As the Autumn season officially ended we get our rewards and move into the winter season. If you haven't noticed already your rank has been reset and the pool has now been mildly scattered.
MINION MINER CHANGES
So, I know there's a lot of theories about when a minion miner should be used, and with this update the developers cleared up the mechanics. Instead of buffing your lane minions to the point that your top is way over extended - the update only makes your minions stronger against hero tax or towers best there is no auto push happening anymore this makes capturing your minion miner and the enemies a much higher priority. That being said the new meta should indicate a lot more jungle teamfights, and invading from both teams. Because of this change, the developers decided to give the minion miners a health buff so they're going to be about 20% more difficult to kill. *yay solo jungle :/
With the new season comes new Champions, the first being Reim. He reminds me of mixture between Scaarf and Krul. Although you build him heavy on ability power, mid-game he starts getting to feel tanky. Reim’s tankiness comes from his fortified health heroic perk that stacks with ability power and ability usage. Meaning bursting him down is a priority, not letting him poke away or act like a bruiser.
NEW CHAMPION: REIM
HEROIC PERK: FROSTGUARD
Reim’s basic attacks deal 20-54 (+125% crystal power) bonus crystal damage over 2 seconds and grant 50% 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% slow that decays over 0.6 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% 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.
COUNTER
Glaive
Koshka
Vainglory developers decided to only give us three Winter Skins: Skaarf, Glaive, Catherine. They did make a few champion changes but nothing major, all really affecting laning. Black Feather got a health nerf, and laning rework making definitely nerfing his early game laning phase. Kestrel also got a laning nerf, but you won't really feel it until late game when you don't build her CP. Also there was a few issues with her ult being weak early game, so it's early levels got a slight buff. Petal got a (slight) Munions rework, where their health got increased and they're treated more like minions. Lastly, Skye’s Suri strike got a huge laning nerf, where I guess when he built her AP she could just clear the lane without even trying and burst you down with her first (A) ability.
And great new map update, with falling snow I personally think it looks much better than the original map. Another edition is a perfect music update, where is not holiday-themed rather just makes you feel like you're in a winter abyss. Ultimately with all the white snow, I am able to see my character more clearly best making team fights a little easier to manage.
You're going to see a lot of Reim in the beginning of this season and expect him to be OP before the nerf. The fact that he is a tanky mage without filling any tanky items is definitely going to make him a threat that we all are going to have to deal with. If we thought Krul was a problem before it seems his brother has just hopped into the field, and he's just as nasty. We're going to see these two combo, until Koshka and Glaive teams makes it back onto the scene. Since our archers got nerfed a bit, we might see a few bruiser lanes break the meta this season. That wraps up January's Vainglory meta update.
*Give us a pull Champion already Super Evil Megacorp!
