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 combat this darkness, the Fantastic Four have joined the fight. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are already playable, with more Fantastic Four members arriving later in the season.

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, as the name suggests, turn invisible.

New Maps and Mode

Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" set, are now available, featuring locations like a ravaged Grand Central Terminal.

"Doom Match," a new mode for 8-12 players, sees the top 50% surviving a knockout-based competition declared victorious.

Battle Pass

Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of Season Zero's, reflecting the three-month season length. It boasts 10 skins (8 premium), though the Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker is considered a minor visual update. The free track still offers Units and Lattice for diligent players.

Celestial Rank

A new "Celestial" rank has been introduced between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. While accessibility might be limited, it could potentially ease future ranking progression.

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

This season features several minor hero balance adjustments to address power discrepancies.

Vanguard

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

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

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

Hulk: Received a slight nerf to his Gamma Shield health.

Venom: Received buffs to his armor gain and ultimate ability damage.

Duelist

Black Panther: Saw reductions to extra health gained from Spirit Rend.

Black Widow: Received improvements to her Edge Dancer radius, Fleet Foot recovery time, and ultimate ability power-up time.

Hawkeye: Received slight nerfs to his explosive arrow spread, Archer’s Focus activation distance, and passive skill bonus damage.

Hela: Experienced a health reduction.

Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.

Moon Knight: Received buffs to his ultimate ability's talon count and blast radius.

Namor: Experienced throw accuracy adjustments.

Psylocke: Her ultimate skill now correctly checks for opponent barriers.

Punisher: Experienced slight spread reduction for Deliverance and Adjudication.

Scarlet Witch: Received enhancements to her Chaos Control damage and Chthonian Burst damage.

Storm: Received significant buffs to her normal attack projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and ultimate ability health bonus.

Squirrel Girl: Experienced changes to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.

Winter Soldier: Received buffs to his health, main attack damage, and ability health bonuses.

Wolverine: Received a health increase and a reduction in his Undying Animal damage reduction.

Strategist

Cloak & Dagger: Received a reduction in Dagger Storm cooldown and an increase in ultimate ability dashes.

Jeff the Land Shark: Experienced an adjustment to his ultimate ability range and increased healing from Joyful Splash.

Luna Snow: Experienced a slight increase in her dance mode change break time.

Mantis: Received a reduction in Nature's Favor acceleration.

Rocket Raccoon: Received an increase in healing speed in recovery mode.

Team-Up

Several Team-Up bonuses were adjusted, nerfing Hawkeye and Hela while buffing Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.

While the balance changes are relatively minor, their impact on the meta remains to be seen. The addition of new heroes will undoubtedly introduce further shifts in power dynamics.