Marvel Rivals Season 3.5: Blade’s arrival, new team-ups, and all the nerfs and buffs

The next update for Marvel Rivals is now live, and the Season 3.5 changes introduce new punishments for players who go AFK. Blade joins the roster, alongside a slew of Hero tweaks and balances.

Blade’s introduction focuses on his anti-heal abilities, and these are all considered in the new team-ups, which focus on healing buffs. These, alongside the much-appreciated quality of life improvements, have the potential to turn the competitive Marvel Rivals scene on its head.

NetEase, the game’s developer, has introduced Blade, a new Duelist with an emphasis on high damage output. His moveset also includes a block that reduces incoming damage, ranged attacks through his shotgun, and a katana primed for melee and close-quarters combat.

His introduction is paired with new lore – Cut to the Chase – alongside new lore for Iron Man and Rocket Raccoon. There’s also a new limited-time event, the Queen’s Codex, which allows players to earn XP for new rewards, including a symbiote costume for The Thing.

The devs have implemented new protections for filtering words in online chat, alongside a very welcome overhaul to punishments for AFK players, and compensation for those who remain.

There is also the introduction of “latency equilization technology”, which means matches will see auto-balanced latency between different regions that see particularly aggressive ping differences.

This has been one of the most significant changes so far, eradicating a much-resented system of short, and sometimes meaningless, bans for AFKers and disconnecters. Now, in Competitive, players will be presented with bans ranging from 15 minutes to 20 hours, depending on the frequency and severity of offences. This will ideally encourage players against throwing games and ruining the experience for others—a crucial bargain if Marvel Rivals wants to maintain its position in the competitive scene.

Those DCing in Quick Matches will see penalties between a single warning, 15 minutes, and eight hours. 

There’s also the introduction of ‘compensation’ for players who see teammates disconnect and AFK mid-game. This doesn’t typically translate to rewards, but rather a reduction in points lost. For example, ranks between Bronze to Gold see a point loss reduction of 12; Platinum to Grandmaster see eight; and Celestial to One Above All will see four.

There’s also been a well-received change to team-up dynamics:

Staples like Atlas Bond and Guardian Revival have now been removed, emphasising the new healing-focused combos: Duality Dance and Vibrant Vitality. These shifts will allow new composition experimentation and will push teams toward tankier, sustain-oriented line-ups. Considering Blade’s anti-heal dynamics, this is an interesting shift in the meta.

First off, Blade’s arrival has totally changed the Marvel Rivals meta. His anti-heal mechanics – Thousand-Fold Slash and Daywalker Dash – will prove to be a tough challenge for Strategist-heavy compositions, negating the potential for healing ults across all stages of the game. Likewise, his Lifesteal will be an aggressive, annoying passive to contend with.

Tanks have seen the most consistent buffs across the Season 3.5 changes to Marvel Rivals. This can be seen across Doctor Strange, Groot and Thor, though the latter’s changes don’t necessarily amount to that much. Vanguards have now become stronger anchors on the frontline, while Duelists and Strategists will need to adapt their approach to the heavier pushing potential.

As a mid-season update, the 3.5 patch doesn’t herald much of an aggressive overhaul to the Marvel Rivals meta. This is consistent with the roadmap, which will see Season 4 introduced on September 12.