Marvel Rivals Season 2 introduces Emma Frost, a new Vanguard who can transform and has two sets of abilities. We’ll look at where the White Queen originated, what her skills do, and how best to play her in this guide.
Marvel Rivals Season 2 has arrived, bringing with it a thrilling new addition to its ever-growing roster: the iconic White Queen herself, Emma Frost. As one of Marvel’s most powerful telepaths and a standout fashion icon, Frost makes her grand entrance into the game with a kit that blends psychic dominance with diamond-hard resilience.
Longtime X-Men fans will appreciate her faithful adaptation. Meanwhile, competitive players will quickly discover her potential in the meta. One thing’s certain: Emma Frost’s debut is poised to leave a lasting mark on Marvel Rivals, and the game always needs more Vanguards.
Frost has had a rich history in the X-Men comics, first appearing in The Uncanny X-Men #129. She initially was a supervillain during her Hellfire Club days, alongside the likes of Sebastian Shaw. These days, however, Frost is known to be a friend to the X-Men and one of the heroes herself, though she is known to have ambiguous morals.
The White Queen originally only had one mutation, which was that of being a telepath. She, however, gained the first-ever identified second mutation in the X-Men comics with her diamond form. Frost is one of the most powerful and capable telepaths in the Marvel universe, considered to be equal to the likes of Professor X himself.
Though her diamond form renders her unable to use her telepathic abilities, she becomes much more durable and gains immunity from telepathic attacks. Some of her abilities include projecting illusions, firing psionic blasts, and transferring knowledge by touching other people.
Frost has appeared in other forms of media, including as one of the antagonists in X-Men: First Class. She has also been in other Marvel games (X-Men Legends, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Marvel Super War, etc.) prior to her debut in Marvel Rivals. Outside of Marvel, she has even appeared in Fortnite as a boss battle, complete with her own line of skins.
Speaking of skins, Emma Frost currently has three different skins in the current patch of Marvel Rivals. Like most characters, her base skin takes inspiration from one of her most iconic looks in the comics—the White Queen. Her Blue Sapphire skin is a Marvel Rivals original, which is essentially her base skin but with a blue tint.
Lastly, her X-Revolution skin is inspired by Uncanny X-Men (2013) #1, where Frost joins a team of mutants (including Cyclops and Magik) as they try to revolutionize the status quo of mutants after the Phoenix event. With Frost, Marvel Rivals is sure to have a wide range of looks to take inspiration from, given her many high-fashion lifestyle.
In Marvel Rivals, she is voiced by Laura Post, who has also worked in other games like Persona 5 Royal (Yoshizawa), League of Legends (Ahri), World of Warcraft (Queen Azshara), and Batman: The Enemy Within (Harley Quinn and other minor characters). Post has also done voice acting in animated shows and anime, such as Justice League Action (Big Barda), Records of Ragnarok (Brunhilde), and Tower of God (Hwaryun), among others.
In Marvel Rivals, Emma Frost's kit gives her great survivability in clashes, and she does good damage too. Emma Frost has two sets of abilities depending on her base state or in Diamond Form.
For her base form, her normal attack, Telepathic Pulse, fires a beam similar to Scarlet Witch and Cloak's normal attacks. Frost's normal attack deals more damage the longer it is used against an enemy character, indicated by the number located below the reticle. This damage amplification decreases over time if she does not hit an opponent within 3 seconds.
Her next skill, Mind's Aegis, comes in the form of a diamond-shaped shield which can be deployed towards a location. It can be voluntarily canceled before losing all its HP to avoid a longer cooldown. After being damaged, her shield will regenerate health if recalled and inactive. This shield can be cast farther away from Frost's current position by holding down the skill's input, but this can be blocked by objects that are in front of her.
Her Psychic Spear skill is another of her damaging abilities in her base form. This fires a projectile toward enemies and pulls their sentience toward you if it hits. Hitting this crystal also damages enemies, and when it loses all its HP, it deals some damage to the enemy that owns it. Telepathic Pulse can pierce through this "sentience" and hit enemies behind that are within the normal attack's range.
Her ultimate, Psionic Seduction, fires psychic pulses in a cone-shaped area in front of her which stuns and damages opponents. Additionally, this prevents them from using their own ultimate skills and will force them to move toward Emma if they are still within the ultimate's range. Her ultimate switches her out of her Diamond Form (since she can't use telepathic abilities in this form), staying true to her character's source material.
Diamond Form transforms her whole body into a diamond, becoming more durable and with it comes a change in her skills. In this form, she gains damage reduction and the Unstoppable status. The Unstoppable status prevents her from being forcibly displaced by opponents' skills and being stunned. In this form, she can survive most characters' damaging ultimates at full health - the only exception being if she takes a direct hit from Iron Man's ultimate.
In Diamond form, her primary attack is called Faceted Fury, where she strikes the enemy with melee hits. The third and fourth strikes do more damage than the first two attacks. She also gains an alternative skill called Crystal Kick, which allows her to knock back characters and deal additional damage if they hit walls.
Psychic Spear's alternative skill is Carbon Crush. With this skill, she lunges some distance in front of her and grabs enemies, then slams them to the ground. This skill can be used at just the right time to cancel some character ultimates.
Players should learn to play around her Diamond form as it has high burst damage and can easily combo squishies. The bread and butter combo of Carbon Crush and Crystal Kick towards your teammates is more than enough for most characters. However, Diamond Form is also her main defensive cooldown, and smart enemies will try to focus you down once it's off cooldown.
In neutral, players should manage their normal attack's damage amplification well to get the most out of this skill. Charge it off frontline targets before looking to transfer its full power to lower health enemies. After landing the Psychic Spear, a fully charged beam and a melee attack is a quick way to get burst damage before they can break the tether.
Her shield is relatively weak and has a long recharge time, so Emma Frost can’t anchor the same way Vanguards like Magneto and Dr. Strange. However, her shield is a long-range deployable that can cut off areas with ease. Use her shield to block duelists like Punisher off their high ground or snipers like Hawkeye. Place it behind enemy Vanguards or in front of Strategists to block their healing, a sneaky trick that can catch frontliners off-guard.
Emma Frost is the best Vanguard to deal with pesky flying characters. Throw a shield towards Iron-Man, Storm, and Johnny to force them away from their spots. Frost doesn’t have the best range, so your shield is your only defense against these unreachable enemies. But never let the shield break, as you can use it to block ultimates or to cover your escape.
Emma Frost works well with most of the characters. However, she works exceptionally well with Magneto and Psylocke due to their team-up. She’s the anchor for their team-up ability, Mind Link. With this skill, Psylocke and Magneto can clone themselves for a short amount of time, and Frost will get an additional 100 HP. These clones can attack the same target, doubling their damage output. Clones are also able to use non-ultimate skills.
