Become Unstoppable During the Gladiator’s Medallion Nexus Anomaly
“This anomaly is putting the power directly into your hands, giving you the choice of when to utilize it.”
The thundering drumbeats that sound from Azeroth’s arenas now echo throughout the Nexus. Fingers, claws, and tendrils clutch trinkets suddenly imbued with the unstoppable force of a rampaging war machine. This power can be yours. You need only claim your Gladiator’s Medallion and let nothing stand in your way.
The Gladiator’s Medallion is our 4th and newest experiment in Nexus Anomalies: the limited-time gameplay shake-ups that temporarily grace the Battlegrounds before heading back into the space between realms. During this new anomaly, every Hero will be equipped with an activated ability that instantly clears most disabling effects and grants a brief Unstoppable buff, though with a hefty 5-minute cooldown. Consider it your new “I’ve made a huge mistake” undo button, or a tool to help you pull off those pro-level plays without needing to worry about disabling effects.
Developer Insights, Tips, and Trinkets:
Here’s what Gladiator’s Medallion point-person Senior Designer Kyle Dates had to say about this new anomaly, along with some friendly advice on how best to utilize your newfound power.
What were the team’s goals for bringing this new anomaly to the Nexus?
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Our goals for the Gladiator’s Medallion are two-fold. The first is providing power directly to Heroes, while the second is creating more opportunities to make plays or escape long crowd control chains. Our previous anomalies have centered around modifying the game surrounding the Heroes. XP globes, tower and fort changes, and even the weather system were things that just “happen” outside of the player’s direct control. This anomaly is putting the power directly into your hands, giving you the choice of when to utilize it.
Any insights from the experimentation, development, or playtesting process that you could share?
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Early on we experimented with the idea that the cooldown would reset if you died. Our thought was that it could encourage you to use it more often (instead of holding it all game), but it ended up being used way too much for our liking. Every team fight would see all the medallions being used, and the losing team would get theirs reset, allowing them to come back to the next fight with their cooldown refreshed and ready to go.
Any insider tips or tricks for making the most of your medallion?
- Don’t be afraid to use these to stay alive in the early game! A 5-minute cooldown may sound long, but you can get multiple uses out of it per game if you use it early.
- You can activate your Gladiator’s Medallion while Rooted or Slowed but not while Stunned or Silenced.
- It can be helpful to create a custom hotkey (accessible in the Hotkeys > Advanced menu) to make it easier to use your Gladiator’s Medallion.
- Activate your Gladiator’s Medallion right before casting a high-impact channeled ability such as Mosh Pit to prevent being immediately interrupted.
- It can also be useful to activate right before using an escape ability. Valla can use Vault immediately after the Gladiator’s Medallion to get away from danger while under the effects of the Unstoppable buff it provides.
Remember, anything can happen in the shifting space between realms, so stay tuned to see what else the Nexus Anomalies might bring to the Battlegrounds in future updates. Also, be sure to check out the rest of what the CraftWars update has in store by heading in game now or reading our overview blog.