Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Overview of 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 delve into the key 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?
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This season's theme revolves around an undead invasion spearheaded by Dracula! The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting as playable characters, with more team members to follow.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for swift movement between allies and enemies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can deploy shields, manipulate enemies' positions, and, of course, turn invisible.
New Maps and Mode
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- New Maps: "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" introduces battles in locations like Grand Central Terminal within a ravaged New York City.
- New Mode: "Doom Match" is an 8-12 player mode where the top 50% survive a knockout-based competition.
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 visually appealing designs. However, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is considered a minor update. The free pass still offers Units and Lattice rewards.
Celestial Rank
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A new "Celestial" rank tier has been added between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity," comprised of three divisions. Its impact on overall ranking progression remains to be seen. A season-end rank reset is in place, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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This section details the numerous balance changes affecting various heroes across all roles. Note that these are summarized for brevity. Specific numerical changes are mentioned where significant.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs to health, shield cooldown, and Rush ability cooldown.
- Doctor Strange: Minor adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery.
- Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during ultimate.
- Hulk: Slight nerf to Gamma Shield health.
- Venom: Buffs to armor scaling and ultimate damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend.
- Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot cooldown, and ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer's Focus range, and passive damage bonus.
- Hela: Health reduction.
- 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 and Chthonian Burst damage, with a reduction in 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.
- Wolverine: Increased health and reduced Undying Animal damage reduction.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased ultimate dashes.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
- Luna Snow: Minor nerf to dance mode interruption.
- Mantis: Nerfed Nature's Favor acceleration.
- Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.
Team-Up
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Several heroes received adjustments to their Team-Up bonuses, with some receiving nerfs (Hawkeye, Hela) and others receiving buffs (Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, Storm).
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The impact of these balance changes will unfold over time. While some heroes have received notable adjustments, the overall meta remains to be seen. The introduction of the new Fantastic Four heroes will undoubtedly create further shifts in the game's power dynamics.
