Earlier this week, NetEase said Marvel Rivals season 1 patch would target key heroes for nerfs and buffs, including dominant long-range duelists Hela and Hawkeye. Turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg: the upcoming patch will nerf or buff a total of 24 heroes (over two-thirds of the roster) and adjust several seasonal bonuses.
First, the highlights. Here's how Marvel Rivals' most popular heroes are changing in season 1:
Hela 🔽
The Goddess of Death has been a menace and we'll slightly decreasing [sic] her combat strength.
-Reduce base health from 275 to 250
Hawkeye 🔽🔼
We'll be decreasing the medium-long range damage capability, reducing the threatening combat radius, and slightly improving the close combat resistance for the avenging archer.
- Slightly reduce the spread angle between every two Blast Arrows.
- Reduce the triggering distance of passive ability Archer's Focus from 60 meters to 40 meters. Reduce the maximum additional damage of the passive from 80 to 70.
Cloak & Dagger 🔼
Ty and Tandy will receive an increase to their healing capability as well as an expansion to the coverage area of their ultimate ability.
- Reduce Dagger Storm cooldown from 15s to 12s.
- Increase the number of dashes in Eternal Bond (ultimate ability) from 3 to 4.
Jeff the Land Shark 🔽🔼
We'll be adjusting the range for his ultimate ability so it now better fits the warning marker. In addition, we'll also be increasing his healing capability.
- Adjust It's Jeff! (ultimate ability) range from a 10m sphere to a 10m radius, 5m high cylindrical spell field.
- Increase the healing of Joyful Splash from 140/s to 150/s.
Luna Snow 🔽
While we've enjoyed her dropping the bass, we've made adjustments to Luna's ultimate ability to prevent players from abusing its healing capabilities.
- Increase the interval for switching between healing and damage in Fate of Both Worlds from 0.1s to 0.5s.
Mantis 🔽
We'll be making Mantis a bit less fleet-footed, reducing her roaming support capability.
- Reduce Nature's Favor (passive) movement boost from 2.5m/s to 1.5m/s.
Across the board, these are smaller changes than I expected. Health reductions, cooldown tweaks, damage adjustments—NetEase is being cautious about its first round of balancing. Of course, seemingly small changes can make a big difference: Hela's loss of 25 HP means several heroes need to land fewer shots to kill her. Similarly, Mantis mains might be taking more damage than before now she's a slower, easier target. I'll be curious to see how much these changes move the needles on the official Marvel Rivals pick rates/win rates leaderboards, which indicate Hela and Mantis currently dominate.
As teased earlier this week, three underperforming heroes are getting a thick stack of buffs, including Black Widow and Storm, two of the least-picked characters right now.
Captain America
Steve will receive some enhanced survivability, allowing more frequent entering and exiting of the combat.
- Reduce the delay time for shield restoration after releasing Living Legend from 3s to 2s.
- Reduce Liberty Rush cooldown from 12s to 10s.
- Increase base health from 650 to 675.
- Reduce the energy cost for releasing Freedom Charge (ultimate ability) from 3400 to 3100; Reduce the additional health provided per second to self after releasing it from 110 to 100.
Black Widow
Natasha was very much in need of optimization when evaluating the release experience of her abilities as well as a slightly increase to the threat of her ultimate ability,
- Increase the range of the first effect of Edge Dancer from a 3-meter radius to a 5-meter radius.
- Reduce the time required for Fleet Foot to recover from 0 stamina to full from 12s to 4s.
- Reduce the time required for Electro-Plasma Explosion (ultimate ability) to reach maximum power from 1s to 0.6s.
Storm
The Weather Witch needed an overall increase to her damage capability; We're also optimizing the feel of her left-click projectile and the release experience of her ultimate ability.
- Increase Wind Blade projectile speed from 100m/s to 150m/s and left-click damage from 50 to 55.
- Increase Bolt Rush damage from 70 to 80.
- After releasing Omega Hurricane (ultimate ability), the bonus health provided for herself will be increased from 350 to 450. Moreover, following its conclusion, the extra health will no longer vanish instantly but will instead diminish at a rate of 100 per second.
There's a lot more still. Those arbitrary seasonal bonuses that give Hela and Hawkeye extra damage are getting toned down from 20% to 15%. Conversely, Luna Snow's team-up with Namor and Rocket Raccoon's team-up with Winter Soldier and Punisher is getting a buff. For an extensive accounting of all 24 hero changes, read the full patch notes.
