Epic War Rewards:
Let's start with the most essential point for me. The Epic War rewards. We are yet again expecting an Epic War this weekend. A Top 10 run for those is usually anything from 1200-1600 Gems by common expectations of our evil alliance-based Top 10 guilds. I know that some wars are cheap, but let's use this number for further reference. I now have the choice to spend these, say 1400, golden middle, Gems for an Epic during an Epic War or a Raid War.
Let's quickly compare two aspects we should respect with these so different types of Wars, Gameplay and Reward.
I) Gameplay duration: Quick numbers, let's assume a range of 50-60 Attacks per hour in a raid and a number range of (non-strip) 100-120k in a War. For Wars I will use an average of 650 points, trying to simulate a mix of GM and HC farming at best possible outcome (max points).
Gems per Hour:
War: 380 - 460
Raid: 120 - 150
We can already see that the raid is much more time consuming. I personally think that this is good. However, why would I, if I actually want to play the game, now choose an Epic War over a Raid War? We are taking about
200 - 240 Minutes to score 400K in an Epic war compared to approximately
600 - 720 Minutes to score 20/22 Million in a Raid (choosing recent Minimums my own guild has used). If I am out for gameplay, will I want to spend my gems in an Epic War or a Raid? - A Raid. This direct comparison does make the Raid look a lot more attractive to me as a player, of which ever nature, than an Epic War.
II) Reward for my actual effort: As if the gameplay duration wasn't enough, GREE has managed to make Epic Wars seem less attractive on a way more impacting and important level for many: The rewards. Let's quickly compare, in a Sandwich-style, the last 3 Rewards, Raid - Epic War - Raid.
With GREE's old trends, we would expect a steady increase, say 4000, 4050, 4100 combined stats. Let's look at the Angelic Battlemail, the Explorer's Piecemail and the Dead Pirate Finery. These are the last three rewards. Angelic is here included to make sure no claims of "the Pirate is newer than the Explorer, of course it is better" arise.
Dead-pirate Finery 2085 Attack / 2328 Defence = 4413
Explorer's Piecemail 2216 Attack / 2056 Defence = 4272
Angelic Battlemail 2232 Attack / 2170 Defence = 4404
The trend is clear. And to check this trend, all we need to do is take a further look at any compiled list of past Epic War/Raid War rewards, such as the KnD Wikia:
http://knights-and-dragons.wikia.com/wiki/Epic_Armor
I am sure the link isn't needed, but check for yourself - Raid Armor are, since a while, way better than an Epic War-Epic. This almost means that someone that has a Raid-Epic of the Element Fire/Earth (Centauric Battlegear) can skip the Explorer's Piecemail because his armor is, despite being 6 weeks(?) older, STILL BETTER. Come on GREE. This isn't fair and I hope you are aware of it. Please adjust the Epic War-Epics to match the Raid Epics so that they are on par for the SAME gems we spend for them (In fact Epic Wars are usually more gem-intensive, but let's not get into this).
Epic War Milestones:
The next Issue with the Epic Wars are the general rewards. With the Raids, you have successfully introduced an adequate milestone-system. Almost 9 Months after the initial Raid release (correct me if wrong) of 7.6.2014, we are yet to see this (which is very easy) implemented into the Epic Wars. Why not give us small rewards, like fusion fodder, keys and whatnot during Epic Wars? Some easy point milestones for all levels would be: 5K, 10K, 25K, 50K, 100K, 200K, 500K, 1 Million. Note that they would have to be increases on a better basis than the raid ones, as it is easier to separate 13 Million than it is to split up 1 Million. This is something many players, free to play and pay to play, would love to see. Obviously this model is an idea, feel free to play and adjust as you wish. I believe everything
before the 200K (So meaning including 100K) is a free to play possible score for 3 day wars (here the call for 48 hour wars again - Please decrease the time for Epic Wars! There is no point at all, not even a financial one!).
It is very easy for you to develop such a system, please try to implement it.
The Lost Blitz Wars:
I understand that you are testing different war schedules. However, the players are really starting to miss these Blitz wars. Many loved the midweek Fusion fighters as Wars are a lot of fun if you communicate well with your guild. I have heard out for some different proposals from players:
I) Bring Midweek Fusion Fighter Blitz Wars back.
II) Rework the Blitz Wars to include a mix of Fusion Boosters and R&A Boosters.
III) Have a free to play event. I know this will technically harm income, but so will not having Blitzes at all.
These are three quick suggestions which can easily be implemented.
Overall I must say I am a bit disappointed with the way the Guild-Wars have been going in general. Let's bring up a few points to show why:
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Epic War rewards worse than Raids
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Raids offer better all around rewards due to milestones which Epic Wars lack
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A R&A Chest is now implemented since some time, why can't we earn keys to this Chest in Wars?
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4 Big Events a month since quite some time are getting very expensive
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72 Hour Wars are too long!
However I must say that since 2 or 3 Raids they are finally Bug-free. Thank you for improving this.
Armor Slots:
Again, please change the way the Armor Slots work. Last week's suggestions were:
I) Each armor type (given same level) stacks, e.g. Having 15 Moontide Platemails on Level 1 takes up 1 spot, not 15
II) Add 1 Armor Slot PER LEVEL
Bulk Fusion:
Bulk Fusion is a very nice concept. It would very well fall in Place if Armor-Types stacked. Simple concept of Bulk Fusion is to implement a button to 'select X' for Fusion, so you could for example fuse 32 Basic Fire and 32 Basic Earth armor in one go, instead of doing this process 32 times. This is just simple optimization.
Less R&A-Sub-Levels for Fusion:
This is especially terrible for the F2P players out there having to fuse themselves through over 8 Tiers of Silver-Star Amulets/Rings. Please Reduce this to 3 or 4, you can do this without impacting on how many types there are by simply going by visuals, not name-type (If you understand what I mean?).