Platform: All?
Description: There’s a surprisingly large number of Troops (and a few Weapons) where when you check the spell page, the game displays an incorrect Boost Ratio, or attempts to estimate the result incorrectly (for various reasons).
This tends to fall into a few categories (screenshots/videos where applicable):
Correct Boost Ratios with meaningless estimates:
- Cunning (effect boosted by enemy Life)
- Rock Squid (if there is a tie for most-used Mana Color)
When viewing these spell pages, the Boost Ratio displays an estimate calculated at random – literally. Cunning, for example, strikes a target of choice plus one random target, with each hit boosted by that target’s Life. Unlike almost every other troop who boosts off a target’s stats (Tigraki Warrior, Rakshanin, etc), Cunning’s spell page displays an estimated value picked from a random target, which may NOT necessarily match the actual effect and is therefore meaningless information. Rock Squid, meanwhile, boosts based on the Gem Count of a “most used” Mana Color, which may either be a single color or a tie between several colors (in which case, the estimate picks a color at random).
It would be better to display these estimates as a minimum-maximum range (based on all eligible targets), or simply follow the pattern set by most other Troops and remove the estimate entirely. For example, when casting Sapphire Knight (Convert Gems, Blue to Yellow) you have a Gem count and an estimate under the Boost Ratio, but when casting Clockwork Sphinx (Destroy Gems, color of choice) you have only a Gem count and no estimate under the Boost Ratio.
“100:1” Boost Ratio shown on spells that don’t actually boost:
- Forbidden Tome (weapon), Hive Mind, Illithian Colossus
- Sileni Guard
Curiously, most of these are “steal and shift” type spells, when other “steal and shift” Troops (Caprinicus, Rubitressa, etc.) instead display a “1:1” boost ratio, when in this context the 1:1 ratio is implicit & probably doesn’t even need a helptext to begin with (e.g. Dark Priestess).
Correct Boost Ratios with necessarily incorrect estimates:
Nereida
Gems of War bug: Nereida - YouTube
Key moment: With one Submerged ally, Nereida’s spellpage estimates +4 extra damage (total 21), but because that ally is Nereida herself, the extra damage simply does not occur.
- Penglong, Spellblade, Tuzi (boosted by Enchanted allies which MAY include self)
- Voice of Orpheus (boosts by Mana level on ALL allies including self)
- Vanya Soulmourn (boosts by Blessed allies which MAY include itself)
- Undine (boosts by Merfolk allies, which includes self; and Submerged allies, which may include itself)
Because Mana Level, Enchanted, Blessed and Submerged are necessarily removed upon spellcasting, these spells are always estimated including themselves, when the actual effect is always calculated without them. While this is most significant for Voice of Orpheus (a 21-point discrepancy between estimated and actual damage!) it affects at least all of the above Troops equally.
Correct Boost Ratios with improper estimates:
Sylph deals scatter damage “equal to my Attack, boosted by Brown Enemies”. The Boost Ratio is x10 per Brown enemy, but the calculation shown beneath it also adds Sylph’s own Attack score, therefore overstating the effect of the Boost Ratio (even though the actual damage dealt is correct).
