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Update 2.5 introduces Talents and related in-game events, along with multiple quality-of-life improvements and some jaw-dropping new skins. Get all the details below....

New To Brawl Modes: Talents

Talents are collectable hero upgrades that make Vainglory's short BRAWL game modes such as Blitz and Battle Royale even more mayhem-filled and fun. Talents are not accessible in classic MOBA game modes.

Talents 'At A Glance'

Talents Rewards

Daily Login Rewards For Talents Starting May 31

The arrival of talents marks a major milestone for the game and community, so we're kicking things off with a special login event.

During the first week after Talents arrive, open the Vainglory app each day to claim your free rewards.

Your daily rewards can be found in the DEALS section of the Market on the days listed below:

*This reward will be available after maintenance on May 31 until June 2.
**This talent coin will be for a hero you own.

Daily rewards begin and end at 5PM PDT, so be sure to open the app every day to ensure max rewards!

New Hero Skins

'Netherknight' Lance (Legendary)

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Lance followed Lyra into the Nether – but can he pay the price to save her? See more of the first knight of the Netherworld below.   

CHECK HIM OUT IN GAME: 

MODEL CHANGES

• Chainmail Nether Fury armor
• Hounskull helm
• Ornate ebony wings
• Obsidian shield featuring the Pinnacle of Awesome design
• Crown of the Nether
• Nether Trident engulfed in fire!
• Halcyon Heart gems embedded in armor

ANIMATION CHANGES

• Combat Roll is now a combat corkscrew flip!
• Jump twists, hovers & slams trident into the ground when recalling to base
• Leaps higher and hits the ground harder during Impale ability

EFFECTS CHANGES

• Sparks and soot smoldering off of his trident
• Inflamed crown
• Glowing golden eyes
• Flames fly from his shield during basic attacks and Gythian Wall ability
• Impale ability creates Netherfire cracks in the ground
• Gythian Wall ability creates an arc of flames & soot

ALTERNATE FATE LORE

Gythian Wall

Wallpapers

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• iPhone 5
• iPhone 6/7
• iPhone 6+/7+
• Full Size HD
• iPad

'Broken Doll' Alpha (Legendary)

The dollies have rescued their girl from the Bad Place. Read on to find out how the Legendary 'Broken Doll' Alpha dolly became a Real Girl and set off on her very own adventure!    

CHECK HER OUT IN GAME: 

MODEL CHANGES

• Beaded and flowered pouf hairstyle
• The key to Alpha's clockwork heart is also a dangerous weapon
• Lacy ballerina outfit with cutouts for keyhole through chest and broken cage crinoline
• Blood-red pointe shoes
• Dolly body joints

ANIMATION & EFFECTS CHANGES

• Jetés, pirouettes, spin attacks & ballet poses!
• Gold and black sparks and lightning ability effects
• Classical walk and leaping sprint
• During Termination Protocol, Alpha falls inside a golden clock and explodes in sparks & gears before the key winds her back to life
• Deadly clockwork key attacks with beautiful ballet movements
• Tip-toes through brush en pointe, then sits in an elegant pose
• Recall: Red strings attach to her limbs, spin her around and drop her back in base

ALTERNATE FATE LORE

Part I: The Loud Voice & The Quiet Voice

Part II: Pretty-Pretty

Part III: Real Girl

Wallpapers

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• iPhone 5
• iPhone 6/7
• iPhone 6+/7+
• Full Size HD
• iPad

'Spider Queen' Kestrel (Epic)

'Sylvan' Kestrel's story continues with a necessary trek to the world of subterranean elves. Read on to discover how Kestrel became the 'Spider Queen' and sealed off the Island Well from humankind.

CHECK HER OUT IN GAME: 

MODEL & EFFECT CHANGES

• Kestrel has transformed into a dark elf!
• White hair and red eyes
• Queen's Web headdress with magenta jewel
• Spider Mother Bow with webs
• Golden elf leafy armor
• Spider silk webbed costume
• Drops exploding spider sacs for Active Camo
• Elvish leap during Glimmershot
• Spins into new pose for One Shot One Kill
• Shoots spider silk into the air that pulls her up and recalls her back to base

ALTERNATE FATE LORE

The Spider Mother

Wallpapers

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• iPhone 5
• iPhone 6/7
• iPhone 6+/7+
• Full Size HD
• iPad

'Lapdog' Grumpjaw (Rare)

'Lapdog' Grumpjaw is NOT a bad boy, he's just very large and very hangry. You'd be hangry too if your tummy was so big and empty. He's a GOOD boy... if he's on your team. Own your very own cuddly Grumpjaw!

CHECK HIM OUT IN GAME: 

MODEL CHANGES

• Totally redesigned French Bulldog breed
• Nametag and Spiky Harness for giving a big fright!

ALTERNATE FATE LORE

The Proper Care and Feeding of Grumpjaw Lapdogs

Wallpapers

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• iPhone 5
• iPhone 6/7
• iPhone 6+/7+
• 1920X1080
• iPad

Quest Interface Changes

We're adjusting the front-of-app presentation to make it easier to participate and track progress in your reward chests.

'5-Hero Chest'

• The new "5-Hero Chest" replaces the first quest slot on the app front page. Play five different heroes to earn talent coins for those specific heroes! Make progress faster upgrading talents for the heroes you enjoy most. 

'Slot 2' Quests

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• The quests regularly featured in "Slot 2" have been your most popular, both in terms of participation and player excitement. We are retaining these quests, which will continue to appear and function as you've come to expect.

Win Rewards

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• Some players might not even realize that you are rewarded with bonus Glory for your First Win of the Day, Third Win of the Day and "Sinister Seven," which is achieved when you win a match seven days in a row. A new, prominent presentation of these win bonuses takes over "Slot 3" and will fill in as you make reward progress. With the introduction of talents, Glory has never been more important. We hope this helps ensure you don't miss out on free daily rewards.

As previously announced, if you have a quest in Slot 1 or Slot 3 in progress when Update 2.5 hits, you will lose that progress. Finish your quests while you still can!

Quality Of Life Improvements

Improved Visual Clarity

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• Permanent turret-range radiuses in all game modes
• Consistent frost effects for slows
• Death timers display around the match clock (don't have to open Scoreboard)
• Screen flashes for burst damage & stun effects (turn on in Settings)

Scoreboard

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• Now displays item cooldowns (including ally's Fountain timing)

Ability Inputs

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• Pretargeted abilities such as Ringo's Achilles Shot now pull up selection indicators when used without a target

Base Sanctuary (All Modes)

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• Heal and energy recharge per second up from 8% to 12%
• Regeneration occurs in faster intervals for a buttery smooth experience

Base Sanctuary (Standard Modes)

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• Now grants a small speed boost
• Boost is lost upon taking damage

New Academy Videos

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Intermediate and Pro videos have hit the Academy! Whatever your skill level, check 'em out and improve your play!

Purchase Options

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With the introduction of the new Talents progression system, Glory has become a much more precious commodity and you may run low from time to time. If there's a talent coin you need in the Pick 3 or an upgrade just out of reach, you can now buy Glory with ICE to ensure you don't miss out.

• Get more Glory with ICE

Dodging And Low Priority Queue Changes

Dodge Changes

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Shortly after Update 2.4 rolled out, our team pushed a hotfix to address a recurring issue plaguing a wide range of players: match dodging (leaving during or immediately after Hero Select). Because dodging was hardly penalized - if at all - players adopted dodging as a tactic, abusing it to avoid any match with unfavorable conditions. This was so rampant that some players couldn't get into a match, as someone else dodged every time. This dodging epidemic wasted players' time, and it was especially frustrating after first waiting patiently in queue, only to then have their patience tested over and over as they suffered through each dodge. 

To dramatically reduce the number of match dodges, we instituted a strict penalty, which continues to be in effect: If you dodge a Ranked match, you will lose visual skill tier approximately equal to if you lost that match.



Following the release of this hotfix, feedback from the Vainglory Community poured in, expressing that there was another important dimension to the problem. That leads us to...

Low Priority Queue Changes

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Some players expressed concern with the dodge changes, saying that dodging was their only recourse to avoid blatant trolling behavior. And while Super Evil continues to believe that dodging is an act of trolling itself, we definitely understand that feeling of victimization when stuck with players perceived as trolls. As a first step to rectify this underlying issue, we are significantly increasing Low Priority Queue punishments for detected and player-reported trolling behavior.

For those unfamiliar, the LPQ is a "penalty box" where you must sit around and wait for the punishment clock to expire before you can play your next match... and you must complete a series of LPQ matches before you are released back into the regular queuing experience.

The LPQ identifies bad behavior as:

• Excessively declining matches
• Dodging
• Rude pinging
• Trolling / Intentional Losing
• Going AFK (abandoning matches)

Each of the aforementioned offenses is worth a varying punishment level; in some instances, it takes several infractions of the same type to earn a level. The more levels accumulated, the harsher the LPQ punishment.  

Our hope is these LPQ changes will prevent the types of trolling behavior that cause players to feel the need to dodge - or cause players to have negative game experiences. This is not a silver bullet. It will not eliminate the issue. But we belief and hope it will substantially help, and we look forward to your feedback after release.

-PlayoffBeard

Blitz Changes

BLITZ ONLY

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• Gold Miner renamed to Middle Sentry
  • Middle Sentry is now always visible
  • Upon the final blow, Middle Sentry no longer pays out gold
  • Killing Middle Sentry maintains 3-point reward
• Out-of-combat health and regen increased
• Sanctuary regen increased
• Personal Blitz Score will track your Blitz performance over time

Hero Balance Changes

Julia's Gift- Health gained up from 1% to 1.5%

Bad Mojo- Impact crystal ratio up from 90% to 110% - Explosion crystal ratio up from 45% to 55%

Ordained- Range up from 5 to 6

General- Baptiste's Fear effects have been updated

Captain of the Guard- Armor/Shield granted per stack up from 1 to 2

Afterburn- Cooldown up from 22-20-18-16-10 to 22-20-18-16-12

General - Grumpjaw now has a crystal recommended item path - Grumpjaw's Grumpy now dashes to the target location rather than behind it

Boomstick- Weapon ratio down from 45% to 35%

Glimmershot "This increase to the energy cost will force Kestrel to be a bit more careful when firing off barrages of arrows. -Zekent" - Energy cost up from 50 to 60

One Shot One Kill "We can't have this cost less than Glimmershot now can we? -Zekent" - Energy cost up from 50 to 60

General- Basic attack range down from 6.6 to 5.1

Imperial Sigil "It's back! Well... partially back! While the burst heal is incredibly potent, Lyra needs to make snappy decisions when trying to heal up her team. Leaving the sigil out longer is more healing overall, but sometimes a quick burst of health can save an ally in danger. -Zekent" - New: When reactivated, will immediately consume the remaining duration to heal at 60% effectiveness

Arcane Passage "With the changes to this ability, Lyra can regain her lost attack range while increasing the distance at which she can change the landscape of a skirmish. -Zekent" - Range up from 9-10-11 to 9-11-13 meters - New: Passively increases attack range by 1.0-1.5-2.0 meters

Brambleboom Seeds- Cooldown increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds

General- Armor and Shield up from 8-76 to 20-86

Spin Up "Getting rid of an often overlooked piece of SAW's perk and granting it back to SAW's base stats. -Zekent" - Removed bonus Armor and Shield per stack

Goop- Ignite damage down from 80-120-160-200-240 to 40-60-80-100-120 - Burn damage up from 60-90-120-150-180 to 60-100-140-180-220

House Kamuha- Weapon ratio up from 30% to 35%

Pulse- Slow at center down from 20-22-24-26-30% to 15-17-19-21-25%

Item Balance Changes

Atlas Pauldron "These changes will give weapon carries a bit of a reprieve while still keeping the majority of this item's effect. -Zekent" - Cooldown up from 15 seconds to 20 seconds - Duration down from 5 seconds to 4 seconds - Attack speed reduction down from 65% to 50%

Clockwork "While a worthy purchase when already at high crystal power, a lower cost means that purchasing it early for the other benefits can still be effective. -Zekent" - Total cost down from 2500 to 2250 - Sell price down from 1250 to 1125

Echo "This item can create plenty of game-changing situations and a few slight adjustments should make it a much more powerful purchase. -Zekent" - Total cost down from 2500 to 2200 - Sell price up from 500 to 1100 - Max energy up from 250 to 300 - Base cooldown down from 30 to 25seconds

Nullwave Gauntlet "Slight improvements to this item mean that enemies stocking up on activatable items must be a bit more wary when you pick up one of these. -Zekent" - Range increased from 8 to 9 - Cooldown down from 40 to 35 seconds

Slumbering Husk "With a bit more cost effectiveness and uptime, this item should become slightly less niche.  -Zekent" - Total cost up from 1600 to 1700 - Sell price up from 800 to 850 - Health up from 400 to 500 - Cooldown down from 45 to 30 seconds

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed a bug where Blackfeather could incorrectly deal TONS of damage if certain conditions were met
• Fixed a bug where Broken Myth would fall off at zero stacks
• Lance's critical strike basic attack sound has been adjusted
• Baptiste's Fearsome Shade hit box now more correctly matches the visuals
• Baptiste can no longer target lane minions or hero summons with Ordained
• Ringo's Hellfire Brew hit box now more correctly matches the visuals
• Baptiste now has the standard 33 minion defense on melee heroes
• Grumpjaw's Grumpy now consistently damages surrounding targets upon reaching the destination
• Fixed a bug where Glimmershot reloaded faster than intended at low amounts of attack speed
• Fixed a bug where Kestrel and Lyra's basic attacks would travel a bit faster than intended at low amounts of attack speed

That's a wrap! Update 2.5 goes live May 31. Be sure you let us know how you feel about changes via Vainglory " Twitter and Facebook!

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* Source: Official Patch Notes