Happy Holidays! It may still be September, but the Fold is looking mighty scary! Patch 1.9 was released today with so many changes so let me esplain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

new hero

Phinn saunters slowly into the Fold slowly like a spun-up SAW. Did I mention he’s slow? Despite his slowness, he’s sure to be some stiff competition. A new support tank, Phinn will definitely change up the meta with his kit.

Unstoppable (Heroic Perk) – He can’t be stunned! Stuns are converted into Slows, and slows are reduced to a maximum of 30%. Try and stop him! He also gains bonus armor, shield, and health (15% of his items). He is the tankiest hero we have seen so far.

(Heroic Perk) – He can’t be stunned! Stuns are converted into Slows, and slows are reduced to a maximum of 30%. Try and stop him! He also gains bonus armor, shield, and health (15% of his items). He is the tankiest hero we have seen so far. Quibble – AOE (Area of Effect) slow in an radius in front of Phinn, at overdrive (at rank five) it becomes a stun with a five second cooldown. With some CDA (Cooldown Acceleration), this can seriously be a game changer.

– AOE (Area of Effect) slow in an radius in front of Phinn, at overdrive (at rank five) it becomes a stun with a five second cooldown. With some CDA (Cooldown Acceleration), this can seriously be a game changer. Polite Company – AOE pull that also provides a barrier of Armor/Shield/Health to any allies within range.

– AOE pull that also provides a barrier of Armor/Shield/Health to any allies within range. Forced Accord – GET OVER HERE! This is Phinn’s defining skill. He throws his anchor, pulling ALL enemies in its path towards him.

Phinn will shake up the meta as he is a strong counter to squishy carries with limited mobility such as Celeste, Skaarf, and Ringo. You simply can’t get away from Phinn. He’s a very strong late game hero as well, as he scales with defensive items. CaptainNeato also mentioned on stream that he’s the first member of a trio of heroes. It should be interesting to see how many people instalock a SUPPORT hero!

skins

We got a new map! Errr… a new map skin! The Fold is glowing an eerie green, with pumpkins, tombstones, and skulls littered everywhere. Be sure to check out some of the cool easter eggs! I won’t spoil them!

Celeste and Petal also got seasonal skins. They are available for a limited time (Until the end of October) and are purchasable via ICE only (1799 ICE each).

We also got two new tiered skins:

Shiro Kage Taka – Tier II

Death Metal Krul – Tier II

I know a certain Krul main who’s name starts with Ady that will be a happy camper today.

Autumn Season and skill tier reset

Your Pre-Season trophy will be finalized as of today. You’ll get to keep it forever in your shiny virtual trophy room! Autumn Season One begins and your current skill tier will be “compressed”. In a nutshell, this means it’ll be lowered by a certain amount (as will everyone else’s).

Breaking news! The compression formula was released by SurpriseBirthday.

(X/2) + 2, where X = your skill tier

EG: Vainglorious Skill Tier 10

(10/2) + 2 = 7

You’ll have three months to climb and attain a new trophy, as well as possible team and guild rewards!

Free Celeste (iOS) and Taka (android)

If you are an iOS player and don’t already own Celeste, you get her for free! Ardan must be pissed, he didn’t raise his daughter to be so cheap. Android users will have to settle for Taka. Sorry Android.

Guilds and teams

For ICE or Glory, you can now create a guild in game! Features include a guild-only chat, prioritizing guild members in your friends list, guild rewards, and a new leveling system. Guilds start at 20 maximum members, but can be increased to 50 by playing games together. You can also create Teams, which have a competitive focus. With a six member maximum, Teams are focused on ranked play. Playing games together ranks up your Team. This is important because the highest ranked teams will actually qualify for real life professional events like VGL and VIPL to win $$$$!

Hero and gameplay changes

Petal

Petal got a complete rework. She now gains 10-40% attack speed whenever her Munions attack a target she marks with a basic attack. To compensate, they reduced her base attack speed to 100% for all levels. Seeds now sprout into Munions automatically after 2.2 seconds, until Petal has three pets. Pets now have ticks of health, just like Fortress’s wolves. Seeds on the ground still provide vision, healing, and defense, but if an enemy walks over a seed it explodes, dealing crystal damage and knocking them backwards. Her range was also nerfed from 7m to 6m. Her new B ability is called Trampoline. Usable only when standing on a seed, Petal will leap in the direction she is facing. This gives Petal a new found mobility she never had before. It’s a step forward in the right direction. There were so many changes in this patch that I don’t think SEMC had enough time to get her numbers right just yet. She’ll be a blast to play with her new mechanics, go enjoy her new kit!

Vox

Another update, another Vox change. His Ult was still too strong, so they changed Reflex block to disable resonance bounces. They also split his Ult into two separate damage waves and increased the cooldown and reduced the Silence duration. To compensate, his A ability now grants 20% more weapon power damage to Vox when overdriven. I foresee a comeback of WP (Weapon Power) Vox with these changes, but CP (Crystal Power) Vox is definitely still viable.

Taka

Taka was dominating the jungle in 1.8, so of course, he gets a nerf. His 20% lifesteal was removed from his heroic perk. Also, his X-Retsu no longer grants three Ki stacks across the board. Instead it grants 1/2/3 stacks as you rank the ability. He does receive one buff to his Kaku ability, which grants him a heal per second for four seconds. However, now you cannot teleport while invisible. It will be interesting to see if Taka will still dominate jungle. I think a shift to WP lane carries may shift the Jungle meta.

Skaarf

Skaarf’s goops now can be lit from other burning goops! Goop train! Choo choo! The smaller of two lizards will continue to be a great lane carry in 1.9.

Ringo

Ringo was overnerfed in 1.8. His Twirling Silver now is a flat six seconds and increases his attack speed from 55% at rank one, to 100% at rank five (was 86%). Ringo will be back in lane as a viable WP carry option. RIP Faith My Left Arm.

Skye

Skye needed some love. She got a HUGE upgrade, and not to her Zettai Ryouiki. Her B ability now resets her A ability, just like SAW. She got reduced cooldowns across the board as well. She can now spam almost all over her abilities, making her very fun to play!

Glaive

WP Glaive was doing too much base damage on his abilities. They shifted his ultimate Bloodsong damage from base damage to a crystal ratio. They also reduced his energy costs on his B ability Twisted Stroke. Glaive will continue to rip arms off of people.

Rona

Rona was also doing a little too much damage. Both of her ratios were tuned down slightly on her B ability Foe Splitter. Her Weapon ratio (70%) now matches her heroic perk ratio of 70%.

Catherine

CP carries beware! Catherine shield now hurts! The biggest change to Catherine is her B ability, Stormguard, now has a CP ratio. On Overdrive, it increases the reflection damage by 25%! Her A ability was tuned slightly with a lower cooldown at max rank, but also a lower stun duration.

items

All of Infusion’s stats now scale for all levels. They were being used too early as a cheap way to gain the early lead and snowball games. How does this change things? Maybe Gadianton will have the answer for us soon. 😉

Stormguard Banner now damages turrets again, but only one Stormguard is effective per team. No more #poopstrat!

Broken Myth now has six stacks of 6%. It takes longer to get to 30%, but now you can gain 36% more crystal damage. It also no longer stacks on turrets or Kraken.

Frostburn got a bug fix where the slow wasn’t increasing with more Crystal Power. Also, the maximum slow was reduced from 40% to 35%.

Piercing spear’s armor piercing was reduced again, from 10% to 8%. They don’t want us stacking too much pierce.

Turrets

Turrets now have a 300 health barrier per second that regenerates up to a max of 600 health if there are no minions or Kraken nearby. This means you can no longer “tank turrets” and plow through them. This is a major change and will make Minion Mines much more important. Lane Minion wave control will also be a thing. You can’t just get an Ace and kill three turrets anymore. This effectively destroys any #poopstrats as well. Minion mines also make Lane minions 15% tankier.

This patch is HUGE, and I’m not talking about Phinn. There were also miscellaneous bug fixes, and more. Read the entire patch notes here. That’s it. I’m done. I’m tired of writing about 1.9. Go play!