Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Overview of New Content and Balance Changes
The zero season has concluded, making way for the highly anticipated first season of Marvel Rivals. This season introduces a wealth 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 centers around an undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula. The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting as playable characters, with more team members to be released throughout the season.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities enabling swift movement between allies and enemies, area-of-effect damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can deploy shields, manipulate enemy positioning, and, as the name suggests, turn invisible.
New Maps and Mode
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Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" setting, are now available, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal within a ravaged New York City. A new "Doom Match" mode supports 8-12 players, with the top 50% emerging victorious after a set number of eliminations.
Battle Pass
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Season One's Battle Pass boasts double the content of the zero season's. With a three-month duration (unlike the zero season), it offers a more extensive reward track. Eight of the ten skins are premium, though the Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker is criticized for its minimal visual changes. The free track still rewards Units and Lattice for completing tasks.
Celestial Rank
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A new "Celestial" rank has been introduced between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. The high barrier to entry means only top players will reach this rank initially, potentially easing future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset is in place, with a seven-level drop from the previous season's final rank.
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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This section details adjustments to various heroes to improve overall game balance.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on his Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. His Ultimate ability's cost was lowered, but grants less bonus health.
- Doctor Strange: Underwent moderate adjustments, primarily reducing damage at longer ranges and shield recovery speed.
- Thor: Received health increases and crowd-control immunity during his Ultimate ability.
- Hulk: Experienced a slight nerf, reducing the health granted by his Gamma Shield.
- Venom: Received buffs increasing armor based on lost health and boosting his Ultimate ability's base damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Nerfed, reducing bonus health from Spirit Rend and overall maximum additional health.
- Black Widow: Improved with increased radius for Edge Dancer's first effect, reduced cooldown for Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Slightly nerfed, reducing explosive arrow spread, passive ability activation distance, and maximum bonus damage.
- Hela: Health reduced.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Buffed, increasing the number and blast radius of talons from his Ultimate ability.
- Namor: Throw accuracy adjusted (likely a bug fix).
- Psylocke: Ultimate ability now correctly checks for opponent barriers.
- Punisher: Slightly reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
- Scarlet Witch: Mostly buffed, increasing Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage, but reducing damage-over-time percentage.
- Storm: Significantly buffed, increasing projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and bonus health from her Ultimate.
- Squirrel Girl: Adjusted squirrel targeting and reduced squirrel tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Buffed, increasing health gained from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
- Wolverine: Buffed, increasing health and reducing damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduced. Ultimate ability now has an additional dash.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range adjusted, and Joyful Splash healing increased.
- Luna Snow: Slight nerf, increasing the break time during her dance.
- Mantis: Nerfed, reducing acceleration from Nature's Favor.
- Rocket Raccoon: Healing speed in recovery mode increased.
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 balance changes are mostly subtle, though some heroes will likely see increased popularity. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
