The last few weeks have been hell for Strategist players in Marvel Rivals. Healing is hard enough on its own, but try doing it while a Spider-Man player drops in from another planet to uppercut you back to spawn. In a meta where the fastest heroes are also the strongest heroes, Strategist players are working overtime just to survive. In the mid-season patch, however, the nightmare might be over.
In a Dev Talk post on Friday, NetEase acknowledged the support crisis that’s been going on since the start of season 2. Extremely mobile heroes, like Iron Fist, are the stars of the season, causing Strategists to “face increased pressure, needing to monitor teammates’ health closely while carefully using their key abilities and being mindful for their positioning on the map,” NetEase wrote.
To help relieve the pressure supports face, NetEase said it will buff their damage “to elevate their threat levels, which in turn, will increase team composition possibilities.” Groot and Captain America will also become easier to take down, and everyone’s least favorite Spider-Man ability, the uppercut, will be harder to land.
The patch is expected to drop sometime in early May, which is the same patch that will add Ultron to the roster. And, according to footage in an official video, he will be a Strategist.
Given the rate at which NetEase plans to add heroes to the game, reactive patches like these might be essential to maintaining some amount of balance. NetEase said it wants to be “cautious” about swinging things too far in one direction, by making small changes before doing anything drastic. Giving support players a way to fight back is a solid start, that shouldn’t completely ruin the fun for the heroes built to hunt them down.
