It took all of one day for Marvel Rivals to enrage players after the release of season 9 with a new, unasked for, and slightly confusing patch. It buffed tons of heroes some of which in no way needed a helping hand.
"Our temporal scanners have been working overtime, analyzing battlefield telemetry and listening to chatter from you, the community," a blog post explains. "We've seen the meta shifting, and to ensure the combat arena remains as dynamic and competitive as possible, we are deploying this emergency hotfix. Rest assured, our Watchers will remain vigilant, and further recalibrations will be made as new threats emerge."
New changes, same battlefield. Hero balances are here to spice things up! ⚖️Explore all the latest changes arriving with Balance Post 20260711 of Marvel Rivals.Check out all the latest hero balances now >>https://t.co/ERrj2E1r6jAdapt, react, and rule them all. pic.twitter.com/jcdTyaoOJdJuly 11, 2026
My guess is that by 'temporal scanners' NetEase means 'hero pick rate list' and a decision has been made to try and get each and every hero's pick rate up, or at least above 1% (looking at you Storm). Unfortunately, the way in which NetEase has gone about this isn't exactly slick.
LIke buffing Cyclops and Gambit—yes you heard that right—I've played against both Gambit and Cyclops since this patch, and it sucks just as much as you'd expect. It's also improved Black Widows kit while also making her completely homogenous with other hitscan heroes. But the most frustrating part of the latest patch is all the general buffs to Strategists.
Other than Gambit getting more self-regen and Bridge Boost healing, we now have Invisible Woman, Jubilee, Rocket Raccoon, and Ultron buffs alongside a class buff that gives Strategists more ult charge for healing. Now the healing to energy conversion efficiency is at 70%—a mere decrease of just 5% of what it was pre season 9 compared to the 15% decrease Vanguards and Duelists got.
(Image credit: NetEase)Strategists that were somewhat nerfed include Ultron and Mantis, as her healing provided by Healing Flower has gone down from 15+3% of max health to 12+3% of max health. Even this is just a small change.
"The front lines of season 9 have been intense," the patch notes explain. "We've seen our Strategists absorbing more pressure than ever, which has suppressed their efficiency in gaining ultimate ability energy. Therefore, we will be partially reverting the efficiency of ultimate ability energy gained from healing actions for Strategists."
And, in completely forseen circumstances the change hasn't left people happy. "What are we doing with this one," streamer Flats says in a social media post. "EVEN IF they had data showing the character is weak. No exaggeration Gambit is a PERMA BAN in ranked and has been for four seasons. I know they likely want every character to be 'broken' this season but this guy isn't seeing the light of day."
It's become predictable that whenever NetEase decides to dial up the fun and dial down the balance players begin to yearn for said balance: "Revert this change please, I want more neutral gameplay that takes skill." The complicated part is that players will also yearn for the fun when NetEase decides to prioritise balance. Personally, I think NetEase needs to pick a lane for Marvel Rivals and commit to one or the other before everyone gets estranged.
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