Marvel Rivals Season 7.5 Content Preview, Hero Balance Changes Outlined
The latest content drop for Marvel Rivals is almost here with the launch of Season 7.5! Set to drop on April 17, this major title update introduces Black Cat to the roster, as well as quality-of-life additions and of course, hero balance changes.
The title for Season 7.5 is “The Hunt Is On,” and this brings a new Duelist to the roster, a new Team-Up ability, and more.
NetEase has also shared plans on what’s coming later this month after the April 17 update, which we’ve outlined below.
Marvel Rivals Season 7.5 Content Preview
Black Cat (Duelist) – Black Cat is an agile Duelist and an elusive master thief. With her exquisite martial arts and incredible mobility, she can infiltrate any location and weave through the battlefield with ease. In combat, she uses wall-climbing and double-jumps to navigate between friend and foe, waiting for the perfect moment to steal her enemies’ Fortune with her grappling hook.
She then uses this stolen Fortune to buff her own combat power, unleashing enhanced claw strikes to deal heavy damage. Whether the enemy team is holding a tight defensive line or scattered across the map, Black Cat can use her Phantom Pursuit to close the gap, tear through their defenses with razor-sharp claws, and then safely disengage.
When she activates her Ultimate Ability, she issues a calling card to all enemies before striking like a phantom, instantly dashing to any target to deliver lethal damage. What’s more, she can trade her stolen Fortune with the Gilded Saint, pulling rare treasures from the New York Thieves Guild’s vault, like the Ring of Zona, the Helm of Hades, and even the Mento-Fish once possessed by Namor. These artifacts not only boost her own abilities but also create unexpected tactical advantages for the whole team.
New Team-Up Ability: Black Cat, White Fox, and Captain America form the new Lucky Loan Team-Up. Black Cat is the Team-Up Anchor, providing White Fox and Cap with some of her luck to boost their combat capabilities. White Fox receives a special boost to her life energy and upon activation, can channel this vitality into her Kumiho powers, launching multiple spectral fox tails in all directions. These tails automatically seek out nearby targets: granting healing and a movement speed boost to allies, while dealing damage and applying a slow effect to enemies. Meanwhile, Captain America’s Vibranium shield also gets a lucky upgrade. When raised, the shield’s protective radius is expanded, and its deflection becomes pinpoint accurate, bouncing enemy projectiles exactly where his crosshair is aiming.
Marvel Rivals Season 7.5 Hero Balance Changes
ADJUSTMENTS
Chain-CC Protection
In Season 7.5, we introduced the Chain-CC (Crowd Control) Protection mechanic to ensure combat remains fluid and fair. Here are the specific rules:
– The Trigger: If a Hero suffers 5.5 seconds of total CC duration or is hit by 6 CC effects within a 7-second window, Chain-CC Protection activates. This instantly purges all active CC effects and grants the Hero 30% Tenacity for 3 seconds.
– Scaling Tenacity: Tenacity proportionally reduces the duration of incoming CC. While active, every new CC effect applied to the Hero increases their Tenacity by 10% and extends the buff’s duration by 0.5 seconds.
– Total Immunity: If Tenacity reaches 100%, the Hero becomes completely CC Immune until the buff expires. During this window, incoming CC will not grant further Tenacity or extend the Immunity duration.
– Cinematic Exceptions: Certain animation-driven CC effects (such as Emma Frost’s Carbon Crush and Monster Hulk’s World Breaker) bypass this system. Tenacity cannot reduce their durations, nor will they be interrupted if Chain-CC Protection triggers. Any standard CC effects applied during these cinematic moves will be cleared, and Tenacity applied, only after the cinematic ability concludes.
– Cooldown: The Chain-CC Protection system has a 5-second cooldown, which begins the moment the final Tenacity effect expires.
VANGUARD
Emma Frost
We’re slightly lowering the energy cost of the White Queen’s Ultimate to boost her suppression power on the battlefield. Time to shine, darling!
– Reduce the energy cost of Psionic Seduction (Ultimate Ability) from 3400 to 3100.
Deadpool (Vanguard)
We’re slightly dialing back Vanguard-pool’s burst damage and the survivability gains from his gun-form Ultimate. Gotta keep things fair, even for the Merc with a Mouth!
– Reduce The Ban Hammer (Gun Form Ultimate Ability) Bonus Health gained per hammer hit from 80 to 60 (standard) and from 80 to 70 (upgraded).
– Reduce The Ban Hammer (Gun Form Ultimate Ability) damage dealt per hammer hit from 45 to 35.
– Reduce bonus Attack Speed provided by Deadpool in Your Area – Vanguard to Dual Desert Eagles – Vanguard from 60% to 40%.
Peni Parker
We’re slightly reducing Peni’s base survivability but enhancing the deployment range and protection of her Cyber-Webs, while also improving the hit experience of her Primary Attack. This aims to strengthen Peni in positional warfare! Now she can cover more ground with her Cyber-Webs, and flexibly using their support effects will help the team handle specific enemy dives with more ease!
– Reduce base health from 700 to 650.
– Increase the maximum number of Cyber-Webs that can exist simultaneously on the field from 3 to 4.
– Increase Bonus Health cap provided to Peni by Cyber-Webs from 150 to 200.
– Increase Cyber-Web Cluster Projectile Speed from 120m/s to 150m/s.
DUELIST
Elsa Bloodstone
We’re reining in Elsa’s mobility and her threat level against Vanguards. The monster hunter needs to pace herself out there in the timestream!
– Increase Helix Advance cooldown from 8s to 10s. (Cooldown at max passive stacks from 2s to 4s).
– Reduce Monster-Piercer percentage damage per pellet from 1.2% to 0.8%.
Reduce total percentage damage when all 5 pellets hit from 6% to 4%.
Zhiyong Note: When all pellets hit, damage against a 275 HP hero drops from 81.5 (13*5+275*6%) to 76; against a 700 HP hero, it drops from 107 (13*5+700*6%) to 93.
Human Torch
We’re tweaking the Human Torch’s mobility mechanics to boost his burst mobility and enhance his gameplay pacing. At the same time, we want his movements to be a bit more predictable for his opponents. Flame on, but with a plan, Rivals!
– Plasma Body Mechanic Adjusted: Upon casting, he immediately dashes a short distance (10m) in the direction of movement and enters the Plasma Body state for 4s. This ability now has 2 charges, with a 10s recharge time per charge. There is a 4s cooldown between consecutive casts.
Winter Soldier
Bucky had a bit too much CC, which caused some serious frustration for enemies, especially when facing dive Vanguards, Duelists, or anchor Vanguards. He felt more like a “bodyguard” than a lethal operative. We’re reducing his CC capabilities and slightly buffing his frontal damage output to enrich his combat experience and make him feel like the true soldier he is!
– Remove Trooper’s Fist Grounded effect on enemies.
Reduce Cooldown from 12s to 10s.
– Increase Bionic Hook cooldown from 12s to 15s.
– Increase Roterstern Projectile Damage from 75 to 80
Decrease Spell Field Damage from 55 to 45.
– Reduce Tainted Voltage single charge energize time from 6s to 5s.
– Increase Kraken Impact Culling Threshold from 15% to 20%.
Reduce base damage from 80 to 70.
STRATEGIST
Adam Warlock
We’re giving Adam Warlock a little cosmic boost to his healing capabilities!
– Increase Cosmic Cluster cooldown reduction provided to Avatar Life Stream per hit on an enemy from 0.05s to 0.08s.
Cloak & Dagger
We’re slightly reducing the duration of Cloak & Dagger’s Ultimate.
– Reduce Eternal Bond (Ultimate Ability) duration from 13s to 11s.
Jeff the Land Shark
We’re slightly reducing the pressure our favorite land shark puts on the enemy backline. Good boy, Jeff, but let’s give them a breather!
– Joyful Splash damage falloff now starts at 15m (was 20m) and damage drops to 60% of base at 30m (was 65% at 40m).
– Reduce It’s Jeff! (Ultimate Ability) recovery time when failing to swallow any targets from 1s to 0.4s.
Luna Snow
A small encore for Luna Snow to enhance her base combat capabilities!
– Increase Light & Dark Ice damage and healing from 22 to 24.
Ultron
We’re expanding the battlefield coverage of Ultron’s Ultimate. There are no strings on him!
– We’ve adjusted the logic of Ultron’s Ultimate. The four Ultron Drones surrounding Ultron will no longer shoot directly at the crosshair target; instead, they will bombard the area around the target. The bombardment area matches Ultron’s, but with slightly lower values. With this adjustment, the coverage area of Rage of Ultron is increased from a 3m radius to a 6m radius.
– After activating Rage of Ultron (Ultimate Ability):
Increase Ultron’s Encephalo-Rays Damage from 8 to 18.
Increase the Drones’ Encephalo-Rays Damage from 8 to 12.
New Spell Field Damage Falloff: Starts at 1.5m after Encephalo-Rays explode, with a max falloff to 50% at 3m.
Increase healing effect on allies from 25 to 40.
(Damage and healing effects on targets within the original 3m radius remain roughly the same).
TEAM-UP ABILITIES
ADJUSTED OR REMOVED
Guardian of the Deep (Venom – Jeff the Land Shark/Hela)
Even the Goddess of Death and a ravenous Symbiote have to admit that Jeff’s healing hugs were getting a little too powerful. We’re dialing back the extra bulk for this aquatic alliance!”
– Reduce excess healing converted to Bonus Health from 100 to 50.
– Reduce healing efficiency from 70/s to 60/s
NEW
Lucky Loan (Black Cat – White Fox/Captain America)
What do you get when you cross a master thief, a mystical Kumiho, and the First Avenger? The ultimate heist crew!
– As the Team-Up Anchor, Black Cat gains a 5% boost in damage output.
– White Fox unlocks the new Nine-Tailed Aura ability through her Team-Up with Black Cat.
– Captain America unlocks the new Vibranium Bastion ability through his Team-Up with Black Cat.
Marvel Rivals Upcoming Plans for April
Following the April 23 update, the 2026 Hellfire Gala event will officially begin! The Marvel Rivals team has prepared stunning new themed costumes and exclusive cosmetics for Magik, Gambit, Moon Knight, Emma Frost, and Phoenix. Plus, the winner of the 2025 Hellfire Gala community vote, the Emma Frost – Gala Star costume, will be given away for free to all players! At the same time, the community vote for the next Hellfire Gala costume will begin. The hero with the most votes will receive an exclusive costume in next year’s Hellfire Gala, which players will again be able to earn for free.
After the April 30 update, Phase 1 of the Path to Doomsday event will begin. The all-new mode, Path to Doomsday: The Avengers Mode, will let players experience the thrill of asymmetrical combat playing as or against Loki. Meanwhile, Times Square will feature a series of events.
Once the download is out on April 17, we’ll let our readers know and that will feature the complete patch notes.
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