Season 2.5 is set to release on Friday forMarvel Rivals. With it comes the release of thenew flying Strategist Ultron, new skins, a new map, new team-ups, and probably most notably—balance changes. Developer NetEase Games has been listening to player feedback pretty consistently, and along with some buffs and nerfs to several characters, two characters are getting major reworks: Jeff the Land Shark and Thor. Neither character has been seen as a meta pick since the game’s release, but the upcoming reworks are causing a lot of controversy.
Thor is a Vanguard character that can tank quite a bit of damage and can kidnap and bully enemy team Strategists, while Jeff is a Strategist focused on healing from a distance.Jeff is an obscure Marvel characterbut consistently popular, and a lot of fans felt he was frustrating to deal with and wasn’t being played as intended, while Thor struggled to find a place among other similar Vanguards. Changes were definitely needed, butI’m not sure what the big-picture idea is for either of these big character changes.
Why Players Aren’t Happy With Thor & Jeff The Land Shark
Too Much Survivability And Abused Mechanics
Fans were pretty unhappy with the way both of these characters played originally, but these reworks (which are mostly nerfs) probablyaren’t the right direction for either character either. Jeff the Land Shark, despite being labeled as a Strategist, was seeing more viability as a ranged DPS character, focusing on picking off opponents from a distance with his pretty high-damaging Aqua Burst attack. This led to teams running Jeff, Luna Snow, and another Strategist to double-down on damage through his team-up with Luna.
Jeff’s team-up with Luna, called Chilling Charisma, is being retired at least temporarily from the game when theSeason 2.5 team-up changeslaunch on May 30. Jeff will get a new team-up with Storm called Jeff-Nado, using both of their ultimates, similar to Storm and Human Torch.
Additionally, Jeff became one of the most frustrating characters to deal with due to his Hide and Seek mobility tool. It allowed him to dive under the environment’s surface, regenerate his health, and also made his hurtbox very small, with only his fin exposed,leading to insane survivability and frustrating stalemates.
Thor, meanwhile, was seeing a lot of tech abuse with his melee cancels, which led to him being able to melt other Vanguards and Strategists at the cost of few resources. However, Thor was arguably the least tank-y Vanguard in the game and didn’t see the amount of play that other Vanguards have, like Emma Frost, Venom, and Magento. Thor dealt some of the highest Vanguard damage in the game, which frustrated some fans, but it’s possibleNetEase Games may have over-corrected with both Thor and Jeff the Land Sharkin the upcoming patch.
Jeff The Land Shark & Thor Changes, Explained
Both Are Getting Pretty Big Nerfs, Sort Of
The changes to Jeff the Land Shark and Thor will drastically change how the two characters play. Starting with Jeff, the game’s most adorable character will see anoverhaul to his healing. His primary fire will now damage enemies as well as heal, which could be a positive thing. However, his Hide and Seek ability will now be on a timer, his Aqua Burst now has a set amount of charges before it needs to stop to be recharged, and Healing Bubbles will go from six bubbles to three and provide healing over time instead of instant healing.
Jeff’s Aqua Burst will also have a new effect: direct hits will launch enemies and do slightly more damage, at the cost of being limited to just three bullets and needing three seconds to charge each bullet. Finally, his ultimate will take longer to charge but will grant additional bonus health to allies when they are swallowed.It appears Jeff will no longer be able to flank enemiesand take them out as a long-range DPS character. Fans aren’t happy with these changes, and there is already apetition fromMarvel Rivalsfansto revert the Jeff changes.
Thor’s ability changes aren’t quite as drastic on paper, buthe willmost likely end up playing differently. The Hammer Throw ability will now be a standard ability and not require Thorforce, and it will not have a universal cooldown, but the cooldown on the ability itself will now be six seconds. Thor will gain one Thorforce from every Hammer Throw enemy hit, but the damage is seeing a significant hit, going from 75 damage to 45 and the hammer’s return damage going from 30 to 20.
Thor will also see a decrease in the shield value obtained from consuming Thorforce from 100 to 75, with the max bonus health now being 150 instead of 200. Interestingly, I’ve rarely ran out of Thorforce while playing Thor, soI’m not sure why these changes are centered around generating Thorforce. It seems to be a decision to makeThor’s chasing gameplaymore defense-oriented and lessen his ability to eliminate heroes quickly.
Marvel Rivals Is Changing For The Better Or Worse
The Developers Have A Solid Track Record For Listening To Fans, Though
It remains to be seen how these changes to Jeff and Thor will shake up the meta or how players approach the two of them, but, for better or worse,the game is evolving. One of my biggest issues with the game was how all the Strategist characters were starting to feel too similar, and the developers may need to add additional gameplay elements to justify thestaggering number of characters leakedfor the game. With a petition for Jeff to be reverted gaining 1000 signatures in just three days, fans are not shy about expressing their dislike for aspects of the game.
Ultron is already seeing a mostly negative reception, too, and he hasn’t even been released yet, with many fans feeling his healing is too low, and he won’t be viable with the way the game mechanics currently work. These changes could be a good thing, but early impressions are not positive. Luckily, NetEase Games has a pretty good track record of listening to fan feedback and has actively encouraged fans to keep making suggestions to make the game better.
The Jeff and Thor changes could be a way to experiment with the game’s balance and get an idea about where to go in the future, because with a virtually endless pool of source material to pull from,Marvel Rivalscould easily go on for years and years. But no matter the reasoning for the changes, fans aren’t happy.
