Impacts of the Updates on TH9 War Base Building Defense vs Offense War Balance
Hi there, quick intro, I'm what you call a 'TH9 War Base Specialist', create guides for TH9 War for the public, have connections to the top TH9 Clans (Kara Heroes for example). Although, the latest advantages such as 'Freeze Spell at TH9' really tipped the balance even more for offense over defense.
Please note the fact that I'm addressing this balance from the 'Elite 3 star clan' perspective, not the casual Gowipe vs TH9 clan perspective. When it comes to defending against TH9 attacks, defense is ALWAYS behind offense by two steps, due too the high amount of options and advantages which is provided for them. There always need to be an advantage or also there would be such thing as a "Perfect TH9 War Base" which is impenetrable, which no one wants that. The game revolves around offense, even all the guides and youtube videos are attack strategies, vastly outnumber any base building videos. You can read alittle more of my 'rant' in my page [War Base Designing Reality Check]
With regards to the updates, I'm generally neutral about it, even if it's having a harder hit on the public and war community, but somethings really does tip the 'war balance' alittle too much in favour for offense over defense. Although I'm alittle frustrated, I actually don't mind the update since it promotes 'the end of an era, the beginning of a new'. But the only thing which I disagree with is the fact that 'war sweet spot' in TH9 is now being thrown under the rug for the casual players to level up their bases, although the War Community might shift from TH10/9 to TH11/10, Supercell doesn't take too much consideration the balance of war since the War Community is smaller than casual farming community as well as the fact that majority of the population, are still Gowipe 2 star clans with no voice, but have the most purchasing power. War Community has been ignored most of the time, and addressing the 'issues' of war have been ignored and silenced in the forum. Watch Onehive's most recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-WkXE2npvE, where Jake discusses the problems.
Although things are being ignored for war community, and Supercell's focuses are only the General mass of farming and public, I am not saying Supercell is bad at all, in fact it's the opposite, that they are the most active company, and are one of the most 'change-based' involvement when it comes to game changing and even being able to go against the flow and 'outrage' of how 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' logic for farming and shield, they still went ahead and changed it up, and kept on the updates every few months, rather than keeping it stale, and not doing the 'promotional features!' that have 0 impact on the community. Keep it up.
Please note these +1 or +0.5 is highly subjective and made up, but as a base builder I feel like the 'weight' of each advantage is correct. But the fact is that very 'delicate' balance of Offense and Defense have really tipped the scale even more towards offense within the recent patches.
Previous Impacts of Updates for TH9 (from Air Sweeper Intro Patch Era to Present)
Defense
+1 for air sweeper intro: With the introduction of air sweeper, now the Lavaloon attacks need to consider where is deployed.
+1 for higher HP buildings/as defense: With the higher HP buildings and AS intro, the previously "2 for 1" Loon to Point Defense exchange isn't as prevalent compared to before.
+0.5 for second air sweeper intro: The AS didn't have as much of an impact, so another AS was added to TH9. Although this is the case, it doesn't do as much impact since offense now has more options than lavaloon, and air sweeper doesn't hit as hard to offense compared to the Lavaloon Era.
+1 Offset Queen/Island: The invention of offset queen to have her own island and area really puts more pressure on offense to jump and get the queen and get little value over it, or not to jump.
+0.5 for Springs between first and second layer defense: instead of springs between the first defense, it's now springs between first and second layer of defense, which surgical hogs cannot bypass.
+0.5 for Tesla Farm: Having 4 Teslas at a location (it's a specialized mechanic) to kill Hogs even under heal, can ruin the raid and is sorta used. Only good for first attacks though.
+0.5 for 'Concentrated defense': With the combination of King, Teslas, and inside Cannon, it targets Hogs and kill them as they scatter around inside the base. This combination out dps heal in a way.
-0.5 for Clan Castle: Intro of poison spell, is an advantage for offense, and crippled defense. Clan castle gets halved advantage (any Tier 1 troops will instantly perish), and limited option for what can be in the clan castle
Offense
+1 for Intro of Poison Spell
Clan Castle troops used to be a +1 advantage for defense, but with the invention of Poison spell, though there is a major shift for offense advantage.
+1 for 25-30 army space, or extra spell space: Before you needed to either use lure or a lightning. Now with poison as an extra now you get all of that back since you no longer need to lure and frees both space and spells.
This +2 advantage for offense, and -0.5 for defense, putting a +2.5 advantage for offense is the reason why Poison Spell is so OP and tips the favour really much for offense, and reason I feel like is too much power for poison.
+0.5 for Haste: Instead of One Rage, you can now split it into 2 Hastes, allowing a slightly more flexible spell placement.
+1 for Queen Walk/Healer Buff: with the intro of 'Healer not being targetable by air troops
+1 Surgical Hogs: Although it's alittle old, the surgical hogs have been perfected alot better to the point where Double Giant Bombs even with the correct placement, no longer has an impact of killing the big group of hogs anymore since the hogs that were once one group of 8, now turned to two groups of 4.
+1 for Quad-Quake/'MAX Attack: with the intro of 4 EQ = a 8x8 square sized Wall being torn down, with High level Heroes all the compartments that used to be separated by the walls to prevent ground troops, are all now massively linked together.
In Total:
Defense: +4.5 advantages since Air Sweeper Patch to Present. Only 2.5 advantage since the Air Sweeper updates (1.5 AS, 1 Higher Hp), and 2 is from defense building mechanic break throughs.
Offense: +6 Advantage since Air Sweeper Patch, which 4.5 of these advantage come from Air Sweeper updates (2.5 Poison, 1 Healer, 1 Haste) and 2 is from offense break through.
So in total, Supercell gave a +2 advantage (not to mention offense already had the advantage over defense) from the patches of Air Sweeper up till now.
Most Recent Updates Impacts in Terms of Advantages for TH9
Defense
+1-2: extra 10 spaces Length x width : with this extra space, the original size of the TH9 Bases will be dwarfed, and new types of base designs will emerge from this increase. For example now the option of having 'islands' is possible due to the big space available. Although I don't know how the designs will look like in the future or if this is possible, having that extra 5x5 space on the map promotes new types of TH9 Bases.
Offense
+1 Extra 30 seconds for attacking: the once 'tight almost there' but results in 99% with the last building will no longer exist as this extra 30 seconds is equivalent to have much more time in clearing junk buildings.
-0.5 for defense: the junk building no longer can be used to defend, for example in TH8s corner builders hut used to be a make it or break it for those that just use Dragons. That is considered a 'base building technique' and it punishes attackers for not considering them, and allows a defender to have room to defend against attackers.
+0.5-1 Dark Spell Donation: Now attackers have an extra spell whether it's haste, poison or EQ, when it comes to attacking. Most likely it'll be haste since poison is already in the slots, and haste will allow more troops to hit more targets.
+0.5 Freeze Spell, -0.5 for 'Concentrated Defense': Another extra option for attackers to use on defenses. Concentrated Teslas Farms, or any 'super tight' defenses will now be crippled.
So in total
Defense in TH9 gets as most a +1 or 2 which ALL depends on the base builder break through, and not actually a good update for defense, as well as -0.5 against a previously good breakthrough for defense;
While Offense gets another +2-3 advantage in total over defense, which disable alot of previously good defense qualities, and upped more offense.
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In conclusion, through the actions of Supercell prioritizing the mass farmers community, ignoring the minor sized War Community, even with these recent impacts and updates that were made for farmers, negatively affects the Balance of War which already isn't stable to begin with, not to mention the completely obvious censorship of carrot eating animal (which even this one sentence can get this thread shut down if there is a single comment that speaks of such animal). As a base builder as well, TH9 was the sweet spot, and offense had too many advantages to begin with. With the recent updates, the balance is tipped too far, and known fun factor of the 'TH9 War Sweet Spot' has been sliding away and to TH11 masses.
In any case, in another 5-6 months anyways, top clans will split into two parts, the clans which are keeping up to date with the upgrades, then all becoming TH11/10 for war, while TH9 becomes the new TH8 of this 'era'; And those TH9s that wish to stay at TH9 and/or cannot keep up with the clan's upgrading speed and conflict arises in the clan, splitting them. TH10 might be the new 'sweet spot TH9' of the future. We'll just have to wait and see.
