It feels like we go through the same process every week; there?s not a whole lot to talk about in the night leading up to this Arena of Valor weekly roundup, but by the time Friday rolls around, a bunch of news has dropped overnight.
That?s exactly what?s happened again this time around. The first legitimately surprised me, and the rest is just icing on the cake despite one of our talking points sounding like another blow to the community.
Well, it still is, but there?s a good side to it. Let?s get going!
AOV January Patch Notes Revealed And Dated

Yes, the January patch notes were released overnight. For those in the Americas, anyway. Actually dropping so early in the month that I hadn?t given their absence much thought, the contents of this month?s update may surprise you. We usually expect to get test server updates quite a while after places like Taiwan, but it appears as if all those patch notes we?ve been hearing about over the last week or two and being pushed straight to the worldwide servers early next week. That means a bunch of buffs, nerfs, a character redesign (Yorn), and a slew of UI changes.
We obviously can?t include the extensive list of changes in what is meant to be a pretty uniform news roundup, but they?re up on AOVStats for the world to see. If you?re looking for professional commentary on what?s to come, DTwo has gone over every element of the balance changes, including a deep dive into how the vast changes to minion exp/gold and the support item alte...