Hell hath no fury like a Strategist scorned. It's been a week since streamer Necros set off a small atomic bomb in the Marvel Rivals community by calling support mains "idiots" and "morons." Since then, Strategists have been refusing to pick their role in competitive matches. I even came across one player who flexed a lord icon for every single Strategist and then proceeded to pick Hela, which is actually hilarious.
When I initially wrote about the strike, I didn't think it would amount to much, as internet crusades like this tend to fizzle out before they've accomplished any real change. However, I was wrong because I had forgotten how responsive the Marvel Rivals developers are. They've heard the complaints, and in response, they're going to make life a little easier for Strategists.
"In the upcoming patch, we will enhance the damage capabilities of certain Strategists to elevate their threat levels, which in turn, will increase team composition possibilities," the developers said in a new blog post. Season 2 has been a bit of a turning point for support heroes. Instead of team fights being decided by the ult economy, which Strategists usually won thanks to the sheer amount of immortality ults, fights are now won by coordinated team-ups and dives, which often target the backline.
I've already said how the new team-up abilities for Season 2 are worryingly strong, buffing already scary heroes like Bucky and Emma Frost, and it seems like the Strategists have taken the brunt of this. Alongside flankers like Iron Fist getting a substantial buff at the start of the season, it's been a lot to deal with.
So, alongside the upcoming Strategist buff, the developers also announced a couple of character reworks. "We will make minor adjustments to a few heroes. For example, Groot and Captain America will see slight reductions in survivability. Spider-Man's Amazing Combo damage range will be slightly decreased, Doctor Strange will require less energy for his ultimate, and Winter Soldier's Tainted Voltage and Team-Up Ability will be slightly buffed."
Despite all these changes, the developers admit that they "aim to be cautious" as they will keep "changes to a minimum to enhance the experience of certain heroes without drastically altering the overall meta." But the issue is bigger than just a couple of balance changes, and I think it'll need more than a few hero nerfs to fix it.
Since the very beginning, Marvel Rivals devs have shouted from the rooftops about how "We balance for fun, first and foremost." Competitive balancing has always taken a backseat, as developers have prioritised casual fun play over anything serious. That's part of Marvel Rivals' charm and what sets it apart from other team shooters like Overwatch 2, which take a more rigid and methodical approach to balancing heroes primarily for competitive play.
Marvel Rivals' silliness is why I no longer really play it. I prefer games that have a more competitive edge, but that doesn't mean it should change; there's clearly a massive audience who appreciate it, and it's working for them.
But the trade-off for balancing for fun is an unbalanced competitive scene, which is always detrimental to someone. This could be Strategists mains who are at the mercy of overpowered divers or damage heroes that can have their ults negated by immortality ults or get slapped by an op Luna Snow. "If everyone's broken, no one's broken" mentality doesn't really work for ranked play, where the stakes are higher and players can more readily exploit truly overpowered characters.
Marvel Rivals can either be a silly game with a load of overpowered heroes and abilities, which is fun for casual and absolutely hell for competitive play, or it can take a more serious approach to balancing heroes and metas, start nerfing and counterbalancing and prioritise its competitive play, but I don't think it can do both.
With that said, I'm still excited to see what the devs do with Ultron for Season 2.5, and it'll definitely be a hero who I'll enjoy taking for a spin. In the safety of casual play, of course.
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