a fun and effective kit to the support class. Balancing her two states and getting the most out of her key abilities like Spectral Surge promise plenty for players to master, while also bringing a largely dynamic kit that can be fun and effective to just play in casual.
Marvel Rivals is available to play now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
