Marvel Rivals Season One: A Deep Dive into New Content and Balance Changes
Season Zero is over, and the first season of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of new content and significant balance adjustments. Let's explore the key updates.
Table of Contents
- What's New in Season One?
- New Heroes
- New Maps and Mode
- Battle Pass
- Celestial Rank
- Balance Adjustments for Heroes:
- Vanguard
- Duelist
- Strategist
- Team-Up
What's New in Season One?
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This season's theme: Dracula's undead invasion! The Fantastic Four are here to fight back, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman initially available, and more to come.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for quick movement, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies, capable of creating shields, manipulating enemies, and, of course, turning invisible.
New Maps and Mode
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- Two new maps in the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" setting offer battles in Grand Central Terminal and other locations within a ravaged New York City.
- "Doom Match," a new mode for 8-12 players, crowns the top 50% of players after a set number of knockouts.
Battle Pass
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Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of Season Zero's, reflecting the three-month season length. Eight of the ten skins are premium, with most offering appealing designs. The Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker, however, is a simple recolor. The free track still provides Units and Lattice.
Celestial Rank
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A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, sits between Grandmaster and Eternity. While accessibility might be limited, it could potentially ease future ranking climbs. A season-end rank reset applies, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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This section details numerous minor adjustments across various heroes to address power imbalances.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on Shield and Rush, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost reduced, but grants less extra health.
- Doctor Strange: Moderate adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery speed.
- Thor: Health increased and gained crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
- Hulk: Slightly nerfed; Gamma Shield now grants less health.
- Venom: Buffed with increased armor based on lost health and ultimate damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Reduced extra health from Spirit Rend upgrades.
- Black Widow: Improved with increased radius on Edge Dancer, reduced cooldown on Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Slightly nerfed; reduced explosive arrow spread, passive ability activation distance, and maximum bonus damage.
- Hela: Health reduced. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Buffed with increased talons and blast radius on his ultimate.
- Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
- Psylocke: Ultimate skill now checks for opponent barriers.
- Punisher: Slightly reduced spread on 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 stronger projectile attacks, increased right-click damage, and improved ultimate health bonus.
- Squirrel Girl: Added predictability to squirrel targeting and reduced squirrel tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Enhanced with increased health gain from abilities, increased main attack damage, and increased base health.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased dashes in ultimate.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
- Luna Snow: Slightly nerfed; increased dance mode change break time.
- Mantis: Weakened; reduced Nature's Favor acceleration.
- Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.
Team-Up
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Team-Up bonuses adjusted for several heroes, nerfing Hawkeye and Hela, while buffing Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.
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The impact of these balance changes remains to be seen, but the new heroes will undoubtedly shake up the meta.
