The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Update Overview

Season Zero is behind us, and 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 centers around an undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula! The Fantastic Four have answered the call, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman initially available, with more team members joining later.

New Heroes

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• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for swift movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. Her kit includes shields, enemy manipulation (push/pull), and, naturally, invisibility.

New Maps and Mode

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• Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown: Two new maps featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal in a ravaged New York City.
• Doom Match: A new mode for 8-12 players where the top 50% win 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. Eight of the ten skins are premium, with most considered visually appealing, though Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is a simple recolor. The free track offers Units and Lattice.

Celestial Rank

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A new "Celestial" rank has been added between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. The impact on the overall ranking system remains to be seen. A season-end rank reset is in place, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish.

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, 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 damage.

Duelist

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• Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend.
• Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot cooldown, and Ultimate ability charge time.
• Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive skill damage.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Increased Ultimate ability 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: Increased Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage and increased Chthonian Burst damage.
• Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and Ultimate ability bonus health.
• Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Health increase, increased damage from main attacks, and increased health gained from abilities.
• 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 change break time.
• Mantis: Nerfed Nature's Favor acceleration.
• Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up

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• Hawkeye and Hela: Nerfed Team-Up bonuses.
• Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm: Enhanced Team-Up bonuses.

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The balance changes are mostly subtle. While some characters might see increased popularity, the impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.