Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 drops on August 7, bringing The Hood to the roster alongside a substantial round of balance changes. This isn't the sweeping overhaul that Season 9 was, but the nerfs and buffs here are targeted enough to shift what's worth playing. Peni Parker gets a meaningful control nerf, Black Panther's Team-Up damage gets trimmed, and several underperformers like Moon Knight, Wolverine, and Jubilee pick up real improvements.
What's new in Season 9.5?
The headline addition is The Hood, a new Vanguard joining the roster. Beyond that, the patch focuses on tightening up the meta rather than rebuilding it. The Team-Up system introduced in Season 9 gets several adjustments, and a handful of heroes receive standalone stat tweaks independent of any Team-Up pairing.
For a full picture of how the Season 9 Team-Up system works and which combos matter most, the Season 9 Duelist Team-Up abilities guide covers the full breakdown.
The Hood joins Season 9.5
Vanguard changes: who got buffed and nerfed?
Devil Dinosaur (buff)
Devil Dinosaur gets a significant damage upgrade on his Frenzied Feast ability. The first four attacks now deal 8% maximum health percentage damage, up from 5%, and the fifth attack climbs from 10% to 12%. His Surf & Turf Team-Up with Jeff the Land Shark also improves, extending the maximum duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds and increasing the healing effect on allies from 40 to 60.
Doctor Strange (buff)
Doctor Strange benefits in two ways. Daggers of Denak single-hit damage increases from 16 to 18, and the projectile charge count goes from 10 to 12. His Team-Up with Hulk also gets faster: Gamma Maelstrom cooldown drops from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
Magneto (buff)
Magneto's Team-Up with Scarlet Witch picks up a new effect. The Metallic Chaos projectile now adds a minor Launch Up on hit, giving the combination more crowd control punch.
Peni Parker (nerf)
This is the most significant Vanguard nerf in the patch. The dev team specifically called out Cyber-Web Snare's Immobilize effect as too frequent and oppressive. The rework removes the direct Immobilize on hit. Instead, hitting an enemy applies a Web-Tracer stack and a 30% Slow for 1 second. The Web-Tracer lasts 5 seconds, and only if the same enemy is hit by the snare a second time while the tracer is active do they get Immobilized, for 0.7 seconds.
The snare also converts to a charge-based ability with a maximum of 2 charges. The Bonus Health cap from Cyber-Webs drops from 200 to 150.
In exchange, Peni gets more freedom on her secondary fire, though the net result is a clear reduction in how often she can lock down opponents.
Rogue (buff)
Rogue gets a small survivability boost. Her damage reduction multiplier in Defensive Stance increases from 55% to 60%, and her Regenerative Shield capacity goes from 250 to 275.
Venom (nerf)
Venom's self-sustain takes a hit. Symbiotic Resilience Bonus Health drops from 120% of lost health to 110%, and Venom Swing cooldown extends from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. He's still strong, but he now has to commit more carefully to engagements.
Snare now uses 2 charges
Duelist changes: what shifted in the damage role?
Black Panther (nerf)
Black Panther's Team-Up with Storm gets toned down. Area damage to enemies drops from 40 to 30, and the cooldown extends from 12 seconds to 15 seconds. His standalone kit is untouched, but this Team-Up was clearly overperforming.
Cyclops (buff)
Cyclops gets faster Ricochet Force cooldown reduction, increasing from 0.15 seconds per Optic Blast hit to 0.25 seconds. His Team-Up with Gambit also improves, boosting the Concussive Beam attack frequency from a 10% increase to 15%.
Elsa Bloodstone (nerf)
Elsa Bloodstone's Team-Up with Devil Dinosaur gets trimmed. The Smoky Snare trap health drops from 100 to 50, and its control duration shortens from 1.5 seconds to 1.2 seconds.
Hela (nerf)
Hela's Team-Up with Namor deals less damage. Undead Monstro single-hit damage drops from 15 to 10.
Moon Knight (buff)
Moon Knight picks up two improvements. Crescent Dart and Moon Blade bounce damage decay reduces from 30% per bounce to 20%, meaning his bouncing projectiles retain more damage over multiple hits. His Team-Up with Cloak & Dagger also improves: Luminous Moon cooldown drops from 15 seconds to 12 seconds, dash duration extends from 0.3 seconds to 0.35 seconds, and dash distance increases from 12m to 15m. The Enhanced Effect adds a 3-second healing effect of 20 health per second after leaving the Phased state.
Phoenix (buff)
Phoenix gets a damage bump on Sparks detonation, from 35 to 40, and area damage increases from 12 to 15. Her Team-Up with Rogue also improves, with Telekinetic Beatdown damage climbing from 45 to 55.
Wolverine (buff)
Logan'sBerserker Rage gets three adjustments. Rage gained per hit taken increases from 5 to 8. The Rage decay timer now starts after 5 seconds of no Rage gained instead of 4. At maximum Rage, the decay rate drops from 15 per second to 10 per second. The result is that Wolverine builds fury faster and holds onto it longer once he's fully charged.
Scarlet Witch (buff)
Scarlet Witch's Team-Up with Doctor Strange gets a full rework. The base effect gives her an 8-second cooldown and 8-second duration ability that replaces Chthonian Burst with Mystic Burst, letting her fire magic missiles freely with no energy cost. The Enhanced Effect converts this into a toggle, removing the duration limit entirely.
Rage builds faster in 9.5
Strategist changes: support role adjustments
Gambit (nerf)
Gambit's Team-Up with Magneto gets a control frequency adjustment. The Launch Up frequency of the spell field changes from 0.5 seconds to 1 second, halving how often it can launch enemies.
Jubilee (buff)
Jubilee gets a small but meaningful stat bump. Energy Plasmoids single-hit damage increases from 10 to 11, and single-hit healing goes from 14 to 15. Small numbers, but over a full match they add up.
Loki (buff)
Loki'sMystical Missile projectile speed increases from 100 m/s to 120 m/s. His missiles were noticeably easy to dodge at range, so this makes his kit feel more reliable.
White Fox (buff)
White Fox gets two improvements. The energy cost of Kumiho Unleashed (her Ultimate) drops from 4800 to 4300. After casting, it now automatically applies the Blessed by the Nine effect to all allies within a 10m radius for 3 seconds. That automatic application on cast is the more impactful change, removing the need to manually coordinate the buff.
How does Season 9.5 change the meta?
The Peni Parker nerf is the biggest meta shift here. She's been a reliable pick for her oppressive Immobilize frequency, and requiring two snare hits to land the same control effect is a real nerf to her kit. Expect her pick rate to drop at higher levels of play.
Venom also takes a hit, though the reduction from 120% to 110% Bonus Health and the extended Venom Swing cooldown are measured rather than devastating. He remains a viable Vanguard, just slightly less forgiving.
On the other side, Wolverine's Berserker Rage changes make him considerably more threatening in sustained fights. Building Rage at 8 per hit instead of 5, combined with a slower decay rate at max Rage, means he stays in his powered state much longer once he gets going. Moon Knight's bounce damage improvements are also worth noting for players who've been running him.
For context on how these changes stack up against the broader Season 9 hero reworks, the Season 9 buffs and nerfs breakdown covers all the changes that set up the current meta.
For everything else happening in Season 9.5 including event dates and new skins, the Season 9 roadmap has the full schedule. For more guides covering the full roster, check out the Marvel Rivals guides collection.