# PvP after latest patch

**URL:** <https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286>\
**Category:** Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)\
**Created:** [April 6, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286 "2016-04-06T01:46:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tyding](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/tyding/32/3765_2.png) [@Tyding](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Tyding)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/1 "2016-04-06T01:46:48Z")

</div>

EDIT: So, there had been some misunderstanding that what I’m talking about is not true for all platforms running this game.

To attempt to clarify what I’m talking about, here is the link to the patch notes for the PC version which I play, and in which my comments are directed towards.

[quote]

- Difficulty– has moved to the World Map from Hero menu:

Hey,

So I’ve only been playing this game since Fall, and I’ve had some ups & downs in my experience.

Up until the latest patch, I’d finally got a solid team and was able to reach rank 1 without much stress, yet was enjoying the game. Now, in truth I had long past accepted the funnest part of this game was building teams and just passing some hours here and there.

The stress namely came when I struggled to win, and there wasn’t a way to resolve this loss through any part of my own. It was typically an opponent who’s monster were just too stat heavy or had a nasty combination to tend with. Other variables were the misfortune of bad gems to pick from on my turn with favorable combos for the enemy.

To counter this I set the difficulty to its lowest, because I just wanted to enjoy the game, and not stare at a losing screen that I felt I had little to no control over how I got there, or could avoid it with the options I had available.

To the point if there would be one; Post patch, I’ve had 2 radical changes thrown in my face.

1. The scaling of enemy stats as you progress PvP ranks.

2. Breaching the level100 mark where I’m now rewarded with ridiculous opponents teams whom have either been around the game for a long time or have paid enough money to mount a formidable obstacle.

The combination of these 2 changes have pushed me to a point where I sigh upon logging in, as instead of playing a game for a couple hours to reach rank 1…it has become a chore and work to reach rank 1.  
**----------**  
**I get it.**  
**---------**  
I’m well aware that a fair share of you love a challenge. And further more feel that’s what keeps you coming back if that challenge persists.

However, in my ignorance…I presumed those that liked and craved a challenge _had that with the difficulty settings._

**Was the recent PvP change really needed?** Did you feel those reaching rank 1 on the easiest difficulty felt the _game too hollow?_ Because I felt with out spending money or a sizeable amount of time to bridge the gap of available teams/stats that **I at least had a fail safe of a relaxing difficulty options to rely on.**

Granted I can make rank 1 still…though the stress level is really making it feel less worth while. Maybe if the reward was doubled/tripled for the increase of adversity might of justified it…but the reward to reach rank 1 still is the same…actually, no…it’s less, **as the amount of glory points to get the weekly spoils of war shot up.**

It can not be avoided that this appears to be nothing more then a plea to ease up the game. And by default many will knee-jerk a response how that is a **sacred vow in the gaming community to never do such an act.** But I’m not requesting a decease in difficulty for all per-say, just that you return it too, or adjust it to a point where we can all experience the game in the manner that is most relaxing.

**Those that want a challenge, I don’t wish to impede that.** Those like me that wish to look at a defeat screen far less and not feel they are being limited to the game’s available content would appreciate some more relaxing options.

I’m truly sorry for those that read all that. Irony is I’m still missing key points, but I have to end a post somewhere.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zelfore](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/zelfore/32/22295_2.png) [@Zelfore](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Zelfore)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/2 "2016-04-06T03:00:05Z")

</div>

I have some pleasant news for you!

In the upcoming patch (2.0 it’s called), the PvP and essentially the entire battle system in general is going to be reworked! No notable details as of yet, but for the more casual crowd there’s a decent chance of an unranked mode on top of ranked that’s for the competitive types.

Match making is a very likely candidate for a rework as well, so less chance of 200+ higher level players every other fight.

Now obviously nothing’s concrete yet as we only recently got 1.0.9, but I’m hopeful this’ll ease the growing pains of PvP and the game overall.

So perk up, the future’s coming!  
If you need an easy team capable of handling most any situation, I recommend the goblins in the mean time. 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hairyskinback](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/hairyskinback/32/3566_2.png) [@Hairyskinback](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Hairyskinback)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/3 "2016-04-06T03:15:11Z")

</div>

I have to trumpet Zelfore here and also add my own snippet. If you have a game you love to play you will as it updates and evolves hit certain points where you feel the love you give the game is not coming back at you. Though if you read through the forum history you will see this is a game where for the most part the Dev’s listen and strive to make changes to benefit the majority.

So if you really love the game grind through the rough time and as Zelfore said 2.0 will hopefully address some of the issues you find yourself facing currently.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Studs](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/studs/32/3498_2.png) [@Studs](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Studs)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/4 "2016-04-06T03:25:49Z")

</div>

I think it’s also natural for your playtime to wax and wane. A few weeks of bingeing then a few weeks of getting to Rank 1 and little else.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tyding](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/tyding/32/3765_2.png) [@Tyding](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Tyding)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/5 "2016-04-06T04:13:15Z")

</div>

Perhaps a small sample size to go off of, but I’m thankful for the rather calm responses.

So often I expect a rash and direct rebuttal that ridicules comments like the one I made.

Thank you for giving some measure of hope that 2.0 may yet bring adjustments, even if no promise it’ll be to everyone’s liking.

The only snag may be this newest patch just hit, and I’d wager we’re in for at least 3months of wait time before 2.0 lands on us.

I guess I may have to endure avoiding pvp and just grind quests/maps until the time comes.

But truly, thanks for responses.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluebehir](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/bluebehir/32/1554_2.png) [@bluebehir](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/bluebehir)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/6 "2016-04-06T04:53:40Z")

</div>

I feel your pain.  
I was at the place you are at, but a couple patches ago.  
It felt like I was on par with the power curve, and then when the patch came in, everybody better than me just got a huge surge in power, and I was left standing back at the gate. Of the place where you collect more power.  
Or something. My metaphors are terrible.

Similarly, people in my guild have struggled.  
The best way to get through it is to keep playing.  
Playing grants resources, resources grant that power.  
Once you are back on curve, things will be easy again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Machiknight](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/machiknight/32/6108_2.png) [@Machiknight](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Machiknight)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/7 "2016-04-06T04:55:26Z")

</div>

Also make sure you are in a good guild that completes a lot of tasks and makes completing tasks a priority.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bluebehir](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/bluebehir/32/1554_2.png) [@bluebehir](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/bluebehir)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/8 "2016-04-06T05:07:21Z")

</div>

good idea. You are welcome in my guild DND Guild, if you wish.

I have no guild requirements, except that you play frequently.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DonBoba](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/donboba/32/25457_2.png) [@DonBoba](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/DonBoba)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/9 "2016-04-06T06:54:09Z")

</div>

Change teams, scout the enemy, join a strong guild. Game really is simple enough, you shouldn’t win 100% of the time in any game, this is no exception. Even winning above 50% of the time should be considered high (since you win more then you lose) but in this game players seems to think 90%+ win rate is good and anything below isn’t, which isn’t true.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yonizaf](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/yonizaf/32/1435_2.png) [@yonizaf](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/yonizaf)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 7:47am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/10 "2016-04-06T07:47:50Z")

</div>

> [@DonBoba](#):
>
> Even winning above 50% of the time should be considered high

Not the way this game is designed. Winning more than 50% isn’t ‘high’, it’s the basic minimum if you want to advance at all. Imagine if you would lose every second game in PvP, you can’t even gain a single PvP rank (assuming you don’t force-close the game to avoid losses, that is not the way the game is supposed to work).  
▪

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![killerman3333](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/killerman3333/32/4068_2.png) [@killerman3333](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/killerman3333)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 7:59am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/11 "2016-04-06T07:59:43Z")

</div>

I only win 50% of the time and i feel your pain so what i do is i gave up on the pvp thing cause it is just not “for me” I spend most of my time either playing challenges or playing treasure hunt and if i want to get trophies for the guild with out risking any i do arena games over pvp. If i get a few wins then i have enough to play again after words. I play treasure hunt to get glory and most every other thing so hang in there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Royalty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/royalty/32/1683_2.png) [@Royalty](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Royalty)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 9:03am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/12 "2016-04-06T09:03:49Z")

</div>

> [@Tyding](#):
>
> The only snag may be this newest patch just hit, and I’d wager we’re in for at least 3months of wait time before 2.0 lands on us.

Neh, it won’t take another 3 months. They already programmed out a part of 2.0 when they decided to release 1.0.9 “a bit sooner”. The original plan was to include the PVP changes in 1.0.9.

Release dates:  
2.0 - ??  
1.0.9 - 9 Mar 2016  
1.0.8 - 17 Dec 2015  
1.0.7 - 29 Oct 2015

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zelfore](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/zelfore/32/22295_2.png) [@Zelfore](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Zelfore)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/13 "2016-04-06T10:51:53Z")

</div>

> [@Royalty](#):
>
> Release dates:2.0 - ??  
> 1.0.9 - 9 Mar 2016  
> 1.0.8 - 17 Dec 2015  
> 1.0.7 - 29 Oct 2015

🙏 Here’s to hoping for another 1.0.7 to 1.0.8 release time! (Under two months.)

Then I can release another Patch Feedback Report. Already got half the extras planned out and everything.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Machiknight](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/machiknight/32/6108_2.png) [@Machiknight](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Machiknight)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/14 "2016-04-06T13:59:01Z")

</div>

> [@yonizaf](#):
>
> Not the way this game is designed. Winning more than 50% isn’t ‘high’, it’s the basic minimum if you want to advance

I seem to remember Post from @Sirrian somewhere stating that when win percentage dropped past some ridiculously high number players got up in arms. It was like 90% or something, and based off that it’s how they geared GoW.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tyding](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/tyding/32/3765_2.png) [@Tyding](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Tyding)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/15 "2016-04-06T16:11:33Z")

</div>

In reply to the win %

I feel it largely comes down to what type of game we’re dealing with.

**If the game has no chance/random factors.** Then one would assume after fully grasping how it plays that you could in theory keep a very high win rate.

Say the game has **no way to power up your hero/deck/base ect.** - Then in time you should be able to find a consistency high win percent.

The trick with a game like this is it has both random factors involved, as well room for growth in respect to your monsters/hero.

This ends up skewing results, where even once you fully grasp the game and the proper method to play, you will encounter obstacles that cannot be dealt with other then time…or money to escalate that time; perhaps just luck of the way gems fall in your favor next time.

As far as acceptable win rates…I believe we must take into consideration that a **high win rate feels more expected when playing vs A.I.** —then if say you play vs another actual player.

* * *

Ultimately, a solid thought out game should have a way to allow players to participate if they hit a wall of progression.  
You don’t want the primary way to improve themselves to suddenly become insurmountable, where they feel their options are continue to lose or give up.

* * *

Presently, PvP is the only way in which to gain glory effectively, banking on maps to give a consent income of glory seems flawed, as there isn’t a steady way to acquire them that I’m aware of. (correct me if I’m wrong please)  
Add to that gold is primarily earned through PvP as well, which we all know gold plays a big factor in powering up in this game.

# ================================ That means the only 2 strong methods of power up that are not directly limited to PvP are soul farming, and trait stones…which can be won through other means.

If I were to sum up a point, it would be Glory and Gold need to be accessible for those struggling to gain consistent wins once they hit top rank pvp. **You have to note we all have a mental limit of how many loses someone can be dealt by a loss before stress renders the game no longer enjoyable.** Claiming a 60-70% win rate vs A.I is not as clean cut as knowing how it may feel to lose 3-to-4 of 10 matches…more so in the manner they were loss.

I look forward to see how the pvp changes in 2.0 will address this ordeal.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GemsCollector](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@GemsCollector](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/GemsCollector)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/16 "2016-04-06T16:31:08Z")

</div>

> [@Tyding](#):
>
> banking on maps to give a consent income of glory seems flawed, as there isn’t a steady way to acquire them that I’m aware of

Well, there’s Tyri - I didn’t try her myself, but people on this forum claim to get as much as 13 or so maps from a battle occasionally… And since the spell was changed she’s far from useless match-wise, she’s a good mana generator.  
Also there are line-ups that easily generate long cascades. I was playing Eternal Flame-Alchemist-Banshee-Valkyrie team for a long time getting much more maps than I was willing to use (I guess about 1 in 3 fights on average, 3 maps once or twice from 1 battle). While this setup is very slow it’s also very reliable, even against stronger opponents - you just don’t let them take a turn at all. There are many variants of that team with different first troop, e.g. Treant or Anointed One (my favourite recently). I’m sure there are also other teams you can get similar results with. But if you go specifically for maps I guess Tyri is still your way 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Machiknight](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/machiknight/32/6108_2.png) [@Machiknight](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Machiknight)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/17 "2016-04-06T16:54:38Z")

</div>

This is a quote from Nov 29, 2014

> [@sirrian](#):
>
> Just wanted to confirm for you that there is ZERO artificial bias towards the AI player.  
> We made all of our AI/Gem-Matching code in Puzzle Quest 2 & Galactrix publicly available, and anybody who looked at it could confirm that there was no cheating taking place.  
> It’s a string of bad luck you’ve seen.
> 
> In fact, starting at level one, and gradually decreasing in frequency right up to level 30 (in non-PvP games only) we try to catch a lot of lucky breaks that the AI gets and cancel them out. At around level 5-7 for example, you would expect to see 2:1 odds in favor of the human.
> 
> Next section is for anyone who’s interested in game design and this recall bias stuff.  
> If not TL;DR… We ran some tests and recall bias is surprisingly strong.
> 
> Back when we were working on the original Puzzle Quest (pre-release) we kept hearing from testers about how the AI cheated, or how the suggested matches had been engineered to be the worst possible match. We even felt that ourselves sometimes, though, having written the AI in 2 hours, I actually knew that nothing sinister was taking place.
> 
> So we decided to do some usability test geared towards learning more about players’ perceptions of luck. We had the game log “lucky drops” when they happened, and register whether they were for the human or the AI player. We also created a version that cheated in the Human’s favor, so we could test some extreme results. A lucky drop was defined as one of 3 things: a cascade that was unforeseeable because at least one of the gems dropped in, OR a skull that dropped in to a perfect position for a match , OR any gem that dropped in to set up a 4/5 of a kind for the player.
> 
> I don’t have the actual numbers on hand, but here were a few findings from the first round of testing:  
> Players were asked to rate how lucky the AI player was on a scale from 1-9, where 1 = Player Way luckier than the AI, 5 = Equal Luck, and 9 = AI Way luckier than the player
> 
> If the AI had greater than 20% extra lucky drops: 9: AI Extremely lucky  
> If the Player & AI had roughly Equal Lucky Drops (within 10-20% of each other): 7 = AI Very Lucky  
> If the Human had about twice as many lucky drops as the AI: 5 = Equal luck  
> If the Human had more than twice as many drops, it varied, but we finally saw numbers under 5  
> So unless a human player is TWICE AS LUCKY as an AI, they perceive it’s cheating. I found that astounding. But here is where it gets interesting, and this is not taking a shot at you, wasted, I’m just sharing some data from our testing, that showed recall bias is such a crazy trick that our brains play on us, that its effects can be surprising.
> 
> So… now, after the first round of testing, we asked the players in the test to do it a second time and to count how many times they thought they were lucky compared to the AI. We wanted them to log their results, to see if they could arrive at a position of understanding that the AI didn’t cheat.
> 
> Once again I don’t have the numbers, and I’m working from memory, so this is an approximate summary:  
> Results for 10 Players.
> 
> 1 Tester accurately recorded the lucky drops (within about 10% of what was logged)  
> 4 Players accurately recorded the AI lucky drops (within 10%), but under-counted Human Lucky drops by about 10%-80%  
> 5 Players over counted the AI lucky drops (10%-50%), but under-counted Human Lucky drops by about 10%-100%  
> It’s a small sample size of 10 people. But the results are quite interesting I think.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![killerman3333](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/killerman3333/32/4068_2.png) [@killerman3333](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/killerman3333)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/18 "2016-04-06T17:03:37Z")

</div>

Tyri is powerful but glass-cannon powerful but not over powerful. Finding a good team to both protect her and power her is tricky at best and i am still searching for that diamond team that from all the coal teams i find.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![outlander](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/outlander/32/21087_2.png) [@outlander](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/outlander)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/19 "2016-04-06T17:52:59Z")

</div>

Actually I am not happy about the off combo-breakers in general. Yes, with out combo breakers the game seems depending on RNG drop which my opinion don’t need all together. The player and Ai gets luck drops, that’s i am against.  
Personally I am prefer not getting luck drops for both myself and Ai when I play.

Why not taking consideration of remove all possible luck drops code.  
Rather why not make the PVP with selective choices of hard mode.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tyding](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/tyding/32/3765_2.png) [@Tyding](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Tyding)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286/20 "2016-04-06T21:37:16Z")

</div>

EDIT: Thanks for notifying there are methods to get steady maps.

@ Outlander

At first I only skimmed over the quote of Sirrian, but after reading your response, I went back to read it.

In truth I don’t think the lucky drops should be implemented either. Take it out for both sides or at least an **option to remove it.**

Sure you’d attempt to argue if both sides have the same % chance that it is fair. Yet the counter-argument is current PvP gives the AI amplified stats boosts to compensate for the lack of ability to keep up with a the human player.

However, when stats reach a point where 1-2 skull attacks kill off a player’s troop, you then need to play very cautious to avoid these quick turn-arounds.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  
**It becomes evident that 20% lucky drop for the player is far less valuable then the 20% luck drop for the AI.** -in-regards to AI with enhanced stats at Rank 1  
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

One could claim it’s similar to having critical damage % scales higher as their lucky drops carry more weight to them.

This conflicts with the element of planning out gem matches to avoid the AI from getting certain colors to skull matches when your time/effort becomes moot over a AI’s lucky drop.

[Next page](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/pvp-after-latest-patch/5286.md?page=2)
