When Marvel Rivals officially began Season One, many balancing changes were implemented into the game. Standout heroes, like Hawk-Eye and Hela, were justifiably nerfed, whilst weaker characters like Storm and Wolverine were buffed. Overall, the majority of the balancing decisions were quite good, and were able to shift the overall meta. The biggest complaints were not with specific changes, but instead, the lack of changes in regard to a few particular ultimates.

A few characters went under the radar, and with Season One finally settling, there has been a major problem increasing in prevalence: Strategist ultimates are simply too powerful. Not only can these easily counter the majority of other ultimates within the game, but many of them also last far too long and charge far too quickly. As a result, many team fights in Marvel Rivals are needlessly bogged down, creating consistently frustrating moments that need to be toned down in Season 2.

Defensive Ults Are Too Powerful In Marvel Rivals

These Ults Have Too Much Impact On Ultimate Economy

Of course, not every Strategist ultimate is strong. Adam Warlock’s, for instance, is hard to pull off, while Rocket Racoon’s doesn’t have the same game-winning effect as other ultimates. However, purely defensive ults, such as Luna Snow, Mantis, Cloak and Dagger, and Invisible Woman, offer an extraordinary level of value in Marvel Rivals.

A large component of matches within Marvel Rivals revolve around ultimate economy. Winning fights with the least number of ults is essential winning a game long-term. Using all six ultimates will surely win a fight, but will also leave the team extremely vulnerable. The primary issue with defensive ults, then, is that they skew the ultimate economy far too much.

What makes this even worse is that one of the current counters to these abilities, Moon Knight’s ultimate, is in fact bugged and currently dealing significantly more damage than it should. When that gets fixed, the counter options will become even more limited.

A singular Luna ult, for instance, can counter an absurd number of ultimates. Trading a Luna ult for three enemy ultimates is both common and extremely powerful. While Strategist ults do have counterplay, it requires a highly organized effort in dealing an extraordinary amount of burst damage to the ulting Strategist. Defenisve ults also have low start-up times, making countering the enemies ults not just strong, but easy. In effect, the ult economy in Marvel Rivals is entirely based around strategists, whose defensive abilities are overbearing.

Defensive Ults Create Far Too Much Downtime In Marvel Rivals

12 Seconds Of Nothing

Beyond the strength of these ults, they also create a staggering amount of downtime within team fights. Luna Snow’s ultimate lasts a whopping 12 seconds. That’s 12 seconds of essentially nothing happening in a fight. Unless there is some available option for massive burst damage, the enemy team will be unable to do anything for that period of time except run and hide.

Luna is the worst offender here, but the power of these ults in making teams essentially immortal makes most levels of duration feel too long. Cloak and Dagger is another frustrating example. It has the lowest ult charge requirement among Strategists, and lasts around 20 seconds. While not quite as effective as Luna’s — the dashes require set-up and the puddles are individually weaker — the frequency and length of the ability create consistently sleep-inducing team fights.

Three Healer Comps Are Simply Not Fun

These Ults Need A Nerf Before This Comp Becomes A Mainstay

Custom Image by Katarina Cimbaljevic

Three healer comps are not quite the most popular yet, but they’re certainly contending for the best team comp in Marvel Rivals. The entire purpose of this composition is not necessarily increasing healing output but instead having a defensive ultimate ready for each team fight. Hopefully, defensive ults will be nerfed before this composition develops, as the gameplay experience it brings with it is undoubtedly not fun. Dealing with multiple defensive ults every single fight is simply mind-numbing, and it’s exacerbated by the enemy team’s own defensive ults.

This isn’t to say defensive ults don’t belong in Rivals. Offensive ults are quite strong too, and need ways to be countered with quick thinking. However, the duration and frequency of defensive ults is simply too high. Beyond countering ultimates and skewing ult economy, they are slowing down games, not in any tactical sense, but rather in 12-second bundles of zero player agency. Marvel Rivals desperately needs to tune these ultimates to better facilitate dynamic and exciting gameplay, which currently only exists in the windows where defensive ults are charging.