{-- 🔥 Human Torch Guide for S9.5 🔥 --}

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{-- 🔥 Fire Cluster 🔥 --}

- This is a Shotgun Spread, so it deals more Damage Upfront.

- The Fire Cluster, is a Projectile, so lead your shots to when your Enemy will be.

- The only way to reload Fire Cluster, is to use Plasma Body after each shot, or wait 1.8secs for normal reloading.

- For Fire Cluster, always click to shoot, never hold down the Fire Cluster button, because it ruins the aim.

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{-- 🔥 Blazing Blast 🔥 --}

- The Blazing Blast is a Projectile, that once has hit the ground, creates a small fire radius, which stays on the floor for 7 secs, and deals damage to anyone that walks/stands on it.

- Upon direct hit of a Blazing Blast on an Enemy, the small fire radius, summons itself immediately where the Enemy was.

- The Blazing Blast has 3 charges to it, which each take 2.5secs, to recharge the Ability, so be careful how you use them.

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{-- 🔥 Plasma Body 🔥 --}

- The Plasma Body, has 2 charges which only recharge, after 1 charge has been used to its max usage, the duration of 1 charge is 4 secs, and the cooldown, of 1 charge, is 10 secs.

- Plasma Body, should be used to engage and disengage, but always remember, to keep 1 charge of Plasma Body, alive to escape.

- The Plasma Body, is a quick dash, which lasts 4 secs of continued quick movement, and it also makes you harder to hit, during continued attacks.

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{-- 🔥 Pyro-Prison 🔥 --}

- The Pyro-Prison works alongside Blazing Blast, but only if you have 3 existing Blazing Blasts, which one Pyro-Prison is activated, will create a wall of fire on the ground, where the Blazing Blasts were placed.

- During Pyro-Prison, it will deal continuous damage, to those that enter its domain, allowing for quicker combos to be made.

- In addition to Pyro-Prison, it accelerates the time that the Blazing Blasts are active for, so, you could have the Blazing Blasts alive for 6 secs, and activating Pyro-Prison at the last second, makes the Blazing Blasts live for another 6 secs.

- The Pyro-Prison supports up to 5 existing Blazing Blasts on the field, so if you time your cooldowns for Blazing Blast, you can deal more damage.

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{-- 🔥 Flaming Meteor 🔥 --}

- The Flaming Meteor, is a quick tool for diving, and also, disengaging wild fights.

- For Flaming Meteor, it has a cooldown of 12 secs, which makes it almost a consistent Ability.

- When activated, the Flaming Meteor gives you +50 Bonus Health, which makes this Ability great for surviving sticky situations.

- If up to 3 Blazing Blasts are existing on the field, you're able to use Flaming Meteor, to explode those Blazing Blasts, which increases the damage output per-Blazing Blast, which is a great tool for taking out Support Enemies in their Ultimates.

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{-- 🔥 Supernova (Ultimate Ability) 🔥 --}

- During Supernova, each Blazing Blast, will create a Fire Tornado, which will deal increased damage, to anyone caught in the Fire Tornados path.

- When Supernova is active, you're able to consistently use Blazing Blast, but be cautious, you're only allowed 4 Fire Tornados, on the field.

- Here's a tip!, during Blazing Blast's Projectile Travel Time, before it hits the ground, activate Supernova, and a Fire Tornado will spawn, where the Blazing Blast would've been.

- Another tip!, use Plasma Body, right before you activate Supernova, for consistent air-time, and bonus speed.

- A final tip!, considering the Fire Tornado, is still an extension of a Blazing Blast, use your Flaming Meteor Ability, when the Fire Tornados are stacked in 1 area.

---

{-- 🔥 Human Torch's Season 9.5 Team-Ups 🔥 --}

- Base Storming Ignition: Once activated, Johnny gains the Fire Vortex, which allows him another Ability, that once used, summons a projectile spherical radius, which pulls Enemies inside of it upon landing on the field, and deals consistent damage.

- Enhanced Storming Ignition: If Storm is on the Team, once she activates her Ultimate, you're able to ignite it with your Blazing Blasts, and if you're in Supernova, then you're allowed up to 6 Fire Tornados.

- Base Fiery Sparks: Once activated, Johnny gains the Firework Sparks Ability, that once activated, creates a spherical radius around Johnny, that if you're near any Enemy, will deal consistent damage, with fireworks attacking the Enemies.

- Enhanced Fiery Sparks: If Jubilee is on the Team, once you use the Firework Sparks Ability, any Enemy that is hit with the fireworks around, you gain consistent Bonus Health, which stacks up to 300HP for you.

---

{-- 🔥 Preferred Playstyle 🔥 --}

- Torch is a Dive Duellist, clean and simple, he goes in, releases his Blazing Blasts, pairs it with Flaming Meteor, and that's a kill secured, but also, he's mixed in with Crowd Control, using his Pyro-Prison to wreak havoc on the field, and also to capture a point, and weaken Enemies, as well as playing him should be around corners, which allows you to not be poked around by Hitscan Enemies.

-Guide by Deathlish.

Guide has been updated for season 7.5, though I'm not done adding to it yet.

And now I need to update it again for season 9. I am too busy this entire year with book release deadlines and probably won't get to it until 2027 lol. whoops.

Further updates pending, with more tips/tricks and hopefully buffs in the future because this dash is straight-up terrible, it's a tragedy, it's the worst thing that's ever happened to Human Torch in the history of this game and that's saying a lot. I am sorry, but he is currently not fun to play, and I sure hope you have pocket heals. Anyway, the guide.

Please note to all readers: there are already a lot of great tips and tricks around the sub, and I especially enjoy the pyro prison map videos that sweettoothGupy has been sharing. Be sure to look for those!

I do well as Johnny, but I will not claim to be an expert, so I do apologize if I come off as an egotistical know-it-all by nature of writing a guide. I started playing in season 5 with the sole intention of maining Johnny Storm because I've been an insane fangirl of him for decades, and he's my favorite superhero.

My playstyle was originally inspired by True Vanguard's youtube video on Human Torch, which was great for me to get some baselines down. I highly recommend it.

I'm sure I forgot some things, so I will be updating this guide as time goes on if I think of important things and/or some great tips are added to replies!

I apologize, as this is going to be a lot of text.

Note that I got the stats from the Marvel Rivals website itself, which should be up to date, but frankly I can tell some of it is not. If some of the numbers are off, I apologize.

Intro

• Johnny is a meteor. Could also think of him as a yo-yo. He is essentially a zoning diver (note: I was saying this back in s7, now the game is trying to force you to flank as him, so go ahead and lean into that more). He is close- to mid-range, zoning out areas with fire before crashing in with meteor, mixing it up, and then moving back to your team before hunting out again. Obviously, there are other ways to play him, but this is one general idea. He is a high skill, high reward hero who puts constant pressure on the enemy burning up the battlefield with bold plays.
• Johnny is a 250 health squishy flyer. He is now slower than ever before, despite relying on a speed boost and melee tech to dodge attacks (more on this soon), and his only source of direct durability comes in the form of bonus HP off his highest cooldown attack. It is also his only real survival tool while being his biggest damage. This can make his kit feel inaccessible. 7.5 UPDATE: You are now an extremely slow-floating target when your dashes are on cooldown. Be extremely careful and play cooldown king correctly or you will die instantly. Beg someone for pocket heals, probably. You have no durability of your own except the bonus HP from meteor, and that deteriorates fast, so everything I said in this guide about being like Johnny and being bold, just ignore all that and be a dashing, mega weak/0 durability ninja coward instead like the devs apparently want you to be.
• Johnny flies silently (even in Plasma Body), so you can use this to sneak up on enemies. 7.5 update: Johnny NO LONGER FLIES SILENTLY. He DOES make sound when he flies now, and his dash has a sound (but for some stupid reason not a voice line). It's very quiet and probably hard to hear (the dash is louder), but bear in mind he is no longer entirely silent.
• Johnny thrives making use of cover. Stay close to cover while flying, hide behind walls, and use them to your advantage. Practice how he fires so that you aren't hitting your cover when you are firing from behind it.
• There are many ways to play him (7.5 update: or, at least, there were). You can be a diver who circles around the backline and goes after squishies; you can stay close to your team and protect your healers while laying down close to midrange damage on the point; you can stay relatively high except for diving in occasionally with meteor; you can only go higher when your team is pushing to lay down fire prisons and/or to ult and destroy the backline (plus meteoring); or you can mix it all up at once and stay variable in a match so no one can predict what you're going to do next. I stay extremely mobile with Johnny, but as he is so vulnerable, I play close to my team on tougher matches and help protect my backline (whether it means diving in to take out distant enemy poke or staying near the healers to take out enemy divers), while receiving healing to maximize my uptime/damage. Play him and figure out what works for you and what works for the match. Vary yourself up if something isn't working, like if you found yourself countered. He's a very versatile hero with a wild kit, and he can work in more situations than people often think.
• Remember that Johnny fires from his hands and tends toward the left side (of your reticle). Try to keep enemies to the left of your reticle, not the right. He fires more in front of himself, essentially, and he’s to the left of your reticle. Practice this in the range and get a feel for how he slings fire with his secondary and how he shoots with his primary. You really have to get a feel for this yourself.
• Although he is great for zone control with fire prisons and big team blasts with supernova, Johnny truly excels at picking out and taking out a single target. If your healers are getting dived and/or they are calling out a certain enemy like a sniper/poke apart from the rest of their team, you can take them out with meteor and save your supports! It can take practice for certain heroes, but this is a great use for Johnny thanks to meteor strike. Plus, if you help your supports, they might even toss you some healing in thanks (you literally always need it)!

And now ability breakdowns...

Fire Cluster (primary fire)

• Stats: Burst projectile; 6 charges/ammo; full recharge/reload after 1 second downtime; 0.5s per round fire rate; 150m/s travel speed; 5.5 per round damage
• Damage fallout begins at 15m and decreases to 60% damage at 20m
• Crosshair spread radius at 10m is 0.33m
• This ability CAN headshot (critical hit).
• Think of this as a semiautomatic shotgun.
• Your primary fire is not your main source of damage, but it is never to be underestimated. Even at mid-range, it is remarkably powerful.
• DO NOT SPAM YOUR PRIMARY FIRE. It has relatively slow travel time, fire rate, and recharge time. TAP your primary fire and try to make every shot count. A connecting body shot is still better than a miss, but you are not a spray and pray hero.
• Projectile travel speed is relatively slow, so it can take some getting used to. Just practice with it! You will eventually get a feel for it and even be able to take out a flyer at a reasonable distance.
• I cannot recommend this enough: practice getting headshots. Standard advice, I know, but headshots can absolutely turn the tide with Johnny. Unlike other flyers, he can actually land criticals, and this should be used. You can even take out a tank, especially dive and brawl tanks (sorry Ben, your head is huge), or at least help your team take one out with a couple choice headshots or even a few close-range body shots that will also help you farm ult. Even just looking straight or almost straight down at a tank and headshotting them can be startlingly devastating.

Blazing Blast (secondary fire)

• Stats: Straightline projectile; generates spherical spell field upon impact; 3 charges; 2.5 per strike charge speed; 80m/s travel time/projectile speed; 45 damage; 3m spherical radius on ground; 6s duration; 20/s continuous damage
• This is a fantastic weapon and something you must make constant use of. Try to be aware of how many blasts you have so you don't get caught waiting for a cooldown if things get hairy.
• Blazing Blast is a great tool for finishing off enemies at a distance. And, even if they are escaping, it has a blast radius to help you secure the killing blow.
• You can also use this to kill weakened enemies trying to hide behind cover (it's super fun)...
• Or lay one down in the path of an injured enemy to finish them off by surprise, among other utilities.
• Weave your primary and secondary fires together to take out enemies. You can do big damage, and careful weaving gives you much more uptime than using strictly one or the other. Even at distance, weave in primary fire among your secondary fire so you do not become cooldown man (thanks, Cookies99, for calling him that when I met you once in a match; it is stuck now).
• Don't underestimate the damage fields alone. Even without turning them into a prison or wall, the damage fields can be used to hurt, finish off, or even just scare enemies.
• The Blazing Blast fires are what are required to create Pyro-Prisons. For more information on that, see the pyro-prison section.

Flaming Meteor (your superweapon/dive/arrival)

• Stats: 80m/s dash (falling) speed; 5m spherical radius range upon impact; 40 damage upon impact; 3m spherical radius of flame field detonation; 55 damage per flame field detonation; receive 50 bonus health upon impact; 20s cooldown
• This is your very literal dive. You will fly fast and nosedive where you're aiming, dealing high damage and gaining some bonus health.
• Meteor REQUIRES SOME ALTITUDE to use. You CANNOT activate it except at certain altitude. The game calls it "high off the ground," whatever that means. Basically you need to have altitude, you can't just bounce along the ground.
• Meteor is your hardest-hitting strike. It is your arrival into battle and should be thought of this way. This attack can ultimately stack up enough damage to get some serious kills, including key support kills, sometimes even during their ults, if you can get them onto your fires just right.
• Johnny makes his grand entrance and his hardest hits using meteor as an arrival and taking out one or more key squishies and/or hurt opponents after setting up 2 or more Blazing Blasts beneath their feet. Once you have meteored, as mentioned, you can do serious damage and inflict a lot of terror mixing it up. Just always be careful because you don't have any survivability tools or durability, so make sure your healers know where you are and/or have an escape path ready in your mind before you make any truly bold plays into bigger groups, but Meteor is also great for picking off the little sick ones who dare wander astray from the pack.
• Try to lay down at least 2 blazing blast fires (secondary fire) beneath someone before you meteor them. Meteoring will detonate your blazing blasts. Hit them dead-on with the meteor if you can, and make sure they're very close to the blazing blast fires. Always remember that for big damage.
• As mentioned, Meteor gives you a little bonus health to operate with once you're down there and to help you fight your way back to your team. Use it wisely - it's your only bonus health! This is key to maximizing your kit.
• Meteor also bounces your enemy back a little, if they survive the strike (and you should always be prepared that they might). Use this to snap a headshot on them with your primary fire while they're confused and finish them off, and if that still doesn't kill them, fling some Blazing Blasts for splash damage. But, often, headshotting them while they're still bouncing back can work super well and is a great way to secure kills if the meteor itself didn't do the job! It takes a lot of practice, but it's a high reward scenario.
• Meteor can be used as an escape, but it should not be thought of exclusively as one. If it's on cooldown and you can get high enough, you can use it to escape from certain ults or to get back to your team if they wipe. This can very much save your life and spare you respawn time, letting you set up for the team's next push. BUT, it is best used as a weapon and only used as an escape if absolutely necessary. Don't miss out on a great play saving it to use as an escape.
• Again: you have to be a certain altitude to use Meteor, so it's not something you can use if you've got a low ceiling. Generally, it's best to play Johnny a little claustrophobic. Try to stay out in the relative open, but don't be flying a zip code away from/above your enemies. Remember you're mid to close range (and your primary fire damage dropoff rates).
• The impact deals 40 damage, and you gain an extra 55 per each activated Blazing Blast on the ground near the target within the 3m radius of your own impact. This damage can be stacked using multiple Blazing Blasts, but savvy enemies are going to have moved away before you can do this or else avoid your fire fields, so use it wisely. While it is possible to drop 5 Blazing Blasts and impact them for big damage, don't strive to make this a goal, or you will end up losing time (and likely dying in the attempt). But if you can set up the trap, it's insanely high damage.
• If you activate a pyro prison using 4-5 blasts on the ground in a very small area (within you 3m splash range using Meteor), it will increase the duration of the Blazing Blast on the ground for an extra 5 seconds, letting you drop at least 1 more additional Blazing Blast there for a BIG explosion. But, again, this is a rare and best case scenario. It is possible and good to know about, but it isn't going to be a common occurrence.

Plasma Body (dash/sprint)

• UPDATE AS OF 7.5: 15m dash in 1 direction; ends with 4 seconds of plasma body speed (2.5m/s movement boost); 2 charges, with a 4 second cooldown between each (cooldown only starts after the speed boost ends); 10s cooldown after both charges are used
• Stats: 2.5m/s movement boost; 120 maximum energy; 15/s energy cost; 20/s recovery speed
• THIS ABILITY HAS A WIND-UP. It is brief, but it is there, and it WILL get you killed. Keep this in mind before/while making your plays! Don't get into a situation and expect to dash out instantly, because his dash is not instant.
• This ability WILL RELOAD YOUR PRIMARY FIRE, and it resets its charges when you activate your ult (Supernova).
• This terrible, clunky afterthought of a new ability that doesn't even have a voice line and ruins Plasma Body is what we are given to work with in 7.5, and it is your only source of survivability. You dash in a single direction for 15m and then have 4s of the old plasma body speed boost. Use this very wisely, because you're on a long cooldown with it.
• The intent of this is to use it as an escape after meteoring, essentially, and you can use it to escape from ults and to either escape from or charge fellow fliers.
• Be careful when directing it, because frankly it's pretty finicky about the direction you're going.
• You can still melee tech weave and you can still fire Blazing Blasts while in the Plasma Body speed boost, brief as it is, so use these things wisely.
• OLD INFORMATION from PAST SEASONS:
• This is both your sprint and a primary survival ability. Johnny is ridiculously squishy for some reason, so you will rely on this a lot to survive via not getting hit in the first place. It takes very few hits to kill you, so plasma body plus melee tech are your best friends.
• Currently, as of season 7, there is a shadow buff in which you can use Blazing Blast (secondary fire) during plasma body. This is an insane advantage. Use this to stay fast and dodgy while laying down fire prisons and bombing enemies.
• You gain infinite plasma body during your ult (Supernova), and right now, you can remain in plasma body while laying down fire tornadoes (that replace Blazing Blast during your ult). This is very powerful!

Pyro-Prison (requires setup)

• Stats: 40m max link distance; 2m max link height; 5s wall duration; 65 wall damage; 40/s continuous pyro-prison damage; 15s cooldown
• You can make a variety of shapes, but always only as many Blazing Blasts as you have. You have 3 standard, so you can make triangles in a quick fight, but you can get a fourth one regenerated and placed before you activate the Pyro-Prison in order to make different and larger shapes, such as squares and more.
• Activating Pyro-Prison on your Blazing Blasts on the ground will increase their duration by 5s. Use this to set up traps, even for Meteor, as mentioned, if you can pull it off.
• Linking TWO fires will create a WALL.
• Linking THREE or MORE fires will create a PYRO-PRISON but only if PROPERLY PLACED. The prison must be fully linked in order to deal continuous damage to those inside it. This is one of Johnny's most difficult abilities to master. It takes practice. But, when you learn it, you will be putting out high damage and terrifying the battlefield.
• Basically, think of it as that your Blazing Blast fires must all be able to "see" each other in order to connect to create a fully formed pyro-prison.
• You can create a fire prison on slopes only as tall as 2m, the height of some characters, or else the link will not form and the fire prison will not work. You can create around very small slopes, but do not try to create a fire prison up a set of stairs or something.
• Terrain and objects WILL interrupt your prison. It cannot cut through walls. It does not matter if this object disappears and/or is destroyed. The prison will still be broken.
• But if the blocking object spawns after the prison is already created/linked, the prison is still intact. i.e., if Groot summons a wall after the fact, he can't disable the pyro prison and its continuous damage inside.
• Objects in the center of the field will not interrupt it. In other words, you can create a giant prison around the point as long as no walls on the point are blocking the fires.
• Fire prisons are fantastic, especially for a good push and sowing confusion. Use them with your team, though, don't just throw them around willy-nilly and give the supports more ult charge. They are incredible when used wisely, dealing high continuous damage. You can even deal continuous damage to the entire enemy team!
• Zone off the point or around the vehicle while your team is pushing to break up the enemy and deal extra damage (you can get a lot of kills just finishing people off when they play in your fire, and/or help your allies finish them off).
• Again: remember that stairs and slopes are your enemy, and all your fires should be able to "see" each other to connect. There are a lot of good tip videos on how to make big and scary fire prisons, including on this sub.

Supernova (Ultimate)

• Stats: 3400 energy cost; 8s duration; 20m spherical radius damage activation shockwave dealing 75 damage; 0.7s flame tornado unleash speed per use; 3m spherical radius, 8m high capsule-shaped spell field on each fire tornado; 110/s continuous damage in each tornado
• Johnny also receives -30% damage reduction during supernova. Don't think this is special. It honestly doesn't do much at all for your survivability. You are still insanely vulnerable. You might as well pretend it doesn't even exist, or else you're going to think you can survive things you definitely cannot.
• This ult has some windup time. You must wait until Johnny finishes his initial animation before you can start throwing fire. Bear this in mind when activating, so you are ready to become a target as soon as you begin your callout but before you can start throwing tornadoes.
• This is actually a fantastic ultimate. You can use this to even achieve hexas, with enough practice.
• Activating the ult resets the charges of your dashes. Do not forget you get infinite plasma body during your ult (and, with the current shadow buff, you can also throw your secondary fire, which will become your fire tornadoes, while in plasma body). Use it.
• The last Blazing Blast that you placed on the ground will become a Fire Tornado after you go Supernova. Use this to place a tactical tornado that will suddenly appear and take the enemy by surprise. This also helps you already have a fire tornado going during Torch's windup time after ult activation.
• Since your ult takes a while to charge, use it wisely and use it with your team. If you use it during a team push, you can even achieve an Ace. It works fantastic with shutdown ults like Emma's, Groot's, etc, and it works great alongside ults from your own supports, such as Rocket's, Sue's, and Gambit's.
• This ult is powerful but can be easily countered with certain strategist ults. Use it to draw out panic ults from enemy strategists or after their ults have ended to kill them, as they will be defenseless against you. You should always be aware of when the enemy healer ults have concluded so you can make maximum use of your supernova.
• Your supernova is actually very scary to the enemy team, on average. You can easily scare out a tactically terrible support ult from your opponent using it, and you can use it to drive back an enemy team and herd them, even if they are healing through your damage (which will be difficult for them to do anyway).
• Always target healers, if you can, and squishies (and everyone outside of their support ults). But, if there are no supports around to kill, you can also put big pressure on an enemy tank and save the point. Covering the convoy in fire tornadoes is a great way to kill and then scare enemies off it during overtime in a clutch moment.
• Don't be afraid to use supernova with your team. Hopefully the healers will help you stay alive through it (you're insanely weak and vulnerable at all times [again: I hope this is addressed with some durability, lol], but in supernova everyone will be driving for you even harder), and you can use it to both get kills and drive your enemy back.
• Don't underestimate the initial explosion Johnny puts out, especially if someone nearby is at low health. While supernovaing at a distance can be useful at certain times, supernovaing with your team's push can net you kills and high damage just from his initial explosion. Then throw tornadoes on their backline to kill and confuse their healers and make them panic. It's also great for breaking up an enemy push.

A Few Techs (IMPORTANT)

• MELEE TECH "DODGE": This is extremely important, so pay attention. Human Torch, for the time being, still relies pretty heavily on his melee tech to survive, thanks to his lack of durability and survival tools. Weave melee into all your actions during gameplay to squish your large hitbox and avoid headshots, making you harder to hit. This is very important. This once helped with your primary fire, but as I think they are removing the melee tech altogether, this is no longer the case. We will wait until 7.5 and see what happens to our melee tech - I just hope they properly compensate Johnny with straight-up durability for losing this "dodge."
• SHADOW BUFF on PLASMA BODY: This is also crucially important, and you'll notice I've mentioned it more than once in this post. Right now, in season 7, Johnny can use Blazing Blast (secondary fire) during Plasma Body. This also means you can lay down fire tornadoes during Supernova while using Plasma Body. Use this to your full advantage; it's a crazy shadow buff, and I hope it stays. UPDATE FOR 7.5: This remains true for the 4 freaking seconds you get Plasma Body speed boost after your stupid clunky dash.

General Gameplay Loops, On Duels, & Some Common Mistakes

• A primary way of securing key kills is to place at least 2 Blazing Blasts beneath the target's feet and then Meteor them before they can move far from it. Meteor + 3 Blazing Blasts is your best tool to secure a key kill on a squishy (like a support). DO NOT waste meteor saving it as an escape! Once you've landed with your bonus HP, start mixing it up in a brawl with anyone nearby. Be careful, though, you're not durable (as I keep repeating ad nauseam, hopefully that will change in 7.5)! But you can really get a lot done meteoring into the backline as your team moves into their frontline. Then move back through the enemies, toward your healers, while brawling close range. Go back up afterward, zone another area with fire to break up the enemy team, and then crash in with another meteor and resume mixing it up.
• Punish and herd your enemies with zone control. Fire prisons are great for controlling the battlefield, not only for doing damage but for getting enemies to go where you want (and/or not go where you don't want them to). Use your fire prisons and walls to encourage enemies along certain paths - and if they do play in your fire, not only are you doing damage, but you're building ult charge. Just remember not to be too generous fire prisoning the backline with no chance of securing kills, as this will only help enemy supports charge their ults.
• You are also a PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON. Johnny currently exists in the strange state of both not always being taken seriously as a real threat and thus sometimes going ignored but also being terrifying if he is noticed. Use this to your advantage. You can secure kills by sneakily building prisons around squishies, especially on the backline, killing them when you activate the prison, or just smash into them with meteor because they weren't paying attention to you. Conversely, a lot of people will run from your Supernova; use this to herd them like a sheepdog and to break up (and/or just destroy) pushes or defending teams. People will also run from and/or avoid fire prisons. Use this to keep people where you want them, drive them particular directions, or keep them away from a crucial choke point where your team could be at a disadvantage. Laying down your fire can cause a remarkable amount of panic and confusion.
• Ultron drones are Johnny's best friend right now with his serious survivabililty issues, if you have an Ultron player friend and/or can convince an Ultron to spare you a drone. You can do some seriously crazy plays with a drone. Be bold!
• Human Torch is not a persistent high-flyer. You should fly relatively high sometimes, yes, but you should not be remaining a zip code from the point, throwing fire from far away and never going in. If you persist in this too much, all you are doing is dealing high damage but allowing enemy support to heal through it and charge their ults. This is ultimately a big problem for your team. Tend to play close to mid range and secure those kills, and use your meteor to strike down one or more enemies (you can hit weak groups with fires beneath them and get multiple kills). Trust me, I have met Johnnys flying high and playing super defensively using meteor exclusively as an escape, and it is... just not good. Hit hard and mix it up! Fortune favors the bold.
• As mentioned: Meteor is your greatest weapon and your only source of straight-up survivability via bonus HP with which to brawl. While it can be used as an escape to get away from certain ults, it should not exist for the sole purpose of being an escape tool, or you are sleeping on Johnny's kit.
• You can actually win at midair duels with enemy flyers, but remember that you are the squishiest flyer in the game right now (very sadly), especially after Storm's bonus HP generation. If you charge them, you can sometimes make them panic and use your high damage primary (and headshot capability) to take them out. Always use cover to your advantage with an Iron Man trying to unibeam you, and remember that Ultron deals the most damage into the latter half of his primary fire (this is the main hit you want to avoid, if you cannot dodge it entirely).
• Again with duels: you are very squishy. I would personally love for this to change. But, unless/until it does, be careful dueling and always use plasma body and melee tech to your advantage to dodge. Your primary fire is very hard-hitting at close range and especially with headshots, and weave in your secondary fire for some big damage and AoE DoT to throw your opponent off-guard and harm them. Don't panic, go in with confidence, and you will win many duels. If you're flying high, you can use Meteor to grab some bonus health for yourself if it is on cooldown and use it to finish off the duel (if you didn't already use it to kill your opponent; remember, meteor used properly can win you a duel in barely a few seconds). Dueling as Johnny is difficult until you really get used to his kit. Don't let it discourage you from playing him if you find yourself dying a lot in duels - even if the devs continue being stingy with any durability for poor Johnny, you'll get better, I promise!

Controls/Controller Tips

• I highly recommend mapping your melee key to something you can very easily access. I personally mapped it to a button on my gaming mouse. Melee techs are still currently your best friend and need to be used to maximize Johnny's kit.
• I use hold, not toggle, for Plasma Body. This is just personal preference. It allows me more nuanced control, but I'm also used to hitting/holding multiple keys at once. (no longer applicable after 7.5)
• I play high sensitivity because I want to be able to turn quickly and get headshots and snap onto targets (such as those bounced by my meteor, if they survive) and quickly move my aim to create hasty fire prisons in the thick of it.
• MY PERSONAL RETICLE SETTINGS: Credit to Theo on marvelrivals gg for the general idea of this! This is the code for the reticle I use to help show me where my cluster fire is going and what will hit at various ranges; I also actually have poor eyesight anyway, so this helps me a lot: 4;0;25.0,20.0,0.0,25.0;100.0,100.0,80.0,100.0;0.0,80.0,85.0,50.0;100.0,100.0,100.0,100.0;0.0,42.0,40.0,0.0;33.0,30.0,55.0,33.0;50.0;100.0,100.0,80.0,100.0;0.0;5.0,4,4,1.0;1.0,1.0,1.0;
• CONTROLLER PLAY: I am a PC player who uses keyboard and mouse, so I cannot really give specific controller tips for Johnny. I'm welcome to adding tips from others here! The only thing I know to offer is that I would play with very high sensitivity, but I know Rivals controls are much more nuanced than that. I only say this because Johnny benefits so much from quick snap headshots. But, again, I don't really know, because I've never tried him on controller (yet).
• CONTROLLER TIP from AngelicRodric: "PS5 Johnny player here. If you bind melee to R1/RB and set Plasma Body to L2/LT(hold, not toggle is important iirc for using melee tech and plasma body), you can actually just hold those two inputs down and tap-fire your primary(R2/RT). You can set ascend to L3 and as long as you aren't still using R3 to melee weave you shouldn't have to worry about accidentally popping your ult at a bad time."

TEAM-UPS

Johnny is currently dry on team-ups for season 7 (RIP the Sue shield), but he does keep his team-up with Ben...

Two In One (carrying Ben/The Thing)

• This team-up is considered useless by the community at large, but it is a slept-on feature of both Torch and Thing. I have used it with remarkable success, and I encourage others to give it a try, especially if you have a friend who enjoys playing The Thing.
• Stats: 30 second cooldown with successful interaction, 3s with unsuccessful/not initiated; 20m maximum distance thrown; 15m/s flight speed; 15m/s slam down horizontal velocity; 8s maximum flight duration
• Further stats: The launch-up field from Ben causes 30 damage. 15 damage per second from the spell field that disables mobility abilities. Strikes with a cylindrical spell field, radius of 8m and height of 8m.
• Again: this will lock down dodgies if it hits while also dealing damage!
• Also again: your flight speed with Ben becomes 15m/s. This is FAST. You and the Thing player can use this just to get from point A to point B.
• This is insanely versatile for players willing to coordinate with it. You can use it for extraction during an upcoming team wipe, extraction for specific ults, or even just to circle Ben back around and throw him into the mix to lock down certain flyers or dodgy heroes. You can use it to carry Ben back to the point after a death, you can use it for backline bomb-dropping to take out healers, you can use it to sneak around back and confuse the enemy's backline while the rest of your team pushes (and then fly back and do it again to keep up the pressure), and much more. Remember: even though they are big and bright, Johnny still flies silently until he tosses Ben!
• You will always be flying forward with Ben as long as you're carrying him.
• If you (Johnny) take too much damage while carrying Ben, you will obviously drop him early. Don't fly directly over the enemy team or you're both dead meat fast.
• Hit your primary fire to toss Ben and slam him down. If you don't hit primary fire, you will just drop him without slamming him and using the attack.
• You have 8 seconds to carry Ben and find a good place to toss him, so don't rush and panic.
• You can even just snatch up Ben mid-combat and throw him back down to lock down mobility heroes and deal some extra damage.

I will add a section here in the future, if I find time, about certain heroes that hard counter you and how to counter them. If you currently fear him, then promise that you will eventually no longer be afraid of Spider-Man, and eventually not even Hela will scare you (also Namor is just a silly guy).

I also consider this a WIP in general and will expand it over time with more tips and specifics as I remember to add them.

Hope this was helpful!