Marvel Rivals season 3 is almost upon us, bringing with it the blessing of the Phoenix Force. Jean Grey, original member of the X-Men and sometimes terror of the cosmos, is joining the roster as a new duelist. As usual, we’re also getting a new map, some balance changes and several quality of life changes when it comes to cosmetics.

And hang in there, Daywalker devotees — Blade is coming in Season 3.5 next month. 

Phoenix’s abilities in Marvel Rivals

Phoenix joins as yet another duelist — an already oversaturated role, but one that feels appropriate for her. She brings a mix of area-of-effect damage that can help chew through groups of enemies as well as mobility that lets her flit around the battlefield to find flank angles. 

Phoenix’s primary fire applies instant damage to enemies (also known as hitscan fire) and applies Spark stacks to opponents, represented by up to three flame icons above their characters. Heroes detonate at full stacks, releasing a burst of additional damage around them and healing Phoenix over time.

Her alternate fire sends a rapid-fire burst of flame that creates a series of small explosions, similar to Hela’s alternate fire. The first blast briefly stuns enemies while the other apply a slowing effect. This ability also applies Spark stacks.

Her first ability is a quick dash that leaves behind an exploding illusion, which can apply a Spark stack to any enemies hit. 

Her second ability grants Phoenix limited-duration flight, speed boost and ammo regeneration, allowing Phoenix to freely fly around the battlefield for a few seconds. The flight is on a resource meter that recharges while Phoenix isn’t flying.

Phoenix’s ultimate has a few different effects. After she leaps into the air, you aim toward a point of impact where the ultimate applies a burst damage in an area and adds a Spark stack to anyone hit. It also destroys any deployable items — think Peni nests, Rocket beacons, Namor squids — in the area. Perhaps most significantly, it removes all bonus health (represented by blue portions of a hero’s health bar), allowing Phoenix to more effectively cut through the overhealth applied by Venom’s Symbiotic Resilience ability or support ultimates like Luna Snow’s Fate of Both Worlds and Mantis’s Soul Resurgence. 

A mobile hitscan hero with a stacking mechanic and a meteoric ultimate? Yeah, sign me up. Between this and Overwatch 2’s Freja, this longtime support/strategist main may have officially turned into a damage/duelist main.

When does season 3 start?

Marvel Rivals season 3.0 is scheduled to start on Friday. Typically, this involves servers going down for a few hours around midnight PT before being turned back on for the new season in the very early morning.

What about Blade? Haven’t we waited enough?

Rivals continues to make Blade fans wait, since that hero won’t be added to the roster until season 3.5. But at least that’s only a month away under the new season structure. 

Rivals season 3 balance changes

In the Dev Visions vol. 7 video, Rivals devs gave us a quick breakdown of the upcoming balance changes, and we now have the official patch notes. 

Team-up changes

Rivals is adding two new team-ups, tacking heroes onto two existing ones and removing two others (Storming Ignition and ESU Alumnus) from the game. It’s also nerfing another. Here’s the quick rundown:

• New — Primal Flame: Phoenix anchors to add damage over time and lifesteal to Wolverine’s attacks after his leap. 
• New — Ever-Burning Bond: Human Torch anchors to let Spider-Man shoot a burning web with a flaming tracer. (The flaming tracer stacks with Spidey’s regular tracers, devs said.)
• Updated — Symbiote Shenanigans: Adds Hela, giving her Soul Drainer Hel Sphere slowing tendrils.
• Updated — Stark Protocol: Adds Squirrel Girl, giving her an explosive, homing gauntlet. 
• Updated — Guardian Revival: Devs said they’d be nerfing some element of the Guardians’ team-up.

Other things coming in season 3

The battle pass is getting some adjustments to account for shorter seasons. Battle passes still offer 10 skins, but you’ll earn tokens at a faster rate to make it easier to progress through the entire battle pass in a shorter time period. Daily missions are also going away, with weekly missions shifting to permanent quests instead of being time-limited. Seasonal missions that offer large batches of tokens are also being added.

Rivals devs also announced a new competitive mode coming in season 3.5 but said we’d have to wait for any details about it.

The game is also adding accessories (which appear to be animated stickers that float above the KO notifications), new chroma options and visual effects for ultimate abilities. Perhaps the nicest quality of life change is the ability to mix and match MVP animations with any skins, instead of having certain MVP animations locked to specific skins. 

I’m already excited

I had been falling off Rivals for the past few months, but the trailers for Phoenix and the new season got me excited all over again. I’ve played more Rivals in the past week than in the previous month, and that’s just to shake off the rust before Phoenix gets here. Once the season actually starts on Friday, I’m planning to spend even more time in the game.