Rate the strength of every faction. (1 to 10)

[Consecration]

Rate the strength of every faction. (1 to 10)

Rating them as a whole. Not based on a single deck or a few cards.

I'd say NG (tibor + insane bronze units and synergy) + Skellige (morvarg) are pretty much a tie for top tier and really need some changes asap. --- 10
Second place would be ST buff decks and NR reavers. --- 8
And contradictory to the closed beta I would put monsters as the weakest (they're not THAT bad, but they're simply the weakest faction imo) --- 7

I can still grind MMR. I feel like so many games I played super well I just get punished by certain synergys and cards that are near impossible to beat consistently. This is especially present because card advantage is not as important as it used to be. Even if my whole monsters deck is build around countering those cheese decks I still fail to maintain a 50%+ winrate at ~1500+ MMR. I know I'm still semi-new. I don't even have a 100 hours in this lovely game yet and I know my play is rather sub-optimal. So that could be part of my problem as well.

Just curious what You guys think are the strongest and weakest factions in gwent at the moment!
(Unless You think every faction is perfectly balanced as it is right now)

 

[Alts-Gamer]

You don't really rate a "faction". Each faction has its own peculiarities, however, how good they are used completely depends on the human factor. I think all factions are okay. There are some cards that will be altered for the sake of better balance but this is not critical IMHO.
People scream about OP and necessity of nerf of Nilfgaard today because they were beaten by this faction. Tomorrow they will scream about Scoiatael special cards being OP. Just because they lost again. That's how it works. Not because they are really OP.

 

[Consecration]

You don't really rate a "faction". Each faction has its own peculiarities, however, how good they are used completely depends on the human factor. I think all factions are okay. There are some cards that will be altered for the sake of better balance but this is not critical IMHO.
People scream about OP and necessity of nerf of Nilfgaard today because they were beaten by this faction. Tomorrow they will scream about Scoiatael special cards being OP. Just because they lost again. That's how it works. Not because they are really OP.

I like to view myself as different then ''people'' and not once did I mention the word OP. My ratings are pretty close together because I feel like You can indeed make everything work so Your reply is kind of redundant man In addition I would like to say that I agree with most of Your opinion nonetheless, but wouldn't You agree with me that according to Your view it would be impossible to rate a single card too?

 

[zhiphius]

It's hard to rate each faction, do you rate it by that single good deck they have? Or do you rate them by their overall strength? How many high tier decks they have?

As such i cannot rate a faction unless you give more specific conditions.

But you should also consider the fact that it's still BETA, even if its public. CDPR are conducting testing and experiments. And someone stated CDPR intentionally undertuned and overtuned certain decks\cards for the sake of testing and getting data.

In the end i'd say this sort of topics is better off being discussed when the game is in it's first official version, not while it's still in Beta. While it is in Beta, give constructive feedback to the devs.

 

[PonamJP]

I think NG has the most usefull silver and golds and a ton of power houses on bronzes so it is my 10.

SK has insane raw power but not so much utility so 8

ST is strong over all, most cards are pretty good and versatile you can go for multiple arquetipes and they have very high deck efficiency and consistence solid 9

MO I'm BIAS to the faction love it since closed beta. Still works very well with weather swarm and very good power engines over all it's 8,5

NR sooo many cool mechanics, but all of then need so much setup and are so frail to control.... Saddly 7
​​​​​

 

[Consecration]

It's hard to rate each faction, do you rate it by that single good deck they have? Or do you rate them by their overall strength? How many high tier decks they have?

As such i cannot rate a faction unless you give more specific conditions.

But you should also consider the fact that it's still BETA, even if its public. CDPR are conducting testing and experiments. And someone stated CDPR intentionally undertuned and overtuned certain decks\cards for the sake of testing and getting data.

In the end i'd say this sort of topics is better off being discussed when the game is in it's first official version, not while it's still in Beta. While it is in Beta, give constructive feedback to the devs.

'rate them by their overall strength' - Sorry I thought this was clear ill add it to my post

 

[Laveley]

Sk 4
Mon 3
St 5
NG 6
Nr 1

Something like that.

 

[zhiphius]

'rate them by their overall strength' - Sorry I thought this was clear ill add it to my post

In that case. (i'll try to keep "OP OP!" and "balance!" to a minimum. It's a fact it's a Beta version we're playing after all. Things will be tuned and changed.)

Overall strength in my eyes is: "The overall usefulness of ALL their cards. How complete they are as a faction and how good their silvers and gold are." It's not just a rating of their best deck(s), but as a whole. That includes the many undertuned cards they may have.

-Nilfgaard 10\10:
They are the most complete faction, with very strong cards of any rarity. All their archtypes seems competive. They have high value cards, good synergy, completed with great control and counters. There's a reason this faction barely runs any neutral cards from my experience. They do have a few questionable cards in their collection. But "Questionable" is the worst NG does.

-Scoia'Tael 7.5\10:
I know dwarfs and special archtypes are doing well. But the other archtypes are too weak currently especially "mulligan".
Their decks are flexible however, and the faction as a whole has alot of variety. But that means little until they fix the useless cards (sapper im looking at you), the undertuned archtypes (mulligan) and changes certain silvers and gold to be actually useful and have synergies (mulligan has 0 gold and silver synergizing with it). Still they get 7.5 because dwarfs and special archtypes from what i heard is doing rather well. If all that mattered where the 2 high tier decks i'd give it a higher score, but this is overall strength and thus it drops down quite a bit.

-Skellige 8\10:
Queensguard\morkvarg decks are doing well. Even my half baked deck has a high win rate. There's a variety of competive versions which is doing fine. Also seen wounding skellige doing decent.
I'd like to see more archtypes, but wounding and "Strength buffage"" (QG and\or morkvarg) is the two i've seen people play. As such scoring is difficult. If i knew the faction better they may receive a different score. But i feel i know them enough to give their overall strength a 8\10 as there's obvious room for improvement.

-Monsters -\-:
I have not played this faction. Granted im familiar with them. But would like to delve into the faction before i give judgement.

Northern Realms -\-:
Not enough experience to judge these fellas on overall strength. I feel they need balancing, but the problem is their synergies and combo plays can go out of control if overtuned (which happened with blue stripes during PTR i think?)

 

[jamai36]

Sk 4
Mon 3
St 5
NG 6
Nr 1

Something like that.

Think this is a pretty good rating. So far, the gap between the top 3 factions doesn't seem to be too large (NG, ST, SK), and while MO does seem to be slightly weaker, it does look like there is quite a gap between them and NR in terms of power, whereas they are pretty close to the three factions above them.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I am pretty sure the most consistent top player on the ladder for the last 3-4 days (asdf) plays a lot of Dagon.
I might change it to something like this being out of 10:
NG - 10
ST - 9
SK - 8
MO - 7
NR - 4

Ofc things can change at this stage in the release and the factions outside of NR seem to be all be fairly competitive with one another, which is a great outcome for a game that just had massive, sweeping changes, imo.

 

[Rawls]

I'm not gonna give numbers but I agree with what seems to be the growing consensus of NG > SK, ST & Mon > NR currently. However, I don't think there's that much room between them.

 

[kaalev]

NG - 10
ST - 10
SK - 9
MO - 7
NR - 6

NG is just too versatile. Especially the reveal deck. They know your cards, they have access to their entire deck and can manipulate yours (biggest offender Sweers and Guardian) and also they have Spotters and Tibor.

ST is simply cancerous. If you don't have high strength gold units or scorch (or lots of locks and resets) with a card advantage you can just stop playing. Ithlinne and Protectors are OP as well.

SK also has very strong bronze units. Hunters and ships to be specific. In a combo with Morkvarg they're unstoppable. However, the lower score is because their Queensguards is very weak vs certain factions. For instance NG and MO.

MO is 7 because they're forced to play hybrid decks. Weather deck comes with a drawback as by round 3 they have nothing to match the strength other factions can bring directly from their hand or deck. Consume was significantly nerfed as well. Sure, harpies are nice but easily countered as well. Hence MO are Jack of all trades but a master of none. Oh and wild hunt units simply suck.

NR is 6 because I feel it all depends on how many scorch, igni or Villentretenmerth cards their opponent has. If they have none or only 1 of them, they win easy. Otherwise they lose miserably. Due to the *boost units with same power* mechanic that was added to this faction.

 

[Kingoko]

NG 10
rest : not ranked cause not playable at all in ranked (eventually all rest 3, NR 1)

 

[TurIututu]

NG -- 11. Crazy OP at the moment. Anybody who says otherwise must not play at a higher rank or they play exclusively NG and are in denial because they want to convince themselves they are amazing at the game. They have the best golds in the game (ALBAAAAAAAAAA, Cahir, Vahier de Rideaux, Leo Bonhart, etc) and the best silvers (Auckes, Peter, Guardian, and more with names I cant remember). They have the most variety of play styles and all their bronzes synergize well. They can cycle easily through their entire deck with spies + John Calveit. Their cards are overstatted and have hardly any downsides. For example, Nilfgardian Knight = 10 power and 2 armor. Why? Also, the guardian is a 10 power silver card that completely ruins your opponents card draw. How is that balanced?

ST - 9. Dwarves are strong but predictable. You can buff them to crazy high levels with cards that synergize well, but they are weak to Dbombs, resets or scorchs. Not to mention Auckes, the god-tier card, and Peter. The ST special deck is a pain, but also predictable and counterable. These two archtypes are second only to NG.

SK - 8. Good units overall, some strong silvers (Morkvarg) that lead to decent decks at high play but not as good as NG who can roll over them with nothing more than Auckes and Vicovaro medics. Queensguard is also OK, but at higher ranks, doesn't have the power level to keep up with the best decks.

Monsters - 7. Similar to Queensguard, Weather/Wild Hunt is a good noob stomper deck that punishes people who don't play weather removals or who otherwise don't have the means to counter the frost spam. At higher ranks, it gets outclassed by any other high power, high tempo deck. Consume Monster seems more flexible and better, but I don't have the cards to experiment with it yet, so I can't comment yet on it.

NR - 3. The only viable deck is the Reaver Hunter deck that seeks to steamroll the opponent in Round 3. Everything else is just undertuned with some of the worst golds in the game (Priscilla, Bloody Baron). Not to mention that the most common deck builds use Kaedwin Sergeants + Blue Stripes + Infantrymen, meaning that everything NR throws out has the same power level, gets placed on the same row, and is extremely vulnerable to scorches, weather, and resets. The rest of the cards, the siege archetype or armor archetype for example, are too low power to keep up with the other powerhouse decks. Do a card by card comparision with NG for example and this becomes all too apparent. Even the leader Radovik is basically the same as Auckes, a silver card, with 6 more removal. The faction is just lackluster and needs a buff

 

[DannyGuy]

Rating them as a whole. Not based on a single deck or a few cards.

I'd say NG (tibor + insane bronze units and synergy) + Skellige (morvarg) are pretty much a tie for top tier and really need some changes asap. --- 10
Second place would be ST buff decks and NR reavers. --- 8
And contradictory to the closed beta I would put monsters as the weakest (they're not THAT bad, but they're simply the weakest faction imo) --- 7

I find it funny how you make sure to mention that we should rate the faction as a whole, not based on any single decks or cards, and then you rate the factions based on select decks and cards

But seriously, I can only rate factions in two ways: Design quality and power.

Nilfgaard
I love the design of the Nilfgaard faction when it comes to the spy and control archetypes, and NG definitely has some of the best designed cards with contenders such as Rot Tosser and Cahir, but the reveal archetypes seems really clunky in some ways, especially in mirror matches.
The fact that Nilfgaardian Knights reveal a random card makes me feel... odd when I reveal/don't reveal a Fire Scorpion or a Dalaran Foot Soldier.
In mirror Matches, my opponent can give me strength by revealing my own Dalaran Foot Soldiers, or Fire Scorpions... That is stupid.
Design: 8/10

The power of Nilfgaard is undeniable, their cards are very powerful both individually, and they synergize very well with each other as well.
Power: 10/10

Skellige
In Skellige, I really love the Queensguard, Morkvarg, etc... resurrection/discard archetype, and the Axeman enemy wounding archetype, but the Warcry archetype seems a bit wonky to me. The fact that Warcry is now a Clan an Crait Warcryman is cool, and making it useful even without anything to trigger it on is nice too, but it's just not very satisfying Boosting 3 units by half their power is usually gonna result in about 12 power (+1 from the Clan an Crait Warcryman), which is just laughable...
Design: 8/10

If resurrection stays the way it is, Skellige is always going to be a strong contender in the competitive scene, and at the moment, it's great.
Power: 9/10

Scoia'Tael
I am really dissapointed at how much the Ambush archetype got butchered, along with one of my favorite cards - Isengrim. But I do like Scoia'Tael as a whole. The new movement archetype is really fun, and the special card archetype is very unique, and cannot be done by any other faction thanks to cards like Ithlinne and Dol Blathanna Protector. However, due to the opressive control, the deck isn't very fun to play against.
There are also Dwarves and Mulligan, but both of these archetypes seem unfinished. Hopefully we'll get more cards to support these archetypes in the future.
Design: 7/10

Scoia'Tael have very devastating control options, and thanks to that, they can shut down other player's tactics, which is incredibly powerful.
Power: 7/10

Monsters
I love the new direction Monsters are taking, and I especially love one of the newest archetypes - The Wild Hunt. Monsters have so many cool and unique cards, and most of them are extremely well balanced (of not overnerfed).
Design: 10/10

Monsters are undeniably one of the weaker factions at the moment. They have undergone many changes and nerfs though, so it's to be expected.
Power: 6/10

Northern Realms
I am sorry to say that I don't like the Northern Realms overhaul. The old NR was unhealthy with all the promote interactions, but it was better than it is now in my opinion.
The Armor archetype is quite boring to play, you just sort of pray for your opponent not to remove your Redanian Knight-Elects, and that's your whole game plan.
The Blue Stripes archetype will forever be impossible to balance if kept in its current state, not to mention playing Foltest is really boring, since you have to play him turn 1.
The siege archetype doesn't intrigue me, but I think it's a good and well designed archetype, with a few exceptions such as Reinforced Ballista.
The Reaver Hunter archetype is cool, though it's not very consistent, and it's easily countered with simple cards like Scorches or Locks. But it is really satisfying when you pull it off.
Another gripe I have with NR is that the leaders don't fit their archetypes as well as other faction's leaders, especially Foltest. It's just a boring ability that you're always going to use on turn 1, but at least it somewhat synergizes with Blue Stripes...
Design: 5/10

Honestly, Northern Realms are struggling very hard right now, to noone's suprise, since 2 out of their 4 archetypes aren't strong enough, the 3rd one is broken, and the 4th is just barely good.
Power: 5/10


Thanks to anyone for reading my opinionated review

 

[Trantyn]

Seems like everyone is rating the whole ST faction based on 1 deck. You should play Mulligan or Movement then rate the faction. Neither archetype can finish a game.

 

[xceptor]

Skellige 10
Skoital 9 (due to control elf)
NG 9
Monster 7
NR 1

 

[shroudb]

i'm going to preface my ratings with:
every faction has room to grow, so none is a "10". Also, this is a "whole faction evaluation". Individually, i think all 5 factions have atm a "tier 1" deck (Crach SK, tempo kalveit, dorfs/speel'tell, reavers, hybrid frost)

then:

SK: 7
Both Bran and Crach have strong decks atm, but Harald and the whole warcry theme is not working

NG: 8
I expect the power of the spy deck will fall once the hotfix fixes the bug of emissaries bringing vico novices, reveal is playable but has proven to not be as strong as the rest, ehmyr control is fun but could use some tweaks. Overall though, a very solid faction

SC: 7
Brouver and eithne are strong, but poor "mulligan" franscesca lags behind, that archetype needs some love. I don't see "movement" as a solid archetype of it's own, but i see "movement" as a core aspect of the whole faction atm, and most of it's decks utilize it one way or another (similar to how "ressurect SK isn't a "thing", all SK utilizes ressurects)

MO: 6
I believe that the faction is mostly unexplored. People were really fed up with consume meta, and weather MO before that, and etc. There are some solid decks out there, hybrid lists, foglets, frost decks, etc, and I'm sure that more decks will be revealed as time passes, since the "core" of the MO decks is still strong, but there are some easy to spot underpowered cards that keep them relatively lower than the other 3 factions

NR: 5
Reavers work, and they are a blast to play, which is refreshing for a... NR deck (has to be the most boring faction ever!). The whole 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 archetype needs just a little something imo to get it's groove going, maybe even something so simple as the trio effect of the commandos being "give a minion +1" instead of shuffling copies of themselves back in, this ofc is aimed at staggerring and protecting yourself from igni/scorch, which is the main downfall of the deck. Machines... need some stats. I feel like "siege supports" are in fact the card that limits them so much. This single card offers so much raw stats if left alive that the rest of the machines simply can't have a lot of stas on their own. Maybe lowering the siege support buff a notch and buffing the whole machine list a bit will be enough to make them work, while keeping the combo aspect of the deck.

 

[-Hisoka]

Im gonna copy DannyGuy post and Edit it . , hope he dont mind.

Nilfgaard
For me , NG is the TOP faction for this Patch , they too many ways to thin the deck with low bronze units , spys , its just so unfair that you put 2str to ur enemy and draw a card .
also , they have really really strong Bronze units , Imperia dudes that easly get to 10+ , Silver cards that are really OP like AUCKES / CYNTIHA and so on .
they also have the best Leaders and Gold cards in the game right now and one of them is a win card 90% of the time . TIBOR - this guy is so unfair , even if u think hes somehow not OP , you are wrong , because NG can cycle their whole deck quickly , winning first rounds with strong bronze units , saving gold and silvers to the last round and then they will use Tibor just in the end to draw you the most useless card that just not strong enough to deal with 25STR .
oh and did i mentioned that if they play Reveal type they also have crazy cards ? let me explain , Reveal a card is almost on any NG card , so they can almost everytime reveal any card they want , so they reveal that 4 Str Bronze card , it played Automaticly and Draw another card , so in the end u put a 4str , and Draw a card , seems abit unfair.
they also have the guys that get buffed for reveal , the ones that says Varru when u play them forgot the name , those guys guranted to get to 13str + and because u thinn ur deck so fast with NG , you will have them for endgame.
Design: 8/10

The power of Nilfgaard is undeniable, their cards are very powerful both individually, and they synergize very well with each other as well.
Power: 10/10

Skellige
This guys i hate the most , they have the most easy playstyle of them all , they can either drop bears / ships which are amazing bronze cards , they also have strong silvers that work with their deck like Morkvarg which can lead most games to get a 15 str Morkvarg almost every time . pretty dumb right ? but its not all of it ! , some of their Gold cards are really game changing , like Coral and the Wild Boar Ship , they also have some strong Silvers aswell , but the part that makes them abit broken is the fact that they can ress their Queensguard every god damm turn , no matter what you do . and the other strong part is that they can heal and buff the units , so first it was 4 cards of 3/4/4/7 but then its / 6/9/11/16 and so on .(random numbers but you got it )
also they have some of the strongest leader cards in the game aswell
Design: 8/10

they are top 2 faction in the game , i think they should get abit of tweaking so things like queens/morkvargs each turn while destroying ur enemy with other cards wont happen .
Power: 9/10

Scoia'Tael
what can i say about this guys ? the Spell ST should be nerfed asap not only because its one of the strongest and hardest decks to counter but because its stupid to fight spells , this is a bad way to play the game .
the other Dwarf buffs deck is really strong and i like it . i dont think they have too many broken things but here some :
they have a dwarf card that they always decoy and reuse it - this card act like the Foltest leader ,buffing most of their units .
the other Dwarfs have such a good Synergy that they can buff their whole bronze cards , making them too strong for some factions to deal with . and they also for the ability to keep them for another round . this combo need to be tweaked abit to make it fair for other factions its abit too easy to achieve that , making the game sometimes unfair just l ike the Morkvarg /Queens for Skellige
also they have Bronze cards that can easly easly get to 13+str , which is also unfair . those are the Spell boys that get buffed each time u use a spell . pretty OP . tweak it abit and see how it goes.
for example i would try to disable the option to Decoy the Dwarf that buff all units . so it cant be reused.
Design: 7/10

Scoia'Tael have very devastating control options, and thanks to that, they can shut down other player's tactics, which is incredibly powerful.
Power: 7/10

Monsters
I love the new direction Monsters are taking, and I especially love one of the newest archetypes - The Wild Hunt. Monsters have so many cool and unique cards, and most of them are extremely well balanced (of not overnerfed). - i will just add to this because i agree with most of it , i really like how Monsters work in this Patch , both Consume/Weather and i think with abit of simple Tweakings they can be one of the most fun and BALANCED factions in the game !
Design: 10/10

Monsters are undeniably one of the weaker factions at the moment. They have undergone many changes and nerfs though, so it's to be expected.
Power: 6/10

Northern Realms
here we go , this is my faction , i dont play any other faction but the North .
and for the love of god CDPR what you've done to the Northren Realms , Foltest died for nothing !
let me try to make it quick , beside Reavers , which are very very very easy to counter with g.igni/scorch , NR have NOTHING else to offer , they do have some decent cards but honestly its not even close to the other factions .

lets start with the damm Leaders! , Radovid:is this a joke ? hes the worst leader ever! useless! , Henselt : working only if u play Reavers and it forces u to base the deck around it , id say its decent.
Foltest-the best one for the NR in my opnion , but still not helpful as other factions . REWORK them ASAP! , and REWORK the ART for the leaderse because HENSELT/FOLTEST look crap and we dont want PREM THEM !

Bronze cards : so we have some "nice decent " bronze like Cavalry, Siege Support , And The Reavers ,beside that ? nothing really worth it . we use some others but we are forced to use them
if u delete all the Siege Bronze cards all the Machine ones , nothing will change for the north they will stay the same ! , a huge rework needed asap!
Silvers , Dethmold is nice , Margarita is the best Lock in my opnion but other than that , another more garbage cards , Lubberkin/botchling ? useless , Ves ? Useless , and i can keep going but the other problem is the Gold cards!

Keira - is this a joke ? shes a weak mage in gold .
Shani - wtf have you done to my beloved Shani , ress a unit , add 4 armor ? what for ? does it helping me somehow ? do i have cards that gonna benefit from it ? Nothing .
Dijkstra , one of the worst Spy units in the game and its a GOLD card -.- , shame what u did to him .
Roche - decent if u manage to pull the combo which is pretty hard , id say hes decent but if we had better options he would'nt be in the decks for sure!
Natalis - i dont think i've seen any 1 play with Natalis ,because hes USELESS , u can remove him with the other Machines / Siege units !
Dandelion - boost 3 units by 3 ? its a lame effect just like Keira , it Might be good in some wierd situations in a 1 game out of 10 but other than that its useless! , and belive me i tried him (got prem)

Design: 5/10

Honestly, Northern Realms are struggling very hard right now, to noone's suprise, since 2 out of their 4 archetypes aren't strong enough, the 3rd one is broken, and the 4th is just barely good.
ill add to the comment above me , Northren Realms are the most broken Faction in the game , and dont get me wrong please , im not saying it because i want u to buff them , im a close beta player and if i want i can play any other faction , i have most of the cards for that.
but me and so other Witcher Fans really really love the North and want to play it , but its just sad how bad it is . , you need to rework it ASAP please!
Power: 5/10

 

[DRK3]

I dont know about the whole factions, i like and use all of them, but a few days ago, i had to choose a new Legendary to craft, and since i already have at least one for SK and NG, i checked all the Golds for the remaining factions and couldnt find a SINGLE one i wanted!

I mean Caretaker is still pretty awesome but i already used him in Closed Beta.
Saskia is good but too simple, just a Summon bonus.
Schirru now sucks, telegraphing that Scorch like hell.
Bloody Baron might be interesting though, but i still havent visualized properly how it works now.
RIP Shani.