As Marvel Rivals gets ready to kick off season 3 next week, we're getting our first glimpse at some of the upcoming changes. And, with respect to my poor beleaguered Blade bros, the biggest news for me is that Jean Grey, original member of the X-Men and sometimes terror of the cosmos, is joining the roster as Phoenix.
There's plenty more coming, including Blade in Season 3.5 next month, but Phoenix is the headliner for me, and here's our first look at what she can do.
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 appears to instantly apply damage to enemies with no travel time (also known as hitscan) and apply some kind of flame stacks to opponents, represented by up to three flame icons above their characters. In the trailer, heroes appeared to detonate when hit at full stacks, releasing a burst of additional damage around them.
Her alternate fire sends a rapid-fire burst of flame that creates a series of small explosions, similar to Hela's alternate fire. In the trailer, we see it used on a group of enemies with maximum flame stacks to detonate everyone and effectively burst down the entire opposing team at once.
I can't tell you exactly what's happening here, but whatever it is, it looks fun. Marvel/Screenshot by Adam Benjamin
Her first ability is a quick dash. In the trailer, Phoenix uses it to jump backward, dodging an enemy Venom looking to crash down on her.
Her second ability appears to be a limited-duration flight, 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 is what made me scream. I've watched the trailer several times and my best description of how it appears to work is, "You crash to the ground, kill everyone in your way and explode." And I mean everyone -- in the trailer, we see Hela in her ultimate, wherein she flies up into the sky and her health jumps up to 1,000 HP, get erased when Phoenix ults through her. In addition to also killing Rocket and Psylocke in one shot, the ultimate also clears deployables like Rocket's rez beacon and Peni's nest while whittling Peni herself and Groot down to a sliver of health in the explosion.
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