MLBB Patch 2.1.56: Mid Lane Mage Overhaul

Patch 2.1.56 hit the advance server on January 30, 2026, with a mandate Moonton rarely commits to this cleanly: normalize the entire mid lane mage class in one pass. More than 20 mages touched. Mana costs rebalanced across the board. Attributes standardized. And layered on top of that, targeted buffs and nerfs to the heroes that were genuinely out of line.

The stated goal: "bring them closer to the average level" and "see more heroes picked in the mid lane." Whether that's a buff or a nerf depends entirely on which hero you play.

Here's the full breakdown.

#The Nerfs That Matter

Yve: Actual Damage to Her Kit

This is the one that hurts. Yve loses 210 base HP (2,530 >> 2,320) and 40 HP growth (185 >> 145). She now has the stat line of a mid-tier mage, not the durable zone-control monster she was.

The slow numbers are the real story:

• Skill 2 base slow: 30% >> 20%, max slow: 60% >> 40%
• Ultimate slow: 60% >> 40%
• Skill 1 cooldown: 3, 1.5s >> 3.5, 2.5s

Yve's identity is area denial. Her ultimate's 60% slow is what made enemies choose between standing in the damage or playing around the edge of the starfield. At 40%, aggressive assassins like Lancelot and Natalia cut through it with far less punishment. The slow reduction is the headline, not the cooldown tweak.

Compensating: her passive shield is massively improved (50 +20% MP >> 120 +50% MP). That doesn't replace what she loses from the slow, but it does help her survive dives better.

Current win rate on mlbbhub.com: 50.1%. Expect that to drop.

Zhuxin: Early-Game Wave Clear Nerfed

Zhuxin's wave-clearing speed takes a direct hit on Skill 1. Early base damage reduced, push potential trimmed. She sits at a 50.9% win rate currently, which is unremarkable. The nerf to her lane dominance removes one of her few distinct advantages in the current meta. She's now more reactive, less proactive.

Pharsa: Early and Mid-Game Damage Gutted

Two hits in one patch:

• Skill 2 base damage: 525, 700 >> 475, 700 (loss of 50 at early levels), cooldown extended from 5s flat >> 6.5, 5s
• Ultimate base damage: 570, 870 >> 530, 870 (40 less early)

Pharsa's strength has always been her point-and-shoot ultimate range. The base damage cuts mean she needs more stacks to reach the same power threshold. Her early-game poke, which was already her crutch in the pre-ult phase, now deals measurably less. Counterplay windows against her are wider now.

Lukas: Sustain Trimmed

Skill 1 HP recovery: 6% >> 5% per hit. Sounds small. On a hero who spams Skill 1 for wave clear and poke, that's meaningful over a full game.

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#The Buffs That Count

Kagura: Ult Cooldown Halved (Almost)

This is the sleeper buff of the patch. Kagura's ultimate cooldown drops from 43, 33s >> 36, 30s. That's 7 seconds off at level 1, 3 seconds off at max rank. With CDR from Arcane Boots and Lightning Truncheon, she's looking at sub-20 second ultimate cycles at full build.

The damage adjustment is a trade-off, not a straight buff:

• Ult with umbrella: base damage drops at level 1 (330 >> 280) but scaling is preserved up to rank 3 (470 unchanged)
• Ult without umbrella: 1st hit drops 30 (290 >> 260), 2nd hit drops 20 (550 >> 530) at early ranks
• Mana cost significantly reduced: 85, 115 >> 60, 90

Moonton is explicitly redistributing power from burst-per-cast to frequency. Kagura's ceiling per combo goes down slightly, but the floor of how often she can engage rises dramatically. She spams better, she punishes repositioning more often, and the mana reduction means fewer trips to base. Net result: stronger, especially for high-mechanical players who throw out more combos per game.

Skill 1 also gets a small base damage increase (315, 590 >> 365, 590 at early levels) and mana reduction. Her early lane is better. Her current win rate sits at 50.8% on mlbbhub.com/heroes/kagura. With these changes she has the ceiling to push into the 52, 53% range.

Novaria: Scaling Improvements

The late-game Novaria question just got a cleaner answer. Skill 2 magic scaling jumps from 70% >> 100% Total Magic Power at max rank, alongside increased base damage (230, 340 >> 230, 405). Her early-to-mid game stays the same, but the late-game burst delta is significant. Currently sitting at 47.8% win rate on mlbbhub.com/heroes/novaria. The buff is targeted at closing that gap.

Nana: Skill 2 Now Threatening

Nana's Skill 2 damage: 150, 275 (+30% MP) >> 250, 375 (+50% MP). That's a 100 base damage increase at max rank with a 20% scaling jump. Combined with a cooldown reduction (14.5, 12s >> 12, 9s), she's casting it significantly more often and dealing far more when she does. Nana has historically been a support-first pick. These numbers push her closer to a genuine mage-support hybrid rather than a utility bot with occasional poke.

Gord: Passive Now Scales With Level

Gord's passive finally gets level scaling: 140 (+60% MP) >> 140 + (8 × Hero Level) (+40% MP). At level 15, that's an extra 120 base damage per passive proc. Skill 1 cooldown also drops: 10, 7.5s >> 8, 6s. Gord's niche is niche, but these are real improvements.

Vexana and Zhask: Ult Cooldowns Slashed

• Vexana ult: 60, 46s >> 50, 40s
• Zhask ult: 60, 50s >> 44, 36s

Both heroes are presently off the competitive radar. These changes acknowledge that their ultimates were too slow to rotate into fights meaningfully. Still niche picks, but less punished for missing the window.

Vale: Ultimate Cooldown Down

Vale ult: 44, 36s >> 36, 30s, matching Kagura's cooldown reduction philosophy. His Skill 2 early-game cooldown is slightly worse (10s >> 12s at rank 1), which keeps his early lane from being oppressive while allowing him to participate more often in mid-to-late fights.

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#The Attribute Standardization (The Quiet Part)

Most people will miss this, but the mana cost and attribute normalization across the class is the actual structural change underneath all the hero-specific tweaks.

Eudora's Skill 1 mana cost jumps from 50, 70 >> 70, 95. Chang'e's overall mana costs drop significantly. Kagura's costs go down. Yve's attribute floor gets cut. The goal is making mana a real resource constraint that varies meaningfully by hero, rather than something most mages ignore past the early game.

This specifically nerfs Eudora, despite her lacking a targeted nerf this patch. Her revamp (covered in a separate piece) already adjusted her kit. Now her mana is tighter too. Anyone relying on her pre-revamp patterns in the new framework is going to feel the squeeze.

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#Mid Lane Tier Outlook After 2.1.56

The mid lane is going to be more varied. For the last several patches, Yve was a staple draft pick because her slow made teamfights one-sided in her team's favor. That stranglehold is loosening. Kagura is a direct beneficiary, both in power and in pick rate.

The bigger story, though, is the attempt to normalize a class that had a massive skill gap in mana efficiency between heroes. Some mages were effectively mana-free (Chang'e in particular). Others bled mana doing the same jobs. That disparity is being compressed. Whether the compression is calibrated correctly, the live server data will show.

These changes are currently on the advance server. Expect them on live in the next regular patch cycle.