Lead is a number, not a feel
Every projectile hero guide says “lead the target”. None of them say how much, which is why the advice never fixes anything. The amount is a multiplication:
lead distance = target speed × flight time
flight time = distance ÷ projectile speed
Movement speed in Marvel Rivals is 6 metres per second for almost every hero, 7 for Black Panther and Wolverine. That is the number you lead against — not a guess.
| Projectile speed | At 15 m | At 30 m | At 45 m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 m/s | 2.25 m | 4.5 m | 6.75 m |
| 60 m/s | 1.5 m | 3.0 m | 4.5 m |
| 80 m/s | 1.13 m | 2.25 m | 3.38 m |
| 120 m/s | 0.75 m | 1.5 m | 2.25 m |
Half a hero width is roughly 0.6 metres, so read the table in bodies. A 60 m/s projectile at 30 metres needs five body widths of lead. That is far more than most players give, which is exactly why long shots miss while short ones land.
Two consequences:
- The lead grows with distance, but the hit is harder at distance anyway. The shot that needs the most lead is also the shot with the smallest margin for error.
- Speed changes the whole table. A 120 m/s projectile needs a fifth of the lead a 40 m/s one does at the same range, so lead intuition does not transfer between heroes.
Strafing targets have a zero point
A target moving sideways at 6 metres per second is not always moving sideways. They reverse. At the moment of reversal their lateral speed is zero, and the correct lead is zero with it.
That single fact is worth more than any amount of aim training. Watch for the direction change and fire on it, because:
- The lead requirement collapses to nothing.
- The target’s own movement is briefly predictable.
- Players reverse on a rhythm tied to their strafe keys, not to your shots.
Against a target that keeps strafing without reversing, the lead stays constant and you can pre-aim the lane. Against one that jiggles, wait for the reversal.
Range discipline
Because flight time grows linearly with distance, your hit probability falls off faster than your damage does. Three rules follow:
Fight at the range where your projectile arrives before the target moves a body width. For a 60 m/s projectile that is roughly 30 metres against a moving target, and further against a stationary one.
Use chokepoints. A doorway does not strafe. Anywhere movement is constrained, lead becomes near-constant and your effective accuracy doubles. The positioning guide covers where those chokepoints sit relative to your exit.
Do not spam into open ground. A missed projectile is not just lost damage, it is a cooldown spent and a position revealed.
The sensitivity question
Projectile heroes reward smooth tracking, not flicks. What matters is not a number but whether you can make small corrections without overshooting.
Measure your cm-per-360 — move the mouse 30 cm, note how far the camera turned, repeat. If your figure is short enough that a 2 cm correction swings 15 degrees, tracking a strafe will feel twitchy and you will compensate by over-leading. The settings guide has the measurement method and the scaling formula, and the heroes database shows which heroes actually fire projectiles rather than hitscan.