Honor of Kings Season 15.a Patch: 5 Hero Reworks That Changed the Meta

Season 15.a went live on 30 July, delivered as a non-disruptive live server update between 00:00 and 01:00 (UTC+0) — around 4 MB, with matches in progress unaffected. Behind that quiet rollout sits the most mechanically significant balance pass since the season began: five heroes received mechanics upgrades — Zilong, Arthur, Ao'yin, Yang Jian and Li Bai — while three more were buffed on stats and three were pulled back. Zilong's changes in particular go well beyond numbers, restructuring how his tier system, spear thrusts and Ultimate interact. Here's every change that matters and what it does to the ranked meta.

The five mechanics upgrades

Zilong — the biggest restructure in the patch

Zilong received the deepest changes, and they're structural rather than numerical.

Skill 1: Thunderbreaker had its cooldown reduced, and its movement bonus now scales with skill level rather than with tiers, increasing by 0–100. Switching tiers now grants one extra use of Skill 1.

Skill 2: Stormpiercer was rebuilt. The base number of spear thrusts rises from 4 to 5, base damage climbs from 165 (+37 per level) to 200 (+40 per level), and base recovery rises from 60 to 65 (+13 per level). In exchange, damage and recovery now diminish by 8%–4% per successive hit of the spear — so the extra thrust doesn't simply multiply his output. The increased thrust count when changing tiers has been removed, as has the induction mark tier.

Ultimate: Skysplitter gains a new effect: it inflicts an induction mark within 5 seconds of hitting an enemy, and deals an additional 30–60 (+10% extra Physical Attack) magical damage to enemies carrying induction marks.

Read together, that's a hero whose kit now flows in one direction — Ultimate applies marks, Skill 2 punishes them, tier switching feeds Skill 1 uptime — rather than the disconnected tier bookkeeping he carried before.

Arthur — a dash, at a price

Skill 1: Valiant Charge now has a genuinely new option: when there's no target in range, using the skill dashes him forward a short distance. For a hero who has always been reliable but immobile, that's a meaningful change to how he engages and rotates.

It isn't free. His passive Holy Vanguard health recovery drops from 120–240 to 100–200, and Skill 1's base damage falls from 350 (+70 per level, +120% Physical Attack) to 325 (+65 per level, +100% extra Physical Attack).

Arthur trades sustain and raw damage for mobility. Whether that's an upgrade depends on whether you were playing him as a front-line anchor or as an initiator.

Ao'yin — his secondary sword can now crit

The headline change is small in wording and large in effect. His passive Hidden Dragon's secondary sword damage rises from 30%–60% Physical Attack to 35%–70%, and critically, it can now crit where it previously could not.

That single change rewrites his item path. A damage source that couldn't crit made critical-strike items partially wasted; now it scales with them.

Skill 1: Flaming Palm also gains a new effect — casting speed now scales with Attack Speed — with cooldown moving slightly from 12s to 12.5s (-0.8s per level). Attack Speed now improves both his damage and his cast rhythm, which stacks with the crit change to point his build in a clear new direction.

Yang Jian and Li Bai

Both appear in the official mechanics-upgraded list alongside the three above. Li Bai additionally appears in the stats-buffed group, making him the only hero in this patch receiving both mechanical changes and stat increases — a strong signal that the developers wanted him back in the conversation rather than merely adjusted.

Check their in-game skill descriptions for the full detail before rebuilding around them.

Stats buffed: Li Bai, Cai Yan, Wuyan

Wuyan received the clearest numerical upgrade. His Ultimate: Hurricane Hammer now scales at 100% extra Physical Attack rather than 95%, and each shield instance rises from 70 (+35 per level, +2% extra Health) to 80 (+40 per level, +3% extra Health). More damage and a meaningfully larger shield on the same ability.

Li Bai and Cai Yan round out the buffed group.

Stats adjusted: Lian Po, Dun, Zhuangzi

These are the nerfs, and they're aimed squarely at durability.

Lian Po — Skill 2: Magma Slam's shield falls from 400 (+80 per level, +10% extra Health) to 360 (+72 per level, +8.5% extra Health).

Dun — Skill 1: Wind Slash drops from 420 (+84 per level) to 400 (+80 per level) on both its initial and phase-two damage, and Ultimate: Unruly Blade falls from 420 (+210 per level) to 400 (+200 per level) on both base and area damage. Broad, consistent trimming rather than a targeted fix.

Zhuangzi — the most consequential nerf in the patch. His Ultimate: Butterfly Effect now grants crowd control immunity and its shield for 1.5 seconds instead of 2, with the shield itself dropping from 700 (+350 per level) to 600 (+300 per level, +12% extra Health).

That half-second matters more than the shield value. Crowd control immunity windows determine whether an engage survives contact, and shortening one by 25% changes the timing of every fight he sets up.

What this does to the meta

Roaming and support tighten up. Zhuangzi's shorter immunity window and Lian Po's smaller shield both reduce how much punishment a team can absorb during an engage. Expect fights to punish mistimed initiations harder than they did in July. Our Season 15 tier list covers where the roles stood before this patch — those placements are worth re-reading with these changes in mind.

Ao'yin is the biggest winner on paper. A crit-enabled passive plus Attack Speed scaling on his cast speed is the kind of double change that shifts a hero from niche to buildable overnight.

Zilong becomes a genuine skill-expression pick. The mark-and-punish loop rewards players who understand the sequence, while the diminishing returns on Stormpiercer stop the extra thrust from being a straight power spike.

Arthur's dash rewards proactive play. He's less durable and hits slightly softer, but he can now reach fights he previously watched from a distance.

The DAN DA DAN collaboration

Alongside the balance work, Super Flow Brawl received limited-time collab talents, including Speedy Strike (stacking Movement Speed with a stun above 600 Movement Speed), Okarun's Rage, Spirit Orb, Golden Egg, Psychic Hand, Serpoian Spaceship, Fortune Cat, Here Comes Turbo Granny, and Cursed House.

The DAN DA DAN Wish event started on 1 August, offering the Okarun Lam and Jiji Mozi collaboration skins, with one free Wish Coin on your first visit to the event page. Note the timing detail: Jiji Mozi was only added to the prize pool and Redemption Shop after the 7 August event update.

Fixes worth knowing

Five fixes shipped, including a Super Flow Brawl issue where Mai Shiranui's post-skill roll and Shangguan's dash during her Ultimate failed to trigger the Quick Cover, Unstoppable and Dash N' Stun talents — a real competitive bug in that mode rather than a cosmetic one. A Fath'n targeting issue with enhanced Basic Attacks and a Diaochan Ultimate sound interruption were also resolved.

Adjust your picks before the next pass

Mid-season patches reshuffle role priorities without resetting rank, which makes the fortnight after one the most efficient stretch to climb. Browse verified Honor of Kings accounts if you want a deeper hero pool ready for the shift, accelerate the ranked grind with Honor of Kings hourly services, or push through tier walls with Honor of Kings boosting.

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