Discussion of the new Wartune patch

Unfortunately, I do not have a high level character on tests servers, so I have only 2nd hand information of the Wartune patch changes coming to every server next week. Fortunately, there are a lot of information on the forums, so now we have a vague idea of what's coming. I write a short summary here of the big changes (there are many small ones too I don't list now, like sylph attached to eudameon, new emo icons etc), and try to analyze the consequences.

The good changes

Mounts

Several great additions here. We get 4 new free mounts, and they even move faster than the previous ones. They can be trained with whips. 
Also the developers implemented something I suggested earlier: you can recycle duplicate mount cards, and buy mounts you missed for the "beast souls" you receive. Let's hope we can exchange the old beast shards for beast souls (I wonder why they created a new item in the first place).


New mpd, Narrandera remains

A new mpd is always a cool challenge. As I heard, originally this was for 8 people on the Chinese servers, and the 2 teams had to kill 2 bosses parallel, at the same time. Our version got adapted to the more abandoned servers, here you take only the normal 4-people team, and those 4 players are split to attack the 2 bosses. It's similar to Eternal Forest's first bosses, one is physical, the other is magical immune.
This mpd is once a week. I think this a is a good change. Yes, it  means less loot, longer time to collect the mythic armor pieces which are dropped here. But I like that the time required to play the game is not increased, we can do this on the weekend when we have time.

Bounty targets
A challenge ladder for eudaemons, similar to sylph expedition. Now we have to start developing a 2nd and 3rd eudaemon, that's bad, you would say - fortunately, 90% of the eudaemon's strength comes for free, from it's level, so all you need here is just blood of zeus and buying skills chests from guild shop which you do anyway. So this is a new way to get loot, hopefully useful items, and it doesn't take too much extra time.

Sylph arena rewards upgraded
Now you can choose to get advanced sepulcrum and sylph enchant pack instead of normal sepulcrum and sylph equip shard as reward for sylph arena ranking, that's a good chance.

Circus rewards upgraded

Finally :) But prolly still not enough to waste time on this. But, when you got enough imperial seals from goodies link so you can run a complete circuit without spending too much time, then at least you will get some useful reward.





The bad changes

Wild shop changes

Wild shop changed drastically. It has a lot of new items, mostly useful ones: beads of influence, eudaemon stuff, divinity souls, advanced mahra etc. This is a good thing. But instead of paying for them only with free commodities (insignia, daru etc) now there is always a balen cost associated. And most of the prices are irrealistically high. Also, the refresh cost is now balen instead of daru. This is a very, very bad thing. And fashion cores and good luck charms are gone. This is bad too. But you can pay with bound balens too, at least. So adding new and useful items would be cool, but in overall, this is nerf, sadly. If I were them, I would have added some balen cost (but not so high as now), and would have kept the daru refresh.

Dimensions

Dimensions were already "optimized" twice in Wartune's history, and both time we got a heavy nerf. Looks like this third time is no exception :( At first glance, there are some nice things. A mini-map, you can see how many objects you need to finish, you can even locate a hidden object for 10 energy. But there are much more negative changes.
Looks like the chest contents are downgraded once more, there are less (or not at all?) bound balen as treasure. The reapers seem to be replaced by "trials" which give random treasure (much worse than the eudaemon crystals we got earlier). Some even reported lack of dragon den, and dimensions expiring faster, but that seems unbelieveable to me so still need to confirm. 
The energy regenerates gradually instead of resetting at server reset (bad thing, imho), and various moves has now various costs. Moving to an empty is only 4 energy, but moving to an object costs much more. Can't judge that part, will see if it is good or not.

Sylph merge

For me, one of the most important thing in a game is to have long-term goals. When I read about sylph merge, it sounded an exciting thing, something which will take a lot of time and effort to achieve. But the result is hugely disappointing. Merging together you Aegis and Athena costs 60000 unbound balens. Yes, thats 600 USD! (was 20k on Chinese) And the skills also cost 6000 and 15000 unbound balens EACH! I think Wartune's publisher has made a huge mistake here. As long as developments costs 300, 500 or 1000 shards, crystals etc. which cost a LOT of balens, there was always a hope that it will get cheaper one day, maybe you can get even some for free. But not here. With sylph merge, it is made clear from the start that this feature is open only to about 20-30 players in total who are willing to spend 1500 USD on this. So Loki/Odin wants to be the Lamborghini of Wartune. The big problem is with this, as soon as it becames obvious for a light or medium casher that he can NEVER reach this goal, he loses interest, and quits. There must be ALWAYS a hope. Even a slight one.
I don't even understand who is the target for this sale. People who could pay 600 USD for this has evolved their Aegis long ago...

Conclusion
We have to adapt, as always. About dimensions, I suggest that you do not open new dimension until the new patch; instead, try to clear and loot up what you already have. I will also use my spare Eternal lights to cover as much as possible.
About wild shop, I will do much more resets each day than I used to, I try to spend most of my mystery stones on free items until it's possible.
Also looks like I have to grow blood of zeus again in my farm (was growing mount whips only since a while).
If you are a super-heavy casher, you prolly don't bother much about my blog. But if you do, I recommend that you do not rush making a Loki (or even Odin). If no one buys them, maybe the developers realize that this time they went too far.
What I learned from Doomlord, never change what is working well, never nerf things, and never piss of players by setting outrageous prices. Because right now it seems their goal is not profit, but some kind of weird sociological experiment :)