Table of Contents
A new, small patch is heading to Marvel Rivals this week on March 14th. In it will be some minor bug fixes, adding a PC "raw mouse input" feature, and a few interesting balance updates to some popular characters. This analysis will break down each character's update and estimate it's impact on the meta.
Iron Man
Iron Man is getting some slight adjustments to his Repulsor shots by decreasing damage from direct hits, but increasing damage from the spell / splash damage. Honestly, this is the least exciting change of the patch. Players use Iron Man for his Unibeam primarily, so a few points of damage shifting around on his attacks isn't a huge deal. As Iron Man, you are typically flying to a vantage point and letting the Unibeam melt through whatever isolated target you find.
Simply put, you probably won't notice anything has changed when playing Iron Man. He isn't very relevant on the meta as of now with Namor, Spider-Man, and Winter Soldier running rampant. The other characters changes, though, are much more interesting for the meta.
Human Torch
Human Torch got some significant damage buffs to his primary attack and his ultimate. When attacking with his primary, each shot has an increased speed and projectile count. In other words, your shots will hit your target faster and do more damage. Torch's attacks are like a shotgun blast, widening the further they travel. The addition of 2 more projectiles gives you a 20% damage increase at close range, and a overall higher chance of dealing damage at a distance. Those faster shots should help make sure all 12 projectiles hit your target more often.
His ultimate change is a bit more complicated. The energy cost to fully charge is increasing from 3,400 to 4,000 (about an 18% increase). This nerf is coming at the cost of some damage buffs in the form of 10 extra shockwave damage from activation, and 20 more damage per second to the tornados (a 20% increase). The Shockwave damage isn't anything major since it's just a one time effect, but the tornados are a different story.
You can have 3 tornados deployed at all time, each with an 8 second duration. Since the damage from the tornados can stack, he now has 60 damage per second more than before. Over 8 seconds, you deal an extra 480 damage between the 3 tornados. That's obviously a significant buff, so it's no surprise the developers decided it warranted a higher energy cost.
As for Human Torch's impact on the meta, he hasn't really made an impact since his release. The devs clearly saw this and decided he could use a boost, which is very likely to bring him into a more usable meta state. It will very likely cause a surge in his usage, so be sure to ban Storm in a match if you can to block their Team-Up. Considering both Iron Man and Human Torch have been seeing buffs lately, and Storm getting a buff in the season 1 patch, the devs are clearly pushing flying characters to be much stronger than they have been before. This small update will surely put Torch onto a lot of player's radars.
Cloak & Dagger
Cloak & Dagger got the most simple balance update, but it's arguably the best change of the entire update. Dagger's shots are getting a 6 HP increase to her healing, but a 2 HP decrease to her spell field. For her standard shots, this is a 60% increase in healing output. For her spell field, it's about an 11% decrease in healing.
If you want to get extra technical, Dagger's light explosion (the healing wall) gives allies a 15% healing boost for 4 seconds. With that extra 6 HP in healing, her light explosion increases that buff to give an extra 1 HP for each shot (netting a 70% total buff this update). That may not sound like much, but it's every point of healing you gain can make the difference in staying alive our dying. Simply put, the extra healing just highlights how significant the buff is.
No matter how you look at it, the math checks out. This is a significant increase to her healing capacity. Considering she is one of the most popular healers thanks to her auto-aim ability, you can guarantee you'll be seeing her in every match now. Any buffs to healers will make them more prevalent in the meta, but this much of a boost will dramatically increase her play rate and effectiveness. Considering how strong this makes her combined with how strong her ultimate is already, Cloak & Dagger may quickly become players default ban instead of Luna Snow.
