That’s a really good yellow team, might level/trait it.
My problem is I have too many options and not enough focus. Apart from my all purpose team (coronet/Templar/valk/rowanne) I am not using much.
I should probably find a good team with “the dragon soul” to work on
Thanks! I’m definitely going to try your all purpose team. I don’t have the Dragon Soul yet, unfortunately, but that troop seems to be a part of many of the powerful teams I’m seeing. Must open more chests…
The guild wars discussion hooked me … glad to be back in the guild. Now I’m just twiddling my thumbs until the next war starts …
yup, the guild war upgrade converted a sleepy and kind of outplayed TKK community into a bristling hot brainstorm machine which stomped over opponents in all 6 days’ battles in the last guildwar and keeps generating better combined power results from week to week 
For transparency sake:
All of the new recruits who are not associated with this forum who do not play Guild Wars today…
are getting the boot tomorrow
-the Management
I’ve got to do some serious work coming up with monochromatic teams. Looked over all the old posts in this thread for ideas. Unfortunately, I either lack some key troops or don’t have them traited out. I’m working on brown for tomorrow’s battles, but Gorgotha without Granite Skin is not such a strong troop.
Yes, Guild Wars has renewed my interest in acquiring traitstones (hard to farm), as well as souls.
I did get some decent color teams constructed, now focused on “Impervious” and “Stealthy” troops, with Guild Wars it seems I now face more Devour defense teams which have caused me trouble when they do succeed on Devour (and Kerberos’ “Gate Guardian” Warg summons just adds insult to injury).
I’ve made some good progress, I was able to take advantage of @kennfusion alert on the Glory Rewards Bishop Pack containing the Arcane Plains and did get Dracos 1337 traited, and have also recently gotten Carnex and Spirit Fox levelled and traited. I have Behemoth up to “Impervious”, need more Arcane Shield to finish him up with “Immense”, which does look tasty. 
in today’s purple guild war battles i replaced Spirit Fox with Morthani’s Will.
Morthani comes up with exclusive blue mana and so can be reloaded much easier than Spirit Fox (his purple/green covered by front troops), also thanks to his spell power.
he performed great and could keep the mana of dangerous enemies (double Kerberos, Forest Guardian, Giant Spider, Draakulis, Wulfgarok and Ketras the Bull) down surprisingly well.
I kept switching it up today. I usually lead with Carnex on purple day as he is Armored + Impervious + I use Explode as a primary filler usually. I had two I came up against Khrvash/Queen Mab twice though, and then I always want Amira, since she eats right through them, meaning I switch Carnex out and put Morthani’s Will in.
For the final fight I went Carnex, Dragonian Rogue, Cresendo, Kerberos which was a lot of fun. Just keep blowing the board up until you power Cresendo or Keberos, rinse and repeat.
I am actually a little annoyed that I had to just waste traitstones on Behemoth. Normally, if a Brown/Blue troop is called for, I want Emperor Khovash…but I needed a brown Impervious troop to block a Kraken in my last spot…so have no choice.
I will say that traiting up Lava Elemental this morning was a good choice. Sitting behind Gorgotha with Stoneskin means that even if they get through the demon tank, they still have no skull game (and then put Khorvash behind that…) but that Lava Rage packs a punch for just 10 mana and helps refill itself if you explode around some red gems.
Thread from devs on Guild Wars brackets: http://community.gemsofwar.com/t/guild-wars-and-rankings/24903 They are going to a new system that looks good to me:
Rank 1 guild climbs 2 brackets
Ranks 2/3 climb 1 bracket
Ranks 4-7 stay put
Ranks 8-9 drop 1 bracket
Rank 10 drops 2 bracketsThis game seems quite popular here, so can I simply ask why? When I fire it up, it seems to have most of the freemium tropes that I can’t stand like timers, multiple currencies, and high level “stuff” locked behind ultra rare items that encourage paying rather than playing. What does this game offer over premium puzzle games like Puzzle Quest 2 or Hero Emblems? For that matter, what does it offer over other freemim puzzle games like Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest, or any other variation on the same gameplay?
I don’t know what the new player experience is like, but I don’t think there are any timers. I could play unlimited if I wanted. Also, while I have spent money on the game to support development, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Join an established guild that is new player friendly and has an active roster and you will get most of the basics you need for free.
I think the team is half the original team from the first Puzzle Quest. There is a lot of content to unlock, I think it’s fun and very generous FTP model.
@Mirefox I also can’t think of a timer, if you’re sure there is one then perhaps you are thinking of a different game?
I confess that I’m so sad to see the demise of mobile premium titles that I actually purchase premium apps of interest even when I don’t (yet) know when I’ll get around to them, just to support the developers releasing premium options (Old Man’s Journey being the latest, which I’m pleased to see just announced at Apple’s WWDC that it won a 2017 Apple Design Award , I’ll have to try harder to fire it up and play it).
As for Gems of War, I agree that at the level that I enjoy it the FTP model is very generous … so much so that I applaud the developers for successfully navigating the treacherous waters of allowing the “whales” to spend as much as they would like to fund the active development of the game for those of us who are more casual.
That may be the secret to my enjoyment, while I would love to be a completionist and own everything completely maxed out, it’s just not ever going to happen for me so I’m content to casually enjoy the journey. For me, I’ve got my difficulty setting on “Warlord I”, which is the third of six possible settings for “Quests, Challenges, Casual PvP, and Arenas”. That seems to be the sweet spot for my current roster since I prefer to casually use a “farm” team to gather souls while doing the non-competitive options.
I can appreciate that the frustration/stress of encountering opponents that are just too tough might be a drawback to some for enjoyment of the new Guild Wars, but for me it’s offset by the challenge of trying to construct a color themed deck while dancing the tightrope of how far to go by limiting yourself. Fortunately for me, I also enjoy the cooperative aspect of Guild Wars, our guild roster is large enough that when I fail it’s not as if my loss is the cause of our losing the war, and the rewards are modest enough that it’s not a catastrophe if the guild doesn’t prevail and we find ourselves adjusted to a different bracket of the matchmaker.
In fact, I comfort myself that it is the goal of the matchmaker to pit us against foes that we can’t always beat, no matter how much money people spend the “whales” will see themselves battling it out amongst themselves at a difficulty level that I’ll not see, but it’s still essentially the same game for me that it is for them.
This is great advice and probably one of the keys to enjoying the game without feeling the need to spend money, outside of the desire to reward the devs and support development.
Perhaps not a timer, but I thought play was tied to gold. I could be mistaken, I only looked at the game just a little. I’m currently playing Hero Emblems and this one didn’t drag me away from it.
i’m level 1066 now, all kingdoms 5/6 stars, most troops Mythic and many with full traits. that means playing on top level.
but i only spent little money as appreciation for the devs. the VIP 3 bonus is neglectable.
i just liked to play each day. since the beginning. that’s all.
GoW is a fair FTP. you can reach top level without whaling. and it’s full of content and social gaming.
I think that’s the trick for those of us who enjoy match-3 gaming, sample the offerings and budget our gaming time in those we prefer, there is more variety than there is time to enjoy them all, it seems.
Especially while we can. One of my old favorites, Gemmed!, by Wasted Pixel, is no longer available on the app store in the premium version so I only have it on my old iPhone 4. And the more limited Lite version which I do have on iOS 10 will no longer work once iOS 11 and the “32-bit Appocalypse” arrives. 
Yes, the absence of timers and ads makes playing it feel like a premium title, for me. 
I’m struggling against teams that are running troops with Devour and Dragon Soul with some kind of mana feeder that triggers multiple falling stars. Do you recommend a mana draining troop to help manage this?
These are the hardest teams to fight right now. Generally the first thing you want to do is protect yourself, so troops with Impervious and Stealthy are the safest route.
I probably use Carnex, Mainticore and Dracos the most for impervious. If the enemy has a Kraken then I have Dracos or Manticore is in my last spot, depending on the rest of the team I want to run.
On the stealthy side, Spirit Fox is probably the MVP. Fills really fast, does true damage and drains mana.
I will be curious as to see what other’s say here too.
Wulfgarok is an impervious beast too.
and a reliable Devourer. he may be the only trooper in the whole game with set conditions for secured devouring.
you can search for “impervious” and “stealthy” creatures in your troop library and try to form a special task force.