The eagerly anticipated Marvel Rivals patch dropping later today might leave some players feeling a bit underwhelmed. While it introduces fresh skins for Captain America and Luna Snow and addresses a few pesky bugs, there won’t be any changes that could impact the game’s balance, which many were hoping for.
NetEase, the game’s developer, hasn’t yet mapped out a schedule for major balance updates. With this being the inaugural season, players don’t have past patterns to lean on either. What we do know is that new heroes are on the horizon every six weeks. Recently, on January 10th, Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman made their debut. Following this timeline, it looks like we can expect the Thing and Human Torch to join the action around February 21st, marking the midpoint of the season’s three-month stretch.
Considering Marvel Rivals shares some DNA with Overwatch 2, there’s speculation that the awaited balance tweaks might arrive with a mid-season update. Blizzard is known for giving players some time to adapt to new metas before implementing adjustments, and NetEase might be adopting a similar strategy.
In a chat with Metro in January, game director Guangyun Chen mentioned that they’re closely watching hero pick rates and win rates to figure out what needs balancing. He assured fans that, after thorough analysis and thoughtful consideration, they’ll definitely make the necessary tweaks and adjustments.
A hot topic among the community is how NetEase plans to tackle the dominance of support heroes. Characters like Luna Snow and Mantis come equipped with extremely powerful ultimates, leading to heated discussions about potential nerfs. Meanwhile, Storm continues to dominate the win rate charts, especially at higher skill levels.
For the moment, the only new excitement comes from a sleek pink and purple skin for Luna Snow and a rugged Steve Rogers appearance inspired by Avengers: Infinity War.
