Marvel Rivals Update: Epic Launch and Key Enhancements

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 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 centers around an undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula himself! The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting as playable characters, and more to come 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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• 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 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 skin, are considered minor variations. The free pass still provides Units and Lattice through completion of tasks.

Celestial Rank

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A new "Celestial" rank tier has been added between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprised of three divisions. While accessibility might be limited to higher-ranked players, it could potentially ease future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset is in place, with a seven-level drop based on the previous season's final rank.

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

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Season One introduces numerous hero balance tweaks, addressing power disparities across the roster.

Vanguard

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• Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost is reduced, but grants less bonus health.
• Doctor Strange: Minor 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: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend upgrade.
• Black Widow: Several improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot cooldown, and ultimate ability charge time.
• Hawkeye: Minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer's Focus activation distance, and passive skill damage bonus.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Increased number and blast radius of talons in ultimate ability.
• Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
• Psylocke: Bug fix for ultimate ability interaction with barriers.
• Punisher: Reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Mixed changes, increasing some damage outputs while reducing others.
• Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and ultimate bonus health.
• Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Enhanced health gain from abilities, increased main attack damage, and increased base health.
• Wolverine: Increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.

Strategist

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• Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased dashes in ultimate ability.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
• Luna Snow: Slight nerf to 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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Several Team-Up bonuses have been adjusted, nerfing some (Hawkeye, Hela) and buffing others (Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, Storm).

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Season One's balance changes are largely subtle. While some heroes see increased popularity, the meta remains dynamic, and the impact of the new heroes is yet to be fully determined.