Forward

Welcome to another season of Alliance War! This season we’re seeing a new Defence Tactic for all you challengers out there, and a new and improved Path 8 coming in to redefine what was the Cosmic Lane into something that Cosmic Defenders can plug into and become powerhouse defenders. Without further ado, let’s get to what the updates look like!

Timeline

Thursday, February 2nd

• Pre-season 40 begins

Thursday, February 16th

• Season 40 goes live

Updated Bans

Going Season 40 forward, we will be changing how we look at Bans 2.0 (Whitelist/Blacklist). In previous seasons we had totalled the bans of all tiers, and brought them together to fill the Blacklist. Going into Season 40 we will instead be splitting these by map. Meaning the Blacklist for the Expert map will be based off of strictly the most popular Bans from the Expert Map, and the same with Challenger.

Updated Rewards

In our ongoing effort to make sure AW rewards are top of the game, Alliances in Masters will now compete for more Rank 5 materials, and players in Platinum will for the first time see these materials in their rewards. Win/loss crystals will be removed from rewards as was planned but not implemented for S39 (the Loyalty to make up for this change was already added in S39).

Tactic Updates

Along with our changes to Bans 2.0, we’re also going to be changing how we will be releasing new Tactics going forward. Previously we had released a new tactic every season with Challenger getting something fresh every release. Going forward we are going to have the release of tactics pair up with the rotation of tactics in the Expert map. This means that every other season we will be releasing 2 Tactics instead of 1 every season. Season 41 will have no new tactic, but season 42 will have both a new Attack and Defence Tactic.

Season 40 will see Subdue and Planetary Endurance roll into the Expert map! Here’s the list of Tactics for Season 40.

Expert Map:
Attack: Subdue
Defense: Planetary Endurance - 3

Planetary Endurance -

#Planetary Endurace Defenders are immune to the effects of Nullify and Stagger. Whenever a #Planetary Endurance Defenders Attacks are blocked, they gain an Flourish Buff increasing Power Rate by 25%. Striking the Defenders Block will remove 1 Flourish Buff.

• Attack: Debuff Detox, Sick n Tired, Subdue
  
• Defense: Conduit, Unsteady ground, Planetary Endurance
  

• Attack: Debuff Detox, Sick n Tired, Subdue
  

• Blacklist - Ghost, Quake
  
• Whitelist - Hercules, Human Torch
  

• Blacklist - Human Torch
  
• Whitelist - Hercules
  

Node Changes

Cosmics have always been in a strange place when it came to defensive placement. We’ve tried to rebuild this path in a few different ways, but they’ve petered out or didn’t have the impact that we were hoping for. With the new lane adjustments, and new buffs, we’re hoping that we can affect change and give cosmics a nasty home to live under.

The following buffs were made to support this vision.


Snowballing (Fury) - 3:
If the Defender is under the effect of 3 or more Buffs, they gain a Fury Passive that grant 25% attack rating every 2 seconds. Each Fury Passive lasts 15 seconds. The Defender will continue to gain these passives until all Buffs expire or are Nullified.


Inevitable Power - 3:
For each Buff the Defender has gained, they receive a Power Charge. Upon hitting 6 charges, they gain a Power Efficiency Passive for 12 seconds. During this time, all Buffs on the Defender cannot be Nullified or Staggered.

New Nodes