What do you thing about the curent meta and state of the game? Which cards shoud get a buff/nerf/rework?
Here is my opinion:
This is the best season we had in a very long time, once again Gwent is joy to play, experiment and just fool around. Lot of viable decks and even more ways to build them, every faction is playable (SK doesn't look too hot, but it's not weak or anything). Some decks stand out little bit, but none of them is overpowered.
There are also numerous problems, that can make otherwise AMAZING game somewhat frustrating.
1.) Defenders
Despite their almost game breaking design, I've grown to like them. Unfortunately they can sometimes be REALLY game breaking, especially if you can play more than one. Playing multiple defenders (except Azar and Seize cards) should not be allowed under any circumstances, it is UNFAIR! Plus some factions (NR) don't have acces to any good Purify.
Suggestion: Buff Pellar and Tempest (I don't understand why can Armor block weather, those metal plates can't do anything against rain, cold, storms, mist...!!!).
Blacklist specific interactions - Second Wind->Defender, Bribery->Defender, Igor->Scarab, Renew->Defender, Kingslayer->Defender, and add Doomed status if a Defender is targeted by Invocation. And nerf Azar or Scarabs.
2.) Other problematic cards
-Gabor - This guy can punish you for winning round 1 with 5p carryover + good engine worth at least 6 or 7p in a long round. That is 17p, more than Oak. His carryover is not just 5p but 11+.
Suggestion: Change his passive ability: Whenever you play a Dwarf, if Gabor has Resilience or Immunity, boost self by 1.
-Sukrus - He's kind of an engine, but can also dish out lot more points in form of protection from Artis and removal.
Suggestion: Change his ability: Reduce any damage that the unit on the left takes by 2.
-Bribery - High risk high reward card, the problem is that the reward can sometimes be too high or too low.
Suggestion: As i mentioned in 1.), just Blacklist problematic interactions. Plus it should always create at least 1 Gold and at least 1 Bronze.
-Justice - Any card that can spawn 2 engines at once is a problem, it is usually very dificult to deal with and might even win you the game on its own. Justice wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't replayable.
Suggestion 1: Add Doomed tag.
Suggestion 2: Change its ability to duplicate Crownspliters instead of Dwarves.
-Waters - It's not as bad as Justice since it cannot spawn offensive engines, but it's still a problem. Again it wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't replayable.
Suggestion: Nerf Fledglings to 2 or 3p and give them Deploy: Boost self to 4p.
-Endrega Larva - Another hard-to-deal-with multi-engine card.
Suggestion: Nerf Armor by 1.
-Yghern - TOO MANY POINTS!!!!!!! What the F*** am I supposed to do when my opponent plays Larva-Larva-Yghern?!?!
Suggestion: Nerf armor to half (5 armor when played from full hand).
3.) Problematic leaders
Any leader that can play a Gold card (Echo, Second Wind, Pincer,....) can potentialy be a big problem. I personaly don't mind it as long as it's not too overpowered, but devs are "shitting under their own feet" by making these nearly-impossible-to-balance Leaders.
4.) Unplayable Leaders
36 Leaders exist in the game, but only 11 or 12 of them are playable and 7 of them are 100% unplayable. 4 out of 6 factions have only 1 playable leader. I thing the main problem is that leaders are designed to be usable with every archetipe instead of supporting a specific archetipe. Factions should have 1 or 2 leaders that work well with everything (Pincer, Tactical Decision, Blood Money....) and the rest should either directly support some archetipe (Sacrificial Vanguard, Death's Shadow, Deadeye Ambush,...) or just be more efficient if played with its intended archetipe (Enslave, Patricidal Fury, Royal Inspiration).
5.) Balance
As i already said, current balance is very good (compared to past half year), but it feels like devs don't know how they did it. They refused to solve any long-standing problems and just tweaked some number. This might be a big problem in the future.
I wish devs would at least justify why weren't these problems addressed and clarified whether they intend to do something about it.
6.) Engine swarm
Dwarves, Harmony, Vampires, Thrive, Portal SY and NR Engines decks are the biggest offenders. If one card can spawn multiple engines, than there should also be a card that can kill multiple engines. Even such a "weak" card like Endrega Larva can snowball out of control and be worth easily 6+6p.
Suggestion 1: Make all offensive engines (Dwarves, NR,...) and cheap engines (Endrega Larva) easier to deal with.
Suggestion 2: Make all offensive engines (Dwarves, NR,...) and cheap engines (Endrega Larva) conditional.
Dwarven Mercenary: If this unit has 0 charges, gain 1 charge whenever you play a dwarf.
Endrega Larva: If you control an insectoid, spawn a base copy of itself.
or Endrega Larva: Barricade: Thrive.
7.) Opponent's connection lost
This is the most annoying thing ever!!!!! I would rather play against no-unit deck played by emote-spamming moron than against someone with bad connection! Sometimes those announcements pop back faster than i can click, even 5 times per turn! It drives me insane! Devs PLEASE, i BEG you, change that announcement to something less intrusive.
There are also few minor problems. I'm not sure if these need to be solved at all, but as mentioned in 5.), devs should at least give us some insight into why not.
8.) No unit decks
They are not that common anymore, but i'm sure everyone encountered some of those filthy degenerates that just play few artifacts and than throw away cards.
Suggestion 1: Take away the ability to throw away a specific card. (You bricked your Scorch? Well, tough titties, you should have played better!)
Suggestion 2: Make artifacts killable by damage. Give them some sort of armor/durability stat.
9.) Unplayable cards
With the release of Iron Judgement some cards (Enraged Ifrit,...) became obsolete. It's not cool to release an expansion that just replaces old cards, at least rework them omg. Gwent has yet to reach the point, where it is impossible to balance the game because the card pool is too big.
10.) Thining to 0
Thining to so few cards that Yen: Divination, Triss, Xarthisius, War Council or Vilgefortz can pull guaranteed 13p nuke is just wrong. Sometimes RNG is a good thing.
Congratulations if you managed to read through that text wall all the way here
And please share your opinion.
Here is my opinion:
This is the best season we had in a very long time, once again Gwent is joy to play, experiment and just fool around. Lot of viable decks and even more ways to build them, every faction is playable (SK doesn't look too hot, but it's not weak or anything). Some decks stand out little bit, but none of them is overpowered.
There are also numerous problems, that can make otherwise AMAZING game somewhat frustrating.
1.) Defenders
Despite their almost game breaking design, I've grown to like them. Unfortunately they can sometimes be REALLY game breaking, especially if you can play more than one. Playing multiple defenders (except Azar and Seize cards) should not be allowed under any circumstances, it is UNFAIR! Plus some factions (NR) don't have acces to any good Purify.
Suggestion: Buff Pellar and Tempest (I don't understand why can Armor block weather, those metal plates can't do anything against rain, cold, storms, mist...!!!).
Blacklist specific interactions - Second Wind->Defender, Bribery->Defender, Igor->Scarab, Renew->Defender, Kingslayer->Defender, and add Doomed status if a Defender is targeted by Invocation. And nerf Azar or Scarabs.
2.) Other problematic cards
-Gabor - This guy can punish you for winning round 1 with 5p carryover + good engine worth at least 6 or 7p in a long round. That is 17p, more than Oak. His carryover is not just 5p but 11+.
Suggestion: Change his passive ability: Whenever you play a Dwarf, if Gabor has Resilience or Immunity, boost self by 1.
-Sukrus - He's kind of an engine, but can also dish out lot more points in form of protection from Artis and removal.
Suggestion: Change his ability: Reduce any damage that the unit on the left takes by 2.
-Bribery - High risk high reward card, the problem is that the reward can sometimes be too high or too low.
Suggestion: As i mentioned in 1.), just Blacklist problematic interactions. Plus it should always create at least 1 Gold and at least 1 Bronze.
-Justice - Any card that can spawn 2 engines at once is a problem, it is usually very dificult to deal with and might even win you the game on its own. Justice wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't replayable.
Suggestion 1: Add Doomed tag.
Suggestion 2: Change its ability to duplicate Crownspliters instead of Dwarves.
-Waters - It's not as bad as Justice since it cannot spawn offensive engines, but it's still a problem. Again it wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't replayable.
Suggestion: Nerf Fledglings to 2 or 3p and give them Deploy: Boost self to 4p.
-Endrega Larva - Another hard-to-deal-with multi-engine card.
Suggestion: Nerf Armor by 1.
-Yghern - TOO MANY POINTS!!!!!!! What the F*** am I supposed to do when my opponent plays Larva-Larva-Yghern?!?!
Suggestion: Nerf armor to half (5 armor when played from full hand).
3.) Problematic leaders
Any leader that can play a Gold card (Echo, Second Wind, Pincer,....) can potentialy be a big problem. I personaly don't mind it as long as it's not too overpowered, but devs are "shitting under their own feet" by making these nearly-impossible-to-balance Leaders.
4.) Unplayable Leaders
36 Leaders exist in the game, but only 11 or 12 of them are playable and 7 of them are 100% unplayable. 4 out of 6 factions have only 1 playable leader. I thing the main problem is that leaders are designed to be usable with every archetipe instead of supporting a specific archetipe. Factions should have 1 or 2 leaders that work well with everything (Pincer, Tactical Decision, Blood Money....) and the rest should either directly support some archetipe (Sacrificial Vanguard, Death's Shadow, Deadeye Ambush,...) or just be more efficient if played with its intended archetipe (Enslave, Patricidal Fury, Royal Inspiration).
5.) Balance
As i already said, current balance is very good (compared to past half year), but it feels like devs don't know how they did it. They refused to solve any long-standing problems and just tweaked some number. This might be a big problem in the future.
I wish devs would at least justify why weren't these problems addressed and clarified whether they intend to do something about it.
6.) Engine swarm
Dwarves, Harmony, Vampires, Thrive, Portal SY and NR Engines decks are the biggest offenders. If one card can spawn multiple engines, than there should also be a card that can kill multiple engines. Even such a "weak" card like Endrega Larva can snowball out of control and be worth easily 6+6p.
Suggestion 1: Make all offensive engines (Dwarves, NR,...) and cheap engines (Endrega Larva) easier to deal with.
Suggestion 2: Make all offensive engines (Dwarves, NR,...) and cheap engines (Endrega Larva) conditional.
Dwarven Mercenary: If this unit has 0 charges, gain 1 charge whenever you play a dwarf.
Endrega Larva: If you control an insectoid, spawn a base copy of itself.
or Endrega Larva: Barricade: Thrive.
7.) Opponent's connection lost
This is the most annoying thing ever!!!!! I would rather play against no-unit deck played by emote-spamming moron than against someone with bad connection! Sometimes those announcements pop back faster than i can click, even 5 times per turn! It drives me insane! Devs PLEASE, i BEG you, change that announcement to something less intrusive.
There are also few minor problems. I'm not sure if these need to be solved at all, but as mentioned in 5.), devs should at least give us some insight into why not.
8.) No unit decks
They are not that common anymore, but i'm sure everyone encountered some of those filthy degenerates that just play few artifacts and than throw away cards.
Suggestion 1: Take away the ability to throw away a specific card. (You bricked your Scorch? Well, tough titties, you should have played better!)
Suggestion 2: Make artifacts killable by damage. Give them some sort of armor/durability stat.
9.) Unplayable cards
With the release of Iron Judgement some cards (Enraged Ifrit,...) became obsolete. It's not cool to release an expansion that just replaces old cards, at least rework them omg. Gwent has yet to reach the point, where it is impossible to balance the game because the card pool is too big.
10.) Thining to 0
Thining to so few cards that Yen: Divination, Triss, Xarthisius, War Council or Vilgefortz can pull guaranteed 13p nuke is just wrong. Sometimes RNG is a good thing.
Congratulations if you managed to read through that text wall all the way here
And please share your opinion.
