Category: Reveals

Egg decorating, flowers blooming, water splashing, Blackfeather crooning under maidens’ windows — Halcyon Days are upon us!

Celebrate Halcyon Days like the Carnies do with a Vainglory Water Party!

From 5PM PDT on April 12 until 12PM PDT on April 17, grab these Opal discounts on ‘Summer Party’ skins!

• ‘Summer Party’ Krul: 250 Opals NOW 199 Opals
• ‘Summer Party’ SAW: 250 Opals NOW 199 Opals
• ‘Summer Party’ Kestrel: 250 Opals NOW 199 Opals
• Get ALL THREE ‘Summer Party’ skins for just 597 Opals!

Don’t miss Skaarf’s Halcyon Days Egg Art Contest and watch the app for upcoming Halcyon Days promotions!

ALL THE HALCYON DAYS

The titanback barge glides through the choppy water at dawn, the Halcyon Fold a shadow in the distance. Joule and Skye sit by the mech parking area eating sunflower seeds. Glaive and Ringo play the Hand Slaps game… well, Hand and Paw Slaps. Rona sits cross-legged, sharpening an axe, Fortress’ big head resting on her leg. Koshka holds Skaarf’s tail so he won’t jump into the water. Petal and her munions glare at the seed-eaters. Ozo surfs on the titanback’s tail. The corner where Phinn stands dips lower than the others; Blackfeather strums a mandolin.

“Almost herring funeral season,” muses Phinn.

“What are you talking about?” sings Blackfeather.

“You know, Halcyon Days, when you have the herring funeral.”

“Ah, Halcyon Days,” trills Blackfeather. “Snow melting, flowers blooming, days growing longer and warmer, and of course: the kissing contest.”

“The what now?” says Joule.

“The kissing contest, where the men line up to kiss the lady judges, and the winner is the year’s Kiss King. Of course,” brags Blackfeather, “I have held the title of Kiss King five years in a row.”

Joule spits a shell out over the edge. “Ain’t no kissing contests in the Lower Quarter,” she says. “For Halcyon Days, we build robots! Then we have a robot parade, and on the last day, we fight them.”

“Doesn’t that break the robots?”

Joule spins around, dropping her handful of seeds. “Who said that?”

“Over here.” Taka’s fluffy tail appears from under a box. He peeks out, grinning.

“Oh! Well, yeah, the robots break. Fighting breaks things. But we build all new ones the next year.”

“Where I’m from, we do spring cleaning and we get haircuts,” says Taka, and crawls out of the box to reveal a freshly trimmed tail. “The Halcyon Days start when the first cherry blossom appears. The rest bloom soon after, and we all go to the orchards to have picnics under the trees.”

“We hunt for eggs,” pipes up Rona.

“Do eggs hide where you’re from?” asks Glaive, whipping one huge paw over to slam Ringo’s knuckles.

Rona sticks out her tongue. “After the Long Dark, we get a few days of thaw. We dye them bright colors and the Halcyon Skvader hides the eggs in the longhouses…”

“Skuv-what?” says Joule.

“…and the children search for them.”

One of Fortress’ legs kicks in his sleep.

Glaive slams Ringo’s hand again. “During the Halcyon Days festival, Grangor kits team up to test themselves on the War Path. They may not leave the Path until one team is beaten all the way back. It is a good warmup after months of being stuck in our caves during storms.”

“FLAGGR VTHR BARF,” says Skaarf.

“True,” says Koshka, patting Skaarf’s head. “Those kids do sound scary.”

Glaive grins. “Well. It’s not just fighting. We also have a kissing contest.”

“Really?” cries Blackfeather, the mandolin music stopping short.

“No,” says Glaive.

Ringo shakes out his hand, all red and scratched from losing. “You all have tame Halcyon Days celebrations. Haircuts? Eggs? Carnies go crazy for Halcyon Days. We have singing, dancing…”

“And a Water Party!” calls Ozo, swinging up from the tail to land on Ringo’s shoulders. “We throw water at each other all day until we’re sopping wet as spring flowers.”

“Drenched buffoons will never be as pretty as spring flowers!” yells Petal, her leafy fist pumping. “For Halcyon Days, us plants play Explode The Munions!”

“What kind of a celebration is that?” asks Skye.

“A crazy one,” mutters Ringo.

“Rude,” says Petal. “It’s to ensure a lucky harvest. Here, I’ll show you…”

“No!” the other heroes shout, scattering away from her.

“GBBBBL!” blurts Skaarf.

“Those seem like very nice celebrations,” says Skye, distracting Petal from her spring party trick, “but where I’m from, we eat sweet rice cakes, play games, give gifts to the elderly, and the Butterfly Keepers tell our fortunes.”

“How do you tell a fortune with a butterfly?” asks Joule.

“The Butterfly Keepers have gardens enclosed with netting,” says Skye, her arms arcing overhead. “You stand in the center, and whatever butterfly lands on your nose first has a meaning. If it’s red, you will fall in love. Yellow means fortune. Blue means bad luck. White means death. Black means life will change.”

“I knew that butterflies had powers,” whispers Koshka.

“But wait!” cries Blackfeather. “We never discovered why Phinn’s… people, shall we say, hold funerals for herrings.”

Phinn chews on his bubble pipe as all eyes rest on him. “I don’t remember. ‘Tis the end of herring season, so maybe we’re just glad it’s over.”

The titanback claws its way onshore. Morning fog lifts off of the Halcyon Fold; flowers burst open all over the jungle and baby birds screech for food in the trees. The heroes disembark and wish one another luck.

Most heroes have to flee powerful crowd control abilities. Most heroes live in fear of being stunned, silenced or otherwise slowed. But not Gwen. Gwen can shake off negative effects, turning the tables in her favor due to her powerful Skedaddle ability. This “get out of jail” free card gives her a way to slip away from slows, roots, stuns and silences that no other hero possesses. Plus, her two blazing guns provide a perfect complement to her hit-and-run tactics. With her Buckshot Bonanza, she has one of the most reliable damage-dealing abilities in the game that also slows opponents — perfect for setting up the kill or ensuring her own escape. While not possessing the greatest range, Gwen has an intriguing mix of mobility and power. Read on to learn how to master this slippery sniper…

HERO ABILITIES

BOOMSTICK (HEROIC PERK)

After not attacking for 1.6 seconds, Gwen’s next basic attack deals 30-115 + (50% bonus weapon power) additional damage. Attack speed reduces the time before this empowered attack becomes available.

BUCKSHOT BONANZA (A)

Gwen blasts enemies in the target direction, damaging all targets in a cone. Enemies hit by this ability are slowed and revealed for 2 seconds

SKEDADDLE (B)

When activated, Gwen instantly removes negative effects from herself and blocks further effects for a short time. Additionally, she gains a temporary burst of bonus move speed.

Passive: Gwen gains bonus move speed. This effect is disabled for a few seconds upon taking damage from an enemy hero, but it is otherwise permanent.

ACES HIGH (ULTIMATE)

Gwen pulls an ace from up her sleeve and flings it in the target direction. The card deals damage to everything it passes through. The ace impacts and stuns the first enemy hero in its path.

DUELING

While Boomstick is a great heroic perk, when engaging with enemy heroes 1v1, you’ll actually do more damage stutter stepping. But, if you find yourself on the losing end of a battle, don’t stutter step in your retreat. Instead, wait for Boomstick to cool down, fire — and then run.

Her Buckshot Bonanza is one of the most reliable abilities in the game because of its large area of effect and guaranteed damage. But her range is somewhat limited. When you initiate against an enemy hero, you should get in range and attack with Buckshot Bonanza, which both damages and slows enemies. Then, Gwen should hit with her Aces High while the enemies are still slowed. While a powerful ability, Aces High is a slow-travelling projectile and therefore dodgeable. Combined with the slowing effects of the Bonanza, however, you increase the odds of actually hitting with Aces High.

Skedaddle is fantastic for getting a player out of bad situations by clearing CC debuffs and granting her a half-second immunity from further crowd controls (being rooted, slowed or silenced). She can also use Skedaddle to chase down enemies in order to finish them off. But be careful not to use Skedaddle and leave yourself in a vulnerable position. Without an escape route, Gwen can become a sitting duck.

TEAMFIGHTS

Gwen is a fragile character who prefers to be on the edge of a fight. Her Skedaddle has a long cooldown so it should really only be used in emergencies and to deal with major enemy crowd control.

Similar to her dueling strategy, Gwen players should use her Buckshot Bonanza + Aces High combo to secure a kill on the enemy carry. Alternatively, you can use this combo to peel for yourself. If you need to do more damage, you should stutter step. But if you need to be more mobile, utilize your Boomstick perk. If you’re using this latter strategy, then it’s recommended that you buy as much weapon damage as possible; stutter stepping will give you more constant damage output but being able to unleash a more potent attack every few seconds does have its benefits.

Let’s say you’re in a 1v2 situation not in your favor. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of your heroic perk. Stay mobile and fire back once the perk is ready. Once they’ve utilized a crowd control move on you, use your Skedaddle to escape. Alternatively, if you have vision, you can avoid an unfavorable fight entirely by using Skedaddle and heading back toward your turret.

If you’re part of a 2v1 scenario in your favor, then the same basic-attack principles for dueling and teamfighting apply: Use your Buckshot Bonanza to slow, your Aces High to stun and your Skedaddle to negate any slowing effects an escaping hero may throw at you.

While not recommended, Gwen can also build crystal items. Crystal items give her longer range but also a much slower rate of attack. Crystal Gwen strategies take advantage of her high movement speed and — through purchasing items such as Clockwork — the low cooldowns on her abilities. Essentially, Gwen’s approach to teamfighting is to stay far out and then run in and use her Bonanza to catch as many enemies as possible. After that, a Crystal Gwen should use her Aces High, and then Skedaddle away and out of range of retaliation. The benefits of this strategy is how well this utilizes her speed bonuses and the reliable and long-range damage-dealing abilities of her kit. The downside is that Gwen will be much less effective in sustained fights, so if she gets caught by Phinn’s anchor or some other enemy-slowing effect, she’s dead meat. Also, her heroic perk, arguably one of her best attributes, scales with weapon. It’s useful for last-hitting minions but with a CP build, it’s not going to help in the late game.

WEAPON BUILDS

Sorrowblade: A great pick for Gwen because it increases her base damage and scales with her perk.

Breaking Point: An item that offers more weapon damage over time and grants Gwen more attack speed. Plus, Buckshot Bonanza does weapon damage which gives you easy Breaking Point stacks.

Tyrant’s Monocle: Want more damage per second? Then look no further than Tyrant’s Monocle. If you critical hit with your initial hit, you’ll have a very strong burst opening. Unfortunately, perk damage is not being amplified by critical damage.

Bonesaw: If your enemy has a lot of armor, Bonesaw is a great choice. Plus, it will lower the cooldown on your heroic perk.

Aegis: Since Gwen is fragile, having a reflex block is exceptionally useful.

STRONG VERSUS

Ardan: Ardan’s ultimate is easily countered by Gwen’s Skedaddle, letting you walk through the gauntlet.

Krul: Gwen can get away from his heroic perk or his ultimate but not necessarily both. With her Buckshot Bonanza, she can also slow him.

Catherine: Gwen’s Skedaddle ensures she can’t be held down by Catherine’s silence or stun.

WEAK VERSUS

Ozo: Ozo has too many ways to close the gap between him and Gwen. He also has no abilities that her Skedaddle counters.

Reim: Reim’s abilities at maximum rank have too much range for her to contend with. Baron, similarly, has too much range for her to handle.

PRO TIPS

• Skedaddle gives you a move speed boost so long as you’re not being hit by enemies. So, you can use it to move to objectives faster.
• Her Buckshot Bonanza ability will reveal stealth. If you want to check bushes, why not fire and see what stumbles out?
• Hitting multiple heroes with Buckshot Bonanza will give you multiple Breaking Point stacks. So Breaking Point should be a high priority for nearly all Gwen builds.

We heard you: New plan for seasonal skin reissues

The new Sunlight-based progression system is now a season old, and we’re excited to take what we’ve learned and level it up for Autumn. We’re beefing up the Daily Chest rewards and adding a new Season Chest with some serious loot. You’ll need to get your hands on special keys, but each time you open the Season Chest, you’ll stand a chance of hitting massive jackpots or unlocking entire skins.

Season Chests may also grant a new currency called Opals, which is where things get really interesting. We’re at the point in Vainglory’s evolution where millions of players never had the opportunity to acquire the seasonal skins that have left the Market. For most, this was because they hadn’t joined the game yet, but we’ve also heard from players who missed out on a skin because of travel, illness, state-of-emergency displacement or other unavoidable situations. We want to give all these players a chance to participate in the fun … but not at the expense of the OGs who got these Special Edition skins when they first came out.

We think we’ve arrived at an answer that honors our early supporters yet creates a path for everyone else. Here’s how it works …

‘ORIGINAL SKIN’ IDENTIFIER & BONUS

• If you acquired a seasonal skin when it was first released, all players will see an exclusive “Original Skin” identifier on the loading screen every time you use that skin. This gives you a special distinction of respect and badassery seen every match to show you were here from the beginning.
• Players using skins with this identifier will get a 133% Sunlight bonus for matches played — and the faster you earn Sunlight, the more rewards you’ll get in the seasonal system. (The highest Sunlight bonus achievable with any other type of skin will be 100%.)
• This “Original Skin” identifier and bonus will be active in Update 1.23.
• “Original Skin” identifiers will only apply to skins from past seasons (Autumn 2015-Spring  2016) and are not intended for future skins.

INTRODUCING OPALS

• Opals are a new currency that can be used in the Market to unlock Special Edition skins from prior seasons. (All seasonal skins will be classified as “Special Edition.”)
• Skins acquired with Opals will never have the “Original Skin” identifier or bonus.
• Opals are extremely rare and can only be found in your Daily Chest, Season Chest and Autumn level up.
• Your balance of Opals will remain across seasons, allowing you to make constant progress toward unlocking Special Edition skins.
• In Update 1.22, only the Summer Party skins will be available in the Opals Market. In the future, we’ll introduce more skins from past seasons.

Even with this new Opals system, it’s strictly better to have acquired the skin during its original release. Getting a Special Edition skin when it first comes out will always be the most straightforward and cost-effective route you can take. Acquiring Special Edition skins via Opals is a costly and/or long-term grind — usually spanning multiple seasons of play.

We hope you like this plan and the evolved seasonal system, and we look forward to getting your feedback. To hear from you and answer any questions you still have, we’ll be hosting an AMA on reddit shortly after Update 1.22’s release. Keep an eye on the in-game News section for an exact date and more details on what’s coming this Autumn.

Thank you for your continued support of Vainglory.

Here’s the complete list of Special Edition skins for which “original skin” identifiers will be granted. All skins listed will eventually be included in the Opals Market in-game:

SPRING 2016

• Killer Bunny Rona
• Night Shadow Taka

WINTER 2015

• Gift-wrapped Fortress
• Winter War Catherine
• Red Lantern Koshka

AUTUMN 2015

• Pumpkin Spice Petal
• Baewitched Celeste

Summer season introduces new items, critical gameplay changes and a new roamer who will have a major impact on hero compositions & draft strategy. Let’s dig in …

LYRA ABILITIES & BREAKDOWN

Lyra uses healing and protective magic to turn enemy positions into powerful zones for her allies. Utility and defense items improve her role as a healer, while crystal items provide a devastating-but-fragile mage path.

QUICK START:

• Learn Imperial Sigil (Ability A) first. Upgrade and overdrive it first.
• Take Bright Bulwark (Ability B) at level 2 but upgrade it last. Only overdrive situationally.
• Learn and upgrade Arcane Passage (Ultimate) whenever possible.

Principle Arcanum (Heroic Perk)

Lyra’s attacks are arcane missiles, dealing crystal damage. If she holds her ground after releasing an attack, she automatically channels and releases a much stronger arcane missile that deals additional crystal damage and briefly slows its target. Each channeled missile consumes energy, but Lyra can continue using these even if she runs out of energy.

HEROIC PERK BREAKDOWN:

• Once the first missile has locked on, the second is guaranteed to land as well, provided Lyra finishes channeling.
• For basic-attack (on-hit) effects and weapon items, both the first and second arcane missiles are considered basic attacks.
• Attack speed affects the channeling time, in addition to the time between shots.
• While the second missile is much stronger, it also puts Lyra’s next attack onto a slightly longer cooldown.
• The projectile speed on the first missile increases with attack speed.

Imperial Sigil (A)

Lyra forms a sigil at the target location, revealing surrounding enemies. While this sigil remains active, it heals nearby allied heroes and damages nearby enemy heroes. Lyra can reactivate this ability at any time to detonate the sigil, dealing heavy damage to surrounding enemies while providing a burst of healing and a moderate move speed boost to nearby allies.

IMPERIAL SIGIL BREAKDOWN:

• Lyra’s healing is increased with her bonus health from items.
• The cooldown won’t begin until the detonation occurs, either manually or after running out.
• Because heroes consume the sigil, you can reduce the healing from an enemy Lyra by getting near her sigil and draining some damage.
• Detonate Imperial Sigil beneath allies while moving around the map.
• Imperial Sigil can be used for vision, but the tradeoff is that it won’t start its cooldown until it’s detonated (manually or after timing out).

Bright Bulwark (B)

After a brief delay, Lyra releases a pulse of magical energy, damaging and applying a decaying slow to surrounding enemies. The affected area then becomes a walled zone of protection that deals the same damage and slow to enemies attempting to cross its borders. Enemies inside the zone are snared, allowing them to move normally but preventing them from using movement abilities.

BRIGHT BULWARK BREAKDOWN:

• This stops “dash” abilities, including jumps like Joule’s leap.
• However, it does not stop movement-speed increases like Catherine’s Mercilless Pursuit. The slow is strong enough to noticeably reduce those abilities, though.
• When an ally pulls/pushes an enemy into the wall, the enemy will stop at the wall rather than go their full distance.
• You can Reflex Block while snared to buy enough time to dash.
  • Lance can use Gythian Wall on overdrive to do this as well.
• The slow and damage have a short internal cooldown (1.8 seconds). Don’t stand on top of the wall if you want to avoid getting hit again.
• Bright Bulwark is incredibly powerful against dash-dependent heroes such as Glaive. In some situations, this can allow you to stand and fight when you would otherwise need to retreat.
• If it’s not effective enough, consider learning the overdrive.

Arcane Passage (C)

Lyra blinks to the target location, leaving portals at both the beginning and the end of the blink. Portals last for a few seconds, allowing allied and enemy heroes to move freely between them in both directions. Heroes must wait several seconds before they can re-enter a portal. This cooldown is also applied to enemies when Lyra hits them with the initial pulse of Bright Bulwark.

ARCANE PASSAGE BREAKDOWN:

• Portals are globally visible for both teams.
• Heroes gain a small boost of speed when exiting portals.
• Heroes currently dashing or being affected by pulls or knockbacks will not enter a portal.
• Heroes standing directly on top of a portal when they spawn will not be pulled through until they move off the portal and re-enter. (This is a snipe protection for Adagio and other heroes who have no means of avoiding the effect.)
• Enemies cannot use portals until 1 second after they’ve formed, but Lyra and her allies can enter immediately.

USING LYRA’S PORTALS:

• Both teams can use portals with no negative effects. Just walk onto them.
• Portals are typically better for strategic map movement than going directly into an enemy team, unless you have a specific plan or comp for it.
  • If you form a portal far away from enemies and then make the destination portal away from enemies, you can prevent enemies from easily accessing portals. This can make for effective flanks, especially in combination with Bright Bulwark.
• The initial pulse of Bright Bulwark puts affected enemies on the full portal cooldown.
  • If you need to get away from enemies, use Bright Bulwark first, then immediately portal away.
  • If you need to create a beachhead for your team, you can portal near enemies and use Bright Bulwark, allowing your allies to join you while preventing enemies from escaping.

PLAYING AS LYRA

• Lyra is a powerful healer with a roam primary path.
• Pair her with ranged heroes such as Celeste who like to be on the edge of fights. Lyra’s protective zones will keep them safe on the back line.
• Or, form comps with slower heroes such as SAW, Phinn & Krul since Lyra can teleport them into the fight from a distance.
• Lyra’s secondary path is as a crystal mage. If you’d like to try this, she has excellent synergy with Alternating Current because her perk fires two arcane missiles in a row. The perk trades her positioning for power, which can be a dangerous gambit. However, it’s incredibly powerful against fleeing enemies.
• When you’re last-hitting, consider staying at maximum attack range. The light and heavy attack will hit at nearly the same time, making it much easier to successfully last-hit.

PLAYING VS LYRA

• Lyra is extremely fragile even with health items due to unusually low armor and shield.
• Focus her and burst her down. Build items accordingly.
• Select any heroes who can get to her quickly and take her out. Taka is a great example. Even though he seems susceptible to Bright Bulwark, a sneaky Taka can often get to Lyra faster than the bulwark can go down — especially with X-Retsu.

SUMMER GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Starting in Summer season, you’ll have much more build freedom and diversity. Let’s look at why …

AMBIENT GOLD

Ironguard Contract no longer provides a gold bonus. Instead, this is replaced with an always-on mechanic affecting all heroes.

• Ambient Gold: Whenever anyone kills a minion or monster, a nearby ally within 14 meters earns 75% of the bounty as bonus gold. If two allies are nearby, whichever hero has lower net worth earns the Ambient Gold.

In short, roam players are no longer required to buy an Ironguard Contract at the start of every single match, which opens them up to many more itemization choices. There is no requirement to eventually turn that Ironguard Contract into a Warhorn or Contraption, so many more possibilities unfold.

This change also means that roamers taking last hits will no longer have a large negative impact on a team’s gold net worth. Instead, they’ll still generate the same amount of gold since there will always be a 100%/75% split to two team members near each other.

Additionally, we expect to see many more strategies become viable from the way gold is distributed among team members. Teams may now more strategically decide where to funnel gold when they have multiple heroes reaching item breakpoints.

EXPERIENCE & GOLD RANGE

Experience and gold range are both set to 14 meters. It is still possible to hyper-level a hero … but your team will be giving up far more to do so.

Following closely behind Ambient Gold is the change to experience range. Prior to 1.19, the range where a hero could acquire experience from a kill in the jungle was 5.6, whereas the range where Ironguard Contract granted gold was 14. In addition to being a fairly invisible mechanic, this created a zone where a player could get Ironguard Contract gold while giving up experience — more commonly known as hyper-leveling.

This led to situations where a team member could end up significantly under-leveled in favor of rushing an allied hero to a potential level power-spike. While we find the practice of hyper-leveling innovative and tactically interesting, we wanted to make sure that a player was not denied experience simply from the role or hero they chose.

As such, in 1.19, we have decided to change experience range to 14, which matches the range of Ambient Gold. This means that if you are in range for Ambient Gold, you will also be in range to share experience.

If a team so chooses, they are still able to hyper-level a hero, (which would not be too surprising for the first rotation to hit a level-2 power spike). However, they would be trading that for a potential loss of 75% increase in gold from each monster or minion that is killed.

EXPERIENCE DISTRIBUTION

With the change to experience and the addition of Ambient Gold, some adjustments to experience distribution were in order.

Experience gain when multiple allies are nearby:

• One: 100%
• Two: 85/40%
• Three: 65/30/30% (killer gets the larger amount).

GOLD TRICKLE

• Gold trickle up from 4 to 5 per second.

NEW ITEMS COMING IN SUMMER UPDATE 1.19

The other major reason for more build flexibility is more item choice! 

NEW CONTRACT ITEMS

With the introduction of Ambient Gold, Ironguard Contract is no longer a staple item for every roam build. Instead, a few early-game options have been introduced into the OTHER section in the item shop. These can grant a significant amount of power early on, or if you find the need for a small power boost at any given time for a fairly low cost, these new Contract items are fantastic options. However, keep in mind that none of these Contracts upgrades into anything, though they can be sold back for half the purchase cost.

IRONGUARD CONTRACT

Ironguard is now specifically geared toward coming out of the jungle with a bit more battle readiness and to keep both members of a jungle duo topped off to fend off invasions. While no longer a necessity, Ironguard still makes for a fantastic starting purchase.

• Passive: When a nearby ally kills a jungle monster, you both heal for 75 health
  Range: 14m
• Cost: 300 gold

Protector Contract

A much more defensive start, the Protector Contract allows you to protect your teammates — as long as you are close enough to do so. This is a fantastic purchase if you expect heavy aggression coming out from the opposing team or if you plan on team fighting early on.

• Activate: Grant a 120 health barrier to the nearest ally hero for 2 seconds. 5s cooldown. 2 max charges, 20s per charge.
  Range: 8m
• Cost: 300 gold

Dragonblood Contract

The Dragonblood Contract supports early aggression and may allow you to dominate early on in a match; however, this initial advantage falls off very quickly. Having a fairly long recharge time and a fixed amount of damage, it is a great tool for early aggression and calculated ganks, but it is a good candidate to replace once mid-game rolls around.

• Activate: After a brief delay, nearby enemy heroes are marked for 3 seconds. The next basic attack from an ally consumes the mark, slowing by 30% for 2s and dealing 75 bonus crystal damage. 15s cooldown. 2 max charges, 40s per charge.
  Range: 4m
• Cost: 300 gold

NEW UTILITY ITEMS & REWORKS

Stormguard Banner

Stormguard Banner has been reworked to be a strong pickup for heroes who have weak wave/jungle clear abilities and for teams who intend to prioritize objective control over constantly battling the enemy team. However, this does come with the caveat that you will be giving up a significant amount of combat power.

• Passive: After using an ability, your next 3 basic attacks in the next 6 seconds deal 75 bonus true damage to non-heroes or 20 to heroes. Can only be refreshed once every 6 seconds.
• +2.5 Energy Recharge
• +150 Energy
• Energy Battery (300) + Recipe (800) = 1100

Stormcrown

An upgraded version of the new Stormguard Banner. Deals significant but not overwhelming damage to heroes, but it’s fantastic for quickly taking down objectives.

• Passive: After using an ability, your next 4 basic attacks in the next 6 seconds deal 140 bonus true damage to non-heroes or 35 to heroes. Can only be refreshed once every 6 seconds.
• +30% Cooldown Speed
• +5 Energy Recharge
• +200 Energy
• +150 Health
• Stormguard Banner (1100) + Chronograph (800) + Recipe (300) = 2200

Journey Boots

Running fast is a lot of fun. Running fast often is even more fun.

• Passive movement speed up from 0.5 to 0.6
• Cooldown increased from 30 to 60
• Passive: Damaging heroes instantly sets the cooldown to 12 seconds if it is above it.
• Armor, Shield and Health Regen removed
• Health down from 300 to 250

War Treads (Warhorn is now a type of Boots)

These new boots have replaced Warhorn has a team-wide mobility option. If you ever find yourself in the situation where you need to get your team into or out of a fight quickly, War Treads is a perfect purchase.

• Activate: Nearby allies Sprint for 2 seconds (60s cooldown).
• Passive: +0.4 Movement speed
• Passive: Travel Boots
• +500 Health
• Stormguard passive removed
• Travel Boots (1000) + Dragonheart (650) + Recipe 850) = 2500

Halcyon Chargers

A powerful new option for both running down your foes or escaping from a pursuer. Halcyon Chargers should easily be able to get you in or out of danger once. Choose this over Journey boots when prioritizing ability usage from cooldown speed.

• Activate: Sprint for 3 seconds (50s cooldown).
• Passive: +0.5 Movement speed
• Passive: Travel Boots
• +200 Health
• +15% Cooldown Speed
• +4 Energy Recharge
• +250 Energy
• Travel Boots (1000) + Void Battery (700) + Recipe (600) = 2300

Flare Gun

Offering an early game vision option. Pick up a Flare Gun if you plan to constantly track your enemies.

• Activate: Fire a Flare at target location. (18s cooldown).
• +250 Health
• Oakheart (300) + Recipe (300) = 600

Contraption

No longer building out of Stormguard Banner, Contraption now charges a bit faster and offers a bit more defensive power.

• Cooldown up from 3 to 5 seconds (18s per charge)
• +350 Health
• +35% Cooldown Speed
• +3 Energy Recharge
• Health Regen removed
• Stormguard passive removed
• New Recipe: Flare Gun (600) + Chronograph (800) + Recipe (700) = 2100

OTHER

• Kraken is no longer affected by any positive buffs (i.e. Warhorn speed boost and Adagio’s Gift of Fire).
• Players may no longer walk into the area where the Jungle Shop resides.
• Tap area of the jungle shop has been decreased to avoid accidental shopping during fights.
• Flares are no longer globally visible, but brush will not inherently hide them if there’s vision on that area.

RELATED ARTICLES

This is only a part of the massive Summer improvements coming in Update 1.19. For more previews, check these out:

• Celebrating the Vainglory Summer Beach Party (Skins & Events)
• Summer Party Preview: Get New Rewards & Progress

At any given time, there are multiple Vainglory heroes in various stages of development. Today, we take a look at Vainglory’s next hero: the archer Kestrel. This is the second hero introduced from the elite fighting force called the Stormguard, with Catherine famously being the first. Kestrel is still in testing and anything or everything could change before her release.

KESTREL ABILITIES (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Kestrel is still in development. During this process, abilities may change slightly — or change dramatically — depending on what the designers learn through the testing process.

HERO DESIGNER CIDERHELM INTRODUCES KESTREL

“With Kestrel, our goal is to deliver on two fantasies: When playing weapon, you’ll become a predator, staying near your targets and using brief bursts of stealth to weave through combat as you line up your arrows. Crystal Kestrel benefits from longer stealth durations, allowing her to lean more heavily into her traps as she sets up long-range sniper shots.”

Kestrel is coming next to Vainglory. Again, all abilities are subject to change based on the testing process.

After much testing and experimentation, Blackfeather is locked and ready to go. Check out his final ability kit below, and read the last installment of his tale with Phinn and Princess Malene. And to see Blackfeather in full-match action, be sure to watch the special Blackfeather Dev Livestream today at 2PM PST/22GMT!

MEET THE ASSASSIN BLACKFEATHER

Blackfeather is a striking duelist who pierces the hearts of his opponents. When building weapon items, he becomes a powerful assassin. Building crystal and utility items instead unlocks powerful effects for himself and his team. He performs well in the lane where he can focus on accumulating gold early in the match.

HEARTTHROB (HEROIC PERK)

Blackfeather’s attacks and abilities apply Heartthrob stacks to enemies. This stacks twice on minions and monsters and up to five times on heroes and objectives. Any time stacks are added or refreshed, Blackfeather also deals bonus crystal damage for each stack of Heartthrob already on the target.

Instead of energy, Blackfeather uses Focus for his abilities. Focus is capped at 100 and naturally regenerates 7.5 per second. Blackfeather also recovers an additional 10 focus for each basic attack he lands.

FEINT OF HEART

Blackfeather lunges to his target and basic attacks. For the next 4 seconds, the target leaves behind a rose trail that grants Blackfeather and his allies move speed when moving through it. When this ability is used against a target with full Heartthrob stacks (shown as broken hearts), it will execute the target for bonus true damage based on the target’s missing health (capped against non-heroes).

Overdrive: The rose trail also makes Blackfeather and allies unslowable. Additionally, the cooldown for Feint of Heart is reset if the target is killed within 0.5 seconds.

ON POINT

Blackfeather pierces all enemies in a line, damaging them and applying a decaying slow for 1 second. The duration of this slow is increased by 0.3 seconds for each stack of Heartthrob on the target. If this hits at least one enemy hero, Blackfeather also gains a barrier that scales with a percentage of his bonus health and recovers focus. The amount of focus recovered is further increased with a percentage of his max energy and a percentage of his energy recharge.

Overdrive: On Point gains increased range.

ROSE OFFENSIVE

Blackfeather cuts through his opponents, basic attacking all enemies along his path. During the dash, Blackfeather is immune to negative effects and takes greatly reduced damage. This ability has 2 charges.

NEW LORE: LOVE’S FAILED KISS

By SugarVenom

Phinn chewed on his pipe while a bobber floated on the still water of a pond. He sat on a rock, half snoozing, jerking awake whenever his fishing pole slipped out of his claws.

On the grass beside him, Blackfeather had surrounded the unconscious princess with plucked flowers. “Look at her,” whispered Blackfeather in awe. “Is she not the most captivating thing you have ever seen? Her hair. Her pale skin. Her delicate fingers, how they clutch her prized mirror! Her eyebrows, arched as if to say… as if to say…”

“…let me sleep,” said Phinn.

“No, that’s not it. There is a… a dare in her expression. ‘Do you dare to do what must be done?’ Yes, your highness, I…”

“I meant, let me sleep,” said Phinn with a sharp-toothed yawn. “You kept me up all night with your princess-stealing.”

“How can you think of slumber when such an adventure is about?” Blackfeather dropped with great drama to his knees beside the princess and tucked her hair behind her ears. “When such a beauty needs aid? Never fear, my lady. Blackfeather is here.” With that, he bent and brushed his lips against hers.

Phinn snored.

Susie, perched comfortably on Phinn’s nose, tweeted a morning song.

A red-whiskered carp poked its head out of the pond to peer with suspicion at the bobber.

Princess Malene did not stir.

“That’s bizarre,” said Blackfeather, startling Phinn awake. “Something went wrong with the kiss.”

“Like as not, it’s your technique,” said Phinn, making eye contact with the carp. “Kissing is an art. It’s all in the incisors.”

“I weep for troll women.”

“I haven’t yet had a complaint,” said Phinn as he casted again, landing the bait closer to the curious carp. “Come on, now. Heeeere my little breakfast. Take the juicy worm, now.”

“Your provinciality would drain the romance out of any but this exquisite moment,” said Blackfeather, and again he lowered himself to press his lips to Princess Malene’s, lingering longer this time.

Susie ate a fly out of Phinn’s ear.

The carp nibbled the bait.

Phinn snorted awake and yanked up his pole, piercing the carp through its coquelicot-mustachioed lip.

Princess Malene did not stir.

“Preposterous!” cried Blackfeather. He pouted with crossed arms while Phinn reeled in the carp. “Something is wrong with her, because I am the best kisser in this land.”

Phinn raised up his wriggling catch, but Blackfeather was too despondent to admire it. “Maybe she needs to be awake to enjoy it,” offered Phinn.

“That is the point of the kiss,” cried Blackfeather, startling Susie. “To wake her up.”

The carp died.

“Kisses don’t wake up princesses. Who told you that nonsense?” Phinn bit the head off his breakfast and chewed while shaking his head at his friend.

“They don’t?”

“Of course not. Only the tickle of a seraphim’s feather will wake a sleeping princess. Blue feathers work best.”

Susie nodded in agreement.

“That … that makes so much sense!” Blackfeather sighed with relief. “Why else would my kisses be ineffective? Now, where do we get this famed azure plume?”

“Beats me. Not as many seraphim about as there used to be. Why do you care anyway? I thought we were her kidnappers, not her heroes.”

“We can’t very well collect a bounty on a princess in a coma.”

“Seems you rather like her.”

“Like her? Dear, sweet Phinneas. The crevasse between heroism and villainy is not wide, but it is deep.”

“Take care not to fall in when you jump over, then.” Phinn swallowed the remainder of the carp and, as was his habit after eating anyway, fell again to napping. Once he was sure that Phinn wasn’t watching, Blackfeather took Princess Malene’s hand.

“I shall be the one to tickle you awake, your highness,” he whispered. “I care not where the adventure takes me.”

To be continued … someday.

READ MORE BLACKFEATHER LORE

• Princess Kidnapped!
• Social Climbers
• ‘No Use Resisting!’
• Ruffians!

At any given time, there are multiple Vainglory heroes in various stages of development. Today, we take a look at Vainglory’s next hero: the assassin Blackfeather. While this hero is likely to release with update 1.11, we make no promises because a hero never hits the Fold until it’s absolutely ready. That means playing AS Blackfeather, playing WITH Blackfeather as an ally and playing AGAINST Blackfeather all feel balanced. Blackfeather is still in testing to make sure we get that right (or die trying). —PlayoffBeard

BLACKFEATHER ABILITIES (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Blackfeather is still in development. During this process, abilities may change slightly — or change dramatically — depending on what the designers learn through the testing process.

HEARTTHROB (HEROIC PERK)

Blackfeather’s attacks and abilities apply Heartthrob stacks to enemies. Any time stacks are added or refreshed, Blackfeather also deals crystal damage for each stack of Heartthrob already on the target. Instead of energy, Blackfeather uses Focus for his abilities. This is capped at 100 and naturally regenerates. Blackfeather also recovers an additional 10 focus for each basic attack he lands.

FEINT OF HEART

Blackfeather lunges to his target and attacks, dealing increased attack damage (+60 crystal power) and applying weapon effects. For the next 4 seconds, the target leaves a rose trail. Blackfeather and his allies gain move speed when moving through this trail. When this ability is used against a target with full Heartthrob stacks (shown as broken hearts) it will execute the target, dealing additional true damage based on the target’s missing health. Overdrive: The rose trail also removes and blocks slows while Blackfeather and his allies move along it. Additionally, Feint of Heart’s cooldown is reset if the target is killed within 0.5 seconds of being struck.

ON POINT

Blackfeather pierces all enemies in a line, damaging them and applying a decaying slow for 1 second. The duration of this slow is increased by 0.3 seconds for each stack of Heartthrob on the target. If this hits at least one enemy hero, Blackfeather also gains a barrier that scales with 15% of his bonus health and recovers 35 focus. The amount of focus recovered is further increased with 2% of his Max Energy and 50% of his energy regeneration. Overdrive: On Point gains increased range.

ROSE OFFENSIVE

Blackfeather cuts through his opponents, landing basic attacks on all enemies along his path. During the dash, Blackfeather is immune to negative effects and takes greatly reduced damage. This ability has 2 charges.

HERO DESIGNER CIDERHELM DISCUSSES BLACKFEATHER:

“Blackfeather is all about decisions. He can be played as a weapon assassin or crystal warrior/roamer, and this is further divided by the specific items he chooses.

Rose Offensive (Ultimate)

Blackfeather cuts through his opponents, landing basic attacks on all enemies along his path. During the dash, Blackfeather is immune to negative effects and takes greatly reduced damage.

 

This ability has two charges.

“This ability is a blank slate. If you want a powerful crowd control ultimate, activate Shiversteel and apply it to every enemy in a single dash. If you want a burst ultimate, build critical chance and critical damage. And if you prefer to use the mobility for closing in on a single target or bypassing enemy crowd controls, keep the two charges ready for the right moment.

“Blackfeather has his bases covered when it comes to overdrives as well. Want a cooldown reset on a successful execute? That’s an overdrive. Want safe long-range harassment when you’re on the defensive? That’s an overdrive. Want to chain both charges of your ultimate together almost instantly? Learn the final rank of your ultimate.

“With Blackfeather, the choice is yours.”

BLACKFEATHER LORE

Blackfeather is coming soon to Vainglory. Again, all abilities are subject to change based on the testing process.