Each match is basically about hoping the AI opponent doesn’t manage to fire off their “loop of death” first. Add to that the high number of passive effects (do X on 4-5 gem matches) and this game feels more and more like a slot machine where you pull the lever and hope you hit it big before your opponent does.
Winning feels empty and losing feels awful.
AIManaCascasde was introduced on July 10 at 11pm EST, and they have since boosted it. Then released broken troops like Wisp and Fizzbang have made this game a coin toss. Players then abuse these broken troops to make it 10x worse. Guild Wars is all Krakens and Wisps now.
I used to use gems to skip the meta teams, but with the gem nerfs, I now just insta-retreat. At least 120 of my 182 losses this week are insta-retreats against Wisp/Kraken teams that I simply skip now as I don’t fight players that have no honor/respect/sportsmanship.
All we can do is speak with our wallets, no $$$ for this mess. The players could make it better, but last night 48/50 of my T3 PVP battles were devour teams. #Shame.
I hardly see meta troops in Guild Wars. It’s odd because I see them all the time in ranked pvp.
I think I must thank my guild for that it remains on low guild ranks ^^
The Fizzband/Noband Brothers teams can be annoying when they recharge themselves so quickly and have their extra turns. I don’t like to use Mab… but for the Goblins and Wisps teams I do.
The fact that it’s the same teams over and over again certainly doesn’t help, but it would be more bearable if the actual game mechanics weren’t so noninteractive. The AI can keep getting extra turns and refueling their loop until you’re dead and you have literally nothing that can be done about it.
Having impervious broken is bad, but having the wisp exist in its current state for this long is a crying shame
I find troll looping teams evenly annoying though
As I sit here losing (again) to psion/ragnagord/2x famine, I have to agree.
I feel the same way about online dating
Of course RNG isn’t broken or messed with, but how are your looping team faring? I mean those with looping exploders/spammers. Better than defense looping teams you meet? The same? Worse?
It’s a coin flip, that’s the whole point of the OP.
Yes. “Gems of Luck” instead of “Gems of War” seems to be a more appropriate name for the game in its current state…
@Darkness I had the same comment a while back. Though I used ‘Gems of RNG’ but luck is the same thing. When I first started it was more balanced with how well you could play with a dash of RNG/luck. Now its all about it, and then how you played has largely gone out the window. Additionally adding in more ways to hopefully interest you in paying for gems. To either get ahead or to complete troops/tasks. I have also personally known many, not just a few, that have left because of all these changes towards more RNG less skill. Yet the developers still try to hype that the game is doing amazingly well for itself. Which it is at least on Steam (Gems of War - Steam Charts). Though I feel the reason for this is they are trying to bring interest into the game for people who do not do well with skill gaming. So they simplified it to be more RNG to appeal to a wider audience. Truthfully in the end it isn’t the wider audience that will pay into the game over the veterans of the game (which are dropping off due to more RNG less skill). If the game would have started out with it being more heavy on RNG this change in player base would not be noticed. So its out with the old and in with the new. In that time the veterans that leave that pay, Gems of War just has to hope they are replaced with a newbie wanting to shell out cash. My thinking there is they should have done less extremes to keep the veteran player base/main cash cow. While potentially trying to appeal to a wider audience over time. Time can only tell if this will hurt them or help, its really like playing the stock market or gambling. Either they will win or they will lose. And at this point too hard to tell which.
Thanks for sharing it. Nicely described the whole issue that I feel the same
“Spectators of Luck” you mean?
The same feeling is widely shared by many players who are now enduring this frustrating moment until the Devs will do something about it.
And I believe they will, just we can’t know when and what exactly happens on their desks.
I noticed a slight change in AI luck in the last days that made the game more enjoyable, anyway!
I too believe it’s better to wait and see what happens before making any purchase.
That also works… 
Just a thought… There is a sure-fire way to combat having only 6 (at most) meta teams that to this point has been overlooked. Many will hate this idea but i think it would work like a charm. Here it is…
Stop nerfing every good troop we have.
Yeah it really is that simple! Why are there only a hand full of good defense teams? Because there are only a handful of good troops that stand above the rest… And half of those are among the cards ppl want nerfed.
If out of almost 400 cards only 12 are real good then of course they will be the ones always used but if there were 200 that were real good then ppl would use all sorts of teams and not the same half-dozen or so
Just my thoughts, now hurry up and read this everyone before it gets flagged!
Mute. - Twelve Chars.
A dozen cards are alway used because they are OP and have a malignant synergy. So we have a deck of hundreds of cards pretty useless. There are troops nerfed within their maiden week and pervasive nuisances that will not be nerfed. And no, Famine was not one of those. Wisps break the game in a way Famine never could, so does Mab.
Se we end with this mind-numbing carousel of Wisp, Mab, Psion, Kraken, Justice in a tornado of cascades. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I’d like to know what is in the mind of the people behind this situation. Do they think is good for the game?
Agree with OP. Looping abilities need a nerf. Devour needs to be completely removed from the game.