Season Zero is in the rearview mirror, and Season One of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of fresh content and balance tweaks. 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 orchestrated by Dracula himself! To combat this darkness, the Fantastic Four have answered the call. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are already playable, with the rest of the team arriving throughout the season.
New Heroes
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. She can create shields, manipulate enemies with pushes and pulls, and, as the name suggests, turn invisible!
New Maps and Mode
Two new maps, part of "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown," are now live, offering battles in locations like a ravaged Grand Central Terminal.
"Doom Match," a new mode for 8-12 players, crowns the top 50% of players after a set number of knockouts.
Battle Pass
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 many skins are visually appealing, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin, a simple color swap, feels somewhat underwhelming. The free track still offers Units and Lattice for completing challenges.
Celestial Rank
A new "Celestial" rank, nestled between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity," introduces three new divisions. While many players may find themselves stuck in Bronze, this could ease future ranking climbs.
As with many online games, a rank reset occurs at the end of each season. Your starting rank in Season One will be seven levels below your Season Zero ending rank (e.g., Platinum I in Season Zero starts at Silver II in Season One).
Balance Adjustments for Heroes
Balancing a diverse roster is a challenge, and Season One brings a series of adjustments.
Vanguard
Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on his Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health.
Doctor Strange: Saw adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery speed.
Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
Hulk: Slight nerf to his Gamma Shield health.
Venom: Buffed with increased armor based on lost health and ultimate ability damage.
Duelist
Black Panther: Reduced extra health from Spirit Rend upgrades.
Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and ultimate ability power-up time.
Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive skill bonus damage.
Hela: Health reduction (though she remains potent).
Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
Moon Knight: Increased talons and blast radius for his ultimate.
Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
Punisher: Reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
Scarlet Witch: Enhanced with increased Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage.
Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectiles, right-click damage, and ultimate ability health bonus.
Squirrel Girl: Improved squirrel targeting and reduced squirrel tsunami health.
Winter Soldier: Increased health from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
Wolverine: Increased health and reduced Undying Animal damage reduction.
Strategist
Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased dashes in ultimate.
Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
Luna Snow: Increased dance mode change break.
Mantis: Reduced Nature's Favor acceleration.
Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.
Team-Up
Team-Up bonuses adjusted for several heroes: Hawkeye and Hela nerfed, while Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm buffed.
While many of these changes are subtle, they could shift the meta. The introduction of new heroes will undoubtedly add another layer of complexity.
