Marvel Rivals Remastered: Epic Update Unveiled

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, with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman already available, and more team members to be introduced throughout the season.

New Heroes

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• Mister Fantastic: A mid-range duelist with abilities for rapid movement between enemies and allies, area damage, and temporary damage absorption.
• Invisible Woman: A strategist whose attacks heal allies, capable of creating shields, manipulating enemy positioning, and, as the name suggests, turning invisible.

New Maps and Mode

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Two new maps, part of the "Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown" set, are now live, featuring locations like Grand Central Terminal within a ravaged New York City. A new "Doom Match" mode supports 8-12 players, with the top 50% winning after a set number of knockouts.

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 considered highly desirable, though Peni Parker's Blue Tarantula skin is criticized for minimal visual changes. The free pass still provides Units and Lattice through various challenges.

Celestial Rank

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

Balance Adjustments for Heroes

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Season One introduces various 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. His Ultimate ability cost is lowered, but grants slightly less bonus health.
• Doctor Strange: Experienced moderate adjustments to his damage and shield recovery.
• Thor: Health increased, and gained crowd-control immunity during his ultimate.
• Hulk: Slightly nerfed; his Gamma Shield now grants less health.
• Venom: Buffed with increased armor scaling and ultimate damage.

Duelist

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• Black Panther: Nerfed; reduced bonus health from Spirit Rend and overall maximum bonus health.
• Black Widow: Improved with increased radius on Edge Dancer, reduced cooldown on Fleet Foot, and faster ultimate charge time.
• Hawkeye: Slightly nerfed; reduced explosive arrow spread, passive ability range, and maximum bonus damage.
• Hela: Health reduced.
• Magik: Increased Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form.
• Moon Knight: Buffed; increased talons and blast radius on his ultimate.
• Namor: Throw accuracy adjusted.
• Psylocke: Ultimate skill now correctly interacts with enemy barriers.
• Punisher: Slightly reduced spread on Deliverance and Adjudication.
• Scarlet Witch: Enhanced; increased Chaos Control damage, but reduced damage-over-time percentage. Chthonian Burst damage also increased.
• Storm: Significantly strengthened; faster and more damaging projectiles, increased right-click damage, and enhanced ultimate bonus health.
• Squirrel Girl: Improved squirrel targeting, but reduced squirrel tsunami health.
• Winter Soldier: Buffed; increased health gain from abilities, main attack damage, and base health.

Strategist

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• Cloak & Dagger: Dagger Storm cooldown reduced. Ultimate now has an additional dash.
• Jeff the Land Shark: Ultimate range adjusted, and Joyful Splash healing increased.
• Luna Snow: Slightly nerfed; increased dance mode change break time.
• Mantis: Nerfed; 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, with nerfs to Hawkeye and Hela, and buffs to Namor, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto, and Storm.

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The balance changes are generally subtle. While some heroes might see increased popularity, the meta remains largely unchanged. The impact of the new heroes on the overall game dynamic will be interesting to observe.