"It's Going To Make Rocket A Lot Less Fun To Play": Players React To Major Marvel Rivals Nerf

Marvel Rivals Season 2 is coming soon, but after looking at the slew of changes to the game's massive roster, players are not happy about Rocket Raccoon receiving some nerfs. Season 2 of Marvel Rivals is set to add the icy Emma Frost at launch and the menacing Ultron halfway through the season, in addition to new maps, new skins, and, of course, balance changes. With several characters getting justifiable adjustments, Rocket Raccoon's nerf is a head-scratcher for some fans.

In a thread started by Rockets7thburneracc on Reddit, Rocket Raccoon fans are expressing their displeasure after seeing Season 2 patch notes (via the Marvel Rivals website). Some fans are worried that he has been streamlined, with Rockets7thburneracc saying: "This change looks like it's going make rocket a lot less fun to play."The user also added that this could discourage tactical play and incentivize players to spam healing orbs instead of bouncing them off of walls strategically.

What's Changed For Rocket Raccoon?

Some Small Changes Will Greatly Affect The Way He Is Played

The changes coming in Season 2 may look small on paper, but they will greatly affect the way Rocket Raccoon is played in Marvel Rivals. Rocket Raccoon will see a decrease in the healing area of his Repair Mode spheres, but a new one-time effect per direct hit with the healing orbs of 55 healing being applied immediately. He's also seeing a nerf to his jetpack flight distance and an increase on the ability's cooldown. Finally, his ultimate ability will see a reduction in the damage boost applied to his team but now grants bonus health to those that are linked to it.

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These changes will allow Rocket to apply more healing at the cost of a decrease in his survivability and a hit to his ultimate, which will also now take longer to charge. These changes might encourage Rocket players to spam heal in random directions and use his other tools less, even with Rocket Raccoon having pretty high damage for a strategist character.

Should Rocket Raccoon Have Been Nerfed?

There Are More Problematic Strategists Than Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon has never been a top-tier or even high-tier character in Marvel Rivals, so to see quite a few nerfs is puzzling, to say the least. While some may argue his ultimate changes are actually a buff because it now provides a healing effect instead of just a damage increase for his teammates, this change may bring some concern about the homogenization of the strategist characters in Marvel Rivals, with most of them having a powerful healing ultimate to keep teams alive.

Rocket had a more offensive one, and now the interesting part of his playstyle is being nerfed in favor of his healing ability. Rocket probably didn't need any nerfs, not when powerful strategists like Luna Snow and Invisible Woman dominated the meta of Season 1. Luckily, developer NetEase Games has a pretty good reputation for listening to player feedback about the game, so it is possible that Rocket will see more changes during Season 2, along with a lot of other Marvel Rivals characters, once the new season begins on April 11.