Is Weather Too Powerful? (Open Beta Edition)

[CroDanZ]

Can also make weather tick every 2 turns instead of every turn, weather effects (ticks) at the end of a turn instead of at start might also be a good idea.

Or maybe can limit the number of times a weather card can be played per round or per game (1 or 2 frost per round or 3 weather cards in total per round).

This would kill the weather related decks and kill the playstile diversity.

I find weather is good as it is.

Some decks are good vs weather related decks, some are bad.

Some decks are good vs buffed minion decks, some are bad.

etc....

Its the stone-paper-scissors principe and thats a good thing in a TCG.

Otherwise everyone would play exactly the same deck and this would be rly boring.

 

[cwattyeso]

The only issue I'm finding with the Weather is that it seems a little unbalanced when some factions have more cards capable of summoning and spawing weather effects then others and these units have quite a lot of body (strength) so the player gets a double buff from playing those cards knowing they get the strength of the card and then the hit on their opponents. I think Spawn/Summoning Cards should carry little strength by themself.

I'm also finding it a little annoying that some factions also have units that can be deployed on any row that can clear weather from the row and basically act as extra clear skies cards, that again carry the bonus of having strength. This means some factions can have in effect 6 Clear Skies or more with resurrections in their decks. You know the cards I'm talking about the Griffin in Monsters or the Horseback Rider in Scoiatel who also has the extra ability of being able to buff a unit by 3 strength. Yet other factions have no unit cards with the ability to clear weather.

 

[Vespuche]

Don't have much experience with the game. Just finished my challenges yesterday. Using all the starter decks.

The monster deck did some pretty powerful things with weather when compared to the other started decks.

Mainly Nithral. He his bonkers.

Ice Giant is pretty big when frost is on the board. Big for a bronze I guess.

Wild Hunt Hound is a 5 power frost on a stick.

Again this is all the perception of a nub.

 

[zantclick]

Weather is a pain but I've found recently that it's not as bad as it's made out to be because *most* (not all) factions have a unit that clears it for a row, which is generally better than clear weather if you need tempo. However, RNR and Drought are two unbalanced and ridiculous because they pretty much grant an instant 9 power swing if used on three rows (which is how it's always played), and that's without considering future turns and the fact that ONLY clear skies deals with them. I honestly don't know how weather can be balanced properly, but this is close - minus the golds.

 

[Skryba86]

Hummm I'm kinda pretty sure every faction has units that clear weather. They all have a silver with multiple effects, one of which is clear weather, and at least MS, NG and NR I know have bronze units that clear. If you say SC also has one, then that only leaves SK, which I'm not entirely sure has a bronze that clears weather, although I believe they do.

 

[Kinglionsfox]

Weather is too prevalent. It's popular in every deck because there are no more draw backs to it. Also gold weather is too powerful, nerf it to 2 rows or 2 damage. I recommend the 2 row nerf to reduce the amount of weather.

Remove the weather spells from the silver card mages and add different bronze special. Keep silver mages with 2 choices of spells, and gold mages with 3. (Dethmold is the silver mage for NR, if you were not sure what I meant by mages)

Not sure of what else to change to reduce the amount of weather a deck can have.

 

[ibilibertas]

Weather is a pain but I've found recently that it's not as bad as it's made out to be because *most* (not all) factions have a unit that clears it for a row

They do, but they clear one row, as you mention and they are too weak. But you are missing the point. The issue is the ludicris amount of weather a deck can play and exactly the fact that a deck based on weather has only benefits.

The other issue with weather being so prelevant is that, again, yes you have some extremely weak units to clear one row but for some reason Weather is also agile. What a freaking joy...Anyway, off topic but, the other issue it limits your creativity and effort to experiment. This is as the Mod called "The Weather Card game" right now.

I was so excited at first but now i genuinely feel i must stop playing this until a patch will bring some balance with consideration to symmetry in cards.

 

[Duiken7]

Definitely, Ragh Nar Roog and Drought are overpowered.
I would tend to say that Shirrù and Philippa Eilhart are also a bit too powerful now.


During closed beta, I loved to play weather cards with Dagon. I'm a bit sad to see that now, all decks can play them so I passed from Monsters to Nilfgaard.

 

[The_def_star]

We just need more varied ways to battle against weather instead of having 3 clear skies in hand which in some cases isn't enough because it can be played so often.

 

[xjlxking]

They are too common

I understand there needs to be some sort of temp control in terms in case of situations where you can deploy too many cards.

I think they should cut down on some of cards abilities that grand damage or health and actually give cards things like "silence" or "weather resistance"

 

[xDivinity]

Weather cards are ok they said.ST with spells/weather and DB protectors will be fun to play against they said.

 

[tortugueta]

After playing a few rounds with a Wild Hunt deck with two Hounds and their corresponding Biting Frost, White Frost and Caranthir, my impression is that my opponents can usually work around it, at least partially, and the results are usually quite close. In the cases where I don't pull many frosts or they are quickly countered by clear skies or Archgriffin or equivalent, I can still do something with the deck and sometimes even win.

So, although it's not a weather-heavy deck, I don't find any major problems with it.

In general I'm reasonably pleased with the new weather. It's a step in the right direction. The fact that now weather cards can be part of many different decks of any faction is good in my opinion.

 

[The_def_star]

You know what, after playing against a few more weather decks weather isn't so bad once you have the right cards. But I had to mill a bunch of my gold cards to be able to get Gremist and Birna Bran added into my deck. I think a possible solution is to make soft counters to whether part of the basic starter cards. Without Gremist I have a lot harder time playing against weather decks.

Other than adding Gremist I also try to bait all the weather cards early from my opppnent. Sometimes they ate left with nothing by the second round. Weather decks aren't so bad but they need a lot more specialist cards to be able to compete.

 

[tmelange]

Before anything else i would like to say that, my issue is not the Weather as it is of now. I think it is good, hard, but it is in a better spot than previously. My issue is with the amount of Weather a Deck can spawn per match. Similarly i am certain many had issues with a particular archetype Scortching 6-7-8 times per match. Isn't this a mater of balance?
[/SIZE]

I've had multiple matches where weather was used over 8 times by my opponent. One match I had all three rows hit with weather twice in the last round after having two rows hit with weather the first round. I mean in the last round I had all 3 rows with weather, cleared it, and ended the match with all three rows with weather again. I had two clear weather cards in my hand and that wasn't enough to be competitive and muscle through. I really don't understand how a side having access to that much weather makes for a good game. It's impossible to keep enough clear-weather cards in a deck to combat it and still have a fun, competitive deck. The only way to win is if you're lucky enough to pull all your gold cards and your strongest cards.

 

[Tersoth]

For me it really just comes down to it not being a fun mechanic to play against. I assume most people are here to have fun. I lose a lot and I still have fun. Its fun to see if my combo of cards can take your combo of cards. However with weather all the fun and strategy seems go out the window. When looking at drought, what other non weather cards can do 9 damage a turn every turn, only takes one card to pull off and only has one card to fully counter it.

My (not fully fleshed out) suggested fix is instead of making weather a non present row effect make it play like a spy card in the row making it immune to itself. This would open up more options. Like you could consume them, move them around or redeploy them yourself. Something more then just being force to have clear sky in every deck. It allows me to use the cards in my strategy differently then I originally intended rather then forcing what cards I put in it.

 

[Restlessdingo32]

I've held off from responding to this thread to get a better feel on weather. After playing more games I believe there are numerous issues with the new weather. No, it's not game breaking, overpowered, etc. However, it is arguably poorly designed. In terms of specifics...

RNR and Drought may seem fine when considering FL and faction specific cards with CS. The trouble is the cards are frequently 9 points even in those cases. Row stacking can reduce it to 3 but it's not always possible or ideal, and it creates a vulnerability to other weather types/cards. Furthermore, clearing it isn't realistic if it's applied at the right time, after the counter cards are used up. In any case these cards do seem a bit out of hand.

This raises the second concern... Weather triggering the turn it is applied feels questionable. In CB if you were hit with weather you could directly counter it with a CS. It was a card for a card. In OB you lose a rally or an ability to clear weather and still take damage. This doesn't seem like a fair trade.

Another concern is the huge influx of the agile trait, which is presumably a result of the weather design. I do not feel agile being everywhere is good design for a number of reasons. It puts certain cards in a position where it's almost a given you will not be able to maximize their value. It also undermines an advantage that was previously unique to certain deck builds/factions, and grants it where it probably shouldn't be in some cases.

Forcing decks to bulk up on weather clearing is also bad design, for obvious reasons.

The final concern is one-sided weather removes much of the strategy involved in the usage of it. There is no thought of hitting your own units. Preemptive placement has very little penalty. Spamming a board has no drawbacks. Expanding on this, weather types lost their unique placement characteristics. Frost can go anywhere, as opposed to the melee row only (this contributes to the board spam the most IMO).

Bottom line... The new weather makes the game feel more restrictive, dumbed down and, at times, downright irritating. I don't see that as a good direction to move toward.

 

[Sailears]

I would like to see weather have a timer that only allows it to tick for a set number of turns - say 3 turns. This should be the same for bronze, silver and gold weather.

That way you also have the option of "weathering the storm" so to speak - so there isn't the necessity to immediately play clear skies if rnr drops.

This would also limit the maximum number of points able to be gained by dropping a single weather.

 

[ibilibertas]

I've had multiple matches where weather was used over 8 times by my opponent. One match I had all three rows hit with weather twice in the last round after having two rows hit with weather the first round. I mean in the last round I had all 3 rows with weather, cleared it, and ended the match with all three rows with weather again. I had two clear weather cards in my hand and that wasn't enough to be competitive and muscle through. I really don't understand how a side having access to that much weather makes for a good game. It's impossible to keep enough clear-weather cards in a deck to combat it and still have a fun, competitive deck. The only way to win is if you're lucky enough to pull all your gold cards and your strongest cards.

You know i already stopped playing the game on my main account. I switched to me alternative account, now with the philosophy, "If you can't beat them, join them". Personally i doubt for many ppl this is fun, not because you lose, but because you lose because some mechanics are relativevily broken. You don't lose by a better match, you don't lose on equal grounds, even worst, you lose while the only thing you learn from the defeat is that there's something wrong with the game.

So while losing should teach us something, in video games more often than usual, we don't learn a thing from a defeat because there's something amiss. Because ppl. tend to abuse and exploit mechanics that are unbalanced for the overall experience of the game. That being said, i still know the Weather is better than how it was, at the same time i do feel it is now "The Weather Card Game". Just too prelevant.

Also, usually i get frustrated because ppl. net decking (net-decking is un-intelligence) etc. but i should be more relaxed, i should understand that this is how CCG's are. You need to to do it so in the long run, sooner than later, you can have a bigger variety of cards to experiment with. Again, having said that, surely Gwent is more generous than most CCG's, it's just a inherent and fundamental unpleasantry of the genre. Who would of start a match of Chess if he/she was forced to play with 5 pawns less. Uh, brilliant 100% ancient board games. Evolution somewhere failed in video games if you ask me but that's another topic.

 

[Alts-Gamer]

CDPR added more units that are capable of removing weather for a reason, guys. I have hard times with those decks that have about 10 weather cards too, but still my winrate is about 80% against them. Its not that hard because spawning only weather they usually do not have anything on their side of board. So, here is how it works for me:
- Opponent spawns Frost on melee row:
- I ignore it and add unit to the ranged row.
- Opponent spawns Fog on Ranger row.
- I play the unit which is capable of removing a weather from the row (and yeah I have 3 of them in my deck for a reason). These are: Nauzicaa Standard Bearer, Griffin, Blue Stripes Scout. Almost every faction has those.
- Opponent plays weather on my ranged row again
- I play the guy that removes weather once more.

As a result: opponent spent 3 cards and gained nothing on his side of board.
I spent three cards and have about 20 points at least. You can pass this round and make enemy think what to do. If he continues playing cards he will be in short of them in Round 2 and 3.
Everything can be countered. It is a bit annoying that I have to include those units that remove weather but they are about 7 power each so I do not mind this.

 

[zhiphius]

CDPR added more units that are capable of removing weather for a reason, guys. I have hard times with those decks that have about 10 weather cards too, but still my winrate is about 80% against them. Its not that hard because spawning only weather they usually do not have anything on their side of board. So, here is how it works for me:
- Opponent spawns Frost on melee row:
- I ignore it and add unit to the ranged row.
- Opponent spawns Fog on Ranger row.
- I play the unit which is capable of removing a weather from the row (and yeah I have 3 of them in my deck for a reason). These are: Nauzicaa Standard Bearer, Griffin, Blue Stripes Scout. Almost every faction has those.
- Opponent plays weather on my ranged row again
- I play the guy that removes weather once more.

As a result: opponent spent 3 cards and gained nothing on his side of board.
I spent three cards and have about 20 points at least. You can pass this round and make enemy think what to do. If he continues playing cards he will be in short of them in Round 2 and 3.
Everything can be countered. It is a bit annoying that I have to include those units that remove weather but they are about 7 power each so I do not mind this.

I think they overdid it with anti weather, if you're running anti weather cards you auto win against pretty much any weather decks bar monsters.
I think the biggest culprit is cards that nets you a unit on board and play weather (like the hounds). Alone weather has to stay for several rounds to be even worth it most of the time.