Nearly unplayable for new players

[galdon2004]

So, I started this game on my phone, but due to fat fingers, I switched to steam. So, I effectively have two new player experiences and both say exactly the same thing. This game is near as it can be to being unplayable if you aren't far luckier than me.

You see, where between the two versions of the game, the mightiest warriors I have at my disposal can do such amazing feats as... deal 5-6 damage to one enemy, Deal 3-5 damage to two enemies. Create some gems which the ENEMY can then take advantage of on it's turn. That last one just annoys the crud out of me. Sure, once in a blue moon I manage to get lucky enough for the spawned gems to create a 4 in a row, but 9 times out of 10 it sets up an easy 4 match or 5 match for the enemy to use on thier turn. It's literally worse than useless because it helps the enemy!

But, in the first area, what kinds of skills am I going up against? Lets see... Dealing 9-12 damage to EVERY HERO. Turning 3/4ths of the field to skulls. Inflicting burn on every hero for 3 damage a turn "until it wears off" which I have never once actually seen happen.

I mean, I have no problem with stronger heroes with stronger abilities than the ones a new player has access to existing. But what makes you think putting these enemies into the first area is a good idea? The cynic in me is saying that this could very well be a way to "motivate" new players to throw down money to get past the difficulty spike.

What I can say for certain though, is that it is bad design. You need to re-examine the opening area of the game and consider what resources are actually available to the average new player and tailor the difficulty to that. I don't mind grinding to get past difficulty spikes late-game, but there needs to be room to actually get a foothold into the game first.

[sfnhltb]

If you are trying to run through the entire first kingdom's campaign/quest back to back (suggested by the fact you have got to the Sheggra fight without any new cards from your starting set to choose from), I don't think that is really intended as the route to go at the start. Once you start having trouble, try to run some of the easy levels of the challenges you have unlocked, unlock some other kingdoms and do the early missions of those, etc.

These will gain you levels, souls, new cards and so on. The rewards for completing the entire quest series in each kingdom are often fairly major boosts (especially for a new player) so I don't think it was ever intended you should just breeze your way to them right as the first thing you do.

[matthew]

I agree with sfnhltb, your rushing too fast.

the game isn't that hard for new players, and I played puzzle quest 1 which isn't too different.

You should start by unlocking kingdoms as you have money for, they start off cheap, then get more expensive. Doing the questlines for each kingdom rewards you with epics, also joining an active guild is also a very good idea. As you get keys, which you can unlock chests which gives you better troops.

then you need to experiment with the cards you have, until you find a troop you are confortable with. If you are in an active guild and the GM is a pro, they should give you advice on good troops to look out for and different combos. Also use the warlord class, and do kills with it active, and level it up. But I suggest unlocking the archer class. (forest of thorns) and you will also get a great epic there too, rowanne.

Once you leveled your class, and level your troops, you can then take on better enemies. You also need a soul farming team.
two warlocks, banshee and wight, a good place for farming souls is broken spire / stone wall challenge.

Explore mode shouldnt be done until you have done most if not all questlines from the different kingdoms. once you leveled up a bit, you will face better cards. But join a guild if you aren't in one, as that will really help.

[Red Dox]

First off: As soon as you see the Guild button on the worldmap, JOIN A GUILD (at best one who has some active players in their 30 member capacity)
Leeching off "free keys" from guild tasks helps you a lot to gather more and better cards.

And If I remember my own beginnings right, your hero should get the "crude club" very early, which is a splendid beginner weapon. Then you just need to test your available cards to find a deck that works with your hero. And then you can spend souls to level these cards or the Warrior class for your hero, to do more dmg.
You could buy goldchests to get more cards but I would advise to "leech" goldchests via the weekly guildtasks. Spare your gold and unlock every kingdom first. Then level every kingdom to three, and from that point up to lvl 10 (starting with the 5 kingdoms who give a bonus to magic skill)
http://gems-of-war.wikia.com/wiki/Kingdoms
Completing each Kingdoms campaign gives you a special card, but most of them are *meh* at best. If you want to do those campaigns and get something useful, I would advise to that "Forest of Thorns" is on the priority list. Since the "Rowanne" card is pretty good.

For your hero, it might work wonder if you finish the Khetar kingdom to get the Necromancer class. Then rake up 250 victories as Necromancer, to gain the special weapon. And then you switch to the Sorceror class (which you unlock for completing Karakoth kingdom).


It may be a bit hard with the initial cards and RNGesus is also often against you, but it will get easier. And free Guild keys will help speed you along in an insane manner. So do yourself a favor and really join a fairly active guild as soon as you can. Even a random chosen 28/30 guild over the search tool is better then staying solo trying to first get a solid footing solo.

[galdon2004]

If completing the quests in the first area first is not the intended course, the tutorial should probably say something about that. So far, the only recommended alternate activities have been PVP, treasure hunting, and the event page (with the current event requiring exploration which requires all quests to be finished, or pvp).

Given that in most games, challenge mode is something you do after the normal mode and is more difficult than the normal mode, I had not touched it under the assumption it would be even more difficult.

[matthew]

challenge is for advance players, with better troops and levels, you should unlock kingdoms, and do their questlines, they are for low level players. then you gain souls to level up your troops,

once you get better, chalanges can be done

but join an active guild, they will help you loads.

[Dorgath]

I think Tacet the Terror has a video or two specifically helping out new players (of which I don't have a link, sorry) but I started way back before a lot of these changes so I'm not sure my experience is valid anymore. I do know I used Ferit and Satyr to target the last enemy troop since that was the most powerful in the questline and I did do a few other kingdoms questlines without totally finishing Broken Spire's because of the boss difficulty, but with ascensions and traits now, I don't know what a new player would do nowadays. Definitely make sure the difficulty is on Easy or Normal at most though.

[Lozkinu]

I actually did clear the whole first questline, without leveling up (didn't realize you could, or perhaps forgot.) And I guess I was lucky? I joined a guild and got a rather large amount of keys to bolster my army, and I did buy kingdoms before I left to "visit" the.
Now I'm just generally angry about the cheeting AI, because I don't know if it has to do with difficulty or if it's a general bug that needs to be fixed.

either way, I was lucky in the beginning I guess. perhaps? Now not so much.
(played since last week.)

[galdon2004]

At least the early challenges do seem do-able, but they are a pain. Each time you finish one you get booted back to the main map, then have to go back through several menus to get back to picking the next challenge. I also seem to be running out of playable maps because they aren't repeatable, and the only repeatable source of battles I can find is the explore feature which consistently pairs me up with lvl 15 enemies (my party consists of lvl 6-8 units).

Yeah, I've got no chance of getting any traits. I checked the cost to unlock traits, and I am nowhere close to unlocking any of them.

To be fair, Lozkinu, I don't think the AI cheats; I've seen it make a lot of bad moves. Including making turn-ending moves that break up a 4-match skull. The main problem I am noticing so far, and I am trying to put in a fair effort to give the game a chance, is that the enemy is so overpowered that they don't *need* to play as well as the player.

[Lozkinu]

I wasn't so sure about the cheating either until had a frozen enemy, the last remaining one, who managed to get a bonus round while remaining frozen. though to be honest I could simply missunderstand what the frozen status is supposed to do. either way - good luck I guess.

[galdon2004]

What mode are you playing in? I just tried out the arena and it's like night and day. The AI absolutely cheats there, no doubt in my mind. It still makes poor plays, but the orbs that drop are always perfect for the AI. I can not do anything in that mode because every move, no matter how safe manages to drop exactly the right new orbs from off-screen to give the AI what it needs.

[Dorgath]

Frozen only means you don't get extra turns when 4+ matches are made with the colors of the frozen troop. Other 4+ matches of other colors will still give an extra turn.

And the difficulty you're playing on is Easy/Normal?

[galdon2004]

There is no easy mode. I've looked. Normal is as low as it goes, but yeah I am playing on normal.

[Lozkinu]

I usually play the hardest I can (for bonus rewards) so at level 50+ that would be warlord 1 I think.
Andd then I might indeed be wrong, it could have been a mana type it didn't use that gave that particular bonus turn... sight. Oh well, I guess that's actually a good thing.

[Dorgath]

LOL. The difficulty modes were introduced when I was around level 500+ or so, so I forgot you unlock them as you level up. My bad.

So yeah, if the enemy is that strong towards the end of the questlines, then you'll have to wait until your troops get stronger before being able to take them out, which means ascending them so you can level them up with souls.

Or try to get a looping team going so that the enemy never/rarely takes a turn - doesn't matter how strong they are is they never get a turn. Goblins are one option and I used Treant, Alchemist, Valkyrie, Banshee for a good portion of my climb, probably from levels 300-800.

Aside from that, take advantage of every free thing in the game: Treasure Maps and the Raid stuff going on now (if you're in a guild), Invasion next week, and Guild Wars after that. You don't have to get very far if you have limited troops but free is free and it sounds like every resource would be useful (gold, souls, and everything else that comes with it).

[galdon2004]

Yeah, unfortunately, you don't necessarily get access to good cards that work together out of the cards you get free early on, and if you didn't luck out with a good combo of cards you can't effectively grind for more chests because you can't win fights.

I believe there aught to be some kind of newbie zone (which ideally would be the first zone) where you can reasonably expect to win most of the time with any team if you are playing competently, with lower rewards than most other areas. That way, new players can experience the game, and then have greater rewards to look forward to when they reach a point where they have enough cards to build a good team.