How to Play Groot in Marvel Rivals

Groot is the only hero who changes the map mid-fight. His walls split the enemy frontline from their backline, block incoming healing, and turn tight corridors into kill boxes. He is not a damage dealer — he is the setup that makes everyone else’s damage land, and Strangling Prison is one of the best crowd-control ultimates in the game when your team has burst ready.

Role and difficulty

Vanguard. Groot has 850 health. Difficulty Medium (2/5). He wants to hold chokepoints and tight corners where a single wall covers every approach, and he suffers on moving objectives where the payload deletes his walls.

Abilities and what they actually do

• Vine Strike (Normal Attacks): Launch vines to attack enemies. Key numbers: DAMAGE — 65; RANGE — 22m; PROJECTILE SPEED — 120m/s.
• Strangling Prison (Abilities): Fire a massive vine cluster that pulls nearby enemies to its center and them. Key numbers: PROJECTILE SPEED — 60m/s.
• Spore Bomb (Abilities): Throw an explosive Spore Bomb that splits into multiple small explosive spores. Key numbers: COOLDOWN — 6s; PROJECTILE SPEED — 60m/s.
• Thornlash Wall (Abilities): Target a location and grow a Thornlash Wall. When, it strikes nearby enemies attacked by Groot and his allies. Key numbers: DAMAGE — 60.
• Ironwood Wall (Abilities): Key numbers: COOLDOWN — 12s.
• Furious Flora (Abilities): Key numbers: RANGE — 1st & 2nd Strikes: 3m, 3rd Strike: 4m.
• Flora Colossus (Abilities): Wooden walls near Groot will, activating an extra effect. Right-click while building a wooden wall to continue building additional walls.

Walls that split teams

Thornlash Wall places up to three attacking walls that strike enemies hit by Groot or his allies for 60 damage, and its range is much longer than Ironwood Wall. Ironwood Wall is the single big wall — only one at a time — and while it stands Groot generates bonus health and gains Unstoppable when it awakens. Both walls block line of sight, which means they block healing: a wall between the enemy Vanguard and their Strategist is worth more than most damage ults. Vine Strike looks like melee but is a 120 m/s projectile for 65 damage at 22 meters. Strangling Prison pulls every nearby enemy to one point and immobilizes them, so call your burst heroes before you throw it.

How to play Groot

1. Fight in tight corners and chokepoints — one wall in the right gap covers every route the enemy has.
2. Split the enemy team with a wall so their supports cannot heal their frontline.
3. Place Thornlash Walls behind retreating enemies; the walls attack anyone Groot or his allies hit.
4. Cancel Peni Parker’s spider-nests instantly by walling them off.
5. Throw Strangling Prison into grouped enemies, then let Namor, Moon Knight, or Iron Man ultimates delete the trapped cluster.
6. Place walls before or after the ultimate, never during — the walls add the damage that finishes the trapped team.

Matchups

Groot dominates static defenses and any backline that hides behind a Vanguard, because his walls reach through cover. He struggles on moving payloads, where the objective destroys walls and forces constant repositioning, and he is helpless with both walls on cooldown. His large frame and lack of mobility make him an easy target for focused ranged fire.

Strengths (per the wiki):

• Mid-range bruiser with powerful area-of-denial abilities, capable of creating obstacles to protect his allies or block enemy fire.
• Has slightly higher health compared to other Vanguards.
• His primary fire, Vine Strike, extends Groot’s arms to deal damage from a long range. Despite its appearance, it counts as a projectile.
• His secondary fire, Spore Bomb, launches a projectile which splits itself into six smaller shards upon impact. Can deal very high damage if both the main projectile and its splinters hit the target.
• His melee attack, Furious Flora, is distinct for dealing knockback every two hits. It can be weaved with his Vine Strike for higher damage-per-second.
• Groot is able to build wooden walls that can block enemy view; players can change the direction the walls are built to even serve as platforms. These interact directly with his passive, Flora Colossus, which grants Groot the ability to ‘awaken’ the wooden walls if he’s nearby them, which provides extra effects.
• • Ironwood Walls have higher health (700) and are longer in width. When awakened they provide Groot with 40 bonus health-per-second (up to 250). Groot can only have one active at a time.
• • Thornlash Walls have much lower health (250) and are shorter in width. When awakened they deal damage to enemies nearby that are attacked by Groot and his team. Groot can have up to three active at a time, and can build them continuously by holding the button.
• ** Throwing Spore Bomb directly at the wall if there is an enemy near it will cause the wall to lash out multiple times, both to the bomb as well to the split spores that spawn from it.
• • Both walls can deny plenty of attacks and even Ultimates. In particular, it can block Jeff the Land Shark’s It’s Jeff! if the wall is placed in front of him before he tries to devour the team, as it’ll block his line of sight.
• • Placing any of Groot’s walls over certain hero-spawned obstacles will instantly destroy them, such as Peni Parker’s Arachno Mines, Moon Knight’s Ancient Ankhs, and Namor’s Aquatic Dominions.
• His Ultimate, Strangling Prison, launches vines that pull enemies in and imprison them for a few seconds while dealing damage-over-time. Enemies affected by this ability cannot move but are still able to attack and use non-mobility abilities.
• • If Groot throws the Ultimate at one of his walls, enemies will be pulled and pinned onto it.
• Requires proper skill to play effectively as the wooden walls can be detrimental to his own team since they can block his allies’ own abilities.
• Not very effective in moving objectives since he is forced to constantly reposition his wooden walls and burn his cooldowns.
• • Moving objectives will instantly destroy his walls if they are placed in front of them.
• Is vulnerable if both his wooden walls are on cooldown and destroyed.
• No mobility tools, combined with his rather slow speed and tall and large frame make him easy to hit.
• Lower attack range compared to other ranged heroes.

Weaknesses (per the wiki):

• Requires proper skill to play effectively as the wooden walls can be detrimental to his own team since they can block his allies’ own abilities.
• Not very effective in moving objectives since he is forced to constantly reposition his wooden walls and burn his cooldowns.
• • Moving objectives will instantly destroy his walls if they are placed in front of them.
• Is vulnerable if both his wooden walls are on cooldown and destroyed.
• No mobility tools, combined with his rather slow speed and tall and large frame make him easy to hit.
• Lower attack range compared to other ranged heroes.

Team-ups

• Wild Wall (with Mantis, Season 9.0: The Mystery of Thebes): Summon a Wild Wall that provides Continuous Healing and Bonus Health to allies within its range. Enhanced: When teaming up with Mantis, the Wild Wall evolves after providing a certain amount of healing, increasing its healing.
• Bubble Buddies (with Jeff the Land Shark, Season 9.0: The Mystery of Thebes): Retreat inside a Bubble Shield to enter an Invincible state, granting self-targeted Continuous Healing. Enhanced: When teaming up with Jeff the Land Shark, the healing effect inside the bubble is enhanced, and any excess healing converts into Bonus Health.

Related guides

• Heroes Database
• Abilities Database
• How To Play Defense
• Frontline Vanguard Guide
• How To Play Mantis
• How To Play Jeff the Land Shark

Common mistakes

• Placing walls where they block your own team’s abilities and escape routes
• Fighting on moving objectives without planning wall repositioning
• Throwing Strangling Prison with no burst damage ready to follow up
• Standing still with both walls destroyed — he has no mobility tool to recover
• Using Ironwood Wall at range where Thornlash Wall’s longer reach would work