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

Jmille85

Wow they barely changed the AW rewards and then their “new direction” in AW is giving us this trash... With all the recent outrage, if this is what they consider a step in the right direction with AW then they are extremely out of touch with their players...

So now we still have horrible rewards with an even worse map... way to go Kabam....

bpunk88

Well done Kabam, I'm officially done with war. I wanted to give you a chance, the announcement looked from, but the reality of what you released is so absurd it's laughable. I've gone from P2, to casually playing in a gold alliance, to opting-out. Let war go the way of Bases.

Rewards update only benefits Platinum & master ranks, but you force these garbage node pairings on everyone? No thanks.

Node 23 in Hard map was the final straw:
Havok defender with Tunnel Vision, Oscilate, and Aggression Fury. 🤬

zuffy

Tier 4 war, a 5/65 imiw in node 23. I got cornered and imiw one heavy KO a full health 5/65 capiw. Kabam just made quitting war so easy.

Gamer

Okay @Kabam Miike node combined like tunnel vision agersiv fury plus oscillation oscillation wil let them stake agersiv when ther in the aromer phess wil let them gian masive ackt and u really don’t hav a way arund it combines with flow tactics. Pliz fix that’s before it get more mut not many can counter that’s bs of a node combined

M1k0rin

Give back 2018 aw map and node please

Arifutera

I'm in a plat1 alliance, the new nodes are horrible even without defense tactics, please scrap them as a step forward at your aw redemption

Parkerfloyd

I’m hating AW and this game even more, honestly. All of Kabam’s big words about future developments are going down the flush.

Visually, the bright white map colour is just pain in the eye.

Node wise, you’re putting so many nodes where Attacker should do xxx then yyy, but you dont consider the Defender’s ability to counter that xxx and yyy. That’s just stupid and lazy design.

Rewards wise, you keep on giving RNG based rewards (crystals etc). Why not just give items where players can choose : Nexus crystals, Coins for a special store (just like Glory Store) to choose what to buy. You already have these concepts available in other modes, so why not open it for AW rewards?

Wifflehead2003

Stunning reflection is a stupid node with flow, you can’t shut it off unless you bring a specific champ, and when you do shut it off it’s on a timer, meanwhile the defender shoots to sp3 because they won’t use sp, they just broke flow again

Speeds80

More deaths this war for me than the entire last season, and I’m not even at the minibosses yet, and I’m my bgs designated boss killer, no thanks kabam, better pull your head in quickly, this is a disaster

Polygon

More deaths this war for me than the entire last season, and I’m not even at the minibosses yet, and I’m my bgs designated boss killer, no thanks kabam, better pull your head in quickly, this is a disaster

And stubborn isnt even out yet.

man we need Joe Fixit to come fix this sh*t show known as Alliance War

Seraphion

Hey there everyone, we made an announcement here to let everyone know, but the Stubborn Defense Tactic will be changed on Challenger and Expert maps so that #Defensive Defenders will only be able to store up to 1 Indestructible Passive while Stubborn is in use.
Now you nerf it just before Release? Just scrap it all together...

I mean you can say what you want about them but they are listening. Not that these things should be there in the first place but they do quick changes to bad things (Hidden nodes and now Stubborn)

Its a start I would say.

Arifutera

I seriously don't understand what's the motive behind defense tactics...
Kabam, can we have an open discussion where we can transparently discuss this?

Sensei_Maat

@Sensei_Maat @KnightZero so any idea if being immune counts as purifying? for example, if emma frost goes into diamond and shrugs off the debuffs, does that count as a purify?

i would think not. immunity "shouldn't" count as purifying. when emma shrugs them off when entering diamond form it is possible but unlikely it will count IMO. it doesnt say in her abnilities that she "purifies" debuffs upon entering diamond form and i think thats the key.

jeezuz man i know i played badly in my fight and i know there are potential ways to work with and around it,

But
Node 29. Ebb & Flow Intercept, + Flow defense tactic with Sym Sup there.
i just got absolutely wrecked.
spend a bunch of time doing bugger all damage.
intercepts were not always available when needed,
and i just got Sp3 after Sp3.

i just can't see any way it is at all possible that nodes like this can be considered fun and engaging at all.
next time i will make sure my magik is not on defense so i can use her on these fights but my god, its just not fun
its killing wars.

SunnyJim_123

Fun and interactive???

These nodes are in place to punish the player, you said in a previous discussion ‘you don’t want the player base to feel punished by the node combinations’ but how are these nodes not that?

So you parry to throw a heavy and tenacity kicks in so you hold block and wait for them to throw a heavy so you can counter with yours but after the defender turtles up you’ve lost your 6 second window to do damage and whilst this is all going on your degening from crumbling armor because you havent hit them!!

It’s beyond me how this was passed through as being exceptable

KnightZero

@Sensei_Maat Emma might count as purifying. Claire certainly did when she changed states. So I'm not sure. Maybe if you make sure you're in diamond all the time it won't. But if you get out for a second and get a debuff, it will for sure.

Destroy4589

@Sensei_Maat Emma might count as purifying. Claire certainly did when she changed states. So I'm not sure. Maybe if you make sure you're in diamond all the time it won't. But if you get out for a second and get a debuff, it will for sure.

CMM works as well. The incinerates give her binary charges real quick and just as the purify triggers, she will be indestructible so cold turkey won't matter

KnightZero

Wrote this on another thread, but the lower tiers(T5/T4/T3) have it equally bad and sometimes even worse than upper at times. Because up top is where the skilled people with diverse roster lie. So they will soon figure out a way to solo all this. Hence diversity is a major part. Down low? Not so much. No one cares about diversity. So whatever the global, you'll find multiple of the hardest champs of that global on different lanes. And not everyone has the roster to keep getting champs for global+node+champ.

Vuska

I dont this kind of aw challenge are worth...
i thinking to fight map 76666 for AQ then wasting resources for aw.

FrostOfTheEast

Alliance war is even worse now. Most of the nodes are annoying and just punish the attackers. I thought it was supposed to be fun? The old map was better at least its doable. Harder war same rewards.

KnightZero

So war is pretty annoying. We all know that. But I definitely feel that it will be much better with a few changes.
1) Ebb and Flow. Scrap the node. No one wants to continuously intercept or hit the defender to be able to do damage. Make it like Aegis nodes.
2) Window of Opportunity. Yes it is manageable. With flow, not so much. Since the entire point of flow is being able to stop defenders from gaining power through well timed blocks.
3)Those center champs between T1 and T2 need their health reduced. We don't need 9 mini bosses.
4) Remove Tunnel Vision. It limits the champs that can be used by so much. Or remove oscillate. Or Aggressive Fury. One of those needs to go.
Not sure why we have EMP modification as well in war.

KnightZero

@Sensei_Maat Emma might count as purifying. Claire certainly did when she changed states. So I'm not sure. Maybe if you make sure you're in diamond all the time it won't. But if you get out for a second and get a debuff, it will for sure.
CMM works as well. The incinerates give her binary charges real quick and just as the purify triggers, she will be indestructible so cold turkey won't matter

Thought about that. Definitely is a good counter to it.

Thecurler

Tier 5, 3 BG flow war. Both allies 75 attacker kills, 35 and 45 defender kills respectively.
It's carnage, no item use or boosts, at this rate both allies will be lucky if one or two players reach the final mini's.

Aztec

Fighting NF on ebb and flow node. With protection, he cannot degen on second phase lol. It's like fighting nF twice with the boosted version on his second phase.

Capn_Dante

We are a tier 8 alliance and I'd say about 75% of this map is ****. Offseason aw for us are typically the 10 people who kind of enjoy Aw doing one bg (3 during season).... And now the 10 of us who actually kind of like aw (it wasn't too bad at our lower tier... Not much item use for gold 2 rewards) are thinking AQ only may be the way to go... My only theory as to why this was in their plan was originally realm of champions was due to be released around now and maybe they wanted to kill off mcoc (which doesn't seem like a great plan but I can't come up with any other reason they thought this was a good idea)

CarlitaChiquita

All these nodes have added so much stress on everything. This is not fun anymore. Its just rubish. I spend quite a lot on this game and it looks to me like the only thing you have in mind is to get us spend more on items. No thanks.
The game will probably be a lot better without alliance. Thanks for ruining it.

[Deleted User]

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Sensei_Maat

@Sensei_Maat Emma might count as purifying. Claire certainly did when she changed states. So I'm not sure. Maybe if you make sure you're in diamond all the time it won't. But if you get out for a second and get a debuff, it will for sure.

if BWCV did then it makes sense that Emma would. Would be useful to know if she does. i guess we will have to wait until someone has tested her out.

Sensei_Maat

Tier 5, 3 BG flow war. Both allies 75 attacker kills, 35 and 45 defender kills respectively.
It's carnage, no item use or boosts, at this rate both allies will be lucky if one or two players reach the final mini's.

t5 1 BG flow war atm.
currently
US - 39 K - 18 D
Them - 17 K - 11 D

what a joke.

Seraphion

Hey there everyone, we made an announcement here to let everyone know, but the Stubborn Defense Tactic will be changed on Challenger and Expert maps so that #Defensive Defenders will only be able to store up to 1 Indestructible Passive while Stubborn is in use.
Now you nerf it just before Release? Just scrap it all together...
I mean you can say what you want about them but they are listening. Not that these things should be there in the first place but they do quick changes to bad things (Hidden nodes and now Stubborn)

Its a start I would say.
The point here is it should not be us testing these maps and giving feedback. I understand bugs happen in game and we need to work with that. But, I don't know how we can accept just bad node design. It's not like they design on Monday and release on Friday. They should be testing this and finding out the pain points. Either they don't test their own designs or they don't know how these nodes interact with each other and interact with champions. They have been reactionary for so long. It's time for them to start testing these proactively.

I 100% agree with you.
But we will have to accept that it prob will never happen.

I was one of the first who complained about Stubborn.

And I also did that big forum post about Flow 1 week before everyone ran it 24/7.

Im just saying it could be even worse. With Flow they didnt listen at all before 1 whole season was in the bin.

And I still think flow should be nerfed more or the attack global for it should be more useful.