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

ninjadtk

Path Identities
Corrected June 19

Intermediate, Hard, Challenger, and Expert:

I'm noticing that the champion and health buffs on node 21 are different than node 19 and 20, despite them being the same level mini boss, is this intentional or a typo?

Also, why isn't the original post in the news and announcements section?

TheTalents

What a mockery for average players really
Master 1 40k 6* shards
Gold1 2.5k 6* shards

Are we exist in game???
Rewards quantum is a different discussion but you can't compare Masters top spot to Gold 1. In order to have a perfect season in Master, people spend about on average 5k+ units on potions and boosts. In order to have a perfect season in Gold 1, you just need to know your basic skills.
There's no such thing as perfect season in gold 1. If you're in gold 1 and you don't lose you would bump up to plat 3 minimum, if not higher. So your argument is not correct.
That would entirely depend what your multiplier was when you started in g1 lol I’d like to think you’d hit platinum...but if your multiplier was just too low you could still very well end up towards the top of g1 still

I'm in a gold 1/gold 2 alliance. When we win all our wars starting from the bottom of gold 2 we end up in gold 1. If we start at the bottom of gold 1 we end up in p4 if we don't lose. The multiplier you receive from the wins is how you bump up in War. It is just that simple. If you don't lose you advance, if you lose 2-3 wars that is different from not losing at all. So stop trying to change the argument to make your point.

Gregdagr8

Kabam, so it seems like the community is loud and clear, let us know if you are listening. Sounds like the most common gripes are the following...

1. Remove all defensive tactics. They do the exact opposite of promoting diversity. I'm sorry if you spent time and money on defensive tactics, but sometimes you need to make a business decision and just chalk it up as a loss.
2. No hidden nodes - thank you, don't have them return. 130 champs is too much to plan for with 3 attackers.
3. HUUUUUGGGEEE miss with rewards for lower tiers. I play in plat 1/2 so this really doesn't affect me. I know you gotta cater to the high tiers and that's totally fine. But understand that the VAST majority of your player base is Gold 1 and below. And these people spend money on the game too! You cannot alienate 85% of your player base. I honestly assume this was just an oversight and an error on Kabam's part. I don't think a company could honestly make a business decision that doesn't address their largest customer base.
4. Remove both Ebb and Flow nodes. Or make the attack window 30 seconds. 6 seconds is not enough time. Nova with Stubborn on Ebb and Flow intercept with 6 seconds? Good luck! Darkhawk with Stubborn on Ebb and Flow Knockdown with 6 seconds? Good luck!
5. Remove Aggression Fury from node 23. Aggression Fury and Oscillate should never be paired together. This should be common sense to any developer.

Thanks Kabam, good luck!

RoOOts

Somewhere one the road kabam forgot that we want our best champions to shine, and not to find our hard earned ranked-uped champ being trashed by some BS specific node.

This cant be the answer.

Rektor

@Kabam Miike

Can we please get confirmation on the stubborn tactic regarding the dodge mechanic. Does dodge mean If a player uses dexterity they will trigger the tactic and thus place an indestructible on the defender?

Check out Night Thrasher’s passive ability— successful dodges grant 5% power gain when he’s under 1 bar of power.

Now dex with him while he’s under 1 bar of power. He gets the 5% power gain.

Dexterity is a dodge and will trigger the stubborn tactic.

horrendous_too

@Kabam Miike

Can we please get confirmation on the stubborn tactic regarding the dodge mechanic. Does dodge mean If a player uses dexterity they will trigger the tactic and thus place an indestructible on the defender?

Check out Night Thrasher’s passive ability— successful dodges grant 5% power gain when he’s under 1 bar of power.

Now dex with him while he’s under 1 bar of power. He gets the 5% power gain.

Dexterity is a dodge and will trigger the stubborn tactic.

I agree that is the likely answer. Even though it will make stubborn so broken that some fights will be unwinnable. But why can't they use internally consistent wording? Just say, this includes using the dexterity mastery, boom done no more confusion. Instead they use language that is used differently in different contexts so you think maybe it will just kill quake and ghost and spidey but normal play is still allowed. And I really don't understand not clarifying when so many have asked the question although it sounds like maybe they answered some CCP people on their discord. But hey nobody but youtubers need to know how to plan a war that starts in 3 hrs or anything right?

Vinitlalka1988

I feel that plat 4 and high gold 1 got the roughest deal out of it...they got pittance on the reward update and still need to worry about defense tactics.....lower tires have weak rewards but no tactics higher tiers have decent rewards update with tactics..mid tiers got raw deal and were overlooked comprehensively....

Pharted

The description for Stubborn says whenever a #Defensive Defender’s Attack Misses, is Evaded, or Dodged, they gain 1/2/3 Indestructible Passive(s). This is how we're reading it in our alliance.

The Dexterity mastery triggers when you Dodge backwards, so Dex a special and indestructible triggers.

Ghost's phasing, Darkhawk's stealth mode, and Invisible Woman / Hood's invisibility all can cause attacks to Miss, so indestructible triggers.

Quake, Domino, all the Spideys, etc. all have Evade, so indestructible triggers.

Our plan is just to drop down to Tier 6 and by-pass tactics entirely. The rewards don't come close to justifying the spend (and aggravation) needed to deal with this BS.

Rektor

The description for Stubborn says whenever a #Defensive Defender’s Attack Misses, is Evaded, or Dodged, they gain 1/2/3 Indestructible Passive(s). This is how we're reading it in our alliance.

The Dexterity mastery triggers when you Dodge backwards, so Dex a special and indestructible triggers.

Ghost's phasing, Darkhawk's stealth mode, and Invisible Woman / Hood's invisibility all can cause attacks to Miss, so indestructible triggers.

Quake, Domino, all the Spideys, etc. all have Evade, so indestructible triggers.

Our plan is just to drop down to Tier 6 and by-pass tactics entirely. The rewards don't come close to justifying the spend (and aggravation) needed to deal with this BS.

Wait for the #defensive defenders that have unblockable specials and your choice is to get 3 indestructible instantly for evading them or block the specials with your face

Gregdagr8

So picture Doom as a defender with Stubborn. Don't even put any extra nodes on him! This is how OP this tactic is. Remember you can't use Ghost or Quake for this fight. You push Doom over a bar of power, he throws his sp1 at you. You HAVE to evade it because it's unblockable. Now Doom has three charges on him. Now you have to take 3 blocked hits to remove the 3 charges. Well when Doom hits into your block, he shocks you and Heavies you in the face! And that's without ANY NODES lol!

Now put him on node 49! 200% Champion Boost, 300% health, Stun immune, Shifting hazards Incinerate/Poison, debilitate. So now you will need a shock, poison, and incinerate immune (remember, can't use Ghost). Your one and only champ that has those immunites is Emma Frost. And she's only immune to those in diamond form so you will likely time out! Way to promote diversity!

Get rid of the defender tactics!

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Mcord11758

Doom on oscillate aggressive fury tunnel vision with stubborn

TheTalents

Kabam Won the troll Awards for the Century with this announcement 🤣🤣

G1 should be 2x t5b & 6x t2a ~ enuff for r5 a 5*
+ 25% t5cc crystal

P4 should be 3x t5b & 7x t2a ~ enuff for r2 a 6*
+ 35% t5cc crystal

Scale up and down from there

But Kabam is like

We were P4 a few seasons ago and after Flow were like nahhh .. then we were like War?

Nahhhhh

And reformed as a high prestige 5x5 / No War / 1 Optional War BG

Never been happier in game, and have gotten more outta the Glory store & having top champs always available to clear content than vs. spending for heals in the Glory store.

I HIGHLY encourage others to take the no War route if you're on the fence about it ~ it's so much more rewarding in both resources acquired over that time frame, and in saving your mental & emotional health.
This is beyond one of the most ridiculous things I've seen posted here..... wow
I’ll agree 35% of a t5cc is a bit too much but 2% is pitiful
I think we got 6 2% crystals for Master last season maybe (I really don't remember it might be less), much more than 2% wouldn't make a ton of sense really considering the effort differnce it takes between the two.

They always roll out new resources incredibly slowly now. The shard increases, and particularly the 5* shards, definitely should have been higher in the lower ranks though
Giving out 2% is pointless though if you got all the same class it would still take 6 years give or take to get a t5cc
That's how roll outs of new tire resources works though. They were selling 2% crystals for silly amounts of money recently. If you're not playing at the top levels then those things trickle in for free some time after people were already paying for that trickle. Being upset at getting any t5c at a gold ranking currently is ridiculous.

Those items take considerable amounts of time to accumulate if you're playing in lower tiers as they should.
I’m in p4 and pretty much every war there’s at least one r3 defender or multiple maybe the new matchmaking system will change that but I feel if your ally has to fight r3s every war there should be more then a 2% crystal

I'm actually in a gold 1 alliance and I can tell you anything past p4 and up you have to use boosts and items if you want to maintain that position and it isn't wars people sleep walk through which is why I don't play it lol.

So I agree with @Knation that p4 and up deserves well above a 2% crystal.

Worknprogress

Kabam Won the troll Awards for the Century with this announcement 🤣🤣

G1 should be 2x t5b & 6x t2a ~ enuff for r5 a 5*
+ 25% t5cc crystal

P4 should be 3x t5b & 7x t2a ~ enuff for r2 a 6*
+ 35% t5cc crystal

Scale up and down from there

But Kabam is like

We were P4 a few seasons ago and after Flow were like nahhh .. then we were like War?

Nahhhhh

And reformed as a high prestige 5x5 / No War / 1 Optional War BG

Never been happier in game, and have gotten more outta the Glory store & having top champs always available to clear content than vs. spending for heals in the Glory store.

I HIGHLY encourage others to take the no War route if you're on the fence about it ~ it's so much more rewarding in both resources acquired over that time frame, and in saving your mental & emotional health.
This is beyond one of the most ridiculous things I've seen posted here..... wow
I’ll agree 35% of a t5cc is a bit too much but 2% is pitiful
I think we got 6 2% crystals for Master last season maybe (I really don't remember it might be less), much more than 2% wouldn't make a ton of sense really considering the effort differnce it takes between the two.

They always roll out new resources incredibly slowly now. The shard increases, and particularly the 5* shards, definitely should have been higher in the lower ranks though
Giving out 2% is pointless though if you got all the same class it would still take 6 years give or take to get a t5cc
That's how roll outs of new tire resources works though. They were selling 2% crystals for silly amounts of money recently. If you're not playing at the top levels then those things trickle in for free some time after people were already paying for that trickle. Being upset at getting any t5c at a gold ranking currently is ridiculous.

Those items take considerable amounts of time to accumulate if you're playing in lower tiers as they should.
I’m in p4 and pretty much every war there’s at least one r3 defender or multiple maybe the new matchmaking system will change that but I feel if your ally has to fight r3s every war there should be more then a 2% crystal

And in the higher tiers you have entire paths of R3s. I'm not sure what you're getting at. You have tons of people that have done things like abyss and act 6 playing in lower tiers just bc they don't want to push war. I'm assuming you're one of them as you've posted in the abyss and act 6 threads. Going up against people at the same level as you doesn't mean a ton.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be more than 2% but I honestly don't think it should be much more personally. I'm curious as to what sort of matching changes will happen going forward and I'm hoping rating being the primary factor helps a lot of the mid tier players personally. Upper gold and lower platinum ranks had quite a large amount of alliances in them that would never finish there had they actually been matching those around them in rankings. I'm hoping this change sorts that out and it makes mobility up the ranks a bit easier by reducing some of the filler

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Mcord11758

There is no reason at this point in the game to artificially stagnate progression by handing out 2% of a t5c. Imo master should be a full guaranteed cat, p1 like 75%, p2 like 50%, p3 like 25%, and p4 like 12%. This would in no way break anything in game

Worknprogress

There is no reason at this point in the game to artificially stagnate progression by handing out 2% of a t5c. Imo master should be a full guaranteed cat, p1 like 75%, p2 like 50%, p3 like 25%, and p4 like 12%. This would in no way break anything in game

I legitimately have no idea why some of you are in such a rush to speed up the game. That's a horrible idea over all

Worknprogress

Also is there a limit to stubborn indestructible charges?

Yes there is. It wasn't mentioned but there is at 3

Gamer

Even the map is so bright and so big even can’t even zoom out terrible. But that the less of a hassle if ther don’t giv the old black bagrun back or let us chois it

Mcord11758

There is no reason at this point in the game to artificially stagnate progression by handing out 2% of a t5c. Imo master should be a full guaranteed cat, p1 like 75%, p2 like 50%, p3 like 25%, and p4 like 12%. This would in no way break anything in game
I legitimately have no idea why some of you are in such a rush to speed up the game. That's a horrible idea over all

What would that speed up? Rank 3 6* are only 15% stronger than an R2. For most people in game they wouldn’t even get any still and only the top two tiers would receive anything meaningful. I am in p4 and 12% would still put me over a year out. You are dead wrong here but whatever it’s not going to happen so it’s moot

gohard123

So picture Doom as a defender with Stubborn. Don't even put any extra nodes on him! This is how OP this tactic is. Remember you can't use Ghost or Quake for this fight. You push Doom over a bar of power, he throws his sp1 at you. You HAVE to evade it because it's unblockable. Now Doom has three charges on him. Now you have to take 3 blocked hits to remove the 3 charges. Well when Doom hits into your block, he shocks you and Heavies you in the face! And that's without ANY NODES lol!

Now put him on node 49! 200% Champion Boost, 300% health, Stun immune, Shifting hazards Incinerate/Poison, debilitate. So now you will need a shock, poison, and incinerate immune (remember, can't use Ghost). Your one and only champ that has those immunites is Emma Frost. And she's only immune to those in diamond form so you will likely time out! Way to promote diversity!

Get rid of the defender tactics!

Iceman and Mephisto. Still not enough counters though

Stagedear85

Tigra should be interesting on stubborn now that I'm thinking due to her special 2 and I think her sp1 can also be unblockable , this should be fun smh

Worknprogress

There is no reason at this point in the game to artificially stagnate progression by handing out 2% of a t5c. Imo master should be a full guaranteed cat, p1 like 75%, p2 like 50%, p3 like 25%, and p4 like 12%. This would in no way break anything in game
I legitimately have no idea why some of you are in such a rush to speed up the game. That's a horrible idea over all
What would that speed up? Rank 3 6* are only 15% stronger than an R2. For most people in game they wouldn’t even get any still and only the top two tiers would receive anything meaningful. I am in p4 and 12% would still put me over a year out. You are dead wrong here but whatever it’s not going to happen so it’s moot

More R3s in the game mean R4s come faster, that means R5s comes faster, which means 7*s come faster. That's how games like this work. They can't monetize something heavily that everyone already has so they have to move on to what people don't have. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing but it's how this game in particular especially works.

Frosty

So picture Doom as a defender with Stubborn. Don't even put any extra nodes on him! This is how OP this tactic is. Remember you can't use Ghost or Quake for this fight. You push Doom over a bar of power, he throws his sp1 at you. You HAVE to evade it because it's unblockable. Now Doom has three charges on him. Now you have to take 3 blocked hits to remove the 3 charges. Well when Doom hits into your block, he shocks you and Heavies you in the face! And that's without ANY NODES lol!

Now put him on node 49! 200% Champion Boost, 300% health, Stun immune, Shifting hazards Incinerate/Poison, debilitate. So now you will need a shock, poison, and incinerate immune (remember, can't use Ghost). Your one and only champ that has those immunites is Emma Frost. And she's only immune to those in diamond form so you will likely time out! Way to promote diversity!

Get rid of the defender tactics!
Iceman and Mephisto. Still not enough counters though

Neither are shock immune

Worknprogress

So picture Doom as a defender with Stubborn. Don't even put any extra nodes on him! This is how OP this tactic is. Remember you can't use Ghost or Quake for this fight. You push Doom over a bar of power, he throws his sp1 at you. You HAVE to evade it because it's unblockable. Now Doom has three charges on him. Now you have to take 3 blocked hits to remove the 3 charges. Well when Doom hits into your block, he shocks you and Heavies you in the face! And that's without ANY NODES lol!

Now put him on node 49! 200% Champion Boost, 300% health, Stun immune, Shifting hazards Incinerate/Poison, debilitate. So now you will need a shock, poison, and incinerate immune (remember, can't use Ghost). Your one and only champ that has those immunites is Emma Frost. And she's only immune to those in diamond form so you will likely time out! Way to promote diversity!

Get rid of the defender tactics!

It's not unblockable when he has slow or petrify on him... also capiw shrugs debuffs with a skill on the team and places petrify with a tech.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking forward to the node but outside of the agg fury/oscillate and maybe one or two more fights, it will be manageable

KnightZero

So picture Doom as a defender with Stubborn. Don't even put any extra nodes on him! This is how OP this tactic is. Remember you can't use Ghost or Quake for this fight. You push Doom over a bar of power, he throws his sp1 at you. You HAVE to evade it because it's unblockable. Now Doom has three charges on him. Now you have to take 3 blocked hits to remove the 3 charges. Well when Doom hits into your block, he shocks you and Heavies you in the face! And that's without ANY NODES lol!

Now put him on node 49! 200% Champion Boost, 300% health, Stun immune, Shifting hazards Incinerate/Poison, debilitate. So now you will need a shock, poison, and incinerate immune (remember, can't use Ghost). Your one and only champ that has those immunites is Emma Frost. And she's only immune to those in diamond form so you will likely time out! Way to promote diversity!

Get rid of the defender tactics!
It's not unblockable when he has slow or petrify on him... also capiw shrugs debuffs with a skill on the team and places petrify with a tech.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking forward to the node but outside of the agg fury/oscillate and maybe one or two more fights, it will be manageable

You can't retaliate against specials. So have to keep blocking before you hit. Or take the specials on block. Also, majority of the annoying defenders come under this. If we have to resort to taking block damage every fight, it's basically an item fest to heal.
This node is basically limiting playstyle even more than Flow.

Amadeo01

Errrr, what options are there for dealing with Void on Cold Turkey? If you get rid of his debuffs, you take a burst of degen damage. If you don't get rid of his debuffs. You'll just die. So....what can you even do there? Ghost/hood won't even work with the stubborn tactic screws her.