# Abilities of a Strong Defense
**URL:** https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213
**Category:** Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
**Created:** [May 23, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213 "2016-05-23T00:27:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/1 "2016-05-23T00:27:01Z")
In another thread, @Lyya stated:
> [@I Said Stalling, Not Stalin! (Team-building! Tips and Assistance Welcome!)](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/i-said-stalling-not-stalin-team-building-tips-and-assistance-welcome/7115/18):
>
> A note: the AI doesn’t play targeted healers all that well. It tends to heal/barrier the wrong ally often, and once it has picked a target it will often over-focus on them to the detriment of the rest of the team.
> …
This made me start to wonder about other aspects of building a strong defense team. What sort of abilities should be avoided on a defense team? What abilities does the AI actually use well?
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### Author:  [@Ozball](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ozball)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/2 "2016-05-23T00:28:08Z")
My guess is that the AI would use skull damage quite well? Sirrian posted a summary of the AI logic recently, I’ll see if I can track down that link…
EDIT: Here it is:
> [@Request AI refinement](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/request-ai-refinement/6749/32):
>
> - Determine a priority on colors… based primarily on what I need, and secondarily on what I should deny (sometimes in this step it MAY put denial as its #1 priority, usually not though, despite what you might think… I believe when it DOES deny it’s just very memorable, and recall bias kicks in)
> - If there is a 4/5 skull match, take it
> - if there is 4/5-match of a color, then take it (preference for 5’s of course)
> - Ignore the previous step if it’s a match 4/5 for a troop-color that I can’t get turns from because it’s frozen
> - if there is skull match take a random instance (slight preference for lower-down to increase chance of lucky drops)
> - if a skill is ready run some custom AI routines to determine if it’s cast (this works better on older spells… much tougher on newer spells, and difficult to work around because of Apple’s restrictions on adding dynamic scripting to apps)
> - Based on my color priorities from step #1 choose a 3-match on the board (with a slight preference for vertical matches lower down since they cause more lucky cascades)
So adding to my above guess at skull damage, abilities that fire off of 4 and 5 gem matches would probably work ok with the AI as well.
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### Author:  [@Lyya](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Lyya)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/3 "2016-05-23T00:39:59Z")
In my opinion, the best defense team skills are the AoE skills (can’t screw up a target if there is no target). Color converters are extremely hit-or-miss.
Traits, being passive, are mostly okay. In particular, I think the “\_\_\_\_ on 4- or 5-gem matches” traits work well.
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/4 "2016-05-23T00:41:26Z")
I forgot all about that list. Thanks for reminding me about it.
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### Author:  [@Zelfore](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Zelfore)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/5 "2016-05-23T00:44:16Z")
Random gem spawners also work well, considering an actual player can’t control them much better.
Why do you think Goblins (Goblin Shaman) and Worms (Early-Mid Game) work so well for the AI?
Legendaries that randomly spawn gems can also be troublesome when AI-played, Jarl, Celestia, Venoxia, etc.
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/6 "2016-05-23T00:44:39Z")
> [@Lyya](#):
>
> …
> Color converters are extremely hit-or-miss.
> …
I learned that the hard way. I added Valkyrie to a defense team (that previously had a decent win rate) and found out it was a big mistake. After that, the team lost most matches.
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### Author:  [@Lyya](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Lyya)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/7 "2016-05-23T01:03:50Z")
I agree, though I’ll say that gem spawners _can_ be played more effectively by a human. If the board is mostly devoid of the spawn color, I’ll hold off until it is more conducive of a spawned chain. This is especially true of Sheggra, who post-nerf is played quite poorly by the AI, very often handing a board of skulls to the invader.
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/8 "2016-05-23T03:03:54Z")
I assume a troop that targets the weakest enemy could work out well in defense too.
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### Author:  [@Lyya](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Lyya)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/9 "2016-05-23T03:12:40Z")
Likely so. At the very least you know what it’d do when cast 😛
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/10 "2016-05-23T03:51:17Z")
lol True enough.
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### Author:  [@Ozball](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ozball)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/11 "2016-05-23T04:34:47Z")
> [@Lyya](#):
>
> Color converters are extremely hit-or-miss.
Is this referring to cards like Valkyrie and Alchemist that are any → one, or any of the converters, including the one → ones like Templar etc?
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### Author:  [@Grundulum](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Grundulum)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 4:46am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/12 "2016-05-23T04:46:56Z")
Both. The AI doesn’t choose good times to use transformation spells in either case. First off, the AI will tend to fire off spells as soon as they become ready, regardless of whether the board works for the transformation. Even when there is an any → one color that would extend the AI’s turn, the actual color the AI picks seems to be random.
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### Author:  [@Ozball](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ozball)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/13 "2016-05-23T04:55:32Z")
So taking the ideas from above and just random musings about how the AI works, this is a basic team I came up with:
[http://ashtender.com/gems/teams/6019,6022,6202,6100](http://ashtender.com/gems/teams/6019,6022,6202,6100)
Vampire’s Banner (Red/Purple)
Herdmaster
Miststalker
Marilith
Templar
Now Templar is a mana converter, but he’s more in there for the increase in armour, and he also gives the Defender trait to further increase everyone’s armour. The extra Green can help to fuel Marilith, but the loss of browns hurts Miststalker a bit…
Miststalker is aiming for the weakest ones, trying to use that factor of AI logic (ie you know basically what it’s going to target)
Marilith goes with the other factor in the same vein, that being AoE damage doesn’t need to be targeted.
Herdmaster… I was trying to think of a yellow user, and he showed up in the suggestions. He also has Leader, Impervious and his spell cleanses all allies, on top of exploding a number of yellow gems. It’s not Marilith’s level of explosion, but might be a little bit useful for filling up some mana.
What are people’s thoughts?
Also how do people feel that the AI uses Explosion? (Both targetted and random)
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### Author:  [@DemonicDraco](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DemonicDraco)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 5:01am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/14 "2016-05-23T05:01:28Z")
herdmaster will probably do the same thing gorgotha does… just spam it’s spell not bothering to use lower troop’s spells…
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/15 "2016-05-23T13:22:27Z")
> [@DemonicDraco](#):
>
> herdmaster will probably do the same thing gorgotha does… just spam it’s spell not bothering to use lower troop’s spells…
Does the AI only spam the spells of exploders that are in the first slot?
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### Author:  [@Koolbiird](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Koolbiird)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:27pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/16 "2016-05-23T13:27:26Z")
Not always. If the AI has Gorgotha or Carnex yes very much so; but if the AI have Herdmaster loaded and Sheggra or a Bone Dragon loaded, the dragons will cast first and then Herdmaster.
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### Author:  [@DemonicDraco](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DemonicDraco)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/17 "2016-05-23T13:37:05Z")
does this mean AI considers higher base rarity a higher priority for cast?
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### Author:  [@Koolbiird](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Koolbiird)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/18 "2016-05-23T13:39:26Z")
That is a great observation. I wish i had an answer for you.
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### Author:  [@Ashasekayi](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Ashasekayi)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/abilities-of-a-strong-defense/7213/19 "2016-05-23T13:55:30Z")
> [@DemonicDraco](#):
>
> does this mean AI considers higher base rarity a higher priority for cast?
I’m going to have to pay more attention to that now.