Marvel Rivals is just under a week old and has already got its first big patch. NetEase’s update doesn’t have any balance changes, instead being focused on bug fixes. However, there’s slight overlap, as one glitch the patch fixes effectively gives the Vanguard Doctor Strange a bit of a nerf. That’s because fans had discovered a way to immediately charge the Sorcerer Supreme’s ultimate ability to full with just one well-placed portal.
The full patch notes run down all the bugs and fixes squashed in the update, several of which are mundane things like players getting caught in a map’s geometry or graphical hitches. But the big one is a change to Doctor Strange’s ultimate charge that specifically addresses any environmental kills the character pulls off. A common strategy for Doctor Strange players is to create a portal in front of an enemy spawn room and have it open up above a hole on the map so your foes fall to their deaths. Due to an apparent glitch, this would boost Doctor Strange’s ultimate charge to nearly 100 percent.
As a temporary fix, NetEase is disabling the portals’ terrain kill attribution, meaning that the game will not register these deaths as Doctor Strange’s kills. As such, a Strange player will not receive any of the passive benefits like ult charge or scoreboard kills for this strategy. NetEase says it will be reinstating those benefits in a future update, but only after it has been able to address the ultimate charge bug. It’s a slight bummer, but portals are still effective in getting an easy team kill.
The full patch notes read as follows:
General
· When playing highlights and recordings, crosshair deviation would be significant, and there was a possibility for lag. This issue has been resolved.
· Changing where Highlights were saved would cause the game to crash. This issue has been resolved.
· Players joining a Quick Match as a replacement may not be able to see heroes’ equipped costumes. This issue has been resolved.
· Mission progress on the Season Event screen would not display correctly. This issue has been resolved.
· Fixed some textual errors. More fixes will be coming in a future update.
· After a crash, the game had a chance to freeze for a long period of time before closing. This issue has been resolved, and now the game will close after crashing.
· Fixed some relatively common crash issues.
Maps & Game Modes
· On certain maps (particularly Hydra Charteris Base: Hell’s Heaven and Klyntar: Symbiotic Surface), special collisions on the edges would cause the player’s character to become stuck or clip through and enter strange areas. These issues have been largely resolved, but as this affects multiple maps and areas, this bug may be present elsewhere. We will work to continue fixing such issues and develop a solution to thoroughly prevent them.
· In the foggy areas of Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda: Hall of Djalia and Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda: Birnin T’Challa:
– Fog would disappear from Hela and Storm’s perspectives when they activated their Ultimates. This issue has been resolved.
– After Jeff the Land Shark was revived while in the fog, his teammates and enemies would not be able to see the special effects of Joyful Splash. This issue has been resolved.
· In Hydra Charteris Base: Hell’s Heaven – Frozen Airfield:
– In Competitive, if a player was KO’d while moving near a target area, it would cause the lightings to behave abnormally. This issue has been resolved.
– During matches, disconnecting and reconnecting could cause desynchronization of some doors (i.e., a door looked to be closed, but the player could walk through; a door looked to be open, but the player couldn’t walk through). This issue has been resolved.
· Hydra Charteris Base: Hell’s Heaven – Eldritch Monument:
– When the target area is ascending or descending, if Adam Warlock used his Ultimate, his teammates would potentially revive and be stuck beneath the terrain if they were right on the target area platform. This issue has been resolved.
– When the target area is ascending or descending, if Thor or Loki were revived by Hela’s team-up ability, they would potentially revive and be stuck beneath the terrain if they were right on the target area platform. This issue has been resolved.
– When the target area is ascending or descending, if Jeff the Land Shark used his Ultimate to devour characters, they would potentially become stuck beneath the terrain if they were right on the target area platform. This issue has been resolved.
– When the target area is ascending or descending, if Winter Soldier hit an enemy with his Ultimate and they landed right on the target area platform, damage may be lost. This issue has been resolved.
· When switching between rounds in Competitive, if the destination was not the last stage of a map, it would cause the vehicle’s effective range to not display when it approached the destination, impacting determination of the effective occupation range. This issue has been resolved.
· Upon reaching the third round in Competitive Convoy or Convergence, heroes had a chance to carry over their Ultimate energy from the second round. This issue has been resolved, and heroes will no longer inherit their Ultimate energy.
Heroes
· When Wolverine had his Deadpool & Wolverine costume equipped, no ability voice lines other than the Undying Animal ability’s line would play. This issue has been resolved.
· After Star-Lord’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s MVP animation played, sound effects would not be played in the results screen. This issue has been resolved.
· When Iron Fist used pings, the corresponding voice lines would not be triggered. This issue has been resolved.
· The description for ADS sensitivity in Black Widow’s settings was incorrect. This issue has been resolved.
· In certain situations, Black Widow’s Ultimate would not recover energy as intended. This issue has been resolved.
· In certain extreme situations, Captain America’s Ultimate wouldn’t end as intended. This issue has been resolved.
· When Doctor Strange’s portals triggered terrain KOs, they would mistakenly restore Doctor Strange’s Ultimate energy. For now, we have disabled the portals’ terrain KO attribution to temporarily fix this issue (i.e., terrain KOs will not count toward Doctor Strange’s own KOs). Rest assured, this bug will be resolved in a future update, at which time we will restore the portals’ KO attribution.
PC
· Using FSR 3 frame generation technology to modify the resolution could cause memory leaks, resulting in blurry models. This issue has been resolved.
Console
· After equipping the PlayStation bundle’s Scarlet Spider costume, restarting the game could cause the costume to not display as correctly equipped. This issue has been resolved.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the frequency of different bugs and fixing them as fast as we can. We also have another patch in the works—this time with new content! Be sure to follow our socials for all the latest news!