The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Update Overview

Season Zero is over, 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 initially available, with more team members joining the fight as the season progresses.

New Heroes

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• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range Duelist with abilities enabling swift movement between enemies and allies, area-of-effect damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A Strategist whose attacks heal allies. She can create shields, manipulate enemy positioning, and, of course, turn invisible.

New Maps and Mode

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Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City are now available, featuring iconic locations like Grand Central Terminal. A new "Doom Match" mode caters to 8-12 players, with the top 50% emerging victorious after a set number of knockouts.

Battle Pass

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Season One's Battle Pass boasts double the content of Season Zero. With a three-month duration, it offers a more substantial reward track. Eight out of ten skins are premium, with most boasting appealing designs. However, Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin, a simple recolor, lacks significant visual updates. The free track still provides Units and Lattice through various challenges.

Celestial Rank

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A new "Celestial" rank, divided into three divisions, has been introduced between "Grandmaster" and "Eternity." While accessibility may be limited initially, it could potentially streamline future ranking progression. A season-end rank reset is in place, with a seven-level drop based on your Season Zero final rank.

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 his Shield and Rush abilities, and increased health. Ultimate ability cost and health bonus have also been adjusted.
• Doctor Strange: Experienced moderate adjustments to damage and shield recovery.
• Thor: Received health increases and crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
• Hulk: Underwent a slight nerf to his gamma Shield health bonus.
• Venom: Received buffs to armor scaling and ultimate ability damage.

Duelist

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• Black Panther: Experienced nerfs to extra health gained from Spirit Rend.
• Black Widow: Received improvements to ability range, cooldown, and ultimate activation time.
• Hawkeye: Underwent minor nerfs to explosive arrow spread, passive ability range, and maximum bonus damage.
• Hela: Received a health reduction. New Twitch Drops featuring a Hela skin are available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Received significant buffs to ultimate ability talon count and blast radius.
• Namor: Experienced accuracy adjustments to his throw abilities.
• Punisher: Experienced slight spread reduction on Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Received mostly buffs, increasing Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage.
• Storm: Received significant buffs to attack speed, damage, and ultimate health bonus.
• Squirrel Girl: Experienced adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Received buffs to health regeneration from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.
• Wolverine: Received a health increase and a reduction in Undying Animal damage reduction.

Strategist

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• Cloak & Dagger: Received a Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and an increase in ultimate dashes.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Experienced adjustments to ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing.
• Luna Snow: Received a minor nerf to her dance mode interruption.
• Mantis: Received a nerf to Nature's Favor acceleration.
• Rocket Raccoon: Received increased healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up

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Team-Up bonuses were adjusted for several heroes, with some receiving nerfs (Hawkeye, Hela) and others receiving buffs (Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, Storm).

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Season One's balance changes are generally subtle. While some heroes might see increased popularity, the impact of the new heroes on the meta remains to be seen.