With the release of a huge balance update for Season 4.5 by Marvel Rivals, the masses are having some FEELINGS! The developer states that “heroes are being balanced to sharpen gameplay and keep every battlefield on fire.” Sounds wonderful, don’t they? But some of these changes are causing an uproar in the community.
Maintenance shall begin on October 10 in the early 9 A.M. UTC. It shall last from around 2 to 3 hours with servers being offline during the maintenance period. They did, however, provide the reference: Hero Hot List during the latest changes so that everyone might check out the latest meta. But the reactions? Pure entertainment.
To start with: Venom buffs are somehow doubted even before coming into effect. User arct1cxlkx banged the question: “@MarvelRivals why you buffed Venom” as if they were personally offended by them. While dusti_lol roared, “VENOM BUFFS RAAAAAAHHHHHHH,” with a hype GIF. The two faces of Marvel Rivals players are a wild beast.
Phoenix is where all the drama starts. Oh, the Phoenix changes. Respectfully, many players noted the removal of her melee sparks tech and were divided on it. INHGamer said, “`I knew they were gonna remove the melee sparks for Phoenix eventually, it was pretty op.`” And that’s a reasonable comment. That beyblade move was kinda broken.
Then, Mandyleh goes with “Yall killed the fun of playing Phoenix,” and 8joji_ argues, “you can literally take away phoenix’s beyblade tech and she still top 1 dps.” So, is she still gonna dominate or what? The community can’t even come to a consensus on this.
Ultron mains are also very confused. One Twobruhh asked, “Wait why are we nerfing Ultron.” Dario041000 just screamed, “Why nerf Ultron!?!?!?!?” with numerous question marks barely contained by all the ink. JacobStock37723 dubbed him “Ultron the dps”-would that be a compliment or an insult? Hard to tell.
Suspicious are Hela buffs. ToastedMeowy questioned, “Why tf is hela getting buffed for the 10 billionth time?” with that pleading face emoji. Meanwhile, some players are happy about certain changes – KingsIHeart said that he was “happy as a Rocket main,” which is nice to see some positivity amidst the chaos.
Healer mains want changes, too: _DEZN_ screamed in all caps, “NERF LUNA SHE IS STILL THE BEST HEALER IN THE GAME OMG CHANGE THE META.” When you’re passionate about healer balance, I guess you gotta yell about it.
That said, folks are divided on whether or not some of what was changed needed changing in the first place. Corrupta_Boi defended Phoenix’s melee sparks saying, “No her melee spark did a lot of damage making it a good way to deal with divers,” while scarebro said, “she’s fine, just less busted now” – it’s like everyone’s playing different games sometimes.
The random requests are sprinkled throughout. ZunarJ59 stated, “Can you un-nerf Loki please?” while CManicYT describes Angela feathers need a buff because “It barely does any damage and it can quickly get healed so it damn near seem unnoticeable”-the specificity of these complaints shows how deep people are into this game’s mechanics.
This entire thing is funny because soydemogorgon pointed out, “Finally a patch without a Emma Neri,” like, who’s Emma, and why are we celebrating her absence? The Marvel Rivals community has its inside jokes and drama that outsiders would never understand.
The bickering in the replies is quite interesting, with people debating whether particular characters were already weak or strong and arguing about data and developer intention. SethFellure told another user, “Maybe they know something and have access to data you don’t bud,” and that’s probably true anyway-but when you’re main gets nerfed, it’s hard to be rational about it.
What is clear is that balance patches in competitive games like Marvel Rivals always stir up a hornet’s nest of emotions. Some cheering for their mains getting buffed, some grieving for their favorites getting toned down, and all are opinions on what SHOULD have been changed in their stead.
So, the devs wanted to “keep every battlefield on fire”; judging by these reactions, they’ve achieved their goal. The community is heated in every direction. This will definitely be a spectacle to watch how this change goes down when Season 4.5 does hit, and people actually get to use the updated heroes.
Is Phoenix actually balanced now, or is she still going to dominate? Is Venom the next meta pick? Is Ultron going to have to adapt or switch mains? Lots of questions are going to be asked none of which will be answered until maintenance on October 10.
One thing is certain: Marvel Rivals players are passionate about their balance. Reactions go from outright celebrations to utter devastation and everything in between. These make live service games really dynamic and sometimes exhausting to keep up with. At least no one’s bored. PlayStation and Xbox players alike can appreciate the passion.
