Gems of War (new F2P Match 3 by Puzzle Quest creator)

Kelan · Post by **Kelan** » Wed Mar 01, 2017 11:51 am

The Meal wrote:Two weeks in a row of boring new troops. Hopefully something fun in the works for next week.

The only reason I liked this week was because I was able to spend a bunch of my 16,000 glory to buy a ton of Arcane Venom stones to fully trait out my Wulfgarok

.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:56 pm

Yeah, for me the excitement each week is in seeing which stones I can spend my glory on to trait up the troops. Lately my week of battles has been: complete PVP to rank 1, complete the event via fights (or treasure maps) while exploring in the relevant kingdom, and exploring in Zuhl'Kari in the attempt at stockpiling Runic Magic Traitstones (which are always in short supply). I do get a smattering of other high end stones in the PVP and exploration tasks, but I'm counting on the glory haul from the store each Monday to move various troops forward.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Mar 04, 2017 10:18 am

Lately they've been cranking out a new Mythic troop every week it seems. Now there are a ton of them out there and more arriving all the time. At the same time the introduction of new Legendary troops has dried up to seemingly nothing. The weekly Loyalty rewards that used to consist of new Legendary troops and weapons now consists of a steady stream of fairly crappy low-end troops and nothing else. The only good thing about Loyalty rewards these days are the traitstones as has been mentioned.

To me it seems fairly obvious where this game is headed and it's pretty discouraging. It seems the game will cater pretty exclusively to the VIP crowd going forward because that's where the money is. That's a business decision and I can't blame them for it. The game will still be accessible and good for brand new players. However, over the long haul, the gap between VIP and f2p players will get larger and larger. Those of us that have played the game a lot and gotten most of the things you can get without VIP are going to be left out in the cold. It's just the way it is.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:13 am

With the lame weeklies lately I didn't think there was any chance at approaching 10,000 seals, but it's been a while. Let's make a guild push for getting there this upcoming week. Who's with me?

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:21 pm

We can but try. It doesn't help any that the weekly event sucks this time around.

T · Post by T » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:01 pm

Yes, I think it's time. If everyone could just do 3 or 4 hundred.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Mar 11, 2017 10:36 am

Well, The Meal and I are maxed out and we still are about 2200 seals away. We can still do it but it's not looking so good at the moment.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 12:58 pm

Only 861 seals to go. It...could...happen...

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:31 pm

10,000 Seals

Kelan · Post by **Kelan** » Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:32 pm

Yay! We did it! Ya got the last few seals needed right before me

. Good job.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 8:23 am

Greta job on getting the 1000 level but in the end it exposed why I am no longer playing beyond a basic maintenance level. I burned 5000 seals last nite. I didnt even get a single legendary let alone sniff a mythic. They have RNC'd any progression out of the game. Also I cant take the PVP grind any longer. Either people have bought mythic rosters or they are far more lucky than I am but I can not get an easy battle anymore. Everyone is a slog that takes a lot of time. I can win most but it now take 3 times longer to do. It's a great game until you hit this wall.

T · Post by T » Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:26 am

rshetts2 wrote:Greta job on getting the 1000 level but in the end it exposed why I am no longer playing beyond a basic maintenance level. I burned 5000 seals last nite. I didnt even get a single legendary let alone sniff a mythic. They have RNC'd any progression out of the game. Also I cant take the PVP grind any longer. Either people have bought mythic rosters or they are far more lucky than I am but I can not get an easy battle anymore. Everyone is a slog that takes a lot of time. I can win most but it now take 3 times longer to do. It's a great game until you hit this wall.

What is your team rating? I have two teams around 7500 and I almost always get an opponent 5000 or less in the first slot. Which doesn't take that long to beat.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:43 am

I also burned about 5000 seals last night. I got 2 legendary troops but they were both ones I already had so nothing exciting. I don't expect to ever get another mythic with the current drop rates. I did burn quite a few event keys this past week to get another Dragon Soul. My team now is absolutely deadly. I don't even fear the teams rated 8000 or above.

My team:
Gorgotha
Dragon Soul
Dragon Soul
Krystenax

All the above are fully leveled and traited. Give it a try if you have those troops.

Cortilian · Post by **Cortilian** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:49 am

I am also kinda bummed about the current troop direction. I still have never gotten a mythic troop drop. I'm pretty much playing to get rank 1 PvP and souls to 1,000 and treading water.

Current PvP team is:
Gorgotha
Dragon Soul
Krystenax
Shadow dragon

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:48 pm

Thanks for the team advice.
My teams are right around the 7000 rank and like I said its not that I am losing. I just rarely see lower ranked teams anymore and that has made PVP very time consuming. It used to be like T said, there was always an easily won battle available so you could get either tackle a challenge or push through PVP a bit quicker. It requires a lot of battles and when the average time for battles is at least doubled, well its become more of a drudge. Its a great game and Ive had plenty of fun with it but clearly, at this point its totally pay to win. I have no regrets but until they loosen things up a bit, I have no desire to bang my head on that wall. Im still playing daily but now its usually a couple of battles and Im done.

Kelan · Post by **Kelan** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:21 pm

My team that I really like is:

Knight Coronet
Wulfgarok
Fenrir
Jarl Firemantle

It is far from optimized, but I really like the synergy and has a mix of things I like to do.

First guy has armor to take 50% damage and has a nice ability that regularly does 23+ damage to first and last troops (20 + boost from purple gems removed).

Wulgarok does 28 damage with this team and setup and if it kills the enemy, will randomly devour another. He is fully immune to all status effects including Devour and Mana Burn and his last ability adds +5 Attack and Magic to any allied wargare units.

Fenrir adds +15 Attack and Life to an ally, but double if a beast. Therefore, it adds +30 Attack and Life if I cast it on my Wulfgarok.

Jarl Firemantle has the Big and Fire Cloak abilities so gains health and burns a random enemy on 4/5 gem matches and has a decent 18 damage attack that creates a bunch of yellow and red gems to fuel my first two guys.

The only trouble I get into is facing something like Emperor Khorvash and he gets off his ability first, which does potentially a lot of true damage and drains all the mana of my first two units. Normally by the time my Knight Coronet goes down, if it does, my Wulfgarok has already devoured an enemy and/or received a +30 Attack/Like boost from my Fenrir and can finish off the enemy. I have had quite a few matches where my Wulfgarok ends with over 100 attack and life.

It isn't the most powerful team, but I like the damage potential and it keeps most matches interesting as I have to selectively get the enemy down below 28 health so I can fire off my Wulfgarok ability to trigger a devour and it keeps me more interested than the damage all teams, I believe.

Oh, and yeah my new biggest enemy is that Krystenax dude. That thing is just plain old mean, although one match I had with it, it kept popping out those silver drakons for me to use as devour targets

.

Fenrir is the only one I don't have fully traited yet. I did get lucky with the Wulfgarok as a mythic for sure and my wife also managed to get it from burning gems on chests, but I agree they are way more rare than they should be. It is still my only mythic and I have played quite a bit every week since near release.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:00 am

This game can be irritating. I logged in multiple times yesterday, including last night and had the normal, full 7 day login bonus. This morning, my daily bonus is reset all the way back down to day one. This has happened multiple times before although most of the time it just resets down to day 4 or 5 for some reason. I wish they'd get their act together on this.

T · Post by T » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:08 pm

Did you play a match? I believe you have to to get the bonus.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:22 pm

I've run into every other frustration voiced in this thread, excepting not getting the daily login credit. I know that I do play at least one match every day to keep the bonus flowing. (Also I only play on mobile devices on iOS, but I don't know if/how they may make a difference.)

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 10:42 pm

When I used the 5 gem keys from the guild task completion this evening, I was shocked and excited to see that my second mythic had dropped (Gard's Avatar). I just stared at it for a minute because I simply couldn't believe it. So, it really can happen, folks.

Now I'm looking forward to see what kind of team I might be able to build with him. He looks like a killer.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:30 am

Congrats! Still waiting for my first.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 10:22 am

I am expecting changes in this game soon. It seems like people are not playing any longer. I still play daily but only for a battle or two just to get the daily resources and I noticed that I haven't been attacked for 4 straight days. Last week I went attack free 4 out of 7 days. They put up a massive "pay or go no further" wall up and I think people are hitting it and quitting.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:26 am

Aside from 7 ghetto mythics from boosting (one of which is the Banshee, that I actually use), I got 3 mythics - Abynissia (x2), Famine, Drakkulis over all the time I've played (just got the second Abynissia in the last few weeks).

And sadly, I don't use any of those 3. I stick with more core team: Emperor Korvash, Carnex, Tyri, Banshee. Lots of things to get mana, Emperor is just awesome, Carnex can get some killer armor for skull damage/tanking if Emperor goes down, Tyri gets whatever mana I need (plus maps for my wife, the main reason I'm still actively playing) and Banshee is good for targeted damage when needed (and souls).

With luck, I can take out anything. But realistically, I'm up to about 7200 power/rank (whatever that is) - I can win most of the time against up to mid-high 8000. 8800-8900+ I usually just can't kill them fast enough before they take me down. Those are usually 4 mythic, max level, max trait people who have powered up several kingdoms (I have all the magic boosting ones up to double skill and all kingdoms to level 10; only a few up to double skill for non-magic though).

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:42 pm

Isnt Korvach a mythic? Ive been playing forever and I have more ghetto mythics than I can count but I have drawn zero mythic. I got so tired of being stiff I havent used keys in a 2 weeks. I figure Ill try opening a mass amount at once and see. Ive got over 1000 keys now as it is but 900 of them are gold. I still do not understand why guildies are pushing gold keys so much. Anyway it appears you are an aberration, unless you've paid enough to get VIP keys because most of the players who havent dropped hundreds on the game are lucky to have 1 drawn mythic.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 9:33 pm

rshetts2 wrote:Isnt Korvach a mythic? Ive been playing forever and I have more ghetto mythics than I can count but I have drawn zero mythic. I got so tired of being stiff I havent used keys in a 2 weeks. I figure Ill try opening a mass amount at once and see. Ive got over 1000 keys now as it is but 900 of them are gold. I still do not understand why guildies are pushing gold keys so much. Anyway it appears you are an aberration, unless you've paid enough to get VIP keys because most of the players who havent dropped hundreds on the game are lucky to have 1 drawn mythic.

Korvach is only legendary. Have 2-3 of him and Carvex - would love to get enough to boost those 2 to Mythic!

As for money, have not invested a penny in the game. Apparently, just aberration in luck.

Can't speak for anyone else as far as the gold keys, but after maps and glory (used primarily to purchase maps and the weekly special - mostly just for the trait stone(s)), I usually just fill in whatever is closest to being completed or whatever is cheapest. Was sort of enjoying the gold keys a bit while I was trying to get my Banshee to mythic, but now, I suppose all things being equal, I'll look to get glory or better so I can potentially get Legendary keys (and hope to get Korvach/Carvex to Mythic some day).

Hope everyone else gets some better luck going. Suspect you would appreciate the mythics more than I do.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:43 pm

Guild Wars is now live. You get 5 battles vs. a rival guild each day (for 6 days during the week), and they seem to count towards PVP bonus thresholds. There are ways to get skill bonuses (by spending Glory, Gold, Souls, etc.). Pretty slick.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Apr 26, 2017 8:26 am

Did my part. 5-0 baby. The guild we're up against today seems pretty weak.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Apr 26, 2017 9:04 pm

Did my 5/0 today, barely enough PVP points to up 1 rank. Not sure if defensive victories affect PVP rank, but while I was doing that, got 4 defensive victories.

For grins, I went and bought 1 of each of the guild war buffs. Life/Armor give me 2 points and higher ranked guildies .06 pts. Attack/magic are 1/.04 respectively. Enjoy those buffs I got whoever of you are higher ranked than me. Won't be bothering with helping out that way again.

Cost went up 5x for the next level buff for everything except magic. Think level 1 magic was 500 souls (diamonds? I forget which at the moment), next level is 1500. Though maybe it was only 300 for level 1.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:15 pm

Thanks for the report on the powerups, Zenn. Looks like we're getting curbstomped today.

Defensive victories do help you earn PVP points, but not much in the grand scheme of things.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 12:11 am

Any room left in the guild for me to join? Just started playing about a week ago.

Thanks

Name is: MILLIVANILLI

Anyone else play with the hints turned off? That was one of the first things I did in the settings just because, come on, it's match three, not a Rubik's cube! Am I right?

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:00 am

Zenn7 wrote:Did my 5/0 today, barely enough PVP points to up 1 rank. Not sure if defensive victories affect PVP rank, but while I was doing that, got 4 defensive victories.

For grins, I went and bought 1 of each of the guild war buffs. Life/Armor give me 2 points and higher ranked guildies .06 pts. Attack/magic are 1/.04 respectively. Enjoy those buffs I got whoever of you are higher ranked than me. Won't be bothering with helping out that way again.

Cost went up 5x for the next level buff for everything except magic. Think level 1 magic was 500 souls (diamonds? I forget which at the moment), next level is 1500. Though maybe it was only 300 for level 1.

I will probably do the first health and armor ones for 5000 gold, every week. They give you 2 health and 2 armor for the week and 10k gold is nothing. You can get that in return off a few battles. The others use resources that are harder to get.
So what does this Guild War thing do besides give you a more locked in form of PVP?

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:08 am

The Meal wrote:Looks like we're getting curbstomped today.

That's because only four of the guild participated. Those that did all went 5-0. Not much can be done about that. I suspect that unless they provide some really good incentives for participating, people are just going to ignore it.

rshetts2 wrote:So what does this Guild War thing do besides give you a more locked in form of PVP?

Good question.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:10 am

Carpet_pissr wrote:Any room left in the guild for me to join? Just started playing about a week ago.

Thanks

Name is: MILLIVANILLI

Sent!

Anyone else play with the hints turned off? That was one of the first things I did in the settings just because, come on, it's match three, not a Rubik's cube! Am I right?

I leave them on (

) as a fall-back in case I miss a better move than I'm contemplating. Of course, I'm convinced that the algorithm for selecting a move for you (1st: 4- or 5-gem matches, 2nd: skull matches, 3rd: 3-gem matches which fill one of your mana slots, 4th: 3-gem matches which add to your mana slots, 5th: 3-gem matches which do not block the enemy's mana slots {seemingly the first tie-break for the 3rd and 4th options as well, if multiple matches are possible within that tier}) is intentionally sub-optimal, so it's a weak fall-back. And it never takes into account the board's behavior after your match (sometimes there's a 3-gem match which obviously will complete a 4- or 5-gem match above it), but then again the AI doesn't use those moves either.

Anyway, the whole whole whole point of the game is to play a match-3 game. (Everything else around the game, troop advancement, the different axes of kingdom and hero advancement, etc. is all about getting you to keep the game installed on your device of choice and hopefully spend some money.) So it's really important that you play the match-3 portion in a manner you enjoy. There's a "Show Spell/Mana Details" setting which is off by default which should always be turned on. Other than that, do what you enjoy.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:16 am

ColdSteel wrote:
The Meal wrote:Looks like we're getting curbstomped today.
That's because only four of the guild participated. Those that did all went 5-0.

I only see me going 5-0 and rshetts going 3-0 as the activity for yesterday. Tuesday we had four of us go 5-0 (and we beat the guild we were up against).

We're already in the hole for Thursday as well.

CS wrote:Not much can be done about that. I suspect that unless they provide some really good incentives for participating, people are just going to ignore it.
rshetts2 wrote:So what does this Guild War thing do besides give you a more locked in form of PVP?
Good question.

AFAICT it is used to rejigger your guild rank among the guilds you're up against. We've never been much for paying attention to that (we were a top-200 guild when I came on board

), so nbd. In terms of PVP, it does open (me at least, maybe the generic you as well?) battles vs lower leveled opponents which I don't have the opportunity to crush when playing non-Guild Wars ranked PVP.

After this first week we should see if there are any personal or guild-wide benefits to winning GW events. I need to actively sign us up to participate each week, and since I'm enjoying it I'll keep doing so. If I stop enjoying it and if there isn't any other activity from fellow guildies I'll probably stop doing so.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 1:00 pm

The Meal wrote: I only see me going 5-0 and rshetts going 3-0 as the activity for yesterday

That's weird. I played 5 matches yesterday and it shows me as 5-0 on the results screen along with you, Rshetts and Zenntt777. T777 also is shown there at 4-0 for yesterday.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 1:18 pm

Thank you for the followup. Good to know that I'm not getting all the relevant information (I won't pull the plug on our Guild Warring unless it somehow becomes obvious that folks aren't interested). FWIW, I'm only logging in via iOS (not sure if it makes a difference).

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:49 pm

Looks like 6 of us have participated in the Guild Wars as of when I played 30-60 minutes ago.

2 have completed all 3 days.
1 did day 1 and 3 (skipped 2 apparently)
1 did day 1 only.
1 did day 1 and is 3/0 on day 2.
I have completed day 1 and 2.

Don't see anyone having lost any fights.

One note though is that I think some people only play on weekends (or a lot more on weekends), so guessing we might see an upsurge in this come the weekend. Assuming everyone knows/figures out it's there and how to get to it.

persself · Post by **persself** » Fri Apr 28, 2017 6:25 pm

Just started playing last night; think I'm lvl 11 or so.

Is there room in the guild? PERSSELF

Any tips for a newbie?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:20 pm

Guild war rewards: there's a rewards button on the panel where we can see the guild status. Showed 1000+ is 3,000 gold, 10 diamonds and 3 of some common card. 999-400 was 4,000, 25, 6. Not sure if that's guild rank or individual rank (assuming individual). If individual though, that seems unfair - just within our guild, I have completed the same fights as 2 people of higher rank. I have 1300 more rank than 1 and 1300 less rank than another. How the heck can we influence it if we all fight the same days/number of fights and wins/losses.

persself wrote:Just started playing last night; think I'm lvl 11 or so.

Is there room in the guild? PERSSELF

Any tips for a newbie?

There is room for 1 more in the guild and you're invited (as I just discovered A) I can invite and B) how to do so).

Tip: DO NOT DONATE GOLD TO THE GUILD - until you have all kingdoms unlocked and at or near level 10. Whatever little you would be able to donate would be insignificant to the guild and quickly adds up to benefit you!

Get your kingdoms up to level 4-6 each (rather than max 10 one at a time). Cost for those last few levels will promote several to 4-6.

Starting for you with all the crap the guild unlocks every week (keys, souls, gems, etc) will be a bit different than for those of us who started before they organized guilds this way.

persself · Post by **persself** » Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:15 pm

Zenn7 wrote: There is room for 1 more in the guild and you're invited (as I just discovered A) I can invite and B) how to do so).

Thank you; got the invite.