Marvel Rivals: Ultimate Doctor Strange Guide

Doctor Strange is a Vanguard hero in Marvel Rivals. His kit is designed to play the Close-Range Tank, engaging the enemy frontline head-on if you play his cards right. The Sorcerer Supreme gets three stars out of five in terms of difficulty, meaning he is not that hard of a hero to master.

This comprehensive guide will explain how to play Doctor Strange in Marvel Rivals effectively. We will explore his abilities, uncover some lesser-known aspects, share valuable tips, and teach you how to master his gameplay.

All Doctor Strange Abilities In Marvel Rivals

Name	Type	Details
Daggers of Denak	Normal Attack	A basic five-round projectile attack.
Eye of Agamotto	Ultimate Attack	Separate nearby enemies’ Souls from their bodies. Damage dealt to these Souls is transferred to their physical bodies.
Cloak of Levitation	Movement Ability	Ascend and then enter a brief state of sustained flight.
Maelstrom of Madness	Stack-based Offensive Ability	Release Dark Magic to deal damage to nearby enemies.
Pentagram of Farallah	Portal/Support Ability	Open portals between two locations, enabling all units to travel through them.
Shield of the Seraphim	Defensive Ability	Create a protective barrier against damage.
Price of Magic	Passive Ability	Dark Magic accumulates with every hit on an enemy. Doctor Strange will be cursed with Anti-Heal if Dark Magic peaks for too long.
Gamma Maelstrom	Team-Up Ability	Hulk charges Doctor Strange with gamma radiation. When Doctor Strange uses Maelstrom of Madness, he unleashes Gamma Maelstrom.

Each ability has more essential details you need to know to become the Sorcerer Supreme truly:

Daggers of Denak:

It fires five rounds in a single cast
Deals 18 damage per round.
Damage is lowered at the 10m range and drops to 62.5% at 20m.
Has eight ammo counts.
Does not Critical Hit.
Builds up 3.5 Dark Magic with each hit. (See Price of Magic)

Eye of Agamotto:

When activated, the ultimate attack will cast a 10m radius AoE that will separate the souls of enemies caught in it and prevent them from moving.
The affected enemies’ souls can be as green projections behind them.
The souls remain separated from their respective bodies for 3 seconds.
Any damage dealt to the souls will transfer directly to the enemy. The actual body can also be harmed at this point.
The initial cast deals 60 damage to the enemies within the radius.

Cloak of Levitation:

When activated, Doctor Strange will fly 8m vertically.
Afterwards, he has 6 seconds of complete free flight.
Has a cooldown of 15 seconds.

Maelstrom of Madness:

It is the only attack that releases the Dark Magic build-up.
It has a 360-degree 8m radius AoE around Doctor Strange.
The more Dark Magic you accumulate, the stronger this attack is. Each point of Dark Magic will deal an extra 1.3 damage.
It has falloff damage from 5m, lowering to 70% damage at the maximum range of 8m.
Has an 8-second cooldown.

Pentagram of Farallah:

Once Doctor Strange casts this ability, his controls will shift to the “entry” portal, and he can place it anywhere he wants. When the first portal is placed, the controls will transition to the next “exit” portal, which can be placed anywhere at will. After both are positioned, the controls revert to Doctor Strange, and he’ll open the portals.
Allies can travel instantly through the portal, and they can fire through the portal as well.
The portals stay active for 20 seconds.
Has a massive 180-second cooldown.
The ability will still go on the full cooldown if you cancel the ultimate before placing the portals.

Shield of the Seraphim:

It puts up a large circular shield in front that can absorb 800 HP worth of damage.
The shield has a recovery rate of 70 HP per second.
After releasing the shield, you can reuse it after a 1-second delay.
If the shield is destroyed, it will take 3 seconds to cool down.
The shield only blocks projectile attacks. Melee attacks will still go through.

Price of Magic:

When the Dark Magic meter fills up completely, the Ani-Heal debuff is applied after a 3-second delay.
The Dark Magic meter has a storage maximum capacity of 100 points.
Daggers of Denak generate 3.5 Dark Magic per round, and melee attacks generate 10 Dark Magic per hit.
If Dark Magic is not utilized, the Anti-Heal debuff will damage Doctor Strange every time he receives healing.
The Anti-Heal debuff lasts for 2 seconds.
The Dark Magic build-up is indicated by the meter under the crosshair and through the colour-shifting glyphs that appear on Doctor Strange’s cape.

Gamma Maelstrom:

You need a Hulk in your team to unlock this team-up ability.
This impacts the Maelstrom of Madness ability.
The ability’s AoE radius increases to 10m instead of the default 8m.
The damage per Dark Magic point increases to 1.4.
The damage falloff remains the same.
Has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
Doctor Strange won’t receive the Anti-Heal debuff with this team-up even while he is at maximum Dark Magic.

How To Play Doctor Strange In Marvel Rivals

This section outlines the key factors to consider before playing as Doctor Strange in Marvel Rivals:

Doctor Strange’s playstyle forces him to stay on the frontlines to deal damage with the Daggers of Denak for the Dark Magic build and release it with Maelstrom of Madness at relatively close range. Nevertheless, his kit isn’t really suited for the frontlines, so you need to be extra careful when engaging enemies, especially melee Duelists, head-on.
The Cloak of Levitation has a slow flight speed and a long cooldown, meaning you can’t rely on it whenever you are in a bad spot.
His shield is a good defensive option, but Doctor Strange is mostly a sitting duck if it’s broken (and you don’t have the Cloak of Levitation).
Doctor Strange’s primary targets should be Duelists (especially ranged ones) and mid-range Strategists.
Engaging Vanguards is best left when you have enough Dark Magic build-up and you can consistently use the Maelstrom of Madness ability.
Avoid confronting melee Duelists like Wolverine since Doctor Strange can’t out-DPS him, nor can he block his attacks.
Doctor Strange is a team-synergy-dependent hero. Try not to make solo plays but instead work with your team to pull off some fantastic plays.

Pro Tips

Now that we are familiar with Doctor Strange’s abilities, let’s delve into maximizing his powers. Here are some helpful tips and techniques from top Doctor Strange players in Marvel Rivals:

1) Eye of Agamotto & Maelstrom of Madness Combo

There is a neat trick to one-shot characters with Doctor Strange if you combine these two abilities.

He can one-shot characters caught in his ultimate by charging his Dark Magic to 100 or near 100 beforehand and then using Maelstrom of Madness to hit both the body and the soul of the people stunned by the ultimate.

This will one-shot most squishies and is generally what you want to aim to do when you use the ultimate if you think they have a defensive ult like Luna Snow, Mantis, or Cloak & Dagger ult since one shot cannot be healed through.

2) Counter Shooting Downtime With Shield

The Daggers of Denak cannot be sped up, which means they always shoot at the same rate when you’re holding down the fire button. This firing rate “downtime” can be combined with the Shield of the Seraphim.

So, by constantly switching between shooting, then shielding, and then shooting again, you would have done the same thing as holding down the fire button, but in that time in between shooting, you would have protected yourself and your team from taking damage.

Instead of holding the shield and getting it ripped to shreds, leaving you with no protection, by cycling shooting and blocking, you’re constantly getting your damage out while closing the distance to perform his other close-range abilities. This is the ideal technique when enemies are at medium to long distances.

This shooting and blocking trick works exceptionally well against snipers such as Hela and Hawkeye. You can absorb their hits with the shield while still dishing out damage, countering them hard.

3) Shooting and Meleeing At Close Range

We highly recommend that you remap your melee key to something more easily accessible. Doctor Strange’s close-quarter centric kit benefits greatly if you weave in melee combat close-up enemies. And the next tip is the perfect tactic for close-range fights.

Similar to the previous tip, instead of blocking after you shoot, melee after you shoot in close-quarter engagements. This is another way to counter the shooting downtime; however, this way, you’ll remain more offensive rather than defensive, helping you put down enemies faster.

Since you’ll be generating a ton of Dark Magic while using these two attacks, and you are closer to the enemy, it is the right setting to keep using the Maelstrom of Madness ability constantly. This ability deals more damage the closer you are to the enemy and will hit more enemies if surrounded by them.

Every time your Dark Magic meter climbs to 90 or 100, spam the ability and quickly resume shooting daggers and meleeing to reset this lethal cycle.

4) Blocking Ultimate

The other perfect use of Doctor Strange’s shield, if not being used for blocking regular attacks, is for blocking many of the other heroes’ ultimate attacks.

The most common use scenario is against Hela’s ultimate. As soon as you see her fly up to charge her ultimate, use the Cloak of Levitation to fly up to her and put your shield in front of her. Every projectile from her ultimate will get tanked by the shield, rendering her big ability useless. Your team will praise you for this saviour move.

Basically, any projectile-based ultimate, like Scarlet Witch and Iron Man, can be countered with this shield trick. Just make sure your shield has an adequate amount of HP to absorb the hits.

5) Ultimate Portal

The long cooldown of Doctor Strange’s most worthwhile ability, Pentagram of Farallah, has to be accounted for before you use it. It has the potential to completely turn the tide of battle if you use it right, so ensure you make it count.

The best way to do this is to pair it with either your ultimate or a teammate’s ultimate. For example, you can drop a portal in front of the Punisher (in some safe area) while he readies his turret ultimate. The turret can get a ton of kills if you strategically place the other portal where you know there is more enemy traffic. Placing it at a significant height above a skirmish will allow Punisher or Iron Man to rain down hell on the enemies.

You can even use this portal tactic to wind up your ultimate while entering it, and by the time you fall from above near the enemies, your ultimate will go off, hitting a bunch of unsuspecting enemies at once. This portal and Eye of Aggamoto technique works wonders if you get a drop on enemy backline supports, putting them down in one fell swoop.

6) Holding Back Enemy With Portals

We have already mentioned the best use case for the Pentagram of Farallah. However, you can pull off other minor yet effective plays with these portals at the right time.

The next best scenario for utilizing the portals is when you are at the end of the match and must hold back the enemy from thwarting your objective victory. Opening the portal near the enemy spawn point and picking them off as they desperately attempt to make their last stand is the perfect way to hammer the final nail in their losing coffin. Those poor saps won’t even get the chance if you and your team stop them dead in their tracks when returning from the spawn.

Another great utility is blocking off chock points. Whenever there is a heavily contested route, especially when the enemy team is pushing the Convoy through a small corridor, you can open the portal near this point and flood the enemy team. When paired with the ultimate tip mentioned previously, this can decimate the opponents and stop their progress.

Although Doctor Strange has a three-star rating in Marvel Rivals, I would rate him lower when it comes to perfecting his playstyle. His kit is easy to understand, and if you work with your team, his portals and ultimate can annihilate the enemy team in mere seconds with surprise ambushes.