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 to arms, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman already playable, 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 rapid movement between allies and enemies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A Strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can create shields, manipulate enemy positioning, and, of course, turn invisible.
New Maps and Mode
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Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" set, introduce battles in locations like Grand Central Terminal within a ravaged New York City. A new "Doom Match" mode supports 8-12 players, with the top 50% winning 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 pass offers 8 out of 10 skins, many visually appealing, though some, like Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin, offer only a color change. The free pass still provides Units and Lattice through various challenges.
Celestial Rank
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A new "Celestial" rank tier has been added between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity," comprising three divisions. The ranking system also features a season-end reset, with starting rank in Season One determined by your Season Zero rank (dropping seven levels).
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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This section details adjustments to various heroes, addressing power imbalances. Changes range from minor tweaks to more substantial buffs and nerfs.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on his Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost reduced, but grants less bonus health.
- Doctor Strange: Moderate adjustments to damage and shield recovery.
- Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
- Hulk: Slight nerf to his Gamma Shield health.
- Venom: Buffs to armor gain and ultimate ability damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Nerfed, with reduced bonus health from Spirit Rend.
- Black Widow: Improved with increased radius on Edge Dancer, reduced cooldown on Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread, passive ability range, and maximum bonus damage.
- Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Buffed with increased talons and blast radius on his ultimate.
- Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
- Punisher: Reduced spread on Deliverance and Adjudication.
- Scarlet Witch: Enhanced with increased Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage.
- Storm: Significantly buffed with faster projectiles, increased damage, and improved ultimate bonus health.
- Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Enhanced with increased health gain from abilities, increased main attack damage, and increased base health.
- Wolverine: Buffed with increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduced, and ultimate now has four dashes instead of three.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing adjusted.
- Luna Snow: Minor nerf to dance break duration.
- Mantis: Nerfed, with reduced acceleration from Nature's Favor.
- 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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The balance changes are mostly subtle, with some heroes seeing a slight power shift. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
