IMO, get kingdoms first. Once resources are expended on mythics, that is it gone-dead end-done. Meanwhile investing resources in getting 5-stars gives you more glory and souls through the tribute system which means more resources which means more traits. Additionally, most of the mythics (while fun as a one off) are nothing more then defense teams (which you will lost 80% of anyway) or change of pace decks. Not staples in pvp. 21 bloods can go along way towards 5-stars.
When I had only 75% or more of my kingdoms at 5 stars I was easily earning 2k souls a day from tributes plus the glory…Now that I have a lot more than that I can get 200-500 in a pull with regularity.
TL:DR - Invest your resources in a way that produces more resources - Get your kingdoms up.
My point was specifically about the traitstones of which a very high number is required already. I never said they shouldn’t release any epics, but it would make much more sense to release an epic that uses e.g Arcane Shield (for which not many arcanes are needed overall but includes the very desirable Khorvash), while there’s not much point of doing so for Arcane Blood or Beast (which have a very high requirement overall that mostly comes from average epics, and not much worth traiting), for those it’s better to release ultra rares, letting people get the stones while not raising the total requirement by too much.
On that spoiler troop above that’s a glaringly contrived counter to fix the Manticore problem… can’t we just fix the Manticore instead…??? and the Bone Dragon while we are at it?
The new troop doesn’t stop the Manticore draining your mana over and over again. You’ll need at least two casts (I think three in the end-game) to actually kill the Manticore and putting effort into killing the Manticore means you aren’t closer to killing the Bone Dragon before it casts - and when it does, the Manticore is still there, not entangled and will have enough Attack stat to still be a threat.
Again @sirrian please can we think about simply tweaking the numbers and troops to make the broken things less broken, rather than contriving new counters to them that may or may not work?
Simply:
put Manticore’s mana cost up to 11
decide whether Manticore is intended to be a fast mana-drainer or an unstoppable attacker - but not both! If the first, lose Impervious, if the second, lose Empowered (and maybe have mana cost 10)
put Bone Dragon’s mana cost up to 16
change Bone Dragon’s boost ratio to 4:1 not 3:1
A few minor tweaks to stop every pvp battle being the same labour…
That would outright kill it for anything but end-game use. It’s already inconsistent enough as it is against anything that has 20-30 armor, and plain bad against anything with less than that. At the same time, it will not affect much its efficiency against 40+ armor (so mostly you’re ‘fixing’ the 30-40 armor range).
These measures just alter the meta to some other combination, which will be equally monotonous.
I’m not sure what the solution is but there needs to be some anti-meta measures. For example the ‘meta’ list of troops for a given week each lose 1-3 of each stat and mana cost increase of 1-3.
Bone Dragon could so stand to have its ratio hit. Inconsistency be damned. It’s when it hits hard that’s the problem, and it only has to cast once. Go from 8 + 3:1 to 10 + 5:1. Or 6:1.
That would just help temporarily, with Armor values gradually going up due to new bonuses getting released. It needs some kind of long-term hard cap, like creating 6 skulls plus 2 for every other Undead in the team.
It could also stand to lose its armor gain. Literally the only reason it even has that is because they didn’t want to remove its magic gain wait why are we so far off-topic…
you can’t counter the manticore, and the new troop is not a solution. It will turn the game into: YOU MUST USE THIS NEW TROOP, or fuck you and suffer exactly the same way you did until now.
no impervious, or no empowered. maybe with the cost increase to 10-11 attached to it, deja vu because by now I wrote that countless times, not like it will change anything …
Yeah you are right, I’ll use my brain and find a game that doesn’t make me want to throw the screen through the window, because that’s how much bullshit manticore is as a troop at the moment.
So I’ll do just that, and giggle at how fast GoW will bleed the playerbase if they don’t fix problems like the manticore. And “brainiac geniuses” like you can stay and “use their huge brains” to win against manticores ok? good.
Can you win against manticores? yes of course. ← in case you need this literally spelled. It is a broken troop non the less.
If you need the problem rephrased in more easy to understand terms: this is a game, it’s supposed to make me enjoy playing it to keep me playing it. Manticore has the opposite effect, and it’s not just MY opinion. So stop being a hero pretending there’s nothing wrong with manticore “because using your brain is all you need, bla bla bla, bait it, bla bla bla”. Zzzzzz.
agreed, and just to make it more complete
manticore makes game less enjoyable not couse of it being too hard but of it slowing down the game play every time - which you can do nothing about, no ‘brain’ can ‘counter’ the extra time loss that manticore couses. and that effect is being so effective that players put manti to most of defense teams cousing additional effect of boredoom to this.
so in the end:
maticore = slowing down + boring = chore.
(and yeah it is also overpowered / making the bone + manti combo too op, but that part we do counter with brain so it is not a problem in comparison to the stated above)
cheers for the brainers who do not notice!
to be honest manti put a new standard to a ‘chore’ definition in gems of war, up until manti times we had no such troop that would BOTH slow down gameplay AND be owerpowered in offense as much as this.
I actually like troops that counter specific attributes like life, armor, mana color, troop type, etc. That’s very useful for farming in certain kingdoms which help me keeping up my variety.
I just want to say something regarding Manticore: As a casual player who just wants to win the battle and doesn’t mind the time he needs to take for his victory, I still find Manticore extremely annoying.
Keep in mind that I only play explore battles… where random enemy mana surges don’t exist. And the manticore still keeps me busy trying to overcome it’s speed. 9 mana = 3 turns at most and it’s full. That’s no big deal even with no mana surges.
The crazy thing is that he can drain your team solo without any additional help (aside from Banner’s or Link Traits). Not to forget that attack which rises and rises and rises…
That’s the only thing I will say to Manticore. This thread is derailing again.
good.