Dev Talk: Guild Season Changes

The Lands Awakened update arrives November 24, bringing massive open-world changes, a new weapon line, an updated soundtrack, and more. In today's Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys discusses the huge changes coming to Guild Seasons with this update.

No time to watch the video? Read on for a summary...

Primary Goals

• Allow players to earn Season Points for their guild via small-scale activities
• Grant personal as well as guild rewards for making progress
• Shift the focus of Guild Seasons from passive territory control to player activity

Conqueror's Challenge

• The Conqueror's Challenge replaces the existing Guild Season reward system
• Runs for the duration of a Guild Season
• Available to all Premium players, whether in a guild or not
• Uses a new type of points called “Might”
• Earning Might unlocks powerful and unique rewards, including new Seasonal Avatars for multiple levels, Battle Mounts, and Fame Boosts

Might

Might is earned by participating in activities with a risk of PvP:

• Killing mobs / gathering in the Outlands or Roads of Avalon
• Opening Treasure chests
• Killing Siphoning Mages / Crystal Spiders
• Playing Hellgates / Crystal League
• Winning Corrupted Dungeon matches
• Capturing Territory Energy Crystals (see below)

Favor

• When a player earns Might, in most cases they will also earn Favor
• Favor is a currency which can be used to purchase Siphoned Energy and additional reward chests
• Favor thus offers a direct economic benefit to earning Might

Guild Might Levels

As players earn Might and Favor for themselves, they contribute to another new feature, Guild Might Levels:

• Guilds earn Season Points for each Might Level they complete
• All members contribute to these together
• Each activity has its own Might progress, allowing players numerous ways to contribute while earning Might and Favor for themselves

Guild Might Levels in turn benefit guild members:

• With each new bracket unlocked, members are rewarded with a significant amount of personal Might
• Members also get a bonus to Might generated for the rest of the season
• A new Season Overview allows players to see their guild’s current ranking, where its Season points came from, and which players contributed the most Might

Energy Vortices

• Like Open World Treasures, these spawn unpredictably in the Outlands
• Marked on the world and local map for everyone within a few regions
• After a time dependent on its strength, the storm dissipates, dropping a Territory Energy Crystal
• Crystals can be picked up and carried on foot to an owned territory
• Crystals transported successfully can be "captured" at the Tower

Territory Energy Levels

Captured Crystals boost the Territory's energy, which:

• Increases its Tower level
• Improves the rate at which Siphoned Energy and Season Points are generated
• Boosts guard strength
• Boosts enchanted resource spawn rate / gathering yield in the zone

Over time, Territory energy diminishes, so guilds must remain active to get maximum Territory benefits. Crystal League Matches played from Territory towers continue to supplement energy as well.

Territory Rebalancing

To encourage active Outlands play, Territories now generate far fewer Season Points if they are low on energy, but have a much higher maximum potential if they stay at maximum level. Season success is thus less dependent on passive income, instead requiring guilds to remain active around their Territories. Of course, players participating in this are also rewarded with significant Might and Favor themselves.

In Summary

The Conqueror’s Challenge, Might Levels and Energy Vortices allow players to push their guild towards victory with smaller-scale activities, while earning rewards for themselves and enjoying new open-world PvP objectives.

Stay tuned for the next Dev Talks, where we'll discuss Headquarters Hideouts, Power Cores, War Gloves and more!