Clint Barton has been the brunt of a lot of jokes in the Marvel universe. He may be, “just a guy with a bow and arrow,” but he’s also incredibly powerful Duelist in Rivals. If you have great aim, he can carry you and your team to victory time and time again.
How should you play Hawkeye?
You can play Hawkeye in one of two ways, depending on your desires and comfort level. First, you can run with your team, standing behind the tanks and laying consistent pressure on enemies, taking shots at enemy Strategists and Duelists whenever possible.
When playing this style, you can peel for your backline using his Crescent Slash, which can interrupt the enemy diver’s ability rotation. At this point, many will flee. If they don’t, you and the team can mop them up. You can also target nearby enemies with explosive arrows at point-blank range to deal enhanced damage, due to the cluster fire.
The second way you can play Hawkeye is as a flanker. This is riskier, but potentially more rewarding. Take off-angles and get to high ledges and snipe the enemy backline to take them out instantly. You’ll need to pick up health packs to keep yourself topped off if your healers don’t have a line on you, and if the enemy force decides to engage you, Hawkeye isn’t incredible against divers when he’s alone, but this can still be a great way to get a kill or two before rejoining your party.
Hawkeye’s Ultimate is extremely powerful and can easily get you multiple kills per activation. After activating it, fire a Hypersonic Arrow through the densest cluster of enemies and after-images to deal massive damage; then blast arrows at leftover groups of after-images, or simply spam Piercing Arrow on single targets to take them out, since Archer’s Focus will stay at 100 during the super, boosting the damage of Piercing Arrow to maximum.
What are Hawkeye’s abilities?
- Hunter’s Sight (Ultimate): Enemy movement creates after-images that Hawkeye can shoot to deal damage to the target. Every instance of damage stacks, so dealing damage to multiple after-images, or the prime target, will be added up. A fantastic ultimate that can be blocked by shields (as the after-images will disappear while shields are up on the target hero).
- Piercing Arrow (Primary Attack): The tried and true. Deals a staggering amount of damage when Archer’s Focus is fully charged and hitting enemies in the head. If you, like Clint, have excellent aim, you can drop most enemies in a single shot. Even if you hit them in the body, it still deals lots of damage.
- Blast Arrow (Primary Attack - Alternate Mode): Explosive arrows that fire in a three-arrow spread. Fantastic for close range targets and to use during Clint’s ultimate.
- Crescent Slash: Hawkeye’s ‘get off me’ ability. Use on dive characters like Magik, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and the like to knock enemies away and give yourself an opportunity to shoot them.
- Hypersonic Arrow: An arrow that pierces (even through shields), deals damage twice, and inflicts slow on enemies. The second hit knocks down flying heroes. Great for firing through groups of enemies advancing behind a Dr. Strange or Emma shield. Very useful to bring flyers down for your enemies to attack, and exceptionally powerful during Hawkeye’s ultimate, since both hits deal damage to any afterimage nearby, potentially tripling or quadrupling the damage (or even more).
- Ronin Slash: Hawkeye’s melee attack, dealing damage and deflecting incoming projectiles, although the timing is strict, so you’ll need to practice to use it effectively.
- Skyward Leap: A standard double jump.
- Archer’s Focus (Passive): The longer you aim at nearby targets, the higher the damage on Piercing Arrow will go, capping out at 100, at which point a head-shot will kill most enemies.
- Supersensory Vision (Team-Up Passive): Black Widow gains an ability that can be activated to give her a smaller version of his ultimate.
Now that you are equipped with Hawkeye’s (and Ronin’s) weapons and strategies, hit the practice room and get your aim warmed up until, like Clint, you never miss.