Ken here… it’s been a long time. I feel so official writing on medium instead of gdocs… :D

Credit to VGFire and SEMC for most of the images. If you just want to see the overdrive “tiers” then scroll down or ctrl+f “report cards” or feel free to ctrl+f your favorite heroes. Thanks for reading.

This is one of the most epic pieces of analysis I’ve ever done (and it’s taken longer b/c the 2.2 notes dropped right as I was finishing up), so feel free to read what you like. I greatly appreciate feedback; reddit comments/pms, medium comments or emailed concerns at gamefish97 at gmail would be sick. Anything you want to see in more detail, I can specifically cover if you ask.

ahem.

The last full piece I did regarding overdrives is here:

…and to be honest, it’s a tad outdated. Since this (holy shit, 1.18?) patch, a number of things have changed.

Let’s first re-iterate just what the point of the article was last time; I’ll quote pieces of my previous article. For funsies.

Overdrives are unique to Vainglory as far as I know and come specifically from an intended consequence of there being two basic abilities and one ultimate (5+5+3 = a total of 13 skill points to max) and only 12 points to spend. This results in a choice needing to be made as to which abilities need to be given priority, so SEMC added another layer on to this and made the 5th point in any basic ability give bonus stats on top of the standard scaling.

Bolded are the important pieces. The devs clearly took a design direction of disallowing a “max out” of all three abilities on a hero; as such, this direction should look, feel and be important. An important tidbit is the importance of the “be important” piece (is it important enough for you yet??), specifically the flexibility and choice that manifest in this 12/13 point conundrum.

As a player, I believe having the option to look at the enemy comp (and my own) and choose to max A →C over B→C or A→B over B→C (or A→B over B→A, etc.) is extremely valuable.

The purpose of the previous article was to demonstrate the disconnect between a really, really cool intention vs the implementation. The goal this time is to again, point out specific examples of the good, the bad and the ugly of overdrives and skill-point distribution. I will indeed congratulate SEMC on improving on a number of things I discussed in my previous article while “seemingly” ignoring a few others that, I concede, are larger and perhaps more difficult pieces to tackle. Overall, the balance devs are doing a good job but everyone can always do better. :D

The Good:

The good is obviously that Vainglory has a unique skill-distribution system at its core that is noticeable both from an analytic and active-gameplay perspective. Overdrives are also options for places to balance or (over/under?)tune power levels of various heroes.

I can sit here all day and write for hours on the impacts of various 5th points over others and other players can spend that time playing and feeling out the effects of those overdrives in game and our experiences might be different. Therefore, it’s important I play and incorporate feedback from other players as well (I use my guildmates, they’re easily accessible for me).

These points (levels 8, 11/12) in the game also demonstrate valuable points to play around; see Celeste’s Heliogenesis, Ardan’s BFB or Vanguard (new in 2.1!) or Blackfeather’s On Point.

The Bad:

These same points can also reach quite oppressive feelings if the overdrive is too powerful of an addition; Skaarf’s Goop/Spitfire levels were extremely powerful a few patches ago and most players would opt into maxing both abilities by 10 or 11 instead of using or even leveling his ultimate. On the contrary, if an ultimate’s value-per-point is too low, maxing both basics by 10 or 11 can happen even if the overdrives aren’t that powerful; see Skaarf now.

Sometimes, the addition’s power in and of itself can sometimes overshadow the rest of a kit and make it so the hero is not used as often or perhaps lacks other potential because it focuses on one specific aspect. Upon writing my article for the first time, Phinn and Ardan’s kits fell directly into this pitfall. More on them later!

Looking at overdrives can also mislead a viewer into thinking that x or y stat is OP and incredibly strong or instead absolutely worthless. Analyzing and then interpreting raw data is always subject to a little bit of “researcher” bias! Do take note; my lens is indeed mostly overdrives but I’ll try to address critical pieces of full kits if they are pertinent.

The Ugly:

To be honest this is more of just “bad” but it’s more of “awful” and it hasn’t changed since I wrote my last article. Overall, change has been happening but some aspects will obviously lag behind.

The biggest piece of these lagging design details is what I believe (I stole from VGFierte and coined) and call the Koshka Effect^TM.

In short, Koshka’s overdrives (@1.18/1.19) added damage and nothing else. This overdrive design has been slowly phased out over time throughout VG on some heroes but not others… Taka, Rona, Reim and Koshka in 2.2 still fall victim to varying levels of the dreaded Koshka Effect^TM.

I also understand I am viewing overdrives in a bubble (only special effects of the 5th point, not looking at meta specifically, etc) but this is just to boil them down to their essence. This inherently includes the cons of such an analysis into the “ugly” section of this breakdown.

So What’s New?

Overdriving should feel (and often, correspondingly look) special. It’s a key, unique and magical part of Vainglory and needs to, in my opinion, be treated as such across the board. In some cases, the concept of an overdriven ability is applied perfectly and in some cases it’s done maybe a little sub-optimally.

This is where we left off last time. I’m not going to bother and include the raw data in the article, but the stats I’m working off of (for 2.2) are here in a google doc. Again, I am looking at the raw BONUS stats for overdrives (A&B) and including the 3rd point in ult/C as a reference point for flexibility.

Overall, I want to focus on the two sections “feel/look special” and “be treated as such across the board.” These aspects are important to the core of my article and I will attempt to refer back to them as I write. These two quoted portions will manifest themselves in power/flexibility and consistency, respectively. I will also note drastic improvements (or regressions) from my previous article if they’re relevant.

We’ll be dividing the heroes into categories again; this time, with a simpler division that many of you are likely familiar with.

GRADES! A+ through A-, B+ through B-, C+ through C- and D/F. Since I’m in college now… I guess I figured I’d make this relate and justify my procrastination.

Reminder that this is not a tier list. (Who even does those nowadays?) “Metrics and Methodology” e.g. how did you come up with this shit, is at the end of the article. Ctrl+f the quoted phrase before moving on if you’re the type that likes to know how and why I’ve done what I’ve done.

You’ll notice that as A turns to B, heroes lose either a) flexibility or b) strength in their overdrive/skill-point distribution choices. B turns to C, a hero might not have either in abundant stores… and the D-F range is reserved for heroes that honestly have some of the worst overdrives in the game. Period. Overdrives so poor that honestly, with all due respect I’m baffled as to how they made it through balance/release. And continue to make it through patches untouched. See Koshka in particular, for this; in fact, if you read nothing else, read Koshka’s analysis. It encompasses a majority of the issues for the low-end heroes and gives them a bright yellow highlight.

Ahem. Without further ado, let’s look at those report cards. Bolded are shining examples of their respective grade sections and are highlights of the article! Once we get down into the B- and below, some food for thought improvements (labelled FFT) will be added as they come up.

2.2** → Grumpjaw is added purely from a stats and hypothetical perspective.