The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Deep Dive into New Content and Balance Changes

Season Zero is over, and the highly anticipated Season One of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of fresh 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

Image: ensigame.com

Season Theme: Dracula's Undead Invasion! The Fantastic Four have answered the call to arms, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting this season, and more to come.

New Heroes:

Image: ensigame.com

• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range Duelist with mobility skills, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A Strategist whose attacks heal allies, capable of creating shields, manipulating enemies, and—surprise!—turning invisible.

New Maps and Mode:

Image: wowhead.com

• Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown: Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City, featuring iconic locations like Grand Central Terminal.
• Doom Match: A new mode for 8-12 players, where the top 50% survive to win after a set number of knockouts.

Battle Pass:

Image: ensigame.com

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 considered visually appealing, though Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is criticized for minimal visual changes. The free track still offers Units and Lattice.

Celestial Rank:

Image: ensigame.com

A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, sits between Grandmaster and Eternity. While accessibility might be limited, it could potentially improve future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset is in place, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.

Balance Adjustments:

Image: ensigame.com

Several heroes received tweaks to address power imbalances:

Vanguard:

Image: ensigame.com

• Captain America: Received significant buffs to health, mobility (Rush cooldown reduced), and Ultimate ability cost.
• Doctor Strange: Minor adjustments to damage and shield recovery.
• Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during his Ultimate.
• Hulk: Slight nerf to Gamma Shield health.
• Venom: Buffs to armor scaling and Ultimate damage.

Duelist:

Image: ensigame.com

• Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend and maximum additional health.
• Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and Ultimate charge time.
• Hawkeye: Minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive damage bonus.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage.
• Moon Knight: Increased Ultimate talon count and blast radius.
• Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
• Psylocke: Bug fix for Ultimate interaction with barriers.
• Punisher: Reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Enhanced Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage.
• Storm: Significant buffs to attack speed, damage, and Ultimate health bonus.
• Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.

Strategist:

Image: ensigame.com

• Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and increased Ultimate dashes.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing adjustments.
• Luna Snow: Minor nerf to dance mode change break time.
• Mantis: Nerfed Nature's Favor acceleration.
• Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up:

Image: ensigame.com

• Hawkeye and Hela: Season bonus reduced.
• Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm: Enhanced Team-Up benefits.

Image: ensigame.com

The balance changes are generally subtle, with the impact of new heroes on the meta yet to be fully determined. Hela remains a dominant force at higher ranks.