NetEase has been pretty tame with its Marvel Rivals balance updates thus far. It gave troublesome heroes like Hela a slap on the wrist and has released patches entirely dedicated to bug fixes. However, it sounds like the next patch, which will add the Human Torch and the Thing to the roster, will finally be targeting some developing metas and pain points. Is that a good or a bad thing? Time will tell and your mileage may vary, but either way, it looks like NetEase is trying to rein in some of the hero shooter’s chaos.
In a developer update, NetEase broke down some of the new features and balance changes coming to Marvel Rivals on February 21 as part of Season 1’s mid-season update. The headliners are the Human Torch and the Thing, who will join the game as a Duelist and Vanguard, respectively. NetEase is also bringing a new Central Park map to the game alongside its new heroes, though the studio didn’t say what kind of mode it would be for.
Also coming in the second half of Season 1, Marvel Rivals will allow you to convert any excess Chrono Tokens (currency used exclusively for battle pass unlocks) into Units (the game’s standard currency used to buy cosmetics), though the team was quick to point out that they will convert at “a specific ratio,” and didn’t get any more specific than that.”
While NetEase hasn’t released full patch notes yet, the developer update did run through a handful of changes the team will make in its mid-season patch. A section of the update focuses on the growing “triple-Strategist” meta that requires making half your team healing support heroes. The composition has become predominant in competitive play, and while NetEase isn’t looking to undercut that strategy entirely, it is making some adjustments to make it less oppressive. Some noted changes include upping the ultimate charge for Cloak & Dagger, while lowering the charge for heroes like Venom and Magik.
“A triple strategist setup often means at least one ultimate counters a Vanguard or Duelist’s ultimate, which may slow down the game’s pace,” Lead Combat Designer Zhiyong explained. “We want every match to feel exhilarating, not drawn out.”
Beyond this, the team is also dialing back the survivability of Doctor Strange and Magneto and making “moderate tweaks” to Storm and Moon Knight. Moving forward, NetEase plans to have major balance updates twice each season while also addressing “urgent” issues with small adjustments between those bigger patches.
All of this comes as NetEase’s team suffers layoffs despite Marvel Rivals’ staggering success. But the system is good and just, right?