Arena of Valor (AoV) - Taiwan July Update Patch Notes + Review

A translation of the patch notes for the Arena of Valor balance patch that recently went live on Garena's Taiwan server.

Update July 12: We’ve provided our thoughts on the changes

A small balance patch recently went live on the Arena of Valor Taiwan server. In the past, this has always meant that an identical patch was soon to arrive on Tencent servers as well, so we have collected an English translation of the Taiwanese patch notes.

Hero Changes

Ignis

Sacred Flame
  • HP Restored on Hit increased: 50 (+5 per level) (+0.1 AP) → 80 (+5 per level) (+0.2 AP)
Rain of Fire
  • Cooldown decreased: 12/11/10/9/8/7 seconds → 10/9.4/8.8/8.2/7.6/7 seconds

Ignis finally gets a buff, though a very slight one that won’t bring him out of the bottom of the mage barrel. Reducing the early-game cooldown on Rain of Fire will help Ignis rotate out of the mid lane faster (if he’s there), while Sacred Flame will heal for 30 more at the start and roughly 130 more at the end of games.

Lindis

Tread Softly
  • Movement Speed Boost decreased at earlier levels: 40% → (25/30/35/40)%
Piercing Gaze
  • Damage rescaled: 100/180/260/340/420/500 (+0.4 AD) → 125/210/295/380/465/550 (+0.2 AD)
Lunar Champion
  • Damage decreased: 220/300/380 (+1.0 AD) → 160/240/320 (+1.0 AD)

Lindis has steadily risen to become one of the best junglers in the game, so nerfs were in order. The early-game movement speed nerf means she won’t be able to jungle, gank, or escape as quickly, which will be a slight deterrent to games immediately snowballing out of control. The restructuring of the damage on Piercing Gaze has her dealing similar damage early and about 100 less later. Finally, the straight 60 damage nerf to Lunar Champion means she won’t hit quite as hard with her ultimate.

Overall, these hits are minor and Lindis will still likely be a top pick.

Marja

Attack Speed per level increased: 1% → 2%

Dark Pulse
  • Damage restructured: 350/440/530/620/710/800 (+0.52 AP) → 400/480/560/640/720/800 (+0.5 AP)
  • Cooldown time decreased: 8/7.6/7.2/6.8/6.4/6 seconds → 7/6.7/6.4/6.1/5.8/5.5 seconds
Ghostwalk
  • Damage increased: 300/450/600 (+0.45 AP) → 450/675/900 (+0.65 AP)

Needed buffs for Marja, who was the first new hero to start out at tier 3 in our rankings. The attack speed increase further supports the Marksman Marja style of play, while decreased cooldown on Dark Pulse allows her to play more like the durable, low-cooldown mage brawler she seems designed to be. Ghostwalk previously did pitiful amounts of damage, so this buff is certainly welcome as well.

Nakroth

HP per level increased: 190.5 → 211.5

Death Sentence
  • Damage increased: 180/200/220/240/260/280 (+1.0 AD) → 150/180/210/240/270/300 (+1.2 AD)

Part of what makes Nakroth frustrating to play for everyone not named Vex was his terrible life pool. The increase will have him surviving juuust a bit longer in the late game, particularly with the help of armor. The damage increase on Death Sentence is peculiar, as it’s essentially the same in the early game and less than 100 increase in the late game. Perhaps developers wanted to help Nakroth out without buffing him into out-of-control territory.

Rourke

  • Fixed a bug where his normal attacks did increased damage to towers.

Gone are the days of two-shotting the core.

Tel’annas

Arrow of Chaos
  • Fixed a bug where enemies would occasionally not be hit at max range.

The Joker

Canned Laughter
  • Fixed a bug.

We believe this had to do with the fact that The Joker should be immune to CC during Canned Laughter, but was stopped by silence effects.

Toro

Bull Rush
  • Cooldown decreased: 10/9.4/8.8/8.2/7.6/7 seconds → 9/8.5/8/7.5/7/6.5 seconds
Cracked Earth
  • Second Stomp Slow increased: 40% → 50%
  • Third Stomp Stun increased: 1 second → 1.5 seconds

This really doesn’t help; Toro simply needs a rework, and pretty badly at that. Heck, Tencent seems to be so embarrassed by Toro’s existence that he is the lone character on Europe yet to be released on Tencent’s NA/LATAM/Asia servers.

Wonder Woman

Lasso of Truth
  • Fixed a bug where the ability would sometimes not trigger despite connecting with a target.

Zill

Base Attack Damage increased: 163 → 173
Attack Damage per Level decreased: 13.2 → 11.2

Dust Devil
  • Slow Duration increased: 0.25 seconds → 0.5 seconds
  • Bonus Damage to Monsters increased: 25 → 40

Getting an attack off on a target with 3 marks is essential to Zill’s existence, so they’ve made it easier by slowing the target for longer. We’re not totally sure Zill needed a buff, but he could be frustrating to play at times, and this is some relief for that.

Zuka

Pain on a Stick
  • Movement Distance decreased: 380 units → 350 units
Panda Chariot
  • Movement Distance decreased: 450 units → 400 units

Zuka was hitting pretty hard post-June patch, so it looks like his movement has been scaled back a bit to compensate.

Item Changes

Blitz Blade
  • Price decreased: 2020 → 1780
  • Attack Damage decreased: 60 → 50
  • Life Steal removed: 10% → 0%
  • Passive Cooldown decreased: 8 seconds → 4 seconds
  • Passive Damage rescaled: 150 (+0.2 AD) physical damage → 102(+7 per level) magic damage, double for ranged heroes.

Blitz Blade was previously just a weaker version of Fafnir’s Talon (unless you really needed the movement speed), so it’s good that it got a bit of a rework. The Chain Lightning passive will help ranged heroes not only regularly deal splash damage, but do it in the form of magic damage. If the 1-second CDR on each normal attack remains, then Blitz Blade could suddenly become a great item to pick 1st or 3rd, due to its cheap price.

Bow of Slaughter
  • Price increased: 2300 → 2400

The versatility of Bow of Slaughter made it a go-to item for many heroes, so increasing its price will be a bit of a punishment for those who need it.

Shuriken
  • Price decreased: 890 → 750
  • Attack Speed decreased: 25% → 20%
  • Passive damage now double for ranged heroes

For players who like to specifically target tier 2 items to build toward, Shuriken is now kinda-sorta an alternative to Astral Spear.

Virtue’s Bracelet
  • Price decreased: 1020 → 720
  • Cooldown Reduction decreased: 10% → 5%
  • Passive removed

Virtue’s Necklace’s change meant that its sub-component Virtue’s Bracelet needed a change as well, to stay consistent.

Virtue’s Necklace
  • Ability Power increased: 140 → 160
  • Cooldown Reduction decreased: 20% → 10%
  • Old Passive Removed
  • New Passive: +75 Magic Pierce

Ever since Hecate’s Diadem‘s magic pierce effect was taken away, players have been starving for a raw magic pierce source, often simply getting Spoopy Mask until their build was complete. And Virtue’s Necklace was simply a newbie trap, offering way more mana than players knew what to do with, and mostly being a worse The Aegis. Now, Virtue’s Necklace is an alternative to Staff of Nuul, offering a different type of pierce as well as some other goodies if needed.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, the patch seems like a reasonable one, giving players needed bug fixes and positive changes to heroes. We expect that the patch will be duplicated on Tencent servers sometime soon.

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7 Comments

  1. So will Virtue’s Necklace and Staff of Nuul’s Passive effects add up? I actually use Staff of Nuul’s alongside Enchanted Kicks often. Or do the passives not work that way, since it describes it as an “alternative” instead of recommending to use them together?

    • They should stack in the same way that other pierce items do, the flat amount coming first and the percentage pierce being calculated

    • After the most recent patch, players can no longer use anything but alphanumeric (a-z, 0-9) characters in their user names.