TH13 speculation

Time to speculate on what TH13 will bring to this game. While I am pretty hyped up for the update, I am trying my best to temper my expectations because I have been pretty disappointed since the introduction of TH11. My main gripe is not the extra grind or anything, but rather the stagnant growth since TH10/11. This is why I posted about what TH13 needs in a post last week. Otherwise TH13 is just another grind with no sense of progression, its just unnecessarily prolonging the journey and just grinding for the sake of grinding. If SC wants to capture the spirit of progression and accomplishment, they really need to make sure TH13 is strong enough.

My first speculation is the date of update. The timer for the builder jam event points to the most likely date of the update which is 9th Dec (please adjust it to your local time). I am basing my entire planning around that date and will use legends and shields to protect my season bank loot as much as possible for the update. Since the event will end on 9th Dec, I plan to drop out of legends right before that and reach probably Titans 3, then I will buy a 1 week (or shorter) shield to anticipate the update. I also have around 10k gems to splurge on initially which will be fully directed towards my heroes.

Here's an outlandish suggestion, TH13 might introduce an entirely new resource to farm. We have not seen a new resources since TH7 and it might be the time to introduce something completely brand new. Maybe you need the new resource to upgrade your 4th hero? Maybe you get a completely new mechanic? (Less likely because of the presence of siege machines) I would suggest the new resource to be introduced in possibly TH12 with minimal mechanics attached to it (no new hero, maybe new spell/troop). This new resource will most probably be tied to the new, 4th hero which is unlocked at TH13. This idea sounds outlandish, but it is entirely plausible.

Adding a new resource like that would fundamentally change the game because anywhere below TH12, you would receive a 100% loot penalty towards this resource as you cannot store/use it. This would mean overstaying TH9-11 will become redundant and ultimately a detrimental strategy. It would entirely change my rushing strategy too because I usually stay in TH11 until lvl50 AQ and lvl20 warden. I would most likely skip that and rush straight to TH13 because of the new resource. This would also make high league farming much more lucrative because this new resource would be extremely scarce in the beginning and loot bonus is probably the most likely place it will be generated.

With more and more TH on top and the impossibility of balancing, one thing I've always brought up again and again is to limit cc donations. Make it so that you can only ever receive +1 level of troops and lvl1 of a new troop. For example, a TH9 can only receive lvl3 lava hound instead of lvl6 (new TH13), they can only receive lvl6 loons because TH10 doesn't have a new level of loon; they can only receive lvl1 bowlers/miners because they cannot train them; and they cannot receive electro dragons at all because TH10 cannot train them.

This would prevent massive power creep in lower levels and isolate low levels from high levels. This decouples the need to balance high levels with regards to low levels. It is not a surprise that the grand warden was introduced to curtail power creep, by making troop power less significant and making warden much more significant in an attack. The problem with this is that if your troops somehow leave the warden's range, they are essentially useless because everything is balanced around the grand warden. This is also why the grand warden is the strongest of the 3 heroes right now. Currently, having lvl1 troops + lvl40 warden is usually stronger than most maxed out troops, is that crazy?

The main reason why I always suggest this is because this broken mechanic allows lower levels to crush higher levels with relative ease. Ever seen a war attack from a TH9/10 which 2 stars a completely maxed TH12? The main crux of that attack usually comes in the form of strong maxed TH12 troops they can bring in their CC. This over-exaggerates the strength of the clan castle itself.

Other things to speculate include new troops/spells and the new hero which I won't delve into. I just hope that they are strong and the balance of TH13 would revolve around those new things.