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

Kade7175

Rewards are hot trash. Is there any discussion of adjusting them?or are lower tiers screwed? Where is a thread about rewards. There are far more people in lower tiers then the upper. And save it. Im sure all your thumbs move better then anyone in gold tier and its soo much harder and git good. This is a month of our lives too and 6k shards aint worth it and im not bailing on an alli ive been with for 2 years to chase slightly better rewards.

miguel1812

The new war map seems much worse to me than the old one.
I prefer to go back to the old map than to play on the new map, with all due respect, the map is orrible

Elovette

If something isn’t done about these crazy nodes in AW, Kabam is going to lose a lot of players. My entire alliance is talking about quitting the game. Why play if it isn’t fun anymore???

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hungryhungrybbq

For whatever it's worth, if anyone is interested, I found AA to be an effective counter to Domino on node 23. Give it a try if she's causing trouble. My AA is r5 and I had suicides on (if it matters).

Opening move is a dash back. You can't allow her to strike your block twice. Maintain your distance throughout the fight to force her to close the gap with a parry-able attack. And do what AA does best, parry/heavy. If you get decent enough rng, you'll have a few neuros on her after a bit. It still can be difficult to execute depending on the AI behavior, and as with any fight can go sideways quickly, but it worked for me.

Sensei_Maat

Unfortunately, this has been the method of operation regarding AW changes for a while now. This isn't new.

Company releases notes for changes to the game mode. Players read notes, voice concerns and warn that certain node/champion/defense tactics combinations will be problematic in advance. Giving specific examples. Company releases content anyway. Players are then used to test it, on the main server, using real items and playing for real rewards. Players report back that in fact, the problematic interactions they warned about are happening. Company reviews data and announces changes to the nodes/tactics (for next season). More players lose interest in the game mode in the process. This has been the model for quite some time if you think about it.

We are the customers, it's not our job to test the game, especially on the live servers. Unless, the whole thing is designed as part of a negotiation tactic. Or a test to locate exactly where the line in the sand is. What the players are or aren't willing to put up with. Frankly, It's really disheartening to see the same patterns repeat over and over. The Company's words express a desire to change. Their actions remain the same. At least as it relates to AW and the level of communication that goes into it's implimentation.

Don't get me wrong, many of the ideas listed in the road map sound great! And I'm looking forward to them, but this whole repeating cycle of how AW changes are implimented is very disheartening.

Side note: Were we really expected to believe that the "reward" for completing an intercept in Ebb and Flow was actually a reward? The purpose of the precision passive isn't to give us extra damage (even if it were, it's weak) it's a Ghost nerf.. straight up. First of all 6 seconds is nothing, especially knowing full well that we will all place defenders who have anti-intercept abilities and/or their own built in damage shields. Making it so that even if we manage to land an intercept on an opponent who was designed to resist them, we have to line up a window within a window... Just to do normal damage for one combo?
"It's bananas." - Gwen Stefani

while you are mostly right and i agree mostly,

making content that Ghost cannot do is not Nerfing ghost.
content will always be created to favor some champs while cutting others out.

stubborn defense tactic more so shuts out quake and ghost.
but once again is not a nerf.

content will always be designed in any game to favor some champs and shut others out.

the problem is that the champ selection options become too narrow.
they are too narrow by node design.
then narrowed even more by defender placement.

AW nodes are a complete joke.

but yes, if kabam do not change AW many many many allies will stop war, stop spending in war and or quit the game

hungryhungrybbq

Unfortunately, this has been the method of operation regarding AW changes for a while now. This isn't new.

Company releases notes for changes to the game mode. Players read notes, voice concerns and warn that certain node/champion/defense tactics combinations will be problematic in advance. Giving specific examples. Company releases content anyway. Players are then used to test it, on the main server, using real items and playing for real rewards. Players report back that in fact, the problematic interactions they warned about are happening. Company reviews data and announces changes to the nodes/tactics (for next season). More players lose interest in the game mode in the process. This has been the model for quite some time if you think about it.

We are the customers, it's not our job to test the game, especially on the live servers. Unless, the whole thing is designed as part of a negotiation tactic. Or a test to locate exactly where the line in the sand is. What the players are or aren't willing to put up with. Frankly, It's really disheartening to see the same patterns repeat over and over. The Company's words express a desire to change. Their actions remain the same. At least as it relates to AW and the level of communication that goes into it's implimentation.

Don't get me wrong, many of the ideas listed in the road map sound great! And I'm looking forward to them, but this whole repeating cycle of how AW changes are implimented is very disheartening.

Side note: Were we really expected to believe that the "reward" for completing an intercept in Ebb and Flow was actually a reward? The purpose of the precision passive isn't to give us extra damage (even if it were, it's weak) it's a Ghost nerf.. straight up. First of all 6 seconds is nothing, especially knowing full well that we will all place defenders who have anti-intercept abilities and/or their own built in damage shields. Making it so that even if we manage to land an intercept on an opponent who was designed to resist them, we have to line up a window within a window... Just to do normal damage for one combo?
"It's bananas." - Gwen Stefani

while you are mostly right and i agree mostly,

making content that Ghost cannot do is not Nerfing ghost.
content will always be created to favor some champs while cutting others out.

stubborn defense tactic more so shuts out quake and ghost.
but once again is not a nerf.

content will always be designed in any game to favor some champs and shut others out.

the problem is that the champ selection options become too narrow.
they are too narrow by node design.
then narrowed even more by defender placement.

AW nodes are a complete joke.

but yes, if kabam do not change AW many many many allies will stop war, stop spending in war and or quit the game

The point of my comment regarding Ghost was more referring to the fact that the precision passive was presented to us as tool we are supposed to use to be successful in the fight. The truth is, that it's actually a very ineffective tool even if that is what it was truly meant to be. That's what I find offensive, not simply that Ghost was "nerfed" in this specific encounter (sure, I do understand the difference), but that it seems very underhanded to present it as something that's supposed to be a tool for us to use, when in reality it's a disadvantage and furthers narrows who you can use in the encounter. Why didn't they offer a fury like they did in the other? Surely you can see what they did here. If the disadvantage was separate from the actual tool they were supposed to be giving us, I wouldn't have made the comment to begin with. It's the fact that it was presented a disadvantage and called it an advantage that I take issue with.

hungryhungrybbq

Unfortunately, this has been the method of operation regarding AW changes for a while now. This isn't new.

Company releases notes for changes to the game mode. Players read notes, voice concerns and warn that certain node/champion/defense tactics combinations will be problematic in advance. Giving specific examples. Company releases content anyway. Players are then used to test it, on the main server, using real items and playing for real rewards. Players report back that in fact, the problematic interactions they warned about are happening. Company reviews data and announces changes to the nodes/tactics (for next season). More players lose interest in the game mode in the process. This has been the model for quite some time if you think about it.

We are the customers, it's not our job to test the game, especially on the live servers. Unless, the whole thing is designed as part of a negotiation tactic. Or a test to locate exactly where the line in the sand is. What the players are or aren't willing to put up with. Frankly, It's really disheartening to see the same patterns repeat over and over. The Company's words express a desire to change. Their actions remain the same. At least as it relates to AW and the level of communication that goes into it's implimentation.

Don't get me wrong, many of the ideas listed in the road map sound great! And I'm looking forward to them, but this whole repeating cycle of how AW changes are implimented is very disheartening.

Side note: Were we really expected to believe that the "reward" for completing an intercept in Ebb and Flow was actually a reward? The purpose of the precision passive isn't to give us extra damage (even if it were, it's weak) it's a Ghost nerf.. straight up. First of all 6 seconds is nothing, especially knowing full well that we will all place defenders who have anti-intercept abilities and/or their own built in damage shields. Making it so that even if we manage to land an intercept on an opponent who was designed to resist them, we have to line up a window within a window... Just to do normal damage for one combo?
"It's bananas." - Gwen Stefani

while you are mostly right and i agree mostly,

making content that Ghost cannot do is not Nerfing ghost.
content will always be created to favor some champs while cutting others out.

stubborn defense tactic more so shuts out quake and ghost.
but once again is not a nerf.

content will always be designed in any game to favor some champs and shut others out.

the problem is that the champ selection options become too narrow.
they are too narrow by node design.
then narrowed even more by defender placement.

AW nodes are a complete joke.

but yes, if kabam do not change AW many many many allies will stop war, stop spending in war and or quit the game

Thanks for your positive response. I agree, using the word nerf wasn't entirely accurate. I just meant for that particular encounter. The main point for me in that statement was more about the fact that it was presented to us as a tool we could use to help us in the encounter. And not as a means to exclude certain attackers from successfully taking it on. It wasn't presented that way, but I believe that's what it is. Why wouldn't they just give you the same fury they give you in the other version of the node? Had they used a mechanic to discourage use of Ghost separately, and also gave a us a real tool we could use in the fight I wouldn't have been nearly as offense by it. Hope that clarifies my position a little.

slayer6

Well this aw node system is absolutely horrible and parrys are way off and certain nodes are putrid, money making shambles it is, and the big guys will get to smash alot of the smaller allies that aint even close to their lvl. Whales win and others lose but really only winner is old kabam odins wallet

unknown

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nelsonroa

Greetings developers, I think the war maps are fine! they must keep them that way. don't listen to so many people who want it all for free

nelsonroa

Greetings developers, I think the war maps are fine! they must keep them that way. don't listen to so many people who want it all for free

Mr_Platypus

Don’t really see why the maps that gold alliances have to play on were made so much harder if you aren’t going to give a reasonable increase in season rewards to gold alliances...

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Worknprogress

So is it fair to say people don’t like the new aw?

Honestly everyone has to step back. This is where they see the game going, this is their design. The road map is just lip service, there is no details, I don’t see them deviating from their course.

They tested this new war map. They knew how hard it was going to be. They still released it, during the time period where they are putting out road maps telling us they are listening.

Anyone who knows this game read the first war announcement and said wtf, yet here we are. When the next roadmap comes out Monday, the one that was originally so bad the ccp told them not to so they took the weekend to rewrite it, remember the road map is not their direction. It’s lip service, focus on what they are doing not on what they say they may do

Why do you even play the game man? You've got to be one of the most negative miserable people I've seen concerning a game that someone still inexplicably plays.

unknown

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buffajr

Replay don’t find ebb and flow that fun at all. The protection % is definitely too high, and the precision should reset every time the action is completed.

Worknprogress

I think one of the easiest changes they could make for war that would make especially lower tier wars more tolerable with defensive tactics, is forced diversity.

Plenty of people have mentioned that facing entire maps full of Dooms, Magiks, Mojos, etc... with siphon or flow make the lower tier wars much more painful and I completely agree. We probably face far more R3s and more new defenders in T1 but almost everyone runs full diversity so that definitely alleviates some of the pain.

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Worknprogress

Forced diversity and only being able to use each tactic so many times a season or not being able to reuse one until you've used all others would shake things up a bit and not have things feel so static

Flush

Need remove this nod 23 its joke this war and last seen meny get caught up and cant pass it 17 kills and 9 guys stuck there this is tier 4 war, also all other new nods need look at current state aw right now not even worth effort playing or taking part in season 19

DEFOLT_33

An entire bg can't even make it to second section. This is not good kabam.

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Unawakened2

Forced diversity and only being able to use each tactic so many times a season or not being able to reuse one until you've used all others would shake things up a bit and not have things feel so static

I’ve had the same idea and thought this would be an amazing solution to make wars more interesting. However, it would be a potential nightmare for both players and officers to manage. Having to identify several different defensive teams and then determine optimal nodes. That could be a full-time job. But again, this is the type of thinking and discussion that should be happening.

Worknprogress

Forced diversity and only being able to use each tactic so many times a season or not being able to reuse one until you've used all others would shake things up a bit and not have things feel so static
I’ve had the same idea and thought this would be an amazing solution to make wars more interesting. However, it would be a potential nightmare for both players and officers to manage. Having to identify several different defensive teams and then determine optimal nodes. That could be a full-time job. But again, this is the type of thinking and discussion that should be happening.

Oh yeah, far more work to keep up with. People just keep saying the same thing though, remove tactics. That's obviously not an avenue they're interested in so I think trying to come up with ways to make them more enjoyable or at a minimum more tolerable is time far better spent than just complaining and telling them to do something they're just not going to do.

Unawakened2

Forced diversity and only being able to use each tactic so many times a season or not being able to reuse one until you've used all others would shake things up a bit and not have things feel so static
I’ve had the same idea and thought this would be an amazing solution to make wars more interesting. However, it would be a potential nightmare for both players and officers to manage. Having to identify several different defensive teams and then determine optimal nodes. That could be a full-time job. But again, this is the type of thinking and discussion that should be happening.
Oh yeah, far more work to keep up with. People just keep saying the same thing though, remove tactics. That's obviously not an avenue they're interested in so I think trying to come up with ways to make them more enjoyable or at a minimum more tolerable is time far better spent than just complaining and telling them to do something they're just not going to do.

I agree

Unawakened2

Now if Kabam could provide alliances with something like a defensive template that you could set up just once for each defense tactic and then click a button to auto place champs. Now that would be truly amazing.

unknown

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Panchulon21

Guys maybe they did test it and they had all the same trouble we’re having.

With that being said they decided “sweet this is perfect if they want to 100% they will need to use all 15 items and all of them will be the higher priced Aw boosts and potions” Perfect!

All jokes aside. Some of the nodes aren’t bad, they are do-able. Problem here is they are completely overshadowed, eclipse, eaten up by the horrible nodes that around the decent ones. Creativity was at the max when you made these but common sense apparently wasn’t. No disrespect with the last statement it’s just it seems that way with how these nodes were paired. I have said it before, it’s like your devs don’t play the game at all, or are in such a low tiered alliance or no alliance at all they are disconnected from where the majority of players are.

I love this game, I play it too much, I play with my real life best friend, another real life friends and I’ve made a bunch of out of state and out of country friends here, I’m very afraid of the future of this game right now.

LordTenzen

I have been reading through the comments here and am seeing SO MANY posts about how the nodes look horrible and too difficult. You rolled them out anyways and now look where we are. YOU HAD THE FEEDBACK RIGHT HERE THE WHOLE TIME. This AW season is busted. It was mentioned that there was a lot of feedback to go through so some cpmments may have slipped through the cracks... I call major BS.