Quick Links
The latest Season 3 ofMarvel Rivalsis only another tipping point in its post-release, as a ton of new characters have joined theextensive roster of heroes.One of them is the X-Men team’s Phoenix, AKA Jean Grey.
She’s one of the latest DPS characters added in Season 3. And if you’re a fan of hitscan characters like me, she’s one hero you won’t want to miss playing or learning, as she can be a force to be reckoned with in capable hands.
Marvel Rivals: Emma Frost Guide
Shine bright like a diamond.
As someone who’s had ample time playing her, I’ll cover every detail you need to master Phoenix in Marvel Rivals,including an overview of her abilities, key offensive and defensive tips, and other intricate details likeher ideal team compsand counters.
Phoenix Reticle And Settings
As my co-workerJay Ku pointed out in their Ultron guide, custom reticle settings from pro players can sometimes benefit you.However, I’ve tried out a couple of those custom reticle settings, and they’ve actually degraded my performance.
This isn’t me trying to debunk their tips in this section, but as is the case with other hero shooters and my experience with them from Overwatch in 2017 to now, custom reticle and sensitivity settings need to be set up yourself, especially for DPS characters.
90% of the time, these settings are based on YOUR personal preference and whichever suits your hand and eye coordination.It goes even further that you may need to tweak your DPI settings too, but for those, ideally, average players tend to use around 800-1300 DPI.
However, if I can provide a reticle suggestion for Phoenix, I went with the default circle and dot since I use that in my Hela and Luna Snow’s settings. The only difference is that I’ve reduced the overall size to better accommodate the projectiles' hitboxes.
Marvel Rivals: How To Play Wolverine
Wolverine is a fun but dangerous character to play if you don’t know what you are doing. So, let this guide on how to play Wolverine help you dominate
Phoenix Overview
Phoenix is essentially a DPS character that excels at crowd control.She is easily able to disperse teams that stay together and can quickly eliminate squishy characters, thanks to her Sparks mechanic, which you can rapidly apply to enemies.
Her primary fire lets her shoot out hitscan projectiles that apply 1 stack (2 if critical hits) of Sparks, indicated by the crown on the heads of enemies. When these sparks hit 3 stacks, they’ll explode, causing a short-burst explosion that chains to other enemies and applies an individual spark stack on them.
When playing Jean, the ideal way to use her is to continuously apply spark stacks on clumped-up enemies to try and separate them.She’s also got some great mobility thanks to the dash from the Telepathic Illusion ability and the aerial glide from Dark Ascent, the latter of which can allow for some re-positioning if need be.
Phoenix is a three-star character, so suffice to say she’s got a medium-difficulty curve, well, according to the game at least. But with how I’m about to give you a brief overview of her abilities and tips, you’ll be able to understand her in no time flat.
Phoenix Abilities
Abilities and their damage value/cooldown times are subject to change with balancing updates. This guide is based on Marvel Rivals' version 20250731 from Season 3.
Description
Cosmic Flames
Primary Attack. Jean launches a fiery projectile that can apply 1 spark on hit, with critical hits applying 2 spark stacks. Applying three stacks will emit an explosion that can chain to enemies in proximity and give Jean the Healing-Over-Time effect. Each hit deals 50 damage with damage dropoff occurring at 10 meters.
Endsong Inferno
Ultimate ability. Phoenix takes to the skies and crashes down on the selected area to cause a massive shockwave explosion that deals 140 damage within a 10-meter spherical radius. The initial blast also applies 1 spark stack to enemies. The shockwave explosion also destroys enemy summons, shields and bonus health.
Psionic Detonation
Alternate Fire. Shoot at the targeted area with psionic energy to cause three short-burst explosions. The initial one will deal 20 damage and briefly stun enemies for 0.3 seconds. The following two explosions also deal 20 damage and inflict a 30% slow effect for two seconds. It has a cooldown of 10 seconds.
Telepathic Illusion
Jean will dash and leave behind an illusion that deals 50 damage and applies 1 spark stack to the target if they run into it. The cooldown is 12 seconds.
Dark Ascent
Jean merges with the Phoenix to gain free flight maneuverability. It gives her a 50% movement boost and replenishes 4 ammo per second.
Marvel Rivals: Ultron Guide
Exterminate your fleshy foes with this guide to Ultron in Marvel Rivals.
Phoenix Offensive Tips
Suppose you play your cards right in matches. In that case, Jean is a DPS that can easily pressure the opposing team with her relentless barrage of attacks and burst damage thanks to the spark stacks, but even then, you’ll need to make sure you have adequate mastery of the character; otherwise, her normal damage is just decent at best.
Remember, do NOT treat her as a pokeDPS character like Hela,even though she’s got a hitscan primary fire. Otherwise, you’ll only be utilizing half of her potential here. The universal tip is also to practice your baseline aim with her as much as possible.
Try to stay on the sidelines, since your main job will be to prevent the enemy team from rushing as a coordinated group.
Regardless, I’ve highlighted a few key tips below for a detailed overview of how to play Phoenix offensively in Marvel Rivals:
Phoenix Defensive Tips
Even as a DPS character on the frontlines, Jean has a couple of defensive strategy goals that you can employ when using her in fights. I prefaced the previous section heavily to imply that she’s an aggressive character.
Still, you’re able to easily use the tips below to ensure survivability when playing as her in Marvel Rivals.
Marvel Rivals: Human Torch Guide
Johnny’s here to heat up the battlefield.
Phoenix Team-Up Abilities
Team-up Ability
Heroes Needed
Mind’s Grace
Upon activating it, Jean imbues Wolverine with her powers to turn his Feral Leap ability into Phoenix Warrior, which continuously scorches and damages enemies while active. Wolverine’s abilities also gain Lifesteal in this state when dealing damage. Jean also gains a 10% damage boost as the Team-up Anchor.
As of Season 3, Jean’s currently available team-up allows her to essentially power up Wolverine’s abilities so that they can grant him lifesteal when damaging targets. Plus, whenever Wolverine uses his Feral Leap ability, it’ll now apply the scorching effect on enemies.
This team-up is so ridiculously strong that it’s honestly one of the key reasons that Wolverine is still getting banned in some upper-tier ranks. It makes him an absolute wrecking ball, even after the adjustments he received in the past balance patches.
It isn’t a cheat code or anything that’ll make you overpowered, but it can incredibly benefit skilled players who know how to use Wolverine to shredVanguard playersand dive into cornered opponents. Just be sure to have a decent Phoenix player; you don’t want to handicap the DPS role and be dependent on Wolverine for the picks.
Phoenix Counters And How To Deal With Them
Although Jean Grey is able to make short work of diving tanks such as Venom or even Magneto thanks to her melee,I found that a good Emma Frost can easily demolish them as long as the Phoenix is playing on the frontlines, as mostly intended.
The Diamond Form allows her to tank through most things, and the shield can be used to block off Phoenix’s primary fire shots. Without any additional teammates to help her or a healer, Jean can be an easy target for Emma Frost players.
This one is possibly skill-dependent, because it all comes down to how well-versed you are in escaping or neutralizing dive characters like Black Panther or Spider-Man. These two characters could possibly take Phoenix out if she isn’t able to escape in timeor accurately land her shots to trigger a spark explosion.
However, the sure-fire counters that I found worked well against opposing Jeans arePunisherandStar-Lord. A good Punisher can accurately beam down a Jean or fend her off, especially with his ultimate, which can even melt Phoenix as she’s diving into unleash her Endsong Inferno.
Meanwhile, Star-Lord is pretty obvious, but he’s another hero that can gun down Phoenix from the flanks, and with some well-placed burst shots, you can quickly apply pressure and take out a Jean before she can fully get her shots in on you.
Marvel Rivals: The Thing Guide
Time to rock ‘n’ roll with Ben Grimm.
Strategist
Not many healers can take out Phoenix on their own,but Cloak and Dagger instantly came to mind here since I saw my friend use the Dark Teleportation ability to save us from Jean’s ultimate.
However, you need to time that promptly since the invincibility frames only last for about a couple of seconds.
Best Phoenix Team Comps
I won’t go into too much detail here since I found Phoenix to be a self-reliant character, but there are a couple of heroes that can work well with her, some obvious, some just so-so, but it could be viable to run a good team comp for her.
I found Groot to be a fantastic Tank to play with Phoenix,as they can combine their ultimates to take out the entire opposing team.I say that with experience, since I was able to pull it off with a random teammate in Quickplay. you’re able to even do the same as Dr Strange’s ult, since it’s an AOE that briefly stunlocks targets.
For DPS, it’s obvious that Wolverine players can indefinitely prove to be a force to be reckoned withwhen they pair up with Jean.
Lastly, for healers, I found that Mantis can stack her heal/damage on Phoenix to make her powerful when she’s on the frontlines, but honestly, almost any healer can work with her, even Cloak and Dagger for her long-range healing.
Marvel Rivals: All Duelists Ranked
Strategists or Vanguard mains, don’t be scared to pick Duelists sometimes. Choose any of these Duelists in Marvel Rivals for the win
