DRAFT - First impressions

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I wasn't initially against the decision to remove both the entry fee and the rewards from Arena, but after having experienced the new Draft mode, I definitely think that it was a mistake to do so. There really should be some sort of penalty for immediately scrapping a deck without even playing with it just because you think you can do better; otherwise, this mode will turn out to be even more broken than the base game. Assuming nothing changes, I don't really see myself playing the new Draft mode much.
 
They should lock you out for 10 minutes if you abandon your current drafted deck. :] Oh and also they should bring back iOS 12 support so I can actually play on my phone again.
 
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Only played 3 games . This is what I have experienced so far compare to old arena

Pro

1. Ability to chose stratagem which is better than before .

2. There are better opportunity to chose strategy and give synergy for your deck.

3. Ability to custom your skin and cardback etc which is great.

4. Choosing group strategy which consist of 3 cards I think is good too

Con

1. There need to be a entry fee and a reward system. Previous arena rewards though not great was ok and 9 wins for a legendary was ok too. No entry and no reward sucks.

2. Seems luck still play a big factor. For my first draft I had 2 yrden in a Geralt package, Gaunter, Prophet Lebioda, Immortals, 4 X Damn Sorceress. ON top of that Phoneix, Vandergrift (carryover value), 2 x lock package, 1 defender.

I won all 3 games. Not sure if I chose well or if they chose badly or if I was too lucky. The 3rd game the guy quit in the 2nd round and this is tied to the first point. Having no entry and reward system = People just quit even on the first round.
 
I am having so much fun even though I mostly lose.

I managed to get triple Knickers, in a deck that also has rats, and against an opponent who'd drafted a million Roches and Joachims... well, it didn't end well for me. But hilarious!
 
All right, here we go:

Deck specialization: Very good. Your custom deck has a distinctive personality built to your preference.

Strategy: Good. Packs of three cards with synergy give you the obvious combos which you can reinforce if you are lucky to get 2-3 packs with the same tag.

Selection of cards: Peculiar. CDPR simplified the process by offering certain combos, but the cards in some packs raise questions.

Balance: Terrible. IMO, it's even more unbalanced than the core game. In my two runs I either decimated an opponent or was decimated myself. There were no equal games at all. Either me or an opponent had synergies the other deck could not counter. In one of my drafts I had 9 Dun Banners that auto-won R1 and thinned my poison Ball deck for R2. On my other draft I did not get a chance to pick any 5 point removals, so I ended up with a toothless deck. Luck is still a big factor in this Draft Mode.

Fun: Good, for now. CDPR combos result in funny and OP situations. However, they said there were only 79 card packs, so it will take us a week or two to explore them all and get bored ;-)

Entry fee, rewards and penalty for cancelling the game/draft: Terrible. Without an entry fee you can reroll unlimited times until you get very lucky with the draw.
No reward is very disappointing. You win 7 games and then all you see is a number. Really?
And I really don't like that you can leave at any time without any penalty. I already see people leaving the game left and right, myself included.

Compared to Arena: Worse. Personally, I prefer the way Arena was executed. It would be great to hear from CDPR what goals they intended to achieve with this Draft mode.
 
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I like the new draft mode, but some packages are super broken. I played against someone with Visigota, Dandelion and Priscila, that's really strong combo even in constructed.
 
I wasn't initially against the decision to remove both the entry fee and the rewards from Arena, but after having experienced the new Draft mode, I definitely think that it was a mistake to do so. There really should be some sort of penalty for immediately scrapping a deck without even playing with it just because you think you can do better; otherwise, this mode will turn out to be even more broken than the base game. Assuming nothing changes, I don't really see myself playing the new Draft mode much.

I agree.

I'd suggest a nominal entry fee of 50 ore which allows you to build a deck with two optional redrafts (for a total of three draft attempts). The entry fee could be refunded after 30 cards are played so players don't just forfeit 3 matches to get back to the draft if they're unhappy with their deck.

Otherwise the ability to just redraft over and over until you get an overpowered deck will probably kill all casual interest in the mode.
 
I am feeling the same of you guys. Without the entry fee there is no point in playing draft, because people will just redraft until get a superb deck.

i did this only to see what happens until i get a good deck.

And problably i will play 1 or 2 matches with that deck and will redraft again
 
I have played a ton of arena, and I feel that there should be an entry fee. I would prefer it be higher than the previous 150 and an increase in the quality of rewards.

More importantly, they needed to REMOVE THE ABILITY TO BREAK THE CONTRACT until you have 2 of the 3 losses. You play worse decks, but so does just about everybody, and the game is just better.
 
Hmm, I'm not sure about these 'packages'. In this format, they are leading down the road of this is broken vs that is broken, which means balance will need to come to this draft mode...

With the former version of Arena, we just accepted that broken combos could be created and you got on with it in the hope that your next run you might get one of them. There was also the challenge of trying to make less broken decks work. I liked the fact that other than one or two really broken combos (e.g. Yoana and Whoreson), one didn't really complain about balance, or lack thereof, at all.

Right now, I can see screams of this is imbalanced raging around about draft, and people just discarding drafts until they hit the jackpot. Moreover, if there isn't much of a down-payment or reward to all of this, one finds it hard to see the relevance of it all.
 
I seem to recall that they stated the Draft Mode having a Cooldown.
I think the current main issue of re-drafting over and over would be solved that way, the very sad part is that they already stated this issue before and still released the early access Draft Mode without a Cooldown.
 
I seem to recall that they stated the Draft Mode having a Cooldown.
I think the current main issue of re-drafting over and over would be solved that way, the very sad part is that they already stated this issue before and still released the early access Draft Mode without a Cooldown.

I'm guessing this is so more people get the chance to try it out and give feedback, before they start taking fees and giving rewards.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
This Draft Mode is in Beta and it will go through a lot of changes slowly. For people worried about people re-rolling again and again to get a power deck, I don't think it will be the case. CDPR had brilliantly solved that issue. Why would anyone want to re-roll again and again, when there are not rewards? There is no guarantee that your deck will be the best (your opponent may have a much better version) and with no rewards, I don't see a reason to keep re-rolling again and again. Of course, if the deck is uber pathetic, then yes, but even if it is moderately good, people will play that as there is no incentive in getting 7 wins.

You just want to face a randomly generated OP deck instead of constructed meta OP decks. That is all the difference.
 
This Draft Mode is in Beta and it will go through a lot of changes slowly. For people worried about people re-rolling again and again to get a power deck, I don't think it will be the case. CDPR had brilliantly solved that issue. Why would anyone want to re-roll again and again, when there are not rewards? There is no guarantee that your deck will be the best (your opponent may have a much better version) and with no rewards, I don't see a reason to keep re-rolling again and again. Of course, if the deck is uber pathetic, then yes, but even if it is moderately good, people will play that as there is no incentive in getting 7 wins.

You just want to face a randomly generated OP deck instead of constructed meta OP decks. That is all the difference.
Well since win its more important than "fun" (just see the meta in unranked mathes) i dont agree with your point
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I am not a fan of the mode so far, and im starting to consider it might have been a mistake to replace Arena with this.

- The lack of entry fee, rewards or attempts really make this mode unappealing. I am an experienced player, sitting on a ton of resources, so the rewards and fee of Arena were nothing to me, but there was still the rush of seeing how far i could go and there was something at stake. Now that is gone.
Im pretty sure the devs will fix this when the mode releases officially, so i wont dwell on it.

- Arena was too random, and this Draft mode is somewhere between Arena and Constructed (Standard/Ranked).
This sounds good in theory, but as we as a community explore how the deckbuilding and the packages work, i think some packages will be favoured and a Draft meta will be created, making the mode too restrictive if you want to win, compared to Arena.

- Already i see some preference for thinning packages, with ridiculous 20+ plays being shared around, and not even 24 hours since the mode released. This makes me think what cards were left out of the mode if there are only 79 packages, which will cause the picks to be pretty similar if you go down a path, as i suspect the more RNG, "surprisey" cards were left out to make the mode more "balanced".
For example, i havent seen any artefacts, and barely any neutral cards. Wouldnt be surprised if scenarios were left out.

Draft Mode - Insane Match (Double Crowmother from Treasures).jpg


Had to share this screenshot though.
Luckily i was on red coin on this R1 or i would be screwed. I wasnt even mad at all the desert treasure bros he had, because as he picked that package, i guess its more likely to get it again. But getting 2 crowmothers from desert treasures which are COMPLETELY random from all the gold card pool in the game? WTH

See, i dont think this mode will be more balanced than arena, they just replaced the way one of those decks is powerfully broken - from getting a ton of high provision golds in arena to getting a ton of the same packages in draft.
 
Im pretty sure the devs will fix this when the mode releases officially, so i wont dwell on it.

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.
 
Please return the Arena mode while new system is not tested well.
Almost all my games were vs. Syndicate due to easy tags to collect full deck only from its cards (see screens of field and opp. drop, and situation repeats and repeats). This kills all good impressions from the game. I adore Arena mode, but draft looks not so fun. Honestly, it doesn`t look
fun at all now.
m1.jpgm3.jpg
 
Similarly to Arena it's a stolen idea from Hearthstone (dungeon runs) that doesn't really work well in Gwent.
Devs need to understand that Gwent is an entirely different entity than other CCGs and just borrowing ideas from them doesn't necessarily work. Matches in current Gwent are more consistent than ever, which ends up making these modes simply about sniping high value packages like the hyperthinning ones. In Hearthstone such a mode works because it's a bit more random.
I think they should scrap it altogether. It's a waste of resources and effort. Resources that could be better spent balancing what's already in the game.
I said it when it was first announced and I will say it again this is really not the time to get sidetracked with such a project.
 
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