Vainglory 1.19 - Lyra

Have you tried the new hero Lyra yet? I've managed to play her twice in battle royale... And so far I'm really loving the character. 

Since I'm holding out till she can be bought with glory, I can't try her in casual or ranked yet (and these days I don't even play those modes...).... I think she's a fantastic hero to get in battle royale though! Her magnificent healing powers keeps your team alive. And did I mention that she's a good killer too?

That's her basic info. With her basic attacks as well as arcane missiles dealing CP, there's no reason why you would build WP for this hero IMO. With great power comes... Fragility. Lyra is an extremely fragile hero with little armor or shield. At least she moves fast!

Her A skill is called Imperial Sigil. It's an AOE skill that creates a circular zone of healing (for allies) or damage (for enemies). The skill can be detonated right away, or left to run it's cause. The cooldown only starts when the sigil is gone though, so if you're say chasing a bunch of enemies down the lane, detonate it immediately if you've run away from the sigil so you can use it again sooner. I think it'll take a while for players to know what this skill does. I've play with lyra teammates who don't seem to know that this skill can heal - they only cast it on enemies far away, and not caring about their teammates who could desperately use some healing (battle royale mode). And I've tried to cast it on teammates who needed healing, only to have them immediately walk away. Like dude...? I did that for you! 

B skill - Bright Bulwark. It's kind of like Ardan's fighting ring, only better. Ok, this one doesn't stun when you cross the barrier, but it slows all enemies inside the ring, and movement abilities can't be used. Not an actively damaging skill like the A skill, but still useful to create sort of an area of protection.

Her ultimate skill, Arcane Passage. This skill belongs to the 'ultimate but not so ultimate' category to me. In the sense that I won't be maxing this skill. It's great for chasing enemies, or fleeing. Or getting your team into the middle of a battle... But that'll work only if you have a good, coordinated, team. Kinda hard to get if you solo queue. And in battle royale? The usefulness is somewhat diminished. It's certainly more useful for chasing rather than fleeing though, because enemies can also step through the portal to chase you after an all too brief delay.

My main point though is that there's not enough benefit to entice me to max this skill. A shorter cooldown and slightly increased range just isn't enough benefit. Better to max her A and B skills. I'll add her skills like I would for Krul/Ardan. Something like that:

A - B - A - A - B - U - A - A - B - B - B - U


Equipment wise... Definitely CP. But I really don't like specifying builds because it really depends on your play style, your teammates, your opponents, and what your opponents are building. Of course, the mode you're playing in makes a huge difference. I'd go almost all out with crystal damaging items on battle royale... Unless the opposing team is really strong and I'm dying too much. Then build armor or shield as per whatever the enemy build is. As a roam, you'll definitely want to pump her up with more defensive items.

I'll leave you with two videos, the Lyra Hero Spotlight, as well as my own Lyra gameplay video. I think I played pretty decently there... Ok, there were some totally stupid deaths... But it's good gameplay by my noob standards. That's all for now folks!

If you want to see more vainglory gaming videos, do check out my youtube channel! :P

Vainglory - Here comes Summer!

Update 1.19 is now LIVE!

☀️1.19 DOWNTIME☀️

…IS OVER!

Find out all the new shiny things in 1.19 here ➡️ https://t.co/dKuAIaKguJ

— Vainglory Status (@vainglorystatus) June 22, 2016

Got in the game, checked out the new summer sunlight update... And managed to play two games!

Definitely need some time to figure out the new equipment changes and what to buy (or not buy)... But the sunlight event looks promising. Also check out the soon to be released skins! Looking forward to them!

The new 'sunlight' system for this summer.

Started off with 1 krul skin card. Now to get another 49 more!

That's the summer party krul skin. Pretty cool eh? 

New skin for Kestrel coming soon!

Hmm... Reim the Gandalf? 

Now that is one sexy Rona!

Alright, that's all for now. Shall play a little more before heading to bed. Once again, check my youtube channel for random iOS gaming videos! (Right now vainglory takes up the lion's portion of videos though.)

Vainglory - Summer is almost here!

Downloaded the new update... And server maintenance is finished and they are slowly letting people in...

Almost there!

☀️1.19 DOWNTIME☀️

Slowly letting players in. The VAST MAJORITY will still see servers as offline

While you wait ➡️ https://t.co/Cy23eEpJSg

— Vainglory Status (@vainglorystatus) June 22, 2016

I'll probably head to bed first before I get to play a game but... Can't wait to try out the new events and changes later in the day!

On a different note... I've been uploading random videos of myself playing iOS games like Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade, Bloons, Plants VS Zombies 2... etc. Subscribe to my channel if you like watching people play random iOS games!

Vainglory Battle Royale

Absolutely loving the battle royale mode in vainglory. Yeah yeah, I know I'm really late to the party. I've been playing it so much... That I can't quite play casual/ranked properly anymore. In that aspect... I've very much looking forward to the summer update coming in about four days, where there will be a new game progression system that allows for progression for all players types, whether you like to play casual, ranked, or battle royale.

The battle royale system is great for action junkies. Tends to be a more... Forgiving game too. Because each game lasts just 10 minutes on average, things are moving at the rapid pace, and I see a lot fewer occurrence of ping spamming. Sure, the afkers are still there... But at least you can surrender the moment the game tags them as having left the game, so that's less time wasted for you. Of course, the shorter games also means you have to put up with a lot less if you're stuck with a lousy teammate. Or are having a poor run yourself. Which can happen quite a bit in battle royale because a character is chosen at RANDOM each time you play.

Sure, the best players would have mastered every character, every skill... But for everyone else, there's bound to be characters you've not tried extensively, characters you're not good at, or haven't even the slightest idea what equipment to buy for.

Over time though, as you play more rounds of battle royale, you will learn the skills of each character, as well as what equipment to build for it. Weapon, crystal, or hybrid? Which skill do you max first? Which skill do you not max out? All these will come over time. (Or, you can be hard working and do some research, read some guides.)

Bear in mind that battle royale is a vastly different beast from casual or ranked mode though.

Some key differences in battle royale:
1) There is no jungle, it's all blocked off... You fight only in the lane.

 For now, I find getting an iron guard contract at the start extremely useful. It'll no longer be needed once the summer update rolls around and the 'ambient gold' system is put into place though (starting 22 June 2016). But for the next few days, I'll still be buying iron guard contracts. That way, you get some gold regardless of who made the last hit. And in vainglory, gold is everything.

So you'd definitely want to optimise your build according. Remember, everything is fast paced. Speed is the key.

2) You start off at level 4, with 2000 gold.

This means that you'll have a nice set of skills to start off with, as well a plenty of gold to buy equipment. Once you get into 'standby mode' in the game, buy all the equipment you need. Don't bother adding the skills till you are done with selecting your equipment and start running out into the field. With just 10 seconds and 2000 gold, there's hardly enough time to spend all your gold before the game starts, especially if you're not extremely familiar with that hero. You'll want to spend those 10 seconds of prep time wisely and get out of the base ASAP.

That said, often times you'll see teammates and enemy heroes alike take a while to 'appear' before they get to the lane. Don't be so quick to label them as afkers yet... They might just be taking some times to figure out their hero and what they need to buy. Great news if the enemy team is no where to be found and all your teammates are already out in the lane and whacking mobs. See if you can hit the first turret a little before the opposing team shows up!

3) You can't get back into the base and shop unless you die

Yup, that's right. The only way to head back to the base is if you die. No teleporting back, no point running back because there's a barrier stopping you from heading back. And you can't use the darn shop outside the barrier.

So what does that mean?

One. You can't heal up if you don't have any healing equipment/skill/items. Good news is that you heal way faster than in casual/ranked games though. But still... It's a good idea to buy some potions if you have the spare cash after your initial equipment purchase. Or maybe you'll want to just stock up some potions before buying the other equipment. Unless you're one of those who have planned out exactly how you want to spend that 2k gold.... Me? I have a target set of equipment to get and I keep buying till my gold runs out...

Two. The only way to move is forward. You either kill them, or die trying. Or, you can hang back a little to heal up.

4) You gain gold and heal up much faster.

You get 15 gold per tick, and heal 4% of your missing HP when you're not in combat. Exp gain, energy regen... Pretty much everything is faster. Oh, minions give 2x gold too. All that for a fast game for battle fiends and impatient players.



I've uploaded a bunch of my gameplay videos. Not that I'm any good... But because hey... Why not?

Check out my youtube channel if you like. I'll keep doing this and perhaps someday I'll get good... :P