Season 5 (“Love is a Battlefield”) goes live on November 14 with a balance pass that leans into team utility, survivability, and smoother combo flow. Vanguards get the most visible support tools, Duelists pick up consistency and threat in close quarters, and Strategists see targeted tweaks. A large team-up refresh and a new placement-based ranked system land alongside Gambit’s debut, with the 18v18 mode and anniversary event rolling out on November 27.
Season 5 balance changes (heroes and roles)
| Role | Hero | Change preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard | Captain America | Ultimate now helps nearby teammates charge their ultimates faster. |
| Vanguard | Peni Parker | Allies standing in her webs receive healing. |
| Vanguard | The Thing | Tuning aimed at keeping him relevant in coordinated fights. |
| Vanguard | Hulk | Tuning aimed at keeping him relevant in coordinated fights. |
| Duelist | Spider-Man | Combo flow and consistency improvements. |
| Duelist | Wolverine | Buffs to make him more threatening in close-range duels, especially into tanks. |
| Strategist | Loki | Targeted boost. |
| Strategist | Cloak & Dagger | Increased survivability. |
Team-Up ability reworks and additions (Season 5)
| Category | Team-Up | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| New | Explosive Entanglement (Gambit + Magneto) | Gambit anchors and charges Magneto’s barrier with kinetic energy; Magneto’s attacks trigger explosions with delayed kinetic bursts. |
| New | Sword of Duality (Cloak & Dagger + Hawkeye) | Cloak & Dagger anchor; Hawkeye’s Crescent Slash gains knockback and a light/dark wave that heals/buffs allies and damages/applies anti-heal to enemies. |
| New | Blade of Khonshu (Moon Knight + Blade) | Moon Knight anchors; Blade dashes into slashes, finishing with bouncing Moonblades. |
| Retired | Lunar Force | Removed. |
| Retired | Operation: Microchip | Removed. |
| Adjusted | Mental Projection | Magneto removed from the pairing. |
| Adjusted | Chilling Assault | Hawkeye removed from the pairing. |
| Adjusted | Primal Flame | Black Widow joins Phoenix and Wolverine; Widow can switch to Phoenix bullets that heal allies and deal splash damage (no crits). |
Competitive mode: placements, queues, rewards
- Placements replace hard seasonal resets. You play 10 placement matches each half-season to set your starting rank.
- For Season 5 seeding, initial placement draws on your highest rank from Seasons 0–3 and your final rank from Season 4.
- If you complete all 10 placements in 5.0, that rank carries to 5.5; if not, you’ll need to place in 5.5 to qualify for rank rewards.
- Queue sizes: groups of 2, 3, 4, or 6 are allowed up to Grandmaster. If any player is Celestial, Eternity, or Top 500, the queue is duo-only.
- Rewards: reach Gold and play 10 matches to earn the season costume, delivered in the next half. Crest of Honor and nameplate frames are now granted once per full season after 5.5 ends.
Gambit at launch (Strategist)
- Role: Strategist. Uses kinetic energy and Chorovium-enhanced cards to flex between ally utility and pressure.
- Card combinations can heal allies, cleanse debuffs, or deal damage with knockback and anti-heal.
- Close-range staff options bolster space creation in skirmishes.
- Ultimate: throws kinetic-charged aces to nearby teammates, boosting their jump and adding explosive effects to attacks for a short window.
What arrives on November 27
- New mode: 18v18 Conquest Annihilation on Grand Garden for large-scale objective battles.
- First anniversary event: earn 2,500 Units and a free Legendary Jeff the Land Shark costume, with additional anniversary-themed outfits.
Other Season 5 features that shape play
- Times Square social hub (non-combat) hosts up to 100 players for hangouts and in-game activities between matches.
- Cross-platform progression rolls out broadly: unlocks, skins, and emotes carry across platforms; ranked progress remains platform-specific.
What these changes encourage
Vanguard improvements push teams toward tighter formations and proactive peel—Captain America’s new ult behavior and Peni’s ally healing create stronger windows to stabilize or snowball. Spider-Man’s smoothing should reduce dropped confirms, while Wolverine’s close-range pressure raises the cost of sloppy frontline positioning. Strategist tweaks aim to shore up outliers: Loki gets a targeted lift, and Cloak & Dagger should feel less brittle during engagements. The team-up refresh further rewards pre-planning, with anchor-driven effects that clearly define initiations and follow-ups.
Expect a short settling period as Gambit adds flexible utility and anti-heal to common fight scripts, and 18v18’s large-scale brawls elevate area denial, displacement, and mobility picks once the mode lands on November 27.
