The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Update Overview

Season Zero is behind us, and the highly anticipated Season One of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of fresh 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 to arms, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting initially, with more team members to follow throughout the season.

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, capable of deploying shields, manipulating enemies' positions, and, of course, turning invisible.

New Maps and Mode

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Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City—"Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown"—offer battles at iconic locations like Grand Central Terminal. A new "Doom Match" mode, designed for 8-12 players, crowns the top 50% of players after a set number of eliminations.

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. The premium pass offers 8 out of 10 skins, many of which are visually striking, though Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is considered a minor update. The free pass still rewards Units and Lattice for completing tasks.

Celestial Rank

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A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, sits between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity." While accessibility may be limited initially, it could potentially ease future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset is implemented, dropping players seven ranks from their Season Zero finish (e.g., Platinum I to Silver II).

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

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Season One introduces several minor balance tweaks to address hero disparities.

Vanguard:

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• Captain America: Received significant buffs, including reduced cooldown on Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost reduced, but grants less bonus health.
• Doctor Strange: Moderate adjustments to Maelstrom of Madness damage and shield recovery speed.
• Thor: Health increase and crowd-control immunity during ultimate.
• Hulk: Slight nerf to Gamma Shield health.
• Venom: Buffs to armor gain based on lost health and ultimate ability damage.

Duelist:

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• Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend and maximum additional health.
• Black Widow: Improvements to Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and ultimate activation speed.
• Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive skill bonus damage.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Increased ultimate talons 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: Enhanced Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage and increased Chthonian Burst damage.
• Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectiles, right-click damage, and ultimate bonus health.
• Squirrel Girl: Increased squirrel predictability, reduced squirrel tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
• Wolverine: Increased health and reduced Undying Animal damage reduction.

Strategist:

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• 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 change break.
• Mantis: Reduced Nature's Favor acceleration.
• Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up:

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Team-Up bonuses adjusted for several heroes, nerfing Hawkeye and Hela, while buffing Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.

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The balance changes are mostly subtle, with the impact of new heroes on the meta yet to be fully determined. Hela remains a dominant force at higher ranks.