Marvel Rivals Season 6.5 is here and offers many new things for players to enjoy. Elsa Bloodstone has joined the playable hero roster for the role of Duelist. There are new events to participate in, new hero skins to unlock, and of course a new round of hero buffs, nerfs, and adjustments rolled out for the remainder of the Competitive Play season.
The hero balance changes for Season 6.5 include a few minor character nerfs, a few readjustments, a decent handful of buffs to various heroes, and even some major new changes, such as brand new abilities, new effects that come from using existing abilities, and general 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 starting this season, we’ve compiled the seven most notable changes impacting heroes in this patch – including Adam Warlock, Storm, Thor, Moon Knight, Loki, and more.
Adam Warlock can now fly and receives additional buffs
Adam Warlock players and even those who don’t play him have been asking the Marvel Rivals developers since the game’s release to add a flight ability, or at least a significant movement ability, to Adam’s loadout. After all, it’s a core part of his powers in the Marvel Universe, and Adam is one of the few Strategist characters without a movement ability or CC ability to compensate for the lack of mobility.
Finally, as of Season 6.5, Adam Warlock has a new flying ability, making him a much more valuable choice in the future. Additionally, his Soulbind ability is enhanced with new effects, allowing him to now levitate and attack for the duration of the ability. This could potentially help Adam Warlock stop relying on a three-strategist lineup and add more value to his team as an individual player. Either way, these are some great changes to the character that should increase his popularity as the season progresses.
Storm receives new effects and changes
Storm has been in a strange position for some time now. In Season 6.5, she will receive several significant buffs and bonus effects to the abilities in her kit, hopefully helping her gain more value as a team pick and bring more utility to the field.
Storm has a new Torndao effect. Using Wind Blade and Bolt Strike under this aura now grants bonus Storm Health (Damage Conversion Ratio: 25%, up to a maximum of 75 bonus Health). But that’s not all – there are also new effects for Thunder. Under this aura, Wind Blade hits reduce the cooldown of Bolt Rush by 0.5 seconds (only once per spell, even when hitting multiple enemies) and increase the field radius of the Bolt Rush spell from 1m to 1.5m. Lastly, the buffs it provides to allies now expire 2 seconds after leaving Storm’s aura, rather than immediately. Finally, Storm’s animations have been improved to reduce lag when using Weather Control.
Phoenix and Moon Knight are affected by survivability nerfs
Both Phoenix and Moon Knight can be a problem in the right hands. Moon Knight can easily build up his ultimate through tight squeezes and grouped enemies, while Phoenix is a deadly hitscan choice that can take out support ultimates like Rocket’s amp, shoot people around the map, apply CC with her stun, and deal burst damage to grouped enemies.
To reduce the extent of their threat, both must accept a loss in their ability to survive. Moon Knight is affected by his maximum bonus life provided by Moon Blade, reduced from 100 to 75. Phoenix, on the other hand, is reduced from 275 to 250 base health.
Star-Lord’s ultimate cost has been generously reduced
Star-Lord has always been a fairly consistent character, usually hovering in the mid to upper range of the META. Finally, Star-Lord has good hitscan weapons, great mobility, and is a brilliant choice for flanking and applying backline pressure. It definitely helps that he has retained his Rocket Network team with Rocket Raccoon and now Mister Fantastic.
Star-Lord has a very powerful ultimate that grants him free flight and the ability to lock onto enemies, which he targets with an aimbot for his pistols. However, this ultimate can also be survived fairly easily or countered with stuns/CC, shield characters like Magneto or Doctor Strange, and strong healing ultimates like Luna Snow, Cloak & Dagger, and Invisible Woman. To make Star-Lord more of a threat, Season 6.5 will see his ultimate charge reduced from 3400 to 3100. This means he can get additional ultimates per game, giving him more frequent chances to turn teamfights and secure multiple picks.
Thor gets a new hammer throw effect and additional rebalancing
In Marvel Rivals Season 6.5, Thor receives some rebalancing adjustments, following the previous improvements and bonus effects from the last two season updates. First, Thor gains a new bonus effect to his hammer throwing ability, with hits granting 50 bonus lives. This ability triggers once per roll, even if it hits multiple enemies in one use.
To compensate for this new bonus health ability, Thor is also receiving some changes to his Surge bonus health. The bonus health provided by Storm Surge has now been reduced from 75 to 50, meaning Thor’s survivability will be slightly affected, but should not be enough to drastically affect his presence on the front lines.
Loki and Invisible Woman have been slightly toned down in the Strategist roster
Another round of minor nerfs and adjustments have been made to the Strategist roster, this time affecting both Loki and Invisible Woman. This makes perfect sense, as Invisible Woman was one of the most overwhelmingly powerful characters on the Strategist roster after her previous self-defense buff (even after the subsequent nerfs!), and Loki recently received buffs in the previous season that brought him close to the original value/place in the META that he was at before the significant nerfs that put him out of action for a while.
The goal of Season 6.5 is to slightly adjust these characters while still keeping them as viable choices. Invisible Woman’s buffs are related to her cooldowns, with Force Physics’ cooldown reduced from 8 to 10 seconds. This is a pretty major but fair nerf as her push and pull abilities are some of the strongest and most frustrating displacement abilities in the game. Meanwhile, Loki’s primary fire has been slightly toned down and the Mystic Missile charges have been reduced from 12 to 10. This is a minor adjustment that means he will need to reload more frequently.
Ultron with extra range
Finally, Ultron is also receiving some changes to the Strategist roster. However, instead of minor nerfs, Ultron is receiving some minor adjustments in favor of an improvement. In particular, Ultron will have an increased drone detachment range from 30 m to 35 m.
This is a small change, but one that helps make Ultron’s playstyle even more successful as it allows him to keep more distance from his allies to keep his drones in play. This makes it even easier for Ultron to reposition himself, play behind natural cover, and make the most of burst damage and healing to add more value to his team.