I'm stuck on M10 and K9, two fields with no built in pathing. Any advice? Every time I try to path, I lose because I path. If I don't path, my gems aren't strong enough to stop every monster. Even though I'm level 66 (replayed old fields, bought premium), I'm frustrated that I can't win.
Right, so, been a long time since I played the early game, but, here's some tips that will hopefully help.
So, first couple things you'll want are wild gem to sell at the beginning of the match, construction, and forge. You probably won't be able to max them, just get enough so that they're effective and so that you can get something out there quickly. Also, grab at least one point of ritual, and pop some points into focus and replenish.
That should help with mana costs, provided you have the points to do all that. As for gems, this all depends on if you have enough mana at the start to unlock them, but go for chain hit and multiple damage. If you don't have enough mana to unlock both on K9, go instead for chain hit and mana gain. (If you can't kill 'em fast, tank 'em!) Whatever the case, try and drop some points into dual gem mastery to hopefully dish out some better DPS.
Tinker with the values on your skills to get the best bang for your buck, then head in and begin your maze from the gem. I prefer to use a spiral-esque pattern, but I'm not sure what the most efficient use of space is. Just try and do something that allows your gem to cover a lot of ground. Also, use amplifiers and traps. Slow or shock gems with mana gain in a trap are ungodly amazing, and amplifiers can boost the heck out of your main attack gem(s).
Another thing that can be useful, summon a small amount at the beginning. Just drop the smallest gem bomb on the first couple waves. Should summon a few more that'll be easy to kill for your starting gem and more than pay for the bomb you used, giving you a little more mana to work with.
Hopefully these'll be worthwhile. Dunno exactly how well they'll work, as I'm at the point where it's just "Ehhh, drop more points into focus and run another endurance map." but, meh. Thought I'd at least give it a shot. XD
Also, triple gems(combining 2 lvl one gems together and then combining that with 1 lvl two gem) can help too, i use chain, multiple damage and mana gain gems exclusively.
Other than that, maybe back off the amount of monsters or amount of HP the first time you play a round til you get the hang of it.
Also make sure your tower has enough amplifiers around it and constantly upgrade as you can.
Thanks. I tried all of these and they helped quite a bit. I always thought you had to beat a field with all normal settings the first time, and I never considered selling my wild gem.
