With the arrival of Marvel Rivals Season 3: The Abyss Awakens, Wolverine has clawed his way back into the spotlight, and this time, he’s a full-blown nightmare for Vanguard mains.
The Season 3 patch brought new content, intense storylines with Knull, and fresh balance tweaks. But hidden within all that chaos was a serious power boost to Wolverine, turning him from an aggressive skirmisher into a tank-busting machine, and the community has noticed loudly.
“Strike incoming!” — Tank Mains Hit Their Breaking Point
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Vanguard players have taken to social media and in-game chats to jokingly announce a “tank strike”, calling out what they see as a wildly unfair meta shift. The source of their frustration is Wolverine’s recently juiced-up burn damage and life steal, which now allow him to melt through frontline heroes like they’re made of tissue paper and heal back most of the damage he takes while doing it.
Even before these buffs, Wolverine was already a thorn in tanks’ sides, with his fast gap-closing and relentless pressure. Now, he’s flat-out oppressive in duels and team fights alike. If you’re playing Reinhardt-style tanking roles, you better have backup or just say your prayers.
Wolverine’s kit has been upgraded with:
- Burn Damage: Making his attacks leave a lingering sting, even after disengaging.
- Life Steal: Giving him even more sustain in encounters, especially painful for slow-moving tanks.
The changes effectively make him rewarded for going face-first into the frontline. He can chew through health bars, shrug off chip damage, and come out of a 1v2 with a fresher look than he went in.
The Meta Fallout: Unfun or Unfair?
There’s always a fine line in hero-based games between powerful and broken, and right now, Wolverine is walking (or slashing) that line with reckless abandon. Not only are Vanguard mains complaining, either. Support players struggle to keep their tanks alive, though a few DPS mains demand harder counters to Wolverine’s wild mobility and sustain.
Marvel Rivals’ current balance philosophy is the big issue. If NetEase keeps pushing aggressive, burst-heavy brawlers like Wolverine, they should offer more tools to protect Vanguards or risk a meta where no one wants to play tank at all. Whether Wolverine gets a hotfix or waits for a mid-season tuning pass, he currently dominates close-range engagements, punishes isolated targets, and there’s very little risk to play aggressively with him right now.
The tank strike may be said in jest, but it reflects a serious pain point in the current state of Marvel Rivals. If left unchecked, this could result in role imbalance and the thing which makes matchmaking queues long and gameplay more chaotic. Wolverine is doing what he’s meant to do — be dangerous, aggressive, and the best at what he does. But when what he does completely invalidates the tanking role, it’s time for NetEase to sharpen the claws more carefully.
