Casual player opinion: This game is unplayable for casuals

[AtakanG]

I've never thought i would say negative things about a CDPR work but here it goes.

This game, as casual perspective, is unplayable at this design. My thoughts maybe strange to higher level players, but what i saw in my 100+ hours of playing is not some kind of dream.

Thing is; in any competitive game, players copy paste builds/decks on internet since people are strangers to the idea of "thinking for themselves" and completely forget about the thing called "play your way"

I myself, never do that, but i get inspired of some peoples decks of course. At the moment, i have 4 decks, which are probably variants of other popular decks like Monster thrive etc. What i like to mention is; while im a casual player, im not stupid and my decks have a certain logic behind them.

I can't win, maybe every 4th round or so, or when im against a complete beginner who misplays every other card. And my daily quests are "WIN 5 GAMES" rather than "play X cards and have fun".

Whatever i do, i get locked 3+ times by nilfgaard and completely screwed, completely eliminated at 3rd round immune Ge'els who is around 30-40+ point card, get completely deleted whatever i play by Crach decks, and worst of all, massive RNG everywhere. Remove, remove,lock,remove,lock, lock ,remove and then remove again and double that amount by RNG.

At one game, i did changes to my deck just to fool around and built it around Aglais. i was about to play Aglais for around 40+ value for win, and my opponent had Geralt Yrden at a deck i swear ive never seen that card in any of that kind of deck. It literally felt like my opponent saw me build that deck, add Yrden and matched against me.

In another game, i had an insanely annoying Crach opponent who taunted around 30+ times and removed everything ive owned. Until my last play, i was about to win with Aglais again. BUT this time, i swear i didnt make it so obvious. And then he played that F CHICKEN card that removes my card from my hand and ive lost just like that. It was a terrible experience.

I dont want to copy paste internet decks, don't make me do that.

I assure you, im not playing terrible, im just the unluckiiest person alive and the game is heavy RNG based.

At the moment, i want to like this game so hard; it's a Witcher game, it has the best art&animations of a CCG game on market and want to support CDPR. But the game just HATES me and my kind.

Sorry for huge text. Rant over.

 

[Randy-Lahey]

Are you playing casual or ranked? ranked should match you against similar skill (or even just success rate because maybe they're netdecking but you're much more skilled) people. Yrden is becoming more popular since there are so many boost heavy decks being run. Aglais REALLY wants (needs) last say so you should really be pushing to win R1 basically no matter what since most people save some kind of tall unit removal for the end if they think their is any chance of a 8+ unit coming out.

Also mute taunt spammers. I'm pretty sure some of them are just going for the 1000 taunt achievements (I hope). if you think it's too RNG heavy (it really isn't) play one of the more consistent decks (but I guess you can't look them up so you'll have to just figure out how to make one consistent)

 

[AtakanG]

I'm only playing casual, can't imagine playing ranked currently. What i mean by RNG heavy, i dont mean following

- It is not Magic the Gathering by any means
- I dont disrespect skillful plays at all

What i mean is -i know it's at some degree nature of card games- it's about what cards you draw and scenarios like:

- They played Sigil, do you have no artifact removal? Have fun getting damaged by 4+ every turn
- I'm about to play my boosted finisher, do they have Yrden? Yes? Enjoy being helpless
- Do they have CHICKEN? If so, enjoy the most disgusting RNG possible

They could at least increase Redraws for each leader, plus make it so if you redraw a bronze, you can't redraw a copy of it.

 

[Randy-Lahey]

play ranked. you will play people that are similar skill level. casual is a crap shoot of people perfecting their decks before taking them back to ranked and then people that have never played before. There is really no reason not to play ranked (unless someone is a high rank and messing around or optimizing their deck). So just play ranked and you'll run into less netdecks and just worse players and anyone that does just netdeck should leave whatever rank you're at quickly with win streaks. Artifacts aren't OP but you are correct that they feel absolutely terrible to play against. If you rely on a one row booster finish you pretty much HAVE to have last say. that's just a fact of playing your deck correctly. kambi is dumb and I'm not a fan of it.

 

[DankTemplar]

The same issues exist in ranked, arguably moreso.

The difference is that in ranked, if you keep losing, you'll get matched to appropriate opponents.

Overall though, I do agree, Homecoming caused games to become way, way, waaaaay too binary.

Opponent or you basically lock, lock, lock, remove, lock or you get wombo combo'd by some seriously busted 2 turn setups (strong combos, like fielding 3+ Mangonels to reveal burn take 4+ turns to execute, leaving ample time to counter but is absolutely game winning if executed without counters, this is a good example of a healthy combo as it takes a lot of setup with no interaction from the opponent).

 

[AtakanG]

Random Update: Played 2 ranked games (first time ever). Opponents were newbies and misplayed everything. Ghouls ate 3 points creatures and Geralt didnt kill anyone cause no one is 8 power etc. Second game i won first 2 rounds with huge points ahead and no leader ability used. I felt bad and it was unfair.

Guess im supposed to climb to my skill level which is average (i guess)

 

[Pruny]

Yeah dont play casual , because i test my decks there.

 

[DRK3]

Are you playing casual or ranked? ranked should match you against similar skill (or even just success rate because maybe they're netdecking but you're much more skilled) people. Yrden is becoming more popular since there are so many boost heavy decks being run. Aglais REALLY wants (needs) last say so you should really be pushing to win R1 basically no matter what since most people save some kind of tall unit removal for the end if they think their is any chance of a 8+ unit coming out.

Also mute taunt spammers. I'm pretty sure some of them are just going for the 1000 taunt achievements (I hope). if you think it's too RNG heavy (it really isn't) play one of the more consistent decks (but I guess you can't look them up so you'll have to just figure out how to make one consistent)

I actually faced a Crach opponent yesterday that matches the OP's description. He literally spent every turn's first 30 seconds doing taunts, then only when the timer kicked in would he play. My opinion is he was just a moron, but in case he was trying to do the contract for 1000 taunts...

PSA: the contract asks for a taunt to be done on a 1000 matches, NOT just 1000 taunts. If you're going for this contract, dont bother spamming taunts non stop, just do one or two - otherwise you'll just make people assume you're an idiot.

 

[StrykerxS77x]

If you can't win in casual maybe you should consider net decking some......

Also you might want to try ranked as sometimes it's actually easier than casual. You will be matched against other new players and they will be more nervous about their plays. Give it a shot once you are comfortable with a deck.

 

[Randy-Lahey]

Will confirm there are some newbs in casual since the new deck I was trying out destroyed eredin's 5 prov bears..

 

[AtakanG]

Started playing ranked for around 10 games or so. Lost only once due to bad play i guess. At rank 30 people misplayed everything. At 29 i had some slight challange but still usually won second round.

Build a Witcher Nilfgaard deck, my first Nilf deck. It is probably an almost copy of other Witchers decks i've seen.

 

[NerdExtrodinare]

Oh yeah, the downside is that the game isn't at all balanced for you to be able to play a deck you want to play. Obviously the highest end decks will always be min-maxed net decks, but because of how this game works and how poorly balanced some of the cards are there's really no space for playing the deck you want unless you're lucky enough to have the deck you want to play fall into the area that has good cards etc.

 

[rrc]

@AtakanG , play Casual if only if you want to test your deck against strongest decks and tune it. Like many have said, people test their decks in casual and you may face veteran players trying to fine tune their deck there (hoping to face strong decks and see how it fares). Play only Ranked games. You are at least guaranteed to face a similar level of skill & deck combined opponents. Even if you lose, it won't be frustrating, but will be a learning. Good Luck and Cheers!

 

[AtakanG]

@AtakanG , play Casual if only if you want to test your deck against strongest decks and tune it. Like many have said, people test their decks in casual and you may face veteran players trying to fine tune their deck there (hoping to face strong decks and see how it fares). Play only Ranked games. You are at least guaranteed to face a similar level of skill & deck combined opponents. Even if you lose, it won't be frustrating, but will be a learning. Good Luck and Cheers!

Thank you. What suprised me in this game is, playing Ranked finds games much quicker and my opponents are all inexperienced players. Which means it is much easier to play Ranked. Currently im almost always winning and seeing opponents doing bad mistakes (sometimes i do as well) it actually sometimes feels unfair. I didn't even know what that number 30 in a shield meant until now.

Currently rank 26, ill probably reach around 20 and then probably start having troubles again lol. Anyways my rants about the game persists (hoping to see this game improved as much as possible ofc) but at least i can win for now.

Don't forget that no one ever bothered to take their time to complain about a competitive game on its forums unless they really like that game. It's just the game can be so much less annoying than it is now, and an annoying mechanic which has a 50% win rate doesnt necessarily mean it is a good mechanic in my opinion. (Mass removals, things like Usurper which literally translate into; "Your opponent can't play the game" etc.)

 

[Esmer]

Oh yeah, the downside is that the game isn't at all balanced for you to be able to play a deck you want to play.

Yes, because CDPR reworked ranked mode from MMR-based to HS-based star system. Basically, now you are required to have a winrate over 50% to move up the ladder, whereas before you could have less since on lower ranks you gained much more points for winning than you lost when losing.

Effectively, CDPR pushes everyone to play top-tier decks even on low ranks. This, in turn, makes ranked as meaningless as in the other games with a similar system (TESL, HS, Faeria, for one). And by meaningless I mean that your position on the ladder is determined by the amount of time you put into the game, not your actual skill. All you need to have is over 50% winrate and then you can achieve the highest rank.

 

[G3nome]

casual is no man's land you get paired with people of every rank

 

[Guest 4339135]

Gwent is now unplayable for everybody. The december update didn't change anything, it's fact. When I play a casual match, I only play against newbies. I just want to test my decks there, but it is impossible when your opponent needs one minute for every card to play, or missplays every second card. And in ranked matches you see 90% netdecks, and everybody just remove, remove, remove and remove....now ST Eithne is stopped, only to rise a new annoyance --> Ursuper. For some leaders it's impossible to play against it, he will destroy every synergy...but that's all these players want --> destroy. Gwent is about to have fun by creating some new decks and let idea's rising and find some nice synergies. It's such a nice feeling to win your first match with your own deck, but this feeling stopps after a few games by all these unbalanced cards in the game. [Nope.]

 

[tatkoleciwkosmos]

Seems like you've already moved to Ranked (yes, Casual is... not for casuals, strangely enough!) so first step successful, I guess . As far as the rest of your, erm, misgivings, here are some pointers from another casual player (I started from zero and my highest rank is 16, so pretty noob):

1. Please take into account that no matter how much netdecking people do, you get to actually see their decks in action. So, over some time (and 100 hrs is a lot of time, you call that casual, man?), you should pick up on what they do and pretty much recreate the netdecks from game experience, or develop good counters. There is a certain pleasure in sticking with your personal deck, even if it is a little substandard, but that's a trade-off that you need to accept, not a design flaw. For example: I seem to have a fetish for putting Dudu in half my decks. As it happens, many people play these tall Monster sets or summon Tibor, so sometimes it actually works, but it's still a meh choice.

2. Keep in mind that when you reach your skill-and-collection-appropriate rank, your winrate will hover around 50% and some of the matchups will be extremely unfavorable. This is a fairly paper-rock-scissors game. Personally I like to assume I'm gonna lose in these situations and try to play it out as a learning experience, but it's understandable if you're not always in the mood. On the flipside, that once in a lifetime Arachas Queen win against Usurper will stay in your head forever.

3. Some things you just gotta develop an instinct for. There is nothing RNG about the fact that your opponent has Geralt: Yrden, for example. That same person may have kept a Scorch or a Geralt of Rivia or an Igni or whatever for that very situation. He/she may be someone who was burnt by a dozen Big Woodlands, Boost Nilfgaard and Aglaises and decided to hate-tech against that type of play. That just happens. Similar thing with Kambi. That card is nasty and probably should be changed, but the thing is it's a decision for you to make if the opponent is Skellige.

4. Try something different. I got a total hard-on for Monsters, but when I hit a horrible loss streak, like 2-12 or something, I decided to unwind. Got some cheap traps and on-deploy Scoiatael removals, had lots of fun. Didn't really win all that much, but having that super lightweight experience, just pop, pop, pop, improved my morale quite a lot .

Anyway, my point is: not a bad game for casuals. Personally my only major gripe is the six rounds. I'd much rather have two times one point for three and three, because about half the days I don't have time for six, and just don't play.

EDIT: PSA: if you get into a blind rage because of randomness, try and play more tutor-heavy or discard-heavy decks. Or graveyard eaters. Sometimes that Royal Decree or Alzur's is the last line of defense between a good evening and insanity .

 

[AtakanG]

@
tatkoleciwkosmos
But don't forget that 100+ hours are like 90 hours of deck building, brainstorming ideas and mostly admiring art lol.

You are totally right about #3. But what i meant is; its just either you have an absolute answer or not - totally card game issues. Like artifacts having strict removal cards against them or nothing. Same goes for your big removal examples. It is, at times annoying.

Sometimes i feel bad when im using this kind of "big answers" as finishers. But it is how the game works.

As of around rank 22(right now) game is still mostly favored on me. I don't lose (almost). Ranked weirdly solved my issue until i probably reach around your rank. But i would still prefer:

- Play X card quests instead of WIN quests (this goes for all competitive games imo,)
- Unit cards deal lesser damage, get compensated in other areas
- Usurper and Kambi ability and similiar abilities changed
- A bit more mulligans.
- Oh almost forgot; Sihil must be completely removed from the game or changed to have much much lesser power. Or at least have like 3-4 hp or something.

 

[ardeathwing]

Totally agree that it's not a newb friendly game.
Arena is not for you.
Casual is not for you.
Ranked? I guess yes, but who as a noob will go directly there? There is nothing in the game suggesting that it's the best place for a new player.