Arena of Valor August 26 Patch: Zata and Marja Nerfed, Edras Gets Real Damage

Nine heroes changed on 26 August. Four went up, four went down, and D'Arcy was taken apart and put back together. There is no item pass and no system rework attached, so the draft board moves less than it did in July. Slayer lane still feels it.

D'Arcy is playable between ultimates now

The old D'Arcy was a coin flip. Land the portal, win the fight. Miss it, and you were a mage with no lane presence until it came back. Garena said as much in the designer note, and the fix aims straight at that gap.

Dimensional Walk now carries 20% (+4%/Lv.) damage reduction next to its speed boost, and the enhanced attack that follows it slows for 90%. Dimensional Cube got its own value back too: 500 (+100/Lv) (+1.0MP) at base, more in the middle, and 5 energy per enemy hit so the passive actually cycles. The passive itself refunds 20% of lost mana when it triggers.

The ultimate is still the payoff, but it is kinder about mistakes. Whiffing it refunds 30% of the cooldown, and you can press it again within 6 seconds to teleport onto the circle. That last part is the sleeper change. It turns a pure engage tool into an escape hatch.

I would not call him broken. I would call him a hero you can pick without praying.

The winners

Edras got the biggest raw numbers in the patch. Light Leap went from 50 (+10/Lv) (+0.5AD) to 75 (+15/Lv) (+0.75AD) at base, and its max hit went from 150 (+30/Lv) (+1.5AD) to 225 (+45/Lv) (+2.25AD). That is half again on the top end. Dark Form's Tearing Slashes picked up more bonus AD scaling on top. Edras sat at B on most ranked lists going into this patch. He will not stay there.

Veres traded a little level scaling for a much better floor on Bloody Kiss. Base 250 becomes 300, and the AD ratio moved from 1.5 to 1.75. Her early trades get meaner and her late game barely notices the smaller per-level step. She was already S on Zathong.

Ilumia got a straight bump on Divine Light, 300(+60/Lv)(+0.42MP) up to 320(+64/Lv)(+0.45MP). Small on paper. Divine Light is most of her damage, so it lands harder than the number suggests.

Wiro finally has sustain that does not depend on him hitting nothing. His enhanced auto heals 70 (+14/Lv) (+1.5% max HP) on hero hits. For a hero who has to walk into range to do anything, healing tied to actually connecting is the right shape. He is still a C tier pick on every list I read. This is a step, not a rescue.

The losers

Zata is the one that matters. Launch damage moved from 350(+100/Lv)(+0.55MP) to 300(+150/Lv)(+0.5MP), which is a deliberate flattening: weaker early, identical once he is fed. If you are a Zata player who snowballs off early kills, that is the exact window you just lost. He was S+ on Zathong and S on the Vietnamese list. Expect him to hold his tier with a rougher first ten minutes.

Marja has owned slayer lane for months, and Garena went after the part that made her obnoxious, which is doing full damage while untargetable. Ghostwalk dropped from 400 (+200/Lv) (+0.5MP) to 300 (+150/Lv) (+0.45MP). She keeps the immunity. She just gets paid less for it.

Azzen'Ka took a double hit: passive damage down, and Sand Burial's cooldown up from 9 to 10 seconds. One extra second on a control skill costs more than one extra second on a damage skill. Her mid lane lock-down loop is slower now.

Volkath gains a second on Execution, 6 to 7. He was S tier warrior on the FPT Shop list, and the change is aimed at how often he can force a re-engage. Still strong. Less spammy.

What This Means for the Meta

Slayer lane is where the draft shifts. Marja and Volkath both came down, Veres and Edras both went up, and Wiro is closer to usable than he has been all year. If you were first-picking Marja, look at Veres.

Mid is quieter. Zata and Azzen'Ka lost early tempo, Ilumia gained a little, and D'Arcy became a real option instead of a gamble. Nobody in that lane got dethroned.

The rest of the patch is bug fixes: Nakroth: Levi's announcement avatar, the Taunt button overlapping active items, and a first-trigger stutter on Billow: Okarun's passive for low-end phones. Worth a read if any of those were annoying you.