Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Update Overview
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
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, with more team members to follow.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range Duelist with abilities for rapid movement between allies and enemies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A Strategist whose attacks heal allies. She boasts shield generation, 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 iconic 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 eliminations.
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 track offers 8 out of 10 skins, many of which are visually striking, though some, like Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin, are considered less impactful. Free track rewards include Units and Lattice.
Celestial Rank
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A new Celestial rank tier has been introduced between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. While accessibility may be limited, it aims to improve long-term ranking progression. A season-end rank reset applies, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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Numerous heroes received adjustments to fine-tune gameplay balance. Detailed changes are outlined below, categorized by hero type.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs to health, Shield cooldown, and Rush cooldown, addressing previous weakness.
- Doctor Strange: Underwent moderate adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery.
- Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during ultimate.
- Hulk: Minor nerf to Gamma Shield health.
- Venom: Buffs to armor scaling and ultimate damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Nerfs to Spirit Rend health scaling.
- Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot cooldown, and ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread and Archer's Focus range/damage.
- Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Significant buffs to 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: Mixed changes, increasing some damage while reducing others.
- Storm: Significant buffs to attack speed, damage, and ultimate health gain.
- Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
- Wolverine: Buffs to health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and increased ultimate dashes.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate area adjustment and increased Joyful Splash healing.
- Luna Snow: Minor nerf to dance mode interruption.
- Mantis: Nerf to 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, with nerfs to Hawkeye and Hela, and buffs to Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.
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Season One's balance changes are largely subtle, though some heroes will likely see increased popularity. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
