The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Season Zero is over, and the first season of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of new content and exciting balance changes. Let's dive into the significant updates.

Table of Contents

• What's New in the First Season?
• New Heroes
• New Maps and Mode
• Battle Pass
• Celestial Rank
• Balance Adjustments for Heroes:
• Vanguard
• Duelist
• Strategist
• Team-Up

What's New in the First Season?

This season's theme? An undead invasion led by Dracula himself! To combat this darkness, the Fantastic Four have answered the call. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are available now, with more Fantastic Four members joining the fight as the season unfolds.

New Heroes

Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for quick movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.

Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can create shields, manipulate enemies, and, well, turn invisible.

New Maps and Mode

Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown," are now live, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal in a ravaged New York City.

A new game mode, "Doom Match," is designed for 8-12 players. The top 50% survive to victory after a certain number of knockouts.

Battle Pass

Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of Season Zero's. Seasons will now last three months, resulting in more content-rich Battle Passes. The premium version offers 8 of the 10 available skins, many of which are visually stunning. However, the Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker is a simple recolor and lacks significant visual upgrades. The free track still offers Units and Lattice for completing tasks.

Celestial Rank

A new rank, "Celestial," has been added between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity," comprised of three divisions. While many players may find themselves stuck in Bronze, this new rank may facilitate future rank progression. As with many online games, a rank reset occurs at the end of each season. Your starting rank in Season One will be seven levels below your final rank in Season Zero (e.g., Platinum I in Season Zero starts at Silver II in Season One).

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

Balancing a diverse roster is challenging, and this season introduces several minor adjustments:

Vanguard

Captain America: Received buffs to address his weakness as a tank. Shield cooldown reduced (3 to 2 seconds), Rush cooldown reduced (12 to 10 seconds), and health increased (650 to 675). Ultimate ability cost reduced (3400 to 3100), but now grants 100 extra health instead of 110.

Doctor Strange: Damage reduced for Maelstrom of Madness and Gamma-version at close range, and shield recovery speed decreased.

Thor: Health increased, and gains crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.

Hulk: Gamma Shield now grants 200 health (down from 250).

Venom: Gains more armor based on lost health (coefficient increased from 1 to 1.2), and ultimate ability base damage increased by 10.

Duelist

Black Panther: Extra health from Spirit Rend reduced, and maximum additional health decreased.

Black Widow: Several improvements including increased radius for Edge Dancer, reduced Fleet Foot recovery time, and faster ultimate ability power-up.

Hawkeye: Slight nerf to explosive arrow spread, reduced Archer’s Focus activation distance, and decreased maximum passive bonus damage.

Hela: Health reduced.

Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.

Moon Knight: Increased number of talons in his ultimate and increased blast radius of each claw.

Namor: Throw accuracy adjusted.

Psylocke: Ultimate skill now checks for barriers against opponents.

Punisher: Slightly reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.

Scarlet Witch: Enhanced with increased Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage and increased Chthonian Burst damage.

Storm: Significantly enhanced with faster and more damaging projectiles, increased right-click damage, and increased and longer-lasting bonus health from her ultimate.

Squirrel Girl: Improved squirrel targeting, and reduced squirrel tsunami health.

Winter Soldier: Increased health from abilities, increased main attack damage, slightly reduced area damage, and increased base health.

Wolverine: Increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.

Strategist

Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased number of dashes in ultimate.

Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.

Luna Snow: Increased mode change break during dance.

Mantis: Reduced acceleration from Nature's Favor.

Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up

Several Team-Up bonuses were adjusted. Hawkeye and Hela were weakened, while Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm were enhanced.

These balance changes are generally subtle. While some characters might see increased popularity, Hela remains a top ban at higher ranks. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.