Marvel Rivals Doctor Strange Guide: Abilities, Team-Ups, and How to Play

Doctor Strange has a special place in the history of Marvel Rivals as the Sorcerer Supreme was the first hero that was introduced back when NetEase revealed the game. Since then, Dr. Stephen Strange has become an invaluable asset to any team due to his strong defensive capabilities, his good team-up as well as his skill that literally makes Marvel Rivals a Portal sequel. In this guide, we’ll go over Doctor Strange’s abilities, team-ups and give you some general tips on how to play the Master of the Mystic Arts.

Marvel Rivals Doctor Strange Abilities

Passive – Price of Magic

When Doctor Strange deals damage to enemy heroes, he receives stacks of Dark Magic. This enhances his damage output, but if he accumulates too much Dark Magic, Doctor Strange gets cursed.

While he’s cursed, he can’t receive heals from any source, be it the abilities of his allies or Health Packs around the map. He can decrease the amount of Dark Magic acquired with his other abilities.

Primary Attack – Daggers of Denak

Doctor Strange’s normal attack launches 5 projectiles forward with each of them dealing damage to any enemy hit. The projectiles have travel time and can’t critically hit, with their damage falling off after a moderate distance.

While they don’t have a headshot multiplier, the Daggers of Denak can deal some serious damage to enemies, as if you land all five shots from a volley, you can delete squishies quickly.

Secondary Attack – Shield of the Seraphim

The Master of Magic’s Secondary is his bread and butter, as it’s the main ability that he’s being picked for in competitive and casual alike. Shield of the Seraphim is a barrier that blocks incoming projectiles in front of Doctor Strange.

The Shield has it’s own health pool, and it has a short cooldown after it gets destroyed. After the cooldown is over, the health starts to refill, and Doctor Strange call put it up even if it’s not full HP.

First Ability – Cloak of Levitation

Doctor Strange’s movement ability lets him fly into the air and float for a few seconds. He can also adjust the height of his flight, letting him get better angles to attack his enemies, block shots or set portals up.

Second Ability – Maelstrom of Madness

This is the main way to decrease Dark Magic stacks, as Maelstrom of Madness let’s Doctor Strange expel them. This burst also deals damage to surrounding enemies based on the stacks he acquired, and the more stacks the Sorcerer Supreme has, the higher is the damage he dishes out.

Third Ability – Pentagram of Farallah

With this ability, Doctor Strange opens a portal between two locations of the map. These portals work exactly like the ones seen in games such as Valve’s Portal or Splitgate, except you can put them anywhere on the map instead of just walls.

Doctor Strange and his allies can cast abilities and shoot enemies through the portal – but it works in the other way as well, so it’s not completely safe. The ability has a very long cooldown, but the gate stays open for a moderate amount of time as well.

Ultimate – Eye of Agamotto

With his ultimate ability, Doctor Strange separates the bodies and souls of his enemies, stunning them for a few seconds. He and his allies can deal damage to both the bodies and the expunged souls of the enemy team, and the damage dealt to the souls reflects back to their owners.

Marvel Rivals Doctor Strange Team-Ups

The Sorcerer Supreme can Team-Up with Hulk and Iron Man, getting increased benefits to his passive and his Maelstrom of Madness. If Doctor Strange and Hulk are on the same team, the Green Giant empowers Strange’s second ability, turning it into Gamma Maelstrom and granting him increased damage on the explosion.

The main thing, however, is that the Team-Up makes it so that when Doctor Strange gets over the Dark Magic threshold, he doesn’t get the anti-heal debuff, so you can launch max powered Maelstroms without having to worry about his survivability.

Marvel Rivals Doctor Strange How to Play

Doctor Strange excels when he’s in the middle of the fray, accumulating stacks of Dark Magic and expelling them with multiple enemies around him. However, he’s fairly squishy for a Vanguard, so you have to keep an eye on your Health and the Health of Shield of the Seraphim if you want to survive. A pocket healer is also a nice addition, and Strange has the abilities to protect them. However, if push comes to shove, you always have a get out of jail free card with Cloak of Levitation.

While he can be played aggressively, don’t forget that the main ability of Doctor Strange is his Shield, which blocks the most problematic abilities in Marvel Rivals. This includes Hela’s ultimate, Scarlet Witch’s ultimate, Star Lord’s shots and ultimate, as well as the shots from heroes like Hawkeye or Black Widow. While some heavier hitting skills can deplete the Health of the Shield very fast, it’s worth to trade it all to keep your teammates alive.

The Sorcerer Supreme’s ultimate, Eye of Agamotto can single-handedly win a round – or even a match for your team. If you can drop into the lines of the enemy team and cast your ult, your teammates can make short work of your opponents who will be unable to retaliate.

One of the best ways to achieve this is putting a Pentagram of Farallah above the enemy team and dropping in when they least expect it. You can also combo this ability with DPS heroes such as Punisher, Hawkeye and Star Lord to give them angles that your opponents simply can’t defend against.

Another good trick with the Pentagram is that it let’s Doctor Strange float in the air while casting – and if you don’t put down the second part of the portal you can stay in the air basically forever. While you can’t act, you can get into some nooks and crannies before the start of a match and surprise your opponents by dropping in.

Daggers of Denak have a bit of delay between shots, but you can up your DPS by spamming Melee Attacks after each Primary fire if you’re in close range of your target. If you get the timing right, you can skip the windup of the next shot while also getting more Dark Magic stacks, as Strange’s melee attack generates almost as much as hitting all your Daggers.

Team-Ups are generally worth playing in Marvel Rivals, but it’s extremely true for Doctor Strange. The fact that Gamma Maelstrom turns of the drawback of Price of Magic turns the Vanguard into a different beast. Hulk and Iron Man are also some of the most sought-after heroes in the game in certain settings, so it’s always worth to request the Team-Up!

Overall, Doctor Strange is a very versatile hero in Marvel Rivals, who can fulfil more than one roles in the battlefield. His portals also give him incredible flexibility, and his ultimate will never not be useful – so if you want to pick up a Vanguard, the Sorcerer Supreme might be one of the best choice!