Julian MLBB Guide: Three Buttons, No Ultimate (Season 42)

Why he's feared (and loved)

Level three, river bush, and their mid is still one wave away from an ultimate that doesn't exist yet in this fight. Mine is already here. I dash through her on Sword, fan the Scythe across her escape line, and the third button — the one Smith's Legacy has been quietly charging — lands as Enhanced Chain: chains bite, she slows inside the field, and when it pops she's airborne with my next basic already dragging her back toward me. Three skills, no ultimate, and she died to all of them in the order I chose.

That is Julian, the Scarlet Raven — fourth and last of the Forsaken Light. Fandom's story: he's Terizla's son, sole survivor of the Free Smiths' Guild the Church of Light wiped out for heresy, raised by that same Church and trained into a Raven, its secret assassin. Feared, because he is a burst mage wearing an Assassin/Fighter tag (Moonton reclassed him in Patch 1.9.64): every skill scales on Total Magic Power, and any of the three can become the payoff. Loved, because the kit is a rhythm puzzle — two setup buttons, one glowing finisher, then a basic that pulls people into your team. The catch: the payoff is decided by the order you pressed things in, sometimes three camps ago.

Season 42 viability: the honest read

Patch paperwork first, and his is ancient history. Patch 2.2.16 (16 Sep 2026) did not touch Julian — confirmed two ways: absent from the verified adjustment list (Masha/Bruno revamps plus twenty adjustments, Aulus through Kaja), and blooing's full 2.2.16 roundup, read end to end, never mentions him. Patch 2.2.16a (14 Oct 2026) has no Fandom page; its documented list (Kalea buff; Aulus, Hirara, Eudora, Rafaela nerfs) has no Julian — any contrary claim is [UNCONFIRMED], and none surfaced. His last documented change is on Fandom's patch-history page at Patch 1.8.20: a small BUFF, the passive's reset cooldown trimmed 10–6.5s → 9–6s (the 1.8.30 notes add a minor Skill 3 cast-range buff, and that's the trail gone cold).

The trackers, dated (community snapshots, not Moonton data): - MLBBHub statistics (refreshed daily; checked 21 Oct 2026): 50.1% win rate, 0.7% pick, 0.8% ban; Medium difficulty; its counter desk gives Guinevere, Minsitthar and Tigreal the biggest measured edges over him. - MLBBDex (tier list updated 19 Oct 2026, patch 2.2.16): B tier, Jungle · EXP — 50.2% win rate, 0.7% pick, 0.8% ban. - MLCounter.com (page updated 16 Sep 2026): Durability 6 / Offense 6 / Control 7; matchups: 45% vs Minsitthar (445 games), 59% vs Valentina (339).

The chorus: 50.1–50.2% win rate on a 0.68–0.7% pick rate — the desks agree he's exactly average, which for a combo hero means the hands decide. Sentiment: no fresh r/MobileLegendsGame Julian threads surfaced — tracker/creator material only; MLBBHub's thesis: "if you cannot point at a teammate and say 'that hero lands CC before I press Chain', Julian is the wrong pick."

My tier verdict: B. B paperwork on every desk, a chorus glued to 50%, and a kit that deletes backlines twice per fight *if* the draft hands him a frontline that goes first. Self-starting, he is not.

The full kit: what every button does

All mechanics from the MLBB Fandom hero page, checked 21 October 2026. Base HP 2878→5664 — the highest level-1 HP of any fighter, second in the game behind Hylos (Fandom) — Mana 500→1900, Physical Attack 128→257, Physical Defense 24→74, Magic Defense 15→38, Attack Speed 0.99→1.39, Movement Speed 262. And the headline: Julian has no ultimate. Three skills, each upgradeable to level 5. - Passive — Smith's Legacy: Cast two different skills and the third — Fandom is precise: the *remaining unused* skill, not "Skill 3" — becomes enhanced. Casting it puts all his skills on a shared 9–6s reset cooldown (shrinks with level). Separately, after casting any skill, his Basic Attacks for 5s deal 100 (+100% Total Physical Attack) (+100% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage and pull the target toward him; another cast extends the window. Skill hits on enemy heroes grant 15% Hybrid Lifesteal for 5s, stacking to 3 (45%). The ordering rules are the hero: every cast starts a 5-second timer, the second cast refreshes it, and if it lapses mid-chain, the used skills' cooldowns reset and the setup is gone. - Skill 1 — Scythe: 380–700 (+140% Total Magic Power) along its path, 30% slow for 1s; it disappears on the first non-minion enemy hit. Cooldown 10.0→6.5s, mana 30–50. His poke and safest setup. - Enhanced Scythe: Same 380–700 (+140%) up front but a 50% slow, and on hitting a non-minion enemy (or max range) the scythes keep drifting forward, dealing 65–185 (+30% Total Magic Power) every 0.3s to nearby enemies, up to 9 ticks. A lingering zone — the default payoff outside fights (MLBBHub). - Skill 2 — Sword: Dashes (through obstacles) on a flying sword, dealing 400–540 (+80% Total Magic Power) along the way. Cooldown 10.0→6.5s, mana 30–50. His only plain mobility — spend it like it matters. - Enhanced Sword: A sword swarm: 60–100 (+20% Total Magic Power) every 0.1s along the dash, up to 9 hits — and Julian is untargetable and invisible throughout, reappearing at the far end. Cooldown 10.0→6.5s, mana 60–100. The escape payoff, not the engage. - Skill 3 — Chain: After a short delay, chains strike the target location for 300–440 (+100% Total Magic Power), immobilizing for 1.2s. Cooldown 10.0→6.5s, mana 30–50. Fandom's note: Chain technically *behaves* as an ultimate — it just has 5 levels and can be learned at level 1. - Enhanced Chain: A chain field ticking every 0.2s with a 30% slow; enemies still inside when it ends take 250–370 extra Magic Damage and are knocked airborne for 0.8s. One flag: Fandom's prose prints the ticks at 40–60 (+10% Total Magic Power) while its own table lists 60–100 — the discrepancy is Fandom's; the slow, end burst and airborne are consistent everywhere.

Skill priority, my way: Scythe at level 1 and maxed first — the damage spine and safest opener. Chain at 2, Sword at 3 (the full chain is live at level 3, while most heroes still wait on an ultimate), then Chain maxed second, Sword last — you take it for the dash, not its scaling. No ultimate points at 4/8/12; every point goes into the three buttons.

Combos

• "Chain Pays the Bill" (the gank): Scythe → Sword → Enhanced Chain. Two quick setups, then the payoff lands as the slow field with the airborne finisher; walk in during it and cash the pull basic. MLBBHub builds his first gank around exactly this — Chain's control converts a visit into a kill.
• "The Zone Verdict" (the teamfight opener): Sword → Chain → Enhanced Scythe, thrown *after* your tank's engage groups them. The scythes park over the stacked team and tick up to nine times while your pull basic drags strays back in (MLBBHub).
• The pull is a combo piece, not a victory lap: after any enhanced cast, the empowered basic pulls every target it hits in range, not just one (MLBBHub). Auto into a grouped backline and two or three heroes get yanked into your tank's follow-up.

Rotation and map control

Jungle is the default desk (MLBBHub; MLBBDex files him Jungle · EXP). MLBBHub's route: red buff start, Retribution on the second camp, blue by 1:30 — a full clear before 2:00 puts you at level 4 with a fresh Retribution. First gank at level 4, mid first — the extra Chain rank turns the visit into a kill, and the sidelane tower dive costs more than it pays (MLBBHub). Turtle only with a second hero at the pit: solo, you have no self-peel that isn't your enhanced cast.

The hidden stat is mana: for ten minutes you are mana-capped before you are damage-capped — two rotations is the whole wallet — which is why Enchanted Talisman completes first below (MLBBHub). The level-3 spike is real, though: full kit, full chain, while laners are a level from their ultimates. EXP is the second desk, into lanes that trade honestly.

Best build, emblem, and battle spell (Season 42)

The locked core (MLBBHub): Arcane Boots → Enchanted Talisman → Genius Wand; Clock of Destiny is the near-fourth lock in any game reaching minute 10. Talisman is the engine — CDR plus the mana to chain two enhanced casts back to back. Genius Wand is the load-bearing damage item: its shred stacks on *every hit*, and Enhanced Scythe and Enhanced Chain are hit fountains, so by the third tick the target is down 9 + 0.9 × your level in magic defense before your pull basic lands (MLBBHub). Spike: Talisman + Genius Wand + Clock of Destiny, ~minutes 9–11 (MLBBHub). Fifth slot: Divine Glaive vs magic-defense stackers; Holy Crystal into squishy drafts. Sixth slot: Ice Queen Wand against multiple disengage tools (slow stacks 3×), or Starlium Scythe vs magic-defense backlines — its true-damage proc rides your pull basic and ignores all of it (MLBBHub). Named trap: Blood Wings — MLBBHub calls it his weakest common default; his survival is resetting skills, not a shield on a slow timer. Emblem — a genuine split, printed honestly: MLBBHub's guide body argues Assassin Emblem (Rupture / Master Assassin / Killing Spree): Rupture's adaptive penetration resolves as *magic* penetration on Julian, because his Total Magic Power scaling overtakes his physical attack by level 4 — read him as a burst mage with a jungle tag. MLBBHub's own FAQ instead recommends Mage Emblem (Rupture / Seasoned Hunter / Lethal Ignition), and Zathong runs Mage too. My call: Assassin for jungle — but the desk argues with itself, and either row is defensible. Battle spell: Retribution in jungle, effectively locked (every source). EXP runs Execute, mid Inspire (Zathong) — playable desks, not the default.

How to counter him

MLBBHub's measured podium: Guinevere, Minsitthar and Tigreal hold the biggest measured edges over him. MLBB.io's counter list independently leads with Guinevere, adding Beatrix and Chip. MLCounter's table (older dataset, direction only): Julian wins just 45% vs Minsitthar (445 games), 46% vs Joy (398), 47% vs Helcurt (335), 48% vs Paquito (230), 49% vs Aamon (390). - CC him in the reset window. After an enhanced cast, *everything* he owns sits on the 9–6s reset cooldown — the one moment he cannot dash, chain or answer. MLBBHub goes further: Franco, Khufra and Lolita are not counter picks, they are draft-level deletions — a suppression, cocoon or shield lockout inside that window means he dies without agency. Two of the three on one team, and the pick is benched. - Items: magic defense is the tax — Athena's Shield and Radiant Armor (Zathong's counter list), plus Tough Boots to shorten the Chain family's grip. - Play patterns: never stand grouped for the pull basic; hold one hard CC for the post-enhanced window instead of throwing it at his setups; punish the visible Chain cast — its delay is your dodge window. Who he counters is the mirror image: backlines that must stand still to work. MLCounter has him beating Valentina 59% (339 games), Yin 57% (436), Mathilda 56% (343) and Yve 53% (414) — and ONE Esports names him one of the strongest answers to Lukas, because Enhanced Chain keeps interrupting the Beast of Light's stacking.

Mistakes everyone makes

• "Sword Is the Exit, Not the Invitation": Engaging with Enhanced Sword because it's invisible and untargetable (MLBBHub). The enemy gets a full setup window while you fly through them, and you land with your only escape spent. Chain or Scythe opens. Sword leaves.
• "The Glowing Slot Surprise": Not checking which skill is enhanced before committing (MLBBHub). Clear the last camp with Sword + Scythe and Chain is your payoff; clear with Sword + Chain and it's Scythe — a different opener entirely. Look at the glowing slot *before* the fight.
• "Standing in the Reset": Walking at a second target after the enhanced cast with every skill on the shared reset cooldown (MLBBHub). The pull-basic window is for damage and repositioning. Forward, with nothing up, is where Julian dies standing still.
• "The Level-2 Invade": Invading at level 2 because the scaling numbers look scary (MLBBHub). The mana pool can't fund a second rotation; if the invade doesn't end the fight, you lose the next one. Farm to 4, then gank.
• "Power Before Penetration": Holy Crystal before Genius Wand (MLBBHub). Raw power is a fixed number; shred compounds. Penetration first, power second.

FAQ

• Does Julian really have no ultimate? Really — no fourth button. Fandom's note: Chain *behaves* like an ultimate technically, except it has 5 levels and can be learned at level 1. The enhancement chain is the ultimate, distributed across three skills.
• Which skill should I enhance? Whichever hasn't been pressed yet — the remaining unused skill is the enhanced one (Fandom). In practice: Enhanced Scythe as the default opener, Enhanced Chain after a teammate's engage, Enhanced Sword to leave (MLBBHub).
• What did Patch 2.2.16 change for Julian? Nothing — verified absent from the adjustment list, and blooing's complete roundup never mentions him. Last documented change: Patch 1.8.20's passive cooldown buff (Fandom patch history). Any claimed 2.2.16a tweak is [UNCONFIRMED].
• Why Enchanted Talisman before more damage? Mana is his bottleneck for ten minutes — the passive resets every skill at once, so a rotation habit costs more mana than the enemy costs defense (MLBBHub). Talisman funds the second rotation; Genius Wand makes it lethal.

Final verdict

Julian in Season 42 is the game's most honest combo exam: 50.1–50.2% on every live desk, B-tier paperwork everywhere, untouched by either Season 42 patch. The ceiling is not the question — three skills that take turns being an ultimate, a pull that rearranges teamfights, a level-3 spike most heroes can't answer. The question is the draft and the order of your fingers. Give him a Tigreal who goes first and he deletes the backline twice a fight. Ask him to start fights into Franco and Khufra, and he's a Raven who never leaves the nest.

Play him if: your team drafts a hard-engage frontline (Tigreal, Atlas, Khufra, Grock) or a control mid, the enemy backline is low-mobility, and you'll learn the enhancement order until it's reflex.

Skip him if: Franco, Khufra or Lolita are showing — two of them is a deletion, not a matchup — or your team has nobody who can land CC before you press Chain. Take Suyou and bring a kit that starts its own fights. Julian doesn't open doors. He walks through the one his team opens, and takes the backline with him.

Keep reading

• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang on CoolGameShelf — the game page: player rating and official store links
• MLBB Emblem Guide — the emblem setup behind this guide's build
• More assassin guides: Kaja MLBB Guide, Nolan MLBB Guide, Suyou MLBB Guide