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Summer Update (1.20) Notes: Enter the Bots

Summer Update (1.20) Notes: Enter the Bots

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Jul 25, 2016

Since 1.19 released, we’ve seen a lot of changes brought on by new items, new gameplay mechanics and the meta-shifting new hero, Lyra. So in Update 1.20, we’re giving you a chance to catch your breath and digest the changes while focusing on a much-needed feature: smart bots. The next new hero, the spell-slinging dark mage Samuel, will hit in 1.21. In the meantime, now is a great time to chill out with easier ways to obtain Sunlight, faster play options and improved bots that will follow your shot-calls better than anyone on your Friends list. Grab a drink and a spot by the pool. Update 1.20 is going to be a welcome breeze …


01a

Introducing the Second Exclusive: Summer Party SAW!

Look who’s joining the party: The Update 1.20 mystery skin is Summer Party SAW, who will make a splash on July 27 with his Gracie water gun and all-new effects and animations

SKIN HIGHLIGHTS (HOW SAW LIKES TO PARTY)

    • Gracie transformed into a freakin’ big water gun!
    • All-new idle animation
    • Floaties for maximum safety
    • Face-smashing water balloon dominance
    • Flippy-floppies
    • Suppressing “Fire” soaks enemies
    • Throws “Mad Cannon” exploding water balloons
    • Jumps into a kiddie pool for his recall animation

HOW TO UNLOCK SUMMER PARTY SAW

Unlock this special seasonal skin by collecting 50 cards in the following ways:

  • Get cards from the special SAW ICE Box.
  • Earn Sunlight from matches to level up. (Some Summer levels will automatically give you a SAW card.)
  • Claim Daily Summer Chest rewards, which will sometimes include a Summer SAW card, especially if you’ve leveled up your chest a lot.
  • Complete Quests: It’s possible you’ll score a Summer Party card in your quest chest.
  • Maybe get really lucky from a Summer SAW card drop post-match
  • Card Parties! Play every weekend all Summer season long to get a max of 2 Summer cards per weekend.

Note: Summer Party Krul is still available and will be until the end of the season. Plus, there’s still one more mystery skin to come in Update 1.21. Stay tuned.


summer-full

MORE WAYS TO SOAK UP SUN

A lot of players told us it was confusing to receive Sunlight in some situations and not others, along with much sadness that Battle Royale loses gave nothing but a little shade. In response, we’ve made it easier to get Sunlight (while still keeping minimal abuse prevention measures in place). So lather on that sunscreen. There’s going to be a lot more Sunlight in 1.20.

    • Decreased minimum match lengths required for Sunlight:
      • Ranked matches: Gain Sunlight after 10 mins (down from 15 mins)
      • Casual matches: Gain Sunlight after 10 mins (down from 15 mins)
      • Co-op Bots Standard: Gain Sunlight after 7 mins (down from 10)
    • Added Sunlight payouts to all bot modes and to all losses
    • Yes, get Sunlight from Battle Royale losses.

Learn more about Summer Sunlight:Get New Rewards & Progress


BOTS FOR ONE AND ALL

Summer season is about fun experiences for players of all kinds. Now, intelligent bots are getting in on the summer fun, challenging players across the experience spectrum. Try bots at five difficulty levels (Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard and Very Hard) and find what’s right for you and your friends. Also, expect the Hard and Very Hard bots to get smarter and even harder to beat in future updates.



BOTS FOR BEGINNERS

Bot mode: Solo | Recommended difficulty: Very Easy

For new players just joining the game, Very Easy bots will be a great introduction to the basic mechanics of combat and teamwork. Since the bots are designed to behave like humans, they’ll follow tactical commands, rally at specified points and even use social pings to express sadness or congratulations depending on how your match is going.



BOTS FOR MENTORING

Bot mode: Party | Recommended difficulty: Easy

Have a friend you want to introduce to Vainglory but concerned about dropping them into intense matches at your skill level? Now you can use the PARTY menu option, invite that player and a friend, then set up a match against bots at your desired difficulty. As that player becomes more skilled, you can increase the difficulty of the bots. So, invite a new friend to Vainglory, grab someone from your Friends list and throw a bot party.


Standard_Coop


BOTS BY CHOICE

Bot mode: Co-op | Matchmaker automatically sets bot difficulty

Some players simply prefer a challenging bot experience over PvP matches because they don’t have to worry about dealing with other humans. And you know what? That’s cool too. The Matchmaker will populate your game with opponents on par with your skills. The better you get, the more challenging bots you’ll encounter. See if you can defeat a team of Very Hard bots!



BOTS FOR EXPERIMENTATION

Bot mode: Solo | Recommended difficulty: Hard 

Just unlocked a new hero or want to try out a different item build? Great, go for a test run against some bots. Setting up a bot match is a great, low-risk way to sharpen skills without the pressure of a live player match.

NEW: When playing a Battle Royale match with solo bots, you can select your hero while battling random bot enemies.


vox3

KILL STREAKS!

This one’s in honor of all the hard carries out there. For the first time ever in Vainglory, receive recognition from killing multiple enemy heroes in close succession. There’s nothing quite like hearing Vainglory’s iconic announcer declare “Double Kill!” or “TRIPLE KILL!” because of your outplays.

New announcer kill streaks:

  • Double Kill!
  • Triple Kill!

LOW PRIORITY QUEUE

Through player feedback, we’ve worked to improve our system of punishment for players who abandon matches, ping rudely, troll, dodge Hero Select and have seriously negative karma. The new Low Priority Queue serves to keep repeat offenders away from you — while giving them an opportunity to earn their way back into the mainstream.

  • The Low Priority Queue adds additional time to matchmaking for a set number of matches.
  • Repeat offenders earn additional amount of queue time and increased number of probationary matches.
  • Completing matches earns points toward returning to normal queue.

hero_skins_header_thin

Find new skins in the Vainglory Market every week. 

Summer_saw

SUMMER PARTY SAW



alpha_horror copy

BROKEN DOLL ALPHA TIER I



Fury_tier3_splash

FURY RONA TIER III



Reim_T2_SplashNORTH WIND REIM TIER II


Keep an eye on the in-game News section for hero skin details, official skin lore & dev interviews, and watch the Wednesday dev stream for in-game skin reveals.


treants

INTRODUCING: TREANTS

A new monster replaces the jungle heal camps in Update 1.20: the Treant. The Treant is also a healer, and when it dies, it will launch a green heal projectile to the last-hitter. Look for this cosmetic upgrade in the jungle.

  • Heal camp model upgraded to new “Treants.”
  • Same healing effect as before
  • Projectile from heal camp to last-hitter (similar to Fountain of Renewal projectile)
  • Experience down from 29 to 27

 


REDESIGNED PLAY & MARKET MENUS

  • Get into games faster with menus that remember your preferences.
  • Easily find deals & exclusives.

NON-UNIQUE TEAM & GUILD TAGS

Longtime players got the guild and team tags they wanted, but over time as the player base has grown, it has become increasingly difficult to get the tag you want … or even find an unclaimed tag at all! Starting in Update 1.20, team and guild tags will no longer be unique, so players can freely choose the tag they really want. 

  • Guild & team tags are no longer unique.
  • Simply select the name you want when creating a guild or team.
  • Existing guilds & teams will be able to change their tags starting in Update 1.21 (next update). 

quests-banner

COMMUNITY QUESTS ARE HERE

In 1.19, we first announced that we were seeking community suggestions for quest ideas. We’ve been really impressed by these player-sourced submissions so far and can’t wait to hear more. Look for quests with the “Community” title and tap to the detailed view to see the player shout-out for the idea.

The first set of community-suggested quests are included in 1.20, and this is just the beginning. These initial Community quests focus on play based on specific hero roles, which is a great way to collect extra rewards as you utilize your hero roster.

HERO ROLE COMMUNITY QUESTS

  • Play a Warrior (Rona, Glaive, Joule, Ozo, Krul, Alpha or Fortress). Yes, Fortress is considered a warrior even though he’s a roamer.
  • Play a Protector (Lyra, Lance, Catherine, Ardan, Phinn or Adagio)
  • Play an Assassin (Koshka, Taka or Blackfeather)
  • Play a Mage (Skaarf, Petal, Reim or Celeste)
  • Play a Sniper (Ringo, Kestrel, SAW, Vox or Skye)

Submit your Community Quests ideas here. Punchpop will pick a few every update to make into real quests. Note: There are many more Community Quests already selected and in development for future releases.


MORE FLEXIBLE QUESTS

We’ve heard your feedback and have now made quests easier to complete. Now, all Hero Quests can be completed in any game mode.


NEW QUEST TYPES

  • Play Solo Bots
  • Win Solo Bots

Summer_Daily_Chest

MORE DAILY SUMMER CHEST REWARDS

  • Increased number of cards in a chest by +1 for all chests except for Legendary chests.
  • Now, all chests have at least two cards in them.
  • Increased likelihood of getting cards.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

EXPERIENCE

With the change to experience and the addition of ambient gold, some adjustments to experience distribution were in order. —Zekent

  • Experience gain changed from: One – 100% Two – 85/40% Three – 65/30/30%
  • To:  One – 100% Two – 65/60% Three – 45/40/40%

HOLD TO USE MINI-MAP

Too many players were accidentally “snapping” to the mini-map during fights. Now, players need to tap and hold down the mini-map before the screen will move. 

  • Tap-and-hold the mini-map to pan over the Halcyon fold map like before.
  • To turn on instant mini-map snapping, go to Vainglory app settings.

TACTICAL PING COOLDOWNS

The earlier ping cooldown changes dramatically reduced “rude ping” spam, but it had the unintended consequence of preventing legitimate shot-calling in the late game. We hope this addresses cooldown concerns. —PlayoffBeard

  • Changed ping cooldowns from 3 pings within 6 seconds to 4 pings within 8 seconds


header_hero_balance_changes_new

 

 

petalPETAL

Petal is finally firming in the competitive meta, but her kit could still be rather difficult for players to use. We wanted Petal’s abilities to be more player-friendly and to give players more flexibility with Spontaneous Combustion. —Zekent

TRAMPOLINE

  • Allows you to choose jump direction (like Vox’s Sonic Zoom)
  • No longer require Petal to be standing on a seed to activate. Instead, this ability costs energy and instantly places a seed on the ground from which Petal leaps
  • No longer recalls all munions back to Petal

SPOTANEOUS COMBUSTION

    • Petal now only commands one munion to explode at a time
    • This ability has 3 charges; one charge every 35-30-25 seconds.
    • Button is disabled when no munions are available, preventing you from wasting charges

ENERGY

    • No longer gains 0-150% bonus regeneration based on current energy amount
    • Energy down from 1200 to 410-718
    • Energy regen down from 8.88 to 3.21-5.30
    • Seeds cost 60-65-70-75-80
    • Trampoline costs 80-85-90-95-100
    • Spontaneous Combustion costs 40

MUNIONS

  • Munion health changed from 110-200-290-380-560 + 30% CR to 100-170-240-310-450 + 25%CR
  • Defense per munion up from 20-25-30-35-45 to 30-35-40-45-50

koshkaKOSHKA

These changes move Koshka away from being a bruiser and more toward a mobile assassin. We’ve been testing a more dramatic rework internally, but these changes may already make Koshka front-of-mind again. —SurpriseBirthday

HEROIC PERK

  • Whenever Koshka deals damage with an ability, she gains +2 move speed for 4 seconds
  • No longer has cooldown reduction on basic attacks, instead, her cooldowns have all been reduced.

POUNCY FUN

  • Damage changed from 80-130-180-230-400 + 80% CP to 75-140-205-270-400 + 100% CP
  • Cooldown down from 14-13-12-11-10 to 9.0-8.5-8.0-7.5-7.0

TWIRLY DEATH

  • Always empowers her next 2 basic attacks, regardless of # of targets hit by Twirl
  • Damage changed from 90-125-160-195-270 + 80% CP to 80-120-160-200-280 + 100% CP
  • Bonus damage changed from 30-55-80-105-150 + 110% CP to 35-50-65-80-110 + 140% CP
  • Cooldown down from 16-15-14-13-12 to 8.0-7.5-7.0-6.5-6.0

YUMMY CATNIP FRENZY

  • Cooldown down from 140-110-80 to 80-65-50

lyraLYRA

While Lyra’s is still very powerful, we’re exaggerating her squishisness rather than hurting her power. —Zekent

BASE STATS

Armor/shield down from 30-63 to 30-48

IMPERIAL SIGIL

Build some health! It’ll be good for both you and your allies! – Zekent

  • Healing per second health ratio up from 7.5% bonus health to 10% bonus health
  • Burst healing health ratio down from 15% bonus health to 8% bonus health

BRIGHT BULWARK

The shortened duration and cooldown means that Lyra must properly time this ability to have maximum effect.  —Zekent

  • Duration down from 4-4-4-4-6 to 2.5
  • Cooldown down from 35-32-29-26-20 to 24-22-20-18-14
  • Enemies inside the zone cannot use Lyra’s portals for the entire duration inside.

catherineCATHERINE

We wanted Catherine to have a more active playstyle, so we’ve shortened the cooldowns and durations of Stormguard and smoothed out her damage levels. —Zekent

STORMGUARD

  • Duration of bubble down from 6 to 4
  • Cooldown down from8-7-6-5-4 to 6.0-5.5-5.0-4.5-4.0
  • Damage per second up from 40-55-70-85-100 to 40-60-80-100-120
  • Fixed a bug where this ability can be activated while stunned

adagioADAGIO

As part of our overall effort to buff roamers, we wanted Roam Adagio to offer meaningful healing by scaling his items. —Zekent

GIFT OF FIRE 

  • Burst heal crystal ratio down from 65% CP to 45% CP 
  • Burst heal now has an 8% bonus health ratio

AGENT OF WRATH

  • Hit count up from 4-4-4-4-6 to 5-5-5-5-7

ardanARDAN

VANGUARD

      • Barrier health ratio up from 15% to 25%

BLOOD FOR BLOOD

    • Fixed a bug where bonus energy did not convert to bonus crystal for this ability

 phinnPHINN

We wanted Phinn to have a bit more an impact as a late-game Roamer, so we’re giving Forced Accord additional damage spikes at level 9 and 12. —Zekent

Forced Accord

Damage up from 100-200-300 to 100-300-500


reimREIM

We’re balancing the damage between the first and second hit of Winter Spire so that Reim has a bit more consistent damage overall. —Zekent

Winter Spire

  • Initial damage up from 80-110-140-170-200 + 80% CP to 80-120-160-200-240 + 100% CP
  • Shatter damage down from 100-145-190-235-280 + 160% to 80-120-160-200-240 + 140% CP

     

skaarfSKAARF

Skaarf needed a bit more opportunity to contribute late game so we’ve upgraded his Fan the Flames and Goop’s damage. —Zekent

  • Attack speed up from 100% to 100-122%

FAN THE FLAMES

    • Crystal ratio up from 2% CP to 3% CP

GOOP

  • Damage over time up from 40-60-80-100-120 to 60-90-120-150-180

     

voxVOX

We wanted to emphasize Vox’s potential as a crystal power mage. —Zekent

RESONANCE

Bounce damage changed from (25 base) 50-75-100-125-175 + 80% CP to (20 base) 40-60-80-100-140 + 90% CP


 

ozoOZO

THREE-RING CIRCUS

  • Crystal ratio on first and third hit up from 50% to 75%

ACROBOUNCE

    • Cooldown down from 13-12-11-10-8 to 10-10-10-10-8
    • Fixed a bug where this ability was unable to target Kraken

jouleJOULE

Big Red Button is a powerful ability with big-play potential, but we weren’t seeing enough of it. —Zekent

  • Big Red Button cooldown down from 100-85-70 to 60-50-40

 


 ronaRONA

Red Mist leaves Rona exposed from range, so now she can properly soak up some damage while using her ultimate. —Zekent

RED MIST

    • Fortified Health gained per second up from 40-60-80 to 40-70-100

blackfeatherBLACKFEATHER

This change allows Blackfeather to be much more of a threat early on while also creating a bit more power for his crystal path. 

HEARTTHROB

  • Bonus crystal damage up from 3-9 (level 1-12) + 7% CP to 5-10 + 10% CP per stack

ON POINT

  • Damage changed from 90-140-190-240-290 + 165% CP to 80-120-160-200-240 + 180% CP +  50% WP

FORTRESS

fortressAttack of the Pack

  • Cooldown down from 120-95-70 to 90-75-60

 


takaTAKA

KAKU

  • Fixed a bug where this ability can be activated while stunned.

ITEM CHANGES

OVERALL

Most items are now usable while channeling abilities, with the exception of Flares, Flare Gun, Contraption and Scout Traps.



stormguard-bannerSTORMGUARD BANNER

Stormguard Banner is returning to its DPS incarnation for simplicity and consistency of damage for roamers. 

  • Passive: Basic attacks deal 25-75 (level 1-12) bonus true damage per second to non-heroes, 20% to heroes
  • Recipe price down from 800 to 550 (Total price down from 1100 to 850)
  • New Stats:
    • 200 Health

Items_stormcrownSTORMCROWN

Stormcrown now not only packs more consistent damage due to the Banner change, but it also has superior stats that roamers love. —Zekent

        • Passive: Basic attacks deal 50-150 (level 1-12) bonus true damage per second to non-heroes, 20% to heroes
        • New Stats
          • 30% Cooldown Speed
          • 4 Energy Recharge
          • 200 Health

       

Items_flare_gunFLARE GUN

Now Flare Gun is a more economical purchase. 

  • Cooldown up from 18 to 20 seconds.
  • Now has 2 charges

contraptionCONTRAPTION

Raising the charge time a bit for consistency with Flare Gun, but vision alone will never justify a tier 3 slot, so we’re adding a tad more cooldown — a stat heavily favored by roamers.

  • Charge time up from 18 to 20 seconds
  • Cooldown speed up from 35% to 40%

CONTRACT ITEMS

We were relatively conservative with the new contract items when introduced at the start of Summer, just to make sure we didn’t disrupt the meta too severely. Now that we’ve observed these items for a while, we’re in a position to make them stronger and more desirable. —Zekent

Items_protectorPROTECTOR CONTRACT

  • Grants the barrier to all nearby allied heroes
  • Projectile speed increased from 15 to 20

 


Items_dragonbloodDRAGONBLOOD CONTRACT

  • Damage up from 75 to 100

 


Items_ironguardIRONGUARD CONTRACT

  • Also works when a large lane minion is killed
  • Also regenerates 10 energy each

 


clockworkCLOCKWORK

Since the utility tree is now filled with cooldown items that probably easily outclass Clockwork, Clockwork is moving back squarely into being a Mage item again.

  • Passive: Amplify Crystal Power by 25%
  • Cooldown speed down from 50% to 40%
  • Price up from 1850 to 2500


breaking-pointBREAKING POINT

  • Total cost up from 2500 to 2600
  • Weapon Power up from 50 to 55 (to match Heavy Steel)

 


bonesawBONESAW

  • Weapon power down from 30 to 15 (to match Piercing Spear)
  • Armor Shred changed from 7 stacks of 7% to 8 stacks of 6%
  • Duration of armor shred down from 6 to 3 seconds, then decay a stack every half-second

minion-candyMINION CANDY 

  • Can only be used if there is a valid target nearby, preventing you from accidentally wasting it

 


 

BUG FIXES

  • Hotfixed earlier: Resolved “missing abilities” issue
  • Catherine Stormguard / Taka Kaku: Fixed an issue where you can use these abilities while stunned.
  • Addressed the ‘Asset Not Found’ error Google Play players were experiencing
  • Improved loading performance in game
  • Improved Android stability across multiple devices

Now’s a great time to invite new friends into Vainglory and check out the new smart bots together. Enjoy the new skins, and remember to open your Summer Chest every day and win on weekends for guaranteed Summer Party cards!