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 fresh content and impactful 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: An undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula! The Fantastic Four answer the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting, and other members promised later in the season.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for rapid movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can deploy shields, manipulate enemies' positions, and, of course, turn invisible.
New Maps and Mode
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- Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown: Two new maps set in a devastated 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 winners.
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 considered visually appealing, though Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is criticized for minimal visual changes. Free track rewards include Units and Lattice.
Celestial Rank
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A new "Celestial" rank is introduced between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. Its impact on overall ranking progression remains to be seen. A season-end rank reset is implemented, 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.
Vanguard
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- Captain America: Received significant buffs to health, mobility (Rush cooldown reduction), and Ultimate ability cost reduction.
- Doctor Strange: Minor adjustments to 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 base damage.
Duelist
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- Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend and maximum additional health.
- Black Widow: Several improvements to ability range, cooldown, and ultimate activation time.
- Hawkeye: Minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread, passive ability activation distance, and maximum bonus damage.
- Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Significant buffs to ultimate ability talon count and blast radius.
- Namor: Accuracy adjustments to throw abilities.
- Psylocke: Bug fix addressing barrier interaction with her ultimate.
- 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 ability health bonus.
- Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
- Wolverine: Increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist
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- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and increased dashes in ultimate ability.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing adjustments.
- Luna Snow: Minor nerf to dance mode interruption.
- Mantis: Nerfed 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, with some receiving buffs and others nerfs.
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Season One's balance changes are generally subtle, though some heroes may see increased popularity. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
