When Season 3 ofMarvel Rivalsreleases, there will inevitably be new buffs and nerfs applied to many characters to create a new balance between heroes. While it is impossible to predict which characters will be adjusted, a recent patch on Jul 05, 2025, has already given new strengths to some heroes. If the buffs from this patch are an indicator, one character might become too strong in Season 3.
Alongside various Team-Up abilities introduced in Season 2.5,four characters got nerfs and buffs through the July 15, 2025 patch. These heroes include Storm receiving a small nerf and Star-Lord, Moon Knight, andThor receiving a substantial buff. The direction of these adjustments is exciting, but I have some worries about how at least one of these heroes will turn out if they receive even more positive changes.
Marvel Rivals' Latest Patch Buffs Several Characters
Hero Abilities Are Enhanced Or Reworked Halfway Through Season 2.5
Multiple characters received changes with the Season 2.5 July 24, 2025, balance changes forMarvel Rivals, which you can see clearly in the table below:
Nerf or Buff?
Vanguard
Buff
After casting Awakening Rune, Thor can now manually cancel the Awakened state after a brief delay.
Duelist
Adjusted the maximum damage fall-off of Element Guns at 25m from 60% to 65%.
Nerf
Omega Hurricane (Ultimate ability) now costs 3400 Energy instead of 3100.
Themost impactful change here is the adjustment to Thor’s Awakened Rune, which allows the character to have more flexibility in using their skills. This is a strong change for Thor after severalnerfs in Season 2.5 ofMarvel Rivalsreduced the Vanguard’s survivability. Likewise, the other changes for different characters feel like quality-of-life adjustments that come from multiple instances of feedback regarding each hero.
While Storm’s Ultimate taking longer to charge makes the character more balanced and Star-Lord’s increased damage helps him deal with fliers, Moon Knight’s balance changes seem small. A boost to the character’s base health may not seem like much, butgiven how Moon Knight often becomes fragile against aggressive characters, his buff feels like an appropriate changeto help him endure close engagements for longer.
Moon Knight Has Received A Much Stronger Buff Than Players Might Realize
Being Able To Survive Longer Reduces The Character’s Main Weakness
While Moon Knight’s increased health is a common buff for some characters, applying this change to Marc Spector may be far more important than players might think. Out of all theDuelist characters inMarvel Rivals,Moon Knight was perhaps the one who fit the role of"glass cannon"the most. Since Moon Knight’s Crescent Dart projectiles bounce off targets to hit multiple enemies, he deals tons of damage at a rapid rate.
In the current state of Season 2.5’s"meta,“flying characters like Iron Man, Storm, and The Human Torch are all considered strong, especially when in a team together. Moon Knight has struggled to fight these characters due to their aerial advantages, leading to many players to call the hero much weaker this Season.
In addition, when Moon Knight uses an Ancient Ankh, he can bounce his projectiles off of it to hit targets within the Ankh’s aura, dealing even more damage.Moon Knight has always had their high damage balanced out by low health, similar to other Duelists. Unlike other glass cannons like Spider-Man or Iron Fist, Moon Knight has a much harder time getting away from enemies that target him.
Moon Knight only has two mobility options- Rising Leap and his Moonlight Hook ability. Rising Leap gives Moon Knight an occasional double jump, while Moonlight Hook allows him to grapple onto places from far away. However, both of these options have long cooldowns, and are usually followed by Moon Knight gliding slowly in the sky, where he is an easy opponent to eliminate.
When you consider how Moon Knight has extremely high damage balanced by low health and mobility, the character’s design seems to come together in a clear direction. That being said,making Moon Knight have higher health gives him more damage potential, making the character less risky to play. When Moon Knight has more time to attack without worrying about surviving fights, it gives him a chance to launch far more attacks before fleeing or repositioning.
Additional Strengths May Create Someone Dominant On All Teams
Honestly, the health increase buff for Moon Knight makes sense, as he needed a way to survive longer against flying characters appearing on almost every team you see in Season 2.5. With Season 3 though,additional buffs to Moon Knight could make him far too strongif applied incorrectly. Out of the many possible waysMarvel Rivalscould buff Moon Knight, here are some ways it could lead to the character easily becoming overpowered:
For a long time, the most busted thing about Moon Knight was due to a glitch involving the character’s Ultimate. The talons from the Hand of Khonshu ability would sometimes explode twice when they hit the ground, dealing double the intended damage to wipe out some characters very quickly.
Making Moon Knight’s Ultimate cost less would allow him to gain it very fast, especially with the health buff giving him more chances to build Energy. Onebalance problem inMarvel Rivalsis that characters like Moon Knight can charge powerful Ultimates quickly because their tools allow them to deal damage rapidly. Making this even more potent would lead to Moon Knight gaining his Ultimate at nearly twice the rate as other characters, leading to it being used in almost every team fight.
Likewise, any adjustments to Moon Knight’s Ankh or Darts in Season 3 would have to be made with extreme caution. I worry thatif Moon Knight can deal more damage, the glass cannon aspect of the character will be amplified to a point where it has no more balance. It wouldn’t matter if Moon Knight has low health if he can tear through the health of stalwart heroes like Groot in a matter of seconds.
While I do think Moon Knight will receive more buffs in Season 3, it remains to be seen if those adjustments to the character will lead to overpowered strengths that invalidate other Duelists. The Fist of Khonshu is one of the most popular characters inMarvel Rivalsregardless of his strength, so making him too strong will make him a staple on almost every team if the developers aren’t careful.
