Marvel Rivals: The Most Significant Character Buffs & Nerfs in Season 6

Marvel Rivals Season 6 kicks off today (January 16 UTC), bringing the much-anticipated Deadpool to the hero roster across all three roles. In addition to this, there is a new Battle Pass, changes to the Hero Progression system, brand-new events and rewards, and a series of seasonal hero balance changes that have occurred. In these Season 6 hero balance changes, several notable buffs, nerfs, and tweaks have been made to picks on Vanguard, Duellist, and Strategist to help make them more viable or less overpowering for this next Competitive Season. Here are the most significant changes happening, and which characters they are related to.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange launched as one of the strongest Vanguards on the roster, and has been in a pretty okay spot ever since. However, with more recent Vanguard additions joining and the META changing across the last few seasons, Doctor Strange has fallen off a bit in comparison to the likes of Magneto, Emma Frost, and even Peni Parker (thanks to the Rocket Team-Up) as poke and brawl comps grew in popularity. To help Strange’s pick rate and viability improve across the various Competitive Ranks and team comps, he’s gaining several buffs and interesting changes in Season 6.

Firstly, the Maelstrom of Madness conversion ratio of Dark Magic to damage has been increased from 1.2 to 1.3, significantly improving his frontline presence. Doctor Strange also gains a new effect on his Cloak of Levitation. Re-casting during use now interrupts the ability, preserves current movement speed, and allows for new movement input to change trajectory. This will certainly come in handy for repositioning on a whim, or even landing hits with his Ultimate Ability – as it is a popular tactic to launch Doctor Strange up into the air with Cloak of Levitation, then drop down into the enemies with Eye of Agamotto.

Hulk

There’s no denying the fact that Hulk has been quite underwhelming in recent seasons of Marvel Rivals, primarily relying on Team-Ups abilities that he provides to others in order to be considered a valuable pick. Well, in Season 6, Hulk is getting some very significant buffs to his survivability, helping him take space on the frontline and dive targets with better success – ultimately boosting the value he can bring to the team.

The most important/significant of these buffs is undoubtedly to do with his Monster Hulk form (Ultimate Ability). Now, whilst in Monster Form, Hulk has immunity to launch and knockback effects. To put it simply, he can use his Ultimate to tank the heck out of big bursts of damage, and not need to worry about displacement from the likes of Emma Frost’s kick, Angela’s charge/spear, Spidey’s uppercut, Wolverine’s pounce, and more. In addition to this, Hero Hulk’s Incredible Leap has a reduced minimum charge time from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds, with a maximum charge time from 2 seconds to 1.7 seconds. As Hero Hulk, Gamma Burst cooldown also gets reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds, with increased projectile damage from 70 to 75. To say the least, Hulk will certainly be much more of a menace in Season 6, jumping in and out of the frontline and enemy team with much more ease.

Blade

Blade has undergone some really interesting new changes for Marvel Rivals Season 6, all to do with bonus Daylight Walker effects dependent on the choice of weapon you are wielding at the time. When players are using Hunter’s Shotgun, enemies will be slowed by 40% for 1.5 seconds. Additionally, the Hunter’s Shotgun's second hit damage will be boosted from 20 to 50, giving Blade even more potential to secure mid-ranged picks. Alternatively, when players are wielding Blade’s Ancestral Sword, Slow will be removed from enemies, and a 8% healing reduction per strike will be applied instead, up to a maximum total of 32% if all hits are successful. This effect will last 3 seconds, while Blade’s damage per hit has been tuned down from 15 to 8 in order to align with these powerful new effects.

Lastly, he’s also been tweaked to have one less ammunition per round (12 to 11), and damage falloff will begin at 15m instead of 20m. At 30m, the damage falloff drops to 50% of the base value, which was 40%. With these new bonus effects on Blade’s weapons, he becomes a threat at both close-range and mid-range proximity, and gives potential for some handy combos when switching between weapons.

Daredevil

It won’t surprise many players that Daredevil is getting the most significant nerfs out of the bunch to begin Season 6. After all, he has, without a doubt, been the strongest dive hero since his release, and was sitting in a particularly powerful spot during Season 5 and Season 5.5. To put it in the words of the devs, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen will now be a little less punishing.

Firstly, the Devil’s Chain's serious damage range is being decreased from 80 to 75. Devil’s Throw single projectile damage also gets a slight cut, now sitting at 30 instead of 32.5. This brings the total projectile damage of the ability down from 65 to 60 when applied to a single target. Finally, the Fury gained from Devil’s Latch when grappling a surface also takes a hit, decreased from 2 to 1. Overall, these don’t sound like such heavy changes, but they will make all the difference in Daredevil not feeling overwhelming ‘OP’ in the right hands. The damage nerfs and decreased fury also give squishy targets a slightly better chance to fight back against him before they are completely wiped from one of his deadly lock-on combos.

Namor

Namor is a bit of an interesting character. He’s a poke Duelist who tends to thrive in low elo due to his lock-on turret Monstro Squids, but falls off quite a lot in higher ranks, where deployables are easily taken care of with brilliant aim. Because of his hit-or-miss potential, Namor has found himself the recipient of some of the most powerful Team-Ups across the first year of rivals. He had Gamma Squids with Hulk, and Deep Wrath with Hela – both of which have been some of the most powerful Team-Ups of their season, to the point of Hela and Hulk both being target bans in their respective Seasons in order to take the Team-Up abilities out of the game.

Recent seasons have seen Namor often rely on these ‘overpowered’ Team-Ups to bring value to each match. However, they are so powerful that they have also changed the way people play the poke hero, even opting to take aggressive flank routes or dive approaches. To help place Namor as a more fairly-balanced character, his Team-Up with Hela is being toned down with both longer cooldown times and less damage.

However, to compensate, Namor’s base kit is getting some nice little buffs. Aquatic Dominion's time for a single charge has been reduced from 12s to 10s. Default Monstro Spawn Health has been increased from 100 to 125, and the damage has been raised from 17 to 18. Lastly, Enhanced Monstro Spawn damage has been bumped up from 11 to 12. Namor should now operate much more smoothly with his classic playstyle, especially as poke comps will remain strong heading into Season 6.

Cloak & Dagger

Cloak and Dagger have always been a popular Strategist pick from Marvel Rivals launch, thanks to their low skill floor, yet high skill ceiling. However, in the last couple of Seasons, other Strategist heroes have stepped into the spotlight due to having strong utility in their kit (Gambit) or impressive new buffs (Invisible Woman). Cloak and Dagger are now getting some nice buffs that enable more control over your cooldown management, letting players situationally react to the fight as either Cloak or Dagger with a shared window cooldown.

To start, Dagger Storm’s heal per second has been decreased from 55 to 45. However, the ability now grants a one-time burst heal of 60 when created. Other than that, the ‘window’ abilities (Veil of Lightforce for Dagger, or Terror Cape for Cloak) now have two charges, but share a cooldown. Each charge will take a 10-second cooldown to recharge. Additionally, after using either ability, both will have a brief 2-second cooldown. This is actually a huge change that makes Cloak and Dagger quite viable, as players can now pump out huge heals to sustain a team fight with two windows, or create huge blinds with two Terror Cape windows in a row, as well as still having the ability to alternate them.

Invisible Woman

Invisible Woman definitely took out Marvel Rivals Season 5/5.5 as one of the best characters in the META. This is all following the buffs she gained that season, which included extended primary projectile range and the ability to self-shield. As a result, Invisible Woman became a frequent appearance in nearly all matches, with Competitive teams either insta-locking her (as she was ultimately one of, if not the strongest Strategist in the game), or banning her (to prevent having to play into her at all). To help bring her into a more even place, she gets a few nerfs regarding her shield.

Firstly, Guardian Shield’s HP has been decreased from 250 to 200, which is huge in itself. The shield is incredibly powerful, being able to be deployed to block damage or incoming ults, as well as heal nearby allies or herself. It was such a strong ability that many dive characters, who thrive in 1v1 situations, found themselves struggling in an uphill battle to try to kill Invisible Woman in each team fight. The restoration rate after reclaiming Invisible Woman's shield has also been decreased from 42/s to 34/s, though the total time remains unchanged. Finally, the self-healing from her shield has been split in half from 50/s to 25/s.

Gambit

Gambit launched himself into the game and right into the top of the META in Season 5, equipped with a very complex, yet powerful ability kit. In terms of Strategists, he is perhaps the pick that offers the most utility across the entire roster, with the likes of anti-heal, knockback, and most importantly, cleanse abilities up his sleeve. It won’t be a shocker to players that he’s being hit with a few more nerfs as we head into Season 6, though these are some of the most significant number changes throughout the entire patch notes, so we’ll just have to see how he fares in battle throughout the new Competitive Season.

Big Easy Impact's healing amount per explosion has been reduced from 25 to 15, bringing total damage down from 75 to 45. In addition to this, Ragin' Royal Flush's healing takes a hit, now sitting at 55/s rather than the original 75/s. Finally, Bridge Boost bounces on a single target and is now set to a maximum of 2.