11.8 Update Recap - Marvel Rivals

Introduction

After the worst collab ever for their first go at a Rivals uniform (Magik's mid PvP uniform), we are treated to a full Rivals main update for this year's Anniversary update. The Rivals art style continues to translate brilliantly into the game and these updates are a great opportunity to give uniforms to a random selection of characters who wouldn't otherwise fit a theme.

For an Anniversary update though, it lacks in content with much of the QoL and gamemode changes we expect from an Anniversary update missing. This is also when they started dragging out midmonth updates to having 3 weeks in between.

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• Characters

  Characters

  Unrivalled

  Venom [Snow Symbiote]

  Venom [Snow Symbiote]

  The clear standout of this update, both visually and in performance. Despite the previous [Warstar] uniform already being the top Combat for PvE, this uniform is a huge leap in performance and playability.

  Apart from looking awesome, the most noteworthy change is the Tier-3 skill being chargeable past 100%. If you pick up the blobs well enough you can use the Tier-3 almost every rotation, greatly increasing his hit count. This combined with nicer cancels on his regular skills makes playing him a lot easier while retaining his unique blob-collecting mechanic.

  One of the most interesting uniforms in recent times, and a top meta character at that. This alone is worth more than most full updates.

  Luna Snow [Mirae 2099]

  Luna Snow [Mirae 2099]

  Luna's new uniform is more along the lines of what you'd expect from an upgrade to an already-meta character, which only makes Venom's all the more impressive. A slight performance boost over the [Summer Lilac] paywall uniform, enough to free her from the paywall jail.

  As with previous uniforms, she is mostly an ABX/L oriented character that doesn't excel in WBL. Her rotation and cancels are much the same as well.

  Despite its gaudy design, this free uniform aligns nicely with new players being granted a free Tier-2 Luna, as she is a) effectively no longer Premium and b) no longer paywalled. A good move to make MFF's breakout original character more accessible to everyone.

  Just Business, Dear Disciple

  Moon Knight [Blood Moon Knight]

  Moon Knight [Blood Moon Knight]

  Another banger visually, and Moon Knight's first type-changing uniform. Depsite poor performance in WBL, he contends with the top options in his Speed Male AB restrictions: slightly worse than Bullseye for ABX, but better than Winter Soldier's [Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*] uniform for ABL.

  Building him is a tough sell as he's only useful for Alliance Battle, yet the characters he contends with have additional versatility. Bullseye is still better than him and has a couple extra days in both ABX and ABL. Winter Soldier gets replaced by him, but Bucky has the benefit of also having the [Revolution] Combat Villain uniform for added versatility.

  Still, it could be worse as not all uniforms get to be meta at anything. A good pickup for fans of the character or those looking to push their ABL score above Bucky's.

  Jeff the Land Shark

  Jeff the Land Shark

  Jeff is clearly designed to be a non-standard character addition, with the 4-active-skill gimmick that has only been seen twice before with Destroyer and Victorious, and a mix of offensive and defensive supports. This draws inspiration from his role as a support in Rivals(?) (i assume - i do not play that shit).

  His PvE value is limited, despite solid offensive support passives and a strong Artifact, mostly due to being Creature type and thus having no uncommon restrictions he is eligible for. As Blast Male and Blast Hero are covered extensively there is not much room to use him, though being Tier-4 and thus eligible for WBL+ may provide some uses. His skills also do next to no damage, so being a DPS is off the table.

  That leaves PvP support as his main role, which makes sense as Rivals is a PvP game and Jeff is the labubu of that game. If you're into the niche PvP modes you can always use more supports, but most players aren't into that and thus do not have much use for him.

  Marvel Stifles

  Captain America [Galactic Talon]

  Captain America [Galactic Talon]

  Another disposable Captain America uniform, this one geared entirely for PvP. However with the Zombie tag on his [What If... Zombies?!] uniform providing a lot of value with Weapon Hex's Immortality support, this uniform may even be a step back from the previous.

  With Steve Rogers geared to play a big role in Avengers: Doomsday later this year, there's almost no reason to grab this. If you don't have the Zombie uniform and/or don't have Weapon Hex's [Infected Bioweapon] uniform it's slightly more appealing but still won't be worth the investment.

  Inferno

  Inferno

  Kid Kaiju

  Kid Kaiju

  Kid Kaiju has been given a support Artifact which is pretty nice for those without the Inhuman seasonal uniform supports (Medusa, Black Bolt).