Patch 2.1.70 landed on the Official Server on May 14, 2026, and Moonton kept it tight. Five heroes, four buffs, one nerf. No new items, no map changes, no system overhauls. This is a mid-season follow-up with surgical adjustments that target the EXP lane and jungle meta directly.
If you play Paquito, Chou, Belerick, Aulus, or Harley in ranked, your muscle memory just went out of date. Let’s break down every change, what it does to the tier list, and who you should be picking (or banning) after this update.
π Patch 2.1.70 Changes at a Glance
| Hero | Type | Key Change | Tier Impact |
| Paquito | Buff | Full basic attack damage restored, Skill 1 shield procs on minions, enhanced skills deal bonus minion damage + grant damage reduction | C β B+ (EXP lane) |
| Chou | Buff | Skill 1 back swing removed, longer basic attack range, ult stronger late-game with shorter knockback | B+ β A (EXP/Roam) |
| Belerick | Buff | Base HP and Phys Def increased, Skill 1 taunt triggers faster | B β B+ (Roam) |
| Aulus | Buff/Adjust | Reaches max Fighting Spirit stacks faster, but combat power at max stacks reduced for balance | B β B+ (EXP/Jungle) |
| Harley | Nerf | Skill 1 card base damage reduced across all levels | A β A- (Jungle) |
Now let’s get into the details.
π₯ Paquito: The Biggest Winner of Patch 2.1.70
This is the buff Paquito mains have been waiting for since Season 39 dropped him into C-tier territory with a roughly 47% win rate at Mythic+. Moonton touched almost every part of his laning kit, and the result is a hero who can push, trade, and survive all at the same time.
The basic attack damage penalty is gone. Your normal hits land at full value now (previously capped at 85% Total Physical Attack), which means Paquito trades better in lane even outside his combo windows. Enhanced skills deal extra damage to minions (scaling 10%β30% with level), making his wave clear noticeably faster after a combo rotation. And his Skill 1 shield, which used to require hitting a hero or jungle creep, now procs on any enemy unit. Minions included. You can keep that shield up almost permanently during laning phase.
The tradeoff: movement speed from enhanced skills fades in 1.2 seconds instead of 1.8. The speed burst itself is unchanged at 60%, but the window is shorter. To compensate, enhanced skills now grant a brief window of damage reduction. Commit to the dive, absorb the punishment, walk out alive.
Build recommendation (post-patch EXP lane):
War Axe into Warrior Boots stays core. Follow with Brute Force Breastplate for the stacking defense during extended combos. Queen’s Wings synergizes with the new damage reduction window. Slot Blade of Despair fourth for burst scaling, then Immortality as your safety net. Take Flicker for engage range or Execute to finish targets during the shortened speed window.
Combo order post-patch: Skill 2 (dash in) β Skill 1 (shield + damage) β Skill 3 (knockback/airborne) β Enhanced Skill 2 (burst) β Enhanced Skill 1 (shield refresh) β Enhanced Skill 3 (airborne finisher). The faster wave clear means you hit your enhanced rotation sooner in lane trades.
Who counters post-buff Paquito? Heroes with ranged poke and disengage still give him trouble. Esmeralda absorbs his shields. Guinevere can time her knock-up to punish his commit. Minsitthar shuts down his dashes entirely.
π Chou Gets the Late-Game Upgrade He Deserved
Chou mains, the back swing on Skill 1 is gone. If you’ve ever felt that tiny dead frame between Skill 1 and your follow-up basic attack, that frustration is over. The Skill 1 into passive-enhanced basic attack transition is now instant.
His basic attack range got a small extension, which helps weave autos between skills more consistently. The bigger deal is the ultimate rework. Early game: longer cooldown. You can’t spam it every skirmish anymore. Late game: shorter cooldown, higher damage. Chou becomes a legitimate pick-off machine in the late game.
The second phase knockback distance got reduced, and this is actually a buff in disguise. Before, you’d kick a target too far and lose your follow-up damage. Now the shorter knockback keeps the enemy in range for the full combo chain. Moonton designed this so your enhanced basic attack after the kick connects reliably.
What this means in practice: don’t force early ult engages unless you have a guaranteed kill setup. Farm patiently, hit your power spike at max ult level, and start deleting carries in the late game with cleaner, tighter combos.
Best matchup post-patch: buffed Chou is an even better counter to Harley now. Dodge Deadly Magic with Shunpo, kick Harley into your team before he can recall to his hat. With Harley’s Skill 1 damage nerfed, surviving his burst and retaliating is more realistic than ever.
π‘οΈ Belerick: Small Numbers, Big Difference
On paper, Belerick’s changes look minor. Higher base HP, boosted physical defense, and a faster taunt trigger on Skill 1. In practice, these adjustments fix his two biggest problems in the current sustain meta.
Problem one: he got chipped down too fast in the early game before his first tank item. The HP and armor increase gives him breathing room against physical damage comps during laning phase and early rotations.
Problem two: his Skill 1 taunt had enough delay that mobile heroes could walk out before it activated. Moonton acknowledged this in the patch notes, saying the delay was long compared to similar skills. The reduced trigger time means Belerick now catches repositioning targets who thought they had a window to escape. Against heroes like Lancelot, Fanny, or Ling, that faster taunt is the difference between a successful engage and a whiffed cooldown.
Draft tip: pair Belerick with heroes who can capitalize on a taunted target instantly. Karrie, Beatrix, or Claude behind a Belerick frontline get a free window of guaranteed damage every time that taunt connects.
βοΈ Aulus Stacks Faster, Hits Slightly Softer at Full Power
Aulus received his full kit revamp in Patch 2.1.67, and Moonton is already fine-tuning. In 2.1.70, the focus is on his passive: Fighting Spirit now reaches maximum stacks faster, which means Aulus gets to his enhanced basic attack state earlier in trades and skirmishes.
The catch: combat power at max stacks is reduced to balance out the faster ramp-up. Moonton wants Aulus to feel powerful sooner, but not overpowering once he gets there. This is a net positive for his laning phase because reaching full stacks before the enemy trades back is where Aulus wins fights. The late-game ceiling drops slightly, but the more consistent early access to enhanced attacks more than compensates.
What this means for Aulus players: you can commit to shorter trades in the EXP lane and still reach full Fighting Spirit. Before this patch, you needed longer engagements to stack up, which left you exposed. Now you can trade, stack, and disengage or re-engage faster. Vengeance remains the default battle spell for EXP lane. The damage reflection during trades synergizes with his extended fight style.
What this means against Aulus: respect his early trades more. He will reach enhanced basics sooner than you expect. Heroes with strong disengage or burst before he stacks, like Phoveus, Jawhead, or Valir, remain solid counter-picks.
π© Harley Nerf: Still Strong, but the Free Kills Are Over
Harley’s Skill 1 (Poker Trick) base damage got reduced across all levels. The nerf targets his mid-game rotation burst specifically. Moonton’s patch notes are direct: “Reduced the hero’s mid-game burst damage to lower his snowball potential.”
When Harley gets ahead, his rotation pattern (blink in, mark with Deadly Magic, dump Poker Trick, blink out) becomes almost impossible to counterplay because the burst is too fast. This nerf targets that specific window. Without a clean full combo or an item lead, Harley’s mid-game burst no longer guarantees the kill on squishy targets.
He still works. His kit is untouched, his mobility is the same, and his ban rate at 78%+ tells you the community still fears him. But the margin for error is tighter when he tries to one-rotation a target mid-game.
Counter-pick cheat sheet for Harley (post-nerf):
| Counter | Why It Works |
| Lolita | Guardian’s Reflection blocks all of Harley’s projectiles, including Poker Trick |
| Saber | Triple Sweep locks Harley down before he can recall to his hat |
| Natalia | Silence and burst from stealth deletes Harley before the combo starts |
| Chou | Dodges Deadly Magic with Shunpo, kicks Harley into your team |
| Franco | Hook into ult is instant death for a squishy mage with no escape |
πΊοΈ How Patch 2.1.70 Shifts the Ranked Meta
This patch does not flip the meta upside down. Season 40 still runs on a sustain-first framework set by Patch 2.1.67. What it does is open up the EXP lane hero pool and adjust power levels in the jungle.
Paquito goes from “why would you pick this” to a legitimate situational EXP lane option with genuine wave pressure. Chou becomes an even more reliable flex pick for players who can execute his combos cleanly. Belerick quietly moves up as a frontline answer to physical-heavy drafts. Aulus becomes more accessible in shorter trades without being oppressive at full stacks.
And Harley stays in the meta, just no longer running over lobbies with a half-completed build.
If you’re climbing ranked right now, the highest-value takeaway is simple: Paquito is worth practicing again, and Harley deserves less ban priority than he did last week π
