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Marvel Rivals patch makes Hulk less hulky, Hawkeye less shooty and the Goddess of Death deader, just in time for Season 1Black Widow and Squirrel Girl among those boosted
Black Widow and Squirrel Girl among those boosted
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NetEase Games
Do you like running rampage as Hela, goddess of death? Was thatyouwho shot me full of crows on Klyntar last night? Well, how does 25 points off your base health suit you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Screw you too.
Hela is one of many who’ve succumbed to the nerf. NetEase’s Thanos-style fingersnap has also made the Incredible Hulk less incredible: according to the full patch notes, it drops the Indestructible Guard gamma shield value for Hero Hulk from 250 to 200. Somewhat counter-intuitively, HawkEye has undergone a rework to make him less effective with a bow - “decreasing the medium-long range damage capability, reducing the threatening combat radius, and slightly improving the close combat resistance for the avenging archer”.
Black Panther’s survivability has also been cut: the patch reduces “the additional health provided to self after refreshing Vibranium Marks with Spirit Rend from 40 to 30, and the upper limit of additional health provided from 120 to 75.”
For every loser there is at least one winner, naturally. Black Widow “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.” Her Edge Dancer, Fleet Foot and Electro-Plasma Explosion abilities have all been juiced up.
You can read the full patch noteshere. Again, all this is a warm-up for Season 1, which introduces noble stretchyman Mr Fantastic, see-through lady Invisible Woman, prancing fireboy Human Torch, and grouchy rockdude The Thing. They’ll arrive as part of a season storyline in which Dr Doom and Dracula have conspired toswitch off the sun, Mr Burns presumably being unavailable for recruitment at the time. Leaks further suggest that robonemesis Ultron is on the way to the line-up too.
Here’s a press release rundown:
Darkness engulfs New York as the Timestream Entanglement leaves Doctor Strange trapped in the Entangled Astral Plane, scattering the Darkhold pages. Dracula and Doctor Doom disrupt the moon’s orbit, plunging the city into eternal night and unleashing an army of vampiric creatures. With the world on the brink, the Fantastic Four join forces with iconic Marvel heroes, standing together in the epic battle to break the mystical darkness with science. Ignite the battle against Dracula with the Fantastic Four in Marvel Rivals!
Marvel Rivals continues to steam up Steam, ranking at 6th most played at the time of this article’s publication. Our Ed Thorn was ambivalent inhis season 0 launch review, summarising it as “likeOverwatch, if Overwatch was overcomplex and frequented Comic Con”. He found much to like about the abilities and presentation, but argued that the spread of somewhat interchangeable hero designs transformed matches into “slightly formless blenders”. Are you still playing?
