Daily Troop Discussion!

I’d say about 4 single explosions is the same amount of gems destroyed as a full column or row. At most that yields 36, but it often ends up being less due to overlap.

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This part is wrong. Her damage compares just fine with any similar troops.

@eika what’s next?

I’ve heard that the legendary trait does not dodge status applications from touch traits or Psion’s Siphon trait like Agile does when it fires. If this is the case, this is the main thing that needs to be fixed.

Apples and oranges, really. Row explode is the least likely to generate random secondary cascades because the removed gems have to be set up for a split vertical match for you to get anything started toward the bottom, and you can see this ahead of time, so the potential for cascades comes mostly from the 3 rows cleared at the top. Column explode is slightly more likely, since a horizontal match triggered at the bottom can create more cascades down the line, but you can’t set up any intentionally. Random explodes that only hit some of the board are the best, because you are removing existing gems in a jagged pattern from a board that is most likely unbalanced on colors (given the prevalance of converters). Anything that explodes 5+ gems will almost never have you walking away with just the mana you gained from exploding the gems. You might even gain full mana for every single troop and an extra turn. If you explode the entire board, you’ll get a new one and still might trigger some cascades, but in my experience, you want about 1/3 to 3/4 for cascade potential. All of them can set your opponent up for a match 4 that leads them into being able to take half a dozen or more match 4s that conveniently fall into place, which is the bane of every exploder.

Back to the matter at hand, Artema is being done a disservice by being compared to Gorgotha. Gorgotha is a tank/support/mana generator while Artema is a damage dealer/skull threat that happens to have a minor board mod spell. The reason she is not used much is because her spell damage is below the mark level for something that pretty consistently gives up the turn, does not disable at all, and often barely generates any mana, and her front line ability is not consistent both offense or defense wise, and she gets boosted by centaurs which lack a lot of utility - all intentional pieces of her design. Her role is niche because of this, but that does not make her useless by any means. I think a good place to have her at would be for her spell to threaten a kill on the second cast (fully maxed troops vs fully maxed troops) if in a full centaur group, and on the third if she is the only centaur in the group. She can do that now with Leader bonus, but only versus certain teams, and unfortunately not a lot of meta teams can be threatened by this at endgame, which is a large reason as to why she is not used. Oracle class can change this, but is a whole lot of setup to make the troop good (unless we get a lot better hero weapons with crafting, particularly on the support/mana generation end). I don’t think she specifically needs any buffs (outside of potential fixes), but some better support in the centaur race would be nice.

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The problem is her damage isnt high enough to make her an equal option with gorgotha

The problem is people keep comparing her to Gorgotha, which isn’t a useful comparison at all. Please re-read @mithran’s long and articulate post above…

If we had more usable Centaurs, especially with some board control and mana acceleration, and not just Anthea’s hit or miss board spam, then I think we could craft some pretty viable teams with Artema.

@Mithran the Oracle class really doesn’t help as the Magic stat gain is on enemy spell casts - and if you let the enemy have too many of these, you’re losing too badly for a bit more Magic spell damage to help. The Oracle class needs to buff on ally spell casts to help here - or give something like +5 Magic on enemy casts… triggers on enemy casts are not useful - it’s uncontrolled - and if you are letting the enemy get many casts, your battle is slow and you are heading towards a loss…

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You mean this thread?

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HERDMASTER

Now also creates 4 random yellow gems on the boards before exploding yellow gems.
Leader trait or Centaur bond could be changed for Stoneskin.

The only thing that I don’t like in herdmaster is that he dies a bit too quickly when used in first slot, which is bad for a cleanser. Giving it armored would fix that. But then he’d lose one of his traits which are all useful. Herdmaster is well balanced for the time being, you just can’t always take advantage of his Leader trait if you really need his cleanse.

Edit: Creating Yellow gems before exploding is a good idea, stoneskin would be an overkill, making it too similar do Gorgotha while also having the cleanse all.

You find Centaur bond useful? 2 life… :thinking:

I thought he had Alert for some reason. But I have no problem with race bonds.

Ok, unlike you I find all the race bonds traits useless.
Edit: Actually I am wrong, those bond traits was useful up to hero level 50.

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Herdmaster is pretty good, probably one of the more useful epics imo. Yes yes could use some skull reduction to make the most of the leader trait, but he can still work in a team that entangles, barriers or heals. Really, now that Artema has Leader the Herdmaster should not.

Realise that I missed the boat on Artema but my issue with her is that 40% dodge is really inconsistent. I’d prefer if she had 40% damage reduction, so that I can plan whether to skull bait the enemy or not. This is a general feature with my teams - trying to plan rather than rely on RNG. With her other traits, it doesn’t make any sense to play her anywhere but in first place. But when I tried it she ended up dying from skulls way too often.

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I agree, I hate planning teams around RNG. Exploding random gems is fine, but I tend to avoid troops that create random gems or have skills like dodge.

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He is an ulra rare. But yeah I get your point.

That makes his point even more valid, no?

What difference does it make? There are many UR troops with skull reduction traits, as Stoneskin or Armored. They are as you know, not only dedicated to Epic troops. I personally would like to see Herdmaster with any of those two traits.

I meant the fact that he’s an UR makes his spell and traits all the more remarkable.

Oops, well in that case I rate him even more highly. He’s better than many epics.

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