Marvel Rivals’ Season 1 Buffs and Nerfs Set High Expectations

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 12, 2025 2 Views 8 Min Read
Marvel Rivals' Season 1 Buffs and Nerfs Set High Expectations

After a record-breaking launch, Marvel Rivals has continued to entertain a massive number of active players. With such a large audience, it can often be a serious challenge to please everyone. Marvel Rivals has somehow managed to do just that so far, but this kind of smash success often serves to turn the pressure up even higher.

Marvel Rivals Season 1 has officially begun, and the sheer amount of content it brings with it is nothing short of jaw-dropping. As expected, the new season has come alongside the game’s first major balance update, with these adjustments being well-received across the board. Still, it’s only a matter of time before Marvel Rivals encounters its first major roadblock.

Marvel Rivals drops new balance patch.

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Marvel Rivals Reveals Season 1 Balance Changes

Ahead of Marvel Rivals’ highly anticipated Season 1 update later this week, a new balance patch drops, bringing changes to numerous characters.

Marvel Rivals May Have Trouble Meeting Fan Expectations with Every Balance Update

Marvel Rivals Developers Seem to Favor a Hands-Off Approach

Marvel Rivals has used a relatively soft hand when it comes to major balancing adjustments. For example, Marvel Rivals‘ position on role queue has been a constant topic of discussion since the game’s launch. This is due to a general perception of unbalanced teams, in which some players simply refuse to try any role other than Duelist.

Despite a great deal of outcry from a portion of the community, developers have explicitly stated that they do not intend to implement role queue as a measure to address this complaint. This might suggest that the game is already working as intended. More importantly, this approach seems to be working so far. Marvel Rivals‘ Season 0 stats revealed that Quick Play and Competitive modes are more balanced than one might expect. However, there were still some heroes that fell too far from the center to not be addressed.

Marvel Rivals Season 1 Buffs and Nerfs Explained

True to the pace of development so far, the characters being balanced in Season 1 are relatively light. Rather than applying sweeping changes across the class, the developer instead honed in on the few characters that needed it the most. Whether they were buffed or nerfed, the characters that received adjustments make it clear that developers have been paying close attention to the community.

For example, the main recipients of nerfs were Hela and Hawkeye. Hela was the most overtuned character in the game by far, and both heroes were capable of some pretty devastating damage. By comparison, Storm had fallen very far behind in Marvel Rivals‘ Season 0 meta. In Season 1, Storm has received buffs to both attack speed and damage, both of which have made her a much more formidable foe.

Marvel Rivals Has Set a Tough Pace to Match

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase has received praise for both its discretion, and its laser focus on issues within the community. Some have compared the game to its biggest competitors, and have found that Marvel Rivals has gained a really solid head start for the sake of its future. However, this glowing reputation right off the bat may make it hard for future updates to measure up.

It’s very difficult to get a balance patch exactly right, let alone every time. Although Marvel Rivals has built up plenty of goodwill in its first month, this may have only made it harder to meet fan expectations in the future, as now players could be expecting every balancing pass to check all the right boxes. Considering that games like Overwatch 2 still struggle with balancing, despite some characters being around for eight years now, it’s unlikely that the many characters in Marvel Rivals will stay perfectly fair for its entire life cycle. Still, if NetEase continues to stay on the path it has forged so far when it comes to balancing, perhaps it will continue to rise to the occasion for a long time.

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