As far as Marvel Rivals heroes go, The Thing’s gameplan is as simple as they come: get in, punch stuff, and get out. But there are a few things that you could add to your repertoire to increase your survivability and damage output:
1. Use Stone Haymaker instead of Rocky Punch as your primary means of attacking
Though Rocky Punch allows you to channel your inner Rocky Balboa, its short range and weird two-jab rhythm followed by a 1-second pause makes it hard to recommend as a bread-and-butter primary attack.
Instead, use The Thing’s Stone Haymaker (his secondary attack) more often. Not only does it have more range and do more damage than Rocky Punch (it also doesn’t have a cooldown), but the ability also pierces through targets; dealing more damage to groups of enemies. While the charge time of Stone Haymaker is longer than Rocky Punch’s downtime, The Thing gets 50 bonus health whenever he charges up the punch (before hitting a target). Considering Stone Haymaker’s range and the bonus health it provides, the attack makes for a good poke tool near walls and a fallback attack whenever you’re in a skirmish.
2. Yancy Street Charge your way into and around fights
Subtlety isn’t The Thing’s strong suit, so you might as well drop in in the loudest way possible. Yancy Street Charge immediately gives The Thing 200 bonus health when he charges forward, so be sure to run around to launch as many opponents into the air as possible (this will also make it easier for your team to pick them off).
The true utility of Yancy Street Charge comes from the immobilization zone you leave behind after slamming the ground. Not only does the zone do 15 damage per second, but enemies caught in it cannot use their movement abilities. This makes it a very good area denial ability, as no one wants to be unable to escape and take continuous damage from your attack.
Try using a close-up Yancy Street Charge on naturally mobile or hard-to-hit Duelists like Psylocke or important Strategists like Invisible Woman. You’ll reduce the risk of getting hit by crowd-control abilities like Mantis’s Spore Slumber and possibly eliminate an enemy that would otherwise give you a hard time.
3. Always have an exit strategy
As much health as The Thing has, he isn’t invincible. Being caught in the middle of a fight with no backup is a quick way to get eliminated. The situation gets even more dangerous considering The Thing isn’t immune to all crowd-control abilities.
This is why it is always important to have an exit strategy when playing The Thing. Be it an ally you can jump to with Embattled Leap or a Yancy Street Charge, make sure you have a way to disengage and recuperate in case your Strategists cannot heal you. If you find yourself dying too often, remember to use Embattled Leap to give yourself and an ally an extra 30% damage reduction for three seconds.
4. Partner up when using Clobberin’ Time
Communication can make or break games in Marvel Rivals but is especially important when playing Vanguards like The Thing. Most of The Thing’s abilities shine when paired with other heroes’ skills, his ultimate included.
Clobberin’ Time stuns enemies in its effective radius for 2.5 seconds, which is more than enough time for a team to do a lot of damage. Even if your team doesn’t have an offensive ultimate up their sleeves, let them know when you’re going to use Clobberin’ Time and which targets to prioritize. Enemy strategists and low-health targets should always take priority, followed by Vanguards and Duelists. You can potentially win a fight with Clobberin’ Time alone, provided your team is well-coordinated.
5. Abuse your Unyielding Will passive
While other heroes have to deal with displacement effects, The Thing’s Unyielding Will passive makes him immovable. He won’t be tanking through Mantis’s Spore Slumber or Bruce Banner/The Hulk’s Radioactive Lockdown, but the number of abilities that don’t affect him is staggering.
As The Thing, you will start to ignore most enemy abilities and focus on the task at hand, whether it’s clobbering enemies or reaching an objective before time runs out. While the rest of your team is struggling to come up with a game plan, consider rushing through as The Thing. You’ll be surprised how often a straightforward approach works.
If you’re looking for more Marvel Rivals guides, consider checking out our other tips and tricks for becoming a better Wolverine, a wall-placing master Groot, or a dive-managing Strategist.
