Korathi Heatwave has too low provision costs?

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In my eyes Heatwave is on spot at 10p. 10p is the spot for targeted hard removal. Tall punishers like Gerald, Leo, VvM, Maraal have a body - heatwave doesn't. So Heatwave is hardremoval but not "punish". But it has an upside: Banish against Ygern comboes and Artifacts/scenarios.
Scenario is actually not a good trade for the Hw - the engine stays and so it equals out.
If the game has Defenders, if the Game has Scenarios Hw is totaly on spot. Funnily the card is untouched since I joined the Game two years ago and only got popular after the op/kill or lose cards joined the party.
 
IFunnily the card is untouched since I joined the Game two years ago and only got popular after the op/kill or lose cards joined the party.

THIS sums up the problem in a nutshell. The power creep in the last few expansions has been insane. We're not complaining about 7-for-4 or 8-for-5 cards anymore. We've gone full on into "neutralize this card immediately or lose the round" territory.

And that of course leads to the rise of removal cards, which in turn leads to unitless and deploy decks. Whether they intended it or not, that's the direction CDPR has decided to take the game.
 
Slama stated ones that he "likes big swings" because they are "exiting". Sheldon Skaggs cried for one whole week but none ever catered to his tears.
 
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THIS sums up the problem in a nutshell. The power creep in the last few expansions has been insane. We're not complaining about 7-for-4 or 8-for-5 cards anymore. We've gone full on into "neutralize this card immediately or lose the round" territory.

And that of course leads to the rise of removal cards, which in turn leads to unitless and deploy decks. Whether they intended it or not, that's the direction CDPR has decided to take the game.
Yup, exactly. Cards like Kolgrim, Broover, Gezras, Foltest, even Vysogota, all need to be answered quick otherwise you'll be pretty much guaranteed to lose the round. Whilst these cards exist in the forms they're in, you're generally going to need to outgreed them in a devotion deck, or pack Heatwave, or go heavy control (i.e. SK Warriors). Heatwave was a card that was never used when I first started playing Gwent. Now it, along with Oneiro, are the first two autopicks of any non-devotion deck. It also singlehandedly ruins decks that have a very clear focus on a specific card, like Deathwish and Weavess Incantation, or Vypper, or Arnaghad or Dracoturtle, so once again it inadvertently limits creative deck construction. It's why the massive amount of tweaks and changes in 8.5 had very little impact on the overall meta once the dust settled. The good decks before 8.5 are still good because they have still have all the answers. Tweaks by 1 or 2 provisions to cards from unused archetypes isn't going to change this much. Fundamental changes to the autoincludes are needed, much like they did with Ball.

But then you also have cards like EIst, which essentially says you must bleed me out in Round 2, or you're going to lose round 3. Eist is a guaranteed 17 for 11... why? It's crazy because the setup is next to nothing, and there's nothing particularly big brain about it. It's a fire and forget, meaning there's little counterplay, other than trying to bleed him out round 2 where as a consequence you typically go a card down to do so. They tweaked the bloodthirst, but that wasn't the problem as it was usually overkill anyway.

I'd like to see some better decision making with some of these auto-pick cards, I'd like to see some caveats introduced to make them more 'intelligent' to get the benefit.
 

CDPR: "To share your ideas and suggestions with us, please visit our forums. Our development team regularly visits them to read comments from our players."

I used to give 99.9% of my feedback directly to CPDR exclusively through emails, but 'much to my displeasure' in the last year or so they've redirected all feedback/suggestions to these 'rarely visited' forums (at least in my case) where it can easily get lost in the shuffle... I'm posting for the first time since 2019.

I've been playing Gwent since the early days of beta. It is a real slog to play anything nowadays. I won't even log in for weeks at a time with a purchased Journey... I get bored within the first 30 seconds of a match because I can generally play out the entire match in my head before it happens (win or lose) depending on the opening plays of my opponent and their hero power (it is far too predictable). I'd rather have the ol' days of 'Schirrú' + 'Scorch' + 'Eithné' than have to play another match against certain neutral cards which are dominating the meta.

'Korathi Heatwave' gives way too much value for the initial investment with zero drawbacks, and it is extremely oppressive and much too reliable. Just like 'Portal' and 'The Witcher Trio' were nerfed into the ground, so should other oppressive neutral cards so that 'even greater' deck diversity can shine again.

There is absolutely no way to counter 'Korathi Heatwave' unless you're running a defender card or have the immunity tag. At least with 'Scorch' or 'Curse of Corruption' there are drawbacks and risks involved. The game is way too binary now. Turn 'Heatwave' back into a weather card like 'Ragh Nah Roog', or into a 60 point nuke (for all I care), but don't let it bypass shields and armor. If you absolutely have to keep it a banish card, a better thing would be to have it "banish a unit over 25 points or an artifact" that way it is more situational and not always 100% reliable (like Igni).

You (CDPR) trivialize your own well thought out designs and strategic elements inherent in the game when you allow cards which totally bypass all mechanics with no drawbacks. 'Korathi Heatwave' is an auto include in nearly every deck. Something needs to be done to nerf the reliability of this card, as it is a 'neutral card' and seen in almost every competitive deck worth its salt.
 
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This is my first post so pardon me if necroing a thread is scoffed at here.

Recently I got a bit bored with my favorite Nilfgaard combos and tried to play Pirates and Ships. From my experience this archetype simply doesn't work, unless...
Well, Lippy. You know, Crach in the first round, use your cards to compile a deck for 3rd, Lippy in 2nd, have fun.

At first I thought this was a bit unfair, since I'm essentially playing an engine of death. Of course, I was absolutely wrong, as there are many, many ways of disrupting this combo - lock, poison, pure damage (7 strength is easy to kill with 1-2 cards) or, you know, just playing round 2 instead of going for another draw.

So I tweaked the deck to have some answers to those issues. I mean, it's totally fair - if I base my strategy around a single strong engine card, then there should be a possible answer to it, right? And there's plenty!
So I added Sigdrifa's Rite to account for someone killing Crach off. Do mind that it means I have devoted 18 points already to have an ability to kill off my own units if it means I can stop the overall combo power creep of monsters, NR, assimilate and such. That's a lot and I need to have both these cards in hand or pull them with Oneiromancy (this card is bs too, btw) or Royal.
Well, having then played 5 games in a row and getting locked the moment I play Crach (NG is everywhere now, but frankly - seems like everyone has some lock in their deck), I added some purification to unlock the big papa. Seems resonable to me, I am answering someone else's answer to protect myself. I call it playing a game with another person.

But Korathi is simply bs. For the love of all that's good - just make it put the card in the graveyard and don't let it surpass shields and such. Alright, any card, with any power, whatever - but just give people trying to play actually interactive decks (I got only positive feedback from my fellow players about that deck - they said they actually needed to start thinking while playing against it) some means of protecting or retuning their engines if they are willing to account for such a need. Or make Korathi simply deal 100 damage/destroy an artifact. Give people at least some means of counterplay to it. And if they are afraid of shields - that's a whole new sort of paranoia, as no one plays shields, since as low as on rank 6 Gwent is a game of opposing solitaires with a nice little cherry of Korathi on top.

And it's not just about Crach and my gimmick deck - it's about all gimmick decks. Since those gimmick cards exist, I assume the point is to allow them to be used, right?
My friend tried to play Roegnar, and guess what! The moment people see more than one shield, they don't even try to pop the shields, even if they have some means of dealing damage. Oh no. It's easier to just wait for Roegnar and Korathi him to hell.
So why would anyone try to set up an actual combo, defend it, and execute it, while Korathi exists?

If engines and scenarios seem so OP to some, the way to balance them might not be introducing a "DELETE IT" card (that can be drawn by another plague of Gwent - Oneiromancy), but dealing with those OP synergies. From what little I do know about game development, if you see an issue, adding a new thing to combat that issue is generally worse than actually tweaking the thing that's causing the problem.

In short - I get it. If I want to run a gimmick engine deck, I need to prepare for some counterplay and counter it myself. So I need to have some tech cards. That's perfectly reasonable.
But why would that apply only to me? If I need to devote nearly 30 points to my engine + my necro card + puri, then why wouldn't a person wishing to counter a gimmick be forced to run a removal card + graveyard removal one? Korathi + squirrel would still be much cheaper than my gimmick protection set.

Generally, it seems to me that allowing Banish to be used offensively from the game board itself, omitting graveyard, is a misunderstanding. Banish is great as a cost (or, sometimes - actually another perk) of some buffs and drawing cards. But not offensively.

As it stands now, when I drop Crach, there's a moment of tension - will they Korathi it? If not - cool, we can play. Even if they kill him, or lock him - cool, still have 2 rounds of the game, can get him back turn 3.
But if they Korathi it, I can just go home. Instant forfeit, looking for someone less boring to play with.

It just seems unfair to me because there is no counterplay or restriction to it. Oneiromancy can at least be deleted from the graveyard. Morkvarg is faction-locked, as is Yennefer's Invo. Most removals have some conditions.
But this has no counterplay, just like Geralt: Yrden. For real, why would people play engines OR boosts when those two cards are just braindead win conditions?

Or, you know - maybe make Korathi an artifact with an order (NOT zealable)? This way at least I'd get one more turn of possible fun before I forfeit.

So many cards in the game never see a single play because of how braindead and oppressive some neutral cards are. And I thought it was a deckbuilding game...


...sorry for this rant. Disregard, carry on.
 
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Isn't a necropost, thread is more relevant than before, since the amount of viable graveyard interactions has drastically grown during PoP, and naturally, heatwave is more toxic than ever. I say, just make it 11 provisions, remove banish and call it a day. This way it can stay a relevant removal option - after all, people do run Geralt Pro who's way more conditional, but won't be a panacea against everything you dislike, and the increased price will mean you have to seriously think whether you really need it all that much.

That said, we need factional graveyard hate cards and artifact busters.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
@SynthJackalope As a meme card and meme deck player, i feel your pain.

Korathi Heatwave just makes so many interesting decks completely unviable. Sometimes you build a whole deck around a card, take 3-5 turns to setup a combo, then BOOM gone, before or after, the key piece is banished by Heatwave.

I dont think this problem is getting addressed anytime soon, so instead, i will give my advice:

1. use defenders to protect the key units. Might as well call defenders 'heatwave bait'.

2. With the exception of Lippy decks, your opp will only have one heatwave. Also NG players usually only carry Yen Invo and no Heatwave, fortunately, although that isnt guaranteed

3. Use other Heatwave baits and alternatives. For example, SK lets you replay golds once or even twice with Sigdrifa's rite, so when i play Melusine, i also include Fulmar. Or in your case, you use Crach, you can also include Arnachad, only one of them will get heatwaved

Another good example is the NG meme deck with Living Armor + alchemists to swap power. I started using Olgierds (both versions) for when the Living Armor gets heatwaved, so that action doesnt completely ruin my chances, and also be able to do that combo on multiple rounds.
 
@DRK3

Thanks for the tip, I just added Covenant of Steel instead of Knickers. Guess my Lippy tempo can be smaller if I already tend to lose the first round to nearly any OP synergy in the game. You can't kill all of these selfeaters if the opponent can spawn additional ones and add a gernihora fruit for free.
For real though, adding defenders makes sense. Sadly, it means I need to add yet another card to the deck to combat the overall unhealthy disruption in the game right now.
It also speaks volumes that the answer to a single neutral card showing up every game is "gimp your deck with a gold card you wish to be thrown out the window instead of that other one" :D

If I remember correctly from a few years ago (actually played since beta, lost account, long story), it was kinda Nilfgaard's shtick to disrupt the enemy. They didn't have OP combos, at least not as op as NR for instance, but their strength was not allowing the enemy to spread their wings. And I get that, it's nice and flavourful.

But right now it seems weird to me that everyone gets to just reset units, banish units, draw anything - basically, every deck can be a control/deck manipulation deck with some OP combo on top, and it seems like most decks are just that. It's just frustrating. You see a fun card and decide to make an at least interesting deck around it, even if you have to accept it won't win.
Sadly, it's not even about not winning - you won't even get to use that interesting card.

Funny thing: tried to make the most illogical deck with Shupe, Master Mirror, Sunset Wanderers, and even though it didn't really win me games, at least I got to see the opponent throwing Korathi at a meaningless gold card I planned to use Elf and Onion Soup on either way.
This shows me that Gwent might have entered a state in which players don't really think and get heavily confused when they can't imagine the next five moves of their opponent. As even I couldn't know what could possibly happen with my deck.

This doesn't seem healthy to me. If something less than obvious causes people to go full derp because of how unexpected it is, it means the game has accustomed them to same stuff happening every game.
 
This shows me that Gwent might have entered a state in which players don't really think and get heavily confused when they can't imagine the next five moves of their opponent. As even I couldn't know what could possibly happen with my deck.

That's why I miss Arena so much. Every match was so random and full of unexpected combos. And so very, very much fun because of it.
 
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