Season 7 of Marvel Rivals launched March 20, 2026 with the "Hunt Is On" patch, and the most impactful change is not on any individual hero card. NetEase cut roughly 20% off every hero's Ultimate energy generation across the board. Ultimates now arrive 50-60 seconds later in a fight than they did in Season 6, and Strategist passive regen took a separate cut on top of that. Every nerf below sits inside that systemic context — the heroes who lost the most are usually the ones whose kits were already paying the global ult-tax twice.
What follows is the breakdown of the 10 heroes who genuinely fell off in Season 7, grouped by role. The patch numbers come from NetEase's official S7 balance post; where Season 7.5 (April 17 patch) extended or reversed a change, that is flagged in the entry. If the slower ult economy is stalling your ladder run, you can climb past the Season 7 nerf cycle with our ranked services while you rebuild your hero pool.
The breakdown that follows runs through the tank slot first, then DPS, then support, with the heroes that survive each role's S7 numbers.
The Vanguard variant of Deadpool was the dominant Season 6 pick, and Season 7 hit him on the two numbers that defined the kit. Passive damage reduction dropped from 40% to 30%. Ultimate cooldown stretched from 45 seconds to 60 seconds. Neither cut is kit-defining on its own; combined with the global ult-energy nerf, they push him out of the "no-prep flex tank" slot he held in Season 6.
Players who'd rather leave a gutted main behind can swap mains without losing rank progress while the patch settles. Tankpool is still legal in higher lobbies, but he is no longer the auto-pick into dive comps that demand a frontline who can also sponge ult charge.
Strange's shield HP dropped from 800 to 700 in the Season 7 patch, and Season 7.5 followed it up by trimming the shield's recovery rate further (from 70 HP/s to 60 HP/s on Shield of the Seraphim). The shield is now broken by one extra Punisher burst or one extra Hela combo per portal cycle. Strange did not receive a compensating buff while Emma Frost and Hulk both improved in the same patch, which leaves him visibly behind on the tank shortlist. He still pulls weight in compositions that synergise with his portal play (Invisible Woman pairings, prepared anchor fights), but the unconditional pick rate dropped in Season 7.
Three Daredevil-specific cuts landed: Devil Chain's ending damage was reduced, the Max HP boost from Chain stacks was lowered, and Sonic Pursuit's damage reduction was trimmed. None of those individually push him below S7's DPS line, but together they remove the "free dive-and-survive" pattern he ran through Season 6. He still rewards mechanical play, especially in dive comps that can cover his retreats; he is no longer the no-question top DPS dive pick.
Winter Soldier (the in-game canonical name; some patch notes still spell him as "Bucky") had his Roterstern Spell Field on-hit damage reduced from 65 to 55. The number is on a secondary ability, not his primary, so the headline ranged-DPS profile is intact — but the secondary nerf removes the chip pressure he used to win even trades. Combined with the global ult-energy nerf, he generates ultimate noticeably slower in mixed-range fights. Strong S-tier characters like Elsa and Jean still outclass him when both are off the ban slate; he is a strong B-tier pivot when they are gone.
Hawkeye's base HP dropped from 275 to 250 in Season 7. (The patch line for this nerf is HP, not damage reduction; Hawkeye does not have a damage-reduction stat.) The hit lands hard because his weakness was already mobility into dive compositions, and Season 7's faster-paced dive meta punishes static long-range poke even more than Season 6 did. He still shines into static enemy comps but is borderline unplayable into a coordinated dive lobby.
Magik came into Season 7 expecting buffs and instead absorbed the systemic ult-energy nerf without any compensating change. Her ult-economy already lagged behind the top-end Duelists, and the 20% global cut pushed her further behind. She still pulls value in lobbies that respect her teleport pressure, but the cooldown-anchored heroes who replaced her in the meta (Hela, Jean Grey) generate value without leaning on ultimate cycles at all.
Gambit is a Strategist, not a DPS. His kit reads as ranged damage but his role classification is support, and the Season 7 changes touch his support tools as much as his damage. The hotfix-style adjustment cut his Ultimate duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds and dropped the ult-charge his attacks generate from enemies hit. He also lost some of his repositioning, making him easier to kite. The Strategist passive-regen cut applied on top of that, which means his sustain support during his ult window now demands tighter positioning. He is still pickable in coordinated comps and may see fewer bans, but the S6 dominance is gone.
Deadpool's third role variant took the same Ultimate-cooldown nerf as the Vanguard build (45 to 60 seconds) plus the Strategist-wide passive-regen cut, and the combination removes the high-utility flex slot Healpool held in Season 6. The fast-cycling healing-plus-damage profile that made him a draft surprise no longer fires as often per fight, and the global ult-energy nerf widens the gap between Healpool's healing windows. The kit is intact; the rhythm is slower.
Elsa Bloodstone took back-to-back hits. The Season 7 launch patch cut her Instinct stack mechanic and bonus health, narrowing the high-damage angles that had let her dominate through the back end of Season 6. Six days later, the March 26 follow-up balance patch dropped her base HP from 275 to 250 and tightened a few specific damage breakpoints. Her ranked viability is down across both reads.
Three patterns that often show up on "losers" lists were left out of the ten above on purpose:
With those exclusions explicit, the larger meta read still applies to every entry above.
The systemic ult-energy nerf is the single most important read for the rest of Season 7. Every hero pool now needs a teammate who can finish fights without an ult, and the ranked meta has tilted toward heroes who win neutral with cooldowns rather than rotating ultimates. The S-tier picks (Emma Frost, Hulk, Luna Snow, Mantis when she lands a clean lane) have not changed much; the gap between them and the rest of the roster has widened because the rest of the roster lost ult cycles. If your main is on this list, the right pivot is to a hero whose kit was already neutral-strong rather than a hero on the next nerf cycle. Browse the full Marvel Rivals carry catalog if you want a ranked partner who already mains the heroes Season 7 rewards.
Gambit is classified as a Strategist (support) in Marvel Rivals. His kit reads as ranged damage but his ranked role slot is Strategist, which is why the Strategist passive-regen cut hits him harder than it would hit a Duelist with similar damage output.
The Season 7 patch dropped his shield HP from 800 to 700. The "900 to 800" number that appeared in some earlier write-ups was incorrect — Strange's S6 shield value was 800, and S7 reduced it by 100.
The Season 7 nerf was to base HP, dropping from 275 to 250. Hawkeye has no damage-reduction stat, so any "damage reduction" framing is using the wrong word for the HP change.
Twice. The Season 7 launch patch (March 20, 2026) cut her Instinct stack mechanic and bonus health, and the March 26 follow-up balance patch dropped her base HP from 275 to 250 plus a few specific ability tweaks. Both reads count as Season 7 nerfs.
Tankpool is the Vanguard variant of Deadpool: same hero, different role slot. Marvel Rivals lets Deadpool flex into Duelist, Vanguard, or Strategist depending on the draft, and the marquee Season 7 nerf (DR 40 to 30, Ult CD 45 to 60s) applies to the Vanguard build.
The global ~20% Ultimate-energy nerf. Every hero in the game pays it, but the heroes who already leaned on rotating ultimates (Tankpool, Healpool, the Strategists) pay it twice. If you have to point at one change, that is it.
Not really. The April 17 Season 7.5 patch trimmed Doctor Strange's shield recovery further (70 HP/s to 60 HP/s) and shipped follow-up tuning across the board. Tankpool, Elsa Bloodstone, Hawkeye, and Winter Soldier remained on or near their S7-launch baselines. The article scope above is the Season 7 launch patch plus the March 26 follow-up.
