{"id":1096994,"date":"2026-01-26T06:11:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=509556"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:11:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:11:46","slug":"one-buff-took-storm-from-a-marvel-rivals-afterthought-to-a-must-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/one-buff-took-storm-from-a-marvel-rivals-afterthought-to-a-must-play\/","title":{"rendered":"One buff took Storm from a Marvel Rivals afterthought to a must-play"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A close-up of Marvel Rivals hero Storm on a white background\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/one-buff-took-storm-from-a-marvel-rivals-afterthought-to-a-must-play.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Storm has swiftly taken the throne as the strongest character in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/impressions\/493325\/marvel-rivals-chaotic-overwatch\">Marvel Rivals<\/a><\/em> season 1. A recent round of buffs catapulted her from one of the least powerful damage dealers to a menace at all skill levels in the hero shooter\u2019s ranked mode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">According to stats tracker site <a href=\"https:\/\/rivalsmeta.com\/characters\">RivalsMeta<\/a>, which gets its data from the game\u2019s robust API, she has the highest win rate out of all 35 heroes, at around 57%. Last season, she was only at 51%, and generally considered one of the weakest duelists, compared to popular picks like Hela, Hawkeye, and Psylocke. But a slight buff to her damage output and survivability during her hurricane ultimate tipped the scale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">It isn\u2019t just the fact that she can rule the skies without ever having to touch down, it\u2019s the team-wide damage boost she provides that makes her extremely potent. Storm is a support character disguised as a damage-dealer, transforming any team she\u2019s on into a sharpened knife. And because actual support heroes with their own damage boosts, like Mantis, are tremendously popular already, teams with both of them are unstoppable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In the highest ranks, Storm\u2019s presence has raised the win rates of heroes who benefit from her the most, like Magik and Wolverine. Both of them have to get close to enemies to do anything and the damage boost makes it much easier for them to get in and out unscathed \u2014 much to every support players\u2019 chagrin. Even heroes like Black Widow, who used to struggle securing kills on characters who could survive her sniper shots, are starting to climb up from the bottom of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/marvel-rivals-guide\/508348\/tier-list-best-heroes-ranked\">tier lists<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">That\u2019s how a handful of buffs can change the shape of a meta, even when they don\u2019t look like much. Nobody is calling for Storm to be nerfed just yet, but I suspect that demand will be on the way as more players figure out the impact of a hard-to-reach flying hero with team-wide benefits. Game director Guangyun Chen recently told <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/01\/14\/marvel-rivals-interview-make-a-hit-live-service-game-22352641\/\">Metro<\/a> that the team wants to let players experiment rather than impose rules on them, like limiting the number of heroes in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/gaming\/501604\/marvel-rivals-role-queue-question-overwatch\">each role<\/a> on a team. If that also means it won\u2019t do another balance pass this season, you might want to start practicing the psionic goddess immediately.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/gaming\/509556\/marvel-rivals-storm-win-rate-season-1\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Storm has swiftly taken the throne as the strongest character in Marvel Rivals season 1. A recent round of buffs catapulted her from one of the least powerful damage dealers to a menace at all skill levels in the hero shooter\u2019s ranked mode. According to stats tracker site RivalsMeta, which gets its data from the game\u2019s robust API, she has the highest win rate out of all 35 heroes, at around 57%. Last season, she was only at 51%, and generally considered one of the weakest duelists, compared to popular picks like Hela, Hawkeye, and Psylocke. But a slight buff to her damage output and survivability during her hurricane ultimate tipped the scale. It isn\u2019t just the fact that she can rule the skies without&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/one-buff-took-storm-from-a-marvel-rivals-afterthought-to-a-must-play\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1096995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>One buff took Storm from a Marvel Rivals afterthought to a must-play | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Storm has swiftly taken the throne as the strongest character in Marvel Rivals season 1. 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