What Are Skills?
Gems of War uses the word ‘Skill’ a lot. Many Traits and Spells affect one or more Skills of one or more troops in a battle. But the way the term is used can be a bit confusing at first, so this article is a quick clarification for beginners to the game.
What does ‘Skills’ mean? Well, if you’re used to other role-playing games (RPGs) – either computer or IRL – you probably think of a skill as being the ability to perform a particular task: using a particular weapon, climbing, fishing, etc. Gems of War has no such skills. It isn’t what I think of as an RPG.
Instead, Gems of War uses the word Skills to refer to four key combat numbers:
- Armour
- Health
- Attack
- Magic
Of these, Attack and Magic might more usually be called Attributes in other games. (Some people also refer to Gem Mastery as a skill, but I that’s not how the game interprets it). Each troop has basic values in each of the four skills. These can then be buffed significantly by a large array of passive bonuses.
It’s a strange combination to lump together under one term, especially when some troops have spells that effect random Skills or all Skills. Armour and Health are numbers you would expect to go down during normal combat, regardless of Spells and Traits. Whereas Attack and Magic are not values that usually go up or down in that way.
So a spell that affects a Skill at random can have vastly different effects – and strength – depending on which of the four the RNG selects. Something to bear in mind when building your team.