NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Tier List: Best Heroes After the Kael Update

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT's November 5 update did two things at once: it shipped a new hero, Kael, and it quietly rewired how several of the game's best-known heroes and mechanics behave. The server maintenance ran from 23:00 UTC on November 4 to 04:00 UTC on November 5, and when the dust settled, Yueshan had a new defensive identity, Kylin Zhang's signature Slash had been reworked, and a brand-new Hard Control tag started interrupting ultimates that used to shrug off crowd control. None of that is hype talk — it's drawn directly from the official patch notes, and this tier list ranks what actually moved, not what we think should move.

This is an opinion piece, built only from the confirmed balance notes below. We're not inventing win-rate numbers or parroting unverified community spreadsheets — where the patch notes don't specify a direction or a number, we say so instead of guessing.

01What Changed in the November 5 Update

The headline addition is Kael, "The One Who Eats Void" — a disciple of the Herald who merged his soul with the demon Taotie and now struggles to keep its hunger in check. Alongside him, the patch introduced a new Wanchu-exclusive weapon called the Bident, a new weapon type for Martial Cutie called the Heng Sword, and a fresh Showdown mode built around the Vanquisher's Trials with Nightscream and Legend difficulties.

But the part that actually matters for ranked play is the hero and system balance: Yueshan and Kylin Zhang both got direct kit changes, a handful of heroes picked up underwater quality-of-life fixes tied to the amphibious Wanchu map, and a new Hard Control tag now lets certain crowd-control effects reach through previously CC-immune ultimate states. Each of those is confirmed in the patch notes, and each is covered below.

02Winners: Yueshan's New Identity and the Underwater Specialists

Yueshan comes out of this patch as the most interesting redesign. During the Rush portion of his Scorching Dash, he now blocks all strike damage types outright — previously a punishable commitment, the dash is now a window where trading into him is a losing proposition. Enemies caught by the Ram also lose 20% Attack for six seconds, giving Yueshan a debuff tool he didn't have before. The trade-off is real: the skill's Damage Multiplier drops from 1.0 to 0.7, so the dash itself hits softer. Read together, this is a clear shift from a burst-damage opener to a damage-immune initiation and peel tool, and it's a buff for anyone who plays Yueshan as a frontline disruptor rather than a pure damage dealer.

A second, quieter set of winners are the heroes who got underwater combat fixes, almost certainly aimed at the amphibious Wanchu map that NARAKA added as part of its fifth-anniversary content. Yoto Hime, Ye Xiu, Yueshan (in his Almighty General form) and Inor Wan (Thunder Lord) now get improved hit reactions when struck underwater, and Vajra, Bronze Mech, Xunhuan Li (while using Flying Knives Aim) and Cyra (during her Ultimate) can now jump repeatedly while submerged. These are narrow, map-dependent buffs rather than across-the-board power increases, but if you're fighting in or around Wanchu's water zones, they matter.

03Caution: Kylin Zhang's Slash Rework Needs a Second Look

Kylin Zhang's signature Qilin Slash: Rend got touched on every axis, and it's not a clean buff. The Health cost to use it drops from 300 to 250, which is cheaper and easier to use more often. But the Health recovery it grants is lower across the board: 125 on a single hit instead of 150, and 300 on a multi-hit instead of 350. On top of that, the Qilin Guard trigger threshold rises from 300 to 450, meaning the defensive payoff takes longer to come online.

Taken together, this reads less like a buff and more like a rework that trades raw sustain for accessibility. Kylin Zhang players get to throw the skill out more often, but they're healing less per use and waiting longer for their Guard to kick in. Until more games are played on the new numbers, we're filing this as a sidegrade at best — don't assume this is a straight power increase just because the cast is cheaper.

04The New Hard Control Tag Shakes Up the Showdown Meta

The most structurally significant change in the patch might be the smallest one on paper: a new Hard Control tag now lets certain crowd-control effects affect Ultimate Focus, Bronze Mech, and Vajra states, which were previously able to ignore them. The named skills affected include Moonbane Control, Rising Tide, Enchant, Light's Mercy: Field, Fate Rewritten: Backtrack, and Maw of Ruin. In plain terms, forms and ultimates that used to be a safe haven from hard CC no longer are.

This connects directly to a specific Showdown change for Viper Ning: her Moonbane Control: Showdown now summons a gaze effect, she's immune to Freezing while summoning it, and her Ultimate can no longer be canceled midway. In the same breath, the patch adjusted the core Defuse (Counterattack) mechanic that every hero shares — base damage on a successful counter is tripled, while Astral Aegis multipliers are halved to 50%. That's a buff to committing to a read with a counterattack, and a nerf to using Astral Aegis as a safety net while you wait for one. Elsewhere, Yueshan's Rampage: Showdown now allows an instant charged attack after a hit, and its charged heavy strike multiplier rises from 20 to 30 — another point in his favor this patch. The notes also mention that Souljade's Thunder Rove and Polesword "were adjusted," without specifying direction, so we're not going to guess what that means until NetEase clarifies it.

How to Adjust to the November 5 Patch

1. 1The Rush now blocks all strike damage types, so practice holding the dash through a punish instead of canceling early.2 min
2. 2Qilin Slash: Rend costs less Health to use but recovers less per hit, so throw it out more often but don't expect the old sustain.3 min
3. 3Ultimate Focus, Bronze Mech and Vajra can now be interrupted by effects tagged Hard Control — don't assume these forms are safe anymore.2 min
4. 4On Martial Cutie, the new Heng Sword adds a bonus Charged Attack after every Charged Attack that lands — worth slotting into a combo test.2 min
5. 5It only attacks with water flow, so it's dead weight outside Wanchu's water zones — don't carry it into other maps.1 min
6. 6Base counter damage is tripled but Astral Aegis multipliers are halved, so committing to a read now pays off more than shielding and waiting.2 min

05Weapon Tier List: Kaleidoscope Parasol, the New Heng Sword and the Wanchu-Only Bident

On the weapon side, the Kaleidoscope Parasol picked up a small utility shift: its final Parasol-form charged Horizontal Strike now knocks airborne enemies farther away, but the Kaleidoscope·Shift stagger window on knocked-down enemies is reduced. It's a trade of follow-up combo time for better positional control, which is a slight win for players who use the Parasol to zone rather than chain combos.

Two new weapons debuted alongside Kael and the Wanchu content. The Bident is a Wanchu-exclusive weapon forged by the "merfolk" of NARAKA's lore, and it needs water flow to attack — meaning it only functions in water areas, so it's a situational pick rather than a universal upgrade. The Heng Sword is a new weapon type exclusive to Martial Cutie, built around an exclusive Lethal Jab that adds an extra Charged Attack dealing 0.5x weapon ATK whenever a Charged Attack connects. Both are too new to rank against the established weapon pool, but the Heng Sword's extra Charged Attack scaling is the one worth testing first if you already play Martial Cutie.

06Full Patch Impact Tier List

This is an opinion ranking of what this specific patch moved, not an exhaustive list of every hero in the game. Heroes and systems the patch notes didn't touch aren't ranked here — we're not inventing a position for them just to fill out a table.

07Where Kael Fits (For Now)

We're deliberately not placing Kael on the tier list above. NetEase's own patch notes introduce him entirely through lore — his bond with Taotie, his internal struggle, and his cosmetic Extreme Outfit options — without publishing ability names, cooldowns, or damage numbers. Labeling a hero S-tier or D-tier off a cinematic alone is exactly the kind of invented claim this list is trying to avoid. If you want a first look at how he plays, the official reveal video below shows his kit in motion even though the written patch notes don't break it down.

The official Kael reveal video, posted on the NARAKA: BLADEPOINT channel in late October ahead of his November 5 launch.

08Final Word and What We're Watching Next Patch

The direction of this update is clear even where individual numbers are debatable: Yueshan becomes more of a frontline anchor, Kylin Zhang trades sustain for flexibility, and the new Hard Control tag closes a long-standing loophole around CC-immune ultimates. None of it is final — Kylin Zhang's rework in particular is the one to watch, since a cheaper cast with less payoff can go either way once players find new combo windows around it. Check the official hero roster for the full cast if you want to cross-reference kits we haven't covered here, and expect at least one follow-up balance pass once ranked data comes in on Kael and the reworked heroes.

Dinner time's here! Block Taotie’s path and… yum yum, you're on the menu. No tiny portions for this duo. Don't get chomped！ New Hero Kael drops now. #NARAKABLADEPOINT

— NARAKA: BLADEPOINT (@NARAKATHEGAME) on X