Look, let's be honest. Back on September 2, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad kicked off its Season 2, titled 'Reach Rider Selection: Roses and Thorns'. For the duration of this month-long season, you are expected to dive into the content, rack up points, and fight it out against other players for dominance. Interestingly enough, this season has managed to spark a genuinely positive vibe thanks to a few rather clever tweaks compared to last time. Let us take a look at how the community is reacting.

The competition for Season 2 now boils down strictly to the points you earn by clearing content. You can only rake in these points from the Altar of Memory, the Altar of Abyss, and three specific season contents. Unlike Season 1, handing in tokens no longer has any bearing on the rankings. This effectively turns the seasonal ranking race into a pure, unadulterated test of skill.

While a few grumble that the overhaul caters far too much to hardcore rankers, the vast majority of players seem quite chuffed with the changes. That is probably because the old token-turn-in system was considerably more unfair. Meanwhile, the top rankers have already kicked off their relentless grind for supremacy. To squeeze out even a single extra point, they are repeatedly banging their heads against the 'Beyond the Wall Expedition' or desperately scrambling to put together a properly coordinated party.

As a quick heads-up, this season runs for a solid four weeks. It is scheduled to wrap up on September 30, so make sure you do not miss out on your weekly seasonal content participation.

Back on August 19, alongside the Casterly Rock update, the reward structure for the core field content known as 'Faction Hideout' underwent a massive shake-up. When opening major chests inside the hideout, the game now hands out a brand new currency called 'Silver Scrap', which you can hoard and swap at the shop for equipment chests.

Naturally, certain players are rather miffed by this change. The sheer volume of obtainable equipment has plummeted quite drastically compared to before. With weekly purchase limits clapped onto the 'Tier 5 Hero-Legendary Equipment Chest' at 4 per week and the 'Tier 5 Rare-Legendary Equipment Chest' at 10 per week, the total daily haul you used to farm from running hideouts has shrivelled up.

The discontent has only amplified because this drop in supply collided directly with an expansion in equipment tiers. Since the materials needed for 'Part Engraving'—an absolute must when swapping over to higher-tier gear—have effectively been choked off, a severe progression bottleneck is setting in. Frustrated voices are flooding the suggestion boards, demanding an immediate expansion of these purchase caps.

Of course, there is a silver lining to be found here. The drop rate for legendary gear inside the Tier 5 Hero-Legendary Equipment Chest has been bumped up significantly to a juicy 5%. On top of that, thanks to the weekly purchase limits, the exhausting pressure of daily homework and farming fatigue have been noticeably eased. Plus, having a dedicated avenue to pick and choose lower-tier equipment makes completing collection codexes a fair bit less painful, which is a small comfort at least.

As we reported last week, the reveal of the new Casterly Rock region was met with hearty applause across the North American community. However, that warm atmosphere is rapidly cooling down with the launch of Season 2. That is because local players noticed the total absence of any concrete news regarding the long-awaited server merger.

All eyes across North America are now locked onto September 30, when Season 2 draws to a close. After all, the previous season finale rolled out Casterly Rock and a massive wave of content right on schedule. More importantly, players still vividly remember past developer livestreams and North American forum dev notes promising efforts to land it within the third quarter.