Marvel Rivals launched last week, and as fans are flocking to the game in droves, theyâre also figuring out who their favorite and least favorite characters are on the hero shooterâs roster. Right now, the game feels like itâs in the pre-patch state of just being a real chaotic shooter that hasnât yet been sanded down by months of balance patches. Currently, few characters are as chaotic as Jeff the Land Shark, the strategist hero who is, at a glance, just a silly little guy. However, as Marvel Rivals players have learned, this happy dude is actually one of the biggest menaces in the game, and god, I hope NetEase keeps him like this forever.
Jeff is a âstrategist,â the Marvel Rivals equivalent of a support hero. Most of the time he sprays water from his mouth to patch up teammates and leaves healing-infused bubbles around the battlefield for players to walk through and recover some of their HP. However, itâs his ultimate that has become the bane of most playersâ existence. âItâs Jeff!â creates a sizable whirlpool on the battlefield, which Jeff circles before devouring any player inside the area of effect. From here, he can do one of a few things. He can chew on them as he swims around, doing small damage over time. He can spit them out, displacing them. Or, he can do what most players have learned to do and send them off the side of the map.
At first, my experience with hungry Jeffs was that players would swallow several opponents and then spit them off the map and into a chasm. As a Star-Lord main, this was usually not that big of a deal, as I could just fly right back to safety. However, as more players have used this strategy, Jeff players have wised up and realized that theyâll get more value diving off the side of the map themselves while their foes are still trapped than they will by just spitting them out and risking them returning to safety. It has become such a foolproof strategy that seemingly every Jeff player is utilizing it, and everyone else wants the land sharkâs blood.
While thatâs the most common strategy now, sometimes there isnât a hole nearby, and some players are using Jeffâs ultimate as a way to throw a team off an objective or to set up other more devastating attacks, like grouping together several foes to toss them into Scarlet Witchâs explosive ultimate. Whatever strategy Jeff players are using, the characterâs destructive power contrasted with his cute, unassuming demeanor has made him the center of so many jokes in the gameâs community just days after launch.
@spectrexgaming Heâs just a baby #gamingontiktok #whattoplay #marvelrivals
Forced C9 with this silly guy pic.twitter.com/QFyYS2UJva
— Acid Queen đ (@AcidQueenOW) December 9, 2024
So I checked out Marvel Rivals pic.twitter.com/VHXhplzRHu
— MÎDDiE (@MiyanEatWorld) December 8, 2024
Dear Jeff and Wanda,
that combo was fucking insane, good shit, but i hate you very very muchđđ #MarvelRivals pic.twitter.com/MLYJ1vdgzT
— Divine đ€ (@Divine0dyssey) December 9, 2024
things jeff the land shark has done
a VERY much needed thread: pic.twitter.com/YnEX2XTKYL
— miles đ (@digitolmix) December 9, 2024
where's the enemy team?
Jeff: we outa enemies pic.twitter.com/1Wnn11dTm8— Maya𩩠(@MayaIsAnimating) December 8, 2024
If that aqua demon spits me off the map one more time. pic.twitter.com/m75sFSR9Ve
— Cozy (@ACozyGamer) December 9, 2024
someone just got thrown off the map https://t.co/PkF3gHcrL1
— GOREJIRλ (@GOREJ1RA) December 7, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1865882918985589069
Saw that the rigs were ripped from Marvel Rivals, so I wanted to play around with them. #MarvelRivals pic.twitter.com/ayxnvc3Rn7
— Lance H. (@Imp_Animator) December 9, 2024
YUUUUP Jeff ult actually takes a lot of skill pic.twitter.com/JglAlN58PB
— penpuin (@puinpenpuinpen) December 8, 2024
We still donât know how NetEase will balance Marvel Rivals in the future, but thereâs part of me that hopes it stays this messy, unpolished hero shooter and âunfair,â âtoxicâ nonsense like Jeffâs ultimate stays in the game. Ultimately, itâll hinge on what the studio wants for the game. Does it want Marvel Rivals to become a big esports sensation or does it want to keep appealing to the casual player who isnât getting sweaty and just wants to slam their superhero toys against each other? The latter is preferable to me at this point, and the chaos of Jeff the Land Shark is one of the best examples of it.
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