Ever since the release of one of the most content-heavy patches in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang back in June 2021 as part of the game’s Project NEXT, many new items and skills that were introduced during the patch have been brought into the spotlight for many players. Changes have been made to the equipment, as well as some brand new equipment introduced into the game. There are minor changes to some equipment, and major changes to others, but overall, some adjustments to builds and play styles are necessary to ensure that players are still performing at the optimal level on the battlefield. In this exclusive editorial article, we will be taking a look into how these new items have affected the most effective tactics available (meta) in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, as well as everything you need to know about all the new changes introduced.
Mobile Legends: Meta items
1. Jungling and Movement items merged
First up, the new combination of Movement items with Roam and Jungling items is a relatively new concept for players of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. This change forms a type of new equipment in the game that will be sure to significantly affect the current meta.
Although Mid Lane and Side Lane heroes are not affected as they do not usually buy Roam or Jungling items, things are definitely going to change with Roamer and Jungler heroes, who now have extra flexibility when purchasing such equipment thanks to the new changes which open up an additional slot for players to purchase other equipment of their choice in order to get the best potential out of their gameplay and perform well on the battlefield.
Now that the Jungling and Roaming footwears’ skill and attributes can be obtained and upgraded both for free and automatically, Jungler and Roamer heroes can instead focus completely on Jungling and Roaming respectively without having to worry much about their Footwear’s upgrades.
2. New Roaming Footwear skills
Apart from that, the new patch has also brought in some new Roaming Footwear skills to Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which are Conceal, Encourage, Favor, and Dire Hit. These skills will be sure to affect the decisions that Roamer heroes make when first purchasing their Roaming Boots upon entering the battlefield.
- Healer heroes like Estes, Rafaela, Minotaur, and Angela will most likely choose to purchase Favor in order to increase the sustainability of both their allies and themselves, by restoring extra HP for a nearby allied hero with the lowest HP upon casting a healing or shield skill.
- Poke heroes like Popol & Kupa, Kaja, or Grock may choose Dire Hit in order to force recalls or finish off low HP enemies, thanks to the additional damage dealt based on their Max HP.
- Crowd Control (CC) tanks like Atlas, Tigreal, or Lolita may choose Conceal for the Camouflage State in order to properly position both themselves and their teammates on the battlefield for a good Crowd Control (CC) ambush or help their teammates escape with the added Movement Speed without completely exposing themselves.
- Encourage is overall a good Roaming skill for any Roamer hero to help their allies deal more damage, with the skill allowing allied heroes to have increased Physical Attack, Magic Power, as well as Attack Speed.
Overall, the addition of these new Roaming Footwear skills in the game will allow Roamer heroes to have better flexibility when choosing to purchase their Roaming Footwear, letting them help both their allies and themselves to have a better chance of emerging victorious on the battlefield.
3. New Jungling Footwear skills
As for the new Jungling Footwear skills, they are quite similar to the abilities granted by Raptor Machete, Star Shard, and Beast Killer in previous patches.
The best part about this patch is that the Jungler hero now has the luxury of choice of which skill they wish to use in each game. Although there are no additional stat bonuses with each Jungle stack increased, unlocking the new skills by simply getting 5 stacks through killing creeps or enemy heroes will not be much of a problem for the Jungler hero to accomplish quickly.
- Ice Retribution allows Jungler heroes to absorb Movement Speed from their target, granting them additional mobility on the battlefield to rotate between the Jungle and different areas of the map.
- Flame Retribution allows Jungler heroes to steal the target’s Physical Attack and Magic Power, allowing them to quickly move on to other parts of the Jungle or map.
- Bloody Retribution allows Jungler heroes to steal the target’s HP, therefore being able to clear the target more quickly before moving on to other parts of the Jungle or map.
Overall, the introduction of these new Jungling Footwear skills pushes the game to be a more fast-paced one as the Jungler hero will likely be able to build items quicker and hence join team fights more often to secure kills for their team. Due to the further nerf of Gold and EXP gain for Jungler heroes from minion waves in the first 5 minutes of the game, these heroes should thus solely remain in the Jungle or instead choose to gank and refrain as much as possible from clearing waves as they will get significantly less Gold and EXP gain from doing so.
4. Anti-Regen items
Regen-based heroes are very pesky to deal with, especially in the late game when their items are all built and they have massive amounts of healing abilities. A good way that players can deal with that in battle is by purchasing anti-regen equipment such as Necklace of Durance, Sea Halberd, and now Dominance Ice.
- This patch in Project NEXT allowed the effects of both Necklace of Durance and Sea Halberd to be activated either by Basic Attacks or Skill Damage, increasing the versatility of anti-regen items. Both items, upon activation, are now able to reduce the enemies’ Regen effects (Heal, Shields or Lifesteal) by 50% for 3 seconds.
Necklace of Durance is best equipped by Magic heroes, while Sea Halberd is best equipped by Physical heroes to counter such Regen effects.
- This patch in Project NEXT also allows wielders of the icy shield to reduce Regen effects of enemy heroes in range by 50%, and their Attack Speed by 30%. Now, skill-based Fighters can also have the same efficiency of using these items as Mages in the previous patches, and Tanks can even pitch in by purchasing Dominance Ice.
With the introduction of these new items, it will be interesting to see both Magic and Physical heroes play their way around the battlefield, while Tanks too can help support their team better by purchasing such equipment. On the other hand, it will be just as interesting to see how Legend-based heroes such as Rafaela will cope with enemies who now have the help of the new equipment to reduce her Regen effects for both herself and her teammates. The introduction of these new items is sure to greatly affect the current meta as new builds and tactics are now open to both teams to explore and utilize to their advantage.
5. Physical and Magic Penetration items
With a new way of calculating Penetration in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, items that provide additional Penetration such as Arcane Boots, Genius Wand, Malefic Roar, and others should be receiving more attention and popularity in this patch of Project NEXT and the upcoming seasons.
A hero’s Defense stat is now able to be lowered beyond zero and up to -60, so taking Penetration-boosting items early on will benefit many heroes. In addition, new effects have also been added to these items which optimizes their performance and favors the current meta better.
To counter the new Penetration burst, Radiant Armor has also been made available as one of the newest Defense items, which provides increasing Magic Damage Reduction by 3-10 upon taking Magic Damage (scales with level), lasting for 3 seconds and caps at 6 stacks. This will likely put DPS Mages such as Chang’e, Yve, or Harley out of fashion and instead, popularize Burst Mages like Eudora and Aurora.
6. How Attack Speed-dependant heroes will be affected
Lastly, Attack Speed seems to be one of the main stats more and more heroes will start aiming for in the next seasons. With the removal of Raptor Machete and the improvement of Corrosion Scythe, Golden Blade, and the addition of War Axe, it is now harder for Physical Damage-dependent Jungler heroes like Yi Sun-Shin, Roger, or Granger to have a good early game and will hence benefit Attack Speed-dependent Marksman and Fighter heroes like Claude, Miya, Masha, and Sun.
War Axe will greatly benefit Fighters that need good sustainability by granting them 9 Physical Attacks and 3 Physical Penetration per second for 3 seconds, up to a max of 8 stacks. War Axe will also grant 15% Movement Speed at full stacks. Therefore, sustaining Fighters in longer team fights.
Additionally, Dominance Ice no longer has the effect of slowing the Attack Speed of surrounding enemies, so it will be even more of a dominant stat in the current meta.
Final Thoughts
With the introduction of all the new equipment in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, many new players both seasoned veterans as well as new players may feel overwhelmed. We hope that this exclusive editorial article will help you understand the new equipment better and how it will affect the current meta of Mobile Legends.
That’s all for today’s editorial on the current meta items on Mobile Legends. Do you agree that the new items have affected the current meta of Mobile Legends? Let us know in the comment section below!
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