Patch Notes 11.8

[RyanSchou]

Hey everyone and welcome to the Patch Notes for 11.8!

This is a patch between card drops so we are focusing on adjusting the new cards and a few old ones as well.

For an overview of this patch, check out the Developer Update with Molegion and Ryan.
New Features
New Deckbuilder Filter - Added the option to filter card sets by the currently active Cycle. Note: For the Summer Cycle, the active card sets are Crimson Curse and Way of the Witcher.
ChangesNeutral
Cosimo Malaspina - Provision cost changed from 9 to 7.

Hanmarvyn's Blue Dream - Provision cost changed from 12 to 10.

Iris von Everec - Power changed from 5 to 6.

Provision cost changed from 6 to 8.

Ability changed to:

At the end of your turn, if this card is in your graveyard, boost all units in your deck by 1, then Banish self.

Mandrake - Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.

Syanna - Provision cost changed from 12 to 10.
Monsters
Lord Riptide - Armor changed from 0 to 2.

Armor gained from Might changed from 2 to 1.

Spontaneous Evolution - Boost changed from 4 to 5.

Beast - Boost changed from 8 to 9

Ogroid - Now Spawns a Nekker on the boosted unit's row instead.
Nilfgaard
Imperial Marine - Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Northern Realms
King Demavend III - Cooldown changed from 2 to 4.

Onager - Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Scoia'tael
Hostage Taker - Power changed from 3 to 4.
Skellige
Jutta an Dimun - Power changed from 12 to 13.

Provision cost changed from 7 to 6.

Kaer Trolde - Provision cost changed from 9 to 10.

An Craite Armorsmith - Power changed from 2 to 4.

Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Boost an allied unit by 1 for every 2 Armor on the highest-Armor unit in your hand.

Funeral Boat - Ability now only triggers during the owner's turn.
Syndicate
Captain Yago - Provision cost changed from 13 to 11.

The Acherontia - Vice requirement changed from 10 to 12.

Acherontia Deckhand - Now also has Profit 1.

 

[Barracuda88]

Whoa. I feel like I haven't seen this much actual balance in one patch in a long time. Well done.

 

[WhiteWolf4207]

Lord Riptide was fine.

 

[Pjovejas]

So, again Syndicate is left only with 1 viable deck (and even that is questionable)? bounty stick? Because Acherontia nerf destroys lined pockets IMHO.

 

[DRK3]

The buffs seem fine, not so sure about the nerfs...
From my view, the cards that deserved a nerf the most were Acherontia, Demavend and Onager, NG marine and SK funeral boat and armor smith.

The Demavend nerf is much needed, it was the most broken card in the game, even responsible for a meltdown from Moshcraft in his stream yesterday.
The Acherontia nerf also seems reasonable.

But Ng marine is still too good at 5p, much better than witch apprentice at 6p.
Onager to 5p is secret buff, as it works better now with mutagenerator.
Funeral boat should still be super deadly, after this change.
And armorsmith lost its insane ceiling but should still be very reliable and keep an amazing point-prov ratio.

 

[Barracuda88]

...
Onager to 5p is secret buff, as it works better now with mutagenerator.

This is actually kind of true. Also, you can't just take it out with Epidemic anymore... The deck losing 2 provisions as a tradeoff doesn't seem like much.

 

[Philido]

Are devs somewhat allergic to making more than one or two changes to NG each patch?

 

[Luclon1474]

Yay

BEFORE THIS PATCH
You keep playing against:
- Ogroids
- Pirates
- Nilfgaard flanking
- Nilfgaard flanking+Renfri
- Elves with Simlas and infinite Elven Deadeyes
- NR Reavers

AFTER THIS PATCH
You keep playing against:
- Ogroids
- Pirates
- Nilfgaard flanking
- Nilfgaard flanking+Renfri
- Elves with Simlas and infinite Elven Deadeyes
- NR Reavers
- and, as a gift for your loyalty, Syanna decks destroying you with 8 Ace up the sleeves or 10 Waylays

You are just a sitting duck waiting to be destroyed by always the same overpowered decks, or just waiting for the beginning of the next season to be relegated to higher ranks and hopefully breath a less toxic air.
The life of a sitting duck is so nice.
How many years will it take me to go back to rank 25?

 

[quintivarium]

Initial reactions:

• Deck builder filter — very helpful addition
• Malaspina — the card is too random for serious play, but it can be fun. Now it is less likely to be always bad.
• Hanmarvyn’s Blue Dream — a neutral card probably only useful to Nilfgaard. Even there, it still feels over-priced.
• Iris von Everec — by far the worst in any balance patch (not card drop) of the past year. The old Iris might not have been popular, but she had one very valuable use that opened a lot of deck building possibilities. Old Iris was an inexpensive enabler of Iris’s Companions which added consistency to decks that absolutely needed certain cards in hand round 1 — an enabler that may not have been good, but one cheap enough to discard and strong enough not to be a total brick of played. The new card primarily benefits only NR, is highly uninteractive and is binary in that it must be drawn round 1, but isn’t good enough to be worth tutoring.
• Mandrake — Two years ago, this would have been an exciting change. But now there are so many ways to replay orders that it’s only real use on one’s own units is to reset statuses (e.g. defender) while it is more expensive than similar cards for offensive use.
• Syanna — Syanna is an interesting meme card an a cheaper version makes her more appealing. But she is also often a binary “remove or lose” card — I wish this one had been left alone. I will say that I had not considered the developers’ justification — and I think it is compelling (checking whether provision buffs break the card before giving players control).
• Lord Riptide — Old Riptide could be hugely variable in value. New Riptide has a higher floor and lower ceiling. It would greatly reduce binary play if more cards were adjusted this way.
• Spontaneous Evolution — great change that makes an important card play closer to the meta point/provision curve.
• Imperial Marine — change seems fair, but I have neither played nor observed the card enough to be a good judge.
• King Demavend III — a good and necessary change.
• Onager — insufficient nerf for a very binary card.
• Hostage Taker — I don’t know that a change was necessary, but this buff will certainly not break anything that isn’t already broken.
• Jutta an Dimun — a necessary change to keep pace with Greatswords
• Kaer Trolde — I think Trolde is a very strong card that has not reached its potential. A fair nerf.
• Funeral Boat — this card needed a nerf, but I doubt this one will accomplish anything.
• Based upon the cost/provision curve, this seems like a fair change. But I have zero experience with the card or decks it would play in. I have no true insight here.
• Acherontia — A nerf was needed — and this one seems very measured — but I don’t have the experience with the card to have great insight.
• Acherontia deckhand — this boost seems more intended to balance a deck than to balance a card. That type of decision making reduces player agency in designing decks and is not appreciated.

I do think certain cards from the last drop were overlooked, notably:

• Monsters — Tugo is very abusable in ways that are hard to counter.
• NG — admittedly Bacalla and Battle Stations are expensive, but the number of high tempo NG plays is excessive.
• NR — Ravanen is at least as bad as Demavend, and in several ways, harder to counter. He needed attention, too. Ship Ballista is very binary — even if not that good. I would like both cards to be modified.
• ST — It was clearly Trapmaker that needs a buff — not Hostage Taker. And again, the game’s most glaringly imbalanced card (Simlas) goes untouched.
• SK — At least here, I think the biggest problems were correctly identified. My concern is that neither nerf is sufficient.
• SY — I haven’t played enough to have strong basis, but Ixora feels problematic: binary if not OP (weak vs spawn, overwhelming vs certain other decks)

 

[DRK3]

Iris von Everec — by far the worst in any balance patch (not card drop) of the past year. The old Iris might not have been popular, but she had one very valuable use that opened a lot of deck building possibilities. Old Iris was an inexpensive enabler of Iris’s Companions which added consistency to decks that absolutely needed certain cards in hand round 1 — an enabler that may not have been good, but one cheap enough to discard and strong enough not to be a total brick of played. The new card primarily benefits only NR, is highly uninteractive and is binary in that it must be drawn round 1, but isn’t good enough to be worth tutoring.

That card rework also caught my eye, as its the most significant rework of the patch, the rest are just point or provision changes.

I think you may have got it wrong - you could still use the iris + iris companion as before, to get the card you want in hand, but now you're definitely supposed to discard iris to get her value as early as possible.

I see why you said the card primarily benefitted NR, as they benefit from boosts in deck the most, but i dont think you're supposed to just play Iris on board and wait for the round to end, as ths could see her get countered. I see two other ways to get her main value - SK discarding it, or even more efficient, MO consuming her. And since its at the end of turn, there's no chance to squirrel her away.

At 8prov, 6 body, she will be by far the cheapest 'boost X units in deck' in Gwent, as Vesemir mentor, AllGod and erland are costlier and/or are more restricted in which type of units they boost. I wouldnt be surprised if she jumped into the meta.
The only downside of her is she's near useless on later rounds, and might not be good on special-heavy decks, but on Renfri decks? She will probably be auto-pick.

PS - i think iris + iris companion got completely obsolete when triss butterflies was reworked to a more efficient way to get a card in hand.

 

[Slade_Chen]

The buffs seem fine, not so sure about the nerfs...
From my view, the cards that deserved a nerf the most were Acherontia, Demavend and Onager, NG marine and SK funeral boat and armor smith.

The Demavend nerf is much needed, it was the most broken card in the game, even responsible for a meltdown from Moshcraft in his stream yesterday.
The Acherontia nerf also seems reasonable.

But Ng marine is still too good at 5p, much better than witch apprentice at 6p.
Onager to 5p is secret buff, as it works better now with mutagenerator.
Funeral boat should still be super deadly, after this change.
And armorsmith lost its insane ceiling but should still be very reliable and keep an amazing point-prov ratio.

surprise they didnt change mutagenerator, smh

Post automatically merged: Aug 8, 2023

This is actually kind of true. Also, you can't just take it out with Epidemic anymore... The deck losing 2 provisions as a tradeoff doesn't seem like much.

true

 

[kilingor]

1. Nerf the cultists already! With the new card, archetype has become more bothersome!!! If you don't want to change Affan, then at least the Scenario "Whenever you play a Cultist, boost self by 0, then increase this value by 1 if it was a GOLD".

2. Strengthen the very concept of Bonded. Were bandits changed for nothing? And for Reaver Hunters, remove Bonded by tying them to the range row. This will deprive them of The Mushy Truffle and abuse of Dvimweandra. (For example Bonded: Trigger this ability if you control a copy of this card. If you control more copies, additional boost all copies of this card by 1)
These two decks are very toxic and often on the ranks.

3. By adding Doomed, you have nerfed Nature's Gift with Spring Equinox by at least 50 stats! Without nature cards, you now have a card playing 0 for 5. With a maximum of 10. It is the privilege of scoia'tael to have a golden nature. If the card is neutral, other factions that do not have this must be considered (along with symbiosis).
Need adequate compensation for difficult conditions for Spring Equinox: "Doomed. Boost an allied unit by 5. Increase the boost by 1 for each Nature card other than Spring Equinox in your starting deck".
The final number is not power of a particular card, but an increase by 1 power of each nature card in the deck + many of the nature cards will inevitably remain unplayed in the deck for the rest of the game.

 

[ThorgerWolff]

Calling this a patch is a stretch. Some reasonable nerfs but nothing amazing.

All of the above comments are valid.

I'd like to add:
-Give back old Tatterwing ability to Cutupps .
-Bloody Good Friends could use Intimidate.
-Remove cooldown on Arena Endrega.
-Cutup Lackeys need buff.
-Hvitr and Aelydia needs something.
-Mutant Killer, change hoard to tribute, then lower tribute

-Add Morvudd ability to some Beast cards. Like Wyvern or Cockatrice.
-Spontaneous Evo.: Beast - Boost changed from 8 to 9 makes no sense, spawning Rats does. Adrenaline Rush exists.
-Hybrid needs a better Ranged ability.
-Nightwraith, more Rats please.
-Noonwraith, more Rats please.
-Bruxa, more bleeding.

And that's just MO n SY.

 

[NoGG4Netdeckers]

surprise they didnt change mutagenerator, smh

Are you really? It is a card that reminds me so much of Saskia: Commander and Golden Nekker in the way that it is obviously broken and has been in the meta since its very inception by every abuse deck, and instead of nerfing the obvious problem they nerf all the other cards in the decks using it. Although Saskia did get a little slap on the wrist a few patches ago.

Usually cards that generate carryover are pretty expensive but somehow this filth that can pretty much only be answered by a heatwave sits on 6p comfortably completely disregarded by the devs. Gwentfinity cannot come sooner, so that we can have some actual balance in this joke game.

 

[DRK3]

I recommend taking a look at lerio's review of the patch, very detailed and insightful, confirms some things that already have been said here.

https://leriohub.com/gwent-patch-11-8-iris-demavend-pirates-analysis-and-review/

 

[ThorgerWolff]

Yay

BEFORE THIS PATCH
You keep playing against:
- Ogroids
- Pirates
- Nilfgaard flanking
- Nilfgaard flanking+Renfri
- Elves with Simlas and infinite Elven Deadeyes
- NR Reavers

AFTER THIS PATCH
You keep playing against:
- Ogroids
- Pirates
- Nilfgaard flanking
- Nilfgaard flanking+Renfri
- Elves with Simlas and infinite Elven Deadeyes
- NR Reavers
- and, as a gift for your loyalty, Syanna decks destroying you with 8 Ace up the sleeves or 10 Waylays

You are just a sitting duck waiting to be destroyed by always the same overpowered decks, or just waiting for the beginning of the next season to be relegated to higher ranks and hopefully breath a less toxic air.
The life of a sitting duck is so nice.
How many years will it take me to go back to rank 25?

Haha, yes, this has been my experience so far

 

[saodhar]

Do you even try to fix the balance? Like for real. With playtesting, listening to the feedback, at least nerfing the most overused cards/abilities? Or do you just roll dice - one with minor numbers 1-3, the other with +/- - and modify a few cards at random? This time around the dice shown you the right direction - but are these all the changes you could think of?

 

[Arxareon]

I seem to be a bit dumb and/or blind, but I can't find the new cycle deckbuilder filter. How does one use it, where do I find it?

 

[WizardofQLA]

Falibor deals 6 damage if I use Golden Froth on him. He even deals up to 18 damage with Bone Talisman. Is this intentional? If so, his description needs to be updated.

The way Falibor is now, he's not bad. Especially in NR swarm decks.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

I wonder:
1. how could the devs not see the issue introducing Onager at such low cost?
2. why is it not managed?
that 1p provision change does literally nothing to tackle insane performance in NR order deck