Summary
Marvel Rivals Season 2.5kicks off on May 30 next week, and NetEase has been preparing us by showing off gameplay footage for the next character - Ultron - while also revealing new team-up abilities and balance changes.
One of the biggest topics to come out of the showcase was what appeared to be a huge rework for Jeff the Land Shark,as while he did get a rather fun “Jeff-nado” team up with Storm, it appears NetEase isn’t a huge fan of how the character is used as a flanker rather than a traditional healer. It was spotted that Jeff’s main damage source is being changed to a resource that you have to manage, but it turns out the changes were far worse.
Marvel Rivals Fans All Seem To Hate Jeff’s Upcoming Rework
Even before the patch notes were made available, Jeff mains were all doom and gloom about the changes, but now the complaints have multiplied after people have seen just how different the character will play in Season 2.5. For starters, his main healing stream of water will now damage enemies, but he now only has three big ice blasts at a time, with a 3-second cooldown for each one.
Jeff now only has three bubbles instead of the previous six or seven, and they now do healing over time instead of outright heals, but the biggest change is that Jeff’s ability to hide underwater is no longer limitless. Instead, the ability has an energy cap, and Jeff will be forced out of the water when it runs out, massively reducing his ability to cause problems in an enemy team’s backline.
All of this means Jeff is no longer the DPS/support hybrid that he was in Season 2, and will now become more of a healbot. His ability to dive backlines has been completely kneecapped, and Jeff players are understandably frsutrated with the changes. For example, a Reddit user called Throwaway-929103 says these changes have “destroyed an already low tier character”.
A Twitter user called Kanva claims that Jeff has now lost his “identity”, and is generally baffled by most of the changes in the patch notes,while another Reddit user called BusinessAbrocoma8455called the rework a straight nerf and that NetEase has now “gutted the character”. That being said, we won’t know how these changes to Jeff actually feel until Season 2.5 gets here, so here’s hoping he hasn’t been taken round back and shot.
