Season X: Unit Balancing

It has always been our goal to make Conqueror's Blade a game that is constantly evolving and becoming better than before. Now that the game has been up and running for ten seasons, we have collected tons of feedback and have also learned that there is room for improvement. One of these improvements is to balance our units, and we are aware we may not have addressed issues quickly enough when they arose, which we apologise for and now endeavour to fix. 

One of the biggest balance issues has been with the Axe Raiders from Season IX: Tyranny. We have looked into why that is and have come up with the following reasons: 

1) The development team has pooled too many resources into creating new content for new seasons and overlooked the balance of current units.

2) Due to controversies about the Fire Lancers adjustments, we have been too conservative in changing popular units. We want to give each unit its own place in the game via systematic changes rather than altering certain problematic units. Naturally, this has led to us not being able to address certain issues in time.

The game's balance is of utmost importance and an issue we must face head-on. We will immediately start rolling out a series of balance changes based on the following: 

AdjustmentData

According to the data, the ten most-used units make up a total of 46.8% of all units used. This means that the other 80+ units don't see much usage. This situation is in stark contrast to the diversified battles we have in mind. We are planning to make relative data public regarding units and roll out a series of changes to make battles more varied and balanced. 

A goal we have always had is for more units to have their own unique roles in the complex battlefield of Conqueror's Blade. We have also made attempts to do so since Season VII: Wolves of Ragnarok. For example, changes for Ironcap Swordsmen and Iron Reapers have made them usable once more. Conqueror's Blade is made up of almost one hundred units, and in the future, we want to increase the speed and quality with which we change units that need changing. All in all, we want our players to enjoy more units in battles.

Adjustments to Units

• Axe Raiders

The Axe Raiders are strong in several ways. They are tankier and deal more damage than average units of their leadership cost, leading to high usage and win rate. Based on their characteristics, we have decided to tune down their survivability to better fit into their category as squishy light infantry. These changes will make them weaker when affected by other units.

• Modao Battalion

The Modao Battalion has always been a highly used unit. Data shows that they are exceedingly tanky and deal high damage. Their tight formation and easy-to-use skills have led to them being overly powerful in organised group battles. While we don't want to change their characteristics, we will be nerfing a reasonable degree of their damage to other infantry, especially infantry using shields. 

There are many aspects affecting balance, including Heroes’ weapons, runes, maps, and so on. We will continue to monitor balance and roll out grounded and systematic changes. In the near future, we will also be changing some underused units based on data and community feedback, such as firearm and heavy shield infantry. 

Please check out the announcement on balance changes we will be publishing in the near future for more information. 

We estimate that this round of changes will hit the servers on January 13, 2022.

We will also issue the following compensation to all players as a form of apology:

• We will issue the items required to remove all Doctrines equipped to units receiving nerfs. 
• All players will receive an extra 25 Lotus Water so you can change your doctrines after the update. 
• All players will also receive 3 Treatises. 

Have Your Say with Feedback

We also want to improve communication with our players and provide timely responses to your feedback. Let us know if you have any thoughts or ideas about these balance changes or other improvements to units via the balancing_feedback channel on Discord.

The Future of Conqueror's Blade

Diversity and balance are integral topics to Conqueror's Blade. We want to shorten the time required to roll out balance changes based on communicating with our players. 

During past seasons, we have continued to launch new heroes, units, maps, and other content, all to bring you a more diverse gameplay experience. In doing so, we have overlooked the importance of what's already there, for example, the aforementioned balance issues. This has made it difficult for players to wage war the way they want to. Going forward, our focus will be on creating a more balanced, transparent, and varied Conqueror's Blade. 

Once again, thank you for all your feedback and encouragement. Conqueror's Blade is only here because of you. And we hope to create an even better world in Conqueror's Blade with your help.

We wish you all a happy new year and we’ll see you on the battlefield!