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 new 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: An undead invasion spearheaded by Dracula! The Fantastic Four have answered the call to arms, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting this season, and more to come.
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. Her toolkit includes shields, enemy manipulation (push/pull), and 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 where the top 50% after a set number of knockouts are declared victors.
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. Eight of the ten skins are premium, with most offering visually appealing designs. The Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker, however, is a simple recolor. The free track offers Units and Lattice.
Celestial Rank:
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A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, sits between Grandmaster and Eternity. Its impact on the overall ranking system remains to be seen.
A season-end rank reset is implemented, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.
Balance Adjustments:
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Several heroes received adjustments to address power imbalances:
Vanguard:
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- Captain America: Received buffs to health, mobility (Rush cooldown reduction), and Ultimate ability cost reduction.
- Doctor Strange: Minor adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery.
- Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during his Ultimate.
- Hulk: Slight nerf to Gamma Shield health.
- Venom: Buffs to armor scaling and Ultimate ability damage.
Duelist:
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- Black Panther: Nerfs to Spirit Rend health gain.
- Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius and Fleet Foot cooldown.
- Hawkeye: Slight 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: Increased Ultimate 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: Mixed changes to Chaos Control and Chthonian Burst damage.
- 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.
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- Wolverine: Health increase and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist:
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- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and increased dashes in Ultimate.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing adjustments.
- Luna Snow: Slight 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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Several heroes saw adjustments to their Team-Up bonuses (Hawkeye, Hela nerfs; Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, Storm buffs).
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The impact of these balance changes and new heroes on the meta remains to be seen. Hela continues to be a top pick at higher ranks.