1.3.0 Notes
April 01, 2015
VOX UPDATE (1.3.0) DETAILS: THE FAMILY UNITES
Update 1.3.0 includes the new sniper hero, Spectator Mode for private matches, big updates to your profile screen, match-end player reporting, hero and item balance changes and much more. Let’s break it all down …
VOX BACKGROUND & LORE
Vox is a mobile sniper able to quickly dash around the battlefield. Vox deals significant damage either to a single target or to groups of enemies depending on his build. This flexibility allows Vox to react to the needs of his team.
Watch the Hero Spotlight video to get a clear sense of what Vox can do … and how to play him effectively.
Vox is the final family member in a trio of heroes with interwoven stories and gameplay synergies. Try playing Vox, Celeste and Ardan together and see what happens!
Read Vox & the family’s story from beginning to end:
JULIA’S SONG (HEROIC PERK)
Vox’s basic attacks also deal crystal power as bonus damage and grant Vox some HP barrier. When attacking enemies with Resonance, this damage will bounce to nearby enemies, refresh Resonance and also grant additional barrier.
SONIC ZOOM
Vox dashes in the targeted direction, throwing two attacks to the nearest enemy (prioritizing heroes). Overdrive: The first attack applies Resonance.
PULSE
Vox emits a sonic pulse that echoes off nearby enemies and applies Resonance. The pulse applies a slow that is stronger near its center. Each upgrade to Pulse increases the damage Vox’s basic & bouncing attacks deal to targets with Resonance.
WAIT FOR IT …
Vox fires an ultrasonic wave that applies Resonance to enemies in its path and refreshes all Resonance. Shortly after, a wide shockwave explodes along the same path, dealing crystal damage and silencing enemies. Striking enemy heroes with the shockwave will also cause Resonance to bounce.
PRIVATE MATCH SPECTATOR!
The gateway to competitive play and viewing.
“There’s still a great deal more work to take all forms of spectator to scale, but we wanted to get spectator in some form to players as quickly as possible. This huge step forward will allow broadcasters to host proper 3v3 tournaments or simply fill both teams and shoutcast. It’s also terrific for teaching friends and newer players how they can play better — and for coaches/captains to monitor the play of guilds and competitive teams. The two spectator slots in Private Match parties also allows commentators in different parts of the world to join forces and entertain viewers. As Spectator Mode expands beyond private parties with friends, we will be factoring in all competitive considerations such as spectator playback delays. For now, we hope you enjoy a feature that you made happen this fast … way faster than we originally planned!” —PlayoffBeard
Private parties now contain two additional slots for spectating the match.
PROFILE UPDATES
The Pinnacle of Awesomeness.
“This reorganization of the profile screen places the emphasis where it belongs: on your skill tier. And some incredible artwork by JustInsane will make achieving a new skill tier that much more rewarding. You’ll also see skill tier progress in the form of bronze, silver and gold artwork, giving players a much better sense of how close (or far) they are from that next coveted accolade. “ —PlayoffBeard
Skill tiers have vainglorious new artwork.
Tier progress indicated by Bronze / Silver / Gold.
HONOR & REPORT PLAYERS POST-MATCH
Adding behavior accountability.
“Moving forward, you can honor players who played admirably and report those who behave badly. You’ve been asking for this with good reason, and players reported multiple times will be dealt with accordingly.” —PlayoffBeard
Give “thumbs up” to honor great teammates and opponents.
Give “thumbs down” and specify why to report players who AFK or behave badly.
If you abuse the “thumbs down,” your votes will carry less weight than other players.”
GOLD & LEVEL ACCELERATION IN PRACTICE MODE SHOP
Explore to your heart’s content.
“We received some really great player suggestions about how to make Practice Mode more useful. And while players had different interpretations, one clear theme emerged: the desire explore heroes and item builds more easily. Pot of Gold and Level Juice can be spammed to gain as many levels and accumulate as much gold as you want. So, explore all those item builds you’ve wanted to test on different heroes, and make a VaingloryFire guideif you stumble across something incredible! “ —PlayoffBeard
Activating Pot of Gold will instantly grant you 1,000 gold to explore item builds more easily.
Activating Level Juice will instantly grant you 1 level to try abilities faster.
POSITION DECLARATIONS
“Zekent and I love to try off-meta builds and heroes theoretically out of position. In fact, I only jungle Skaarf, but until now, it has been near impossible to communicate your intent to random teammates. Now, you can tap your hero portrait in the Hero Select screen to pull up ‘position declaration’ options. Properly sort out your comps and strategy before the match begins!” —PlayoffBeard
Declare your intention to LANE / JUNGLE / ROAM in hero select.
INSTANTLY USE CONSUMABLES
“We’ve all been there: Late game. Full build. Plenty of gold … but nothing to do with it. If only you could buy that Weapon or Crystal Infusion with your extra duckets without taking up an item slot. Now you can!” —PlayoffBeard
Buy and automatically activate consumables when your inventory is full.
XP CHANGES
“Early-game success shouldn’t necessarily set the course of the whole match, especially if hero level scaling could create an insurmountable advantage. It’s important that sound tactics, great shot-calling and inspired item builds and play can be rewarded with pulse-pounding comebacks.” —PlayoffBeard
Your team will now earn XP faster when behind in levels and earn slower when ahead in levels.
ATTACK SPEED REDUCTION (ADJUSTMENTS)
Attack speed reductions such as Atlas Pauldron will never reduce the attack animation below base attack speed. Attack cooldowns are still able to go below base speed.
TACTICAL PINGS VISUAL EFFECTS UPGRADES
Tactical pings such as GO, GROUP UP & CAUTION look much cooler in the game world when used.
KOSHKA
She’s meant to be an assassin.
“Koshka surprised us with her dominance despite having zero buffs to her raw power. Looks like the energy tax had been hiding her full potential all along. The energy buffs make her feel really good though, so to keep them, we’re trimming some extraneous power that doesn’t match her play style and personality — namely the massive bonus armor & shield coming from her heroic perk.” —SurpriseBirthday
Bloodrush (Heroic Perk)
No longer grants armor & shield. [confirmed]
Twirly Death
Boosted basic attack damage reduced from 50-85-120-155-250 to 30-55-80-105-190
Boosted basic attack crystal ratio increased from 35% to 80%.
Hero Stats
Base armor & shield increased by 24 (from 18-62 to 42-86).
KRUL
Lurking in brush never felt so good.
“Krul has been struggling at high skill tiers. As a melee hero, he actually had the lowest survivability in the hero roster, forcing him to depend on his abilities to survive. We think his playstyle is good, and these buffs should help get him more pick consideration.” —SurpriseBirthday
Shadows Empower Me
Charge-up delay in brush reduced from 3.0 to 1.5 seconds.
Dead Man’s Rush
Procs (triggers) basic-attack effects. You can Shiversteel or Aftershock targets instantly!
Cooldown accelerated from 12-10 to 12-8.
Barrier crystal ratio raised from 50% to 75%.
Spectral Smite
Base damage changed from 60-120-180-240-400 to 100-150-200-250-400.
Damage per stack changed from 30-45-60-75-110 to 16-34-52-70-110.
Hero Stats
Health per level increased from 71 to 78.
Armor per level increased from 4 to 5.
Shield per level increased from 4 to 5.
ADAGIO
Shifting power to crystal Adagio.
“Adagio with weapon items had become a top pick over other snipers even though his kit was primarily designed to emphasize crystal. We’re shifting power toward his crystal side and rewarding him with stronger burst heals in the late game.” —SurpriseBirthday
Gift of Fire
Heal over time duration down from 3-4-5-6-7 to 3-3-3-3-3.
Heal over time ratio up from 8% to 20%.
Burst heal down from 55-60-65-70-165 to 55-60-65-70-135.
Burst heal ratio up from 21% to 50%.
Hero Stats
Weapon power at level 12 down from 139 to 118.
Attack speed at level 12 down from 113% to 100%.
PETAL
Attack speed reduced.
“Petal is in a similar boat with Adagio, leveraging pure range as her main weapon steroid. Range brings immense power, and we think long-range snipers should pay the price with less raw power.” —SurpriseBirthday
Attack speed at level 12 down from 136% to 111%.
CELESTE
She’s in the free rotation. It’s a perfect time to try out these buffs!
“Celeste wasn’t sufficiently rewarded for her extremely demanding playstyle. In late game, the positioning of Heliogenesis becomes increasingly complex, so we want to reward smart placement through high damage ratios. Solar Storm has been simplified and cleaned up.” —SurpriseBirthday
Heliogenesis
Crystal ratio up from 100% to 125%.
Supernova crystal ratio up from 120% to 175%.
Solar Storm
No longer collides with lane minions or non-objective jungle monsters.
Collision accuracy has been improved and will not hit enemies behind Celeste.
Projectile speed slowed from 22 meters/sec to 16.
Effects Upgrades
Celeste’s abilities received lots of visual effects love. Note: While the particle effects on Heliogenesis are more dramatic, the timing of the ability damage is unchanged.
SKAARF
Reflex Block, anyone?
“Skaarf can now use active items while channeling his ultimate. We only intended to prevent Skaarf from activating his other abilities. Someone at Super Evil finally got off his lazy sofa and wrote a non-item silence.” —SurpriseBirthday
Using Skaarf’s ultimate no longer silences his items.
TAKA
A step in the right direction.
“Taka now consistently critical strikes and doesn’t miss randomly or when stunned.” —SurpriseBirthday
Fixed bugs where critical strikes sometimes didn’t trigger when they should.
SHIVERSTEEL
It’s less cold from a distance.
“Shiversteel can still produce a perma-slow too easily on ranged attacks with just a little bit of attack speed. Because ranged heroes tend to build more attack speed and can reach enemies with greater ease, we’re making the range vs. melee difference even more dramatic.” —SurpriseBirthday
Ranged slow duration reduced from 0.8 to 0.4s.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS (IOS)
Email support@superevilmegacorp.com with any issues.
Bug fix: Taka now consistently critically strikes and doesn’t miss randomly or when stunned.
Bug fix (PRACTICE MODE ONLY): Fixed a bug where Kraken had too little HP in practice mode.
Misc. bug fixes and performance enhancements
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS (ANDROID)
Email support@superevilmegacorp.com with any issues.
In-app ICE purchases!
Better stability
Graphical quality improvements
Fixes issue with double/rapid touches
Battery life savings when app in background
Bug fix (PRACTICE MODE ONLY): Fixed a bug where Kraken had too little HP in practice mode.
Taka consistently critically strikes
NOTE ON VOX’S RESONANCE (BUG DISCOVERED)
“In creating the Vox Hero Spotlight, I realized that Vox’s Resonance appears to have an internal cooldown, which prevents Sonic Zoom from triggering multiple bounces. Although we’ve been balancing Vox around this bug (by virtue of it existing throughout our internal playtests), this is unintentional. If we choose to fix this bug in the future, expect a couple other nerfs/tweaks on his sustained multi-target damage to compensate, as fixing this bug would effectively mean multiplying his multi-target burst damage.” —Ciderhelm
Important note: Vox unlocks with ICE begin today (April 1). Glory unlocks begin Saturday. Now, go break the sound barrier with Vox, and let us know what you think of all the new hotness in the forums! —PlayoffBeard
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