Deck building has become incredibly dull and predictable

+
The game has reached a point for me that it hasn't been to in some time. I look at the deck builder and the factions and I just don't see anything to do. Strong decks are essentially set and there is hardly any room for creativity. I think it's a very bad sign that at this stage in development deck building has become as dull and predictable as it is right now. In the past streamers would put out new and interesting decks on a regular basis. Where is that now? If I go into ranked I already know what I am going to face and what I need to use to win. I can't use any decks that I think are fun because they are too weak to get anywhere with. I can't create anything new because anything good is already out there.

I was thinking today that deck building was a lot better back when there was no provisions and we could use 3 of any bronze card. That felt a lot more free than this and there were more ways to be creative. I am concerned that the game will not change to fix these issues as the devs have appeared to slow development down a lot. Seems like they are just going to add new cards and do the occasional light balance update that isn't going to fix any of the big issues.
 
Honestly compared to beginning of HC where 75% of your deck was already set up by unicorns and witchers, the game feels much better on a diversity point of view.

There is still room for creativity, but of course it is difficult to reach the optimal balance given by top tier decks. But as every season beginning I have played with customed decks only, with surprising success.

I have incredible win rates with Francesca dryad Swarm, Morvan Spies or Foltest blue stripes. Of course these are known archetypes but you will notice that none of these decks are considered as meta. Still, some tweaks and the fact that your opponent does not really know what is coming are helping a lot.

However, I agree with you on some extent, as I wish more ambitious updates, the last one being disappointing. It is not about game overhaul, but buffing some archetypes to make them viable.
 
I can't use any decks that I think are fun because they are too weak to get anywhere with.
That's a point I understand. I would love to play a pirate-only Skellige deck, for example, but you get nowhere with it, although it would make much fun. Or a bomb squad with artifacts and Pyrotechnician Scioa'Tael deck. Or ...

What I really miss is that the current gameplay doesn't allow much building up. First cards are removed or locked. If you can't establish your gameplan within 3 turns, you better pass. "Match-making" takes care that you always face a deck with the exact answers needed. And you know way before the end of a round if you win or lose it (in most cases).

I started playing Thronebreaker a week or so ago (Entered Mahakam yesterday), and it is so refreshing! Let aside the puzzles. The normal matches make so much more fun, because your units survive more than just one turn. It enables you to use synergies effectively and not as a haste decision. It even is so forgiving that you can have more than 25 units in your deck and still find useful units the whole time during the match.

It is impossible to get that gameplay into Gwent, but it shows how much more fun you could have, if only your units wouldn't go to the graveyard almost instantly. I even use specials to play from graveyard, which is a bit more forgiving, but all in all I'd rather see less units in the graveyard, but on the board (on both sides).
 
Seems like they are just going to add new cards and do the occasional light balance update that isn't going to fix any of the big issues.

Personally I think the current problem with the game is not all the overpowered cards, but the underused cards. CDPR has spent quite some time adjusting the OP/auto-include cards the last months, but they have spent very little time/energy to adjust the underused/donot-include cards.

I think things would get real good, with a greater balance with ALL the cards, which means a great effort from CDPR to look into ALL the underused card and make slight adjustments to these to make them more viable.

I don't know if CDPR run polling statistics for all the cards (I know they do it for leaders), but if they don't, I think they should. And if they did I think they should adjust the cards accordingly, to more or less make all cards in the game used more or less the same amount (relative to their equivilants). But ofcourse also taken into account the cards ability relative to the provisions.

Like you say you often see the same cards, so I (we) also see that some cards are almost never used. Avellach: "it's time". Time to do the great rebalancing of ALL the current cards. Fine tuning every single card, and make a list of cards under surveillance, not only strong ones, but also weak ones, and continue the fine tuning.
 
I don't know if CDPR run polling statistics for all the cards [...] And if they did I think they should adjust the cards accordingly [...]

Popularity does not equal strength. And even if it did, it still doesn't always explain why certain cards are played (or aren't, for that matter). Statistics is but one indicator CDPR could use, but it (obviously) shouldn't be the only one, unless you take a completely different approach.

CDPR has spent quite some time adjusting the OP/auto-include cards the last months

"adjusting"? More like nerfing it until everyone stops playing the card. A practice that should be limited with future patches; see comment below.

but they have spent very little time/energy to adjust the underused/donot-include cards.

^ Like I always say: more buffing, less nerfing.
 
I can understand that deckbuilding can feel a little disappointing 4 months after the latest expansion and it might be a sign that we need a new one pretty soon. Although I see new and creativ decks watching the streams. Just today I watched a guy playing a Ardal assimiliate deck and he was pretty successful. Like stating elsewhere I enjoy playing a Dettlaff vampire and a Dana harmony deck. But I don´t know if theese decks are viable if you play many hours a day or on pro ladder.

I was thinking today that deck building was a lot better back when there was no provisions and we could use 3 of any bronze card. That felt a lot more free than this and there were more ways to be creative.

I also enjoyed the Beta but I think the current system allows more creativity than the old one. It often felt like: "OK, I have to put 4 gold cards in the deck, then I have to choose 6 silver cards ...". When you wanted to play a NG Alchemy deck it was pretty set which cards belonged into it. And I´m pretty sure that the devs will stick to 2 copies of bronzes and we finaly have to deal with it.

"Match-making" takes care that you always face a deck with the exact answers needed. And you know way before the end of a round if you win or lose it (in most cases).

I think you overestimate the devs. It would take a huge amount of logic to analyse your deck, find out which deck would be best against yours and then match you against that player. Question is also: why would anyone design a game like this? to annoy the gamers you want to get money from? Maybe you just need to adjust your decks a little bit.?
 
I also enjoyed the Beta but I think the current system allows more creativity than the old one. It often felt like: "OK, I have to put 4 gold cards in the deck, then I have to choose 6 silver cards ...". When you wanted to play a NG Alchemy deck it was pretty set which cards belonged into it. And I´m pretty sure that the devs will stick to 2 copies of bronzes and we finaly have to deal with it.

That one archetype maybe but you had way more freedom to create good competitive decks that way. You could focus more on good bronze cards and get 3 of them to support your strategy instead of 2. On top of that you were free to go as many cards over 25 as you wanted.
 
Popularity does not equal strength. And even if it did, it still doesn't always explain why certain cards are played (or aren't, for that matter). Statistics is but one indicator CDPR could use, but it (obviously) shouldn't be the only one, unless you take a completely different approach.

And what about a community-driven process to balance the game ? We could choose, let us say 4-5 cards each week, based on a majority vote, to be buffed/nerfed/reworked. Indeed, we (the community) are playing the game, so why not giving us some direct influence on the game flow ?

I like the idea of frequent, small changes instead of complete overhaul. In my opinion, monthly update is not enough, as the meta usually becomes stale in the second part of the month.
 
I like the idea of frequent, small changes instead of complete overhaul. In my opinion, monthly update is not enough, as the meta usually becomes stale in the second part of the month.

Well, that is your point of view. I usually play in average for 7 evenings in one month. For me, even monthly changes are too frequent :D
 
Indeed, we (the community) are playing the game, so why not giving us some direct influence on the game flow ?

I believe CDPR is keeping an eye on this forum, so, if you see any issues, perhaps point specifically at it, explain it in detail and raise it here on the forum. Hopefully CDPR will read it, and if it is valid, perhaps do something about it.

In a worst case scenario, everyone ignores it and the post vanishes, in another scenario, it opens up a community discussion about the issue.

So, what do you have to lose?
 
I have no issue with building decks, I have one with starting decks - its microsoft explorer kind of bad, you want to uninstall everything and burn your hard drive. Getting all the good cards needed to complete some decent deck is now way too far for a casual player, Im not even interested in it so much. I already had so much fun to play decks and now I have nothing after some updates, its just bad.
 
Enjoyed deckbuilding way more before HC, i guess the resourcesystem makes it even but also locks decks from adding suboptimal cards. Was easier before to run a couple of suboptimal cards to confuse the opponent.
 
Basically , all NG goes for Soldiers with Vreemde and the Witcher Trio.
We have random decks that the creators pretend to be ''creative'' but they are not ... most of them are Aard or something that moves cards into Lacerate or Crushing.
ST ... the same ... we have Oak , Tall units , control , immune units ... etc etc ...
The clown fiesta with Henselt and SMOrc with SK ... no matter the Leader ~90% of the Cards are the same.
I honestly don't see any variety in Decks ... most of the cards are the same and the core of the decks is just Point Vomit or Control which nullifies the Order Mechanic in this Game.

There are lots of really interesting decks and archetypes , but they cannot compete with the stupidity mentioned above.
 
Top Bottom