Black Panther is a Duelist hero in Marvel Rivals. He is an Assassin through and through, kitted to traverse the higher ground and get a jump on the enemy backline and solo fools. King T’Challa gets four stars out of five in terms of difficulty, meaning he is one of the more complex heroes to grasp and requires more time in practice to get the most out of it.
In this ultimate guide, we’ll go over how to play Black Panther in Marvel Rivals correctly. We’ll delve into his abilities, lesser-known details, tips, and how to play with him like a pro.
All Black Panther Abilities In Marvel Rivals
| Name | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Vibranium Claws | Normal Attack | He uses his claws to slice enemies at close melee range |
| Bast’s Descent | Ultimate Ability | Conjures a giant spectral panther that charges forward, dealing damage and attaching a Vibranium Mark to enemies hit. It also refills Spirit Rend. |
| Spirit Rend | Dash Ability | Dashes forward and deals damage to enemies in the path. Enemies with Vibranium Mark generate Bonus HP and refill the ability instantly. |
| Spinning Kick | Offensive Ability | Spirals forward while kicking and dealing damage. Attaches a Vibranium Mark on struck enemies. |
| Subtle Step | Movement Ability | Run up vertically on walls while holding the SPACE key. Perform a jump after detaching from the wall. |
| Spear Toss | Offensive Ability | Conjures a Vibranium energy spear and flings it forward. The spear deals damage to the target and creates a radius of Vibranium Force Field (AoE) that attaches Vibranium Marks on all enemies within the explosion. |
| Panther’s Cunning | Passive Ability | Deal higher damage when at low Health |
| Wakandan Master | Team-Up Ability | When paired with Magik, Black Panther can rewind a few seconds to a previous position. After passing through Limbo, he’ll gain Bonus Health based on missing HP. |
To use Black Panther effectively, you need to know the crucial details of each ability:
Vibranium Claws:
- Deals 35 damage per hit.
- You must be in the melee range of 3m from the target to attack.
- There is a 0.44-second delay between hits.
Bast’s Descent:
- The astral panther travels 22m when fired. Its AoE also includes 20m of width and 7m height.
- It deals 150 damage to anyone caught in its AoE.
- Every enemy caught in its line of fire will receive a Vibranium mark.
- Activation will also refresh the Spirit Rend ability.
Spirit Rend:
- While lunging forward, Black Panther covers a maximum of 15m of distance.
- It deals 80 damage to anyone in its path.
- Has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
- If the victim/s has a Vibranium Mark on them, Black Panther will receive 40 bonus HP per marked target hit. However, he’ll only obtain a maximum of 120 bonus HP regardless of how many marked targets are impacted.
- The Bonus HP is displayed by the blue bar over his regular health meter. This bonus HP will dissipate over time.
- Hitting Vibranium Marked enemies will also recharge this ability immediately.
Spinning Kick:
- Black Panther can travel a maximum of 16m while kicking.
- Deals 70 damage to all enemies caught in its course.
- Has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
- All enemies hit with this ability will receive a Vibranium Mark.
- It has a slight wind-up before the kicking initiates.
Subtle Step:
- You can double jump after you reach the top of a wall. He can’t double jump all the time, only after detaching from a wall.
- The double jump has a cooldown of 3 seconds.
Spear Toss:
- The spear is fired in an arc. Aim it upwards if you want to hit a long-distance target.
- Deals 45 damage to the directly struck enemy.
- The Vibranium Force Field has a 5m spherical radius on impact.
- Anyone caught in the radius will receive a Vibranium Mark.
- This ability has two charges.
- The cooldown for each charge is 6 seconds.
Pather’s Cunning:
- This passive is activated when Black Panther’s HP drops below 100.
- It gives a 20% boost to all his damage output.
Wakandan Master:
- You only need a Magick player in your team to activate this Team-up.
- Black Panther will rewind to where he was 5 seconds prior.
- He will receive 50% bonus health or damage taken conversion after the rewind.
- Has a 30-second cooldown.
How To Play Black Panther In Marvel Rivals
This section will cover what things you need to consider before you start playing as Black Panther in Marvel Rivals:
- It’s not easy to play as Black Panther. You need to take your time and practice his kit, like combos, cooldown cycles, and movement abilities. All of this should become second nature to you so that you are not bogged down by which buttons to press but focus on strategizing for the win.
- You need to be synchronized with your team and rush the enemies together. A solo Black Panther has little chance of survival, so you need your team to watch your back, distract enemies, and heal/buff you while you shred the enemies’ backline.
- Embrace the Black Panther’s assassin role. Practice emerging from nowhere, zipping through the unexpecting enemies, and getting out of dodge.
- Although we have mentioned the ideal combo below, you should know how to improvise with the situation at hand and the abilities you have at your disposal. A stationary Black Panther is a massively lost potential.
- If you are attuned to his movement abilities, Black Panther will thrive in the middle of a frantic fray. Your goal is to dash around a battle, hitting all the enemies in sight while constantly dashing away to put them off-kilter.
- Black Panther is great at dealing with stragglers. His prime prey are the isolated backline supports and retreating low HP Duelists. Take them out before they get healed by their support.
- Increasing your mouse sensitivity will help you chain the combos since you are constantly turning your camera to aim at his abilities.
Pro Tips
With an understanding of Black Panther’s capabilities, let’s explore the best ways to utilize his powers. We’ve gathered a selection of tips and tricks from the leading Black Panther players in Marvel Rivals:
1) The Importance Of Spirit Rend
The correct use of Spirit Rend is a matter of life and death for Black Panther. Before using it, you must be sure that the cooldown will be reset and that you essentially have constant access to this ability. This is the only ability that takes advantage of the Vibranium Mark (seen in the picture above), giving you bonus HP and resetting Spirit Rend, and allows you to retreat when things get too chaotic. It should be utilized wisely!
You’ll be left a sitting duck for the enemy team to pick off if Spirit Rend goes on a cooldown in the middle of a sweaty skirmish.
You should only liberally use this ability when:
- You respawn and want to travel quickly to the battle zone/team.
- Retreating to cover or going back to your Strategists/healers.
- Or you can risk it if you have the opening for a guaranteed kill and you know that your death won’t hurt your team’s chances.
2) Ideal Combo For Most Situations
There are a couple of ways to chain Black Panther’s abilities. Marvel Rivals even suggests one in the menus. However, there is one combo that is the most effective in a wide variety of situations:
Spear Toss > Spirit Rend > Spear Toss > Spirit Rend > Spinning Kick > Spirit Rend
Spinning Kick is the riskiest of all of his moves. This ability has a slight wind-up and propels you forward, both of which will leave you relatively vulnerable and most likely get you killed. Thus, you are better off leaving it for the end of the chain.
Spear Toss lets you attack from a distance without putting you in harm’s way and has two charges. Prioritize the spear at the beginning and middle of your combo, mark the enemies with its AoE, and spirit dash twice to exploit the mark and keep them on their toes.
The initial two spears and dashes will confuse the enemies, and by the time they track you, you are already winding up Spinning Kick. You can use the last Spirit Rend in the chain to continue the combo or dash away towards safety.
You can switch things around depending on the situation. Spinning Kick at the start is preferred when a bunch of enemies are ganged up over a chock point. A single Spear Toss and Spinning Kick is recommended when you only have one spear charge.
3) Assassin Black Panther
Another viable tactic for Black Panther is to focus on enemy support heroes. His wall-climbing ability and speed allow him to easily take unconventional routes and flank enemy Strategists and backline.
Take advantage of his predatory nature, sneak across the rooftops, and ignore the main lanes where most battles occur. Jump on the enemy healers, support, and ranged characters, and use your ferocious combos to stop them from aiding the frontline, leaving their DPS and Tanks high and dry for your team to annihilate.
4) Floor Dashing
It is a good practice to weave in primary attacks, Vibranium Claws, in the middle of your combos to maximize damage. However, while chaining abilities, you must have noticed that Spirit Rend’s distance of 15m will regularly push Black Panther away from the enemy, out of reach, to hit them with melee attacks. This forces you to walk up to the enemy to attack, taking away precious time not in combo.
To counter this dash overshoot, we advise you to aim down towards the ground at specific angles while using Spirit Rend. This will shorten your dashing distance, putting you next to the enemy to land a few slices and continue your combo.
This little detail will skyrocket your damage potential and minimize your melee whiffs after each dash. This is a Grandmaster-level and beyond tip, so work it into your playing style.
5) Traversal Skills and Positioning
The main two mechanics with which to become comfortable are Black Panther’s wall climb and double jump abilities. You should aim to use them to navigate the map and evade enemies fluidly. Use your wall climb when you turn corners while being chased. Use your double jump to stay unpredictable.
As for positioning, you should know what positions work well with Black Panther’s playstyle. His strongest positions revolve around the enemy not being able to see you and, ideally, not knowing where you are.
Try to stand around the corner at off-angles and higher grounds and scan the battlefield before engaging. In general, if the enemies can see you go somewhere, they can’t and charge them when they least expect it.
Black Panther is also superb at holding tight chokes with high ceilings that allow him to fish for spears and target squishes.
Try to reposition more often to keep enemies guessing!
6) Most Effective Gameplay Loop
Black Panther’s game plan that leads to the best possible outcomes can be boiled down into the following steps:
- Positioning: As mentioned above, stand in an obscure position and scan the battlefield before engaging.
- Pick a target: Use the camera to scout for the right target primed for jumping.
- Aggro: Now wait for the target/s attention to be taken by something else like your team’s Tank or busy in securing an objective.
- Engage: Dive into the fight and hone in on the target with the combo. Ideally, coordinate your attack with the team in case you missed your dash so they have your back while you retreat. Make it a practice to disengage if you whiff your Spirit Rend ability, go back into hiding, and reapporach the fight once the cooldown is over. Better to disengage than to die!
- Retreat: Always save a dash or your Spinning Kick if needed to disengage safely once you’ve dealt all the damage you can.
Black Panther is no easy character to play as in Marvel Rivals. He has a relatively niche assassin role on the team, giving your team an edge when played right. His agility, breakneck speed, prowling prowess, combo chaining, and playstyle demand a lot of time spent in the training room. However, once you properly step in his shoes, there is no stopping this kitty.