The Strategist Role is Fundamentally Flawed

Overview

The video argues that the Support/Strategist role in Marvel Rivals is fundamentally flawed because current game design and balance push supports into a nearly single-function healbotting loop. This reduces player agency and creates unhealthy “sustain metas” that make the game less fun for many other heroes.

Core problem: Support becomes “heal output” with no agency

• The creator claims that, in practice, supports mainly provide constant healing because teammates—especially tanks—take extreme amounts of damage and are frequently left low.
• They describe support play as punishing if you ever stop healing:
  • Support players feel they lose fights.
  • Ultimate timing value is reduced.
  • They can get blamed when they attempt playmaking actions.
• Sustained healing is portrayed as the dominant solution to every engagement. Instead of actively contesting fights, supports are incentivized to run away / sustain through pressure / re-heal constantly, enabling teammates rather than challenging opponents.

Why this creates a solo agency gap

• The creator references a personal solo carry tier list designed to measure “solo impact/agency.”
• They argue most supports rank low because supports have the least solo agency, being heavily centered around sustain and healing.

“Value proposition” problem: healing is too fast, too strong, and too low-cost

• A central complaint is that healing negates playmaking:
  • Even aggressive actions and cooldown usage can be “erased” quickly by strong healing shortly afterward.
• The creator argues that because healing is so powerful and readily available, supports are disincentivized from taking risks or making aggressive plays:
  • The cost of not healing for a few seconds is often too high.
• They also claim that cover/positioning matters less than it should, because teams can frequently be healed back regardless.

Meta side effects: sustain favors certain heroes while weakening others

The video claims sustain-heavy play creates toxic or unfun metas, such as:

• Elsa thriving by safely combining lethal damage with sustain.
• Hulk allegedly suffering because sustain and healing can effectively undo his combat uptime/output.

Proposed fixes (three-part plan)

1. Reduce both mass damage and mass healing

   • Lower long-range “spam” damage.
   • Reduce how quickly supports can pump massive healing.
   • The creator wants healing to require more commitment—for example, they want it to be impossible to restore ~800 HP in ~2 seconds without cooldown, forcing targets to stay in cover when damaged.

2. Increase cooldown length and create uptime/downtime windows

   • Sustained healing shouldn’t be available on short timers constantly.
   • Longer cooldowns should create vulnerability periods after major healing windows.

3. Give supports more playmaking/dueling tools not tied to healing

   • Supports should be able to fight back and win duels through skill, not just “weather” pressure.
   • The creator suggests support kits should include mechanics that let supports contest divers, such as a jump/knockback plus follow-up damage/finisher style duel.

Expected outcome of these changes

• Supports would gain more meaningful downtime and more opportunities to take initiative, skirmish, and carry—rather than only “scoop water out of the ship” indefinitely (their analogy).
• DPS and tanks would no longer be able to rely on supports to instantly undo errors through infinite sustain.
• Fights would become more fair and interactive:
  • Supports could still enable teammates, but also outplay opponents rather than merely sustaining them.
• The creator emphasizes this isn’t meant to fully remove DPS advantage; instead, they want supports to have enough agency to win isolated duels if played well.

Perspective on “Overwatch-like” support agency

• Drawing from Overwatch experience, the creator argues healing-focused supports were more enjoyable when supports had non-heal skill expression and could reliably outduel enemies in isolated situations (e.g., an Ana-style contest where healing throughput isn’t the only expression of value).

Presenters / Contributors

• The video creator / narrator (unnamed in subtitles)
• Trust Me on the Clare comps pod (mentioned as agreeing with the “support playmaking/dueling” concept)