Agree… but this (an I in AI) seems very unlikely to happen… and not all players want it. PQ had a smarter AI and having your ar$e handed to you in a majority of fights wasn’t always fun…
Not a criticism @Rasper but I feel you’ve identified a cause but not a remedy…
I couldn’t agree more. There is a Big danger in an AI that can play even near human strength. It would do to the rest of the game what Guild Wars did in part: remove the relaxation element. I don’t personally want a stronger AI unless it was restricted to specific instances. For example, if they added some form of boss fight, having a more powerful AI on that would be nice.
Sadly, that is where we stand. With GW as is, and the incentive to build a defense that will kill at least one troop if not win the match, it is either use a stronger AI to make more builds competitive on defense, or abuse cheap shots.
edit: that is also why I’m staunchly in the “remove cheap shots entirely” camp 
Get rid of Death Touch and Devour (or at least neuter them heavily) and you might see more diversity return.
This is exactly why I think the game could use some asymmetric design when it comes to stuff for the AI to use instead of them having the same pool of abilities humans use. Not only are they not as capable, but its not like we really want them to be capable of doing what humans can do. “Smarter” in a meaningful way could mean they identify cascades better, or they are better at timing spells and better at using converters. This makes it even more of a race to start firing off spells which is unrecoverable shortly later - and since the starting board is random, it just gives you slightly more unwinnable situations from the starting board (how many remains to be seen). We may see a slight shift toward looping teams, I don’t think anyone likes getting looped to death, but keeping a spell chain going is one of my main joys of playing GoW, especially when I have to work for it. I also don’t think better AI is the answer to any kind of lasting variety, at all.
What about stealthy trait? Will it be changed? I mean targeted spells are not working on stealthy troop including targeted buffs. Hiding from an enemy is one thing, but why my troop hinding from an ally?
You can target your ally, despite the trait triggering and looking like you can’t. Same with impervious firing when someone gets enchanted or barriered, they still get the buff.
Last time I tried to buff my stealthy troop it was on the suncrest event (pc/mobile).
I wanted to boost my mist stalker, but the trait triggered so I didnt choose that troop. If you say I could boost it, then the triggering is deceptive in this case.
Thanks Nim for the new column! Very interesting to read about future changes in mind. Good luck with this venture!
Despite the troop being greyed out you can actually select a stealthy ally with a buff spell. That’s actually a bug that we’re waiting until we move to unity to address (it may already be fixed on the console version already I’ll have to double check later).
Ok what about a future troop that could reset enchanted to 0 like wraith does with resetting mana to 0 or do damage
You sir are partly correct. The issue is that there aren’t enough other troops that the AI can use effectively, not that the card in question is broken. The thing is, whenever there is a troop (or team) that the AI uses somewhat effectively, the community goes up in arms to get that one troop (or team) weakened instead of asking for more powerful troops for defense.
if i may add, the problem as i observe is not that people jump the bandwagon using op defense team, but how the system picks opponents for you. if you notice, you are offered same people many times in rotation. i notice more if they are my rival, but there are non-rivals too. if i change my defense team correctly and never climb too high on pvp ladder, i almost never see grief team at all because i only been offered the same nice opponents.
the thing is not many people use def team designed to make people miserable. if you check out random people on chat, many teams are mostly to help each other or they never bother to change team for weeks. you are just unfortunate individuals you keep facing the same few people over and over until you explode in anger.
Introducing more cards at the EK, Mab, kraken level would be nice.
The releases over the last couple of months have been quite stale.
For me, I encounter more Kraken/Valk/Justice/Mab teams.
Sorry but that is just not entirely true.
The whole this troop is not batshit op but just effectively useable by the AI arc is a red herring.
Take Bone Dragon for example. He is still extremely viable in the hands of the AI, it still produces extra turns and multiple skull matches in the vast majority of casts, basically the AI can’t mess up using him, yet the nerf led to him not being in 75% of the defense teams anymore, despite him still being an objectively strong troop the AI uses effectively, he just doesn’t wipe out half teams per cast anymore.
The reason he was a meta plague before the nerf and isn’t anymore is not that “the AI could use him effectively and now can’t anymore”, he was straight up overpowered and now he is balanced.
Incentivizing defensive variety helps against meta TEAMS. When a single troop is so prevalent, that troop needs to be addressed.
Is the community complaining about Forest Guardian / Kerberos teams? Sure there are some complaints about Devour itself but that applies to several troops.
It’s not at all about the AI being able to effectively use a troop. It’s about Famine appearing in 8 of 10 matches.
EDIT: Let me put it this way.
When I see FG, I see him with Kerberos and Giant Spider. 90% of all Kerberos teams I face are Kerb / GS / FG / Kerb. That’s a meta TEAM.
When I see Justice, I see him with Valk and Mab. 90 of the all Justice teams I see are Something / Valk / Justice / Mab. That’s a meta TEAM.
With Famine, I see Psion with Famine, I see Death with Famine, I see DK with Famine, I see Spirit Fox with Famine. A lot of these teams have 2 Famines too. I see at least a dozen different and varied teams every day - the only common theme with them is that they all contain Famine. That’s the definition of a TROOP issue.
I’ve seen a number of complaints about these teams. The combination of half-mana start, devour and multiple layers of summoning is very frustrating. I think just yesterday or the day before I saw a thread talking about “Why is Kerberos a beast?” with the implication that it isn’t fair, or at the very least is extremely constraining. The AI loves random and automatic summons as much as it likes manadrain.
And now you edited your post. Good point about meta team vs. meta troops. I agree with that.
I guess I haven’t seen them. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about devour and random percentages.
It’s certainly not the level of outcry of Famine, Bone Dragon, Manticore, or any of the troops that were nerfed previously…
sorry about that
