In the trailer for Marvel Rivals Season 3: New Phoenix, I cried out “What?!”
As Marvel Rival Get ready to kick off season 3 next week. You can get a first glimpse into some of the upcoming changes. And with my poor, annoyed blue brother, the biggest news for me is that former X-Men member and sometimes Cosmos terror Jean Gray joins the roster as Phoenix.
There will be more appearances, including the blades for season 3.5 next month, but Phoenix is the headliner for me. Let’s first look at what she can do here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zswg4h7eiss
Phoenix’s abilities in Marvel rivals
Phoenix joins as yet another duelist – a role that already is oversaturated, but feels suitable for her. She brings a combination of damage that can help you bite a group of enemies, as well as mobility that allows you to fly around the battlefield and find side corners.
It appears that Phoenix’s main fires will instantly damage enemies with no travel time (also known as Hitskan), and apply some kind of flame stack to opponents represented by up to three flame icons on their characters. In the trailer, the Heroes appeared to explode upon hits on full stacks, releasing an additional burst of damage around them.
Her alternative fire sends a fierce burst of fire, similar to the alternative fire for the Spark, which creates a series of small explosions. The trailer shows that it is being used by a group of enemies with the largest stack of flames.
I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on here, but whatever it is, it looks fun.
Her first ability is a simple dash. In the trailer, Phoenix uses it to jump backwards, trying to dodge the enemy’s poison and collide with her.
Her second ability appears to be a limited-time flight, allowing Phoenix to fly freely around the battlefield for a few seconds. Flight is in a resource meter that charges Phoenix while it is not flying.
The ultimate in Phoenix is what screamed me. I’ve seen the trailer several times and my best explanation of how it works is “You crash into the ground, get in your way and kill everyone, explode.” And I mean everyone – in the trailer, Hera looks the ultimate in her. She flies into the air, her health jumping to 1,000 horsepower, and Phoenix is erased through her and through ult. In addition to killing Rocket and Pillock in one shot, the ultimate clears the deployment possibilities of Rocket’s lesbian beacons and penis nests, smacking the penis themselves, falling into a bar of explosive health.
Legend accurate Phoenix?
Stacked mechanics and the ultimate mobile hero hero? Yes, sign up. Between this and Freja in Overwatch 2, this longtime support/strategist main could have officially become the main main of the damage/duelist.
When will Season 3 begin?
Marvel Rivals Season 3.0 is scheduled to start on Friday, July 11th. Typically, this involves servers getting down for a few hours around late-night PT before returning to the new season early in the morning.
How about the blade? Are you waiting enough?
Rivals are waiting for Blade fans as their hero will not be added to the roster until Season 3.5. But at least that’s just a month away under the new seasonal structure.
Rival Season 3 Balance Change
in Dev Visions Vol. 7 Videosrival Devs is still waiting for details on the official patch notes, but has quickly disrupted future balance changes. Here is a quick breakdown with the details seen in parentheses:
Buffs:
- poison
- Things (Get new ability to jump to enemies and possibly knock down flyers)
- Namor (Primary Fire)
- Scarlet Witch (Ultimate)
- Invisible women (efficiency of healing)
- Mantis (Healing and Ultimate Utility)
Nerves:
- Emma Frost
- Iron Man (Poke Possible)
- Punisher (Turtle)
- Mr. Fantastic (survival)
- Loki (Ultimate Price)
- Ultron
Phoenix adds literal firepower to Wolverine’s offense with a new team-up.
Changes to team up
The rivals have added two new team-ups, tacking the heroes to two existing heroes, and removing the other two (storming Ignition and ESU alumni) from the game. I’m also nerfing another one. This is the quick rundown:
- New – Primal Fire: Phoenix anchors to damage the attacks of time and life on Wolverine’s attack after his leap.
- New – Continuously Burning Bonds: A human torch anchors and forces Spider-Man to shoot the burning web with his fiery tracer. (The fiery tracers with Spidey’s regular tracers stack, Devs said.
- Update – Symbiote Shenanigans: Add HeLa, gives soul drains, and delays tendrils.
- Update – Stark Protocol: Add Squirrel Girl and gives an explosive homing gauntlet.
- Update – Guardian Revival: Deva said he’s making some of the elements of Guardian’s team-up.
Other things that will come to Season 3
The Battle Pass has got some adjustments to take into account the shorter seasons. The Battle Pass still offers 10 skins, but you’ll earn tokens at a faster rate to make it easier to advance the entire battle pass in a short period of time. Daily missions are no longer available, and weekly missions are moving towards permanent quests rather than time limits. There is also an addition of seasonal missions that offer large batches of tokens.
Rivals DEVS has also announced a new competitive mode coming in season 3.5, but said they will need to wait for more details about it.
The game also adds accessories (looking like an animated sticker floating above the KO notification), new chroma options, and visual effects for visual effects. Perhaps the most amazing quality change in life is that you can combine MVP animations with any skin, rather than locking them into specific skins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kihlpawkksg
Rivals need victory
Season 3 is the main turning point for hero shooters, marking the beginning of a new two-month season where you can win new heroes each month. The new cadence is at an aggressive pace to expand the game’s roster, and threatens to keep the metagame down even faster, assuming new heroes are relevant at launch.
That’s important as rivals have been bleeding active players since launch. Based on SteamDB dataeach new half season begins, bringing fewer players than before. (For example, fewer players will participate in Season 2.5 than 2.0.) Most games lose players over time, but in live service games, that kind of consistent drop means fewer players will return each season to spend money on combat passes and cosmetics, so this is bad news.
And while the rivals were hit at launch, the game struggles to hold players, whether it’s due to in-game toxicity, role-based infighting, annoying metagames, or losing the sheen of being a new game in general.
How do you fix it? It’s not easy, that’s certainly true. However, it certainly helps to add an iconic member of the original X-Men and provide her fun gameplay in the form of mobility and unique mechanics.
I’ll tell you a lot of this: it’s working on me.