An Analysis of the 5.3 Update

[Starlite]

Supporting Analysis

@Saltypatra

5.3 UPDATE

Warbands are a pre-designed team that players can use straight away in battles (similar to a Starter Deck in TCGs). Warbands are primarily aimed at newer players or players who wish to start dabbling with team building but want an existing team to build off. They also contain extra banners and team slots, so there is something there for experienced players too!

• Players can view Warbands in the new Warband tab in the Shop Menu

• Warband bundles cost 50 War Coins and contain the following:

  • 1 Team Slot
  • 1 New Banner – This banner is unique to the Warband and different from any existing banners
  • 1 Epic Troop
  • 2 Other Troops – These will be Common ,Rare, or Ultra-Rare rarity
  • 1 Ultra-Rare Weapon

• Players will be able to earn the Ultra-Rare Weapon from Warbands from Gem Mastery, though they will need a high level to do so (100+ Gem Mastery in a Color).

• Once a player purchases a Warband team, the team’s bundle in the shop will change to a “Booster Pack” for that team

• Booster Packs cost 15 War Coins, and will contain 3 different rewards, all of which are meant to help improve the Warband team. These rewards include

  • Souls
  • Ultra-Rare Ingots
  • Copies of the Warband’s Troops (the amount of copies will vary based on rarity)
  • Minor Traitstones – Traitstone Colors will be based on the Mana Colors of the troops in the Team.
  • Major Traitstones
  • Runic Traitstones
  • Arcane Traitstones
  • Celestial Traistones

• Players can earn War Coins in a few ways:

  • New Player Login Calendar – We have replaced the Treasure Map rewards on Day 6 with some War Coins
    • To celebrate the release of 5.3 Update, we will also be running a special Login Calendar that will contain some War Coins for existing Players
  • Completing Questlines for each Kingdoms (e.g. for Broken Spire)
    • As Warbands are aimed at newer players, we will not be giving any War Coins to players who have completed Kingdom Questlines previously
  • Adventure Board – There are 2 Adventure Board Tasks with War Coins (Epic + Legendary) that players may encounter.
  • Daily Deals – There are 2 different daily deals that players may encounter. 1 VIP Offer + 1 Player Level Offer.
  • There is War Coin purchase available in the Shop

• Warbands are set up so that we can add or change Warbands in the Shop with game updates, allowing us to rotate Warbands around from time to time.

Because it is a Guild Wars week, we will delay the release of Warbands and War Coins available until the update is out everywhere and we can prompt players to update to the 5.3 update. (We expect this to be only for 24-48 hrs).

Warbands are not a terrible feature. I don’t honestly know how useful they will be to new players, but I think it’s a good initiative.

The downside is that the new banners are effectively behind a paywall for non-beginning players. There’s really no reason to do this – except a directive from the publisher for more monetisation. Otherwise, this really doesn’t make sense: long-term players won’t need the troops, will get the weapons from Masteries, and don’t compete against beginning players, in any case.

There really needs to be a way to get War Coins for resources. I would not mind buying them for Gems or crafting them from Traitstones, for example.

Patch Note Problems

The patch notes fail to mention two things:

1. That the weapons will automatically be added to inventory for players with high enough Masteries. (Go upgrade those weapons, people.)
2. What happens once you’ve bought the Warband and the Booster Pack? Is there another Booster Pack? How many can you buy?