DRAFT - First impressions

[DRK3]

They aren't going to add rewards to Draft. They said Draft will have a cooldown period, but no entry fee and no rewards is part of the separtion from Arena mode.

Well, that sucks. I guess they can still change that, if they see the mode fails and players are strongly demanding for rewards.

Also, i hadnt figured out how the mode works before, i thought you would simply play as many time you wanted with a deck until 7 wins (with the option of redraft), but after seeing a streamer video, apparently you just play 7 matches, doesnt matter how many are wins or losses, then it ends.

Talk about anti-climatic...

 

[hirschmarie™]

Please give us the choice between Arena (Legacy) and the new Draft mode.

 

[Luckless_Jack]

It's too early for me to tell if Draft is going to be better or worse than Arena, but here are a few early thoughts.

I did not enjoy the new drafting process anywhere near as much as the one in Arena (despite Arena's shortcomings). It just felt too restricted and almost "on rails". I can appreciate that there are many more cards and packages that can still be added to the draft mode, but at the moment it just felt like there wasn't enough variety. It feels a bit too "pre-constructed".

I would prefer more player choices during a draft. 11 choices of 1 from 3 just doesn't seem enough. For a start, does it have to be limited to just 3 options? I think having 4 options would make the player feel like they have more say over their draft (5 options might be too many).

As for the options themselves, packages of 3 cards feels limiting too. Even if they don't go back to picking each card individually like in Arena, perhaps packages of 2 cards would be better, or perhaps picking 1 card from 4 options and then selecting a 2 card package from 4 sets that may or may not have synergy with it. The way it is set up at the moment makes it so the weighted RNG mechanic is making a lot of those choices for the player, and thus removing agency from them.

I can see that CDPR are going for a fun approach with plenty of splashy plays and packages, but to me, it currently feels even more unbalanced than Arena was at its worst. I think Draft should be a more fun mode, but probably shouldn't be too crazy too often. Fine tuning may help reduce this problem.

Personally I think I would prefer a format that feels less "constructed", and more like Arena, but with better balance between the overall strength of decks. There are many ways this could have been achieved with Arena, including having fixed minimum amounts of cards of a specific rarity or provision cost, for example, or even allowing an overdraft of a few extra cards then letting the player select say 25 of 30 drafted cards to keep for their run (plus leader and strategem). I appreciate that this is unlikely though as Draft will supplant Arena in the same way that Homecoming did original Beta Gwent. Things move on and that's just how it is.

As for the question of cooldowns between drafts, entry fees and prizes, I would strongly prefer them, but appreciate that those can come later when Draft mode is out of Beta.

I'm not against this Draft mode, but I'm not keen on it as it is right now. Hopefully feedback from this Beta will help CDPR improve and refine it.

 

[Afxs]

Feels weird to read all these complaints.
I like Draft Mode more than Arena already. The absurdity of some decks is really entertaining to me.
Also I dont think it's that unbalanced. I played four runs with 3,4,4 and 5 wins. Some of these games were very close; even had a few ties.
Also I don't expect it to be more balanced than constructed. Are you guys trolling? I mean: Why should it be? It's a gamemode where you pick cards semi-randomly without normal deck restrictions. That in itself screams "unbalanced".
Overall I feel like it is a fun experience compared to Arena because you have no straight up bad cards in you deck (if you dont mess up your draft).

But it is far from perfect.
1. I agree that there should be some kind of reward for playing and the cooldown for redrafting should definitely be implemented. An entry fee doesn't seem reasonable to me to solve that issue. Players like me sitting on 15k+ ore could easily draft several times while new players get punished.

2. There seem to be some bugs with the evolving cards. First of all they are always in their third form; even in round 1 and if you don't have devotion. Also they don't appear in the decklist.

3. Some packages are flawed. I'll list some I noticed
- Ozzrel package with Yghern/Speartip/Goliath is to strong for no needed synergy. It's almost auto-pick
- Adalia sometimes appears in shield package without any northern realms units
- Vabjorn + 2* War of Clans is offered without me picking ANY warriors
- Syndicate feels kinda boring to play as AND against because it's to easy to build it without picking cards from other factions. The rate of syndicate packages should be somewhat lower.

 

[Smith_X]

I am a poor Gwent player. I play casual the most. I rarely make to rank 10. that's why I never play Arena mode. I will be beat up and it is no fun when be a punching bag to someone. It more than waste of time but feel pretty bad.

yesterday I tried draft mode,
- I tried 3 drafts. the first draft I tried 3 games -- lose all.
- the 2nd and 3rd draft I tried 1-2 games -- lost all.
- then, I try to pick a deck 5-6 times -- my deck is way to less powerful due to the random legendary and leader ability didn't match. but when I can find a match the "SY" deck keep offering cards that irrelevant to what I picked earlier. Some group contain unplayable gold or very weak bronze. Then, I stop try draft mode.

I will try to watch some steamers pick and play. I believe that plenty players like this mode. but it just not for me.
I should back to casual mode that likely to fit to my skill.

 

[SmasherManni]

In my opinion the biggest mistake was really to cut the rewardsystem and entry fee. I won in the first draft 6 games and was so excited what I'll get and i got: nothing. This is just very frustrating. Why I should care then if I win or loose? It just doesn't matter and this cuts the fun of the mode which I loved in arena. I hope you'll put the entry fee back again so players can get an reward for winning a lot of rounds.

 

[InkognitoXI]

[...]
And barely any neutral cards. Wouldnt be surprised if scenarios were left out.
[...]

Scenarios and evolving cards are focus cards after the leader pick, from my observations you cannot get multiple of them anymore.

I am somewhat disappointed though that evolving cards are always immediately in their final form, I can understand that they need to compete with cards like Scenarios, however I am still not a fan of the decision to make them entirely new cards (being non-evolving and unusable in this form in the standard modes) and fully usable in Round 1.

I would have even prefered for the definition of Devotion, for the Draft mode, to be changed to "You can use multiple factions and Neutrals, but no more than 3/4 of these categories".

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

Make it no entry cost but with rewards and it's good.

 

[InkognitoXI]

Make it no entry cost but with rewards and it's good.

I disagree, then there is even less incentive, if one just loses resources compared to playing constructed.
I would suggest adding a 15 minute Cooldown between Drafting decks and adding the option to pay Ore for a similar reward system to the old area reward system.

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

I disagree, then there is even less incentive, if one just loses resources compared to playing constructed.
I would suggest adding a 15 minute Cooldown between Drafting decks and adding the option to pay Ore for a similar reward system to the old area reward system.

The incentive is playing for fun as it should be, without worrying about meta and stupid things like that.
Also, new players can try cards and "playstyles" and choose where to invest resources.
If, and i mean IF, you want to add an entry free just make it less demanding than the arena one, like 50 ore or scraps or powder.

 

[Jamborinio]

I am not sure why they actually got rid of Arena. It's sufficiently different from draft mode and surely more options for playing is better than limiting them...

All in all a strange decision I feel.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

Well, after ONE day since release there are already some clear metas in the draft, which is very sad. The games have become predictable already, and having no entry fee and no incentives I will now do what everyone else does: redraft until I get a very strong deck.

 

[zbonzla]

With Arena gone and rapid seasonal mode nearly a full year away it's time to uninstall Gwent. Been here since day 1 of open beta, spent hundreds of fun hours with the game but it's time to call it a day. Arena was far from perfect but it was so much fun building a deck looking for that weird combo or putting crazy synergy pieces together only to be beaten by even crazier decks. Draft fells so terrible, unrewarding, unfun and unbalanced it's worse than ranked. Thanks CDPR, see you in the next Witcher game.

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

With Arena gone and rapid seasonal mode nearly a full year away it's time to uninstall Gwent. Been here since day 1 of open beta, spent hundreds of fun hours with the game but it's time to call it a day. Arena was far from perfect but it was so much fun building a deck looking for that weird combo or putting crazy synergy pieces together only to be beaten by even crazier decks. Draft fells so terrible, unrewarding, unfun and unbalanced it's worse than ranked. Thanks CDPR, see you in the next Witcher game.

Ofc, Arena, the "the one who has more golds by the power of RNG wins, so fun".

 

[zbonzla]

Ofc, Arena, the "the one who has more golds by the power of RNG wins, so fun".

I never mentioned winning in my post. I guess you're what's now a typical gwent player where win = fun. If you played arena you would know that sheer number of gold cards is no guarantee for winning. Anyway if you want to win most of the time just continue netdecking and having "fun" playing ranked with one or two op decks you copied.

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

I never mentioned winning in my post. I guess you're what's now a typical gwent player where win = fun. If you played arena you would know that sheer number of gold cards is no guarantee for winning. Anyway if you want to win most of the time just continue netdecking and having "fun" playing ranked with one or two op decks you copied.

I consider "fun"...fun. It is fun drawing random bronzes and a couple of golds without any sinergy? Especially when you have to spend ores first. Also I tend to play decks I've personal made, I only play "meta" decks when i'm in a hurry and/or have to complete quests, get off your high horse.
I guess you consider fun going with a 80% bronzes deck against the person who drawed 19 golds, but hey , "crazy synergies and crazier decks" right?
Also, if you want to experiment there's still casual mode for you, unless you are the one on the first place playing meta decks yet accusing others.

 

[Lokiat0r]

Ofc, Arena, the "the one who has more golds by the power of RNG wins, so fun".

That could've been addressed by having a fixed number of cards offered for various provision ranges:

8 x 4-5 provision cards
8 x 6-7 provision cards
5 x 8-9 provision cards
4 x 10+ provision cards

So far, Draft really feels more like constructed with different meta decks than a true replacement for Arena.

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

That could've been addressed by having a fixed number of cards offered for various provision ranges:

8 x 4-5 provision cards
8 x 6-7 provision cards
5 x 8-9 provision cards
4 x 10+ provision cards

So far, Draft really feels more like constructed with different meta decks than a true replacement for Arena.

Did I say somewhere else that Draft it's perfect? Nope. Is it better than Arena? Yes in my opinion
It has its problems but nothing a couple of fixes can't solve.

 

[croloris]

My main issue with draft is that there is clearly a discernable meta that is already developing, leading to a similarity in deck creation.

1) There is never a compelling reason not to take the thinning packages...except for the witcher trio of course.
In general, everyone who is competitive will have drafted such a package, and if they were lucky in draft 2 of them. In my 5 drafts so far, I have been offered just a single tutor, Fauve, as part of a NAture package, but perhaps that is due to selecting the thinning packages.

2) There is no reason to not go for full on greed, as there is a considerable lack of removal
So it seems that Syndicate Passiflora is everywhere in draft, whereas in arena Syndicate was nearly non existent. I have seen a few tall removal cards, but it seems that I never see more than two massive control cards. Despite all the SY I have played against, no Moreelse, Tinboy, or Philippa.

3) Too many decks are running 60 - 70% of the cards from their leader ability's faction. Leading to it feeling more of a seasonal mode vibe than a true sucessor to arena.

 

[Allistre]

I think this whole situation is a bit funny. It's like a microcosm of what happened 2 years ago. CDPR deleted the ENTIRE game and replaced it with an oversimplified Homecoming game. Of course there was outrage, but more new players came in over time and this was the only game they knew so they didn't protest. So people hardly remember the old Gwent now.

Same thing will happen with Draft replacing Arena. The world will go on, and let's face it, this isnt really a big deal compared to what happened 2 years ago.