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Update 1.15 Notes: Shadows Empower Me

Update 1.15 Notes: Shadows Empower Me

  • Vainglory
  • |
  • Mar 01, 2016

Update 1.15 is here, and with it comes three incredible new skins, special “Night Shadow Taka” card events and meta-impacting balance changes. Let’s take a look …hero_skins_header_thin1000w_Ardan_Splash_T3

‘STORMLORD ARDAN’ TIER III

Stormlord Ardan’s heart is now powered by his daughter’s life-giving star, but that’s not all: This incredible Tier III skin features new plasma effects, heroic new animations, upgraded armor and his old power fist is now a powerful plasma cestus. Plus, the new Gauntlet visual effect will leave players’ mouths gaping. Read the new Stormlord Ardan lore here.

What’s new:

  • Celeste’s star powered heart battery
  • Plasma effects
  • Heroic animations
  • Upgraded white armor
  • Plasma Cestus

1000w_Celeste_Tier2_Splash‘STAR QUEEN CELESTE’ TIER II

Star Queen Celeste has invaded the Storm Queen’s palace. There, she discovered that her predecessor has already commissioned a crown, armor and staff for her. Liquid gold high tech meets regal fashion in this gorgeous Tier II skin. Read Star Queen Celeste’s lore here.

What’s new:

  • Swirling galaxy in her staff
  • Star lanterns on the tips of her braids

1000w_Nightshadow_taka_splash_artLIMITED-EDITION SKIN: ‘NIGHT SHADOW TAKA’

For the first time ever, you can collect cards to unlock a limited-edition skin! Night Shadow Taka has a completely new effects suite featuring molten metal blades. 

What’s new:

  • Gythian steel armor
  • Technologist machinery
  • Blazing blades
  • Disappears under an automaton
  • Flashy molten metal spark effects
  • New ability animations

HOW IT WORKS:

  • Unlock this limited-time skin with ICE or by collecting 16 “Night Shadow Taka” legendary cards.
  • Taka card events will accelerate you toward the 16 legendaries you need. These card events will be similar to “Crazy 8” card events, except that after your third win of the day, you are guaranteed to get a Night Shadow Taka card. We’ll run a number of card events in the coming weeks. Keep a close eye on the in-game NEWS section for more details soon!
  • A special card box in the Market will only contain Night Shadow Taka legendary cards to help you complete your collection.
  • You may destroy unwanted cards and use the Essence to craft the Night Shadow Taka cards you need.

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FINAL UPDATE OF WINTER SEASON

As Winter Season winds down, we took special care to smooth any rough edges without too many major changes. We want this update to alleviate any pain but still feel familiar. 

HERO RESPAWN TIMER – TURRET REDUCTIONS

Introducing this mechanic helped teams that defended their turrets properly not lose in one big push. We are adjusting the percentage reduction to prevent games from running longer than intended. —SurpriseBirthday

  • Respawn timer clock refund per turret kill down from 15% to 10%.

JUNGLE MONSTERS

We’re adjusting how jungle monsters scale at different stages of the game so they don’t overwhelm players at lower tiers who don’t farm as efficiently. Now, the monsters should offer a consistent challenge for most farming speeds. —SurpriseBirthday

  • Jungle monsters strength now scales with team net gold rather than time in game.

DAMAGE CLARIFICATION

  • Spectator mode now displays which team scores the last hit on jungle monsters.

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krulKRUL

We wanted to create a viable crystal build path for Krul without disrupting weapon Krul too much. Plus, now Weakness stacks will impact crystal-building heroes in addition to attack-speed carries. —SurpriseBirthday

SHADOWS EMPOWER ME

  • Bug fix: Perk is now activated as long as Krul is idle in a bush for 1.5 seconds.
  • Bug fix: Fix cases where perk did not activate when it should have. 

DEAD MAN’S RUSH

  • Damage from 150-200-250-300-530 + 70% crystal ratio + 100% weapon ratio to 160% basic attack + 70% CR.
  • Barrier duration now has a 0.2% crystal ratio
  • Barrier up from 80-160-240-320-600 + 75% CR to 100-200-300-400-600 + 125% CR.

SPECTRAL SMITE

  • Damage per stack changed from 16-34-52-70-110 + 10% CR to 20-35-50-65-95 + 20% CR.
  • Base heal changed from 36-48-60-72-164 to 40-60-80-100-140.
  • Heal per stack changed from 12-17-22-27-47 + 10% CR to 15-20-25-30-40 + 20% CR.

WEAKNESS

  • No longer reduces target’s crystal power or attack speed by 10% per stack. Instead, weakness generally reduces a hero’s damage output by 6.25% per stack (50% at 8 stacks).

FROM HELL’S HEART

  • Stun duration changed from 2-2-2 to 1.8-2.0-2.2 seconds.

VG FortressFORTRESS

Not taking damage from abilities made Fortress’ wolves much stronger against certain hero types. We want each hero to have a way to deal with these ferocious doggies. —AdyEndrus

ATTACK OF THE PACK

  • Wolves have 300-450-600 health, 150 armor, 150 shield plus 20% of Fortress’ bonus defensive stats.
  • Wolves are affected normally by all damage types.
  • Basic attacks always deal strictly 1/3 of a wolf’s health.
  • Fortress’ health gained from 250-550-850 to 250-450-650.

VG PetalPETAL

We want players to have more options for which skill to put points into, so we’re adding incentives to her Trampoline. Her munions’ survivability was tuned too low and they were too easy to kill, so that has also been addressed. —SurpriseBirthday

MUNIONS

  • Health up from 60-110-160-210-310 + 15% CR to 110-200-290-380-560 + 30% CR.
  • Armor & shield down from 120-125-130-135-145 + 12% CR to 20-25-30-35-45 + 5% CR.
  • Damage up from 7-15-23-31-47 to 8-16-24-32-48.

TRAMPOLINE

  • Activation amplifies weapon power by 8-12-16-20-24% and crystal power by 15-20-25-30-35% for 4 seconds.
  • Cooldown up from 8-7-6-5-3 to 10-9-8-7-5.

voxVOX

Touched up a few things that were granting him unnecessary power. —Zekent

SONIC ZOOM

  • Activating this ability no longer resets Vox’s basic-attack cooldown.

WAIT FOR IT …

  • The hitbox of this ability was slightly modified to match how it looks in game.

ringoRINGO

A good compromise to Ringo’s lane presence is adjusting the energy cost of Twirling Silver to encourage Ringo to decide the best times to use this ability, rather than always having a six-second steroid available. —SurpriseBirthday

ACHILLES SHOT

  • Energy cost down from 32-50-68-86-104 to 30-45-60-75-90.
  • Damage adjusted from 80-125-170-215-380 + 110% CR to 80-125-170-215-350 + 125% CR

TWIRLING SILVER

  • Energy cost up from 30-38-46-54-70 to 50-60-70-80-90.
  • Bonus attack speed down at earlier ranks from 55-64-73-82-100% to 50-60-70-80-100%.

koshkaKOSHKA

Koshka was bringing all her Twirly Death stacks to a fight, allowing her to preload damage. We’re implementing a change that will encourage Koshka players to position themselves in a fight to maximize their damage potential. —Zekent

POUNCY FUN

  • Cooldown up from 12-11.5-11-10.5-10 to 14-13-12-11-10.

TWIRLY DEATH

  • Cooldown up from 15-14-13-12-11 to 16-15-14-13-12.
  • Twirly Death stack duration down from infinite to 10 seconds.
  • Energy cost up from 36-44-52-60-78 to 40-50-60-70-80.

reimREIM

We’re incentivizing clipping enemies with either hit of Winter Spire as well as toning Reim’s level six trick down a bit. Landing Winter Spire will feel much more rewarding now. —AdyEndrus

WINTER SPIRE

  • Initial damage up from 60-70-80-90-110 to 80-110-140-170-200.
  • Delayed damage up from 120-140-160-180-220 to 120-160-200-240-280.

VALKRYIE

  • Center crystal ratio down from 240% to 160%.
  • Edge crystal ratio down from 160% to 100%.

VG RonaRONA

In internal playtests, Rona was out-of-control strong after fixing how Fortified Health worked with Red Mist. We tuned some numbers to help her feel mortal again internally, but for all the players out there on 1.15, she will feel considerably more dangerous. —SurpriseBirthday

BERSERKER’S FURY

  • Damage per basic attack up from 70% to 75%.

INTO THE FRAY

  • No longer generates Bloodrage when you land on enemy heroes.

FOESPLITTER

  • Weapon ratio increased to match her perk from 70% to 75%.
  • Fixed a bug that was lowering the damage of the second activation the more Fury that was consumed.
  • No longer gains bonus damage the more Fury that’s consumed

RED MIST

  • Correctly generates fortified health every second during Red Mist.
  • Reduced Fortified Health generated from this ability down from 50-75-100 to 35-50-65. 

VG PhinnPHINN

Phinn is getting smoother scaling to make his company less polite at earlier levels. This change should make him feel more impactful as he stomps around the Fold, without creating more footprints.  —Zekent

BASE STATS

  • Level 1 health up from 881 to 960.

POLITE COMPANY

  • Damage up from 60-90-120-150-350 to 60-120-180-240-360.
  • Fortified health duration up from 3-3-3-3-3 to 3-3-3-3-4.
  • Pull distance up from 25-25-25-25-35% to 30-30-30-30-30%.

VG KestrelKESTREL

Traps now feel more rewarding when cleverly placed and triggered. It’s an integral part of Kestrel’s toolkit that we want players taking advantage of! —Zekent

GLIMMERSHOT

  • Corrected the arrow hitbox to match the visual effect.
  • Reload time returned from 4.0 to 3.3 seconds.

ACTIVE CAMO

  • Trap damage up from 80-130-180-230-280 + 180% CR to 120-180-240-300-420 + 220% CR.

takaTAKA

We are adding some interesting utility to Kaku to compensate for the slightly extended ultimate animation. It’s a bit of give and take, but it’s enough of a nudge to create fun scenarios. —Zekent

KAKU

  • Heal per second up from 40-45-50-55-85 to 40-50-60-70-100.

X-RETSU

  • Taka’s X-Retsu no longer skips the wind-up animation.

skaarfSKAARF

Dragon Breath has been overshadowed by Goop and Spitfire. This change creates new reasons to put points in Skaarf’s ultimate. —Zekent

  • Dragon Breath damage up from 550-875-1200 to 650-925-1200.

celesteCELESTE

Expect to see more Celeste in 1.15, as this change brings more utility to Celeste without adding extra damage. —Zekent

  • Core Collapse cooldown down from 24-22-20-18-10 to 16-15-14-13-10.

ozofaceOZO

We are rounding Ozo’s numbers to give him a bit of a buff. We like our latest hero and want his numbers to make sense. No more of this uneven scaling monkey business. —Zekent

THREE-RING CIRCUS

  • Clarification: All damage from this ability can critically strike. However, only the primary target suffers basic-attack effects.
  • Heal per enemy hit up from 15-24-33-42-51 (4-6-8-10-12 against non-heroes) to 15-25-35-45-55 (30% of that against non-heroes).

VG AdagioADAGIO

Adagio has been showing his power as a crystal mage, but we want to make sure there’s still a viable tank-Adagio alternative. With a small increase in base values at the expense of crystal ratio, we are able to reach both goals. —Zekent

GIFT OF FIRE

  • Burst heal changed from 55-70-85-100-130 + 80% CR to 60-80-100-120-160 + 65% CR.

sawSAW

We are trying to maintain SAW in the meta without him being unbeatable early and too vulnerable late. Adjusting his scaling armor allows us to have him break even around level six. —Zekent

  • Base armor and shield changed from 20-64 to 8-76 at level 1-12.

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frostburnFROSTBURN

This item provided too much utility and crystal power for its low cost. —SurpriseBirthday

  • Total cost up from 2400 gold to 2600.

HOME SCREEN IMPROVEMENTS

  • The most prominent news is now displayed on the app home screen.

END-OF-MATCH SURVEY

  • A quick new survey will sometimes ask you how a match went. We’ll use your feedback to further improve the Matchmaker.

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BUG FIXES

  • Adagio’s Gift of Fire slow duration text fixed to say 0.7 seconds. (Ability not changed.)
  • Taka’s X-Retsu no longer skips the wind-up animation.
  • Heroes in certain conditions will path more efficiently to targets.
  • Ability overlays can be dismissed while silenced.

Go try out the new 1.15 balance changes and enjoy the amazing new skins!