Marvel Rivals: Game Update Unveils Surprises

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Overview of 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 delve into 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

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Season Theme: Dracula's Undead Invasion

This season features an undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula himself! The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman already available, and more team members to be released throughout the season.

New Heroes

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• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range Duelist with abilities for swift movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A Strategist whose attacks heal allies. Her kit includes shields, enemy manipulation (push/pull), and, of course, invisibility.

New Maps and Mode

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• Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown: Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal.
• Doom Match: A new mode for 8-12 players. The top 50% survive to victory 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. The premium pass offers 8 out of 10 skins, many of which are visually appealing, though some (like Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula) offer minimal visual changes. The free pass still provides Units and Lattice through various challenges.

Celestial Rank

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A new "Celestial" rank has been added between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprised of three divisions. While accessibility might be limited initially, it could potentially improve ranking progression in the future. A season-end rank reset is in place, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish (e.g., Platinum I drops to Silver II).

Balance Adjustments

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Season One introduces several minor balance tweaks across various hero classes.

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 slightly less bonus health.
• Doctor Strange: Moderate adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery speed.
• Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during Ultimate.
• Hulk: Slight nerf to Gamma Shield health.
• Venom: Buffs to armor gain based on lost health and Ultimate ability damage.

Duelist

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• Black Panther: Reduced bonus health from Spirit Rend upgrades.
• Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and Ultimate ability power-up time.
• Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive skill bonus damage.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available featuring a Hela skin.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Increased Ultimate ability talon count and blast radius.
• Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
• Psylocke: Bug fix for Ultimate ability interaction with barriers.
• Punisher: Reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Enhanced Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage and increased Chthonian Burst damage.
• Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and Ultimate ability bonus health and decay rate.
• Squirrel Girl: Increased squirrel targeting predictability, reduced squirrel tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Increased health from abilities, main attack damage, and base health. Slight reduction in area damage.
• Wolverine: Increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.

Strategist

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• Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased Ultimate ability dashes.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted Ultimate ability range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
• Luna Snow: Increased dance mode change break time.
• Mantis: 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; Hawkeye and Hela weakened, while Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm received enhancements.

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The balance changes are generally subtle. While some heroes might see increased popularity, the meta remains largely unchanged, with Hela remaining a top-tier pick. The impact of the new heroes on the overall meta remains to be seen.