Hi, I am Magnus0. I have been a huge fan of Petal ever since I started playing Vainglory. Sadly, she has been UP for almost half a year, and the so called 'buff' in 1.9 did not help at all. 1.10 brought new buffs along, making her a viable, although still rather unimpressive hero. She is still not the most viable hero in the fold, but she is certainly a fun hero to play, and a very deadly one if you know how to play her. I expect Petal to be buffed further in future updates, so watch out for this flower planting, seed hopping, onion spawning squirrel!

Petal commands a flock of pets that she uses to swarm her enemies from range. She excels at long, sustained fights where damage from her small army really adds up. She can even single-handedly take out important objectives such as the Gold & Minion Mines.

Petal
Attack Type: Ranged
Position: Lane/Jungle (she's most effective in the jungle as of now)
Role: mage

Hit Points: 620 (+66)
HP Regen: 2.07 (+0.22)
Energy Points: inapplicable
EP Regen: inapplicable
Weapon Damage: 64
Attack Speed: 1
Armor: 20 (+6)
Shield: 20 (+6)
Attack Range: 6.0
Move Speed: 3.2

Munions Slot: Heroic Perk

Petal controls three munion pets. Pets have 8 (+11 per level, +45% of crystal) damage. A few moments after Petal plants a seed, it will automatically sprout a munion, up to a maximum of 3 pets. In addition, basic attacks mark enemy heroes with sunlight. If a munion bites a marked target, the sunlight is consumed and Petal gains 10-40% attack speed (level 1-12) for 1.5 seconds.

Brambleboom Seeds Slot: A

Petal plants a Brambleboom seed directly in front of her. Seeds near Petal will sprout into pets after a brief delay, up to 3 pets. Seeds have a small vision radius and survive for 20 seconds. If an enemy steps on a seed, the seed explodes and knocks the enemy back. Petal stores up to 6 seeds as charges, gaining a seed every 15 seconds. Petal gains charges faster the more charges she already has.

Trampoline! Slot: B

Petal leaps in the target direction, leaving a seed behind at her original location. Using the ability will amplify Petal's weapon & crystal power for 4 seconds.

Spontaneous Combustion Slot C

Petal commands her pets to explode one by one, slowing and dealing splash damage to nearby enemies while healing nearby allies. Detonated pets become seeds.

PETAL

Petal is finally firming in the competitive meta, but her kit could still be rather difficult for players to use. We wanted Petal’s abilities to be more player-friendly and to give players more flexibility with Spontaneous Combustion. —Zekent

TRAMPOLINE

Allows you to choose jump direction (like Vox’s Sonic Zoom)
No longer require Petal to be standing on a seed to activate. Instead, this ability costs energy and instantly places a seed on the ground from which Petal leaps
No longer recalls all munions back to Petal
SPOTANEOUS COMBUSTION

Petal now only commands one munion to explode at a time
This ability has 3 charges; one charge every 35-30-25 seconds.
Button is disabled when no munions are available, preventing you from wasting charges
ENERGY

No longer gains 0-150% bonus regeneration based on current energy amount
Energy down from 1200 to 410-718
Energy regen down from 8.88 to 3.21-5.30
Seeds cost 60-65-70-75-80
Trampoline costs 80-85-90-95-100
Spontaneous Combustion costs 40
MUNIONS

Munion health changed from 110-200-290-380-560 + 30% CR to 100-170-240-310-450 + 25%CR
Defense per munion up from 20-25-30-35-45 to 30-35-40-45-50


... Petal has energy again? Great! now I can rewrite my entire guide on how to not spam seeds. *Sigh*

Anyway, I don't know how I feel about this. Trampoline is now much easier to control, but with absolutely no way to recall your pets, they will die very easily and you can't do much about that. And While Trampoline is much easier to use, Spontaneous combustion became a pain to control now. The reason for this is that it explodes a random munion. The munion that starts to detonate might be the munion that is the farthest away from your target, meaning that is might miss. So while the whole point of this change was so to not waste the ability potential when you don't have three munions up, you still waste the potential because it's much harder to actually land the explosions. Also, the cooldown charge system change thingy is a straight nerf.

The energy changes are alright, I guess, but they feel really unnecessary. The good thing is that you have more seeds at your disposal, buuut because munions have lesser health (which is really dumb btw), you still can't use many seeds for zoning since you'll need more for spawning munions.

While the trampoline change is really nice, I feel like Petal is weaker overall, and she wasn't even that strong to begin with. She's still an amazing counter to Krul and the like, but I feel like she doesn't do her job much better than say, Reim.

One interesting thing about this is that Aftershock spam is a legit tactic now. Every seed and every ult charge proc AS, which is very nice. Frostburn, Broken Myth and Aftershock might become a viable build, but that needs more testing.

Petal is a mage, able to deal damage from a distance. With a Frostburn, Petal is very effective at kiting, because her muninions will continue to slow enemies and chew away at their health while Petal can stay at a safe distance. Petal differs herself from other ranged carries like Ringo and SAW, by having semi-support and utility abilities that will help the overall effectiveness of the team. Be wary that she deals less damage than other carries, she can't simply blow up the enemy team in seconds (anymore). Petal prefers long fights where she can out-sustain enemies to secure kills. As such, play safe and conservative. Try to stay on the outside of teamfights, and use Trampoline! to escape when you get into a dire situation.

Even though Petal was originally a laner, she is way better in the jungle. In fact, the jungle is the only position where she can function. DON'T USE HER IN LANE WITH THIS BUILD. She runs out of seeds and thus munions way too fast in lane, making her absolutely useless. so unless you want to play Petal as a weapon carry, don't be a laner.

Pros

+ long range harass
+ hard to kill with proper care
+ excellent kiting potential
+ awesome utility (heal, slow, zoning with seeds)
+ surprisingly good jungle matchups
+ incredible sustain
+ very fun to play (in my opinion at least)
+ good at destroying turrets (her pets and seeds can tank damage while the team hammers the turret)

Cons

- squishy
- relatively low damage compared to other carries
- utterly useless without energy
- useless perk without AC or BP (and even then, it's mediocre)
- incredible weakness against characters that can easily dispatch pets

Brambleboom Seeds


At first glance, it seems as if this is the simplest ability to use in the whole game, but that's certainly not the case. You have to be extremely careful when using this ability, because using it too often will leave Petal without munions. using Brambleboom Seeds is rather complex, so I'll break down multiple aspects of using it.

What do seeds do?

The first and most important thing that BS does is, of course, spawning munions. Most, heck, basically all of Petal's damage output is based on her munions, so it's important to have three munions up at all times.

Another important thing that seeds do is exploding. Seed explosions deal rather high damage, and they slightly knock the enemy back. This is great for setting up walls in narrow 'halways' on the map. If the enemy wants to chase you, they have too take damage and knockback, or they have to just leave you alone. You can sometimes even change the tide of a chase if the enemy decides to take that damage, so that you become chaser and the enemy has to run.

Another thing that seeds do is granting vision. It can be somewhat useful for having vision in the enemy shop bush, but you can't globally control vision anymore as Petal. You can place one random seed in a bush when you cleared the enemy jungle and retreat to your jungle again, but spend much more energy on vision.

EHRMAGEHRWD WHY DON'T SEEDS HEAL PLS FIX DIS BUG SEMC!!!
I have seen a lot of people being upset about this, but the devs intentionally removed healing and defense aura from Petal's kit. It's not a bug, seeds just don't heal anymore, it's intended. Personally, I don't really mind. Petal has way too few seeds to make healing stations now anyways, so it might be better this way. At least you won't waste your time sitting on a seed with a weak healing aura anymore now.


Trampoline!


Trampoline! is much more straightforward to use then Brambleboom Seeds. It amplifies damage after use, which gives Petals munion that extra bit of power. The cooldown got increased though, so you won't be able to use it often enough to trick opponents anymore, really. There are four main usages of this ability:

- escaping
- chasing
- repositioning
- amplifying damage

To escape escape or chase, simply tap the trampoline button and tap on your desired destination. Either you move away from your enemy (escaping), or towards your enemy (chasing), it's really that simple.

Repositioning is somewhat harder to do. It's only of use in a teamfight. Repositioning basically means that you jump to a different location in the fighting area from where you can influence the teamgight in an advantageous way. For example, you can jump to the other side of a teamfight, so that your team surrounds the enemy team. This is usually a good position to be in as a team, because you can easily hit the enemy team because they're all clustered up, while they can't hit your team with their own AoE attacks. Only jump to another location if you are sure that you can make use of it; 'repositioning' right into the enemy team will get you killed. Tricking is a form of repositioning where you jump away unexpectedly and without a pattern, so that enemy heroes will have a hard time landing their abilities, but it is of little use now because the cooldown of trampoline got increased.

amplifying damage is really easy to do, you only have to just use Trampoline! It's good to note that you use this while performing one of the actions mentioned before: You use the extra power boost to get the kill when chasing the enemy, you leave an extra powerful seed behind when escaping and you deal extra damage after you positioned yourself to a favorable location to gain the advantage.

Trampoline! can also be used to jump over certain, thin walls. This can lead to awesome escapes, chases and tricks. If you get really creative, you can constantly hop over the wall so that the enemy can't even hit you while you can hit them (over the wall). This works great with flares and an alternating current.


Spontaneous Combustion


Spontaneous Combustion is rather simple to use. Just tapping the ability makes one pet explode, dealing damage and healing your team. It also slows enemy heroes for quite some time, making SC an excellent utility ability. There are a few important things that you should know before you cast this ultimate.


- apply Frostburn to an enemy before casting SC. This prevents enemies from just walking out of the explosion radius.
- Only use this on clustered enemies, to make the most out of the damage. Don't use your ultimate against only one enemy, unless you are sure that you can finish him off.
- The heal can safe you or your teammates, but don't use it to heal up without hitting an enemy with it. That's a complete waste of the damage potential of Spontaneous Combustion.
- If you face characters that can easily mow down your munions, use this ability as soon as possible in a teamfight. You might not be able to make the most out of the heal, but if you lose your pets, you can't use this ability at all.
- Try to wait initiating teamfights until you have three charges up. This allows Petal to deal maximum burst.

I made two different builds for Petal in this guide. The first is for balanced teams in need of a powerful crystal carry. The second is similar to the original build, it focuses more on supporting your lane carry later in the game. Let's break them down.

Ultra kill-all-the-things hyper-carry Petal

With this build, Petal plays like a standard jungle carry, focusing more on damage than on utility. Hyper-carry Petal still has more utility than most other junglers, but at the expensive of tankiness. You should start out with a lot of crystal bits along with boots. After you complete Frostburn, get a tier II defense item. Then build towards a Shatterglass or Broken Myth and from there you can basically build in whatever direction you want.

If you have a favorable jungle matchup, invade the enemy jungle early. Petal is very great at stealing farm. If you managed to kill the enemy jungle duo and steal some farm, put one or two seeds in the pathways and bushes. If you stay close to the seeds, you will have vision over the enemy team, so you can ambush them again, unexpectedly. Be sure to put one seed in the upper tri-bush to block the enemy laner from rotating into the jungle. If you play well, the enemy jungle should be common terrain for you.

In the late game, you should focus on the enemy that can erase your munions the quickest. Remember how to use Trampoline! in a teamfight, and place some random seeds during the teamgight for extra damage. Be sure to land your ultimate, it can really be a game changer.


Supreme annoy-your-foes-to-death utility Petal

This Petal focuses more on team utility and zoning with seeds. She is great on sustain teams with tanky weapon laners such as Joule, Blackfeather or Glaive. If you pair that with a support like Adagio or Phinn, you will have a very solid and tough to crack comp.

In the early game, you should play very similar to the hyper-carry Petal build. Get some crystal power and finish your Frostburn quickly. Then build a Void Battery for energy sustain, and begin building towards a Fountain of Renewal. Use the extra energy sustain to place seeds in the bushes when taking kraken/gold miner, for example. Also get a reflex block, which will be built into a Crucible later on and some more crystal power. Remember to steal as much farm as possible and get some vision in the enemy jungle to gain control over the match.

In the late game, support your lane carry by placing seeds to zone and by using your ultimate and FoR at the right times. Use Spontanious Combustion first, and FoR second. Even though you have less offensive items than you would have with the hyper carry build, you can deal pretty good damage with the damage amplification from Trampoline!, while having enough crystal for your ult heal a significant amount of health. Remember to be annoying. You should place seeds in the way of enemies and jump away just when the jungler thought he had you. Distract the enemies and bait them to kill you so that your lane carry can stay safe.

Frostburn is the reason that Petal's munions are so annoying. It will add damage, and it slows enemies down when hit by your munions. This is great for Petal, because she is generally slow-mowing, so Frostburn allows her to keep up with fleeing enemies. This item is also great when escaping, because your munions will slow the enemy down, giving you time to escape.

Note: has been slightly nerfed in 1.15. It's still just as powerful, but it costs 200 more gold.

Shatterglass adds so much damage to Petal's pets, they will chew on and completely swallow lifebars whole. It also noticeably increases the heal on Spontaneous Combustion. Use this fact to bait enemies when you are low on health. Unleash your ult and Petal will heal back up a large portion of her health.

Petal has all the sustain to gain BM stacks. After Petal has gathered some stacks, her munions become really scary. The shield pierce that Broken Myth provides is almost necessary to deal damage if the enemy team starts building shield. On the hyper carry build, BM should be your second tier III item. On the utility build, get Shatterglass instead.

Alternating Current makes Petal not completely reliant on her munions by giving her basic attack a crystal ratio. As such, get this if you are facing characters that can easily kill your munions, Skye and Rona in particular. AC-boosted basic attacks also apply frostburn slow, which makes Petal so good at kiting, and it has good synergy with Petal's perk.

Note: it's now really powerful thanks to the Trampoline! buff. Get this item when fighting characters that can easily kill your munions.

Aftershock has strong synergy with Petal's kit. Petal can proc Aftershock often because her seeds and Trampoline! don't have a long cooldown. Don't spam your seeds though! you will quickly run out of charges. Aftershock-boosted basic attacks also hit pretty hard and they apply frostburn, which makes Petal so great at kiting. AS is best against enemies with high health

Note: AS is less usuful now because the 'BP Tank meta' is gone with the nerf of BP. If the enemy team is not very tanky, don't get this item. Also, only consider this item on the utility Petal build.

On the utility build, Clockwork can be a good item to actually be able to spam your seeds for once. You can use them to set up traps, zoning the enemy. This is a great way to prevent the enemy to come close to you while taking the gold miner for example. Clockwork also helps with more frequent heals, and the ability to bait enemies with the combination of Petals low health and a low cooldown on trampoline!

Mid to late game Petal can be played more as a semi-support carry, so adding yet another heal complements her role. Between Spontaneous Combustion and Fountain of Renewal, Petal and her allies are very hard to take down with sustained damage. This item also grants some nice defensive stats, in particular shield.

A Reflex Block is a mandatory item on nearly every character. If you time it well, a Reflex Block can safe you from abilities like Helfire Brew, Merciless Pursuit and Gauntlet. Upgrade into an Aegis when against crystal-heavy teams; upgrade into a crucible when going against balanced teams.

Poop your seeds everywhere. This item is really useful for Petal since it remedies Petal´s energy problems. It has a super long sprint and some cooldown reduction for trampoline which makes kiting easier. be sure to not get it too early on, crystal power is more important for the munions.

A couple of patches ago, Metal Jacket was a bad item, but with it's buff, and the nerf to Bonesaw, it's finally a reliable item to defend against heavy-weapon and crit characters. If the enemy team mostly relies on weapon power, get this item. Use Fountain of Renewal + Crucible against balanced teams.

Potions are very important for Petal, especially in the early to mid-game. They replenish health and energy, so it's a good idea to have some potions in reserve for when you run out of seed charges. Don't go overboard and buy tons of potions, they still cost gold. Potions are best used right before, or during, a teamfight.

This is where I would put a link to Petal's hero spotligh...

IF SHE HAD ONE!

Notice my creep score in this game. I got a cs of 120, even though I wasn't the laner. Ardan and I literally dominated the jungle, we stole almost all creeps at the enemy jungle. Petal has a great early game and her munions are great for stealing farm, so try to gain an early advantage and snowball through the game.



In this game, I built an Aftershock to counter Ardan's and Glaive's high health. The enemy didn't buy a lot of shield, so a or BM wasn't really needed. It also allowed me to use Spontanious combustion a lot more often, which kept the team healthy.



An example of the utility side of Petal. I built like a carry in the early game, so the enemy started building lots of shield. Later on they noticed that Vox was really putting his weight during teamfights, Blackfeather even sold his Kinetic Shield to make room for a Coat of Plates. Because Petal is so squishy, she is really great at baiting enemies to kill her while your laner dishes the damage out.

Can't stop editing!
5-11-2015 - Guide Published!
6-11-2015 - Added threat meter and an explanation for all the items
7-11-2015 - Added a breaking point to the build, and added a pros and cons sections


The guide is really shaping up now!
11-11-2015 - Added an elaborate ability section, and changed the item layout.
11-19-2015 - Updated for 1.11
19-11-2015 - Added some example screenshot
19-2-2016 - updated for 1.14 (removed BP from the build, added Ozo threat, some other minor changes)
24-2-2016 - changed the build example to make it more versatile, added skin section.
28-2-2016 - updated the threat meter (it was outdated), changed skill point order.
26-6-2016 - updated for 1.19
4-3-2016 - updated for 1.15.
9-3-2016 - added halcyon potion to the item section. some other small changes (spelling errors fixed).
31-3-2016 - updated for 1.16
1-08-2016 - updated for 1.20

I will continue to update it when new patches get released. Please, if you found this guide helpful, consider to give an upvote or leave a comment. I would really appreciate that. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

Thank you so much for reading!

- Magnus0