Advanced Server 2.1.82 — Argus & Ruby Reworked *Again*, Great Dragon Spear Becomes A Crit Item, Yin's Slow Comes Back

Status & how this relates to 2.1.80 / 2.1.78

Kazuki explicitly tags this pass 2.1.82 on the advanced server ("the latest patch 2.1.82 that just came on the advanced server"). Elgin covers the same Ruby / Freya / Gloo / Argus / Paquito / Hanzo set plus Great Dragon Spear without naming the number; the two transcripts line up cleanly, so the patch identity is solid.

This is a strictly later iteration than 2.1.80 and 2.1.78. The clearest discriminator is the Argus/Ruby flip-flop: 2.1.78 reworked them up, 2.1.80 pulled them back hard (Argus passive 100→65, Ruby ult scaling 300→200), and 2.1.82 adjusts them yet again — Argus passive damage/regen go back up, Ruby's spell-vamp goes up with a new skill-only sustain rule. A patch can't both nerf-to-65 and buff-back the same passive in the same pass; this is the next one. There is no Yin un-interruptible-ult content, no roaming-tank durability sweep here — those 2.1.80 changes carry forward untouched and are still tracked in the 2.1.80 digest.

Read the three together: 2.1.78 = big-rework pass · 2.1.80 = correction + tank content · 2.1.82 = re-tune of the corrections (Argus/Ruby again, Yin slow back, Balmond/Hirara walked back) + item redesign.

None of this is live. The repeated back-and-forth on Argus, Ruby, Yin, Balmond and Hirara is itself the signal: these numbers are still in active flux. Expect at least one more iteration before global ship.

Argus & Ruby — reworked a third time

Both heroes have now been touched in three consecutive advanced-server passes. Both sources cover both heroes.

Argus (adjust)

• Passive (Demonic Slash) base damage and HP regen both increased again — partially undoing the 2.1.80 gut (which had taken the passive to 65 base / heavily reduced regen). Better trading and sustain.
• Physical-defense-ignore vs heroes 40% → 30% — weaker anti-tank shred.
• New effect: Demonic Slash now also ignores buildings' physical defense — a large tower-pressure / split-push buff.

"Demonic Slash can now ignore building's physical defense. Yup, Argus is now even scarier at pushing towers." — Kazuki

"His passive base damage and regen are both significantly increased… but his passive now ignores less physical defense from enemy heroes compared to before. However, there is a new effect. Demonic Slash can now ignore building's physical defense." — Elgin

Read: Moonton is redefining Argus rather than just tuning him. 2.1.80 removed the free farm-sustain and gutted the passive; 2.1.82 gives back the trading/sustain power but redirects his identity from anti-tank carry toward objective pressure / split-push. Less "shreds the frontline," more "deletes towers and duels side-lane." Re-evaluate the long-standing ban-priority read at live numbers — the kit shape is stabilising but the role is shifting.

Ruby (adjust)

• Spell-vamp ratio 50% → 60%, and low-HP spell-vamp scaling now reaches up to 150% — enormous healing when low.
• Basic attacks can no longer trigger lifesteal — sustain is pushed onto skills, not auto-attacks.
• Scythe / shockwave early base damage higher, late scaling slightly lower — stronger laning, less explosive late.
• Skill indicator optimized to show the two damage areas (Scythe vs Shockwave) more clearly.

"Her spell-vamp ratio is increased from 50% to 60% and low-HP scaling now goes up to 150%. So when Ruby gets low, her sustain becomes absolutely crazy. But there is a catch — basic attacks can no longer trigger lifesteal." — Kazuki (Elgin corroborates: skill-based sustain, basics no longer lifesteal, early skill damage up / late down, indicator optimized)

Read: This isn't a straight buff or nerf — it's a power-curve and playstyle reshape. 2.1.78 rebuilt her sustain, 2.1.80 pulled it back; 2.1.82 makes the low-HP heal bigger than ever but gates it behind landing skills instead of free basic-attack lifesteal, and front-loads her damage into laning. Mechanically more demanding, scarier when behind, less of a late-game inevitability. Anti-heal remains mandatory against her — the low-HP heal ceiling went up.

Yin — the slow comes back

Kazuki only (Elgin's video does not cover Yin). This continues the 2.1.80 Yin work from the opposite direction: 2.1.80 removed S1 auto-lock and cut the slow 75% → 40%; players then struggled to land enhanced S1 reliably. 2.1.82 walks that back.

"Players started struggling to land their enhanced skill 1 consistently after the auto-aim removal and slow reduction. So now the developers are partially reverting that nerf… the damage got slightly reduced from 130–180 down to 120–170, and the extra physical-attack scaling also dropped from 110% to 100%." — Kazuki

Read: Less raw burst, more reliable combo follow-through. Combined with 2.1.80's still-active un-interruptible ult, the intended Yin keeps drifting from one-combo deleter toward a consistent sustained-fighter. Kazuki frames it as "less about raw burst and more about consistency."

Great Dragon Spear — redesigned into a crit item

Both sources cover this, and it's the biggest item change in the patch — a full identity swap.

"The old supreme warrior passive has been completely removed. Instead, Great Dragon Spear now gets a brand new passive called Sunder. This passive makes your critical basic attack deal extra true damage to the target." — Kazuki

"The old unique passive, Supreme Warrior, has been removed. That was the effect that gave movement speed after casting your ultimate… The new passive is called Sunder. Whenever your basic attack lands a critical hit, it deals extra true damage to the target." — Elgin

Numbers omitted on purpose: neither source stated the Sunder true-damage value cleanly (Kazuki's audio garbled it; Elgin gave only the mechanic). We don't print a number we can't trust — direction only until written patch notes confirm.

Doc-vs-source note: our live-server items.md currently lists Great Dragon Spear with a different passive — "Dragon Break" (skill hits reduce cooldowns), 2250 gold, a CDR/skill-fighter item — reflecting the live 2.1.61 build. Both YouTube sources describe the pre-2.1.82 advanced-server baseline as Supreme Warrior (move speed after ultimate) at 2140 gold. These are different server states and the passive names don't match; we are not silently reconciling them. The redesign below is advanced-server 2.1.82 only — the live items.md row is left as-is until the in-game client confirms what's actually live.

Read: This converts a niche skill-fighter CDR item into a crit-fighter / marksman anti-tank item. Crit heroes get a true-damage punch-through against frontliners on top of more crit chance — at a premium price. If it ships, expect it on crit Claude / Karrie / Roger / crit-fighter builds rather than the CDR brawlers that used the old version. Devs admitted "not many heroes were actually using this item effectively before."

Freya — the marksman playstyle gets targeted

Both sources (nerf). Developers explicitly call out her ranged, semi-marksman playstyle.

• Skill 2 range reduced.
• Ultimate enhanced-basic-attack range reduced.
• Ultimate duration 12s → 10s — less time fighting at range like a machine-gun Valkyrie.
• Compensation: early-game HP regen per basic attack greatly increased.

Source note: Kazuki's exact compensation number was unintelligible in the audio (whisper produced a garbled "3.5 to 3.5"); we omit it. Elgin independently confirms the direction — "her HP regen from basic attacks was greatly increased in the early game" — so the compensation is reported as direction-only.

Read: A spacing/safety nerf. Range cuts hit chasing, poke, and team-fight positioning harder than the numbers suggest, and the shorter ult means less sustained ranged pressure. The early HP-regen bump is a deliberate trade — less safe ranged bully, better melee early sustain. Net intent: push Freya back toward a brawler, away from a fake marksman.

Other hero changes

Source note: Kazuki covers the full list (Yin, Hirara, Balmond, Kaja included); Elgin covers Ruby / Freya / Gloo / Argus / Paquito / Hanzo + Great Dragon Spear + roaming blessing. Where only Kazuki carries an item (Yin, Hirara, Balmond, Kaja), it's flagged single-source above.

Kaja revamp ships this patch

Kazuki only, and only as a ship marker: the previously-previewed Kaja revamp lands with 2.1.82. The full kit walkthrough (Paralysis passive, Ring-of-Order on-hit heal, Soaring Wings recast/CD-reset flight, AoE Divine Binding lasso) was covered earlier and is tracked in the Six Hero Revamps digest — see that page for kit detail. We don't re-describe the kit here; the only new fact is it ships in 2.1.82.

System & economy

• Roaming blessing nerfed again: solo income from minions/creeps during the first 8 minutes 50% → 30%. This continues the long-running anti-"second jungler" roamer theme (the 2.1.78-era roaming penalty was already extended to 8 minutes).
• New (Elgin only): all roaming blessings can now also gain exp/gold through more actions — dealing damage, revealing enemy vision, and sharing minion/creep income — so active roamers who scout and fight aren't punished, only AFK-farm roamers are. (Kazuki's video did not mention this addition; single-source, Elgin.)
• Name Card profile feature live: larger display area, in-match + out-of-match achievements that auto-appear once unlocked, manual customization in the edit screen. Personalization/social-flex feature, no gameplay impact.
• Season-achievement lane-icon colour temporarily removed (also on lane-selection and recent-match screens). Honor-badge minimum season-achievement requirement lowered to level 4 (easier to equip earlier). (Kazuki.)

Aggregate read

2.1.82 is a re-tune-the-corrections + item-redesign pass on top of 2.1.80:

• The big read: Argus and Ruby are being iterated in public. Three passes in ~two weeks (up → down → reshaped) means their live numbers are genuinely unsettled — do not commit a tier read until the live patch ships. The directional signal: Argus → objective-pressure/split-push identity (building-armor-ignore is new and strong), Ruby → skill-gated low-HP brawler (heal ceiling up, basic-attack sustain gone).
• Great Dragon Spear is the sleeper. A repriced crit item with a true-damage crit passive is a meaningful new build path for crit fighters/marksmen vs tanks — watch crit Claude/Karrie/Roger if Sunder ships near as-is.
• Yin keeps converging on a consistent sustained-fighter (slow back, burst trimmed) on top of 2.1.80's un-interruptible ult.
• Freya loses safe ranged pressure; Gloo finally gets the win/ban-rate nerf; Balmond/Hirara are partial reverts of 2.1.80 — more evidence this is a tuning pass, not a content pass.
• Kaja revamp ships — first concrete ship date for that kit; detail in the revamps digest.

Anti-heal stays mandatory (Ruby's low-HP heal ceiling went up; Argus still sustains off the buffed passive). Treat every un-numbered direction here as directional until written patch notes exist — no GamingOnPhone/written-outlet 2.1.82 breakdown is out yet.