Update 1.13 marks the start of Winter Season with a new ice mage hero, chilling winter-inspired skins, updates to ranked progression and several important balance changes. Plus, end-of-Autumn rewards! Read on …
END-OF-SEASON PAYOUTS & TROPHIES!
Autumn Season officially ends when you get your sweet, sweet rewards! If you reached at least the rank of “Member” in your guild, you’ll find whatever Glory/ICE you earned reflected in your Vainglory account. You’ll also find individual, guild and team trophies based on your Autumn achievements. Rewards are paid once at the end of Autumn Season (Jan. 13) and then you’ll automatically begin to earn progress toward Winter Season trophies and rewards.
- Find individual, guild and team trophies for the tiers achieved during Autumn Season.
- Collect your Glory/ICE rewards for Autumn guild play.
AUTUMN SEASON CHAMPIONS
Congratulations to:
NORTH AMERICA CHAMPIONS
Roster:Â ttigers, Statusbaked, Martohhh, Exhail, DawnEclypse, Chicken123
EUROPE CHAMPIONS
Roster:Â Mowglie, Palmatoro, KValafar
VIPL INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Roster: FlashX, ShinKaigan, MICSHE
In addition, we’ve been so impressed and appreciate so much all the quality community-run tournaments that took place this Autumn. Congrats to the winners, organizers and participants from Vainglory World Series, Vainglory Master Series, Shiversteel Cup, Femme Fatale, BestHeroNA, Philippine Homecoming LAN Party Tournament and so many more around the globe.
Get ready for VGL Winter Qualifiers beginning Jan. 16 on twitch.tv/vaingloryleague!
REIMÂ BACKGROUND & LORE
Reim is a grumpy old winter mage who freezes everyone who crosses him. Though he moves slowly, he deals heavy damage to opponents while being surprisingly resilient himself. He holds his own in the lane, but he’s particularly effective in the jungle where he can go toe-to-toe against most opponents that he can catch.
Want to know more about Reim? Read his story for a deeper play experience:
REIMÂ EARLY-ACCESS PERIOD
Reim will be unlockable with ICE only for the first 7 days. Afterward, you will be able to unlock Reim with ICE or Glory.
HEROIC PERK: FROSTGUARD
Reim’s basic attacks deal 20-54 (+125% crystal power) bonus crystal damage over 2Â seconds and grant 50%Â of the damage dealt with this effect as fortified health (reduced against non-heroes).
Reim’s attacks and abilities also chill opponents. Basic attacks against targets that are already chilled apply a 60%Â slow that decays over 0.6Â seconds.
(Fortified health absorbs 50% of incoming damage until it is depleted.)
WINTER SPIRE
Reim summons a spire of ice at a nearby location, dealing crystal damage to surrounding enemies. After a short delay, the spire shatters, dealing heavy crystal damage. 35% of the damage dealt with this ability is gained as fortified health. Damage dealt and fortified health gained is reduced against non-heroes.
This ability deals 25%Â increased damage to chilled targets.
CHILL WINDS
Reim deals a burst of crystal damage to all surrounding enemies (25% damage to minions).
This ability roots enemies who are chilled, temporarily preventing them from moving. A rooted enemy can still attack.
VALKYRIE
Reim summons an ancient valkyrie, devastating enemies at the target location. All enemies are slowed, while enemies closer to the center are stunned and take increased damage.
‘PREHISTORIC GLAIVE’ TIER III
The ancient story of Glaive’s progression is told as his final prehistoric skin is released. Now you can play as Glaive’s fiercest ancestor, whose strikes summon unbreakable ice! Read about Glaive Tier III in his latest lore:
‘INFINITY SKAARF’ TIER III
Skaarf is unleashed with all new visuals in this wintry Tier IIIÂ skin! Don’t miss the conclusion to his evolution from fire to ice.
LIMITED-EDITION ‘WINTER WAR CATHERINE’ SKIN
Commemorate the launch of Winter Season by purchasing this limited-time skin in the Market. Don’t miss out! When it leaves the Market, you won’t be able to acquire it. Get it while it’s in season!
The interconnected story between Catherine and Kestrel is unveiled in the most recent Catherine story:
WINTER SEASON OVERHAUL
Read about all the changes coming for Winter Season …
NEW SEASONAL WINTER MAP SKIN!
Winter has swept the Halcyon Fold, encompassing the entire map in snow and ice! Explore a familiar place in a new setting and enjoy the exquisite detail of this new map skin. Be sure to use pinch-to-zoom in Settings to investigate every inch of this exquisite map!
WINTER MAPÂ INSIGHT FROM LEAD ENVIRONMENT ARTIST EVILONTHEINSIDE
“Growing up in Michigan, I remember ice storms freezing the trees. It was poetic how the sunset painted the snow gold and purple. It’s very painterly. That was my inspiration for the winter map: white blankets of snow that enhance the lighting. My first pass was too noisy; I had to pull snow out of the main gameplay areas and shovel it to the edges for readability of characters and effects on the ground. This map took almost three months of overtime to get in on time!
“I love the snowmen. They’re on the right side, and there are some to the north and south. I enjoyed doing a shiny reflective shader on the icicles, and I really love how the snow drifts turned out on the left, along the southern border. That area is the best little area, I think, closest to the vision I had. Oh, and the sparkle shaders … everything is my favorite!”Â
MINION MINE BALANCE
“As we all know, two of the major objectives on the map have been largely avoided. Teams didn’t want to feed the enemy extra gold or over-push their own lane. Consequently, two important areas of the map have been underutilized. We wanted to make Minion Mines worthwhile objectives in Update 1.13. Controlling one Minion Mine now gives you the choice to push without automatically making your laner overextend or automatically granting your enemy an influx of gold.” —SurpriseBirthday
- Minion Miner health up from 780 to 1100
Controlling one Minion Mine has the following effects:
- Does not increase gold bounty of lane minions
- Minions have higher offense and defense against heroes and turrets only
- Minions no longer naturally push the lane because they aren’t stronger vs. enemy minions
Controlling both Minion Mines has the following effects:
- Does not increase gold bounty of lane minions
- Minions have drastically heightened offense and defense against everything, including enemy lane minions
- Minions will push the lane
NEW IN-GAME MUSIC
Winter season also brings new dynamic in-game music to the Halcyon Fold. Play through different situations and discover the variations for yourself!
SKILL TIERÂ REFRESH
A new season brings a new opportunity to earn a skill-tier trophy and exceed your past personal performance. It’s a clean slate, so make the most of the fresh season!
- Your visual skill tier will refresh to UNRANKED or JUST BEGINNING for the start of Winter season.
- The Matchmaker will continue to use your Matchmaking Rating from Autumn Season to find you the most appropriate match possible.
- This means matches will not be easy from the beginning, but wins against tough opponents will be rewarded with aggressive advancement of your skill tier.
FULL LIST OF WINTER SKILL TIERS/TROPHIES
- Vainglorious
- Pinnacle of Awesome
- Simply Amazing
- The Hotness
- Pretty Good
- Decent-ish
- Not Bad
- Getting There
- Working on It
- Just Beginning
- Unranked (if you’ve never played a Ranked match)
WAVE CLEAR
“We wanted to address heroes with excessive wave clear. Being able to control the sway of the lane can provide excessive early- and late-game advantages that other heroes simply can’t match.” —AdyEndrus
Adjusted abilities:
- Skye’s Suri Strike
- Blackfeather’s On Point
- Kestrel’s Glimmershot
BLACKFEATHER
“We have our eye on Blackfeather as his popularity has recently spiked. These changes resolve some outstanding bugs and bring Blackfeather back into ‘squishy’ territory.” —Zekent
- Base health down from 765-1480 to 730-1340
- Fixed a bug that could allow Blackfeather to get more health from Book of Eulogies than intended.
FEINT OF HEART
- Fixed a bug where the tail of the rose trail was not granting the movement bonuses to allies.
ON POINT
- Ability damage reverted to deal full damage to minions
- CP ratio to minions changed from 165% to 50%
KESTREL
“Kestrel was clearing waves a bit too quickly with Glimmershot. We felt like her ultimate could use a bit more sting at earlier levels.” —Zekent
GLIMMERSHOT
- Damage to minions changed from 25-225 + 80% CP to 50-150 + 25% CP
ONE SHOT. ONE KILL.
- Damage increased from 300-550-800 to 450-625-800
PETAL
“Petal still unintentionally struggles against certain skills such as Skye’s Forward Barrage and Rona’s Red Mist. We’re switching munions back to normal health, but her munions are now treated like lane minions when receiving damage, taking reduced damage from wave clear-reduced abilities such as Heliogenesis, while also being susceptible to Stormguard damage.” —SurpriseBirthday
- Pets changed to 60-310 + 15% CP health, 100 armor, 100 shield, considered lane minions
- Seeds changed to 20-95 + 5% CP health, 100 armor, 100 shield, considered lane minions
SKYE
Adjusting Skye’s wave clear …
SURI STRIKE
- Damage to minions adjusted from 90-330 + 150% CP to 90-210 + 30% CP
BOOK OF EULOGIES
- Fixed a bug where the passive was triggering multiple times from one minion kill.
SCOUT TRAP
- Fixed a bug where Scout Traps were not revealing other Scout Traps in the same brush.
FLARE GUN
- Now provides proper vision across walls and into brush
- Vision ring is clearly indicated
 BUG FIXES
- Book of Eulogies will no longer trigger multiple times from a single minion kill. This happened with certain heroes under particular circumstances in 1.12.
- Scout Traps in brush will now be revealed by other Scout Traps.
- Flare Guns can now see across walls and into brush.
Winter Season is upon us! Get ready for Reim, incredible new skins, a winter wonderland Halcyon Fold and so much more on Jan. 13 …