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

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DustinH2O

@Kabam Miike @Kabam Zibiit @Kabam Vydious @Kabam Porthos @Kabam Lyra

Hi @ all,

we are a team called J.A.R.V.I.S. and we are working for the German Community.

Is there a possibility to get the new nodes of AW in German please for our community?

We are working together with @Cat_Murdock to create the AW Map with German node descriptions. As support for the German Community.

It will be very helpful for us.

Thank you in advance

Eleven Elfi from J.A.R.V.I.S.

GroundedWisdom

If you want top war rewards you need to grow your account and join a strong alliance.
You cant expect top
War rewards by not growing your account and joining a low alliance.
The game is all about growing your accounts.
@GroundedWisdom why dont you do what you keep saying you are going to do because it is clear you are out of touch with the community as the vast majority of players know the system is wrong and needs to be changed. what is being done is good.

Problem with these war announcments is the nodes. The matchmaking system changes are long overdue.

Saying I'm out of touch with the community doesn't change the effect of what's being done. If I had a choice of being in touch with the community or doing what's best for it, I'd choose what's best. You keep asserting Rewards are the issue, but I already said that could be dealt with. People think the Matchmaking is the issue. Yet they complain about even Matches and Nodes. You think they're going to do better with mismatches and the same Nodes? I'm not the one that's out of touch.

And matchmaking based on war rating will result in fair matches eventually, prestige based matchmaking wasn’t fun or fair for anyone past a certain prestige point, my alliance crossed that point and paid the price massively, we aren’t a top dog alliance, there’s several that haven’t even finished exploring act 5, less than half have got past 6.1, and yet 80-90% of our opponents for 2 straight seasons were alliances in which everyone had beaten act 6.

The adjustment period will, imo, be 2 weeks at most, maybe more for those that are at like plat 1 level when they shouldn’t be, but those losing at that level will earn more points from their loss than others did with their wins anyway.

It's not just going to be a few people getting knocked down. It's going to affect more than just them. I don't know why you keep thinking they'll get these large consolation Points, but that won't be the case. Season 19 is going to be ruined for a lot of people.

Mr_Platypus

If you want top war rewards you need to grow your account and join a strong alliance.
You cant expect top
War rewards by not growing your account and joining a low alliance.
The game is all about growing your accounts.
@GroundedWisdom why dont you do what you keep saying you are going to do because it is clear you are out of touch with the community as the vast majority of players know the system is wrong and needs to be changed. what is being done is good.

Problem with these war announcments is the nodes. The matchmaking system changes are long overdue.
Saying I'm out of touch with the community doesn't change the effect of what's being done. If I had a choice of being in touch with the community or doing what's best for it, I'd choose what's best. You keep asserting Rewards are the issue, but I already said that could be dealt with. People think the Matchmaking is the issue. Yet they complain about even Matches and Nodes. You think they're going to do better with mismatches and the same Nodes? I'm not the one that's out of touch.
And matchmaking based on war rating will result in fair matches eventually, prestige based matchmaking wasn’t fun or fair for anyone past a certain prestige point, my alliance crossed that point and paid the price massively, we aren’t a top dog alliance, there’s several that haven’t even finished exploring act 5, less than half have got past 6.1, and yet 80-90% of our opponents for 2 straight seasons were alliances in which everyone had beaten act 6.

The adjustment period will, imo, be 2 weeks at most, maybe more for those that are at like plat 1 level when they shouldn’t be, but those losing at that level will earn more points from their loss than others did with their wins anyway.
It's not just going to be a few people getting knocked down. It's going to affect more than just them. I don't know why you keep thinking they'll get these large consolation Points, but that won't be the case. Season 19 is going to be ruined for a lot of people.

Yeah it’s going to be a lot of people going to a tier where all fights are even, would it be better if this adjustment is done in the off season? Of course but you’d be the first to complain that someone would abuse that by tanking so that’s not an option. I’m sorry if you get affected negatively by this but it’s got to happen for the new system to start working correctly.
Season 19 is ruined for some, I disagree, unenjoyable perhaps? Maybe but they’ll still rank decently if these alliances play what they’re dealt correctly, ie rush the boss to maximise points that will be multiplied by 6, 7 or even 8x depending on their tier.

GroundedWisdom

If you want top war rewards you need to grow your account and join a strong alliance.
You cant expect top
War rewards by not growing your account and joining a low alliance.
The game is all about growing your accounts.
@GroundedWisdom why dont you do what you keep saying you are going to do because it is clear you are out of touch with the community as the vast majority of players know the system is wrong and needs to be changed. what is being done is good.

Problem with these war announcments is the nodes. The matchmaking system changes are long overdue.
Saying I'm out of touch with the community doesn't change the effect of what's being done. If I had a choice of being in touch with the community or doing what's best for it, I'd choose what's best. You keep asserting Rewards are the issue, but I already said that could be dealt with. People think the Matchmaking is the issue. Yet they complain about even Matches and Nodes. You think they're going to do better with mismatches and the same Nodes? I'm not the one that's out of touch.
And matchmaking based on war rating will result in fair matches eventually, prestige based matchmaking wasn’t fun or fair for anyone past a certain prestige point, my alliance crossed that point and paid the price massively, we aren’t a top dog alliance, there’s several that haven’t even finished exploring act 5, less than half have got past 6.1, and yet 80-90% of our opponents for 2 straight seasons were alliances in which everyone had beaten act 6.

The adjustment period will, imo, be 2 weeks at most, maybe more for those that are at like plat 1 level when they shouldn’t be, but those losing at that level will earn more points from their loss than others did with their wins anyway.
It's not just going to be a few people getting knocked down. It's going to affect more than just them. I don't know why you keep thinking they'll get these large consolation Points, but that won't be the case. Season 19 is going to be ruined for a lot of people.
Yeah it’s going to be a lot of people going to a tier where all fights are even, would it be better if this adjustment is done in the off season? Of course but you’d be the first to complain that someone would abuse that by tanking so that’s not an option. I’m sorry if you get affected negatively by this but it’s got to happen for the new system to start working correctly.
Season 19 is ruined for some, I disagree, unenjoyable perhaps? Maybe but they’ll still rank decently if these alliances play what they’re dealt correctly, ie rush the boss to maximise points that will be multiplied by 6, 7 or even 8x depending on their tier.

Sorry I get affected negatively isn't the point. The point is it's going to affect many people negatively during the Season, where every War counts. You seem to have some kind of Eutopian idea that everything will balance out magically, but that won't be the case. It's going to be a #### show for at least 3-4 weeks.

GroundedWisdom

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.

Mr_Platypus

The old system also affected many negatively, not just the top lot, it pushed my alliance down 3 tiers as we matched platinum targeting alliances time after time, week after week.

Prestige based matchmaking, is terrible, alliance rating based matchmaking is even worse and that’s that, i welcome the change, not out of spite for those that benefitted, but because it’ll result in a fairer system where building your alliance strength isn’t punished if skills don’t advance at a faster rate than your prestige.

GroundedWisdom

I see. So because you didn't win against stronger Allies, you want people to fight grossly stronger Allies just to move yourself up.

Kpatrix

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.

Do you even realize how hypocritical you are being ? So it’s ok for higher tier alliances to be forced to go season after season dropping ranks slogging it out very hard matchups where 1 kill or 1 diversity decides who wins or loses, but it’s not ok to fix the system so it’s fair ???

Stop and think before you keep ranting please. You want fair, then let it be fair. No more over or under inflated war ratings being matched solely on prestige. Skill will prevail for the players who rose to the top of ratings again, and all will be fine.

unknown

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GroundedWisdom

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.
Do you even realize how hypocritical you are being ? So it’s ok for higher tier alliances to be forced to go season after season dropping ranks slogging it out very hard matchups where 1 kill or 1 diversity decides who wins or loses, but it’s not ok to fix the system so it’s fair ???

Stop and think before you keep ranting please. You want fair, then let it be fair. No more over or under inflated war ratings being matched solely on prestige. Skill will prevail for the players who rose to the top of ratings again, and all will be fine.

That's called a fair fight. You think it's okay for them to advance on the backs of people who will never beat them no matter how skilled they are?

GroundedWisdom

I call that a cop out.

Mr_Platypus

I see. So because you didn't win against stronger Allies, you want people to fight grossly stronger Allies just to move yourself up.

What? I used my alliance as an example to show it doesn’t just affect those at the top. You go mental when anyone twists your words yet here you are twisting mine.

Mr_Platypus

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.
Do you even realize how hypocritical you are being ? So it’s ok for higher tier alliances to be forced to go season after season dropping ranks slogging it out very hard matchups where 1 kill or 1 diversity decides who wins or loses, but it’s not ok to fix the system so it’s fair ???

Stop and think before you keep ranting please. You want fair, then let it be fair. No more over or under inflated war ratings being matched solely on prestige. Skill will prevail for the players who rose to the top of ratings again, and all will be fine.

That's called a fair fight. You think it's okay for them to advance on the backs of people who will never beat them no matter how skilled they are?

I imagine those on the losing end of these matchups didn’t find anything fair about fighting an alliance that’s the same rating but 100s of war rating points ahead...

GroundedWisdom

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.
Do you even realize how hypocritical you are being ? So it’s ok for higher tier alliances to be forced to go season after season dropping ranks slogging it out very hard matchups where 1 kill or 1 diversity decides who wins or loses, but it’s not ok to fix the system so it’s fair ???

Stop and think before you keep ranting please. You want fair, then let it be fair. No more over or under inflated war ratings being matched solely on prestige. Skill will prevail for the players who rose to the top of ratings again, and all will be fine.

That's called a fair fight. You think it's okay for them to advance on the backs of people who will never beat them no matter how skilled they are?
I imagine those on the losing end of these matchups didn’t find anything fair about fighting an alliance that’s the same rating but 100s of war rating points ahead...

They didn't just wake up with those Points. They earned them. I know it's a difficult concept to grasp, but people earn them based on their own Matches. For some reason, because people have the attitude that they didn't actually earn them from fighting Wars they could never and would never win, here we are. People have it in their heads that even Matches aren't the same because their Champs are higher, their Fights are higher, and the lower ones aren't working as hard. Only they're not considering the lower ones work just as hard with the same Nodes against Champs just as hard as theirs. Higher Alliances are working with higher Rosters against higher Champs. Obviously they're going to think that when they're comparing to their own Champs. Stop and see eye-to-eye with them and what they're working with. Not how much easier it would be for you with what you have. There's a scale that isn't being acknowledged, and a bunch of bitter reactions because people do much better pecking off weaker Alliances than they do head-to-head with their own matches.

Mr_Platypus

Right so it’s perfectly fine for a 15mil gold 3 alliance to get steam rolled by a platinum 3/4 15mil alliance. Right ok that makes sense

GroundedWisdom

Apparently it's perfectly acceptable for a 10 Mil Alliance to be steamrolled by a 30 Mil Alliance. That seems better.

AwesomoChaos

After skimming pages of back-and-forth "new matchmaking hurts my alliance" vs "old matchmaking hurt my alliance" arguments, the takeaway should be that since some alliances are getting shafted regardless why not make it fairest where the best alliances get the best rewards? The assertion that a weaker alliance that goes undefeated against lesser competition should be treated better than a stronger one that gets hammered by tougher competition is nonsense. (I'm Silver 1/2 level btw.) I will agree that it should be done off-season or implemented over a few seasons to minimize the pain.
It's comical that certain people are complaining when they constantly downplay other people making complaints basically with "Kabam knows best."

unknown

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GroundedWisdom

But hey, doesn't matter. Collateral damage. Who cares about everyone else's Season, as long as the top is happy with whoever else places where.
Do you even realize how hypocritical you are being ? So it’s ok for higher tier alliances to be forced to go season after season dropping ranks slogging it out very hard matchups where 1 kill or 1 diversity decides who wins or loses, but it’s not ok to fix the system so it’s fair ???

Stop and think before you keep ranting please. You want fair, then let it be fair. No more over or under inflated war ratings being matched solely on prestige. Skill will prevail for the players who rose to the top of ratings again, and all will be fine.

That's called a fair fight. You think it's okay for them to advance on the backs of people who will never beat them no matter how skilled they are?
I imagine those on the losing end of these matchups didn’t find anything fair about fighting an alliance that’s the same rating but 100s of war rating points ahead...
They didn't just wake up with those Points. They earned them. I know it's a difficult concept to grasp, but people earn them based on their own Matches. For some reason, because people have the attitude that they didn't actually earn them from fighting Wars they could never and would never win, here we are. People have it in their heads that even Matches aren't the same because their Champs are higher, their Fights are higher, and the lower ones aren't working as hard. Only they're not considering the lower ones work just as hard with the same Nodes against Champs just as hard as theirs. Higher Alliances are working with higher Rosters against higher Champs. Obviously they're going to think that when they're comparing to their own Champs. Stop and see eye-to-eye with them and what they're working with. Not how much easier it would be for you with what you have. There's a scale that isn't being acknowledged, and a bunch of bitter reactions because people do much better pecking off weaker Alliances than they do head-to-head with their own matches.
I refuse to believe you don’t benefit from this system the amount you are defending it

We play 2 BGs because we're short a Member. We flux between Silver 1 and Gold 3. Trust me, we're not getting anything out of it. I'm defending fairness. That shouldn't be a foreign concept.

GroundedWisdom

The difference between people losing because they lost is not the same as people losing because they have absolutely no chance at all. That's not the same thing.

GroundedWisdom

Then we're back to placing for Defense and not bothering for Attack because nothing will make a difference. That's not okay, no matter who says it has to happen. It's a setup.

AwesomoChaos

Is it possible to have an individual War Rating, averaged over the past 30-/60-/90-days, that follows you around so there's no point in going to a shell alliance? For instance, your Alliance has a 2000 rating so you have a 2000 rating. You go to a 1000 rated-alliance but as soon as you participate in AW, your prorated number inflates the new alliance's rating.

Mr_Platypus

Apparently it's perfectly acceptable for a 10 Mil Alliance to be steamrolled by a 30 Mil Alliance. That seems better.

About as acceptable as my scenario, difference being my scenario continues for multiple seasons, yours continues until the war ratings even back out. My scenario is potentially never ending, yours lasts a month at most but realistically, it lasts a couple weeks.

Ja1970

Nice to see all these shell alliances lose their ratings with 50% reduction

GroundedWisdom

As for blaming Kabam, no I don't. They had to introduce something to regulate Matches because people were manipulating the Ratings beyond measures of actual skill. All to get some minimal advantage over other Allies when Seasons started. Same with people jumping down just to take out weaker Allies. Fairness has been fought by people trying to gain an unfair advantage at every step of the way, and now they're complaining about the consequences of their own mess. Forgive me if I'm not so quick to blame Kabam. This one is on people who try to play the system like a flute.

GroundedWisdom

This is really going nowhere. There's no point in saying it again. I'm not supporting ruining the Season for many people before it even starts, just so the system can "fix" itself. That's not going to change.

hungryhungrybbq

@hungryhungrybbq How exactly is the fault of those alliances, if they were playing the game as it was meant to be played. It was Kabam that decided match ups based on prestige. If anything, people should be asking them for compensation. Instead you would rather the lower rated alliances suffer through some impossible wars.
I don't think it was a fair system for high prestige alliances earlier. That does not mean the lower prestige alliances have to suffer now. It absolutely looks like revenge from the higher prestige allainces.

It's not their fault, mate. Never said it was. Fact is, I wish it never was broken in the first place. Don't forget, we all have been there. I still remember the original map, way before seasons was a thing. Going for solos on 4* NC bosses with 4* SL 😀 My alliance has been playing war for a long time. And there are folks who have been playing for way longer than us. Just as there are folks who have been playing way less than us. We all deserve to be treated fairly. Never said anything different. However its certainly long overdue for it to be fixed. If there's a better way to do it, I'm guessing they would have thought of it. Kabam doesn't want any of it's players to be upset. Cause if they quit playing, they'll lose revenue. I'm guessing this is the best solution that would actually fix the problem as quickly as possible. Don't know, I'm not in charge of the game, I just play it.

Kpatrix

I’m ready to see the new maps and nodes released so this discussion can get back on track. It should be focused on actual gameplay, with the players giving feedback on that instead of everything being derailed because they think match making should not be primarily based on war rating.

It gets tiresome reading the same comments over and over that are secondary to the actual issues most of us are concerned about, namely the quality and enjoy ability of the mode long term. DNA made a great post earlier in the discussion about the nodes, and really nailed it. All the hidden minis don’t look like much fun either. We will all be facing difficulties adjusting this season. Maybe all the posts asking for cavalier difficulty EQ made the developers think we wanted the same applied to war, which isn’t the case. We want a challenge, but not a high pressure punishing mode the adds stress.

Above all else, keep prestige out of war. We’ve seen how that’s played out in the previous iterations of war. It’s not what should determine matchmaking or standings at all. War is about skill, roster depth, strategy, and teamwork.

GroundedWisdom

Not the case at all. We're in Tier 8, Silver 1 with 2 BGs. I'm not thinking of myself. We play the best we can and take whatever comes. I'm concerned with the people who are going to be screwed by this. Strange concept, but they matter.