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

Gamer

@DoubleDelta Life transfer would never work. Place warlock over there and you cant counter it.

U really can. But wil need to be a covus you’re wil ofcasse not get helling in the end or use venom who wil simepl. Do so the infecting do’s not last that long do you so many buff

RC51

On the Easy and Normal Maps:
Nodes 13 and 14 Link to 19, 15 and 16 link to 20, 17 and 18 link to 21, 38 and 39 link to 44, 40 and 41 link to 45, and 42 and 43 link to 46. Finally, 48, 51, and 52 Link to the Boss.

On the Intermediate, Hard, Challenger, and Expert Maps:
Nodes 10,11,12 link to 19, Nodes 13,14,15 link to 20, Nodes 16,17,18 link to 21, 36,37,38 link to 45, 39,40,41 link to 46, 42,43,44 link to 47, and 49,52,53 Link to the Boss.

You do not have to take any fights linked this time.

There is no hidden path anymore, but Nodes 19,20,21,45,46,47 are hidden.

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.

Buuuut @Kabam Miike...your post at the bottom of page 1 stayed the same. My question still stands.

The linked nodes make 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).

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.

pseudosane

@DoubleDelta Life transfer would never work. Place warlock over there and you cant counter it.
Champs with lots of unique buffs would do fine

Venom and hyperion being the only ones really usable.... and not a good option on flow. Corvus with multicharges as well. Depending on how you place the lanes before, you can counter these champs.

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Gamer

@DoubleDelta Life transfer would never work. Place warlock over there and you cant counter it.
Champs with lots of unique buffs would do fine
Venom and hyperion being the only ones really usable.... and not a good option on flow. Corvus with multicharges as well. Depending on how you place the lanes before, you can counter these champs.

Hype wont count it need to be unique buff

Gamer

@DoubleDelta Life transfer would never work. Place warlock over there and you cant counter it.
Champs with lots of unique buffs would do fine
Venom and hyperion being the only ones really usable.... and not a good option on flow. Corvus with multicharges as well. Depending on how you place the lanes before, you can counter these champs.
Hype wont count it need to be unique buff

Wil like to said u can use covus for the first 15 hit and he shuld probably be dead anyway so just many options.

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AlexBossu

Well, I am a guy who is always against kabam money grabbing ideas and come on the forum only for negative feedback.

But the aw is not a single player content. You are fighting against other alliances. Ofc there should be difficult nodes. If everybody goes 100% and 0 kills , how would you make the difference?

This is not on Kabam. This is on people who are spending like crazy. You want to win everytime? Pay.

Sure that tactics sucks and hard/impossible to compensate only with skill. But those tricky nodes are supposed to see who is smarter on placement and skillful and organized in attack.
Did you read their roadmap? Or what the player base has been saying about war? War is supposed to be competitive. Not flat out item-throwing contest. People who pay, pay for champs and to get through regular content. That's up to them. Doesn't mean that Kabam can throw whatever garbage they want as nodes and you blame the paying players.

Ofc I am reading. AW,as it is now, up to t6, you can finish it with 0 deaths. Only boss may require boosts, not to timeout (assuming that you alliance is organized and having a wide diversity of champs, not only corvus).

You want to win with full exploration? Spend.
You want to put the boss down with less items? Quit exploration.
Do you think you are so skilled and smart and you can win everything? Wake up.

joke1004

Will there be a big overhaul of defense tactics?
Cause with the new map, some node combinations with the current ones could be hard roadblocks...

Broncs2

So happy they put this out before July 4th. Zero QOL changes made and proves the changes will not be what we hoped they would be on the rest of the content. Thank you for saving me a lot of money on July 4th

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KnightZero

Well, I am a guy who is always against kabam money grabbing ideas and come on the forum only for negative feedback.

But the aw is not a single player content. You are fighting against other alliances. Ofc there should be difficult nodes. If everybody goes 100% and 0 kills , how would you make the difference?

This is not on Kabam. This is on people who are spending like crazy. You want to win everytime? Pay.

Sure that tactics sucks and hard/impossible to compensate only with skill. But those tricky nodes are supposed to see who is smarter on placement and skillful and organized in attack.
Did you read their roadmap? Or what the player base has been saying about war? War is supposed to be competitive. Not flat out item-throwing contest. People who pay, pay for champs and to get through regular content. That's up to them. Doesn't mean that Kabam can throw whatever garbage they want as nodes and you blame the paying players.
Ofc I am reading. AW,as it is now, up to t6, you can finish it with 0 deaths. Only boss may require boosts, not to timeout (assuming that you alliance is organized and having a wide diversity of champs, not only corvus).

You want to win with full exploration? Spend.
You want to put the boss down with less items? Quit exploration.
Do you think you are so skilled and smart and you can win everything? Wake up.

Well I think you should read again. They said they wanted to make it less stressful. This doesn't do that. Even though many alliances may not go for 100%, doesn't make the fights you take easier. Also, the nodes at T6 are nothing. Looks at the nodes the higher folks have to at with. Everyone spends in order to reduce deaths. Be it in units/glory for potions or loyalty/units for boosts. Get of your high horse lol. Think about the entire player base. Not everyone is a player who can pay. They don't have to make the nodes/war such that it comes to that if you want good rewards. This isn't an offer. It's a game mode.

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AlexBossu

Well, I am a guy who is always against kabam money grabbing ideas and come on the forum only for negative feedback.

But the aw is not a single player content. You are fighting against other alliances. Ofc there should be difficult nodes. If everybody goes 100% and 0 kills , how would you make the difference?

This is not on Kabam. This is on people who are spending like crazy. You want to win everytime? Pay.

Sure that tactics sucks and hard/impossible to compensate only with skill. But those tricky nodes are supposed to see who is smarter on placement and skillful and organized in attack.
Did you read their roadmap? Or what the player base has been saying about war? War is supposed to be competitive. Not flat out item-throwing contest. People who pay, pay for champs and to get through regular content. That's up to them. Doesn't mean that Kabam can throw whatever garbage they want as nodes and you blame the paying players.
Ofc I am reading. AW,as it is now, up to t6, you can finish it with 0 deaths. Only boss may require boosts, not to timeout (assuming that you alliance is organized and having a wide diversity of champs, not only corvus).

You want to win with full exploration? Spend.
You want to put the boss down with less items? Quit exploration.
Do you think you are so skilled and smart and you can win everything? Wake up.
Well I think you should read again. They said they wanted to make it less stressful. This doesn't do that. Even though many alliances may not go for 100%, doesn't make the fights you take easier. Also, the nodes at T6 are nothing. Looks at the nodes the higher folks have to at with. Everyone spends in order to reduce deaths. Be it in units/glory for potions or loyalty/units for boosts. Get of your high horse lol. Think about the entire player base. Not everyone is a player who can pay. They don't have to make the nodes/war such that it comes to that if you want good rewards. This isn't an offer. It's a game mode.

That s the problem. Go for exploration as much as you can afford. People are spending like this because they think the rewards are so valuable.

My alliance is bouncing between t5 and t6. We win at t6. T5 is not worthy reward/effort. We put the bosses down, take the points and bye bye t5.

Gold1 with 0 items. We consider further is not worthy.

I repeat my opinion: it is not kabam's fault for making the map stronger. They need to differentiate the alliances. If people consider breaking their glory and units on aw, it is their choice.

SwatU

Well, after few seasons of AW my alliance is exhausted. Most players want a break, because flow wars were terrible. We started in master tier after first three wars and finished in first place of platinum 3. Recipe for this was easy - give us few wars against alliances with rating 20 million more than our. I love my alliance, ppl that are here, we built it from zero.

After seeing roadmap I became optimistic one more time, I started to convicing ppl to stay in ally and keep enjoing this game. And then I see details of wars change. Refreshed map - teleports are gone (thanks, I wanted to go retire cuz of these teleports' presence), new terrible nodes added and minibosses are hidden. I stopped convicing my members to stay. Is that really how improving game should looks like? I believe this is chance to step back and rework it like You stepped back with act 7. Otherwise I am afraid that many ppl won't be able to see further changes, because will leave game earlier. Don't take it like that players are always complaint and are never happy - if many ppl tell You that Your way of changes is not making game better, You can't discuss with these feelings (You won't convice me that I am enjoying wars but I just don't know that, like You can't convice me that I feel good taste of food I don't prefer). My perspective is friendly advice, ofc it is Your choice if You listen and step back or not.

Saying all that - few general things I think would make community more happy with changes:
1) shorter war seasons, or/and longer offseasons;
2) reduce number of paths to 7-8, many players are taking break for whole season because can't participate for few wars due to real like activities; + one emergency absence and whole team suffer; optionally increase limit of alliance members;
3) rework nodes, Kiryu made many videos about these which are enjoyable, You can use them;
4) Mastery setup changes for free, it is players' choice whether they want to use suicides or not. But using suicides can make benefit placement only on few nodes. When suicide users have to use units to change mastery setup for every placement, or are pushed to not use suicides whole season, it is problem; in alliance we had a lot of unecessary thoughts whom to allow use suicides and whom not. I feel that we could not look fair after all, which - again - is negative feeling;
5) boosts, potions and revives should be more available and cheaper;
6) and one more thing - dexterity should not give attacker precision buff anymore. There are nodes like spite or defenders like Mojo and Dormamu. I am not saying that they shouldn't have ability to punish You for triggering buff (If You bring Star-Lords or Hyperions against them, You are propably not expert and if You not learn from this experience, You shouldn't complain that became punished), but necessity of switching off dexterity every war when I see Mojo mini or boss is not nice at all. You can erase this point if You fulfil point 4) hereabove stated.

Ofc one can say, if You don't like wars don't play them. But for many players wars are purpose of other stuff. I see sense of alliance quests only when I can get more resources for wars' purpose (especially that I hava almost every endgame content completed and once I do 100% abyss soon, it will be main entertainment).

Greetings,
SwatU~

Chrisco66

This looks to me like a step in the wrong direction. Everything in the road map looks promising except this. Please rework & rethink this

Almccarthy

Can someone please tell me 1 counter to darkhawk on eb and flow knockdown.
I dont think any champion can beat that within 3 minutes.
@Kabam Miike

Amadeo01

This looks to me like a step in the wrong direction. Everything in the road map looks promising except this. Please rework & rethink this

Well that is actually the main concern (for me anyway). Everything sounded extremely promising in the roadmap, including the idea of AW being revamped to reduce stress...etc. But then the details come out and it's just jaw-dropping how opposite it is to what was presented in the roadmap. We don't know if this is the same thing that will happen once more details drop for the other pieces of the roadmap.

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Ultimatheory

Can someone please tell me 1 counter to darkhawk on eb and flow knockdown.
I dont think any champion can beat that within 3 minutes.
@Kabam Miike

Void and Torch would work. Not everyone is probably going to give counters when asked though as part of new AW is being able to figure out these counters as an alliance and using it to beat other alliances initially.

There are plenty of other more worrying combinations tbh though. Darkhawk on Ebb and Flow would be annoying but manageable but some of the other combos will be downright almost impossible.

AlexBossu

Still remember the AW iteration when hardly any alliance outside t1 was finishing the full map. Talking about the map with slashed tires etc. It was ok for middle tier alliances to just do 6 paths and rest was bonus territory.

Then it changed and 100% became easier and now alliances are mentally programmed to 100%. AW is as difficult as you want it to be. You just have to find the right alliance for your level (in terms of skill and money).

Yeah. Basically the inflation of difficulty is because of spenders. Everybody stop spending and let the aw be based only on skill. The rewards will be much more worthy.

It is like that cats bundle when you pull a new 5*. Is worthy? No. But you guys are still spending like crazy in aw

And i am not talking about flow, which really is a money grab tactic.

KnightZero

Still remember the AW iteration when hardly any alliance outside t1 was finishing the full map. Talking about the map with slashed tires etc. It was ok for middle tier alliances to just do 6 paths and rest was bonus territory.

Then it changed and 100% became easier and now alliances are mentally programmed to 100%. AW is as difficult as you want it to be. You just have to find the right alliance for your level (in terms of skill and money).

But with rewards being buffed, dropping down just increases the gap between people willing to pay and those who aren't. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a gap, because obviously they're willing to spend money, but increasing the gap day by day just makes it worse.

Greywarden

@Kabam Miike I've been putting up a few comments about how now every bg will need more people to run scouter lens because of more hidden nodes which still baffles me but what is being done for officer/leadership burnout? So many groups just call it quits because organizing all of this stuff is too much no matter what the rewards are.

Mcord11758

Still remember the AW iteration when hardly any alliance outside t1 was finishing the full map. Talking about the map with slashed tires etc. It was ok for middle tier alliances to just do 6 paths and rest was bonus territory.

Then it changed and 100% became easier and now alliances are mentally programmed to 100%. AW is as difficult as you want it to be. You just have to find the right alliance for your level (in terms of skill and money).

That fight was one node tucked in the far right corner that did not link or road block anything. Same for node 29 in the other iteration. If what we were looking at was one fight or maybe even 2 or 3 that could measure the commitment to win or lose and would still not impact completing the map, I would agree with your point. This is not that. I don’t think your point is fair here

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pseudosane

Still remember the AW iteration when hardly any alliance outside t1 was finishing the full map. Talking about the map with slashed tires etc. It was ok for middle tier alliances to just do 6 paths and rest was bonus territory.

Then it changed and 100% became easier and now alliances are mentally programmed to 100%. AW is as difficult as you want it to be. You just have to find the right alliance for your level (in terms of skill and money).

This was before seasons...AW was not remotely competitive as it is today.

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Almccarthy

Can someone please tell me 1 counter to darkhawk on eb and flow knockdown.
I dont think any champion can beat that within 3 minutes.
@Kabam Miike
Void and Torch would work. Not everyone is probably going to give counters when asked though as part of new AW is being able to figure out these counters as an alliance and using it to beat other alliances initially.

There are plenty of other more worrying combinations tbh though. Darkhawk on Ebb and Flow would be annoying but manageable but some of the other combos will be downright almost impossible.

No they wouldn't read the node, every debuff gets removed every time protection activates. Yes they could do it but not in 3 mins

Stagedear85

Make war no items allowed if the goal is to not let people finish so there is no stress at least on finishing. When you die you die your done

Good idea , however Kabam do make a lot of money on AW check these top Alliances vid on units spent, they dont go into fights with less than 80% health for example say you're in a master alliance between changing Mastery and always making sure your champs health is top and boost war can be expensive some alliance average about 2k unit per member each season now some grind for those units which require time, there's a saying time is money and some actually spend so lets say you spend 50$ per season and thats x 30 (members per alliance ) thats $1,500 per season for the entire alliance, so i dont think Kabam will get rid of items for AW but i do love the idea.