Tag Archives: vainglory

Long time no see

I have been bad at posting here

lately and I’m sorry. I have had a lot of stuff going on, work, family and of course I always chose to play a game or two instead of writing here.

I’ll try to get back at posting new, fun and interesting stuff here.

Vainglory Recap

Kestrel Active
Kestrel

Let’s see… It has happened a lot since last post. Last time I was breaking the news about a Taka skin being released in 1.7. Well Vainglory is now at 1.12 and we have a Taka skin tier 2 and a lot more others including the long awaited Celeste skin.

We’ve got new heroes: Rona, Skye, Phinn, Blackfeather and the latest one Kestrel the archer.

We’ve got a hole lot more skins, seasonal skins, seasonal map, guilds and teams.

Vainglory had its one year anniversary with a week of double glory, one day with scheduled card drops and more.

We have also been through some rough times with unstable update 1.11 and some other periods with high lags and server instability.

Now we have better game UI, we are able to interact with friends while they are in game, we have guild rewards and better game stability.

For me, I have focused more and more on playing support, mainly Ardan. I also like Fortress and still learning Cath. I am not any good with Ringo anymore and I instead move towards Skaarf and Celeste when it comes to damage dealers. I have also decided to learn at least one jungler so I kind of am able to play Glaive.

I’ve also left my old guild OaK which also disbanded for a moment and now it’s not very active anymore and created [CMY] Chaotic Myth together with some friends I met online, FridgeMan and GabrielK.

Streaming break

After the summer break I went back to playing Vainglory and streaming, this time with a fixed schedule. I used to stream Tuesdays and Thursdays from around 20:00 CET to around 23:00 or even 24:00 depending on the activity on the stream.
After some months I noted lower and lower interest in my stream from the viewers and also I didn’t find streaming to be as much fun anymore since it had became more of a chore than a fun time. I just wanted to play with my guild and team so I decided to only stream on special occasions or other events.

Dreamhack

I went to Dreamhack Winter 2015 in Jönköping, Sweden. Dreamhack is the larges LAN party and computer (games) festival in the world. You can go there with your computer and have a table spot with power and network connection that you use for 3 days or you can just visit it as a festival with a daily pass and no computer.
I went of course with my computer and wanted to play a lot of games including Vainglory and  of course to stream. I wanted of course to check out the latest in gaming and eports events as well :-).
The wired network connection was very good with high speed, low ping and stable, the wifi was unfortunately very poor and I could only check main, facebook and such on my phone and tablet. This meant I couldn’t play and stream so much Vainglory with the poor Wifi. So I played and streamed other games instead. I went back to try Heroes of the Storm, a moba game developed by Blizzard with heroes from the Blizzard universe (Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft) (get it.. heroes of the storm, Blizzard, storm 🙂 I see what you did there Blizzard). At the beginning I was really willing to play VG instead but after a while I started to get into it and it was pretty fun. Here is a video of the gameplay:

I also tried Rocket League, a football game with cars. Yes that’s right you play football (soccer) but instead of players you “kick” the ball with a car  (the ball is larger than the car). I found the game very fun but a bit hard in the beginning. Here is a video of a Rocket League match:

I tried some other games too, like a match of Dota2 some Hearthstone, but the ones I mentioned above are the ones I played the most.

I have to admit, after Dreamhack I’ve got the taste for computer games back so now I’ve bought an Xbox controller for PC and I’ll start playing some more computer games. One game I think is really cool and addicting is Spintires. The game is about driving trucks through very rough roads and terrain. It might not look like much, driving logs around, but it’s really fun to play especially if you like simulators of this kind. Here is a part of a game I played (with some quick introduction that you can skip if you want):

Asus Strix DSP

Asus Strix DSP

Asus Strix DSP

Also at Dreamhack I’ve got a really awesome headset that was given to me by ASUS, an Asus Strix DSP. I will write a full description/review of it soon. Meanwhile you can watch a video review and unboxing on my youtube channel, youtube.com/ahotiK.

 

Youtube

As you noticed, after the summer I haven’t really posted a lot of new videos on Youtube, but now when I’m not streaming so much anymore I’ve decided to make some more videos for youtube instead. It’s easier to work with a youtube video as I can do it whenever I like so I can more easily combine it with the other stuff I have going on (mostly family and work :)).

I will soon post some Vainglory videos as well and

I intend to do something more fun and not just full matches.

My intentions are to post some more gameplay form other games than Vainglory as well, like Rocket League, Spintires, Heroes of the Storm, Hotline Miami and more.

I might also start streaming on youtube gaming as well (gaming.youtube.com/ahotiK) . The streaming youtube channel is the same as the regular youtube channel so make sure you subscribe to keep in touch.

I also am active on Facebook and Twitter(@ahotiKGames).

See ya!

Some new skins Joule, Ardan and Krul

First of all I have to say that it has been some time since I’ve posted. This is mostly because I have been busy with streaming, improving the stream but also the personal life has been getting in the way lately.  To make things worse I even got a nasty cold this last weekend.

Killa-Joule 9000

But back to Vainglory. Some new skins have already been announced for the next update. The first one is Killa-Joule 9000 which personally I really love. I have now read the lore for Joule and also for new skin. I love how much time and effort has been invested in making all this so cool.

Here are some “stolen” splash art images with the new Joule skins (kudos to the artists @ vainglorygame.com)

Killa-Joule 9000 Tier 1
Killa-Joule 9000 Tier 1

I think that the tier 2 skin looks even cooler with the red armored suit and the rockets. The only downside with the second one is the missing cleavage 😉

Killa-Joule 9000 Tier 2
Killa-Joule 9000 Tier 2

Stormlord Ardan

Now Ardan is like Ringo, one of my mains. As with Shogun Ringo (which I also bought), for some reason I’m not really impressed with the skin. I don’t know, maybe because I like the heroes so much, I am expecting too much. Don’t get me wrong the skins are awesome looking and really cool, but I need a really interesting story behind it that I can relate to when playing using these skins. It kinda feels like both Ardan and Ringo get a bit ruined by their new “personalities”. Yes, I understand that these are parallel universe, “what if…” lores and that they could not ruin the main lore  since they are not connected, but the nice, family caring Ardan, is now a Stormlord… I admit I am curios about the lore for this one, but I still need to get used to the idea. On the other hand, this might be a good reason to fight an enemy Ardan.

Here is the splash art borrowed from Vainglorygame.com

Stormlord Ardan skin
Stormlord Ardan skin

Death Metal Krul

Death Metal Krul Tier 1
Death Metal Krul Tier 1

This can be summed up like: Hated by many, loved by me. Here is why I love this skin:

  • I’m a fan of metal. Not the biggest fan like I don’t listen to anything else, but I enjoy the music
  • I like puns and smart word games. Krul is .. dead hence death metal.
  • The guitar instead of the sword is awesome! Especially when he swings it.
  • The Tier 2 is even more awesome epic coolness!
Death Metal Krul Tier 2
Death Metal Krul Tier 2

I can’t wait for this Krul skin.

I haven’t written about ESL and the new wolf hero yet, but I will.

Short about the ESL –> It started way to quickly after the announcement and got me by surprise and since I kinda missed the start, I decided to let it run for some editions and give my opinions about it after that.

See you on the stream twitch.tv/ahotiklive

/ahotiK

Vainglory update 1.4.0 aka Skin system update

While watching the update Vainglory stream I’ve picked up some of the things that were updated and that were missed on the official patch notes posted below.

The Skin system

Described on this skin survival guide.

TL DR;

In short it work like this:

  • skins will have 3 tiers
  • skins will be purchased with Cards
  • Cards will sometimes drop at the end of matches
  • only tier 1 skins will be purchasable with ICE
  • Later on Cards will be purchasable with ICE

Requirements and performance improvements

  • Vainglory is now available on iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c
  • On iOS the game will adapt the resolution to the device’s performance in order to reduce lags and frame drops. This can be turned off in settings (at the moment it seems that there are no setting in the settings menu. Not even the old ones for language, screen zoom, volume and so on)

For me this is a huge improvement and I believe this will make the game so much better especially for those who are playing on a bit older devices. I play and stream with my iPad 4 and this will hopefully be a huge improvement on the quality of the game.

Balance changes and bug fixes

Vox will not proc twice for Tension Bow and Aftershock any more while using Sonic Zoom

Vox’s ulti, Wait for it, is now slower so dodgeable. And does less crystal damage

Aftershock has been nerfed a bit.. I didn’t really got in which way.

Reflex block is now not spammable any more. It will take more skill to use effectively.

Eve of harvest has been nerfed a bit. A bit more Crystal power added but the life steal has been reduced 25%-20%.

Flares are working differently. They are not global any more. Now the flares will have to be placed on the map and will reveal a small bit of the area.

Joule has been buffed and is now hopefully going to be more present in the game. The hero portrait in hero selection screen has been changed and I personally like it more.

Skaarf has also been buffed a bit. He’s Spitfire will now not hit lane minions, but will go through them damaging them.

Krul has been indirectly nerfed by changing how the weapon ratio works now.

Frostburn has been buffed a bit by increasing  the Crystal Power.

It is now possible to see the skill tiers of your friends before inviting them to a party and also in private chat. The information will show the skill tier number, the name and the color (Brown for Bronze, White/Light grey for Silver and Yellow/Golden for Gold). This will be very helpful when doing private matches and trying to make the teams even especially on the stream when playing with viewers. Also it will allow you to party with people with similar skill tier when going for pubs with people you might not know that well.

Tier 2 skins revealed for Petal, Ringo and SAW, Adagio and Glaive.

Feel free to check out the official patch notes and discover for yourself in the game all the other changes from the huge update!

Enjoy the game!

The official 1.4.0 patch notes

From the App store:

Hero Skins System Unveiled!

– Every hero skin theme contains three tiers. Each tier has different art and a different in-game model!
– Unlock Tier 1 hero skins using ICE in the Market or by “weaving” cards into skins.
– Cards of varying rarity will sometimes be awarded in post-match Spoils of War.
– Collect cards and trade them in for skins when you meet the requirements!
– Tier 2 & 3 skins and their required cards will be included in a future update.
– Tier 2 & 3 skins must be earned (cannot be unlocked directly with ICE).

Continue reading Vainglory update 1.4.0 aka Skin system update

Vainglory update 1.4.0 skins and more

UPDATE: The SEMC team will stream (twitch.tv/vainglory) from 10 AM PDT –> 7pm CET (Check your time zone here) about the upcoming update. More on the Vainglory forums.

The next Vainglory update is due today (5th of May 2015). Let’s see what the devs have announce for this coming release.

Skin system

According to the announcements there will not be any hero released with this update but instead the long waited skin system will be made available.
There have been a lot of hero skins reveals lately and I believe all of the look awesome. There are some earlier posts about most of the skins.

There hasn’t been any reveals about how the skin system will work and/or how the skins will be purchased so I’m really looking forward to seeing how I can get those lovely looking skins.

Shogun Ringo

Shogun Ringo skin art
Shogun Ringo skin art

I haven’t had the chance to write about the Ringo skin yet so here it is. Continue reading Vainglory update 1.4.0 skins and more