Marvel Rivals Balance Changes (Season 3 - Patch Notes)

Season 3 of Marvel Rivals launches on July 11th, and we've got you covered with all the balance changes and how they'll affect shifts in the meta.

The TLDR is Phoenix launches as a meta-defining hero, flyer comps are going to be less oppressive, and Wolverine has stronger hold on Vangaurds than ever!

We're also getting a new map, four new Team-Up Abilities, and getting rid of two existing Team-Ups. Check out Hero guide for Phoenix because you're definitely going to want to know how to play her, or how to counter her.

The Season 3 new abilities and balance changes are a huge shake-up to the current meta so expect significant differences to your games from Season 2.5.

Quick Summary of balance changes:

For a full breakdown of how these changes affect each individual hero's power level and place in the meta, check out our Tier List commentary.

The craziest thing about the Season 3 balance patch is how most of the strongest Heroes were left untouched, and some of the weakest heroes who were praying for buffs, are having those prayers left unanswered.

Loki, Luna, Hela, and Magneto remain as the hard meta picks. Heroes like Moon Knight and Thor who have been struggling ever since their reworks, are left untouched for the moment.

With the addition of Phoenix and her Team-Up with Wolverine, expect them to be a huge disruption in the current Meta. Rocket Raccoon, for example, has been one of the best performing Strategists across all ranks. His ultimate, however, not only gets destroyed by Phoenix's ult, but any Bonus Health he or his allies gained is also instantly deleted.

Anyone who relies on Bonus Health for survival will have to learn to track Phoenix ult and try their best to play around its massive AoE. The Vanguards who already struggle with Wolverine stand no chance in the face of his Life Steal Phoenix Feral Leap.

During Season 2.5, Ultron ushered in a new era of flyer comps. Many heroes can't even interact with fliers, so heroes like Magik and The Thing were severely struggling. While Phoenix can fly herself, similar to Ultron, she also excels at dealing with other fliers. Her versatility will allow her to fit into poke, flyer, and dive comps.

Poke Comps are going to dominate the ranked ladder because of Phoenix's strength, and the strong poke heroes from last season who didn't get nerfed. Hela, Namor, Luna, Mantis, and Magneto are all in powerful positions going into Season 3, so you can expect to end up in a lot of shooter battles.

Finally, we have another Vanguard ability made specifically to counter flyers! The Thing now has a new movement ability where he leaps at enemies just as he leaps to allies. Plus, his Haymaker now pulls down fliers.

For ranked play in Competitive mode, there are now map pool rotations.

The brand new map, Klyntar: Celestial Husk, enters the competitive map pool!

Rank Resets and Season Lengths

The devs have settled on rank resets only occurring at the start of a season, and no longer reset at the mid-season update.

The start of each season will rank reset of a 9 divisions demotion (if you ended Season 2.5 at Diamond I, your Season 3 journey begins at Silver I).

Going forward, a full season will also only last for 2 months each. That means every month we'll have a major update and a new hero added!

Bans have also been added to Gold and Platinum ranks, meaning you no longer have to rank all the way up to Diamond to get your most loathed enemy heroes out of your games!