The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Season Zero is over, and the first season of Marvel Rivals is here, bringing a wave of new content and balance changes. 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! The Fantastic Four are here to save the day, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman already available, and more to come.

New Heroes

• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for quick 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, yes, turn invisible!

New Maps and Mode

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

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

Battle Pass

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

Celestial Rank

A new "Celestial" rank is added between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity," with three divisions. Its impact on climbing the ranks remains to be seen.

A rank reset occurs at the end of each season. Your starting rank will be seven levels below your final Season Zero rank (e.g., Platinum I in Season Zero starts at Silver II in Season One).

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

This season brings minor balance tweaks to several heroes.

Vanguard

• Captain America: Received buffs to cooldown times, mobility, and health.
• Doctor Strange: Minor adjustments to damage and shield recovery.
• Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
• Hulk: Slight nerf to his gamma shield health.
• Venom: Buffs to armor gain and ultimate ability damage.

Duelist

• Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend.
• Black Widow: Buffs to ability radius, recovery time, and ultimate power-up time.
• Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, passive ability range, and bonus damage.
• Hela: Health reduction.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage.
• Moon Knight: Increased ultimate talons and blast radius.
• Namor: Throw accuracy adjustments.
• Psylocke: Bug fix to ultimate ability interaction with barriers.
• Punisher: Reduced spread for Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Buffs and nerfs to damage and damage over time.
• Storm: Significant buffs to attack speed, damage, and ultimate health bonus.
• Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
• Wolverine: Increased health and reduced damage reduction.

Strategist

• Cloak & Dagger: Reduced Dagger Storm cooldown and increased ultimate dashes.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Adjusted ultimate range and increased Joyful Splash healing.
• Luna Snow: Slight nerf to dance mode interruption time.
• Mantis: Nerfed 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, Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm buffed.

These balance changes are mostly minor, with Hela remaining a top pick at higher ranks. The new heroes' impact on the meta remains to be seen.