Groot is a Vanguard hero in Marvel Rivals. He is a Zoning/Protection Tank perfect for charging the enemy frontline, protecting your team with his walls, and grabbing attention while the rest of the team continues to make big plays. This living tree gets two stars out of five in terms of difficulty, meaning its kit is straightforward to understand and master.
This comprehensive guide will explain how to play Groot effectively in Marvel Rivals. We will explore his abilities, uncover some lesser-known aspects, share valuable tips, and teach you how to master his gameplay.
All Groot Abilities In Marvel Rivals
| Name | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Vine Strike | Normal Attack | He stretches his arms to attack enemies. |
| Spore Bomb | Secondary Fire Ability | Throws a bomb, which explodes into a smaller cluster of additional bombs. |
| Flora Colossus | Passive Ability | This passive will Awaken all of the walls Groot creates, granting them unique properties when Groot is nearby. |
| Thornlash Wall | Defensive/Offensive Ability | Grows a wall at the target location. When Awaken, it strikes enemies targetted by Groot or his allies. |
| Ironwood Wall | Defensive/Self-Healing Ability | Grows a much sturdier wall at a target location. When Awaken, all damage dealt by Groot and his allies will grant Groot Bonus HP. |
| Furious Flora | Regular Melee Attack | His melee attack has a unique combo that will send the target airborne on the third hit. |
| Strangling Prison | Ultimate Attack | He throws a massive cluster of vines that pulls enemies caught in the radius and imprisons them for a short while. |
| Friendly Shoulder | Team-Up Ability | Groot can carry Jeff the Land Shark and Rocket Raccoon on his shoulder. They will receive damage reduction while placed on his shoulder. |
Each ability has more essential details you need to know to grasp Groot truly:
Vine Strike:
- The vines stretch to a maximum 20m range.
- Deals 70 damage per hit.
- Has a 0.7-second delay between casts.
- Does not Critical Hit.
- Has eight ammo.
Spore Bomb:
- The thrown projectile itself doesn’t deal any damage. Only when it lands and explodes will it harm enemies.
- The initial Spore Bomb’s explosion deals damage in a 5m radius. While each subsequent spore cluster deals damage in a 1.5m radius.
- The Spore Bomb splits into six explosive spores.
- The Spore Bomb deals 55 damage to all caught in its radius. The successive spores deal 10 damage each.
- Has a cooldown of 6 seconds.
Flora Colossus:
- This is a constantly active passive ability attached to Groot’s character.
- It can be seen as a green circle on the ground surrounding Groot.
- It has a 20m radius and a 40m height.
- It Awakens both Thornlash Wall and Ironwood Wall.
Thornlash Wall:
- This ability has two charges, meaning Groot can quickly create two Thornlash Walls.
- You can place it at a maximum distance of 15m.
- Each charge takes 6 seconds to cooldown.
- Each Thornlash Wall has 250 HP.
- In the Awakened state, the wall deals 60 damage to nearby targetted enemies every 0.5 seconds.
- The Awakened Wall will only strike enemies who are attacked by Groot and his allies.
- The Awakened Wall has a 5m strike range.
- These walls will stay indefinitely until they are destroyed.
- You can retrieve the wall at any time by moving the reticule on the placed wall.
- You can place these walls vertically, as a platform on another wall, a slanted ramp, or on top of each other.
- You can only have three of these walls at any given time.
Ironwood Wall:
- Groot can only create one Ironwood Wall at a time.
- Has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
- The wall has a whopping 700 HP.
- The wall will remain active until it’s destroyed.
- It can only be placed at a maximum distance of 10m.
- It can be retrieved anytime by moving the crosshair on the wall and pressing the retrieve button.
- When Awakened, any damage dealt by Groot or his allies will result in Groot receiving Bonus HP.
- The Awakened wall will grant 40 Bonus HP per second to Groot and only up to a maximum of 250 Bonus HP.
- Keep in mind that Bonus HP is not the same as regular HP. It doesn’t heal Groot but grants a temporary HP indicated by the blue color HP on your bar.
Strangling Prison:
- The thrown projectile itself deals 10 damage to any enemy hit by it.
- The subsequent explosion deals 70 damage to all enemies caught in its radius.
- The vines will trap all enemies within the 8m radius.
- Trapped enemies will receive 20 damage every 0.5 seconds.
- Enemies will remain trapped for 3.5 seconds.
- Imprisoned enemies can’t move or attack, making them sitting ducks for you and your team to pick off.
Friendly Shoulder:
- You’ll need either Jeff the Land Shark or Rocket Raccoon in your team to use this ability.
- While on the shoulder, these heroes can continue to use their powers. However, they can’t control their movement and must rely on Groot to carry them around.
- They will receive a 35% damage reduction while riding Groot’s shoulder.
- When the Team-Up is active, they will receive a +150 max HP.
How To Play Groot In Marvel Rivals
This section outlines the key factors to consider before playing as Groot in Marvel Rivals:
- During fights, you want to constantly wall off sightlines between the enemy tanks and their backline. This puts a lot of pressure on their tanks and supports to reposition.
- Groot is best played when near cover, preferably non-destructible cover. Since he has no inherent mobility built into his kit, if you are out in the open, you become an easy target to gun down by the enemies.
- When paired with your wall abilities and high-health pool, you should play pretty aggressively as Groot. You want to be in the front, leading your team. Mix in flanks and dives only if given the right opportunity but do consider Groot has no mobility skills to get out of sticky situations.
- Wolverine is by far the biggest threat to Groot. He can easily tackle you into his team and shred you to pieces.
- When going up against high-burst DPS heroes, the best tactic is to put up walls all around so that they can’t escape after their initial dive, making them fish in a barrel.
- Groot’s walls are the best tool to manage chock points and corridors. You can easily block them off or narrow them down to hinder the enemy movement.
- Groot can also quickly become a nuisance for the team with the wrong placement of walls. Avoid placing walls in front of your allies’ line of fire or in front of them when they are ready to dive.
Pro Tips
Now that we are familiar with Groot’s abilities, let’s delve into maximizing his powers. Here are some helpful tips and techniques from top Groot players in Marvel Rivals:
1) Ideal Ironwood Wall Use
Generally, you want the Ironwood Wall to have as much uptime as possible. You can use the Ironwood wall for cover, but it’s more effective when you don’t throw it up directly in the enemy team’s sight lines. Your goal should be to have this wall active as much as possible to capitalize on its Bonus HP capabilities.
It is usually a good idea to create it off to the side a bit where you can duck behind it if you need cover, but it’s not right in the enemy’s face. This will constantly grant Groot Bonus HP while you attack the enemy team. If the team is annoyed by your constant healing, they will be forced to divert attention to the wall, giving you an opening to lay into them.
Ironwood Wall should also be used defensively in many situations. You can use it to trap enemies since it has 700 health and is twice the size of your Thornlash wall, so it’s pretty clutch if you’re trying to use it to isolate a target.
2) Prep Up Before Using Strangling Prison
On its own, the Strangling Prison ability does plenty of damage; the initial projectile deals 10 damage on impact, followed by 70 damage from the explosion, and it also inflicts 20 damage every half second for 3.5 seconds. In total, you are looking at 200 damage from the ultimate alone. However, it is not enough to take out most enemies. You must pair it with your other abilities or your allies’ abilities to make it deadly.
The best combo would be to place a Thornlash Wall beside the potential targets. Place either to their sides or behind them. Throw the Strangling Prison to entangle the enemies and Awaken the wall. Then, quickly follow it with a Vine Strike, Spore Bomb, melee, and another Vine Strike. All of these attacks will deal damage on their own while also ensuring the wall stays on the offense.
The two key elements are Spore Bomb and placing a Thorn Lash wall behind the prison, as both can affect everyone trapped in the ultimate. Make sure you are close to the enemies to utilize this whole combo. If you trap them from farther away, your other attacks won’t reach the enemies, significantly lowering the damage potential of the ultimate.
If you place an Ironwood Wall near the ultimate, Groot can also benefit from the Bonus HP.
3) Walling For Mobility
Position the wall behind you by placing it directly beneath yourself, then walk or jump forward. This technique comes in extremely handy when you are trying to retreat while being chased. With the wall suddenly appearing in the path, the chaser will be forced to take an alternate route while you return to safety.
You can elevate yourself to specific high ground by building a wall directly under you. To enhance fluidity, construct a wall right in front of you before jumping forward—this method gives you more height than a basic ramp. You can even create a double wall below yourself for extra elevation, although the timing is trickier. This is perfect for getting to higher vantage points or reaching enemy supports/snipers perched up top.
Also, don’t sleep on using ramps to create paths of least resistance; making small shortcuts over walls and around terrain can save you and your team precious seconds in getting to the objective. Your wall has a 6-second cooldown, so even if you use both, they’ll probably be up by the time you’re in a fight.
4) Best Primary Combo
The Vine Strike primary attack isn’t the fastest and most damaging attack to reliably take out enemies on its own. Like other heroes, it is often better to cycle between the primary attack and melee to use the downtime between hits.
However, there is an even more effective combo Groot can pull off by mixing in the Spore Bomb. You’d want to use the Vine Strike, followed by the Spore Bomb, then continue your cycle primary and melee combo. The final hit of the melee combo does more damage, has better range, and launches up the opponent. Cycling between the two attacks won’t reset the combo if timed right, so you can take full advantage of it as well.
This is by far the best way to increase your DPS as Groot.
5) Thornlash Wall For Every Situation
As mentioned before, the Thornlash Wall has to be considered as a makeshift turret at your disposal. This seemingly defensive ability will up your damage considerably with the correct use.
Whenever you are up against an enemy, before you begin attacking, make sure to put up a Thornlash Wall beside them and then start your attacking. Doing so will Awaken the wall, meaning not only will your attacks deal damage, but the wall chip away the enemy’s health, too.
Be it melee, Spore Bomb, Vine Strike, or Strangling Prison, the Thornlash wall will synergize with everything at your disposal and increase your damage output significantly. Not to mention, the wall will also attack even when your allies are hitting an opponent, leading to no downtime.
Additionally, placing a wall behind a target and throwing a Spore Bomb will force the subsequent cluster bomb to bounce off the wall and hit the enemy again for twice the hit.
Furthermore, when facing a melee hero like Captain America, you should place a Thornlash Wall behind you. This has two effects: Groot won’t be thrown back from their abilities since the wall will stop him from flying away, and the wall will aid you during the melee duel, helping you take out the charger much faster.
6) Strangling Prison FTW
Strangling Prison is one of the most OP ultimate in Marvel Rivals. However, it is the most effective when used in tandem with your allies’ ultimate. Communicate with your team and try to use Strangling Prison to hold down a group of enemies while your ally fires off their ultimate to decimate them instantly.
For example, if Groot entangles three or more enemies with his ultimate and then an ally Moon Knight uses his Hand of Khonshu ultimate, it will bombard the enemies, wiping them out in mere seconds.
You can even use Groot’s walls to protect other heroes whose ultimate require a bit of a wind-up before unleashing, like Iron Man. Protect Iron Man with the wall while he charges up his ultimate, then throw your ultimate to trap the enemies and allow Iron Man to finish them off.
Groot is a very simple hero with enormous potential. With the correct use of his powers and aiding your team well, Groot will remain valuable in the lower leagues and the Grandmaster ranks. It all boils down to how creatively you can use his rather simplistic abilities and get the most out of them.