Marvel Rivals Black Widow mains are losing it as worst hero gets nerfed

Black Widow's ultimate ability is a little weaker after the patch introducing Elsa Bloodstone

If you know any Marvel Rivals fans who play Black Widow, now might be a good time to check up on them. These players, who stubbornly cling to a character infamous for having the worst win rate on the roster, have probably spent the last month getting bullied in every lobby they join. Now, to make matters worse, developer NetEase decided it would be a good idea to make Black Widow even weaker.

The latest Marvel Rivals patch went live earlier this week and introduced a new character called Elsa Bloodstone alongside Valentines-themed content to the team-based superhero shooter. Beyond some much-needed quality-of-life adjustments, the update also adjusted four heroes. For some reason, one of them was Black Widow. Apparently, the notorious sniper's ultimate ability wasn't meant to weaken other characters so significantly.

"We called in the Black Widow Program for a reboot; now her stings strictly inflict the correct amount of Vulnerability," NetEase said in the latest patch notes.

Right now, Marvel Rivals has a total of 46 different characters. Out of all of those, Black Widow comes in dead last when it comes to win rate. It's so bad that, for ages, Black Widow mains have been holding out hope that their beloved assassin might see some kind of buff. That hope was reinvigorated following a high-profile spat between a handful of Twitch streamers.

Back in late January, one influencer was pushed out of a $40,000 Marvel Rivals tournament after being placed in a group with a teammate who favored Black Widow. The influencer tried urging his teammate to switch to a different character, so their group would have a better chance at winning; he was hoping to use the winnings to help pay for his college tuition. News of the teammate's refusal to play nice, and the consequent ban, led to hell breaking loose within the community. The topic burst out of the Marvel Rivals bubble and into mainstream gaming discourse. This single YouTube video on the topic, for example, has amassed 4.3M views — and it was just one of many Black Widow drama posts across social media platforms and major news outlets.

That kerfuffle involved specific people, but the backlash hit Black Widow mains at large. Shortly after, Black Widow mains were reporting that they were getting ridiculed and bullied in nearly every match. Sometimes, players claimed, teammates would leave matches the moment they noticed a Black Widow player in them. It was a bloodbath of negativity, but many Widow mains tried to look on the bright side. Maybe now, after all this negative attention surrounding the hero, NetEase would be compelled to give Black Widow some love. Right?

But Black Widow's cosmic misfortunes have only grown worse with the latest Marvel Rivals update. If the community was in a bad place a month ago, the patch is threatening to turn everyone into the Joker. Some players are wondering if it's time to abandon ship. Nearly everyone is mourning, or can't stop cursing. "THERE'S NO FUCKING WAY THESE FUCKING ASSHOLES NERFED WIDOWS ULT," one player exclaimed in an angry thread discussing the changes.

"Should they just remove Widow?" one Black Widow main mused. "She’s not gonna get any rework. nobody’s going to play her. She’s never going to be Meta. She will always be a throw character. People will always instantly try to ban her if you pick her in comp," the post continued.

While some people are debating what to do next about the neglected hero, others are treating it like the final nail in the coffin.

"The devs barely knew her, and district Hitscan had never accepted her as one of their own," one fan eulogized. "In a few years, there would be a vague memory that a girl had once sung in the Red Room. And then that would be forgotten, too. Good-bye, Black Widow, we hardly knew you.”