The Broader Factions Update
Welcome house leader,
Today we’re excited to announce the broader faction update, which is expected to go live late September.
In the spirit of our last few dev diaries, we’ll try and share a bit more information as to why we’re making these changes and why we think it will be good for the game. Please give us feedback on if you like these longer dev diaries, and please keep in mind that everything here is still a work in progress, the art in particular is not finalized.
We’ll be breaking down:
Why we’re changing things
What we’re changing.
Additional changes that are somewhat related.
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
What’s The Problem?:
To start, let’s go over the major problems with our faction system.
Roster Depth
Lack Of Star Power
Non-Faction Champions
Roster Depth:
The first problem is fairly obvious. Some factions like the Brotherhood and Boltons just don’t have as many interesting characters, we’re limited to using characters who appeared in the show after all.
Lack Of Star Power:
The next problem is “Star Power”.
Put simply, the more popular characters in the show are the ones you’re all interested in. From our casual players to the top players in the Iron Throne, all players summon more on popular champions.
Even when we make really powerful characters who are easy to use in many teams, like Nymeria Sand or Mance Rayder, they are slow to be adopted by all players. Nymeria is currently one of the strongest champions in the game, and while she’s used in the Iron Throne, most of the audience, even in gold have yet to pick her up. Villains in particular do very poorly with the average audience.
Non-Faction Champions:
From our surveys and from data, we’ve seen that champions without a faction tend to be less popular. For our novice players, factions are a great way to understand synergies and how to use their champions. While our top tier players will find exceptions that are very strong, like Olenna, even they chase faction champions at a higher rate than non-faction champions.
Put It All Together:
When these problems all come together it results in us being less open to make champions for underutilized factions, and we know that can feel really bad for those of you who enjoy those playstyles, like BLEED.
Our goal with this update is to ensure every champion has a faction and that every faction has some big names. That way, if you like a certain play style, you can play champions you like and we will have an easier time supporting all factions going forward.
So now that we’ve established the problem, let’s talk about how we’re handling it.
The New Kids On The Block
We’ve called this update the “Broader Factions Update” because our smaller factions are being adjusted so that we can get more champions under their umbrella. We also have 1 brand new faction coming in.
Before we introduce them let’s get a few key details out of the way:
No champion is allowed to be a part of 3 factions at once. Our limit is 2.
No champions are losing their current factions, we don’t want to ruin anyone’s current teams.
Champions are given factions based on what we feel is appropriate to them in the time they’re based on.
Example: depending on when in the series you look at him, Jon Snow could be a Stark, a Night’s Watch champion, Beyond The Wall, or a Targaryen. We make judgments where we feel appropriate and we try to limit how many champions share a specific dual faction combo.
We will give all champions who do not have synergy with their new faction an ability that will help them when they eventually get their iconic items.
We cannot promise a timeline for all of these.
Champions who already have their iconic items will gain new abilities (no nerfs, only new bonuses) to ensure they play well with their new team.
Now then, let’s meet the new factions!
THE SUN’S DOMINION (New Faction)
This brand new faction looks to unite the south of Westeros under 1 banner. Named the Sun’s Dominion to evoke the House Martell banner while also thematically pushing it away from the Baratheon homeland “The Stormlands” this faction will house many popular champions from the south of Westeros.
This faction will play heavily around POISON and RENEW keywords, damaging and healing over time as they outlast their foes.
Their champions:
Areo Hotah
Criston Cole (Personal Escort)
Criston Cole (The Kingmaker)
Margaery Tyrell
Nymeria Sand
Oberyn Martell
Olenna Tyrell
Otto Hightower
Note: we know Criston Cole is from Blackhaven which is in the Stormlands. We thought it made sense to include him since Criston is often hinted as having Dornish ancestry and spent much of his life in the South. We don’t think all Stormlanders need to be automatically disqualified from being part of the Sun’s Dominion, just most of them so that not every Baratheon is an instant dual faction.
We also excluded Gwayne Hightower despite being from Oldtown because he only joins the show once the Dance of Dragons has started and we want to limit how many Greens champions are dual faction with the Sun’s Dominion.
The Way Of Whispers (The Updated Bolton Faction)
Think of this faction as the schemers. From Osha and Tyrion who negotiate to get out of trouble, to Petyr, an expert at playing the game of thrones, to betrayers like Walder Frey.
This faction will retain the Bolton playstyle of stacking BLEED and dodging attacks as enemies defeat themselves.
Their champions:
Aemond Targaryen
Cersei Lannister (Queen Of The 7 Kingdoms)
Will be given some BLEED synergy in her kit.
Osha
Petyr Baelish
Tyrion Lannister (Lord Of Casterly Rock)
Will be given a bit of BLEED/Whispers synergy in his kit.
Note: We know this is a broad faction, we will do our best to include champions which make sense, but as mentioned above, we want dual faction champions to still feel special, so not everyone who can be a Way Of Whispers champion will be given the faction.
Lord Varys is a perfect example. He perfectly embodies this faction, but due to him already being a dual faction champion, we won’t be adjusting him.
BEYOND THE WALL (The Updated Free Folk)
The Free Folk faction is being expanded to all the lands Beyond The Wall.
This faction will become our premier REINFORCE faction. Swarm the battle with additional champions and crush your foes.
Their champions:
Bran Stark
Ice Warden
The Night King
Icy Viserion
LORDS OF THE TIDE (The Updated Greyjoys)
This faction is being expanded to include all seafarers.
They will retain the Greyjoy playstyle, relying on combos and RAID to deal massive damage and heal when they defeat enemies.
Their champions:
Corlys Velaryon
Laenor Velaryon
Seasmoke
Craghas Drahar
Davos Seaworth (Hand Of Stannis)
Will be given a bit of RAID synergy in his iconic item.
THE SCATTERED BANNERS (The Updated Brotherhood Without Banners)
The world of Ice & Fire has so many inhabitants.
Some fight for honor, others for their gods, others for coin. When the Great Houses clash, the rest must carve their own path.
The Scattered Banners is all about those who roam the lands in search of glory or to help others. Hedge Knights, Mercenaries, Pirates, Medics, or those spreading their gospel. The Scattered Banners take on many different forms.
We’re currently working on a brand new keyword that we will introduce for this faction, we don’t have an exact timeline for when this will come in, but we’ll keep you posted.
Their champions:
Bronn
Ser Duncan The Tall
Egg
Talisa Stark
Daario Naharis
Jaqen H’ghar
Related Changes:
While we’re adjusting factions, there’s a few other things we’re going to be tweaking.
New Stats!
GEM RESISTANCE
This new stat will work exactly the same as our other resistances do, reducing all incoming damage of the specific type. We’re introducing this stat and it will become a part of the Sun’s Dominion faction bonus, doubling down on their anti-gem gameplay from Poison.
CRIT RESISTANCE
Crit Resistance is your champion's ability to avoid taking critical damage. With the rise of champions who gain bonus effects from critical strikes, like Daario Naharis, Crit Resistance will allow for champions to defend themselves from these bonus effects.
The chance for champions to land critical strikes will now be calculated as: Attackers Critical Strike Chance - Defender’s Critical Resistance = Odds to critically strike.
Crit Resistance will also reduce the odds of taking critical damage from gem damage.
RESILIENCE
Resilience will modify all incoming healing and shielding.
By default champions have 100%. A 20% Resilience buff increases all healing and shields to be 120% effective, even from effects like RENEW and RAID!
Rebalanced Faction Bonuses
As of writing, there are 16 Dual Faction Legendary champions in the game.
This update is introducing an additional 17 Dual Faction Legendary champions.
And we have even more new Dual factions in development, coming in combinations that weren’t possible prior to this update (Like a Targaryen / Whispers champion).
This makes triggering faction bonuses easier than ever, to a point where we feel the need to quickly get them in line. Faction bonuses aren’t all equal, and while some deviation due to them providing different stats is fine, the Baratheons getting +30% ATK while the Night’s Watch only get +25% ATK is not.
We’re introducing a few small balance tweaks to ensure that playing teams with 2 or more faction bonuses active is good, but not mandatory.
Diminishing returns: Once this update lands, if your team has 2 faction bonuses, each one will only be 75% effective. If you have 3 factions, each bonus will only be 60% effective. So having 1 faction = 100% faction buff, 2 factions is a total of 150% buffs, 3 factions is a total of 180% buffs. As you can see, it’s still beneficial to use multiple factions, but this change should ensure they don’t provide an overwhelming advantage.
Re-alignments
All Factions Gem Damage: +25% -> +20% This is to reduce the power of multi-faction teams. We feel that even with the diminishing returns change, gem damage is a bit too high.
All faction buffs will now be +25% This unifies all ATK & DEF buffs and puts them in line with Power and Durability. While this will hurt the Free Cities, we are introducing a new keyword “Charge” to compensate them for this change.
New Faction Bonuses The new factions we’ve made will have the following bonuses:
Sun’s Dominion -> 25% Gem Resistance AND Unnatural Resistance Mirroring their mastery of all things Poison, the Sun’s Dominion will be given gem and unnatural resistances.
The Way Of Whispers -> 25% Dodge This buff feels thematic and will help them trigger their BLEED without taking any damage in return.
The Scattered Banners -> 25% Crit Chance AND Crit Resistance. Their old bonus was one of the weakest in the game, so we’re giving them Crit Resistance in addition to their increased crit chance. This should make them functionally immune to critical hits against most of the cast.
Lord Of The Tides -> -25% Stamina Cost We’re keeping the Greyjoy faction bonus. Their combos need speed to be effective.
Beyond The Wall -> 25% Durability Life beyond the wall is difficult, those who survive have the durability to endure everything!
Bug Fixes & Simplifying
We’ve adjusted our tech to allow for Gem Damage and Gem Crit buffs to now work on the defensive side of combat.
This means going forward;
Basic attacks and any defensive ability which is meant to replicate gems being destroyed by a champion will now deal gem damage.
Gem resistance will reduce the damage on these effects instead of physical or other resistances.
Champions who grant Gem Damage buffs will now grant their full power buffs to their allies instead of weaker generic ATK buffs when on the defensive side of battles.
Poison will now help reduce the damage of these effects.
Speaking Of Poison:
Poison has been bugged since its release, but we held off on fixing it as it would be a net negative to the keyword.
Essentially, Poison was going through our defense formula in an unintended way, which meant:
It was able to critically strikes
It was doing different amounts of damage to different champions instead of ALWAYS being 5% of the target’s max HP.
Overall, this should result in less damage from poison, but now that Poison will be able to counter more attacks due to the gem damage changes above, and the fact that Poison champions are being added to a faction, we think poison teams and champions will be fine with this change.
Introducing Charge!
Why we’re introducing charge:
The Free Cities are all about speed, but stamina passing is currently % based.
This is bad for the Free Cities because most of their champions are fast, and their faction bonus reduces their stamina cost. A 30% buff doesn’t care about their faction bonus and is actually more powerful when used on slow champions.
The new keyword Charge grants a fixed amount of stamina, from a very small amount at Charge I, to a very large amount at Charge V.
Here’s a visual example using Khal Drogo’s new leader ability. In the current version it grants 50% stamina, after the update it will grant Charge V at combat start.
As you can see, in the current version, both Xaro and Khal Drogo gain half their stamina, and the Free Cities faction bonus does nothing to modify the power of the stamina being granted.
With CHARGE, slower champions like Xaro will be slower, but fast champions become even faster!
Once the faction bonus is active, Khal Drogo can almost completely fill his stamina bar with his Leader ability.
Normal speed champions should be roughly equal with the new faction bonus and Charge mechanics active.
We won’t be changing all stamina effects to Charge. For example, Daenerys (the Khaleesi version), will be retaining her % based stamina on her Skill because she is occasionally used on non-Free Cities teams in order to speed up slower champions. We’d like to preserve that niche for her. Her passive and leader abilities will gain charge though.
Final Thoughts:
We want to thank you all for reading this dev diary. We hope you’re excited to try out all the changes above and to see how we’ll be expanding the rosters of each faction in the future. Please share your feedback about these changes and our recent, longer dev diaries with us in the discord.
If you’re a fan of the Boltons or other small factions, we hope these changes give you more champions to play with your teams. If you’re a big competitor in PvP, we hope these changes help make more factions viable.
If you’re a Baratheon player, we hope the gem damage changes make it easier to understand how your team will perform on the defensive side of combat.
And if you’re a player in our game, we hope you continue to enjoy your time with us.