MLBB Patch 2.1.61 S40 Balance Changes: Winners & Losers

Patch 2.1.61 dropped on the Original Server on March 11, 2026, opening Season 40 with the most concentrated mage rebalance in recent memory. Thirteen mages buffed, six heroes nerfed, one new support hero added, and a mana cost normalization pass across the entire mid lane pool. The MLBB Patch 2.1.61 balance changes affect nearly every draft in Mythic and above. Here is the full breakdown.

#Patch 2.1.61 at a Glance

Moonton's stated intent: "adjust the attributes and Mana Costs of most Mid Lane Mages to bring them closer to the average level." Translation, the mid lane was top-heavy, with Yve and Pharsa crowding out half the roster. This patch forcibly redistributes that equity. Whether it worked is a separate question.

#Mid Lane Mage Rebalance: The Full Numbers

The bulk of this patch is a mana and attribute normalization pass. Every hero in the table below received at minimum a mana cost reduction on one skill, and several got cooldown reductions stacked on top.

Kagura deserves special attention. She appears on the buff list, and technically receives mana reductions. But her Ultimate loses 15% magic power scaling, her base damage ratio drops 10%, and her Skill damage falls 15%. The mana savings do not compensate for that damage ceiling drop. This is a net nerf to her burst pattern. Moonton dressed it as an "adjustment," the community correctly identified it as a nerf. Community YouTubers called it within hours of the patch going live, and they are right.

For the mages that genuinely benefited, Aurora is the standout. Her Skill 1 CD at max rank now hits 3s instead of 4s, that is a 25% cooldown reduction on her primary freeze tool. In extended fights and team compositions built around repeated crowd control, that matters. Aurora's freeze uptime in fights above three rotations increases by roughly 15, 20%. She was sitting below the mid lane viability threshold all of Season 39. This patch puts her back on the table.

Vale getting a shorter Ultimate cooldown is less dramatic but more consistent. His ult was always strong; the issue was accessibility. Faster cycling means more team fight windows, which is exactly the role his draft slot needs to justify.

#The Six Nerfs: What Was Hit and Why

Ixia is the most impactful nerf in this patch. She has been a near-mandatory pick or ban in Mythic+ for two consecutive seasons. Her Skill 1 damage reduction directly hits her wave clear and poke efficiency in lane, and the passive HP regen cut means she can no longer sustain through aggressive trades against non-hero damage sources. That combination degrades both her farming floor and her lane bully role simultaneously.

Pharsa getting hit was overdue. Her early burst window made her one of the most punishing mid laners to lane against, and her ultimate had enough range to render positioning largely irrelevant at higher ranks. The CD increase on her skills means opponents now have genuine windows to play into her.

Freya's sustain nerf is precise and targeted. A 33% reduction in HP regen per basic attack during her Ultimate directly curtails her ability to outstay opponents in extended EXP lane fights. She remains strong, the nerf does not gut her kit, it just removes the near-unkillable window that her ult previously provided.

#Saber: The Overlooked Buff

Outside the mage wave, Saber received the most meaningful non-mage buff in this patch, and it is worth tracking.

A 0.5s Skill 1 cooldown reduction on an assassin whose entire burst rotation depends on rapid skill sequencing is not a minor quality-of-life change. At max CDR, this makes his engage rotation borderline unreactable at higher ranks. Combined with better base stats, Saber's survivability window during his dive improved meaningfully. He was available for 32,000 Battle Points before this patch. That price looks better now.

#Yi Sun-shin: Precision Adjustment

YSS received a targeted nerf to his Ultimate's strategic impact: he now needs to cast closer to the target location, and the duration was reduced from 15s to 10s. This does not destroy his kit, his enhanced basic attack synergies remain untouched, but it curtails the map-wide pressure his ult previously generated by forcing more precise execution. Global ultimates that require no precision are bad game design. Moonton agrees, apparently.

#Marcel: New Hero Impact on the Meta

Marcel enters as a Support/Roam hero with a kit built around true damage scaling off physical and magic defense, a 3-second stasis ultimate (Golden Hour), and immobilize. His survivability bent makes him a frontline support rather than a passive healer, and his true damage formula is unusual enough to warrant early monitoring.

His draft slot competes directly with Tigreal, Khufra, and Floryn depending on team composition needs. Given the Kagura nerf weakening magic-heavy mid compositions, Marcel's physical-scaling true damage fits naturally alongside the physical team comps that become relatively stronger this patch.

#Meta Verdict: Who Moves in S40

The mage normalization creates genuine mid lane flexibility for the first time in two patches. You can now reasonably draft Gord, Luo Yi, or Aurora without conceding a structural advantage to Yve or Pharsa. That diversity is the point. Moonton explicitly said they wanted to bring mages "closer to the average level."

For a complete picture of where every hero sits post-patch, the MLBB tier list for S40 covers all roles. Live win rate and pick rate data across all ranks is at mlbbhub.com/stats.

The next patch, 2.1.62, is already on the Advanced Server as of March 6. It touches Terizla (mana removed entirely), Melissa, Xavier, and YSS again, with Freya receiving a second consecutive nerf. If you want the early read on what is coming, the Patch 2.1.62 Advanced Server breakdown is already up.

Patch 2.1.61 is a structurally sound balance pass. Thirteen mages getting mana and cooldown relief was necessary, the mid lane pool had collapsed to four viable picks in high-rank play. The Kagura situation is the one blemish: calling a damage nerf a "buff" because you also reduced mana costs is the kind of framing that players see through immediately. The numbers are the numbers.