Although Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft Rumble mobile tower defense game has a fully fleshed-out single-player campaign and numerous PvE modes, the game is also primed for a thriving PvP scene thanks to a thoughtful approach to its meta as well as a reward system that encourages guilds to collectively compete in matches. Warcraft Rumble's PvP matches are played out in real-time against opposing players rather than asynchronous multiplayer often seen in other mobile strategy games, and as a result, they'll be a true test of each player's choice of Warcraft miniatures and their tactical skills.
Game ZXC spoke with Warcraft Rumble Game Producer Elhora Davis and Art Director Jeremy Collins about the game's various multiplayer features, including its cooperative guild system and PvP. They broke down how guilds will work together to earn rewards, how the PvP meta will continually shift thanks to regularly changing modifiers, and what the various rewards will be for players who participate.
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Warcraft Rumble's Guilds and PvP Go Hand In Hand
In Warcraft Rumble, player guilds will be closely related to the game's PvP content, and guild progression is tied to the membership's collective success in PvP matches. Guild members can discuss their strategies and team setups, and it's also a good idea to coordinate leader choices for guilds who want to make efficient progress due to the way the War Chest system works.
PvP in general is where guilds shine the most. You group up with about 15 of your guildies and then you can battle PvP. You'll use guilds to chat strategy and figure out what your team's next move is. We have this really cool social feature called War Chests. The Arclight Rumble arcade machine has a machine inside of it and that's the War Chest, and the War Chest collects the different kinds of "juices" of the five different families that are in the game: Horde, Alliance, Blackrock, Undead, and Beast.
In your guild, as you beat various foes and climb the ladder in PvP throughout your journey, depending on which leader of whatever family are using, you're contributing back to those War Chests kind of like guild goals. Each of the five different families has its own mini-goals within its track, and you'll get a lot of unit XP for filling up the meters for the five different families. Once you fill up all five of those, we have three large seasonal rewards.
As players progress through the War Chest system, they'll earn plenty of smaller rewards that'll help strengthen their units with more XP, meanwhile, the larger seasonal rewards will unlock various new cosmetic skins for units like kobolds or towers as well as emotes to express oneself during matches.
Modifiers Cut Down On Meta Builds In Warcraft Rumble PvP
Players who are fans of PvP should have their hands full in Warcraft Rumble, as there is a surprisingly deep combination of systems to consider both before and during each match. One of the ways that Warcraft Rumble will keep PvP feeling fresh over time is its regularly-changing modifier system which shakes up PvP gameplay in ways that can drastically affect player decision-making in terms of their unit choices or behaviors.
The bedrock for our PvP is that we wanted to be able to have an ever-changing meta, so within a given PvP season is a "tumbling meta." That means that the map changes, the towers change, and the modifier will change. In some cases, it might be that gold income is increased, or that mini behaviors will change in some way. Maybe a mini will level up every time you play them or that kind of thing. With that tumbling situation with the maps and towers and modifiers, there's no one mini or one deck that stays prime the whole time, because it changes depending on what the advantages and disadvantages are of a given paradigm. That changes with regularity, and it means that you're always having to engage a little bit like "What do I have that can fit well within this meta?" That way we keep things staying really fresh.
Because of the way the modifiers frequently alter the PvP meta, players may want to focus on a more well-rounded collection of Warcraft minis rather than chasing the flavor of the month that may end up being far less effective than other choices in the near future.
Warcraft Rumble is set to release on mobile on November 3.