Marvel Rivals Season One: A Deep Dive into New Content and Balance Changes
The zero season is over, and Season One has arrived, bringing a wave of fresh content and balance adjustments. Let's explore 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?
Image: ensigame.com
This season's theme: An undead invasion spearheaded by Dracula! The Fantastic Four are here to fight back, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman initially available, and more to come.
New Heroes
Image: ensigame.com
- 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 create shields, manipulate enemies' positions, and, naturally, turn invisible.
New Maps and Mode
Image: wowhead.com
Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City, including Grand Central Terminal, are now playable. A new "Doom Match" mode for 8-12 players introduces a top 50% win condition based on knockouts.
Battle Pass
Image: ensigame.com
Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of the zero season's, reflecting the three-month season length. Eight of the ten skins are premium, with most offering appealing designs. However, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is a simple recolor. The free pass still offers Units and Lattice.
Celestial Rank
Image: ensigame.com
A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, sits between Grandmaster and Eternity. While accessibility might be limited, it could potentially improve future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset applies, dropping players seven ranks from their zero season final placement.
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
Image: ensigame.com
Several heroes received adjustments to address power imbalances:
Vanguard
Image: ensigame.com
- Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost reduced, but health bonus slightly lowered.
- Doctor Strange: Damage reduced at close range, shield recovery slowed.
- Thor: Health increased, gained crowd-control immunity during ultimate.
- Hulk: Slightly nerfed; gamma Shield grants less health.
- Venom: Buffed; increased armor scaling with lost health and ultimate damage.
Duelist
Image: ensigame.com
- Black Panther: Reduced extra health from Spirit Rend upgrades.
- Black Widow: Improved with increased radius on Edge Dancer, reduced cooldown on Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate charge time.
- Hawkeye: Slightly nerfed; reduced explosive arrow spread, passive ability activation range, and maximum bonus damage.
- Hela: Health reduced. New Twitch Drops available.
- Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
- Moon Knight: Increased ultimate talon count and blast radius.
- Namor: Throw accuracy adjusted.
- Psylocke: Ultimate skill now checks for opponent barriers.
- Punisher: Slightly reduced spread on Deliverance and Adjudication.
- Scarlet Witch: Enhanced; increased Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage and increased Chthonian Burst damage.
- Storm: Significantly buffed; faster and stronger projectiles, increased right-click damage, and increased and sustained ultimate health bonus.
- Squirrel Girl: Improved squirrel targeting, reduced squirrel tsunami health.
- Winter Soldier: Enhanced; increased health gain from abilities, increased main attack damage, slightly reduced area damage.
- Wolverine: Buffed; increased health and reduced damage reduction from Undying Animal.
Strategist
Image: ensigame.com
- Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduced, increased ultimate dashes.
- Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range adjusted, increased Joyful Splash healing.
- Luna Snow: Slightly nerfed; increased dance mode change break time.
- Mantis: Nerfed; reduced Nature's Favor acceleration.
- Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.
Team-Up
Image: ensigame.com
Team-Up bonuses adjusted for several heroes, nerfing Hawkeye and Hela, and buffing Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.
Image: ensigame.com
The balance changes are mostly subtle, though some heroes might see increased popularity. The impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.
