Marvel Rivals Season 7 Patch Notes: Hulk Is Finally Good

It’s been a while since a Marvel Rivals patch felt like it actually moved the needle. Most of them tweak a number here, a cooldown there, and you barely notice the difference a week later. Season 7 is not that. This is one of the most significant balance updates since launch, and there’s one change in particular that’s going to reshape how every single match feels from top to bottom.

Let’s get into it.

The Biggest Change in the Game’s History: The Global Ult Nerf

If you’ve played Marvel Rivals for any stretch of time, you know what it’s like when the last two minutes of a match turn into a non-stop fireworks show of ultimates popping off one after another. It’s chaotic, it’s overwhelming, and for casual players it often feels like there’s no room to actually play the game.

That changes in Season 7. NetEase dropped a 20% nerf across the board to ultimate charge rates for every role in the game.

For Vanguards and Duelists, the damage-to-energy conversion drops from 90% down to 70%, and passive energy generation goes from 12 per second to 11. For Strategists, damage-to-healing conversion goes from 90% to 75%, and that passive drops from 12 all the way to 8 per second.

That passive nerf for Strategists is the big one. You used to be able to hang in the backline, collect your passive energy, and still rotate ults at a solid clip. Now you actually have to earn it. The days of Strategist ults flying every 30 seconds are over, at least in theory.

The overall result? Fewer ultimates, more actual gameplay, more room to breathe. As someone who’s felt completely helpless when three ults chain during a single push, this is a straight-up W.

The Hulk Buff We’ve Been Waiting For

Let’s talk about Hulk, because this is the headline change and it’s legitimately exciting.

Hulk has been a fan-favorite character trapped in a frustrating kit. Great concept, mediocre execution, mostly relegated to being an ult battery for the rest of the team. Season 7 addresses that directly with two changes that actually matter.

First, his Indestructible Guard ability (the gamma bubble) now converts damage to Ultimate charge at 130% instead of 100%. That’s a big jump. You’re going to see Hulk hitting his big Monster form way more frequently just by doing what he’s supposed to do.

Second, and this is the one that has people excited: Gamma Burst now has two charges, each with a 6-second cooldown, and the cooldown between uses dropped from 6 seconds to just 2 seconds. Damage per hit dropped from 75 to 65 to compensate, but the ability to double-clap with a 2-second gap between them? That changes his combo potential and his chase potential entirely.

Hulk has always been a fun character to watch. Now he might actually be a fun character to play. If you’ve been sleeping on him, Season 7 is the time to try him out.

Blade Is Basically a New Hero

Blade mains have been patient. For most of the game’s life, playing Blade meant committing to a character who looked cool, had a great theme, and got melted the second someone looked at him sideways. Season 7 changes his kit in ways that finally make his identity feel coherent.

The core of the Blade rework is the Bloodline Awakening update: excess life steal now grants bonus health. That alone fixes his biggest problem. You could stack him up, get that Awakening meter climbing, and then watch him fold the second a couple opponents focused him down. The bonus health means his life steal actually gives him staying power rather than just keeping him alive through papercuts.

His ultimate gets two major upgrades, too. The life steal effect now works without switching to Bloodline Awakening mode (which solves the “things got hectic and I forgot to switch” problem), and healing reduction on enemies during the ult jumps from 20% to 40%. Slapping 40% healing reduction on your target while you’re slicing them down is going to feel disgusting in the right situations.

Throw in the Moon Knight team-up and the Daywalker is having his season.

The Nerfs Worth Knowing About

Not everything in Season 7 is a buff party. Here’s what’s getting toned down and why it matters for your matches.

Elsa Bloodstone: Still probably the best duelist in the game, but she’s taking two nerfs that make mistakes more costly. If you die, you now lose two instinct stacks instead of one, which means you’re rebuilding your passive much more aggressively after each death. Her bonus health from dashes also drops from 40 to 30. She’ll still be S-tier. She’ll just punish sloppy play harder.

Deadpool Vanguard: Easily one of the most oppressive heroes in the game at every level, particularly in competitive play. The ultimate cooldown goes from 45 to 60 seconds, which is exactly what this hero needed. You won’t be banhammering backlines on an endless rotation anymore. His damage reduction in Deadpool In Your Area also drops from 40% to 30% for himself.

Daredevil: He’s getting hit again after nerfs last patch. Devil’s Chains damage drops from 35 to 25, max bonus health from the ability drops from 125 to 100, and Sonic Pursuit damage reduction gets cut in half from 20% to 10%. His breakpoints for getting eliminations are going to be noticeably harder to hit.

Gambit: His ultimate still slaps, but movement boost during Royal Flush drops from 50% to 40% and ult charge acceleration to allies goes from 30% to 20%. Combined with the global ult nerf, Gambit is going to feel less omnipresent. He’s not gone, but the “free win just from running his kit” era might be winding down.

Invisible Woman: Guardian Shield healing drops from 25 per second to 15 per second, which is a significant cut for how much work that ability does in skilled hands. She does get a buff to healing while invisible (20 seconds extended to 30 seconds), but the overall impact in team fights takes a clear hit.

The Other Changes Worth Noting

A few quick ones that round out the patch:

Black Panther gets the cooldown removed on his second wall jump. It’s a 3-second cooldown that’s now gone, which makes his disengage and re-engage potential noticeably smoother. It’s not the rework Panther mains are dreaming about, but it’s genuinely useful.

Angela gets her damage kit restructured. Flying around for charge gets a nerf, but her spear throw damage jumps from 10 to 40, which is massive. She’s being pushed toward more grounded, precise play, and the bonus is you’ll actually feel her spear when it lands.

Magik gets her uppercut hitbox radius nearly doubled from 0.45m to 1m. If you’ve ever missed that dash and immediately regretted your life choices, this change is going to feel like a revelation.

Captain America gets a QoL improvement to his shield combo animation canceling on toggle mode. Still not a meta pick in casual play, but the cap mains at high level are going to appreciate the smoother feel.

The Takeaway

Season 7 is doing what a good patch should do: it’s making niche heroes viable, reining in the dominant ones, and changing the fundamental rhythm of matches at every level. The global ult nerf alone is the kind of change that affects every hero and every game mode simultaneously.

Hulk getting a real kit. Blade becoming worth picking. Less ult spam every 30 seconds. These are good things for the game overall.

If you’ve been playing Marvel Rivals since launch, you know how rare it is for a single patch to feel like it genuinely shifted the floor. This one did it.

Got a hot take on the Season 7 changes? Drop it in our Discord and let’s talk about it.