Defenders are great when they are working for me. However, when I'm facing a Defender and can't get rid of it, then they're not so great lol. Still, I don't want them removed, reworked or whatever as they are a great addition to this game.
I didn't feel like they should completely butcher the dwarf archetype, but this hotfix is really.. meh.
The choices are strange to say the least. The most obvious one being that Mahakam Guard remained untouched.
It is just a hotfix and all and considering their struggle with even their monthly updates I wasn't expecting very adequate stuff, but the additional 1 provision nerf for Mystic Echo as if that 'fixes' anything is pretty silly.
The Novigradian Justice combo is just nuts. It's weird how with some cards they're so afraid of its 'broken potential' that they'll flat-out delete an archetype, but when something is actually broken at present they just drain it of a single provision a month.
As far as defenders go, I understand that they don't immediately have the answers to peoples' complaints at hand.
But yeah since so much of the card pool centers around 'deal damage to' they have become almost as crucial as your spy in old Gwent. Hopefully at the end of the month they tweak it to work better.
The choices are strange to say the least. The most obvious one being that Mahakam Guard remained untouched.
It is just a hotfix and all and considering their struggle with even their monthly updates I wasn't expecting very adequate stuff, but the additional 1 provision nerf for Mystic Echo as if that 'fixes' anything is pretty silly.
The Novigradian Justice combo is just nuts. It's weird how with some cards they're so afraid of its 'broken potential' that they'll flat-out delete an archetype, but when something is actually broken at present they just drain it of a single provision a month.
As far as defenders go, I understand that they don't immediately have the answers to peoples' complaints at hand.
But yeah since so much of the card pool centers around 'deal damage to' they have become almost as crucial as your spy in old Gwent. Hopefully at the end of the month they tweak it to work better.
oh man.. they added a warning whan you place a rowlocked unit in the wrong row. saved me twice already.. most likely my no.1 reason for loosing games, as stupid as it sounds 
THANKS!
*edit: i think defenders are great. makes both purify and movement options more viable. now we need more engines to be row locked and maybe change defenders to only protect adjacend units if it keeps being a problem (which i do not think, because rowstacking can already be punished very hard).
THANKS!
*edit: i think defenders are great. makes both purify and movement options more viable. now we need more engines to be row locked and maybe change defenders to only protect adjacend units if it keeps being a problem (which i do not think, because rowstacking can already be punished very hard).
Are you by any chance refering to the fact that Mahakam Guard was/is an 11/10 point finisher for 4 provisions and yet the outright slaughtered SK beasts because it used a similar sized bronze card (with higher provisions) as a finisher (which unlike Mahakam Guard required real setup) ?
Truth being told, I like that the Provisions = Points nonsense (that should have never existed in its earlier homecoming form) is not applied to these cards, however destroying actual archtypes because of "Bronzes cannot be finishers" and allowing practically the same in different archtypes is just silly.
I am not advocating for Guard being nerfed any more or changed anymore, however allowing it to exist, while Beastmaster was not allowed to exist is absurd.
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While I agree that defenders are a problem, I dislike the idea of a super hard counter like a unit that would instant kill them.
Defender is a really cool mechanic, some of them are just too big and can easily be abused but the concept itself is amazing, they must keep it in the game.
A hard counter will not fix the problem, Defenders will remain auto include and their counter will be as well. CDPR just need to balance them, that's all.
And frankly, I'm surprised they haven't done it on this hotfix, it's extremely easy, just remove a point or two on their body, done, you're good to go.
I love the general idea of Defenders, but I think their mechanic is, at least, misleading. While in HS you can deal with a Taunt minion by using the silence keyword, the same way you would deal with other kinds of creature effects, in Gwent lock doesn't work on Defenders. It's not instinctive at all, as a minion being a defender is not a status, aka ephemeral situation, but a specialization of such minion. I guess if they simply changed the defender keyword to be treated equally as other effects and being able to be locked, they would be far more balanced and satisfactory to play with/against.
Defenders are interesting but I think introducing them and armor just after reducing all damaging card is not the most logical choice...
Just remove a point or two and you're done... I'm afraid I have to disagree.
I've played a good few games against the Nilfgaardian or Scoia'tael and they have a card that damages units by. I can't remember what it's called, but it looks like an assassin with an arrow or dagger. I've experienced times when I can't even get a card on the board because each time a card like this is played. Add this to a leader that can kill cards and you've got a real problem getting cards on the board.
I think that when faced with this problem, the defender needs to remain as strong as it is. Otherwise, it'll just be taken out immediately.
It's a unit right.
Crosbowman? Serrit?
Probably not Serrit, he only deals his damage once.
If you're talking about an engine it's different. Engine are engines, they have to be fought by either controlling the board or protecting yours as much as you can. There is no one card that can save you from that and once their engine is firmly established, your Defender can have 16str and 1o armor he's dead as hell. You have to follow an entire strategy and it makes sense because it's not just a control card, it's your entire opponent's game plan.
Defenders are not meant to face every situations and every scenario, in fact that's the problem I have with them.
In the current state of the game, you play them, if your opponent doesn't have his/her purify/heatwave/whatever counter available for your faction, it's an homerun. I'm not talking about whether or not it's OP because it depends on a lot of things, the deck, the combo you protect, the Defender himself (all of them are not a problem) but long story short, they should be a tool that help engines to shine as opposed to something that basically wins you the game if your opponent don't draw a specific card.
Having said that I do agree that CDPR didn't make their job easy by making a huge disparity with the damage dealt by the different cards in their game, what would be considered "a lot of HP" for certain decks feels like a joke to others...That may be the core problem of the situation in fact.
I'm not really great at GWENT. I've only returned to playing it recently - having completed Thronebreaker. I used to play the BETA GWENT a lot more - basically the GWENT that is closer to the game as found in The Witcher 3.
At any rate, I think it's an Assassination card I was referring to. Also, certain cards that can steal units with 3 point or less. That's possibly a leader called Ardal, I think (and the number increases depending on the amount of tactic cards being held).
So, lowering the defender point will result in the first hit removing a shield. Then it will either be killed on the second shot (by an assassin), or potentially stolen because of the reduced points.
I usually play as Northern Realms as I can't be bothered with the other factions. I'd love to know how to avoid getting cards stolen and assassinated easily - boosting cards in hand is obviously one way. Adding armour another possibility to defend against attacks - but useless against being stolen...
At any rate, I have found that the defender does help with this problem as it currently stands, and wouldn't like to see it lose points, etc., as it'd be picked off or stolen with ease.
And being able to simply 'lock' the defender ability would be really pathetic. I can obtain multiple locking cards with relatively low supply costs. It'd be pointless even having a defender in the game if the ability could simply be locked.
The defender problem in my view is demonstrated in the following 2 examples:
1/ Defender + Vysogota in one turn through Calanthe (Pincer ... whatever it’s called) followed by Roche or even worse double Roche through sword.
2/ Justice into 2 mercenaries, followed by Echo Justice into another 2 mercenaries + defender the same turn followed by the the dwarf who creates berserkers out of the two rowdies spawned by the defender
I hope you see this is nearly impossible to effectively counter or work around. The “just purify it” suggestion is rather anecdotal.
Some people complain here or elsewhere about Ardal or Jen Invocation but these are actually one of very few answers to the aforementioned problem and still not as strong as they may seem.
Note it’s not just about the defenders but the double card play leader abilities.
1/ Defender + Vysogota in one turn through Calanthe (Pincer ... whatever it’s called) followed by Roche or even worse double Roche through sword.
2/ Justice into 2 mercenaries, followed by Echo Justice into another 2 mercenaries + defender the same turn followed by the the dwarf who creates berserkers out of the two rowdies spawned by the defender
I hope you see this is nearly impossible to effectively counter or work around. The “just purify it” suggestion is rather anecdotal.
Some people complain here or elsewhere about Ardal or Jen Invocation but these are actually one of very few answers to the aforementioned problem and still not as strong as they may seem.
Note it’s not just about the defenders but the double card play leader abilities.
well SK and NG can also playe double cards. SK r3 with ressurection and NG by playing another unit before, then tactical retreat into defender and whatever engine same turn. cant really think of a way to do it in monsters other than caranthir, which lets you have two defenders.
A good downside to defenders could be something like if purified destroy the unit at the end of a row
I don't mind that though, I hated the fact that inexperienced players could just fill their unrefined decks with them and then stomp their way to victory. If players in the higher ranks are good enough to win with them through skilled gameplay then I'm all for that.
Either way, seeing them less will still go a long way to improving this meta.
Agreed. I watch people play dwarfs and generally feel that they are playing badly. I enjoyed using them last season but this season I didn't want to touch them because they were basically the equivalent of big monster point slam which is pretty boring.
Well, honestly I agree with your general idea and that's specifically why CDPR have to do the change carefully.
The good thing with Gwent (and pretty much any card game) is that you have a general idea of when a Defender is gonna be too weak and when he's gonna be fine.
Ardal for example, steal units at 5 str typically (it's impossible to do more), so as long as your Defenders have more than 5 str, they're good to go.
Same thing with damage, Most Defenders has shield or armor, that's a clever way of making them resilient enough against removal.
For example, if you take NR Defender, he should be 6 str, shield but no armor. This way he dodges Ardal and any "base" removal existing in the game, without being too hard to deal with (now, to be honest, I hate Ardal's ability so, if that was just me, I would rework it and there will be no problem from that perspective).
The only problem (but this is already the case) are some cards that CDPR designed in an incredibly aggressive way. For example, SY Philippa, which can steal Defenders out of nowhere (if you play Jackpot, you can even do this at "instant speed" without having to telegraph that move, that's the reason I play SY Jackpot, personally, it's not the strongest ability on paper but the combo with Philippa is just disgusting and lock your opponent game pretty harshly).
This is what I said about the huge disparity with damage/removal potential in this game, most decks will struggle taking down a 7 str unit with one card, but, for example, SY can do it all day every day which doesn't help balancing the game if you ask me.
That's not a problem with the Defenders, but rather with the respective leader abilities, which is precisely why I made the following suggestion: Remove all Tutor Leaders (Francesca's Mystic Echo).