Marvel Rivals: Why a Lord icon isn’t as intimidating as you think
While playing Marvel Rivals, you may encounter players with different character icons than the usual ones. These are Lord icons, which are rewarded for progressing a character’s proficiency level to their maximum. Though fighting with or against a Lord icon player may seem intimidating, it’s really just another cosmetic for players to showcase their favorite characters.
How hard is it to become a Lord in Marvel Rivals?
There are five proficiency levels in Marvel Rivals. By ascending order, these are Agent, Knight, Captain, Centurion, and Lord. Increasing your proficiency with a character requires you to complete repeatable challenges specific to them. For example, healing 12,000 Health as Luna Snow rewards 10 proficiency experience, as does freezing four enemies with Absolute Zero. No matter the hero, the playtime challenge awards 60 proficiency experience just for playing as that character.
The experience required to rank up increases as you become more proficient with a character. You need 500 proficiency experience to rank up from an Agent to a Knight, 1,200 experience from Knight to Captain, 2,000 experience from Captain to Centurion, and 2,400 experience from Centurion to Lord. You’ll need 6,100 proficiency experience in total to level up a character’s proficiency from Agent to Lord.
Lord icon players played specific character(s) a lot
Lord icons prove that a player spent a lot of time on a specific character(or characters). While they may know more about their characters and how they fare in specific matchups and situations, they might not know as much about characters they aren’t proficient in.
This is typically the trade-off for obtaining a Lord icon. By focusing a lot of time on a specific character, you’re sacrificing time spent learning the other playable heroes in the roster. This can lead to you becoming what players call a “one-trick” or “one-trick pony” (OTP). While excelling at playing a few characters is great, it limits your options in the long run.
Once you reach Diamond rank in competitive play, matches where all players are of Diamond rank or higher will introduce hero bans. These hero bans can pigeonhole you into a role or hero you might not be comfortable with.
Proficiency experience can be farmed in custom modes
Another way players can earn the much-coveted Lord icons is by farming proficiency experience in custom modes like Doom Match and Conquest. These game modes are shorter and set in smaller maps, which allows players to more easily complete combat-based proficiency challenges. Some even go idle in these game modes just to farm the playtime challenge. This method of gaining proficiency experience isn’t ideal, but it’s an easy way to level up a hero’s proficiency without doing too much.
Lord icon players aren’t invincible
Now that you know the legitimate and lazy ways to gain proficiency experience, let’s talk about fighting the skilled players who earned their Lord icons. Though they may seem invincible, these players are still bound by the limitations of their character. A good Hulk player still needs healing from his Strategists to survive. An adept Winter Soldier suffers from low mobility like every other version of the character. If you can’t find ways to counter these players by yourself, consider devising a plan with your team so you can shut them down. A single Lord icon player will have a harder time dealing with six opponents who are simultaneously focusing on them than a single opponent.
Most players will eventually get Lord icons
The reason Lord icons are so lauded right now is that players have acquired the title in a short span of time. As Marvel Rivals ages and more people play the game, a good number of the playerbase will gain Lord icons of their own. That’s just how the proficiency experience system works. Eventually, Lord icons will start to lose their impact and players will probably start looking to NetEase Games for more proficiency rewards.
Try not to feel intimidated when a player with a Lord icon enters your lobby. Just play the character you want (even if a teammate has a Lord icon for that same hero) and enjoy the game. Keep an eye on Lord icon opponents and give it your all. You’ll make it there one day as well!
If you’re looking for ways to improve your Marvel Rivals gameplay, consider checking out our guides to becoming a better Wolverine, a damage-dealing Mr. Fantastic, and a nigh-unkillable Invisible Woman.
Marvel Rivals is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).
