(!) Spoiler Alert (!) -- [Any Details Provided are Subject to Change] (Part 1)

Spoilers
9730

Interesting set of new troops coming up next week.

  • Auspecia seems like the first good glory troop we’ve received in some time. Despite a truly awful set of traits (would it’ve hurt to give us one good thing here?), and being somewhat nerfed from when it was first announced, I still think she’ll be useful for board control, particularly if she’s paired with a perma-storm.

  • Orrery…wow they nerfed the shit out of this troop. Compared to Idle’s post, it has gone down to magic/2 damage, and its mana cost has been increased from 16 to 18. I still haven’t given up all hope on it though - cross-shaped gem destruction is underrated for both board control and mana generation, and it’s going to synergize well with Auspecia.
    (There is an argument to not upgrade it to its third trait - you lose some self-sufficiency, in exchange for the flexibility to work with Stormcaller for a more reliable storm. That trade might not be worth it, since hero class flexibility matters too, but it’s something I would play around with before committing to the upgrade.)

  • The Ghost Queen’s Saturday release date is intriguing (free Halloween present?!?). It is of course going to be good, being a big deal for Gray King teams, and a host of other undead troops. The spell is limited by being single-target, but is probably the best version of the cast-every-turn spells we’ve gotten so far (looking at you, Gruz).

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9731

Magic/2 now? Sheesh, I was almost looking forward to that one. Obviously its fairly useless with that change…

And Auspecia used to remove four colors, which was, hm, probably too much to be honest. Have to see!

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Orrery “should” be ok as the 2x boost ratio still can contribute up to normal damage. At least its not (half) which ruins the troop and the boost ratio (The Wendigo)

If any dev is actually reading this, I don’t the the magic/2 is necessary, considering Starflower does [magic+2] to all enemies and has a 5x boost ratio on enemies and allies, making it have up to +35 extra damage, far more than Orrery was capable of…

I think the thing that hurts Orrery the most is actually that 18 mana cost. Seems unnecessary in my opinion.

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9733

Good points. It all’s going to come down to how effectively Orrery can loop itself with Auspecia.

Also curious to see if Auspecia breathes some life into Lyrasza. Unlike the mono-storm troops, Lyrasza and Orrery could realistically loop themselves (the latter giving players significant control over that ability), which could be fun.

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Three colors might still be broken overpowered. Hard to tell without actually trying it out, feels like the remaining gems are almost guaranteed to form multiple extra turn matches, even when fired blindly. With a green storm going this could possibly loop infinitely.

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Wasn’t Orrery’s boost ratio also 3x instead of 2x before the nerf? They really used the giant nerf stick on this troop. Half magic, lowered boost ratio, increased mana cost.

Maybe they didn’t want another Queen Beetrix type troop that can do high damage and potentially self loop. Or they’re overvaluing the third trait and thought the double storm combined with the pre-nerf ability was too much for a legendary.

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It was, yeah

9737

There are few problems with this.

First off it hits random enemies. While this isn’t a horrible mechanic it makes it very rng when playing in pvp.

Second let’s take a look at the actual damage this troop does. Because we want to put it in the best possible scenario I’m going to use my magic stat which also has 3 nysha medals and ET/BT completed. So that would be give or take 50 magic. That means I’m doing 105 damage per hit with the possibility of between 5-10 extra damage from 4/5 gem matches in a good rng board.

An opponent I just faced in pvp had these stats.

Troop 1 Armor-93, Life-100 (193)
Troop 2 Armor-88, Life-109 (197)
Troop 3 Armor-77, Life-99 (176)
Troop 4 Armor-76, Life-91 (167)

In that scenario I could either strip the armor from 3 enemies, or strip the armor from 1 enemy and kill 1 enemy. Not too shabby but that is with maxing out magic stats. If I had no nysha medals, less magic kingdom levels, and no statue bonuses, my damage output probably wouldn’t even strip any armor from anyone.

Now if we look at a troop like TINA with the same level of magic stat and using an average damage hit(it was between 53-106 so I picked 80 for an average hit). My scenarios could have me killing 3 of those enemies with good rng and at the very least halving the life of 3 enemies with bad rng. Pairing that with a true damage troop like beetrix makes TINA an insta killer on all those enemies.

Mambasira falls into the same category as Pan does. With the amount of stats that are in pvp these days I don’t see these troops being viable in any mode except for low-mid level explore and low to mid level delves.

By the time you have enough magic stat to make them powerful, you’ll already have much better option for explore (Phoenicia/Zuul/Megavore) and much better delve scalers. I like the idea of these new mythics and they throw a lot of damage numbers at you to make it seem powerful but in the current state of pvp and all the added stat boosts, that damage means nothing unless you are in a long match, and by that time you either won or lost so it wouldn’t matter.

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9738

So sad. :crying_cat_face:

9739

I sincerely hope that you are right. We are all hopeful that the Arena will be remodeled again. A game mode without the hero is not worth playing.

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How we’ll receive The Ghost Queen from Ghulvania on Saturday (Halloween)? Will it be available through Gem chests? Guild chests?

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We have a halloween calendar since today, the last and free day will be the next saturday :thinking:

9742

Something tells me will buying her from Arena shop.

9743

I’m still way too triggered by the wording of her third Trait to even think about it. :scream:
I hope it’s a trick, because the rest of the troop is a treat.

9744

The arena event starts on Friday, troop is due out on Saturday. So I’m thinking “no” on that. Also, there’s no arena shop, unless you mean daily deals that arena offers. I think that would be too much effort for the devs to customize like that.

Could be an adventure board task? That would be special.

9745

I suspect the great pumpkin will give her to us. Great pumpkin being cold hard cash.

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9746

Or a battlecrasher tracker. Kill 1000 Spooky Imps! That would soo cool.

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9747

That would ruin the holiday for many kids…

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They finally spoiled Emperinazar. Apparently, kobolds (who look like dragons) are the love children of goblins and nagas. Who knew?

As for the faction itself, at first glance it Doesn’t look too bad. Probably in the less difficult (relatively speaking) bunch of all delves. That third trait of the legendary seems pretty strong.

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  1. [The Lord of Slaughter]
    Description: The Gnoll is greater than the sum on it’s parts.

to

Description: The Gnoll is greater than the sum of its parts.

Finally! They fixed the flavor text. Next up, 50% mana troops? Nah. I’ll keep dreaming. We’re adding The Ghost Queen’s " Gain 50% Mana to all Undead Allies when battle begins." to the pile of non-sense (Captain Macaw was Give 50% Mana, and that was already an outlier to almost every other one)

17 [TEMPLE] Temple
18 [TEMPLE_WIN_BATTLES] Win battles to fill your shrine with resources and activate a special offer.

Shrine of Cunning
Statue of Wealth
%1 Gold to

more key terms coming in…

  1. Baphomet
    The Destrier of Worlds.

Arcane: Dark
Base Rarity: Legendary
Troop Type: Daemon, Centaur
Troop Role: Assassin

Fiery Rampage
Deal [Magic + 4] damage to 3 random Enemies. If the Enemy is Burning, deal double damage.

Mana Color: Red, Purple
Mana Cost: 17

Trait #1: Fireproof
Immunity to Burning and Faerie Fire.

Trait #2: Infernal Armor
Reflect 25% of Skull damage.

Trait #3: Scalding Strike
Deal triple Skull damage vs. Burning enemies.

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Ok, where do I start?

Holy moly. Well, 3x skull damage to burning enemies without having to take a Fire hero to level 100. 3x skull to burning enemies without having to run the hero in first slot?

Also, that spell is really strong if you can manage to burn the entire team. Assassin also gives it 4 atk/4 magic, beefing up its abilities by a lot.

How is this not a Mythic? lol.

  1. Herald of Damnation
    Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

Arcane: Lava
Base Rarity: Epic
Troop Type: Daemon, Knight
Troop Role: Generator

Hell Gaze
Convert Blue Gems to Purple. Curse and Burn the Strongest Enemy.

Mana Color: Red, Brown
Mana Cost: 12

Trait #1: Death Touch
Inflict Death Mark when doing Skull damage.

Trait #2: Armored
Reduce damage from Skulls by 25%.

Trait #3: Empowered
Start battles with full Mana.

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Hurray, Brown is finally getting another Empowered Troop. I hate Empowered Troops, but Brown Day Guild Wars was/is getting abused by other Empowered Troops with no recourse. This one turns Blue to Purple, so it stops Moon Rabbits Blue to Yellow.

I think we’re good on empowered after this?

  1. Ankhnum
    Likes to kid around.

Arcane: Shield
Base Rarity: Legendary
Troop Type: Divine, Monster
Troop Role: Mage

Curse Seal
Deal [Magic + 1] damage to all Enemies, boosted by Cursed Enemies. For every Cursed Enemy, give a Barrier to a random Ally. [1:1]

Mana Color: Blue, Brown
Mana Cost: 16

Trait #1: Accursed
All enemies lose 2 random Skill points.

Trait #2: Mana Shield
Immunity to Mana Burn, Mana Drain and Mana Steal.

Trait #3: Curse of Khet
25% chance to Curse a random Enemy when my turn begins.

The boost ratio doesn’t makes much sense here. So the actual spell will only gain… 4 extra damage?

Its secondary ability is much easier nowadays with Kurandara/E.Kurandara or quite a few other troops that curse all enemies, meaning this can be setup to be a Damage to All + Barrier All troop. (Once the enemy starts losing troops, you lose Barrier ability too). The 3rd trait is a bit weak though at 25%, but oh well.

Will it see play? not with a 25% trait… (I’d like to see it at 50% if its going to only curse 1 random target), but otherwise it could have combo potential to be useful.

  1. Emperinazar faction troops:

5.1 Kobold
Kobooooold…

Arcane: Mountain
Base Rarity: Rare
Troop Type: Goblin, Naga
Troop Role: Striker

Bone Hunt
Deal [Magic + 4] damage to an Enemy, boosted by Skulls. Then either gain an extra turn, OR create 7 Skulls. [3:1]

Mana Color: Yellow, Brown
Mana Cost: 11

Trait #1: Deep Vitality
Gain 9 Life when attacking Delves.

Trait #2: Fast
Start battles with 50% Mana.

Trait #3: Stone Link
Gain bonus Brown Mana from Brown Gem matches

7 skulls is too inconsistent to use and single target damage is whatever.

5.2 Kobold Knight
Hold me closer, Tiny Lancer.

Arcane: Blade
Base Rarity: Ultra-Rare
Troop Type: Goblin, Naga
Troop Role: Defender

Dragon Bash

Deal [Magic + 3] damage to the first 2 Enemies and Stun them. Then either gain an extra turn, OR gain 12 Armor.

Mana Color: Blue, Yellow
Mana Cost: 12

Trait #1: Deep Shield
Gain 9 Armor when attacking Delves.

Trait #2: Alert
Immunity to Silence.

Trait #3: Tough Scales
Reduce damage from Skulls by 30%.

Decent troop, just decent, nothing more. You’ll have to use it for skull reduction, more than likely.

5.3 Kobold Magi
The wizard not the noodles.

Arcane: Storm
Base Rarity: Epic
Troop Type: Goblin, Naga
Troop Role: Mage

Dragon Lightning
Destroy a Column. Deal [Magic + 7] scatter damage. Then either gain an extra turn, OR gain 12 Magic.

Mana Color: Red, Yellow
Mana Cost: 13

Trait #1: Deep Magic
Gain 5 Magic when attacking Delves.

Trait #2: Arcane
Gain 1 Magic when an ally casts a spell.

Trait #3: Spell Armor
Reduce damage from Spells by 25%.

Scatter damage. Pass

5.4 Emperinazara
Emperina’s biggest fan!

Arcane: Forest
Base Rarity: Legendary
Troop Type: Goblin, Naga
Troop Role: Warmaster

Praise Emperina
Give [Magic + 1] Life to all Allies. Summon a random Kobold. Then either gain an extra turn, OR Summon another Kobold.

Mana Color: Green, Brown
Mana Cost: 15

Trait #1: Deep Magic
Gain 5 Magic when attacking Delves.

Trait #2: Song of Bones
Summon a Bonestorm at the start of Battle.

Trait #3: Emperina’s Blessing
Give 2 Life and Magic to all Allies when matching Yellow Gems.

… ugh. Force starting a battle with a Bonestorm combined with exploding Gems at the start of battle with Potions is a bad thing… Give Life is OK, but it doesn’t help you win (and no boost ratios involved with the other 3 troops based on life). Inconsistent summons are also questionable, though an extra turn is not the worst booby prize.

Never knew Emperina (a Red/Brown troop) was associated with Yellow, but I guess here we are. The 3rd trait is strong, but with no way to replenish yellow gems during the delve… its a bit more limited. The boss room will also have this, so its a race to grab yellow gems.

Overall Emperinzar thoughts:

Its a 4 room delve where the best/only real damage pure faction option targets the first 2 enemies. Its going to be an underpowered slog to get through. The closest comparison I can make is if you used Cat Burglar exclusively to finish City of Thieves.

Not thrilled about this one. I wouldn’t say it looks “bad”, but it doesn’t look good in the slightest.

  1. Emperina’s Tooth

Rarity: Legendary
Weapon Type: Dagger
Weapon Role: Striker

Emperina’s Tooth
Deal [Magic + 4] damage to the last Enemy. Then either gain an extra turn or summon a random Kobold.

shrug.

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