The November 2023 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) game update on its official server has been huge. The early update this month gave teams that will play in the MPL Invitational and M5 Wild Card tournaments some time to test the new metagame. While the rest in the original server are exploring the recent changes, the game’s test server had an update, Patch Notes 1.8.32 Adv. Server. In this patch, there are four heroes that received significant hero adjustments which are the following: Aurora (revamped), Alice, Barats, and Kimmy.
Aurora's damage pacing is somewhat slow, so the game developers/designers were aiming to quicken her burst potential.
[Passive] (↑)
Cooldown: 180s >> 150s
[Skill 1] (~)
Skill Revamp: Aurora fires an icy meteorite at the target location, dealing Magic Damage and reducing targets' Movement Speed. The meteorite then explodes 5 times, dealing Magic Damage each time.
Her skill 1 received a revamp in which aside from a slow debuff, this now deals more damage over time. The cooldown of her passive is also reduced from 3 minutes down to 2.5 minutes. The revamped skill 1 is interesting as Aurora just needs to hit this skill and the opponent will receive a lot of damage. Instead of an instant burst, this skill deals damage over time in which this adjustment might have been done to give opponents some time to lifesteal or react to this and not make this skill 1 overpowered.
The blood orb mechanic is fun, but it forces the Alice player to play multiple lanes to maximize their gains. The game is trying to change the Passive mechanic and adjusting the pacing of her active skills. Her Skill 2 can now be used more frequently, while her Ultimate grants more survivability and enhances the burst of her Skill 2, enabling Alice to farm faster.
[Attributes] (↑)
Max Mana Growth per Level: 0 >> 100
[Passive] (~)
Revamped Effect: Restore 1.5% Max Mana every second (doubled while fighting enemy heroes). Gain 3 Movement Speed and 1% Healing Received per level.
[Skill 1] (↓)
Cooldown: 5s >> 8s
[Skill 2] (↑)
Cooldown: 7s >> 6s
Immobilizing Time: 1.2s >> 0.5s
Mana Cost: 50-75 >> 100
Damage: 270-395 + 90% Magic Power >> (200-400) + 75% Magic Power + ((5-15%) + 0.3% Max Mana)% Enemy's Max HP
[Ultimate] (↑)
New Effect: Reduce the cooldown of Skills 1 & 2 by 0.2s and 0.5s respectively upon hitting 1 enemy hero
Base Damage: 90 >> 60-100 (no longer scales with Mana growth)
Mana Cost: 50-160 >> 40-120
Alice received several adjustments across all of her skills. The main highlights here are the adjustment on her active skills. Her skill 1 got increased cooldown, her skill 2 received a decrease in cooldown. The damage calculation of her skill 2 is changed though as this now considers the enemy’s MAX HP. Lastly, her ultimate skill received a new effect that reduces the cooldown of her non-ultimate active skills.
HP Regen Bonus from Magic Power: 10% >> 30%
[Passive] (↑)
Stacks: Each enemy hit >> Each time a skill hits a target (hitting multiple targets still only grant 1 stack).
Max Stacks: 25 >> 10
Number of Stacks Required for Enhanced Basic Attack: 15 >> 10
New Effect: Enhanced Basic Attack also helps maintain the Passive effect.
[Skill 1] (~)
No longer slows enemies hit.
Second Stage Damage Interval: 1s >> 0.5s
[Skill 2] (↑)
New Effect: The first missile launched also deals damage and slows enemies by 40% for 1s.
Revamped Effect: The missile is now guaranteed to pull enemies toward Barats.
Stun Duration: 0.5s >> 0.8s
[Ultimate] (↑)
Revamped Effect: Pressing the Ultimate button charges up the skill, during which Barats is immune to CC. When released, Barats sprints in the target direction, devouring the first enemy hit. (The distance of the sprint increases with the charge time; cancelling the cast refunds 60% cooldown time.)
Barats also received multiple adjustments and the insights left in the patch note briefly explained that a reason for this experimental change is because of the complexity of his mechanic. First issue is about maintaining his passive. The adjustments made to address this is that his enhanced basic attack now maintains the passive and the stack needed is now lowered. Second is about slow effects. His skill 2 now received a new effect that slows enemies. Lastly is about his ultimate skill being able to be countered by enemies too easily so this skill now has been revamped that made it have a crowd control immunity.
These changes to Kimmy were tested already before the recent November 2023 update but it seems the game hasn’t seen the result it aims so Kimmy received adjustments again for further experiments. The game doesn't want Kimmy to focus too much on energy management, so they've extended her damage window in the mid and late game. We're also slightly lowering her damage scaling. Meanwhile, they want to boost her Crit Chance to reduce the extent at which Radiant Armor counters her.
[Passive] (↑)
Basic Attack Damage: 22% Total Physical Attack + 24% Total Magic Power, 1% per level >> 20% Total Physical Attack + 15% Total Magic Power at all levels
Attack Effect: 22% >> 20%
[Skill 1] (↑)
Damage: 20 + 22%-27% Total Physical Attack + 24%-29% Total Magic Power >> 30 + 20% Total Physical Attack at all levels + 20% Total Magic Power
Energy Cost: 5 at all levels >> 5-3
New Effect: Levelling up the skill grants Kimmy 5%-20% extra Crit Chance.
[Ultimate] (↓)
Removed Effect: Energy Regen.
Slightly reduced backswing time.
These are similar to the adjustments already made before. These changes were just reapplied again in the advanced server to test again but this time, they added a new effect on her skill 1. Her skill 1 now grants her extra Crit Chance every level up. The patch notes explained that this is so that Radiant Armor won’t completely counter her.
These are all the significant hero adjustments brought by the first update in the test server since the huge November 2023 global update. Other heroes like Cici have also been adjusted and the details of the hero adjustments above are also written before the patch notes introduced the adjustments to the newest hero Cici. These adjustments are not expected to be applied at least not later than the M5 Wild Card stage. Meanwhile, the other minor adjustments may be applied outright in the original server via a hotfix or emergency update.
Stay tuned for more news and updates!
- Revamped Aurora buff
Aurora's damage pacing is somewhat slow, so the game developers/designers were aiming to quicken her burst potential.
[Passive] (↑)
Cooldown: 180s >> 150s
[Skill 1] (~)
Skill Revamp: Aurora fires an icy meteorite at the target location, dealing Magic Damage and reducing targets' Movement Speed. The meteorite then explodes 5 times, dealing Magic Damage each time.
Her skill 1 received a revamp in which aside from a slow debuff, this now deals more damage over time. The cooldown of her passive is also reduced from 3 minutes down to 2.5 minutes. The revamped skill 1 is interesting as Aurora just needs to hit this skill and the opponent will receive a lot of damage. Instead of an instant burst, this skill deals damage over time in which this adjustment might have been done to give opponents some time to lifesteal or react to this and not make this skill 1 overpowered.
- Alice Experimental Changes
The blood orb mechanic is fun, but it forces the Alice player to play multiple lanes to maximize their gains. The game is trying to change the Passive mechanic and adjusting the pacing of her active skills. Her Skill 2 can now be used more frequently, while her Ultimate grants more survivability and enhances the burst of her Skill 2, enabling Alice to farm faster.
[Attributes] (↑)
Max Mana Growth per Level: 0 >> 100
[Passive] (~)
Revamped Effect: Restore 1.5% Max Mana every second (doubled while fighting enemy heroes). Gain 3 Movement Speed and 1% Healing Received per level.
[Skill 1] (↓)
Cooldown: 5s >> 8s
[Skill 2] (↑)
Cooldown: 7s >> 6s
Immobilizing Time: 1.2s >> 0.5s
Mana Cost: 50-75 >> 100
Damage: 270-395 + 90% Magic Power >> (200-400) + 75% Magic Power + ((5-15%) + 0.3% Max Mana)% Enemy's Max HP
[Ultimate] (↑)
New Effect: Reduce the cooldown of Skills 1 & 2 by 0.2s and 0.5s respectively upon hitting 1 enemy hero
Base Damage: 90 >> 60-100 (no longer scales with Mana growth)
Mana Cost: 50-160 >> 40-120
Alice received several adjustments across all of her skills. The main highlights here are the adjustment on her active skills. Her skill 1 got increased cooldown, her skill 2 received a decrease in cooldown. The damage calculation of her skill 2 is changed though as this now considers the enemy’s MAX HP. Lastly, her ultimate skill received a new effect that reduces the cooldown of her non-ultimate active skills.
- Barats Experimental Changes
HP Regen Bonus from Magic Power: 10% >> 30%
[Passive] (↑)
Stacks: Each enemy hit >> Each time a skill hits a target (hitting multiple targets still only grant 1 stack).
Max Stacks: 25 >> 10
Number of Stacks Required for Enhanced Basic Attack: 15 >> 10
New Effect: Enhanced Basic Attack also helps maintain the Passive effect.
[Skill 1] (~)
No longer slows enemies hit.
Second Stage Damage Interval: 1s >> 0.5s
[Skill 2] (↑)
New Effect: The first missile launched also deals damage and slows enemies by 40% for 1s.
Revamped Effect: The missile is now guaranteed to pull enemies toward Barats.
Stun Duration: 0.5s >> 0.8s
[Ultimate] (↑)
Revamped Effect: Pressing the Ultimate button charges up the skill, during which Barats is immune to CC. When released, Barats sprints in the target direction, devouring the first enemy hit. (The distance of the sprint increases with the charge time; cancelling the cast refunds 60% cooldown time.)
Barats also received multiple adjustments and the insights left in the patch note briefly explained that a reason for this experimental change is because of the complexity of his mechanic. First issue is about maintaining his passive. The adjustments made to address this is that his enhanced basic attack now maintains the passive and the stack needed is now lowered. Second is about slow effects. His skill 2 now received a new effect that slows enemies. Lastly is about his ultimate skill being able to be countered by enemies too easily so this skill now has been revamped that made it have a crowd control immunity.
- Kimmy buff
These changes to Kimmy were tested already before the recent November 2023 update but it seems the game hasn’t seen the result it aims so Kimmy received adjustments again for further experiments. The game doesn't want Kimmy to focus too much on energy management, so they've extended her damage window in the mid and late game. We're also slightly lowering her damage scaling. Meanwhile, they want to boost her Crit Chance to reduce the extent at which Radiant Armor counters her.
[Passive] (↑)
Basic Attack Damage: 22% Total Physical Attack + 24% Total Magic Power, 1% per level >> 20% Total Physical Attack + 15% Total Magic Power at all levels
Attack Effect: 22% >> 20%
[Skill 1] (↑)
Damage: 20 + 22%-27% Total Physical Attack + 24%-29% Total Magic Power >> 30 + 20% Total Physical Attack at all levels + 20% Total Magic Power
Energy Cost: 5 at all levels >> 5-3
New Effect: Levelling up the skill grants Kimmy 5%-20% extra Crit Chance.
[Ultimate] (↓)
Removed Effect: Energy Regen.
Slightly reduced backswing time.
These are similar to the adjustments already made before. These changes were just reapplied again in the advanced server to test again but this time, they added a new effect on her skill 1. Her skill 1 now grants her extra Crit Chance every level up. The patch notes explained that this is so that Radiant Armor won’t completely counter her.
These are all the significant hero adjustments brought by the first update in the test server since the huge November 2023 global update. Other heroes like Cici have also been adjusted and the details of the hero adjustments above are also written before the patch notes introduced the adjustments to the newest hero Cici. These adjustments are not expected to be applied at least not later than the M5 Wild Card stage. Meanwhile, the other minor adjustments may be applied outright in the original server via a hotfix or emergency update.
Stay tuned for more news and updates!
