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Since its release in 2024, Marvel Rivals slowly evolved into a complete stackfest for duelists. Every match seemed to move the same way, with 8 out of 12 players in every match picking duelists no matter what mode it was. While technically everyone can choose whatever character they like, in a ranked setting, you simply cannot win or progress through a match with a team full of duelists.
I cannot blame other players, as Vanguards and Strategists were not rewarding or exciting enough to play every single day. Ranked matches became a massive headache for me. While I was picking Vanguards and Strategists, my teammates were opting for duelists, and as you can guess, the output during a match was horrendous.
It's almost been six months since I played a full match in Marvel Rivals. Even though I kept in touch with the game's new additions and meta, the time away from the game is a very long time as live-service titles keep evolving every week. Season 10 is the first update where I actually decided to take a peek back into the game after seeing the major changes NetEase decided to make.
The problem I left behind
The issue with Marvel Rivals wasn't a single character dominating everything or a lack of content. What made me take time off from this game after sinking almost 500 hours across PC and PlayStation 5 is how every match became a duelist stackfest. Strategists or healers got stuck in an endless loop of healing, with the load increasing for every additional duelist in your team.
The fights became more about who lands the first shot and takes out the duelist, with the winner of the fight getting taken out by other opponent players. Pushing to objective starting becoming extensively hard. On ranks above Diamond, this issue wasn't visible, but for anything below Diamond, it has been a major headache. Slowly every ranked match became a matter of which team had the duelist with better aim and game sense.
What actually changed with Season 10
The Season 10 update has been a godsend for current and returning players of Marvel Rivals. NetEase has completely shaken up Meta by touching almost 70% of the characters of the game, including the notorious ones like Scarlet Witch, Deadpool, and Black Cat.
Strategists have been adjusted to move away from the "spam heals and farm ultimate" meta. With the current changes sounding more like a nerf on paper, the whole situation turns strategist characters into an important part of how players will need to approach strategizing in Marvel Rivals. You simply can't expect healers to get their ultimates by healing duelists; rather, they have to get involved in groundwork as support to duelists and vanguards pushing objective.
As for the duelists, almost all major duelists who dominate the meta in every rank have been adjusted to tone down on the dependence on duelists for every match. NetEase has shown their stance on future game balancing by completely reworking Scarlet Witch. Instead of nerfing or adjusting her powers, they completely reworked her moveset to make it more balanced alongside every other duelist in the pool.
Why I Returned
Honestly, from a competitive shooter standpoint, I was prepared for the fact that I would get steamrolled and stomped on by the current meta since I wasn't practically playing the game for around six months. Moreover, since I ended my last rank journey in Diamond, my elo was comparatively higher across all modes.
Now what took me by surprise was how the recent character changes made it feel like everyone is figuring out the controls again. I actually saw players using different team comps by picking Vanguards and Strategists. Most matches had Gorr as a duelist, which is expected considering he is the newest duelist in this season's update.
Instead of seeing the same team comp of duelists every match, I actually observed players branching out to trying new comps. This experimentation period will exist for a few weeks; however, from what I have seen, NetEase will shake up the meta with every seasonal update to keep it fresh for players.
If you quit Marvel Rivals a few months ago or even a year ago, Season 10 actually feels like a good place to jump back into the game. However, if you had other issues with the game that don't resonate with what I was complaining about, then keep your ears open, as I am quite confident that NetEase will also rework major characters soon, especially the ones becoming a staple for every meta.
