It makes more sense to release the patch during GW week so that people who are frustrated by GW and avoid it can also be let down by a new patch. Really kick them while they’re crying on the ground.
Isn’t GW week also the release date of the first troop with the banding trait? They made sort of a big deal about it. Would make sense to release the next patch during that date.
Personally, banding seems pretty lackluster so far but it sounds like they’re planning something with it in the future (a new event maybe?).
Event with troop restriction: Only banded troops 
When did you see the last non-event weekend? Summer 2020? I see many busy weekends since then: Raid Boss, Invasion, Bounty Hunt, Faction, Vault, Arena.
So… in theory, putting 2 and 2 together.
They pushed the Faction back 2 weeks so they can release their next patch: Technical Update and include the 2 missing spells into the downloaded assets. Forest Troll and Setauri are hopefully placeholder info so the troop isn’t broken in the meantime incase the patch doesn’t come out in time for bounty/the faction?
New spoilers out today 
Looks like Lycanthropy is coming in the shape of some traits:
Inflict Lycanthropy to enemies when doing Skull damage.
Inflict Lycanthropy when enemies deal Skull damage to me.
Inflict Lycanthropy to a random Enemy when matching 4 or more Gems.
Inflict Lycanthropy to a random Enemy when matching Purple Gems.
So far on troops with no release date yet.
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Not sure if the devs replace traits on older troops but I could see one of the skull damage variants getting added to Werewolf and maybe Villager at some point.
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So…
Hound of Yao Guai has been adjusted.
Rock Squid has not been adjusted. (Forest Troll)
Mythic: Vernalis
https://www.taransworld.com/Spoilers/Troops/Troop_K31_17_english.png
Definitely a strange troop. Kinda unique. Is it useful? I have no idea. Jack of all trades and master of none.
Hell Gate Faction troops
Charonas
Ferry Souls
Gain 1 Soul for each Purple Gem. Then explode all Purple Gems. [1:1]
Mana Color: Blue, Brown
Mana Cost: 13
Trait #1: Deep Vitality
Gain 9 Life when attacking Delves.
Trait #2: Undying
Immune to Poison, Disease, and Death Mark.
Trait #3: Necromancy
Gain 50% bonus Souls from battle.
The other 3 troops: Oh, they’re boring… and don’t have Necromancy for a faction based on souls. So if we want to have a higher soul cap, we have to run multiple of the same exploder. …
Trait #3: Soul Verdict
Gain 1 Soul when matching Brown Gems.
Says enough about those 3 troops
Mythic: Huanglong
Arcane: Blade & Plains
Base Rarity: Mythic
Troop Type: Divine, Dragon
Troop Role: Mage
Heavenly Breath
Deal [Magic] damage to all Enemies. Then there are individual 50% chances to gain [Magic] Attack, gain an extra turn, and gain Barrier, Enchanted or Blessed.
Mana Color: Blue, Yellow, Purple
Mana Cost: 24
Trait #1: Dragon Bond
Allied Dragons gain 2 Life.
Trait #2: Golden Armor
Reduce damage from Skulls by 70%.
Trait #3: Dragon King
Gain 3 Magic when an Ally casts a Spell.
Golden Armor: 70% skull reduc. Cool … but Im not sure if I want this troop upfront
I don’t know how I feel about this troop. It could be cool if the secondary effect had a chance to explode like Tinseltail. Otherwise cool tools, but very vulnerable to stalling out.
Dragon Spirit
Spirit Breath
Deal [Magic + 8] scatter damage. There’s a 75% chance to Enchant all Allies.
Mana Color: Yellow, Purple
Mana Cost: 13
Trait #1: Arcane
Gain 1 Magic when an ally casts a spell.
Trait #2: Mana Flare
Gain 2 bonus Purple Mana when matching Purple Gems.
Trait #3: Spell Armor
Reduce damage from Spells by 25%.
Mana Flare. What? Archmagus 3rd trait is a 2nd trait for an Epic?
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What I see is an incredibly annoying troop that’s going to be in almost every AI Arena defense team, since it is only Epic rarity. At least there is some saving grace that the double purple link will not be valid in the Arena. But, an enchant all effect on the active ability? That’s practically an auto-win for the side that casts it first and the enchant all effect procs.
You know those are drafted by human players right?
So the possibility of “almost every” is unlikely.
The best Arena troop is already a Dragon and I’m lucky to see it in a draft once a month. And I rarely see it on defense.
In theory, Dimextria would also be an auto-win. But in reality, I don’t like drafting it, because 75% is usually 0% for me lol.
I mean, maybe. Could be fun?
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Opinion on the difficulty level for the Hell Gate delve? This is assuming the troops don’t change much in the future of course. I’m a little concerned because it reminds me too much of the Dark Pits faction. Had to raise that one to 250+ hoard before I beat it because the troops were so fragile and the Hell gate troops look to be defensively weak.
Hard to tell without looking at the map layout. Should be easy with potions. Exploder + damage to all enemies with boost.
Without, not looking great. That starting Bonestorm looks really bad if relying on the Deathmark luck route. No skull reduction is also very bad. Nothing about this faction is player favorable as currently designed.
Edit: Oh. Just noticed 2 of the 4 are Immune to Deathmark. Fun lol.
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Thanks. Potions it is. At least it doesn’t look as bad as the labyrinth one. Shouldn’t take more than the minimum potions required to do it during the release week to reach 500. Wish I did that with Dark Pits, Sunken Fleet, and especially Fang Moor (although I am not sure if potions even existed back then).
At least the Deathmark spell isn’t conditional. Also I am guessing the devs probably expected the player to rely on Lemure’s stat reduction as a defense but that is so unreliable.
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Huh. When someone said “best arena troop is a dragon” I thought of Volthrenax.
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It is.
Dimetraxia and Lucifria are both great, too, but there is some luck in the former. Still, 75% is pretty good.
Zephyros, Midge Swarm, Lasher, Lapina Explorer, Envy — the list goes on an on. So far, in fact, that I often feel like people who complain about losing battles in Arena, or getting bad drafts, either just don’t know how to approach a draft in the Arena (K.I.S.S. applies), or are pig-headed in steaming forward with a draft that doesn’t have any of the many, many good options, which very rarely happens, in my experience of playing 3+ runs of Arena a day ever since the rework.
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There are a ton of strong arena troops that vary in how much they let you autowin, but I don’t think it’s even possible to lose a run with lapina explorer. Overall, arena remains extremely easy (and bad, but I’m forced to continue playing it until I get my 15 war coins).
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That’s probably why the devs won’t add War Coins to the Adventure Board. It’s bad enough that barely anyone is doing Arena Events. They know once enough End Gamers have War coins, they’ll stop doing Arena completely. And the changes they made to the Arena will cause an actual lower number in daily play than before the revamp.
Why do treasure hunts exist in the Campaign? So it looks like actual vip players use treasure maps instead of just free to play players. If I was a free to play, player I’d convince myself that I like maps to for the free resources if I needed them to keep up.
Maps are a waste of time to most free to play players as well.
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Agreed. But I’m convinced that they are the source for “but some players really like maps!”
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