Hero Wars Dominion: November Log
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| Current Seasons' - November 2024 |
Power of the Titans
November 1 - 3
An Emerald Coin event where earned coins can be exchanged for Titan-related resources from the event shop. The shop is opened for an extra day to allow shopping - great for those of us that tend forget.
Cosmic Battle
November 4 - 7
The 4th is dedicated to the Ban Phase. From the 5th thru 7th, we get the actually battle event. Needless to say, this event isn't for everyone.
Unlike brawls, our heroes are fighting at their current level and build. Despite discussions stating you'll still have a chance against stronger opponents, it certainly doesn't feel this way during match ups. Even more so when your decently built heroes are removed from the roster during the Ban Phase.
Ascension to Asgard
November 8 - 10
This event came and went for me. Pretty much completed the tasks on the fly while tackling my to-do list. Still stuck on upgrading as I can't ever get enough of a particular item to progress.
In this case, I can't get enough of the Greater Resilience Insignia for Galahad. Moreover, I can't get enough Common and Vibrant crystals for my other heroes which is bringing upgrades to a crawl. Eternal Seeds are also lacking and not having Osh every week has brought earnings drastically down.
Portal Anomaly
November 10 - 12
It's like Rarity Fair but for Pets. An interesting event that I can't participate in.
Area of Conquest: Round 4
November 12 - 15
This should be a solo PVE (player vs environment) type of event/game mode. At the moment, there are three-ish types of players for this game mode: 1) the highly competitive, 2) the non-competitive and 3) the I don't like this game mode but my guild will get mad if I don't participate (bit of an exaggeration - hopefully).
There is still a big push for upgrading the castle level; yet, you still don't get much in return for doing so. At least if you're going the route of using superior coins that are earned and not purchased via the emeralds option for castle upgrades. Well I tried the castle leveling thing as an experiment on my main/oldest account - which is Facebook - and, like previously discussed in October, there's still no real incentive for leveling.
Plus, the cost to level jumps quite drastically. I went from needing 1,000 Superior Coins at the start to needing 10,000 just to get to Level 7 and that's to get from Level 6 to Level 7. In fact, I waited until I earned at least 10,000 Superior Coins before I began leveling the Guild Castle.
That 10,000 took me from Level 1 to Level 5. Spent 7,000 more and I got to Level 6. Spent 10,000 to get Level 7 and 10,000 more to get Level 8.
From here I spent an additional 15,000 to get Level 9 and 20,000 more to get Level 10. 20,000 more was going to be needed to get Level 11 so I just stayed at Castle Level 10. Despite being paired accordingly, the participating guilds had little to no interest in the event.
Between the Web and Facebook platforms, I was playing on six accounts; playing on all eight was out of the question. Out of these accounts, only three have full guilds. I was only attacked on one (1 of 3 - web, Level 130) and some how survived; the attacking team was way stronger than my team.
On another account (2 of 3 - FB, Level 130), it was like the only interested guild was waiting for someone to take the first spot so they could come and claim second. The other account (3 of 3 - web, Level 106) no one bothered anybody despite players being on the field.
The remaining three accounts are Guilds of One and were paired with other single occupant guilds. Despite guild activity, nobody took part in the event.
Legacy of the Great Ones
November 15 - 17
An Emerald Coin event I was unusually active with. The main tasks that were completed were part of the Upgrade Artifacts quest chain. All tasks were completed including the 200 upgrades one; mainly for my Facebook account.
Guardians of Outland
November 17 - 19
Spent lots of energy to kick start upgrades for one of my heroes. Completed the energy spending tasks for this and the Emerald Coin event that was still live. Needless to say, equipment fragment drop rates are ridiculous especially at the higher levels.
Other Events
There were other simple events that surfaced after this, but I pretty much stopped noticing after a while. The slight exception was Weaving Patterns but even that was slow going as I didn't have any additional patterns to upgrade the current ones.
Announcements
November 11: Expedition Update (went live on this date)
We got a little update for Expeditions where we can start expeditions with one click. As another bonus, we can gather rewards with one click.
November 14: Tournament of the Elements and Titans Update
The main Tournament of Elements update that I'm waiting to see is the refined matching system discussed in their community post. It is mildly infuriating to say the least when you're constantly matched with an overpowered titan team at Stage 1. From what I'm getting from the post, Titan Totems weren't part of the initial calculations.
In addition to this, we're getting an update for our Titans. The max level for titans, their artifacts and corresponding totems will increase from 120 to 130. Moreover, they'll be granted a bonus based on each hero's Gift of the Elements level.
More specifically, for every maxed GoE the titan/titan artifacts/totems will gain an extra max level that will go beyond the base Level 130. One of the main drawbacks with this upcoming update is the inability to reset Gift of the Elements - this will be discontinued after the titan update goes live.
The major issue for me with this is in regards to new heroes that almost always have an upgrade GoE task tied to them. I'm not up there yet and am often left with the option of resetting GoE for old heroes to upgrade new heroes for the resources that are rewarded for doing so.
November 18: Update to the Update for Titans and ToE
The only thing changing is max level. Everything else that was announced, like disabling GoE reset, are still present in the game. As for the fight pairings...not bad, not great.
I'm still encountering teams with totem levels and ranks that are higher than my own. Moreover, I'm not getting to the max level that I've gotten to previously when things were more manageable.
Anniversary: 7 Years of Hero Wars
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| Borrowed from the 7-year Birthday Event post. |
November 21, 2017 is when I was first introduced to Hero Wars on Facebook. At that time, I was in the middle of a mission for Island Experiment and was in need of diamonds (HW equivalent of emeralds). There was an in-game offer and a relevant ad for Hero Wars.
Completed the offer and earned diamonds. Despite completing the offer, I continued to play as it reminded me - at the time - of past games I used to play. Everything was fine until I entered the guild scene and things turned into a learning roller coaster.
Fast forward to November 21, 2024 and I have very little maxed out. One of the top things that was learned after my first break, was that this game is not long-break friendly. If you log off with x-amount of resources and currency, you're going to come back to that same amount months later (more on this later).
My Progress...Or Lack Of
I took a lot of breaks from this game over the years and it's kind of telling. There were a lot of things that were learned late, but I some how managed to make up for it. It took me up to late-October 2024 to get all of my heroes to Absolute Star with the exception of Augustus and Lara Croft.
It took up till the week of November 10 to get heroes outside of my 27 heroes that are on rotation to Level 100. From the early parts of October to now, I've also been playing catch-up with hero artifacts for heroes that are currently in use; mainly for the boss battles. Glyphs are constantly going on the back burner due to either low runes, low gold or a mix of both.
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| Moloch with artifacts and totem. |
Moloch, Sigurd and Angus are the only titans with Absolute Star crowns. Iyari, Moloch and Araji are the only three titans with at least one orange-rank artifact. Moloch is the only titan with a maxed level artifact - the Defense Seal (which is 123, for now).
I have a single Level 45 fire totem at one star and no others. On web accounts 1 and 2 I also have single star totems (one each). Meanwhile on accounts 7 and 8 - web - I have 2-star Earth Totems (one each) and still can't recall what I did on either accounts to get them.
Pets are another commotion where only one is at Absolute Star and that was thru opening pet eggs - part of the Absolute Star Pet of the Day. My main pet is at 5-stars and maxed rank. It takes forever to get pet stones, especially in large quantities.
On top of hero build basics we have Ascension Glyphs, Tree of Wisdom and the resources needed to upgrade each. On top of the titan build basics, we have titan skins which require titan skin stones to upgrade. Totems require Guild War Trophies which range from Bronze to Blue (Clash of World Trophies).
If you don't have GW Trophies then you have to use emeralds for upgrades. In addition to all of this, is the war flags and patterns system. For this one you have options: special events or exploring the Mysterious Islands which require Explorer's Moves.
What's the Hold Up? You've Been Playing Long Enough.
Lots of breaks.
Made loads of mistakes in the early days.
Good portion of resource earning activities are tied to guild co-ops (mainly if you can't spend emeralds).
Willingness to migrate to an active guild dissipated over the years.
Shifting goalposts.
The Breaks & Mistakes
Remember that tidbit earlier about leaving for a break with a certain number of resources/currency and coming back to the same amount? Well, my first MMO-type game had things set up where you could earn currency and some resources while offline. Upon returning, you'll have funds waiting for you along with a welcome back package.
You kind of get that here but not quite. Depending on what was going on at the time, my breaks would range from a few days to several weeks. When I'm not stepping away completely, I will check-in to do a few things and log off again.
In addition to this, there were mistakes like selling off hero soul stones for gold which delayed the upgrading process. There were countless others that were only recently properly dealt with.
Co-ops & Resources
Then there's resources that are tied to guild co-ops. This wasn't a major issue until the introduction of totems which are tied to guild war trophies. Which means after a certain point, you'll need silver guild war trophies and later gold guild war trophies to finish the upgrading progress.
Moreover, if you managed to get a light and dark totem you'll need access to the blue guild war trophies which can only be earned consistently through Clash of Worlds participation which is limited to gold and silver league guilds.
Willingness to Migrate - Nonexistent
The simple suggested solution: move to an active guild. About that, while some guilds promote a relaxed playing environment, there's no guarantee that particular environment will stay intact. Especially with the introductions of co-op features [looking at you Pet Adventures].
In addition to this, a lot of the requirements for joining some of the qualifying guilds aren't obtainable on a consistent basis. So, in Bronze League I remain until an update comes about that'll forever trap me in Qualifying League like my other accounts.
Shifting Goalposts
Last but not least are the shifting goalposts. When I started in late 2017, heroes and titans were the main focus. Heroes had gear up to Orange rank, skills and artifacts with a max level of 120; while titans were just being leveled.
Come 2018 and we get titan artifacts, Elemental Spirit Totems for fire, water, and earth titans along with Tournament of the Elements. In addition to this, hero level max increased to 130 and max color rank for hero gear became red. In 2019 we got our first titan skins and pets were introduced along with Pet Adventures.
While nothing - as far as I can recall - was added in 2020 we did get Asgard in 2021. With Asgard came the Tree of Wisdom, the Ascension Spire, Asgard minions and Asgard Boss. For some, this might not look like much.
At the time, I was still trying to grasp things on top of gathering enough resources to upgrade what heroes I had. Or at least the heroes I was able to put into functioning teams. Even though I have a better understanding of some things, I'm not on top of everything.
Onward Into December
New heroes are on the horizon and they're another throwback to my childhood - Lara Croft was the first. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will arrive in Dominion on December 2 and the accompanying event will last through December 21. Wow...I just realized the event is lasting for approximately 3-weeks.
From what I'm seeing, they may take a Turtles in Time approach - the video game - or they may take a teleportation approach for getting the turtles to Dominion. Unknown at this point but still looking forward to the event. In addition to the new heroes, we'll likely get Winter Fest and I really hope that we can get all 3 gifts this time from Winter Claus.
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