Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: HUGE Support Buffs, New Skins, Hellfire Gala Event
- Support heroes get big buffs with new balance adjustments.
- Two new skins are dropping soon, including an MCU crossover!
- Get ready for a new Hellfire Gala event, with a free Wolverine skin.
Marvel Rivals’ first midseason balance patch for Season 2 is almost here, and with it comes big adjustments for a select number of heroes in an attempt to make Strategists feel more viable in the current meta.
After weeks of turmoil in select parts of the Marvel Rivals community, the patch will include some much needed balance adjustments for heroes like Captian America, Spider-Man, and a handful of Strategists. It will also lay the groundwork for upcoming events and features that will continue the Hellfire Gala heading into May.
The Support Buff patch will go live on April 30 at 2am PT. There will be no downtime for the Marvel Rivals servers.
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: Hero Balance Adjustments and Esports Impact
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Vanguard Changes
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Duelist Changes
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Strategist Changes
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Team-Up Changes
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: New Skins and Content
- Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: Hellfire Gala Moments Event
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: Hero Balance Adjustments and Esports Impact
The Marvel Rivals servers won’t experience any downtime when the April 30 patch goes live at 5am ET. This will push the new balance adjustments and any additional fixes live, while other content coming in the update will be rolled out over the coming days—such as new events or cosmetics.
The point of this patch is to address ongoing issues with the game’s balance when it comes to Strategist players, where the role feels underpowered in the face of an onslaught of strong Vanguard and Duelist play. This will hopefully help end the “Support Strike” while also giving some fresh feeling to the current meta midway through the season.
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Vanguard Changes
Captain America
- Reduce base health from 650 to 600.
Cap’s biggest strength is his ability to seemingly live forever when played correctly. Reducing his health slightly will make him less likely to survive entire teams dumping damage into him, while still allowing him to be viable.
Doctor Strange
- Decrease the energy cost to unleash the Eye of Agamotto (Ultimate Ability) from 3400 to 3100.
Doctor Strange has fallen out of most meta rotations in Season 2, mostly being viable as a utility pick for his portals or when there are massive tank bans. Giving him a faster Ultimate charge should bring is viability up a bit because of its versatility in use on offense and defense, though it won’t fix his lack of damage output.
Groot
- Reduce the health of Ironwood Wall from 700 to 600.
Groot is the most-banned Vanguard in the current meta, and just lowering the health of his main wall option won’t change that. This will allow enemies to break his wall quicker and leaves him more vulnerable to counterplay without picking heroes specifically to deal with his obstructions.
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Duelist Changes
Spider-Man
- Decrease the damage range of Amazing Combo from a 5 meter radius to a 4 meter radius.
Despite promising to take a look at Spider-Man’s Amazing Combo potential, this change doesn’t appear to be big enough to make a dent in the hero’s ability to pull off specific combos against enemies—and Strategists specifically.
Winter Soldier
- Adjust the Tainted Voltage ability to have 2 charge levels, while keeping the cooldown time unchanged.
The wording here is a bit too vague, but either way this will help Bucky deal more damage with one of his main abilities.
If this means Tainted Voltage can be charged to deal more damage, it will be a great finished or fishing option in assaults. If ti means the move will have two charges that can be used separately, it will help him continuously unload his primary fire into enemies thanks to his reload ability.
Related Article: Huge Marvel Rivals Leak Reveals 5 New Heroes, More Team-Ups
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Strategist Changes
Adam Warlock
- Add a new effect to Quantum Magic: When a critical hit lands on an enemy, reduce the cooldown time of Avatar Life Stream by 1 second.
If you thought DPS Adam was bad before, this change makes his primary healing ability recharge faster the more critical hits he lands on an enemy. This should make the hero significantly more playable by allowing him to heal more often without any current downsides.
Cloak and Dagger
- As Cloak, increase the damage of the Darkforce Cloak from 75/s to 80/s; As Dagger, increase the damage of the Lightforce Dagger on hit from 15 to 18.
Cloak and Dagger will now deal more damage across the board, allowing for more versatile approaches to dealing with enemies in situations where you can’t shift between the two heroes.
Luna Snow
- Adjust the Damage Falloff of Light & Dark Ice from 60% at 40 meters to 75%.
Luna’s already solid damage output will be increased at greater distance with this change, allowing her to fend of threats before they get too close—or at least that should be the goal if the purpose of this patch holds up.
Mantis
- Increase the hit damage of Life Energy Blast from 50 to 55.
Mantis is a bit stronger. That’s the buff.
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch: Team-Up Changes
Captian America and Winter Soldier - Stars Aligned
- Upon leaping to a teammate, Stellar Impact will provide 50 Bonus Health to allies within range.
On paper, this sounds great because it will essentially be an AoE “heal” when Winter Solider leaps to an ally. However, the team compositions this is usable in is limited because it is a Team-Up with Cap. That doesn’t mean it is a deal breaker, it just isn’t as good as a normal ability getting this kind of buff.
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: New Skins and Content
As part of the April 30 update, two new skins will be added to the game: Winter Soldier - Thunderbolts and Black Panther - Damisa-Sarki.
The Winter Soldier skin is a tie-in to soon-to-be released Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Thunderbolts. We even got to see Bucky’s live-action actor, Sebastian Stan, make a Marvel Rivals reference in a press trailer.
The Black Panther’s Damisa-Sarki costume is one of the last new Hellfire Gala skin that we haven’t seen released as a premium bundle during Season 2’s run. Both costumes will be available starting May 1 at 10pm ET.
Marvel Rivals April 30 Patch Notes: Hellfire Gala Moments Event
Speaking of new skins, the the other teased Hellfire Gala skin, Wolverine - Patch, will be a free unlock in the new Hellfire Gala Moments event, which begins on May 2. An Emma Frost emote featuring Cerebro, Chrono Tokens, and more will also be featured as rewards.
As part of this event, new missions will task players with “explore iconic spots across Krakoa, earn exclusive gifts, and vote for the star who will dazzle us with a new look next year!” This does confirm that the Hellfire Gala will be a yearly event in Marvel Rivals, with NetEase introducing a vote for new skins too.
Voting Tokens will be introduced during the Hellfire Gala Moments event, which players can use to vote on featured heroes that received Hellfire Gala skins this year. The hero with the most votes will receive a new skin for Hellfire Gala 2026, and you can also receive a special gallery card for the hero you vote for.
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