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New sniper hero Gwen rolls into town, bringing the long arm of the law (and a pair of blazing guns) to the Halcyon Fold. A new social section simplifies talking with your friends, guildmates and teammates while more detailed party invites makes teaming up even easier. Plus, there are a ton of new skins, quests and a spooky map skin to enjoy. Read on for all of the details. …

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New Hero: Gwen

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Gwen moves swiftly through the Fold, picking off enemies from a distance. She shakes off negative effects inflicted by her enemies, turning the tables in her favor. Gwen is best played in the lane where she can earn gold and gear up for big fights.

Read her lore:

• Video teases
• “Guns & Sun“

Gwen Early-Access Period

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Gwen will be unlockable with ICE only for the first 7 days. Afterward, you will be able to unlock Gwen with ICE or Glory.

Hero Abilities

Boomstick - (Heroic Perk) After not attacking for a brief time, Gwen’s next basic attack deals additional weapon 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 a short time.

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 (C) 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.

New Hero Skins

Apprentice Samuel (Tier I)

First 10 days

– ON SALE: 675 ICE

Regular price

: 900 ICE

Seraphim Adagio (Tier II)

First 10 days

– ON SALE: 1125 ICE
Regular price: 1499 ICE

Love Bites Blackfeather (Special Edition)

First 10 days

– ON SALE: 1948 ICE

Regular price

: 2599 ICE

Opals availability

: Update 1.24

New Hero Skins (Opals Only)

These new Special Edition skins will be immediately available for Opals in the Market. Since they are “in-season” for the first time, you can get them at an Opals discount! If you are the proud owner of the limited-edition skins from which these were inspired, you will be automatically granted an unlock to the Special Edition version!

Pumpkin Spice Petal (Special Edition)

• Special edition change: White pumpkin head with stitched mouth
• Special edition change: Stripes and curlicue tentacles
• Flesh-eating fruit Murgle with crazy eyes
• Tombstone seeds
• Skeleton munions
• Candlelit spookiness
• See full skin preview

Baewitched Celeste (Special Edition)

• Special edition change: “Good” witch white dress
• Broom-ride sprint
• Cauldrons drop from the sky, bubble and explode into supernovas
• Magic circle Core Collapse
• See full skin preview

‘Original Skin’ Identifiers

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The seven Limited Edition skins released between Autumn 2015 and Spring 2016 now have a golden glowing dagger in the Market and in the match loading screen. These visual identifiers will help set apart the original skins from the Special Edition versions being released.

New In-Game Social Section

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In Update 1.23, you’ll notice something different about your in-game social features. Up until now, if you wanted to check your guild status or rewards, boost a guildmate, check your team skill tier or simply chat with friends, you had to bounce all over the app — from various parts of the Allies section to Friends and back again. We’ve heard your feedback about how inconvenient and time consuming this could be, so we’ve pulled it all together into one place.

Improving Vainglory’s social features remains a constant priority and to that end, we’re introducing a new Social section. Now, the Guilds and Team areas have been combined with the chat functionality and Friends list into a single, easy-to-use section. You can access your friends, teammates and guildmates all under “Social.” No more tapping multiple tabs. No more frustrating back and forth. Just one section for all of your social needs.

We hope this encourages more players to take advantage of the many social features of the game. Most importantly, this is just the beginning. This sets the framework for further improvements to your social experiences in Vainglory, and we won’t stop until players tell us we’ve achieved excellence.

Join guilds, coordinate with your team and make friends. The new Social section awaits!

Detailed Party Invites

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When you get a party invite, have you ever wondered what kind of game you’ve been invited to? Will it be a Battle Royale that instantly kicks off before you can react or will it be a high-stakes Ranked match with players with a wildly different VST than you? Knowing the type of game you’re invited to is critical to determine if you’ll accept the invite. So in Update 1.23, when you get a party invite, the invite will tell you what game mode you’ve been invited to. Now, you have the information you need to make an informed decision on accepting that party invite. So get out there and party up!

Persistent Chat (Fully Integrated)

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Players may have noticed some exciting changes to chat during the past month. For the first time, chat is now persistent. Before, you couldn’t message a friend while they were in a match — and any messages received in an earlier chat session would be wiped out whether you read it or not. This was a huge pain to players who wanted to coordinate next matches, ask advice, finish conversations and just generally not feel like they probably missed something. Now, messages will persist with a timestamp from when you sent it.

Both guild chat and team chat are persistent as well, including the ability to see guild messages written while you were offline. So, coordinating guild times and earning Guild Fame should be easier.

Persistent Chat was first introduced last update but is now fully integrated worldwide, and it’s just one item in a long list of improvements we’re working toward.

Skill Tier Decay

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• Your skill tier will decay over time based on Ranked match inactivity.
• The higher your skill tier, the more frequently you must play Ranked to avoid decay.
• If you are within four days of experiencing decay, the skill tier progress bar in your Profile will turn red and a special reminder notification will appear.

Now that Ranked skill tiers are no longer resetting when a new season begins, we need a better way to ensure that players’ tiers remain accurate representations of their skill. Now, if a player neglects their account over a period of time or fails to hone their skills in Ranked, their skill tier will decay. The higher your skill tier, the more emphasis is placed on regular Ranked play.

Zoom Default

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Players who prefer to play on their mobile phones may have noticed a small magnifying glass under the mini-map that was introduced in Update 1.22. By tapping on the icon, you can zoom in and out. Some players have been frustrated that they have to reset their preferred zoom level every time they open a game. Now, in Update 1.23, Vainglory will remember your preferred zoom. So when you open the game and start a match, you’ll experience the same level of zoom that you had when you last played.

Local Notifications

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Now, you can receive local notifications so you never miss out on a Daily Chest. We hope this helps you collect more loot! All notifications can be toggled in Settings.

Turrets Now Have Laser Sights!

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Good news for laners! Turrets now have a laser sight to track their targets. Before, the turret would just point in a general direction and make a noise when it initially locked on a target. For new players, it was difficult to determine when they were being targeted and why. Now, the laser sight will give players the ability to see whether or not they are being targeted by a turret before the turret fires. This will allow players to be more confident in their attacks on turrets — no more worrying the turret will suddenly fire on you when you thought it was safely preoccupied with something else. It’s a small change, but we believe it will have a big impact on the game. Read the full article.

Quests & Chest Improvements

Season Chest: More Loot!

More cards: Now, your Season Chest drops a minimum of 3 cards. Previously, you could get a drop with 2 cards, and they would both be Opals. Now, the 3rd card is unpredictable, so there’s always a nice surprise!

Quests

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• Bot Quests: Per player feedback, removed bot quests for players at account levels 10-17
• Any quest that doesn’t explicitly say “Win” in the title will no longer require a win. For example: “Destroy Turrets.”
• Practice mode can no longer be used to complete quests that had previously said “any mode.”
• Added Gwen hero quests

Hero Balance Changes

Malice & Verdict "When inside his Drifting Dark cloud, Samuel was able to dish out far more damage than most heroes could handle. —Zekent" - Damage crystal ratio down from 70-100-130-160-220 + 110% CR to 60-90-120-150-210 + 100% CR - Empowered damage crystal ratio down from 80-115-150-185-255 + 130% CR to 75-105-135-165-225 + 115% CR

Kaiten "This change is a slight boost in immunity duration to Taka, though it really only matters against turrets. —Zekent" - Fixed a bug where Taka’s Kaiten immunity would last less than his full air time of 0.6 seconds

Kaku "The healing combined with the stealth duration was a bit too powerful for the first few levels of the game. This change will make damage on Taka stick much more easily while making him a bit easier to track down. —Zekent" - Healing down from 40-50-60-70-100 to 25-40-55-70-100 - Energy cost up from 45-55-65-75-85 to 50-65-80-95-110 - Duration down from 4 to 3.0-3.2-3.4-3.6-4.0

Truth of the Tooth "This ability will now deal basic-attack damage. This is an overall increase in early-game power and a slight improvement in damage later on in the game. —Zekent" - Now additionally deals basic-attack damage (applies on-hit effects) - Damage down from 60-120-180-240-300 to 0-45-90-135-180

Gift of Fire "Roam Adagio has a fairly substantial heal; however, a bit of a nudge upward could be just what he needs in this role. —Zekent" - Heal health ratio up from 8% to 10%

Mad Cannon "This ability did not deal execute damage to turrets or Kraken and allowed SAW to take down the Vain crystal far quicker than he should able to. —Zekent" - No longer does execute damage to the Vain Crystal

Forward Barrage "Pew Pew Pew. —Zekent" - Lock-on bonus crystal ratio down from 15% to 10%

General "Fixed a bug where Kestrel’s attack delay was occasionally slightly longer than intended. —Zekent" - 1.05 instead of 0.80

Glimmershot "Slowing down a bit of her early-game jungle clear while granting her more damage later on in a game. —Zekent" - Splash damage changed from 50-85-120-155-190 to 40-80-120-160-200 - Minion splash damage changed from 50-75-100-125-150 to 40-70-100-130-160

Active Camo "Weapon Kestrels were relying much more heavily on their basic attacks than Glimmershot, leading her to be able to constantly cast Active Camo. This change forces Kestrel into a position where she must consistently land Glimmershot to take full advantage of her stealth. This change additionally allows crystal Kestrel to more easily activate her stealth. —Zekent" - Basic attacks no longer reduce the cooldown of this ability. Instead, landing the primary impact of Glimmershot will reduce the cooldown by 2 seconds

Quibble "Phinn did too much damage early on in the jungle. Landing a Quibble would knock out a massive amount of health from his opponents while providing him an incredibly quick clear speed. —Zekent" - Damage changed from 230-320-410-500-590 to 160-270-380-490-600

Impale "Lance’s early game damage against both jungle camps and heroes was a bit overwhelming. Opponents will now have more of an opportunity to fight back against him. —Zekent" - Damage changed from 160-240-320-400-480 + 160% WR to 120-210-300-390-480 + 140% WR

Frostguard "Our favorite frosty mage is due for an upgrade. He is now able to accrue much more fortified health, making him harder to take down if he is able to engage effectively. —Zekent" - Maximum fortified health up from 15% to 20% - Fixed a bug where Reim would not generate additional fortified health if he hit 15% fortified health from another source

General "Alpha was a bit too brittle early in the game. This should make her just a bit more durable to hold off against her foes. —Zekent" - Base armor up from 20-86 to 30-86 - Base shield up from 20-86 to 30-86

Prime Directive "More power to Alpha’s early game and late game weapon path. —Zekent" - Base damage up from 60-80-100-120-140 + 60% WR to 80-100-120-140-160 + 80% WR

Heartthrob "This change allows Blackfeather to be more able to rejoin a fight after expending all of his Focus. While it may not seem like much, saving one second here or there can quickly add up. —Zekent" - Focus recharge up from 7.5 to 10 per second

On Point "While weapon Blackfeather is fantastic when up close, he needed a stronger option when forced to fight at range. —Zekent" - Weapon ratio up from 80% to 100%

Rose Offensive "While this doesn’t let Blackfeather cast his abilities whenever he wants, this adjustment to the Focus cost of Rose Offensive will allow him to more easily have it ready when he needs it. —Zekent" - Focus cost down from 50 to 40

Item Changes

Breaking Point "This item was a bit too advantageous for ranged heroes. They were able to maintain their stacks and gain stacks at a much steadier pace than their melee counterparts. This should balance out the power significantly. —Zekent" - Changed item functionality to: Gain 10 weapon power for every 125 weapon damage done to enemy heroes +5/10 (melee/ranged) damage needed for each stack thereafter. 25 stacks max. Decays 2 stacks per second after you’ve stopped stacking for 2.5 seconds.

Scout Trap "The arming animation was used to indicate when a scout trap was ready to explode, however, it allows for stealth heroes to be far too easily countered by a hastily dropped scout trap. Now, you’ll either need preemptively dropped scout traps or some flares. —Zekent" - Scout Traps no longer grant vision until armed

Other Fixes

Ability Descriptions

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• Lyra’s Arcane Passage has an updated ability description to clarify its interaction with Bright Bulwark.
• Rona’s Berserker’s Rage has an updated heroic perk description to clarify its interaction with Mortal Wounds
• Removed inaccurate “with bonus critical damage” text from Skye’s Forward Barrage description.

Bugs

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• Fixed a bug where Ringo’s Hellfire Brew’s impact damage was considered buff damage instead of ability damage.
• Certain targeted projectiles will no longer time out when their intended target was killed beforehand.
• Ozo’s Acrobounce will no longer occasionally take him across the map.
• Lyra’s Bright Bulwark will now prevent entry into an Arcane Passage if it was cast before Arcane Passage was Level 1.
• Baron can no longer use Jump Jets to launch off of the Sanctuary during the 10 second pre-game start timer.
• SAW will no longer randomly target something after casting Suppressing Fire.
• Baron’s abilities won’t lose their bonus range upon restart.
• Pinging inside an enemy Ardan’s Gauntlet won’t force the ping to the center of the Gauntlet
• Ardan’s Gauntlet will completely refresh his Vengeance.
• Lance’s Gythian Wall will no longer, in rare instances, get heroes stuck inside a wall.