Alliance War Season 19: Updates to Path Identities and New Nodes! [ June 30]

Summoners,

After his defeat at the hands of the Summoner and Carina, the Grandmaster has been an elder without a calling. Despite the problems and conflicts that the Grandmaster and The Collector have caused, they are still Carina’s family, and she loves them very much.

Instead of banishing them to a far off land, she’s worked with her council to create a plan to keep the two of them busy, and out of trouble.

The Universal Gamesman

Carina knows that a game with changing rulesets and unpredictable pieces is the perfect distraction to keep En Dwi Gast out of trouble. Under her supervision, The Grandmaster will transform Alliance Wars into his tournament, where he seeks the strongest Alliances every season to crown as his victors!

Recreating the Battlefield

The Grandmaster has never been shy about wanting to mould the Contest to his vision, and making sure his presence is noticed. He’ll be starting with the Maps on which you fight.

So first, we’re going to take a look at the new Nodes, Path Identities, and Layouts of the Grandmaster’s New Maps. All Map Changes will take effect on June 24th!

New Maps

First, we've got 2 Brand New Maps! One for Alliances playing on Easy and Normal, and one for Alliances playing on Intermediate, Hard, Challenger, and Expert. If you'd like to take a closer look, we've attached the High-Resolution versions of these maps to this post.

These new more simplified Maps eliminate Portals and bring the entire Battlegroup back together and key points throughout the Map.

Easy and Normal:

Intermediate, Hard, Challenger, and Expert:

New Local Nodes

The Grandmaster has crafted the following nodes for Alliances on the Intermediate, Hard, Challenger, or Expert Maps.

Path Identities

If you like to plan ahead, the Grandmaster is happy to provide you with a list of all buffs on all nodes across the Maps. There are lots to look at, so we've attached the lists of Nodes in the next post.

Matchmaking Updates

The Grandmaster wants to ensure that his tournament stays as competitive as possible. To do so, he is updating the parameters of Matchmaking. Matchmaking will now emphasize your Alliance's War Rating above all else. This will ensure that Alliances vying for the crown will be competing against other top Alliances.

This will be a big adjustment for a lot of Alliances. Currently, many Alliances are either have an inflated War Rating or a Deflated War rating due to the current system. To expedite the process of Alliances finding their "true" War Rating, we will be reducing every Alliance's War Rating by 50%. This will affect every Alliance in-game and will accelerate the rate at which Alliance's find their true position faster because of the concentrated War Ratings of all Alliances.

The Change to Matchmaking and the War Rating reduction will occur on July 8th.

What's Next?

There's still so much to reveal about Season 19 and beyond. Next week, we'll cover:
- Reward Changes
- Defense Tactics and Attack Tactics
- Alliance War Solo Events

Remember, Alliance Wars Season 19 Starts on July 7th, and there will be no war starting on July 5th!

Stay tuned for more information on everything else about Season 19!

Comments

RC51

@Kabam Miike, some issues w/ linked nodes:

Makes sense:
10/11/12 links to 19
13/14/15 links to 20
16/17/18 links to 21

Makes no sense:
36,37,38 links to 45
39,40,41 links to 46
42,43,44 links to 47
49,52,53 links to the Boss

52 looks like the boss node.

I mocked up a more straight-forward map than the off-kilter one y'all like to use. This is without any links visible since the last four you listed were confusing.

And are 39, 46, and 47 Hidden? Because 45, 46, and 47 being hidden doesn't make sense, according to the original map you posted.

Greywarden

I don't understand why hidden nodes/paths are still a thing. You admitted it was poor design on the old map and took it away from all but two paths where only 1 person could theoretically handle it. Now with this new map you are making it so at least 3 people in every bg need to run scouter lens lol am I missing something?

Grub

What steps are you taking to make it fair for all alliances fighting for top 3 and masters? It’s currently all random and luck of the draw what alliances end up facing each other.

There should be no rematches in masters. All alliances should have to play each other equally in order for the results to actually be fair. It’s shouldn’t just be a few alliances beating up on each other over and over while other alliances can slide in without facing the same opponents.

As it currently stands, if you are just taking war rating into account, you are saying all the top alliances will just keep fighting over and over. How is that fair with the current tiered reward system in place?

DNA3000

RE: This will be a big adjustment for a lot of Alliances. Currently, many Alliances are either have an inflated War Rating or a Deflated War rating due to the current system. To expedite the process of Alliances finding their "true" War Rating, we will be reducing every Alliance's War Rating by 50%. This will affect every Alliance in-game and will accelerate the rate at which Alliance's find their true position faster because of the concentrated War Ratings of all Alliances.

Can @Kabam Miike explain if this mean that we are all going to t15 for example and we will slowly build to T1, or the new T1 cutoff for example will be 1600-1700 rating and etc?

The tier cutoffs are based on the relative ranking of alliances, so dividing every alliance's rating by two should not change anyone's tier. The *order* of the alliances would be preserved. #1 would still be #1, etc.

Reducing every alliance's rating by two does two things mathematically. First, the relative change in rating for wins and losses becomes proportionately higher. Gaining 60 points of rating jumps you X places higher today, it will jump you more places when everyone's ratings are lower. And second, more alliances are "in range" of match making because all ratings are now closer. If they try to find a match for you within 100 rating points, say, there will now be twice as many alliances in that range than now.

So I think they are trying to eliminate some of the "stratification" in the ratings by matching more alliances with each other by war rating, and then they want wins and losses to rearrange alliances into a new pecking order as quickly as possible.

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Greywarden

Just get rid of the hidden nodes. Now multiple players have to run scouter lense
I don't personally mind hidden nodes, the hidden path on the current map was one of the easiest lanes if you brought in a utility team - CaptIW, Domino and someone for the minis like SS, helped if I found someone like annihalus too

has nothing to do with current hidden path(s) being easy or difficult. Imo it has to do with the fact that now scouter lens needs to be run by at least 33% of every alliance with this new map. Should be removing stress and mastery requirements instead of adding them on...

Gamer

There should be no hidden nodes. Why? Because multiple alliances use mods to see the hidden nodes which gives them an advantage over the rest of the community that chooses to play this game cleanly.
It not a mods it a bots so one it not a mods neither it hack.
Easy way round that is what they do in higher tiers. You cant see the PI or class. I used the bot until I got into higher tier war and it removed the class - I wasnt wasting mastery setups on finding out the class - so I'd go in blind. The nodes on hidden champs are generally easier.

Delta I’m well aware I’m generally don’t hate it but this war map do the completely op since of what ther told in the road map more sters.

Markjv81

This looks worse than the current map! Those reward changes and attack tactics better be something else.

RagamugginGunner

This looks horrible.

winterthur

My question is what's going to stop Tanking and manipulating War Rating off-season? It's not just Tiers 1-5 that do it.

Not addressing the tanking issue, rather whether a new alliance formed by Summoners (all level 60 for illustration purpose) should not start with zero war rating or not placed at the lowest tiers.

Grub

There should be no hidden nodes. Why? Because multiple alliances use mods to see the hidden nodes which gives them an advantage over the rest of the community that chooses to play this game cleanly.
It not a mods it a bots so one it not a mods neither it hack.
Easy way round that is what they do in higher tiers. You cant see the PI or class. I used the bot until I got into higher tier war and it removed the class - I wasnt wasting mastery setups on finding out the class - so I'd go in blind. The nodes on hidden champs are generally easier.

I’m not talking about the scouter lens bot.

Alliances can see the nodes prior to entering the war with a team.

Like I said, it’s a clear violation of the game.

Gamer

There should be no hidden nodes. Why? Because multiple alliances use mods to see the hidden nodes which gives them an advantage over the rest of the community that chooses to play this game cleanly.
It not a mods it a bots so one it not a mods neither it hack.
Easy way round that is what they do in higher tiers. You cant see the PI or class. I used the bot until I got into higher tier war and it removed the class - I wasnt wasting mastery setups on finding out the class - so I'd go in blind. The nodes on hidden champs are generally easier.
I’m not talking about the scouter lens bot.

Alliances can see the nodes prior to entering the war with a team.

Like I said, it’s a clear violation of the game.

No it a mastry ther doing it so u can se the class the use the bots to told u who it it

Gamer

There should be no hidden nodes. Why? Because multiple alliances use mods to see the hidden nodes which gives them an advantage over the rest of the community that chooses to play this game cleanly.
It not a mods it a bots so one it not a mods neither it hack.
Easy way round that is what they do in higher tiers. You cant see the PI or class. I used the bot until I got into higher tier war and it removed the class - I wasnt wasting mastery setups on finding out the class - so I'd go in blind. The nodes on hidden champs are generally easier.
I’m not talking about the scouter lens bot.

Alliances can see the nodes prior to entering the war with a team.

Like I said, it’s a clear violation of the game.
No it a mastry ther doing it so u can se the class the use the bots to told u who it it

And if what u saying is try Giv proff of it

RogerRabs

The potion/boost systems are still huge cost sinks for AW. From what I can see, this does nothing to address that. The glory based potions need a massive update. The new unit based potions did nothing to help non-whale players.

Kahrahtay

This is like t.o.s.

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ExHavok

node 52 is the boss ? It seems 55 is more likely the boss because it has %700 health boost,but in the map 55 is a mini boss, is there something wrong in maps ?

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Gamer

@Gamer That wasnt aimed at you, I just couldnt be asked to go back and find the comment before since I'm at work.

@Grub what are you on about? Theres a mastery which tells you what class. In lower tiers I believe you can see the PI of the champions. You use to be able to feed the tier, class and PI into a bot and it'd tell you who it was most the time. Higher tiers you cant see that so you cant guess.

If you want to run that setup then its up to you, I've never used it personally, very few people I know actually use that mastery. The AW before that had a lot more blind nodes - I get why people don't like not knowing what they're fighting. But if its a choice between blind on an easy node, or a visible on a hard node.. I know what I'd chose.

Nodes dont seem too bad, yes theres a few annoying match ups. A lot will be helped if theres no timer - which will likely be taken away or made stupidly long to stop the Corvus time out trick.

We need to give kabam a chance to actually implement everything. If something doesnt work, we say - they try fix it. Look at the Aegis fights last season, they were overpowered, they nerfed them.

Before trying to lynch them, we need to let them try and fix it. I'm not saying forgive the past. I'm saying let them try and sort the game out without being screamed at every step of the way. We've hardly heard anything yet. Lets see what they say as it comes out. Try things out and then, if you want to scream, scream - I'll probably be screaming with everyone too.

Anyone in my old alliance will tell you how much I HATE alliance war, I want to give it a chance.

Since I’m played with u for arund 6 mouch u didn’t hates AW u just didn’t like the stress it com with and all that’s oh u dies u dumb and all that’s with wasn’t great either ikow Ikow u. Stil jelly of that rank3 covus u hav

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bpunk88

Looks like war is going from 'not fun' to downright annoying. Def not planning to be competitive in war anymore, rewards will never be worth it to me.

Also, that blue background is very loud. Hopefully they tone that down before it goes live

Stellar

Sounds great !

Why cut the alliance war rating in half ? I can't see the utility of this

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Masterpuff

This looks no better. There are so many opportunities for horrible placement. However this is better. A start- and any node that has “90% less” is bs, so maybe stop doing them?

Kabam Miike

Hey everybody, there was some erroneous information in the Path Identities. The Buffs were correct, but the node numbers were wrong. This has been corrected now.

Gamer

Hey everybody, there was some erroneous information in the Path Identities. The Buffs were correct, but the node numbers were wrong. This has been corrected now.

Stil so confusing for me but that wil changes over time I’m Hav one question timer one aW figth Wil it stil be 3 minutes because I’m kind wil like it changes to fx 8 minutes so u can hav a relived for a few sek so I don’t rush in. To a itersup. Because of the time is catching op to u. Just like to ikow didn’t we any thing abudt it so if it has ben cover then sorry

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Greywarden

Hey everybody, there was some erroneous information in the Path Identities. The Buffs were correct, but the node numbers were wrong. This has been corrected now.

Was hidden nodes being spread out across the map thus needing multiple people to use scouter lens an error too?

One of the biggest gripes of the old map was hidden defenders. Current iteration kept it to two paths and now it’s being spread out? Rationale?

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