Marvel Rivals: The Most Significant Hero Buffs & Nerfs In Season 8

Marvel Rivals Season 8 went live on May 15, marking the arrival of Devil Dinosaur on the Vanguard roster, a brand-new Battle Pass, a wave of new hero skins and collectible cosmetics, new events, and much more. Of course, a new hero balance patch has been put into play with the arrival of Season 8, too, sending out a series of nerfs, buffs, and hero adjustments across the three playable roles of Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist.

If you’re wondering which heroes have been most drastically affected by the Season 8 hero balance changes, this list goes over the six heroes who have the most significant tweaks – whether it be in the form of nerfs, buffs, or minor touch-ups to help balance them in the overall meta.

Emma Frost Gets More Frontline Presence Back

Emma Frost is getting a nice little buff to her Diamond Form following the few nerfs she has been hit with over the last few seasons. She gains increased damage resistance during Diamond Form and her Ultimate, up from 20% to 25%, as well as lowering Mind Aegis repositioning cooldown from 3 seconds to 1 second, and the falloff of Telepathic Pulse now begins four seconds after not hitting an enemy, rather than 3 seconds.

As a result, Emma Frost will be able to hold much more of a presence on the frontline, enabling her to be a threatening Vanguard with much more efficiency. The Diamond Form and Ultimate buffs will help Emma to hold it down and turn the tide in key team fights, helping even her out as a viable choice without being overpowered.

Mister Fantastic Trades Crowd Control for Direct Damage & Utility

Mister Fantastic has struggled to consistently fit into the meta, as his crowd control and stall potential are among the highest in the game from any hero. This means he has often felt overpowered or been nerfed so hard that he fails to perform at all. Season 8 sees Reed receive some adjustments, trading the potency of his slowing effects for a boost in direct damage and stronger utility.

Stretch Punch, his primary fire, is buffed from 65 damage per hit to 70. However, the movement speed reduction from Flexible Elongation has been removed, and the charge time for each use has been reduced from 8 seconds to 2 seconds. This stops him from being such an aggressive anti-dive and anti-flank hero with his CC, whilst still enabling the peel. Lastly, he will be getting his Ultimate a bit more regularly, as the cost is being reduced from 3400 to 3100 Ult. Charge.

Iron Fist is Back to Brawling

Iron Fist has been nearly ‘dead’ on the roster for a couple of seasons now, after being released in a very overpowered state and suffering nerfs and changes across the progression of the game. Now in Season 8, Iron Fist is getting enhancements to his burst damage and combo potential, helping him to run more efficiently in the current meta.

Iron Fist’s Jeet Kune Do hits now reduce the cooldown of his block/Dragon’s Defense by 1.2 seconds per hit, up from 1 second. In addition to this, the first strike damage of K’un-Lun Kick has also been buffed from 25 to 40, giving him a lot more opening and finishing potential for brawls.

Phoenix AOE Damage Weakened in Favor of Direct Hits

Jean has been one of the best mid-to-long ranged hitscan picks in the meta for a few seasons now. In Season 8, Phoenix is getting some readjustments to make her explosive AOE less threatening, while still keeping her serious damage through direct hits. These changes reward good aiming and tracking, meaning players will have to be more consistent with their shots than relying on the detonation of her explosion damage bonus.

Cosmic Flames direct hits have been buffed from 50 to 55 damage per hit, with a reduction on Spark marks explosion damage, down from 40 to 35 – a rather even switch. According to the dev notes, this ensures Phoenix can no longer one-shot kill a 250 HP hero with one mark + a direct hit from her Ultimate. Instead, the base damage buff makes her more threatening in baseline combat.

Loki Clones Get a Healing Buff, With Less Damage

Loki is another character who has fluctuated in the meta, gaining his fair share of both buffs and nerfs across each season. Season 8 is trying one again to rebalance Loki fairly for the meta, this time improving the healing output of his clones, whilst nerfing their damage. The Mystical Missile healing ratio on Loki’s clones has been buffed from 90% to 100%. The damage of these clones is being reduced from 90% to 80% to balance this out.

This enables Loki to heal his teammates more efficiently, without his DPS potential being pushed any higher. In addition to this, his Ultimate cost has been raised from 4300 to 4500, which is to help accumulate his healing changes, as this is his main way of earning Ultimate charge.

Mantis Gets a Shift With Brand-New Baseline Speed Buff

Mantis is getting some changes to her kit in Season 8, which should help her to provide much more utility to her team in addition to heals and damage boosting - this time in the form of a speed boost. This does come at a slight cost to her baseline damage boost, but it seems to be a worthy trade that helps with repositioning allies and boosting into and out of team fights.

Her allied Inspiration damage boost has been dropped from 12% to 8%. In addition to this, the ability will now provide a flat 100 movement speed buff to affected allies. According to the dev notes, this has been a direct result of Ultron’s more recent changes, enabling him to provide better damage buffing abilities. As a result, they feel Mantis needs a more specific niche to be a viable pick in addition to Ultron. It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out across the Competitive season. To be specific, these changes should enhance the likes of triple Strategist comps and brawl or dive lineups quite significantly.