Is the point of an Event to create an arbitrary meta for 7 days or is the point of the Event something else?
Personally, I’d rather the Event be about the event, and maybe give troops a +12.5% boost (+25% if they synergize). That’s enough to make those troops interesting choices without making events tiresome.
Personally, I hate the 50% troop aspect of Events, but I don’t assume my tastes are everyone else’s tastes. That’s why I ask…is the +50% boost the purpose of the Event?
Are we all supposed to be looking forward to that element?
In my case, it’s my least favorite aspect of GoW, after Treasure Maps/Events.
P.S. Doesn’t making troops/Kingdoms +25% or +50% make it very difficult for low-level players to complete Explore and PvP of those Kingdoms/troop types?
That’s not an issue for me, but it seems needlessly cruel.
I agree, the +50% stat boost is too simplistic. It’s either sticking beefy numbers onto troops that weren’t much use, and are still not much use, or boosting the already annoying meta to untenable repetition.
There’s the odd exception, like +50% Orc week, but mostly the effects are either irrelevant or accentuate what’s already bad.
I would much rather see events which change more things, and grant special effects for certain combos or applying more thought. However these will take too much dev time and effort to code in, I guess.
I am fine with 50% boosts where they apply… It doesnt happen too regularly where there are way too many 50%s
I think the point is to be an incentive to use troops you wouldn’t normally use thus switching up the meta for a week.
I dont mind fighting the uber annoying 4x scale guard or astral spirit or whatever because it isnt the FGE/psion-fam teams and even though they are annoying they are only around for a week at a time… Plus it makes the game a bit more challenging and causes me to build teams explicitly for countering those teams…
I`m ok with 50% in normal PVP and stuff but those 50% boost should not exist in GW, I mean is enough with that monocolor thing to get GW hard enough and on top of that you battle a full team buffed 50% with the normal buffs on top.
It would be ok not to apply the weekly buff to a troop if you use it in GW IMHO.
Yes we all know the intent of it, but does it actually work?
Generally in my experience the boosts to a trooptype or kingdom don’t cause the actually unused troops of those groups to be played significantly more unless in rare cases when the massive stacked 50% boost enables some kind of grief powerplays with those troops as it was for Scale Guards for example.
Instead what the boosts do most of the time is making troops that are already part of the meta, albeit in smaller amount now and then to appear in greater numbers and be 25/50% more annoying than they already are.
Look at the current event. I don’t see any unplayed wargares like Gnolls popping up, Wild Fangs or Wayfinders nowhere to be found nor have any of the unplayed Maugrim Woods troops become part of the meta either.
Instead we see more of the troops that already were at least a small part of the meta, like Spirit Fox, Forest Guardian, Kerberos and the likes appearing in greater numbers and be more annoying for a week.
That is not really shaking up the meta, it is merely shifting the relative numbers of troops already used in the meta for the most part.
And to go even further, nor did we need the max level of troops to go up from level 10 to level 15, and then to level 20.
And we don’t need the sentinels either.
Why? Because they are all boring number increases (in before dev reply of how bigger numbers means more room to balance troops).
But hey, I guess it was an easy fix into successfully forcing people to use different teams. Teams like 4x Scale Guard and 4x Astral Spirit. So I have to give credit where it’s due.
Some people seem to forget the endless months without break facing a small number of teams in Defend again and again and again and again before the weekly Events started.
The bonus isn’t perfect but it does slightly shake things up forcing new counters on a rotating basis.
In addition the +50% SHOULD allow the developers some further insight to balance troops. Particularly with troops that get a +50% stat bonus and have a sub 1% utilization rate for the week. (that’s a BIG hint it needs ‘help’)
I quite like the 25/50% boosts, but a few troops NEED to be exempt from the boosts. Such as astral spirits and scale guards, but also the powerhouses that are already used frequently.
Also something else other than just stat boosts would be VERY welcome. Like maybe everyone has armored, or everyone has a type of link.
What is wrong with astral spirit and scale guard getting 50% boost on their event weeks? Why would you take away the only thing that makes them even somewhat effective?
Grosh Nak teams were largely driven by an unfailing Gar’nok, who got neutered after the first week by the massive change to spawners. Also Cyclops and Fel’dras spells double dipping from the 50% boost to basically almost onehit troops is exactly the kind of event boost enabled grief powerplays i mentioned.
And don’t disregard the additional incentives for community oriented players to post orc teams with the pvp kill reward quest, and well everyone wanted to test out the new orc stuff to begin with.
I was happy to see more orcs then justice league this week, at least with some strategy, you could still win, the justice league is a coin flip. Now the week is almost done and we will be back with that crap again.
Scale Guard wasn’t that bad with +50% and his traits got nerfed with the loss of Empowered… Its just not that offensive a troop for only twice a year (28 Kingdoms).
I’m saddened that PC players never experienced the full boat console treatment…AI and all. Then they can begin to understand what an OP troop is when that’s all there is for months and months.
Is there a better way to implement an event bonus?
Most likely, though is probably harder then the simple stat buff. I liked the idea above about giving troops additional traits. Most sure how easy that is to implement?
I agree with what some above have stated about the bonus does tend to increase usage of troops that are already useable. Didn’t see one Druid this week on defence, though I put up a Fenrir (and saw a number on defence too) lead team which is a troop you certainly don’t see very often.
Indeed that is the point of the event. To give us all a reason to dust off the worthless troops we only ever use during the event week and use something different and play against something different for a week.
If they lowered the event buffs, I doubt any of the troops would get put into a team and tried at all. Sure it will occasionally create a nightmarish week, but that is a small price to pay for the weeks it makes mostly useless stuff fun and viable.
