Marvel Rivals players explain why Mantis is disappearing from your games

There are a myriad of healers in Marvel Rivals, but Mantis is making players wonder why her presence is going down in their games even though she performs particularly well in competitive matches. 

In a Reddit discussion, Marvel Rivals are talking about Mantis and why she isn’t as popular compared to her early days in the game. “Don’t see anyone using Mantis anymore. What happened?” a player asked others, hoping to get answers on her sudden dip in popularity. 

“We all learned we can’t hit headshots,” one player explained, shedding light on Mantis’ particularly high-skill ceiling kit, where she needs to hit headshots to gain her life orbs. Mantis has four life orbs available to her and after using one to heal a teammate, it’s a painfully slow wait for it to recharge. To compensate, the game encourages Mantis players to hit headshots on enemies, as she’ll instantly gain a life orb when they do—but that’s easier said than done. 

Unlike other Strategists, Mantis is more of a DPS healer, as she specializes in increasing her damage through buffs while also giving damage boosts to dive heroes on her team. As she has limited healing in her kit, it becomes imperative for her to constantly search for headshots in fights to helping her team deal even more damage. And the more headshots she hits, the more she can use her healing to keep her team healthy. 

While tanks make for big targets to headshot and stack up your life orb count, it quickly becomes an ordeal to land your headshots on squishy or even dive-based enemy superheroes. She can use her Spore Slumber ability for crowd control, helping keep herself and the rest of the back line protected from diving Duelists like Spider-Man or Iron Fist. But this is yet another skill shot to use, cementing her place as a Strategist who requires some strong mechanical ability to get the most out of her comparatively simple healing with her orbs and Soul Resurgence ultimate.

Despite her disappearance from the regular matches, Mantis is still doing well in competitive matches with a 19.77 percent pick rate, just behind Strategists such as Cloak & Dagger and Luna Snow. She’s also leading the win-rate charts with a high of 55.20 percent, which shows that in the right hands, she’s still unstoppable. 

In lower Elo or Quick Play, normal players might still prefer someone like Luna Snow, Rocket Racoon, or Adam Warlock, as they are solid healers and don’t have the offensive capabilities of Mantis. These healers are easier to play and they still allow your team to shine.

Bad Mantis players are only going to pull the team down, so it makes sense why Mantis isn’t featuring as much as she used to, but she is making a regular appearance in competitive matches piloted by players who understand her unique playstyle.