The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Season Zero is over, and the first season of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of new content and balance adjustments. Let's dive into the significant updates.

Table of Contents

• What's New in the First Season?
• New Heroes
• New Maps and Mode
• Battle Pass
• Celestial Rank
• Balance Adjustments for Heroes
• Vanguard
• Duelist
• Strategist
• Team-Up

What's New in the First Season?

This season's theme? An undead invasion led by Dracula! To fight back, the Fantastic Four have joined the battle. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are available now, with more Fantastic Four members arriving later in the season.

New Heroes

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, and, as the name suggests, turn invisible!

New Maps and Mode

Two new maps, part of "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown," are here, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal in a ravaged New York City.

A new "Doom Match" mode for 8-12 players has been added. The top 50% of players after a set number of knockouts win.

Battle Pass

Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of Season Zero's, and future seasons will last three months, offering even more content. Of the 10 skins, 8 are premium. While most skins are visually appealing, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is a simple color swap. The free Battle Pass track still rewards Units and Lattice.

Celestial Rank

A new "Celestial" rank has been added between Grandmaster and Eternity, with three divisions. While many players may find it challenging to progress beyond Bronze, it could potentially improve ranking progression in the future.

As with many online games, a rank reset occurs at the end of each season. Your starting rank in Season One will be seven ranks below your Season Zero ending rank (e.g., Platinum I in Season Zero starts at Silver II in Season One).

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

This season includes several minor balance changes to address hero strength discrepancies.

Vanguard

Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on his Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health.

Doctor Strange: Experienced adjustments to his Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery speed.

Thor: Received health increase and crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.

Hulk: Slightly nerfed; his gamma Shield now grants less health.

Venom: Buffed with increased armor based on lost health and increased ultimate ability damage.

Duelist

Black Panther: Reduced extra health from Spirit Rend and maximum additional health.

Black Widow: Improved with increased radius for Edge Dancer, reduced recovery time for Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate activation.

Hawkeye: Slightly nerfed; reduced explosive arrow spread, Archer's Focus activation distance, and maximum bonus damage.

Hela: Health reduced. New Twitch Drops available featuring a Hela skin.

Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.

Moon Knight: Buffed with increased talons and blast radius in his ultimate.

Namor: Throw accuracy adjusted.

Psylocke: Ultimate ability now checks for opponent barriers.

Punisher: Slightly reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.

Scarlet Witch: Enhanced with increased Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage.

Storm: Significantly strengthened with faster and more damaging projectiles, increased right-click damage, and increased and longer-lasting ultimate bonus health.

Squirrel Girl: Squirrels now target the nearest enemy, and squirrel tsunami health reduced.

Winter Soldier: Enhanced with increased health from abilities, increased main attack damage, and increased base health.

Wolverine: Health increased, but damage reduction decreased.

Strategist

Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduced, and ultimate ability now has an extra dash.

Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range adjusted, and Joyful Splash healing increased.

Luna Snow: Slight nerf to dance mode change break.

Mantis: Nature's Favor acceleration reduced.

Rocket Raccoon: Healing speed increased.

Team-Up

Hawkeye and Hela's Team-Up bonuses reduced. Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm received Team-Up buffs.

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