In Gems of War there are many troops you can pick from. In general, they come in three basic types: Strikers, Defenders and Support.
These types can be mixed and matched in most teams to create special combos. I will cover pros, cons and the best use of these troop types here (in my opinion, anyway).

Striker

Their ability does damage to enemy troops. This is a very common and popular type as it helps you remove enemies faster. If you boost the magic stat of a Striker, the damage they deal with their special attack will increase. If an enemy lowers their magic stat, then the damage will go down. Be careful which strickers you choose as not all strikers are good for all situations. Here are the kinds of strikers you are most likely to see.

Flat Damage

(ex: deal 15 damage to one enemy)

Pros: No variables to worry about, very reliable

Cons: Never does any more damage than it says, less effective on bigger enemies

Best use: Clearing out enemies your size or smaller.

Variable Damage

(ex: Deal 15-30 damage to one enemy)

Pros: Usually cheaper than flat damage, can deal a lot of damage quickly

Cons: It migtht deal very little damage, risky against things bigger than you

Best use: Clearing out enemies your size or smaller.

Scatter damage

(ex: Deal 15 scatter damage)
Scatter randomly deals damage to all troops on the opponent's side.

Pros: Hits everything! Great for breaking shields and killing very weak things. Jumps gaps in the opponents team, effectivly making it stronger when there are less enemies.

Cons: Never hits submerged enemies, no control over what enemies are hit, weaker against a full team.

Best use: Break shields, kill weak summoned enemies, support other strikers, clean up one or two enemies

Splash damage

(ex: Deal 15 light splash damage)
Splash damage hits one enemy and the troop above/below them. Heavy splash damage does more to the troop above/below your target than light splash damgage does.

Pros: Hits three troops! Great for breaking shields and killing very weak things. Can actually hit submerged troops.

Cons: Does not jump gaps in the opposing team. If you hit the top or bottom troop, the splash hits only one extra troop instead of two.

Best use: Break shields, kill weak summoned enemies, support other strikers, fight submerged enemies, break down a full enemy team

True Damage

(ex: Deal 10 true damage to an enemy)
True damage ignores armor. Shields will still stop it, though.

Pros: No worries about armor, kills enemies faster than normal damage

Cons: Stopped by shields, the armor is still left intact.

Best use: Kill heavily armored enemies

Ascension Boosted Anti-Enemy

(ex: Deal 15 damage to one enemy. If the enemy is a tower, deal 3x-5x based on my ascentions.)

Ascension boosts the card's rarity. When you ascend a card (go into your collection to do that) the card's rarity goes up. The higher this card's rarity, the more damage it will deal... but only to the troop type listed. This ability must be unlocked in order for it to work. This costs trait stones and is unlocked in the same area where you can do Ascension.

How does it work? Let's use the example from above. A base rarity troop attacking a tower will deal 45 damage to that tower. But if the same troop attacks an archer, it only deals 15 damage.

Pros: The fastest way to kill a boss, tower, doom or other special enemy.

Cons: Must be unlocked to be used, ascension is not cheap, trait stones aren't cheap either, and it only deals extra to that exact enemy type!

Best use: Guild events where you need to take out a special enemy

Looper

(ex: Deal 15 scatter damage. Create 8 blue gems.)
Generally the most popular kind of striker in PvP and/or Journey guild events. This striker generates gems of a color it uses. If you are lucky, the gems will line up into a chain which will let you attack again. This loop of attack -> extra turn -> attack is why they are known as Loopers.

Pros: Deals a lot of damage without your opponent getting to hit you back

Cons: These troops are always rare, there is a risk that you won't get that extra turn, your opponent can make matches out of any gems left behind by the looper, takes awhile to build up without support. Playstyle can get boring.

Best use: Journey, PvP or anywhere where you are fighting things that are a lot bigger than you

Color Striker

(ex: Deal 10 damage boosed by the number of red gems on the board)
A strange striker that requires support be really dangerous, but in the right hands can be devistating.

Pros: Great with loopers and mana creating support troops

Cons: May result in opponents taking extra turns if you leave a lot of the same color laying around, won't deal much damage if the board doesn't have your color on it

Best use: Backup for loopers or mana generators

Charmer

(ex: Charm target enemy)
One of the enemy troops will deal damage equal to it's attack to one of the troops next to them.

Pros: Can deal a lot of damage against troops that have high attacks, wonderful gainst enemies who have boosted attack strength, ignores submerge.

Cons: Weak attackers and low level enemies won't do much damage, does not skip gaps in the enemy team

Best use: Fight enemies that have high attacks

Situational Booster

(ex: Arcane, Grudge.)
This is a troop that is boosed when something happens. This is most common with orcs, but there are others that do this. Always check the opposing team before you get started.
Arcane grants magic to that troop when an ally casts a spell. Grudge grants attack when the opponent casts a spell. The others generally say what they do if you look at them.

Pros: Punish enemies who keep casting spells or dealing scatter damage, improve your own abilities when your team does things

Cons: Someone has to do something to trigger it. It's strongest when the trigger happens over and over, so if the trigger doesn't happen much you won't see much of a boost.

Best use: Fighting teams around your size who loop, take extra turns, or deal scatter damage.

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Defender

These troops help keep your team alive. The way they do this varies. In general, you want defenders when your opponent is so big that you have no chance of killing them quickly or your opponent is constantly spamming status effects. A defender-heavy team will be slower than a team full of strikers, but sometimes slow and steady is the only way to win.

Healing

(ex: Heal 15 damage on one ally)

Pros: Cheap and reliable

Cons: You can only heal to max health, never heals more than it says

Best use: Keep smaller troops alive

Health Gain

(ex: Target ally gains 15 health)

Pros: Can go above max health, heals damage if injured

Cons: More expensive than a heal

Best use: Build up allies so they are harder to kill.

Armor

(ex: Target ally gains 15 armor)

Pros: No limit on armor, helps reduce damage

Cons:True damage and most statuses ignore armor

Best use: Defend against scatter damage (not true scatter damage, regular scatter damage)

Submerge

(ex: Submerge self)

Pros: Submerged troops are Immune to scatter damage and anything that targets the entire team

Cons: Effect ends if you use an ability. Effect also ends if the troop is first in line and you match skulls.

Best use: Dodge things that would hit your entire team, help protect troops while you charge up your abilities.

Purify

(ex: Purify self)
Removes all negative statuses on that troop (if any are there).

Pros: No more freeze, stun, poison, or other bad stuff!

Cons: Bad stuff can come back next turn.

Best use: A self-purifying hero generally survives longer. Not great on troops: Unless the effect purifies tne entire team, use bless instead.

Bless

(ex: Bless target ally)
It's purify, but if nothing is wrong, then the effet lasts until either someone tries to use a bad status or that troop uses an ability/matches skulls.

Pros: Lasts longer than purify, removes all bad statuses.

Cons: Goes away as soon as you use an ability or that troop matches skulls.

Best use: PvP or enemies that like to spam status (ex: Mist of Scales)

Shield

(ex: Gain Shield)
Sheild blocks all damage one time, then it breaks. It doesn't matter if it's one damage or a thousand!

Pros: Stops massive damage attacks, must be broken to be able to deal damage, stacks on top of armor!

Cons: Just one point of damage breaks the shield, does not stop kill effects or prevent negative status. Shield can be broken be fire.

Best use: Stop Enemies who do large attacks or who attack slowly

Invulnerable

(ex: Invulnerable.)
If a troop has invulnerable, then no statuses or instant kills work on them. Some troops are partially invulnerable, such as indigestable troops which can not be devoured, or insulated troops which can not be frozen. Check the opposing team before choosing to use status troops, just in case something is invulnerable.

Pros: Prevents nasty statuses including instant kill.

Cons: The troop still takes damage as normal and can die from attacks, invulnerable only protects that one troop. The rest of the team is still vulnerable to status and instant kill. The troop usually has big drawbacks such as being very expensive, not being able to deal damage (ex: walls), and/or being so rare you probably won't have it any time soon.

Best use: Prevents instant kill, prevents status spam.

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Support

These troops don't do much on their own, but are crucial for making a team run better. One or two well chosen supports can make an otherwise unviable troop very dangerous. If you spot a support troop, kill it first. You will be glad you did.

Mana Shift

(ex: Change yellow gems to the color of your choice)
This troop helps you build up team mates faster. It also can let you make chains of 4+ easier.

Pros: Very easy to control where the gems appear, very reliable, sometimes has other useful abilities added in

Cons: Useless if the gem you need to shift isn't on the board

Best use: Fighting loopers, reducing risk of Valravens or Gnomes fleeing, preventing nasty effects based on colored gems on the board.

Mana generator

(ex: Create 8 purple gems)
These gems appear at random on the board and may replace any gem of any kind, even their own.

Pros: Removes hazard gems like skulls and stone blocks, can allow you to take extra turns

Cons: Your opponent may be able to use the gems you created, can make it easier for gnomes or valravens to flee.

Best use: Remove hazards, support loopers or expensive troops

Explosion

(ex: Explode two random gems)
Explosions clear all gems around a single gem plus the center gem. You get the effects of all gems cleared as if you made a match. Elementlal Stars and Umbral stars are explosion causing gems that blow up in a cross-shaped pattern whem matched. Treat antyhing that creates these stars as an explosion troop.

Pros: Clears out skulls and hazards, gains mana

Cons: Does less damage than matching skulls, never triggers mana surge, may not have control over what blows up

Best use: Defensive mana gain for troops with abilities that don't cost a lot, remove stone blocks and hzards in delves

Extra turn

(ex: Explode one random gem. Take an extra turn.)
The goblins' trademark ability, but sometimes you see it on other troops as well.

Pros: More moves for you! Allows you to match up chains of 4+ or skulls so you opponents can't do it instead.

Cons: Its just one move which may not do much on a "blah" board. Most extra turn troops are kind of weak otherwise.

Best use: Clean up messes left behind by loopers, potential as an alternative to using a looper.

Summoner

(ex: Summon one random Forest of Thorns troop)
If you have an open slot on your team, you get a new team member. If you own the troop, it appears with the level and abilities you have unlocked. If you do not own the troop, it's level 15 with no abilities unlocked.

Pros: Keeps your team full, distracts enemies, can summon troops you own and love.

Cons: Sometimes you get junk troops, will not work if you don't have space for an extra troop.

Best use: Fighting either instant kill enemies or enemies who deal a lot of damage to one troop at a time.

Stealth

(ex: Give ally stealth.)
This troop can't be targeted directly.

Pros: Protects a summoner from instant kills, forces enemies to target specific troops you can protect

Cons: Does not block scatter, splash, or anything else that does not specifcally target one troop.

Best use: Don't let them target your summoner... generally only useful for this.

Status Spammer

(ex: Freeze target enemy, poison target enemy, ect)
Lumping all negative statuses in here for sake of length. Most people agree that freeze is the most dangerous as it stops extra turns if you match 4+ that matches the color of a frozen troop. I would argue that bleed is worse because you can't stop it and it ignores armor.

Pros: Deals damage over time, burning breaks armor and shield, freeze stops extra turns, bleed and poison are true damage.

Cons: Not a fast kill. Can be removed or even prevented with bless or purify.

Best use: Slowly kill enemies without bless/purify who are too big to kill otherwise, but make sure you use lots of defensive troops as backup. Does not work on invulnerable troops.

Instant Kill

(ex: 10% chance to deal lethal damage to the last enemy)
If a troop has invulnerable, this ability will not work. Things like "lethal damage", "assinate" and "kill" are all the same thing- it kills one enemy troop, period. Devour is instant kill plus tht troops gains any health and attack the devoured enemy had.

Pros: Goodbye big guy! Sometimes this chooses at random or based on where the enemy is in the lineup, which ignores stealth and submerge.

Cons: Always either very expensive or has a low chance of working. Requires support from other troops to really be dangerous. Won't work on invulnerable troops. If a weak enemy is devoured your troop won't gain much from it. Kill off the supporters who power this troop and the threat level drops fast.

Best use: Kill big annoying troops, devour can make a little guy get really big.

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