With Season 2 ofMarvel Rivals, Emma Frost arrives as a Vanguard character, using her mutant abilities to lead her team into battle. The White Queen has a variety of powers, including offensive and defensive telepathy alongside diamond skin to ensure her dominance against her foes. When combined with her strong Ultimate, Emma Frost can direct the course of a match in her favor.
Emma Frost will be the ninthVanguard character inMarvel Rivals, filling an archetype designed to be the focus of an enemy team. With higher health, Emma Frost can take more hits without going down compared to her Duelist and Strategist allies. Thesurvivability of Emma Frost allows her to create space and take an enemy team’s attention, creating opportunities for the rest of her team.
All Emma Frost Abilities
Switch Between Telepathic And Diamond Forms
The most unique aspect of Emma Frost’s character design is thatshe can switch between two alternate forms - her Base Form and Diamond Form. While in Diamond Form, Emma gains damage-reduction buffs and can’t be knocked around, similar to The Thing. However, in this state, Emma’s primary attacks become melee strikes, greatly reducing her range compared to her Base Form.
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Since the Diamond Form only lasts for a limited time, the key to Emma Frost is knowing when and where to activate it. This balance is reflected in other abilities Emma uses as well, such as the slow build-up damage of her Base Form’s primary fire. Sharing features of both The Thing andCloak & Dagger inMarvel Rivals,Emma Frost uses both forms to adapt to different situationsduring a match.
To enter Diamond Form and change Emma Frost’s attack style, press either the RB, R1, or"E"input to change forms. Diamond Form lasts for nine seconds with a 15-second cooldown, so don’t use it right away during a fight.
The following tables contain all of Emma Frost’s abilities in both forms, including what they do and how long they last:
Primary Attack (RT, R2, LMB)
70 Pulse (Reload)
Fire a psionic beam to deal damage; the longer the beam hits; the higher the damage.
Alternate Attack (LT, L2, RMB)
N/A
Create a levitating barrier at a designated location. It acts as a floating shield with 500 Base Health. Using this ability again dismisses the shield, allowing it to recharge health.
Basic Ability (LSHIFT, L1, LB)
7 seconds
Seize control of an enemy’s sentience. Damage dealt to the sentience crystal created cascades to the physical form and can be pierced by Telepathic Pulse. When the sentience crystal shatters, it unleashes extra damage on its owner.
2 seconds
In Diamond Form, unleash a flying kick forward and knock back enemies. This deals extra damage if an enemy is propelled into a wall.
In Diamond Form, lunge forward to grab an enemy, then execute a back slame to inflict damage.
Emma Frost does not have many abilities, but the ones she does have are extremely powerful under the right circumstances. For example, her Carbon Crush attack in Diamond Form can stun enemies, grabbing them and canceling even some Ultimate moves. Sinceabilities are exclusive to both of Emma’s forms, you have to be selective with when you use each to master the character.
How To Use Emma Frost’s Ultimate
Dominate Minds To Control The Battlefield
Emma Frost’s Ultimate attack,Psionic Seduction, projects a massive psychic assault against enemies within a certain radius. While this projection is active,enemies are stunned and cannot use their Ultimatesto counter Emma’s psionic control. If the effect lingers, it dominates their minds further, causing them to move closer to Emma regardless of any risks.
This Ultimate is perfect forcountering Strategist Ultimates inMarvel Rivals, or any signature ability of an enemy team’s star character.Emma can shut down a team’s offense or prevent them from survivingyour group’s onslaught while you are the aggressor.
One of the best ways to use Emma Frost’s Ultimate is to activate it when enemies are close to a map’s edge. If Psionic Seduction lingers on an enemy for long enough, Emma can force them to jump off ledges to their death.
This Ultimate deals damage over time as well, slowly chipping away at a character’s health as it locks them down. Despite the many strengths of this Ultimate, you have to keep in mind thatenemies can escape the Ultimate’s effect if they leave its range. Enemies are still allowed to move away from Emma, so attempt to use this Ultimate in Diamond Form so you take less damage while walking toward an enemy team to keep the ability active.
Best Team Composition For Emma Frost
Bring Forth Other X-Men To Emma’s Side
As you might expect, other mutants are the best to pair with Emma Frost, especially those who share aTeam-Up ability inMarvel Rivalswith her. Here are some great choices for a strong team comp with Emma Frost:
Magneto and Psylocke act as recipients of a Team-Up when Emma Frost acts as an anchor on a team. This Team-Up, called"Mind Link,“forms a mental link with Magneto or Psylocke, allowing the characters to call on her for aid. When either character uses their Team-Up, theycreate an illusory Mental Projection of themselves, forming a duplicate that can confuse enemies, move, and cast abilities on its own.
This Team-Up acts strikingly similar to the clones ofLoki inMarvel Rivals. The ability to create two Magnetos can give your team much stronger protection, while two Psylockes can increase your group’s damage potential by a staggering amount. Due to Emma Frost’s low health compared to other Vanguards,it’s always a good idea to pair Emma with another tankin my experience, whether that be Magneto with the Team-Up or another bulky character like Hulk.
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Characters like Peni Parker and Wolverine can aid Emma by stunning or moving enemies alongside the Hellfire Gala organizer. With her Ultimate, Emma can move enemies into Peni’s mines, while Wolverine can kidnap enemy Vanguards to place them near Emma’s Diamond form.Emma also works well with flying characters like Stormsince she can project a shield upward to protect them at any time.
Best Tips, Tricks, & Strategies For Winning
Deny Enemy Characters The Momentum They Need To Win
Mental illusions and tricks are used to great effect by Emma Frost to lure enemies out of position. Once Emma has fooled someone, she can go into her Diamond Form to make enemies regret getting close, making her a perfect character tostay with her team and adapt to threats. From the matches I’ve played, Emma is great at countering the populardive comps inMarvel Rivalswho prey on disorganized groups.
Abilities in Emma’s Base Form work at mid to long-range, while her Diamond Form delivers close-range melee damage to anyone that gets too close. This versatility makes Emma a more balanced Vanguard akin to Doctor Strange or Magneto.
One of the best strategies while playing Emma is touse her Diamond Form abilities to cancel enemy actionsas often as possible. As of this time of writing, Carbon Crush is one of the best moves in the game to counter nearly any Ultimate enemy teams try to use. When you combo Crystal Kick from Carbon Crush as a follow-up, it can deliver a surprising amount of damage to eliminate enemies fast.
As Emma Frost, you want to be charging your primary fire to deal more damage while using Diamond Form and Mind’s Aegis to protect your allies. While the many flexible abilities of Emma Frost can be a lot to juggle inMarvel Rivals, mastering her moves with her Ultimate gives the mutant leader many chances to set the pace of a fight whenever she’s involved.
