The Legendary Beginning of Marvel Rivals: what the Update brought

Marvel Rivals Season One: A Comprehensive Overview of New Content and Balance Changes

The highly anticipated first season of Marvel Rivals has arrived, bringing a wave of new content and significant balance adjustments. This detailed guide covers all the key 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

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Season Theme: An undead invasion orchestrated by Dracula! The Fantastic Four have answered the call to arms, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman debuting this season, and other members to follow.

New Heroes:

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• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for rapid movement between allies and enemies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies. Her kit includes shield generation, enemy manipulation (push/pull), and invisibility.

New Maps and Mode:

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• Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown: Two new maps set in a ravaged New York City, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal.
• Doom Match: A new mode for 8-12 players, where the top 50% survive after a knockout threshold is met.

Battle Pass:

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Season One's Battle Pass is double the size of the zero season's, reflecting the three-month season length. Eight of the ten skins are premium, with most considered visually appealing. The Blue Tarantula skin for Peni Parker, however, is criticized for minimal visual changes. Free track rewards include Units and Lattice.

Celestial Rank:

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A new "Celestial" rank has been introduced between Grandmaster and Eternity, comprising three divisions. Its impact on overall ranking progression remains to be seen. A season-end rank reset is in place, with a seven-level drop from the previous season's final rank.

Balance Adjustments:

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Numerous heroes received adjustments, reflecting the ongoing balancing process. Significant changes include:

Vanguard:

• Captain America: Received buffs to health, mobility (Rush cooldown reduction), and Ultimate ability cost reduction.
• Doctor Strange: Underwent 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 scaling and Ultimate ability damage.

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Duelist:

• Black Panther: Nerfed extra health from Spirit Rend and maximum additional health.
• Black Widow: Improved with radius increases, cooldown reductions, and ultimate activation speed improvements.
• Hawkeye: Slight nerfs to explosive arrow spread, passive ability range, and maximum bonus damage.
• Hela: Health reduction. New Twitch Drops available.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage.
• Moon Knight: Buffs to Ultimate ability talon count 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: Mixed changes, with increased damage and reduced damage-over-time percentage.
• Storm: Significant buffs to normal attack projectile speed and damage, right-click damage, and Ultimate ability bonus health.
• Squirrel Girl: Adjustments to squirrel targeting and tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Buffs to health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.

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Strategist:

• Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduction and increased dashes in Ultimate.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range and Joyful Splash healing adjustments.
• Luna Snow: Slight nerf to dance mode change break.
• Mantis: Nerf to Nature's Favor acceleration.
• Rocket Raccoon: Increased healing speed in recovery mode.

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Team-Up:

Changes to Team-Up bonuses, impacting Hawkeye, Hela, Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.

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The overall impact of these changes remains to be seen, but the introduction of new heroes and the refined balance adjustments promise an exciting and evolving meta.