Marvel Rivals will open the doors to the “most massive overhaul to the combat system since launch” that affects roughly 80% of its hero roster when Season 9 kicks off in a couple of days. There’s hero reworks, a massive change to Team-Ups, and a substantial ultimate charge nerf.
The state of Marvel Rivals has been slightly contentious and some may say even stale over the last few seasons. Among frustrations with misdirected balance patches, suffocating Strategist strength, and barrages of ultimate contests, players didn’t have a lot of love to give for the game’s state of affairs. But it seems like NetEase went into Season 9 with the intention of taking a hammer to everything. For better or worse? It’s debatable.
I’m certainly happy to see another huge nerf to ultimate charge as Vanguard and Duelists get a decreased conversion rate of 70% down to 55%, while Strategists get a conversion rate for damage of 75% to 55% and for healing 75% to 60%. This will hopefully tone down the frequency of ultimates and stop team fights ending with whatever team has the best ults coming out on top.
There’s also been a huge change to the Team-Up system. “As the sheer number of abilities grew, our dev team gradually started feeling the strain,” lead combat designer, Zhiyong, explains in a dev diary. “Some of the newer Team-Ups started feeling a bit uninspired. Existing just for the sake of ticking an update box. Once we realised this we decided it was time to absolutely revolutionise the Team-Up system.”