New Epic War Tier Prizing

[Phill - Immortal GM]

We have all witnessed the recent increase of imbalance between Raid Wars and Epic Wars in terms of Cost vs. Reward.
While Raids are generally cheaper (of course you need a specific level of a lineup), their reward Epics have been gradually increasing, while the Epic War Epic prizes have seemingly dropped in Stats compared to the raid ones.

After numerous suggestions, which included but weren't limited to:
* Epic War Milestones
* Balanced Epics
* Continued Raid War Milestones (not stopping at 13m)

we finally see a change in GREE's approach as of today!
We all waited for that one Combination since months. Another Fire/Water Epic War.
Thinking back about Blazestone, Apocalypse and Harlequin, all by far more expensive than wars of their time and setting the trends into a time-frame dominated by high Top 10 reserves, we will finally see a new Fire/Water Element Epic War Prize!

But GREE did more than just give us this anticipated, expensive combination,
No. They revamped the whole Epic War prizing System.
The question, for the better or for the worse?

Let's take a look at the following:

Black Ribbon (1): 2 +Version armors, 80 Fusion Boost armors, 60 Dark Prince’s Keys, 150 Gems
Gold Ribbon (2): 1 +Version armor, 60 Fusion Boost armors, 40 Dark Prince’s Keys, 120 Gems
Silver Ribbon (3): 1 +Version armor, 40 Fusion Boost armors, 25 Dark Prince’s Keys, 100 Gems
Bronze Ribbon(4-10): 2 Epic armors, 20 Fusion Boost armors, 15 Dark Prince’s Keys, 70 Gems
Ribbon A (11-25): 1 Epic armor, 10 Fusion Boost armors, 10 Dark Prince’s Keys, 30 Gems
Ribbon B (26-50): 1 Legendary+, 5 Fusion Boost armors, 5 Dark Prince’s Keys, 15 Gems
Ribbon C (51-100): 1 Legendary+, 3 Fusion Boost armors, 3 Dark Prince’s Keys, 10 Gems
Ribbon D (101-250): 1 Legendary, 1 Dark Prince’s Key, 12 Enchanted Keys, 400000 Gold
Ribbon E (251-500): 1 Legendary, 8 Enchanted Keys, 400000 Gold

*phew, that hope not to mess up Ribbons without cross checking if it's correct. Let's pray

What can we say to this?
Well, let's start at the bottom, that's what we are all interested about right?

I don't recall much about the Bonus-rewards (Keys, Gold) after the T50, but I must say that I think it is positive that free to play players may now receive an increased amount of Dark Prince Keys as well as Enchanted Keys.
Of course the days of buying those chests with Gems are over, but 15 months ago, before Epic Chests, we used to buy Dark Prince Chests and that's why they were made that 'expensive' when comparing to what you may get out of them.
Since then, we have had R&A added to it. This is the single most positive aspect of handing them out now - It gives lower level players the chances to get cheap 'bling' to boost their knight's Stats up.
This applies to all Tiers mentioned, as we can see a gradual increase of Keys and lateron also Fusion Boosters. The only issue, which I am sure will soon be reworked: The difference of T10/25/50/100 Fusion Boosters handed out in Fusion Fighter's Blitz Wars and those new, revamped Epic Wars. Please look into a balance for this.

Now to the P2P oriented Tiers, which, right now you have likely made much more competitive.
We see the following small details:
T10: 2 Epic Armors
T25: 1 Epic Armor
Question raised: Same Epic Armor? If not, why give out 2 War epics, but only 1 "T25 Epic" (Such as Ashenfire, All Seeing [futuristic outlook only, don't freak.] and many more)
Next nice little touch: The Gems starting from T100. It isn't much, but it is something. Only comment: Compare the Amount of Dark Prince Keys (x20 Gems) to Gems, and look at Number 1. Nuff said? Yupp.

Hooowever, now let's get to the actual interesting bit.
You have read right.

Black Ribbon (1): 2 +Version armors, 80 Fusion Boost armors, 60 Dark Prince’s Keys, 150 Gems
Gold Ribbon (2): 1 +Version armor, 60 Fusion Boost armors, 40 Dark Prince’s Keys, 120 Gems
Silver Ribbon (3): 1 +Version armor, 40 Fusion Boost armors, 25 Dark Prince’s Keys, 100 Gems

(yes I just selfquoted)

Silver Ribbon - One (epic) Plus. Okay. This is very nice, I guess? It was tested in Arena and seems to have inflated Arena a lot.
The point in doing the same with the already pricey Epic Wars? Yes. Inflate them. You just made Android a total warfield, nice one!
Personally I am looking forward to it, but come on, really?

Gold Ribbon - One (epic) Plus. Well. This makes sense, given that #3 gets the (epic)+, too. I guess in general the #2 and #3 Tiers are done well. It will be interesting to see what happens and/or comes from it.
Personally I feel you will inflate prices extremely for 3 cycles, have us dried out by then and we will somehow get cheaper Epic+ than before - So thank you!

Black Ribbon - TWO (epic) Plus. Okay. That is a bit too much, don't you think? As part of the alliance currently controlling #1 Epic Wars on Droid and thus benefiting from it, I still need to ask - WHY? When I had read, that the Top 3 Guilds would be rewarded with a Plus (which was a few hours before the actual Tiers were leaked..) I thought, great, this is a perfect and smart introduction into your planned 6-Star-Tier Armor, good job.
Now, after reviewing and seeing that #1 Receives TWO (epic)+ Armors I must say, how will you implement 6* Armors? Will you give out Two of each to 40 people? That would be pretty terrible and would move away from the initial by-effect of this update, which is to bring the spender:free2Play gap a bit closer together.

EDIT: What would make sense would be for #1 to get a Top10 Epic+ and a Top25 Epic+. Question is, why? Would they want that, or is it going to just add an unnecessary collectors-worth? Really can't wait for tomorrow's EW announcement to find out.

There are so many questions floating around right now... Some of which are listed above, but others remain:
- What happens to Raids, will you implement this identical? Will now only Epic Wars have Plusses for the Top 3 to compensate for the fact they are, let's be blunt, terrible compared to Raid Epics? We all know why you would have possibly done that, don't we? Let's not start the conspiracies, those will make their move-arounds soon enough.

- Won't this totally inflate prices? How will you react once it curves downwards again, Inflate the stats again? Once the stats are inflated, will you then adopt a similar System for Raids?
Answers are appreciated.


Don't get me wrong. I am all for change. But don't you think the way you have implemented this, with literally 32~ Hours of warning, when people spent up to 5000 Gems for Regular Epics during the last weeks, is wrong?
Isn't this what you made the Beta for?
I don't understand why this change is done so abrupt and in the way it has been done. Two Epic+, or whatever it will then one day be for Black Medal does seem to Overkill it for anyone else and frankly I believe you will hear a lot of criticism for this move.



What do others think?
Is this a typical "yay or nay", or does it need further investigation? Why was it done the way it has been, will it affect raids as well to be at least fair in this aspect for once?

I would love to hear your opinion on this!
Please try to remain constructive - I hope we can reach a point where this Thread might be used to tailor and optimize the update that is about to be released, as I feel it is a huge one.

Phill