Its awesome to see the guilds implemented, and I especially love the talent tree. But I do have a couple of remarks.
Guild bosses
It is quite anti climactic to only be able to attempt a battle once a day. IIRC this was the same with the Gauntlet pre-launch, and I was so happy to see that by launch the gauntlet was changed to just having a high stamina requirement but no longer having that once-a-day-usage. I'd love to see the same thing happen here. Even if it takes a full energy bar every time, that's fine. Right now, it just feels like such a bummer to be effectively locked out 1/4th of the guild for the entire day after a single click.
Explore wars
This is a multi-faceted critique, mostly regarding the way winners are determined, the 5-minute activity window and the timing/duration of the wars. Mind you, at the moment there are no rewards to the Explore Wars. But depending on what the rewards will be post-beta, this critique will become more severe.
1. The 5 minute activity window awards constant availability/presence over total contribution.
Basically, the current sustem seems to reward when you play rather than how much you contribute towards a war. An uninterrupted hour of playing has a vastly different impact on a war than checking in 12x a day for a span of 5 minutes. Even if the amount of explores in both situations is similar.
This is especially frustrating when our timing of being online is mostly determined by factors beyond our power. Timezone, work, school or other real-life obligations all help determine to what extent our effort actually contributes or goes to waste. Certain timezones are quiet, making it far easier to remain on top, as opposed to busier timezones. But we can't really help what timezone we live in.
And that is not withstanding that 5 minutes of extreme farming followed by 30 minutes of nothing, will still lose to 30 minutes of low key exploring. Even if, in total, the low key exploring is LESS than the extreme farming. As said before, it seems to be focused more on timing and spreading, rather than actual contribution.
2. The 5-minute window plus uncertain duration of the war and restart of a new war after only 20 minutes makes it feel like I need to be online and competing at all hours.
I think it would be far more beneficial to have wars last a specific set of time (such as a full week), so that a. there's a more predictable pattern of wars that people can plan around, and b. it is easier to 'let go' and not feel pressured or forced to come online/stay online all the time. if I have an entire week to contribute for a single push, and regardless of when I contribute, my contributions count, I can rest easy on days or hours playing doesn't fit my schedule, and focus my efforts efficiently during the moments I actually have available.
TLDR; the way the system is set up now, it rewards timing (which is in large part completely out of our hands) far more than contribution. Additionally, it heavily encourages an unhealthy amount of constant and continuous check-ins, and makes previous effort (e.g. 5 minute and older) completely obsolete.
Countersuggestions I'd make in regard of this is the following:
1. Use total amount of explores rather than the amount of minutes spent on top to determine the winner (potentially normalised for the amount of active/contributing members?)
2. Count ALL activity, and not just the past 5 minutes
3. Wars start and end on specific moments, and last a set duration (such as a week)
To not completely throw away the victory points and 5 minute window, I guess what could be done is repurpose it. There's still a 'mini competition' to see who's been the most active in the past 5 minutes, and for every 30s or minute a specific guild spends on top, they get a small perk. This could be a small fraction of the reward winning the war will receive. This way it might still encourage constant contribution throughout the duration of the war, but on a more lowkey level.
