SEMC has reveal some details about the coming update. I will try to summarize and review some of the news below.
Vox
The biggest reveal is about the new hero, Vox, a sniper with a short range but high mobility and interesting cool abilities. Read more about Vox in this dedicated post.
Spectator mode
The other biggest (at least for streamers 🙂 ) news about the upcoming update is Spectator mode. This has already been revealed during the PAX East event. This update will let players add 2 spectators (one on each team )to parties for private matches. Spectator mode is a great news for streamers like me, guild and mostly for leagues. Until now people have been competing by playing 2vs2 matches with special rules (lane only, 4 kill or 2 turrets = win) while having the 3rd player in each team act as a spectator.
This way of playing wasn’t perfect. One issue was that a 2vs2 match is not like a real 3vs3 Vainglory match, with Jungle invasions, The Kraken, Aceing and so on. Another issue was with the spectators, since they actually were part of teams, they were not able to see the opposite team players while out of sight.
The Spectator mode can also be used for coaching and private party practice in guilds or between friends.
Skill tier granularity and profile screen update
The profile page has been changed so the emphasis is now on the skill and not on the karma level. Each tier has a different image that is shown in the middle of the screen , while the karma graphics are the same only smaller and shown in the lower right corner.
As you can see in the image, under the skill tier there is also written Gold indicating on which end of the skill tier the player is. This works like this: when a player gets a into a new skill tier, say Hotness, it will be in Hotness Bronze. If the player is doing well and wins a lot it will get into Hotness Silver and then Gold. After Gold the new Skill Tier will come, in this case Simply Amazing, and the player will then be in Simply Amazing Bronze.
Pre-match position information
You can now inform your team mates about where you intend to play: Jungle, Lane or Roam, while choosing your hero. This seems like a really nice feature for the people playing Public matches and queuing by themselves.
Hero balancing
Some of the heroes have been balanced:
- Koshka – she got nerfed. After the Energy boost buff from the last update the Devs realized she was a bit overpowered and she got nerfed. Not a lot more details were revealed.
- Adagio – there will be some balance changes here as well. Not a lot of details, the rumors say Weapon powered Adagio got nerfed.
- Kurl – The Devs mentioned some balance adjustments for him as well.
- Taka – Not really a direct buff or a nerf, but the Devs have fixed the bugs with Taka’s abilities which could be seen as a buff.
Other news
Other changes that were mentioned in the stream were including a new look for the Aftermath screen.
New aftermath screen
The new screen includes the number of killed minions for every player.
Pot of gold and Level juice
These items have been now introduced in practice mode. They will make it easier to test new builds.
Catherine Stun Bug
They also mentioned the Catherine Stun Bug saying that they know about it and also that it’s NOT going to make it in the next update being a really hard to fix and time consuming bug. They would have to skip all the other new stuff in order to fix it but it will be fixed in an upcoming updater later on.
Misc
Skins are also postponed for a future update.
Spectator mode for public matches with a possibility to have more than one spectator per team will also be introduced in the future.
Own thoughts
I really am looking forward to this update. I like how Vox sounds, but I’m also very excited about the spectator mode and skill tier changes.
See you guys on my stream @Twitch!
/ahotiK