‘She needs to be rebuilt’: Marvel Rivals players agree this character is the weakest hero in the game

Every game has that one character who feels a little unfinished. You know the one—you pick them in a match, immediately regret it, and wonder if the developers ever actually played as them. Ask any player, and they’ll tell you she’s got potential. She’s got the agility, she’s got the tech, but she’s just not delivering.

In Marvel Rivals, that character is, without a doubt, Black Widow. A discussion on the Marvel Rivals subreddit titled “Who do you think is currently the weakest hero?” saw her name come up again and again. And unfortunately for Black Widow, the criticism was loud and clear to the point where players questioned whether she was playtested before launch.

On paper, she sounds decent. Black Widow is a duelist hero who can freely switch between melee combat and sniping, with a rifle for long-range shots and batons for close combat. Her Edge Dancer kick knocks enemies back and lets her zip toward them for a follow-up attack, and her Electro-Plasma Explosion ultimate slows enemies down by 80 percent in a large radius (for now). Pair her with Hawkeye, and she gets access to Supersensory Hunt, a special ability that reveals enemy afterimages for extra damage.

It sounds great, but the problem is that her melee and ranged abilities don’t really flow together. Players have pointed out that her batons, which are supposed to be her primary weapon, feel weak and out of sync with the rest of her kit. “Her melee attacks are abysmal and have no synergy with her abilities. It feels like she’s missing the better half of her kit,” a player commented. Another added, “You cannot convince me Black Widow in Rivals is a completed design.”

Even her ultimate, which theoretically should be one of her strongest assets, isn’t saving her. “Enemies with high mobility tools can counter the slowing effect,” one user noted. Meanwhile, other heroes with physical shields—Doctor Strange, Captain America, Magneto—can straight-up ignore it. And then there’s her voice line: “Mind the exploding plasma.” It’s not menacing, it’s not clever, it’s just… words. “She needs a rework entirely because her ult line is ridiculous in every way imaginable,” another player said, and they’re right.

With Marvel Rivals’ mid-season update dropping on Feb. 21, some balance changes for Black Widow have been leaked—and they are questionable. She’s getting a buff and a nerf, and the nerf somehow outweighs the buff.

• Buff: Rifle capacity increased from eight to 15.
• Nerf: Slow effect from her Ultimate reduced from 80 percent to 55 percent.

Let’s unpack that. Yes, more ammo is always nice, but is anyone really struggling because Black Widow needs to reload more often? No. Meanwhile, reducing the slow on her Ultimate—the one thing that made it useful—will make her even less effective at controlling fights. “The last thing she needed was a nerf,” one player wrote, and they’re spot on.

So what does Black Widow need to become a viable hero? For starters, players agree she should lean more into her close-combat roots. One user summed it up perfectly: “Black Widow should not be and has never been primarily a sniper. She can have a rifle as an option, but she is almost always represented as a close-range combatant using ranged weapons opportunistically.”

Some simple changes could go a long way:

• Buff her melee attacks so she’s a bigger threat up close.
• Reduce Edge Dancer’s cooldown so she can engage in combat without waiting an eternity to kick again.
• Give her an ability that powers up her batons, making melee combat a real option instead of a last resort.
• Let her ult hit harder or at least keep its original slow effect.

Because right now, players are struggling to justify picking her over literally any other hero. Marvel Rivals has a lot of great characters, but Black Widow just isn’t one of them—at least, not yet.

With the game’s first major balance patch coming soon, here’s hoping NetEase listens to the community and gives Widow the rework she desperately needs. Because if Marvel Rivals has taught us anything, it’s that a hero is only as good as the tools they’re given—and right now, Black Widow’s kit just isn’t cutting it.