Marvel Rivals Nerfs Captain America by removing Animation Cancel

Marvel Rivals is constantly changing and adapting depending on what is strong and weak in any given season. Many of the changes made don't tend to sit well with fans, and the game has a particular tendency to drop characters into an overpowered state while leaving others virtually unplayable in a competitive environment. It's gotten so bad that some have started calling for the game's lead battle designer, Zhiyong, to be removed from his position.

With the closer of Season 7 on the horizon, bringing characters like Black Cat and White Fox into the fold, you have yet another renewed sense of optimism that some much-needed changes are on the way. Unfortunately, Captain America's power grid has been dealt a killing blow before the season has even begun, as a season-long hotfix has rather brutally reduced his offensive capabilities.

Sorry Cap Mains, no more interrupting animation for you

Those who play Captain America will know that he has a bit of a reputation as a tickle monster, and is usually more useful frustrating the backline than running around getting kills. However, one of the ways players managed to improve their profitability was with a very specific animation break that made you sprint with Cap after a shield throw, allowing you to attack faster and thus deal more damage.

That made him pretty much playable in competitive environments, but the powers that be at NetEase decided that the Captain America grid has had enough fun recently and have completely removed the ability to interrupt animation. They've dealt Captain America a small amount of damage on the first two hits of his combo as compensation, but it's not enough to calm the Cap network.

You already have several Reddit threads on the Marvel Rivals subreddit complaining about the change, with one noting that Caps damage has essentially been cut in half after the hotfix. You have former Cap mains declaring that there's no damn way I'm touching him now that he's taken out, and claiming that Captain America is the “worst character in the game now.”

Even the fairer fans out there aren't on NetEase's side, arguing that while it's probably good for his character to get rid of an animation suspension overall, his injury wasn't improved enough to warrant the change.

As for why NetEase has done this, it claims that Captain America's peak damage was something that “only a fraction of mechanically flawless players” could achieve, and that the change now brings him in line with all skill areas.

Personally, I think it's kind of silly to have a character as dependent on animation breaks as Captain America was, especially since the character wasn't actually designed to be used that way. That being said, Captain America was already one of the weakest characters in a game that largely suffers from power creep, so halving his damage has downright killed the character. Hopefully the upcoming updates will give us some Cap fans to put him on par with everyone else in the future.