Originally published at: Campaign Begins: Dragon’s Totem – Gems of War
New Campaign Begins A brand new Campaign begins today. Aid Emperina with her “little” kobold problem of finding them something new to worship. New Heroic Gem: Dragon Gems During this Campaign, we have a new Heroic Gem that players may encounter in puzzle battles – Dragon Gems. Dragon Gems when matched with their color or…
3 Likes
I always wanted Drool’Goth but this is such a weird place to get it.
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Tarot the tower?
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Ok, I see that you no longer say when the tarot card will be available in vault. Am I to assume that it will never be?
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it was the same description for Strength too. 
Entirely given up on having gems be distinguishable from each other for colorblind folks. That’s a shame. Up until now, heroic gems have had some variability aside from color, but these are the laziest we’ve had to date.
1 Like
@Kafka, @OminousGMan, @Jeto Can you all please politely re-raise the issue of the Ace of Wands card with the programming staff?
Compare The Empress troop’s spell here with the spell of Ace of Wands linked and notice that this spell gives Magic + 1 to all Skills for the last troop.
Meanwhile, Ace of Wands gives “1 Magic” to a single troop. The bug that was previously reported is that the spell very obviously has a typo with the 1 as a placeholder for the multiplier of (Magic + 1) Magic given to an ally, not to give a single point of Magic. Otherwise, the third trait is more powerful than the spell itself.
Using Strength as another example for consistency, it gives Magic + 1 Attack to all allies for its spell, not just giving a single point to a single ally. Ace of Wands is extremely underpowered as a result of this oversight compared to every other tarot card released. That’s why it was reported as a bug since the spell seems to have a mistake, not as a general complaint about disliking the troop.
Thanks for taking the time to understand what the community is trying to say for this issue.
15 Likes
Here are the artifact skills ups for this campaign.
NOTE: This is the first campaign without an Attack boost, and also the first with a +8 Magic boost.
Campaign 12 Artifact Skill Ups (Nov 14 - Jan 22, 2023)
================= (Dragon Gems)
Level 1 - +5 Life
Level 2 - +5 Life
Level 3 - +2 Magic
Level 4 - +5 Shield
Level 5 - +5 Life
Level 6 - +5 Shield
Level 7 - +2 Magic
Level 8 - +5 Life
Level 9 - +2 Magic
Level 10 - +2 Magic
TOTALS: +20 Life; +0 Attack; +10 Shield; +8 Magic
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Regarding campaign rewards, any word why overall Dragonite from the Free Pass has silently been cut in half compared to the previous campaign? It wasn’t much to begin with, now it’s basically nothing.
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Because they hate their players.
hey @ctenn2ls
I did raise this again this morning with the team as I was after some more information. Ace of Wands is the first card in the new run of Tarot card Troops that are currently being developed.
With that, at this stage the 1 Magic to an Ally is intended but there is a chance that once more of these new “tarot” cards are released, we will revisit the Ace of Wands.
I have also grabbed this feedback and will be going through what has been previously shared about this new Troop, and putting it into a QOL in the meantime.
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I hope you’re very sure about that, because that was an extremely weak spell. I can see the argument that magic gain is very strong, but you can just use half scaling or other ratio to balance out, like The Emperor’s “Give [(Magic / 2) + 1] to all Skills on the first Ally”, because right now, magic stats on Ace of Wand itself mean nothing.
I know it’s just Minor Arcana, not Major like other Campaign and new kingdom-related card, but come on, does it have to be this underwhelming?
On the other news, I like how the Dragon Gems work thematically. It was like a dragon breathing fire down below, burning everything in its path to ashes. Gameplay wise, you want to match it as high as you could, as it will be weaker the lower it fall down, perfect for flying creature like dragons.
But… I didn’t like it when it cause cascade, it adds too much randomness and chaos to the board. Might be a pain when the next Guild War come…
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Does anybody? Let’s compare some prior campaigns:
- Mana Potion Gems: Adds more Gems of that color to the board, often creating matches of 4+ gems
- Stars: Matches multiple colors and destroys other gems in a X or + shape
- Wildcards: Matches with any color AND multiplies the mana gain for that match
Elemental Star destroy in diagonal, so it’s not too bad, might even be beneficial. Even when it was left behind for enemies to take, it’s not big deal.
Umbral Star never fall randomly, as it’s not Campaign related, only happened when Umbral Portal is involved.
Wildcard is very useful if it cascade for you, but deadly if you left it behind. At least it doesn’t mess with the board though.
Potion Gems can help give you an extra turn, so I kinda like it if it was triggered by cascade, so the worse gem if it get left behind.
Dragon Gms are unique, as if it get triggered by cascade on the top row, it will explode more than one third of the board. That might destroy your alignment, and a lot can happen with the gem falling to fill those spot. It’s too powerful in control-based match like GW. Most of the time, you don’t want neither side to trigger it.
And I have personal bias against explosion, too chaotic for me.
Also, kinda wish All 7 Dungeon Gem Dragons have Dragon Gem in their spell instead of Giant Gem, would be more fitting.
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Lol… what? I mean, I knew the tarot cards were utter garbage, but I didn’t think they could get worse.
“At this stage”. Can’t wait for the inevitable premium pet giving it +42 magic and a guaranteed extra turn.
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After revisit the Ace of Wands it’s spell will be like:
“Curse and Stun all allies, devour 3 random allies, deal 1 damage to a random enemy then sacrifice myself”
and they change it’s rarity from legendary to mythic and you can obtain it only through “Hoard Vault” fight which is 1% from all the vault fights and only while GaP event is activating.
1 Like
I wouldn’t be surprised if they did pull some jerk move like that in the not to distant future, still though, don’t be giving the devs ideas. xP
Elven Bard says “that’s cute.”
Memes aside, this spell isn’t underpowered compared to other “tarot” card troops – it feels underpowered IN GENERAL. Literally the only consolation is that it charges in just 6 Mana cost (single turn if used with +2 Red banner and a Fire Link trait).
Here’s all the troops I could find with a guaranteed Magic buff in some way:
over *40* troops!
Note: I am intentionally omitting spell effects that do not pertain to Magic stat or Mana level.
Legendary:
- Emperor Liang: All allies gain 4 Magic
- Garuda: Gains 1 (+boost ratio) Magic
- Orion: Gains 5 Magic
- Regent Khalif: Gains 4 Magic
- The Star: Random ally gains scalable Magic
- Tineseltail: All allies gain 4 Magic
Epic:
- Arcanus: Gains 4 Magic + Enchant
- Asha: Random ally gains 3 Magic + Enchant
- Lady Estelle: Bright Forest allies gain 3 Magic
- Lord Ember: All allies gain 1 Magic
- Nax: Selected ally gains 2 Magic (+2 more if WIldfolk)
- Second Paw Anhur: Below allies gain 3 Magic
- Spring Emissary: Selected ally gains 4 Magic + half Mana (+Enchant if Fey)
- Tezca: Selected ally gains 3 Magic if Red Mana user
- Wall of Tentacles: All other allies gain 2 Magic + 5 Mana
- Wu Hao: Selected ally gains 3 Magic + Enchant
Ultrarare:
- Archdruid: Selected ally gains 2 Magic (+2 more if Elemental)
- Bishop: Selected ally gains 1 Magic (+1 more if Divine)
- Dragonian Sage: Selected ally gains 2 Magic + half Mana (+Enchant if Dragon)
- Lyriath: Yellow allies gain 2 Magic
- Ostryx: Mystic allies gain 3 Magic
- Spiritmane: Selected ally gains 2 Magic (+2 more if Raksha)
- Void Portal: Demon allies gain 2 Magic
Rare:
- Elven Bard: Selected ally gains 2 Magic, half mana, + Enchant
Honorable mentions:
- Suna: Steals 8 Magic each from 2 targets
- Will of Nysha: Steals 3 Magic form all targets
- Xathenos: Steals half Magic from selected target
- King Silenus: Splash damage steals 1 Magic each
- Yao Guai: Steals 4 Magic each from 2 targets
- Illithian Servitor: Steals 2 Magic each from surviving targets
- Pride: Steals 3 Magic per stat greater than selected target
- Vlad the Unsated: Steals Life (boosted by current Life)
- Blade Dancer: Steals 4 Magic
- Satyr Musician: Steals 2 Magic each from 2 targets
- Mind Eater: Steals 4 Magic if target survives
- Night Terror: Steals 1 Magic
- Void Wisp: Steals 2 Magic + 4 Mana
- Amira: Steals 2 Magic
- Caprinicus: Steals 4 Attack → add to Magic
- Piper: Steals 3 Armor → add to Magic
- Satyr (common): Steals 2 Armor → add to Magic, + extra turn
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This REALLY should be part of your overview though. Please keep in mind that the designers don’t play the game and have only a fleeting understanding of game mechanics, they’ll at best look at your list and say “Hey, Ace of Wands is only somewhat worse than all those other troops, looks okay to me”.
To pick an example, Lord Ember grants 1 Magic to all allies as MINOR SIDE EFFECT of transforming a chosen mana color to red. So the icing on top of this epic rarity transformer already does four times as much as the only thing the legendary tarot troop does. Same applies to just about everything else in the list.
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