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 balance adjustments. Let's delve into the significant 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 revolves around an undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula! The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman initially available, and more team members to be introduced later in the season.
New Heroes
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- Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities enabling swift movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
- Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. Her kit includes shield creation, enemy manipulation (push/pull), and, of course, invisibility.
New Maps and Mode
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Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" setting, are now live, 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 knockouts.
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. Of the 10 skins, 8 are premium. While most skins are visually appealing, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin, a simple recolor, is less impressive. The free track still 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 in place, with a seven-level drop based on the previous season's final rank (e.g., Platinum I in Season Zero starts at Silver II in Season One).
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
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Several heroes received adjustments to fine-tune balance:
Vanguard:
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- Captain America: Received buffs to health, Shield cooldown, and Rush cooldown.
- 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 damage.
Duelist:
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- Black Panther: Nerfs to Spirit Rend health bonus and maximum additional health.
- Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive damage bonus.
- Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Umbral Incursion damage increase in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Ultimate talon count and blast radius increased.
- Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
- Psylocke: Ultimate skill now correctly interacts with barriers.
- Punisher: Slightly reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
- Scarlet Witch: Enhanced Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage. Chthonian Burst damage increased.
- Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectiles, right-click damage, and ultimate health bonus.
- Squirrel Girl: Improved squirrel targeting and reduced squirrel tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Health increase from abilities, main attack damage increase, and base health increase.
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- Wolverine: Health and Undying Animal damage reduction coefficient increased.
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 adjusted.
- Luna Snow: Slight nerf to dance mode change break time.
- Mantis: Nerfed 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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The balance changes are generally subtle, though some heroes might see increased popularity. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
