User:Blueeighthnote/Predictions/July 2018

All information below is fake wishy-washy things for self-entertainment and not official news.

With my familiarity with the metagame after playing Tower of Saviors for 4 years, I decided I will make a prediction post here. It's pretty much just for entertainment, but if more than 50% of the speculations becoming true, I will call Madhead being lazy and read all my stuff here instead!

According to the 42-day schedules of ToS, here are my predictions of each versions' release:
 * v15.1: March 5 (This is partially confirmed).
 * Predictions: Crash Fever collaboration (and end of it). Investiture of Heavenly Kingdom receiving AR, amelioration of Beast Companions (probably just a generic boost). Yog-sothoth received PR.
 * v15.5: April 15.
 * Predictions: Re:0 collaboration. The rise of Machina teams, Primal Greek PR, 10th Seal added to the game. Dragonware applied to Dragons from Sepulchre and Witches. Frigg released.
 * v16.0: June 4.
 * Predictions: Italian Chef Special Draws, tenth Black Diamond (Dark) released. Beast Companions receiving PR. Fusions (Demons and Golems+Melogs) buffed unconditionally.
 * v16.1: July 23 (the prediction date of this page).
 * Predictions: No special draws in this version. Fallen Haloes Special Draws reopened (rares got PR and normal ones get amelioration). Paladins received MR.

#1: "MR" stands for Molecular Reconstruction
Molecular Reconstruction revived Paladins, and due to the success, there will be MR applied to Chinese Beasts and CR to Fate Sisters.

Madhead does not want to hand out "Virtual Rebirth" as they are sort of reserved for Diamond Seal monsters only. But, Madhead found out they ran out of series to Power Release and does not want to have too many monsters acquiring the ability to VR. As many old players found their old great teams completely worthless (such as Paladins, Fate Sisters, and Chineses beasts), the "Molecular Reconstruction" (分子重建) devised by scientists aim to renew a series. This is possible by using the evolution material of Machinas, "Power Core", to allow many monsters to regain the needed power.

The leader paladins (Earth and Light) gained their much-needed 5.5x human multiplier to survive again, while the water, fire and dark paladins have a much shorter cooldown for utility skills. All five paladins can use a secondary skill, stored by the EP system of Revolutionary Heroes, to use additional skills of board-cleaning, combo-boosting, and runestone-enchanting. Mastering these new powers require solid spinning techniques, and while they might not be as good as some monsters in Special Draw series, they are free to get in Lost Relic Registry. It is too bad that the resources required are not beginner friendly, but they are great for returning players to finally take paladins out of the "warehouse".

Since this experimentation is quite a success, the Chinese Beasts will gain Molecular Reconstruction in August as Madhead promised, due to the critical acclaim. The Fate Sisters, on the other hand, will receive CR (Chronic Rejunevation, 妙手回春).

#2: A defensively-inclined Dark Human Team
'Gioachino Rossini leads a Dark Human+Demon team capable of strong healing and reduces damage from enemies. While the team is somewhat successful, the Italian Chef theme leads to the "food" mechanic that is not well-received. '

Madhead really wants to finish the theme of "Mono-attribute Human teams". This is evident in the release of Arthur, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Sun Ce. With Dark teams, though, Madhead probably decided that a regular offensive team is too mainstream and wants to try out a Dark Human+Demon team lead by Gioachino Rossini that can shield damage, and by fulfilling a condition (probably 8+ combos first batch), can even avoid damage altogether. These qualities make up for the slight lack of overall damage compared to Lu Bu, but some players called it an excuse just to make Xiahou Dun's active skill useful.

The series it comes from is the Italian Chef series, an unprecedented move by Madhead to introduce "foods" to Tower of Saviors. The food mechanic allows Humans and Beasts to increase stats, allowing Humans to restore quicker and strengthening attacks of beasts. However, this was met with heavy criticism to further complicate the already-complex systems of ToS, and the food is hard to acquire outside of events. Even worse, if a human leader starves, the leader multiplier will decrease by 20%! This stresses players with multiple human teams out, as they now need to manage their resources in order to keep up with the pace.

The worst part is that even with the success of Rossini team, it was largely superseded only one month later by the 2nd Dark Black Diamond card, who is superior in damage and healing!

#3: The 10th Black Diamond: Baldr, the son of Odin
Baldr claims the title as the King of Dark teams, even though Rossini was just released a few weeks ago!

To the players' surprise, the son of Odin turns out to be available in the Black Diamond Format! With the ability to lead God teams and Dark teams, this card has the power to deal millions of damage consistently, overpowering the damage output of Lu Bu and outclassing him. The decision to make him a black diamond caught many players off guard, as many players originally thought it is going to be available via ultimate stage - after all, many major characters are given the 7-star status.

Some players were very upset as they spent a ton of diamonds to get Rossini, only to found out that Baldr was released soon after. Many players now figured out the pattern of Black Diamond releases - whenever there is one Water-attribute rare card (Guan Yu, Andromeda, Cornflower, and Sun Ce), or whenever there are two Light-attribute rare cards (Roundtable). A lot of players advocated that whenever a Water rare card is released (which Madhead did with the water-attribute rare, Pellegrino Artusi, leading a Water-Earth-Dark team), they should never spend all their diamonds in the rate-up day.

There are a small group of players getting sick of Madhead's way of betrayal - when water teams were at their weakest point, the introduction of Cornflower convinced many players to get one, only to found themselves unhappy when Atlantis was better in every conceivable way. Now the similar situation is happening with Rossini and Baldr, and players are starting to ask why Madhead is purposely distributing these leaders of different attributes so unevenly.