Then you haven’t reached Stage 8 then. 
I’ve had to walk away from the game multiple times now over watching miracle skyfalling multiple match-4 skull matches from a AI innocent match-3 take out one if not two of my troops on TURN ONE.
Luck factor is cranked up to max for the AI by Stage 8.
Ha. Check the leadership board 
I haven’t noticed any big difference in AI’s luck (with cascades) here than in other modes. It comes and goes. I have lost some of these battles with both of my accounts, but even then I usually take out a tower or two. I have noticed the AI has what seems like well above statistical luck summoning, devouring, avoiding skull damage via agile trait and with the death mark versus what I have.
I much prefer the invasion to raid boss (well at least in this first go around). One thing is the raid boss had the kill shot that blew through barrier. It’s one thing to lose the troop to being devoured after the damage knocks down the barrier, but this just went through the barrier. There was no defense against it other than to take out the boss before the other troops and he powers up. Speaking of the other troops damage to them didn’t count for anything once you reached the boss. At least with this you got credit for taking out towers even if you lost the battle.
Another thing I prefer here over the boss battle is the towers slowly get tougher instead of rapidly as was the case in the raid boss.
What I don’t like about either event is the per battle rewards suck particularly in comparison with pvp and to a lesser extent explore.
WRT the forest guardian remember he has to be fully traited to have your beasts start with 50% mana and also his barrier only protects beasts. If you use your hero, he/she has to be counted as a beast to get the protection. Mine isn’t and doesn’t get the benefit. I think it’s the blast tower that takes out your barriers with a 4-gem match. Each tower is different so you do have to use some strategy to deal with them.
Invasion is way better than raid. Best thing to do is spend a few gems to get the event troop and use it. This makes it a whole lot easier. You will get most of the gem back by getting to tier 7. You get 65 gems and a orb.
I think that AI is both “luckier” and “dumber” in invasion than in raid. In raid it never left 4+ matches for me, in invasion it does such things quite frequently. And not only it evens out, I feel like I gain more on AI’s exchange of “intelligence” for “luck”. Either the devs were tweaking something and it backfired or AI had a couple of bad days
I’ve used stone shaker, forest guardian, fenrir and mang this week with warden class. It has made light work of invasions but that’s all helped by forest guardians 3rd trait. Invasions will get harder when having to use different types.
If you have to be over level 1000 and have all mythic characters to compete in this mode, they should advertise it as a mode for the more dedicated members. If not, the AI is pretty lucky when it needs to be. I don’t expect to win with my team, but i cant even compete. I use a OK crew all leveled up and traited up. and they suck. That being said, i love the new update. and will continue to play casually. just maybe not invasion.
Well I’ll keep any eye on this “cheaty” AI if it ever appears. So far I have never seen it all week. I’m at 232 towers destroyed or 43 of Stage 8 and purposely using the weak Invasion Hero weapon for more challenge, and I’ll never use it again after this week so why not. I might stop using the Beastly Bow if I ever loses a single troop let alone a actual battle.
You have got to be kidding me…I tried to lose a troop on purpose to wake myself up and that didn’t even work. Too easy…ok by me to have a couple calm weeks before the stress of guild wars. We have completed the event so not much to say really.
I do not think this is unique to the new modes, I think it’s some weird fact of life in the game.
I just had a round vs. the towers that do 1 damage on every 4/5 match and they did it every turn. This is not unique: I’ve lost plenty of games to Kraken that way because if it’s on the table that you’re going to take 6-12 damage AND watch the AI gather at least 18 mana per turn it’s hard to win.
The next part is a joke I call “the Mercy effect” but is getting old fast. It revolves around transformers like Mercy and Forest Guardian, and how often their ability reads: “Give your opponent a free turn.” In my case today, I had two choices for Fenrir in every tower invasion game:
That’s not overtly bad AI: I could look at the gems and tell it was stupid to cast FG. But when that happens 4 games in a row, it’s the kind of thing that makes me feel really bad.
I woke up this morning feeling like a relatively powerful midgame player. In four matches, I felt like a newbie again. Maybe this is refreshing to people, but it makes me ask, “What the heck do I have to show for roughly six months of gameplay, and if it’s this weak, what motivates me to keep going?”
I don’t have an answer yet. I’m not sure if I’ll play any more games today.
Once you advance so far it just stops being fun. Mostly due to everything having barrier, 75% armor and one shot ability. Throw in the limited troops to counter the towers and the AI’s seemingly endless looping ability and it makes for poor gameplay.
It seems to get harder just for the sake of getting harder.
@Slypenslyde
Did you really mean Fenrir? He’s not a transformer, rather a stat booster.
Towers looping? How?
I haven’t seen anyway for the towers to alter the board.
A simple way to bypass barrier on the first troops is to cast shaker. If it explodes a skull thats 1 damage on first troop to knock down a barrier.
I haven’t seen any cheating on invasion by the towers… and because of shakers 3rd trait and the lower stats I think this is easier than raid.
I think there’s a few things combining to create that sensation.
(For the record, I am one of the few players that have enough in-game hours that when I FEEL something I’m right nearly 100% of the time. When I had my legendary freakout and the devs showed up to say how I was off base, it later turned out that they had stealth-patched a PC-side bug which changed the AI behavior so I was actually right the whole time. I also identified an Explosion Mana gathering bug just by looking and by feel. Super douchey sounding sorry I just don’t know how else to say it)
IMO these combine to creates the feeling that there is never anything available for you, but the AI is replete with Mana and cascade opportunities, skyfalls, etc. Knowing these things can open up the door to slightly changing the strategy this week. Holding onto casts until the right time is essential to keep the Win % high.
I can’t tell you how many times the AI gets a cascade of 5-6 gems, skull skull skull… and when they have 80+ attack, nothing you do is going to stop that. It was all easy til I got up into the middle of stage 8.
I thought the shaker became pretty useless too. Great early, but the towers started getting too many HP and barrier way too often.
You’re right. I meant Forest Guardian.
No, why do you say so? 
In the last 4 matches I got 18 random skull drops for the AI (that at the match level I was killed my troops instantly three times over four) and 3 for me.
Chance? Bad Luck? A tricky algorythm? That’s a beautiful mystery, but one thing is for sure: being destroyed without a chance in 4 consecutive matches at level 1233, with an ascended Siegebreaker doesn’t put me in the mood for ascending my VIP level.
If you’re pulling your hair out against 2 towers, wait until you progress further and the opposition is 4 towers lol!
While Invasion is easier than Raid, higher level, especially beyond 120, can be very hard.
All of those tower’s alibity suddenly become instant dead for player, for example…
And by that, you have to decide which tower you have to take out first. But sometimes, no matter what, one tower will cast and the game dynamic shifted, so you have to plan anything over again!
Yeah, I side with TimeKnight here. Once you hit a certain point all 4 towers are instakill. Invasion is about being aggressive in excess. This is why Siegebreakers make Godslayers look stupid: a Siegebreaker can Turn 1 kill a tower with skull damage very late into the event. A Godslayer needs you to kill 3 minions first, and quickly reaches a point where it takes two ability casts to take out Zuul’Goth.