I remember looking through all the team-up abilities on offer in Season 0 for the first time, and wondering why the devs had left out my favourite duo. Maybe it's just because watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier permanently rewired my brain, but I thought that since Cap and Bucky are such an iconic duo, it would make sense for them to have a team-up ability in Marvel Rivals.
Well, I've been vindicated:Season 2 is adding this very team-up alongside two others. Named "The Stars Aligned" this team-up sees both characters strengthened. "As the team-up anchor, Captain America gains a maximum health increase of 100 and a 5% boost in damage output," the patch notes say.
100 more health is a ridiculously good deal for Captain America. As it stands, Cap's biggest weakness is his lack of health. He can run fast, getting in and out of a fight before the poor backliners know what's hit them, and has his shield to block incoming damage. He's not as squishy as Thor, but Cap can get chewed up in a fight real fast. So a bit of extra health will go a long way to improving his survivability.
Then there's Winter Soldier's perks. "Winter Soldier unlocks the devastating Stellar Impact ability through his team-up with Captain America," according to the patch notes. Stellar Impact lets Bucky jump towards an enemy and then ground pound, dealing shockwave damage to nearby enemies. He can even collide with Cap to create an bigger shockwave.
It's a neat new ability for Winter Soldier, but despite my love of this duo, I'm not sure Bucky really needs any more buffs. This hero is already very strong, being one of the best Duelists in the game right now. Despite getting a couple of nerfs to lower his threat level against Vanguards with Stellar Impact in his arsenal, it'll make it even easier for him to engage or disengage from fights quickly enough to avoid getting killed while doing plenty of damage.
Alongside Cap and Winter Soldier, the other two new team-up abilities include Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch's Arcane Order, as well as Emma Frost, Magneto, and Psylocke's Mental Projection. Doctor Strange will get a health increase of 100, while Scarlet Witch will unlock a new magic Mystic Burst ability that'll give her a rapid-fire long-range projectile. Emma Frost will also get 100 more health, while Magento gets Magnetic Resonance and Psylocke gets Soul Resurgence, both of which let characters summon a clone of themselves.
But it's not all positive, as the devs add more team-up abilities, they have also taken some away. Metallic Chaos (Scarlet Witch and Magneto) has been removed as they now get their strength elsewhere. Psylocke has been removed from Dimensional Shortcut, Winter Soldier has been taken out of Ammo Overload, and Doctor Strange is no longer in Gamma Charge and has been replaced by Namor, who is no longer in Chilling Charisma.
It's all quite complicated, but these are important changes to make to ensure no one hero gets too powerful. It would be unfair if one hero were in multiple powerful team-ups. So as more are added, we can expect existing team-ups to change or disappear entirely.
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