Marvel Rivals launched a new patch on November 20 at 9 AM UTC, giving a complete face-lift to the popular hero shooter. The best part about this? There was no any server downtime for the players. Just update the game client and get back to playing. Nonetheless, during the developers’ distribution of content, the community has been vocal about character balance and gameplay problems that have been there recently.
Thus, the announcement from the Marvel Rivals account was quite straightforward – new patch, link for details, no downtime, and it is very simple. However, if you look at the replies… oh god, it is a totally different view. Gamers are not just sitting back and waiting patiently for patch notes – they are demanding changes, naming broken characters, and highlighting bugs that need fixing urgently.
Without a doubt, the character that has been the main issue is the player’s hell called Daredevil. One player named Jallen_177 talked about how the character is strongly unbalanced, saying “why does he get shield in every move he does it’s very annoying.” They are very irritated that other characters are not as powerful and are being nerfed while Daredevil stays at the top of the character pool and is, according to them, “unbalanced.” This is not the only complaint – there are several players who express their opinion that certain characters are just too powerful compared with others.
At the same time all this, there is drama about the ban system. SirDaveon stated that limiting the bans to 4 and the double banning of the same heroes among the existing system feels inadequate, especially due to the recent buffs of several characters. Legendz was also heard, saying “the throwing this season is horrible” and that to deal with the players who purposefully ruin matches, proper ban systems are needed in the game.
Excuse me, what was I talking about? Oh yes, community feedback. But it is not all one-sided – some players are even discussing specific character mechanics and bugs. For example, splatterhayyy mentioned that Blade’s ultimate is causing him to be stuck in Zombies mode after a few rounds as the ultimate is bugged. Moreover, rude_rudenny just asked the developers to “please fix the Widow scope bug,” which most probably signifies that there are some technical issues that go beyond the balancing matter, and hence need to be sorted out.
The topic of support meta appears to be one of the most burning issues. The players are not talking directly but there is this whole discussion about the triplex support formation and if they are too strong. SkaVorah and similar are asserting that the current buff to the support characters has led to a “disgusting sustain slop” which is nearly impossible to defeat with a certain combination of players. On the other hand, MVPSwoosh suggests that three supports can overpower any DPS character, even Daredevil, and thus characters like Emma, Bucky, and Hela should be made weaker before anything is done about DD.
And then there are the demands for specific characters. JackIsFrost without any hesitation called for a Wanda rework along with a crying emoji, while jonazthefato only conceded to plead for Black Panther buffs or a rework by asking “why do you want him dead??”. This has made it abundantly clear that some of the characters have become irrelevant in terms of the current meta and so are their players who main them.
The discussion even got so far as to mention the cross-progression feature, with some players being uncertain about how it actually works on the different platforms. One user thought that cross-progression meant account merging, while others clarified that it was a matter of being able to access one’s progress through different platforms rather than merging separate accounts.
What is really astonishing is that the community seems to be split on what really needs fixing. Some think that the daredevil is the reason behind the problem, others say that supports are too strong and still, there are those who believe that it is time for completely different characters to receive the attention. It is as if each one is playing a slightly different game depending on their main character and the matches that they have been getting.
With patch live, it is expected that some of these complaints will be the subject of changes but the players’ different issues will probably result in the whole player base not being satisfied. Balancing patches in hero shooters are always difficult – you can boost one character a little and they will become overpowering, you can down another too hard and their mains will take to the street. Developers are continuously walking on a tightrope.
Marvel Rivals has seen a consistent rise in growth since its launch day, but staying at that growth rate means maintaining balance in the game and therefore quicker dealing with community issues. It is a sign of a healthy game when the players are so much engaged, even if they are playing on PlayStation or Xbox.
