GreyBlades Banners Coming to Watcher of Realms

The Grey Blades have arrived in Watcher of Realms, and the banner schedule for the new faction is now out. Official artwork found in the latest game files, shows every rate-up for the new heroes along with the event running next to them. That’s three legendary banners, a way to get Galloway without spending, and a set of event rewards worth planning for. Here’s which heroes are paired together, and where your summoning crystals are best spent.

The Grey Blades are built around Sync. Faction members trigger Sync off each other’s skills, so the more often your team casts and attacks, the more damage the whole team does. Marks and similar effects also let them trigger Sync regardless of range. Meaning your main DPS can stay somewhere safe and still hit enemies that sit inside a teammate’s ATK Range.

They also deal extra Sync damage to targets in their teammates’ range, which helps a lot in fights where your team has to spread out across the map. Official recommendations list the faction for The Fallen Covenant, the Immortal Codex Conquest Challenge (Erisdelle of Dawn), Arena as anti-air DPS, and Malrik’s Halls of Illusion (Heart of the Volcano).

There are four new heroes:

• Amelia Ainsworth: Legendary Lord, Sync Lord and Team Buff
• Garroq: Legendary, Core Sync DPS
• Rorkesh: Legendary, Secondary Sync DPS and Buff Support
• Galloway: Epic Lord, Sync Lord

Garroq’s banner is the first one up, and it’s probably the strongest of the three. Garroq is the Grey Blades’ core DPS and does best against 2-3 targets, casting his Ultimate often and triggering Sync on enemies anywhere on the map. Some CC’s have done some early testing on the new heroes and found Garroq to be quite strong.

He’s also the only new hero with two factions, the Grey Blades and the Star Piercers, and the only fighter in a group of marksmen. So he’ll still be useful on your account even if you never build a full Grey Blades team.

His partner is Rosalia, one of the best normal legendaries in the game. If you don’t have her, this is close to a must summon. Even if you do, nobody has Garroq yet. It’s a normal summoning banner too, so no ancient crystals needed.

The banner artwork confirms Amelia Ainsworth is an ancient exclusive legendary Lord, even though the rest of the faction appears to be available through normal summons. She has very strong burst damage against pairs of airborne targets, increases Sync frequency for the whole team and gives out strong team buffs. She’s what the rest of the Grey Blades Sync cycle is built around.

Sergei is the other banner hero, and he hasn’t had a rate-up since his original banner. That makes this an easy banner to recommend. Two strong ancient legendaries, and one of them is currently the faction’s only legendary Lord, with no way of knowing when she’ll be featured again.

If you’re saving ancient crystals, it’s worth thinking twice before the 1+1 ancient event. Getting a free extra legendary sounds great, but nobody is on rate-up there, and this banner is only a few weeks away.

The last banner goes to Rorkesh, the yellow dragon. He’s a marksman who’s only in the Grey Blades, and he brings a battlefield summon that shares his skills and attacks alongside him. He also gives big buffs to Sync-focused teammates, making their Sync more frequent and more widespread. Less of a standalone carry, more the hero that keeps the whole team running.

He’s paired with Corven, who was recently reworked to join the Grey Blades. How much the rework actually helps him still needs testing, but if you’re building around this faction, you can pick up two Grey Blades legendaries from one banner. Like Garroq’s banner, it uses normal summoning crystals.

A lot of players wondered how Galloway would be released, and it turns out he’s a Shard Summon running from October 5th to 19th. So you can get him by collecting fragments instead of relying on luck. He’s an epic Lord who triggers Sync regardless of distance and lowers the target’s damage. Each Sync triggered by an ally also shortens his own Sync cooldown, which makes him a good pick for Grey Blades teams that are just getting started.

The accompanying event runs from October 8th to 19th (UTC-8) and includes Event Sign-in, Quest Master, Monkey vs Goblin, Masterful Strokes, Engraver’s Exhibition and a 1+1 Bundle. The grand rewards are:

• Advanced Gear Recasting Hammer
• Garroq’s Exclusive Artifact
• Emote: Galloway
• Various Summoning Crystals

Garroq’s Exclusive Artifact is the big one if you’re planning to pull for him, and the extra crystals help with the banners too.

With three legendaries, a free epic Lord and an exclusive artifact on offer, the Grey Blades are clearly meant to become a major faction. If you only have enough for one banner, Garroq and Rosalia offers the most value for most accounts, while Amelia and Sergei are definitely worth saving ancient crystals for.