Quick clarification on the philosophy of costs / rewards / leaderboards / sigils and the Raid Boss shop…
REWARDS
Unlike Guild Wars, where there are some big Gem rewards for the top places, most of the rewards in the new events are not Gems, but other things - good things though! The end rewards include quite a few Orbs, while mid-tier rewards are all kinds of things including extra diamonds and even a Vault Key. There’s Gold & Souls & Traitstones in there too, sprinkled around - you can check it out when the event goes live. By our valuation, most guilds should benefit more in GEM VALUE from these events than Guild Wars, but not in actual Gems.
TIERS & COSTS
Now… the costing of the tiers… as you know, a full Sentinel upgrade in GW costs 340 Gems.
The tiered-shop in Raid Boss (& Invasion) hits Tier 3 at 30+70+150=250 Gems, and Tier IV at 30+70+150+250=500 Gems, so it falls either side of that Guild Wars upgrade amount.
An organized high-level guild should be able to go in for Stage 3 (250 Gems) and be able to get 90% complete on the event if they have a lot of perfect runs. The total Gem Value of the rewards they receive should be greater than what they would have received from Guild Wars.
If a lot of members of that Guild went in for Tier 4, then they should be able to hit 100% of the rewards if they get a lot of perfect runs. Warning though - those runs get VERY hard at higher levels. We’ll keep an eye on results, and if we HAVE set targets too high, we can adjust them down in future weeks.
LEADERBOARDS
The Leaderboards on Raid Boss & Invasion are intended to be icing on the cake… they shouldn’t really be the focus of the event for most folks, I hope. The rewards here are small (though there is an Orb of Power for first place). I have no doubt a few people might chase this, but warning: you can chase this with Gems! Our game has relatively few elements like this, and I’m okay with one or two being added… there is PLENTY of free stuff to do in Gems of War, and tons of ways to win completely for free… THIS leaderboard is not necessarily one of them though. But don’t worry, it’s not our intention to let this become a future focus of the game. At the same time, it is nice that we can have something in game for paying players AS WELL AS free players.
SIGILS & THE SHOP
We wanted to make these events more about the cooperation with the guild, rather than the individual effort. As such, there are Sigils in every Tier of the shop… but we want the purchase of these to be more about helping your guild achieve goals you might JUST be short on.
There will be plenty of Valravens in the event who drop energy too… so good tactical play will net you more extra energy than purchasing Tiers in the shop.
Hope that helps answer a few questions!