Season 41 Is Live — Patch 2.1.90 Hits the Original Server: Saber & Ruby Reworks, Auto-Ult Argus, a Roaming/Jungle Overhaul, and Rapid Boots + Berserker's Fury Reworked

What this is

This is the live, original-server release of patch 2.1.90, opening Season 41. Everything that was sitting on the advance server has shipped, alongside the QoL and event content from the Season 41 preview and the already-live hero Hirara. Kazuki's same-day video confirms it's "currently live on the original server" with "more than 43 heroes adjusted." The hero-by-hero detail below is from Elgin's full walkthrough.

The three reworks — Saber, Ruby, Argus

Saber — pushed toward a fighter. The headline is a cooldown-mechanic change: previously, Saber's sword hits from basic attacks only reduced Skill 2's dash cooldown; now they also reduce Skill 1's cooldown. So every basic attack shortens both skills, letting him cast S1 far more often (especially with max CDR). To balance it, S1's base cooldown is raised and its duration shortened, while S1 damage is up and its mana cost down. The ultimate gains higher base damage but lower scaling, so he no longer depends on full-damage items — you can mix in defense and still hit hard. He also gets higher HP and defense growth. Net: less of a one-shot-only assassin, more a fighter who can stay in fights. The open question Elgin raises — is this the start of EXP-lane Saber?

Ruby — huge damage, sustain only when low. Her passive is reworked: no more free spell vamp, and the base spell-vamp ratio drops to 75% — but it now rises 1% for every 1% of HP she's lost, up to 150%. So she's less sustainy at full HP and more sustainy when bloodied, preserving her comeback playstyle. Skill 1 gets a large base-damage increase (slightly lower scaling), and the ultimate's base damage is roughly tripled — in exchange for a 10–14 second longer cooldown. Ruby mains: she hits much harder this season but can't safely poke-and-heal from the opening.

Argus — the auto-ultimate finally lands. His ult now triggers automatically when he takes fatal damage, and its cooldown is much shorter — no more dying because you pressed it late. On top of that: Skill 1 gets a shorter cooldown and a 2-second slow; Skill 2 no longer leaves a cursed trail, instead granting attack speed for 3s when it hits an enemy hero; the passive adds a mini-dash on attack; max energy is raised to 200; and he recovers more energy per hit. Expect his pick rate to climb — he's far more forgiving to play now.

Other buffs

• Hanzo — Skill 1 in demon form can now be used on Turtle and Lord (objective control); Skill 2 gets ~triple base damage and a movable landing indicator (no more forced max-range landing); ult cooldown shorter, but doubled if his ghost form is healed.
• Yin — Enhanced Skill 1 loses lock-on but gains a much shorter cooldown that starts after the skill ends, so he can cast it twice inside his ultimate; the ult can no longer be interrupted by CC (though pre-domain CC still lands).
• Aulus — Skill 2 longer dash distance; enhanced basic attacks now scale with the target's hero level instead of max HP (better vs squishies).
• Ling — improved basic attack, shorter S2 cooldown at later levels, and the ult now reveals affected enemies' positions.
• Rafaela — lower early-game revive cooldown, lower S2/ult mana cost, higher S1 base damage.
• Mathilda — higher S1 magic damage, higher S2/ult scaling, bigger ult base + wisp damage and a larger shield.
• Estes — his healing defense buff now scales with magic power; lower S2/ult mana cost.
• Minotaur — higher S1 base damage; enhanced basics scale better with HP, including in Rage.
• Carmilla — higher early-game skill damage; passive steals more hybrid defense late.
• Eudora — passive now lasts 5s (up from 3s) and her cooldown reduction refunds 50% of the cooldown (was a flat 1.5s) — near-nonstop Skill 1.
• Aurora — shorter S1/S2 cooldowns for stronger early/mid laning.
• Cici — passive decays stacks slower (one every 0.5s instead of 0.3s).

Other nerfs

• Hilda — small S1 shield buff, but S2 damage down to cut early-mid burst.
• Khaleed — lower skill damage but higher damage to minions; −4s S2 cooldown at all levels (mixed, leaning adjust).
• Haliya — passive damage now scales with hero level (weaker early); S2 cooldown +2–3s.
• Freya — S2 range 3.5 → 3.3; ult gets longer cooldowns, shorter basic-attack range, and shorter duration (12 → 10s).
• Phoveus — early-game stats lowered to weaken his lane.
• Zhuxin — S2 mana cost up (she was strong in high rank and pro), slightly offset by higher passive mana regen.
• Suyou — lower S2 base damage on both tap and hold.
• Leomord — less S1 damage to jungle creeps; ult bonus defense −20 late.
• Claude — ult base damage cut hard (weaker early) with higher scaling added, so late game is unchanged.
• Harley — S2 +1s cooldown at all levels and higher mana cost (less mobility).
• Paquito — lower passive damage to minions and weaker damage reduction on enhanced skills.

Battlefield & system changes

• Roaming overhaul. Roamers can now gain gold and EXP from dealing damage, revealing enemies, and sharing minion resources — perks that were previously locked behind specific roaming effects. To balance it, roamers earn fewer resources farming minions/creeps alone, and the reduced-solo-farming penalty now lasts 8 minutes before a roamer can farm normally solo. Several tanks (Atlas, Hylos, Akai, Gatotkacha, Johnson, Tigreal, Grock) got stat tweaks to match the roaming changes, and Diggie, Floryn and Angela got lower skill mana costs.
• Movement-stack effect. A battlefield effect now grants stacks as you move (with movement speed), and at 20 stacks your next basic attack or skill deals bonus true damage scaling with stacks — it rewards staying mobile.
• Conceal — cooldown lowered by 20s (now 60s), so you can ambush more often.
• Jungle creeps — base EXP from buff monsters reduced, EXP from other creeps increased, and first respawn moved earlier to 25s, giving junglers more routing options against invades.
• Mythical Honor-only tweaks. Rank-specific adjustments now apply once you reach Mythical Honor (to diversify high-rank/tournament play without touching lower ranks) — including a lower ult cooldown on Alpha, a shorter S1 cooldown on Melissa, and Cecilion gaining more mana per skill hit, among a few others. Push-vision delay in Mythical Honor now only applies when both sides are visible to both teams.

Items

• Rapid Boots — now grants a flat +55 movement speed at all times (in or out of combat); the unique passive is removed. Even without the passive it beats standard boots (which give +40 MS).
• Berserker's Fury — new unique passive: every critical strike deals bonus true damage equal to 12% of the pre-mitigation damage. Crit/attack-speed builds gain a lot of true damage on basics. (Note this pairs with the Balmond change above — his spin can no longer crit, so no more Berserker's Fury Balmond.)
• Retribution — damage now scales better with player level, reducing junglers' weakness to early jungle invasions (pairs with the jungle-creep respawn change).

Irithel's new model

Irithel's new model is live — her default skin and basic skin have been updated; her other skins are unchanged. This is the visual refresh that was flagged in the Season 41 preview.

What we're NOT changing yet

• No tier-table edits. Every number here is from translated creator audio describing the live patch. The changes are real and live, but we don't move heroes.md or the tier tables on creator numbers — Saber/Ruby/Argus and the roaming rework all need in-client confirmation / screenshots before any tier shift.
• A couple of hero names were omitted on purpose. Elgin's translated audio garbled a few hero names beyond confident identification (a freeze-ultimate rework, a passive-stack buff, and a healing-ult nerf among them). Per our omit-when-unsure rule, those changes are left out rather than mis-attributed — they'll be filled in when a clean source or the in-client patch notes confirm them.
• The new hero is covered separately. Hirara's kit lives in the dedicated Hirara is live digest; she's intentionally not yet in any tier list.