Marvel Rivals: The Most Significant Hero Buffs & Nerfs in Season 6.5

Marvel Rivals Season 6.5 has arrived, with plenty of new things for players to enjoy. Elsa Bloodstone has joined the playable hero roster on the Duelist role. There are new events to participate in, new hero skins to unlock, and of course, a new round of hero buffs, nerfs, and adjustments that have been put in place for the remainder of the Competitive Play season.

The hero balance changes for Season 6.5 involve a few minor character nerfs, a couple of readjustments, a decent handful of buffs to various heroes, and even some major new changes, such as brand-new abilities, new effects occurring with the use of existing abilities, and overall changes to the hero kits of notable picks on the roster. If you’re looking for a breakdown of some of the most significant hero balance changes kicking off this season, we’ve rounded up the seven most notable changes affecting heroes in this patch – including Adam Warlock, Storm, Thor, Moon Knight, Loki, and more.

Adam Warlock Can Now Fly & Gains Additional Buffs

Adam Warlock players and even those who don’t play him have been begging the Marvel Rivals devs to add a flight ability to Adam, or at the very least, a significant movement ability to his kit, ever since the game released. After all, it is a core part of his powers in the Marvel universe, and Adam is one of the only Strategist characters with no movement ability or CC ability to make up for the lack of mobility.

Finally, as of Season 6.5, Adam Warlock has a new flight ability, making him a much more valuable pick moving forward. In addition to this, his Soul Bond ability gets buffed with new effects, enabling him to now hover and attack during the ability’s duration. This could potentially help Adam Warlock break away from relying on a triple Strategist lineup and help bring more value to his team as an individual pick. Either way, these are some great changes to the character that should see his popularity rise across the season.

Storm Gains New Effects & Changes

Storm has been in a bit of a weird spot for a while now. In Season 6.5, she is gaining several significant buffs and bonus effects to the abilities in her kit, helping her to hopefully secure more value as a team pick and bring more utility to the field.

Storm has a new Torndao effect. Using Wind Blade and Bolt Rush under this aura now grants Storm Bonus Health (Damage Conversion Ratio: 25%, up to a max of 75 Bonus Health). That’s not all, though – there are also new effects for Thunder, too. Under this aura, Wind Blade hits reduce Bolt Rush cooldown by 0.5s (only once per cast, even if hitting multiple enemies), and increase Bolt Rush spell field range radius from 1m to 1.5m. Lastly, buffs she supplies allies now decay 2 seconds after leaving Storm’s aura, rather than immediately. Finally, Storm’s animations have been ironed out to reduce lag when using Weather Control.

Phoenix & Moon Knight Affected By Survivability Nerfs

Both Phoenix and Moon Knight can be a problem in the right hands. Moon Knight can spam-build his Ultimate easily through narrow chokepoints and grouped-up enemies, while Phoenix is a deadly hitscan pick that can shut down support Ultimates such as Rocket’s Amplifyer, snipe people across the map, apply CC with her stun, and chain explosion damage across grouped enemies.

To help remedy their level of threat, both of them are taking hits to their survivability. Moon Knight is being affected via his Bonus Max Health provided by Moon Blade, which is being reduced from 100 to 75. Phoenix, on the other hand, is having her base health reduced from 275 to 250.

Star-Lord’s Ultimate Cost Got a Generous Reduction

Star-Lord has always been a pretty consistent character, usually swaying around the middle-to-top section of the META. After all, Star-Lord has good hitscan weapons, great mobility, and is a brilliant pick for flanking and applying backline pressure. It also definitely helps that he has continued to keep his Rocket Network Team-Up with Rocket Raccoon, and now also Mister Fantastic.

Star-Lord has a very strong Ultimate, which grants him free-flight and the ability to lock on to enemies that he targets with an aimbot for his pistols. However, this Ultimate can also be quite easily survived or countered with the likes of stuns/CC, shield characters such as Magneto or Doctor Strange, and strong healing Ultimates such as Luna Snow, Cloak & Dagger, and Invisible Woman. To help make Star-Lord more of a threat, Season 6.5 is reducing his Ultimate Charge from 3400 to 3100. This means he will be able to get additional Ultimates per game, providing more frequent chances for turning team fights and securing multiple picks.

Thor Gains New Hammer Throw Effect & Additional Rebalancing

In Marvel Rivals Season 6.5, Thor gains some rebalancing tweaks, following the prior buffs and bonus effects that took place across the last two seasonal updates. First of all, Thor gains a new bonus effect on his Hammer Throw ability, with hits granting 50 Bonus Health. This ability triggers once per throw, even if it hits multiple enemies with the one use.

To compensate for this new Bonus Health ability, Thor is also getting some changes to his Storm Surge Bonus Health. Bonus Health provided by Storm Surge has now been reduced from 75 to 50, meaning Thor’s survivability takes a small hit, but shouldn’t be enough to drastically affect his presence on the frontline.

Loki & Invisible Woman Hit With Minor Nerfs on the Strategist Roster

Another round of minor nerfs and adjustments has been made to the Strategist roster, this time affecting both Loki and Invisible Woman. This does make sense, as Invisible Woman has been one of the most overwhelmingly powerful characters on the Strategist roster following her previous self-shielding buff (even after the nerfs that followed!), and Loki recently gained buffs in the season prior that brought him close to the original value/place in the META where he had been lingering before the significant nerfs that took him out of action for a while.

Season 6.5 aims to adjust these characters slightly while still keeping them as viable picks. Invisible Woman’s buffs are related to her cooldowns, with the cooldown of Force Physics being reduced from 8s to 10s. This is quite an important, yet fair nerf, as her push and pull are some of the strongest and most frustrating displacement abilities in the game. Meanwhile, Loki has his primary fire nerfed slightly, with Mystical Missile charges reduced from 12 to 10. This is a minor adjustment that means he will need to reload more frequently.

Ultron Buffed With Extra Range

Lastly, Ultron also gains some changes on the Strategist roster. However, rather than minor nerfs, Ultron is getting some minor adjustments in favor of a buff. Specifically, Ultron is gaining an increased drone detachment range from 30m to 35m.

This is a small change, but one that helps Ultron’s playstyle thrive even more, as it allows him to maintain additional distance from his allies in order for his drones to remain in play. This makes it even easier for Ultron to reposition himself, play behind natural cover, and make the most of poke damage and healing to bring more value to his team.