Opinions on Gwent's Current State

[Markus_Wirth]

From my perspective the game is constantly redeveloped which I consider to be nice.

Starting with the early days of MM: Intense dominance of Harald´s warrior gang and sooner or later needed nerfs (Harald, Greatsword, Drummond Villager, ...).
Continuing with WotW: Viy decks caused a dominance of Anti-Viy decks which made the game a little bit boring. The new Viy nerf tackled this issue.

My feeling is that Dev´s focus on dominant decks and try to nerf them (Many blame the OH nerf but OH was also a long-time >50 per cent win rate leader).

Regarding the current season:
- Of course the viper witcher mentor buff was a big mistake and will be hopefully redone (or even reduced to Adrenaline 1)
- Regarding Kolgrim: I (and probably many others) did not consider him to be a problem before latest patch but combined with new Viper witcher mentor it´s awfully terrible
- Blocks: I do not appreciate the block buff as blocking an opponent unit should have some cost. Additionally observed a dominance of lockdown deck (both in play and win rate) and whould argue the block buff to be one good reason for.
- Nauzicaa Sergeant. Also consider this card and its interaction with Brathens and Duchess's Informant to be unhealthy. Would suggest one less body or 1 more provision
- The new story is a nightmare. First we had nice stories. Now we have pictures. Ok could be nice. But why with no readable letters? Not even speaking about the bug with always repeating pics.
- Madoc: Do not cosider him problematic at all and one should keep in mind that banishing/seizing Madoc seriously hurts these decks. However, I have some problems with Red Haze buff (From 5 provisions to 4 provisions). Of course one can argue that players my play around it if the identify a Madoc deck but it can have intense value + one Madoc spawn.
- One disappoitment is the low play rate of SY (However I was most successful at Pro Rank with Jackpot + Fallen Rayla/Self poison + Passiflora package)

What they should focus more from my perspective is buffing low performing leaders and subordinate cards. There are many cards who have a strictly dominant same provision counter part (e.g. Wolf Pack -> Angry Mob; Brokilon Sentinel; Cintrian Knight; Heymaey Spearmaiden; Svalblod Ravager; Terror Crew Axe-wielder; Tidecloak Ransackers; Toussaint Knight-Errant; Vrihedd Officer). Buffing them should be high-prio (also say hello to Oxenfurt Scholar, Peasant Militia; Oxenfurt Naturalist; Gascon; Cutthroat; Dol Blathanna Archer).

My wishlist for future gwent
- Neutral leaders and neutral devotion
- Small campaigns (where you are allowed to use only specific cards and play against computer opponents and in the end of the campaign you have to win against the other campaign survivors with this limited deck)
- Revititalizing old concepts in new expansions (e.g. Devotion, Stratagems, scenarios with downside in chapter 1 and strong pos effect in chapter 2; echo, veteran, conspriacy, rupture)
- Small nerfs on Oneimoracy (my suggestion a conditional Echo; e.g. when you control a mage, when the provision of the tutored card is below X) and Heatwave (my suggestion a penality if the power and provision of the banished card is above a threshold)

 

[Guest 4375874]

From my perspective the game is constantly redeveloped which I consider to be nice.

Starting with the early days of MM: Intense dominance of Harald´s warrior gang and sooner or later needed nerfs (Harald, Greatsword, Drummond Villager, ...).
Continuing with WotW: Viy decks caused a dominance of Anti-Viy decks which made the game a little bit boring. The new Viy nerf tackled this issue.

My feeling is that Dev´s focus on dominant decks and try to nerf them (Many blame the OH nerf but OH was also a long-time >50 per cent win rate leader).

Regarding the current season:
- Of course the viper witcher mentor buff was a big mistake and will be hopefully redone (or even reduced to Adrenaline 1)
- Regarding Kolgrim: I (and probably many others) did not consider him to be a problem before latest patch but combined with new Viper witcher mentor it´s awfully terrible
- Blocks: I do not appreciate the block buff as blocking an opponent unit should have some cost. Additionally observed a dominance of lockdown deck (both in play and win rate) and whould argue the block buff to be one good reason for.
- Nauzicaa Sergeant. Also consider this card and its interaction with Brathens and Duchess's Informant to be unhealthy. Would suggest one less body or 1 more provision
- The new story is a nightmare. First we had nice stories. Now we have pictures. Ok could be nice. But why with no readable letters? Not even speaking about the bug with always repeating pics.
- Madoc: Do not cosider him problematic at all and one should keep in mind that banishing/seizing Madoc seriously hurts these decks. However, I have some problems with Red Haze buff (From 5 provisions to 4 provisions). Of course one can argue that players my play around it if the identify a Madoc deck but it can have intense value + one Madoc spawn.
- One disappoitment is the low play rate of SY (However I was most successful at Pro Rank with Jackpot + Fallen Rayla/Self poison + Passiflora package)

What they should focus more from my perspective is buffing low performing leaders and subordinate cards. There are many cards who have a strictly dominant same provision counter part (e.g. Wolf Pack -> Angry Mob; Brokilon Sentinel; Cintrian Knight; Heymaey Spearmaiden; Svalblod Ravager; Terror Crew Axe-wielder; Tidecloak Ransackers; Toussaint Knight-Errant; Vrihedd Officer). Buffing them should be high-prio (also say hello to Oxenfurt Scholar, Peasant Militia; Oxenfurt Naturalist; Gascon; Cutthroat; Dol Blathanna Archer).

My wishlist for future gwent
- Neutral leaders and neutral devotion
- Small campaigns (where you are allowed to use only specific cards and play against computer opponents and in the end of the campaign you have to win against the other campaign survivors with this limited deck)
- Revititalizing old concepts in new expansions (e.g. Devotion, Stratagems, scenarios with downside in chapter 1 and strong pos effect in chapter 2; echo, veteran, conspriacy, rupture)
- Small nerfs on Oneimoracy (my suggestion a conditional Echo; e.g. when you control a mage, when the provision of the tutored card is below X) and Heatwave (my suggestion a penality if the power and provision of the banished card is above a threshold)

Oh here we go with the OH hunger false equivalence. First off DS was more competitive than OH, it's ironic how OH is a relatively new leader ability yet people now claim it's "Always" been OP when it was never around for that long. The leader ability was never what was competitive, it's always been a supposedly overtuned card...VIY, Haunt, Ethereal, Evolving Card...the list goes on, all of which have been nerfed. If OH is as good as you are trying to portray it, lets revisit this at the end of the season. I can say with confidence that most players have abandoned the leader ability now. If it was as great as you claim then it should be at the top when the win rates are released.

Secondly, there are no "anti Viy" decks, not anymore. Several factions could already beat Viy decks espcially now that heatwave dominates the game and the overtuned witcher cards, so this ideas that NG for example is using lockdown to counter is just laughable. Lockdown is now the toxic meta, Viy or not. Viy has now been significantly weakened and lockdown is still dominant so it has nothing to do with Viy. It's an easy win for them in most scenarios, it's that simple.

 

[Markus_Wirth]

Oh here we go with the OH hunger false equivalence. First off DS was more competitive than OH, it's ironic how OH is a relatively new leader ability yet people now claim it's "Always" been OP when it was never around for that long. The leader ability was never what was competitive, it's always been a supposedly overtuned card...VIY, Haunt, Ethereal, Evolving Card...the list goes on, all of which have been nerfed. If OH is as good as you are trying to portray it, lets revisit this at the end of the season. I can say with confidence that most players have abandoned the leader ability now. If it was as great as you claim then it should be at the top when the win rates are released.

This season I expect Carapace to be the best performing MO leader.

Nevertheless, I consider OH to be strong (In meta report of Season of Wolf released today it was also number one performing MO deck https://forums.cdprojektred.com/ind...in-season-of-the-wolf.11082145/#post-12940420). Originally you could trigger 3 deathwishes and got +6 boosts. The big challenge in Deathwish decks is to have a good balance between consume and deathwish. Having three additional deathwishes which can be used immediately can help intensely. Immediately means that there is no opportunity for your opponent to block/banish the deathwish unit.
Additionally one should not forget that the OH nerf was also combined with an intense buff of bronze MO units (+1 for each on average). At least for my deathwish deck I face no real problems with having enough consumes. Thinking back of old OH I often had to use the leader consumes for non-deathwish units partly due to lack of targets.
Further remark: Before the nerfs I was performing better with non-Viy OH decks (might be that so many decks countered against Viy).

Post automatically merged: Mar 1, 2021

Secondly, there are no "anti Viy" decks, not anymore. Several factions could already beat Viy decks espcially now that heatwave dominates the game and the overtuned witcher cards, so this ideas that NG for example is using lockdown to counter is just laughable. Lockdown is now the toxic meta, Viy or not. Viy has now been significantly weakened and lockdown is still dominant so it has nothing to do with Viy. It's an easy win for them in most scenarios, it's that simple.

Here I am completely with you. Of couse the anti-Viy was only in WotW. Furthermore it was also possible to outnumber Viy and use Yrden.
Lockdown is now really the toxic meta and this is caused due to the block buffs and the already mentioned Nauzicaa Sergeant interactions.

 

[TheNewStandard]

I feel like the balance is good tbh

 

[Messyr]

I feel like the balance is good tbh

Because in reality it is more or less balanced, with the exception of SY - that faction still struggles to find it's spot since WotW release.

Let's have a short look, just the most obvious ones:

NR: Classic Witcher variant, Classic Shieldwall, Madoc decks (mostly Shieldwall)
MO: Carapace Keltullis, Arachas Swarm, to some extent FoN Thrive
SC: Deadeye Elves (engine variant), Madoc Deadeye, Symbiosys+Gezras, to some extent Guerilla movement elves
NG: Lockdown decks ofc (Nova or Soldier Ball), Double Madoc, Tactical Decision clog
SK: Lippy+Cerys, Ursine Warriors, PF Warriors, Blaze of Glory Madoc/Witchers
SY: nothing above Tier2

The current meta can be called a lot of things (toxic is my absolute favorite, this word is getting to an overused level that far surpasses earlier favorites like OP, Broken, Braindead, etc.), but to be fair, all factions have solid options to compete in serious level.
Yes, Lockdown was dominant at the start of this season (there are significantly less day by day), just as Lippy was before, and Viy before that. Every meta has such a deck. Sure, it can get annoying if you are unable to tech properly or are simply upset because you cannot play your decks the way you did before (disabled Leaders for example). Lockdown can be beaten by practically every faction out there once people get used to it and start making slight modifications. The same thing goes for Madoc, those decks can be punished seriously once you banish/seize Madoc in R1.

 

[Guest 4375874]

Because in reality it is more or less balanced, with the exception of SY - that faction still struggles to find it's spot since WotW release.

Let's have a short look, just the most obvious ones:

NR: Classic Witcher variant, Classic Shieldwall, Madoc decks (mostly Shieldwall)
MO: Carapace Keltullis, Arachas Swarm, to some extent FoN Thrive
SC: Deadeye Elves (engine variant), Madoc Deadeye, Symbiosys+Gezras, to some extent Guerilla movement elves
NG: Lockdown decks ofc (Nova or Soldier Ball), Double Madoc, Tactical Decision clog
SK: Lippy+Cerys, Ursine Warriors, PF Warriors, Blaze of Glory Madoc/Witchers
SY: nothing above Tier2

The current meta can be called a lot of things (toxic is my absolute favorite, this word is getting to an overused level that far surpasses earlier favorites like OP, Broken, Braindead, etc.), but to be fair, all factions have solid options to compete in serious level.
Yes, Lockdown was dominant at the start of this season (there are significantly less day by day), just as Lippy was before, and Viy before that. Every meta has such a deck. Sure, it can get annoying if you are unable to tech properly or are simply upset because you cannot play your decks the way you did before (disabled Leaders for example). Lockdown can be beaten by practically every faction out there once people get used to it and start making slight modifications. The same thing goes for Madoc, those decks can be punished seriously once you banish/seize Madoc in R1.

How's Carapice and Arachas Swarm doing on the seasonal rates? It's just baffling what you consider to be balanced. It's like you're not even bothering to rely on facts anymore.

 

[plastiq33]

How's Carapice and Arachas Swarm doing on the seasonal rates? It's just baffling what you consider to be balanced. It's like you're not even bothering to rely on facts anymore.

You aren't going to know until the end of the season, I've been playing arachas swarm in Pro and its doing fine. If your goal is to climb to 2500+ I dont think it makes sense to complain about the meta not favoring decks that you like, you just have to play whatever is strongest at any particular time.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2021

Id like to chime in and say that I also really enjoyed Arena and would love for them to bring it back alongside draft. The experiences are different enough that I think they could stand side by side.

 

[BartonFink]

Ive definitely been playing this way too much, which makes me more prone to getting mad.

GWENT has made me boil. I'm more Zen about its bs now. But recently I've only being playing once a week, for the new Journey challenges, not in ranked mode, so maybe that's part of why I can be Zen about the game's bs.

Some players like to think that beta players are biased because of nostalgia when saying its better than current Gwent

My eyebrows arch when I read about how the kiddies think that a music act from decades ago is good, surprisingly. Like, it's inconceivable to them how any band from more than 10 years ago can compete with whatever the kiddies listening to now.

 

[B0ndi0lorG]

I wonder if anyone complaining about "toxic" cards or archetypes ever played Yu-gi-oh, MTG or Hearthstone. I don't know, this game feels good and balanced to me atm... Can't agree more with Messyr. Maybe some adjustments are needed? Sure they do, but that doesn't means it's broken.

A broken meta means 1 or 2 decks with winrate > 60% or more (as it happens a lot in Hearthstone for example)

 

[Dreday47]

When are you gonna nerf nilfgaard decks I see you nerfed viy which was an easy deck to beat but you haven't touched ng which is extremely op when someone can just poison, steal, lock all while boosting his board. It's honestly dumb as hell. Viy was one card and susceptible to most decks.

 

[Sensimilius]

I wonder if anyone complaining about "toxic" cards or archetypes ever played Yu-gi-oh, MTG or Hearthstone. I don't know, this game feels good and balanced to me atm... Can't agree more with Messyr. Maybe some adjustments are needed? Sure they do, but that doesn't means it's broken.

A broken meta means 1 or 2 decks with winrate > 60% or more (as it happens a lot in Hearthstone for example)

Never played any of those (well we played Yu-Gi-Oh back in early grades of elementary school lol, actual physical cards, never even knew they had a multiplayer computer game).
But... why compare to what you think is an inferior product? How would that help? To lower our expectations down to the bottom? We compare this to what Gwent COULD be or to what it was before.

 

[serraph37]

Gwent is fine as it is.

I played open beta and even tho I miss the old times, some interractions and cards.. - currently gwent is in better state in my opinion.

Often you see people who can't even pass 9,9k mmr blame the game and devs,
for their own lack of understanding of the game / low skillcap.

There are a lot of things that should have been fixed, stuff needed to be done or upgraded, that's for sure..

I still don't understand why CDPR Gwent staff, did not come with better website version of Ladder standings.
Even I could do better with my basic php/html knowdlege..

It certainly dissplay their lack of interest in the competitive side of gwent.

 

[Footsoulja]

The state of the game is out of control, I don't think there is anyway to put Pandorra back in the box.

Example 1: Opponent opens with Stregobor, then plays Matta to grab their high card, give me a low card, Stregobor triggers giving my opponent an extra card while my card gets sent straight to the graveyard (of course was my highest provision card). Now with card advantage, my opponent manufactures and plays 5 kingslayers after using operator to put one on my side, and the two or three other NG cards that either banish or summon my cards. Knowing I have to 2-0 I play through to my last card and lost round 1 by 1 point.....I had 2 cards left in my entire deck after round 1. That is beyond absurd.

Example 2: My opponent through the use of Idarran creates 6-7 Vyppers, first one my opponent sent directly to graveyard so it showed up on my side. I had a 5-card card advantage going into round 2, and only won that round because I had Kelltulis. Opponent used purify all your cards to keep all the Vyppers alive in round 1 and 2, and round 3 was the same with 7 Vyppers demolishing my graveyard and all getting summoned out.

Both of these examples would have required me to heatwave my own units in order for this not to happen after cards get thrown onto my side. And if I do destroy my own units it's a guaranteed L. I've enjoyed this game for awhile but I just don't think there is anything that can be done anymore to stop these decks that break the game.

 

[1990BW]

Patch 8.3 didn't bring back fun for me Gwent has turned out to much in a control game.
Some of the new cards actually made it worse Eist / Blaze of Glory for example is extremely broken.
With Jutta in deck it already has a 24 ceiling + 3-5 str Eist + potential extra discard value with bloodthirst 2.
It can have a 39 point ceiling in 1 turn if you manage to discard a Greatsword!

Next annoyance is traps which bring 0 interactivity on both battlefields while your opponent's cards do all kind of things yours can do nothing.
When your board is still empty because everything gets removed your opponent just plays Eldain in to +5 traps and suddenly they have more than 20+ points on the board.
Same type of play is seen with those non-interactive bomb decks and big Gort fininshers.
You can create hundreds of new engine cards but if they all are in removal range they add nothing to the game.

The whole concept of Gwent depicting a battlefield can be thrown in the trash bin for a long time now.
It doesn't do this due to having so many special cards and all sorts of removal causing the same boring interactions every patch.
Actually it should be the other way around engine decks should carry the game and bring the battlefield ALIVE.
I mean there are so many cool archetypes like spies, vampires, thrive, consume-deathwish, wild hunt, siege, soldiers, assimilate, harmony, symbiosis, movement....
But all I see on ladder and pro rank is kill this and kill that until everything is killed and the game turns dead.

Direct removal should have high costs only so it forces you to think carefully how you want to disrupt your opponents strategy and what you will ALLOW them to do.
Gwent will be encredible if all those unitless special cards played from hand are gone and instead only spawn if you do some kind of INTERACTION.
There are so many options like:

Deathblow
Conspiracy
Bonded
Crew
Weather
Scenario
....

Traps are a bit different when compared to other cards I think they are cool but they really need a rework to be non-toxic.
Rather playing them from hand it would be nice to see them spawn when you do something with ambush units.
To gain max value of the trap there should be a condition like bonded or deathblow and it would help if some kind of interaction is possible.
Now if they can be locked but in return still gain 'spring' value seems more fair.

Ugh here I stop I love this game (played it since beta) but it's frustrating to witness the same problems over and over again and see no change.
The devs really should play their game more on higher ranks/pro ladder and understand what most players are doing.
It's an absolute monstrosity right now so I uninstalled Gwent

 

[TheBlackRose101]

There are some things I do enjoy about this game. I like the crafting cards as some other card games I have played are very unforgiving on card pull rates. It makes me feel that if there is one card I want I can save up to craft it. I do like how there is a limit on certain cards such as golds, bronze, and provisions. Even though I would love to have playsets with 3 or 4 cards I know with some abilities that would be game-breaking. The art is probably the best thing I love about the game and getting them animated is amazing.

Though what I would love for the devs to improve on is working more on more cards/ new sets. I just felt there hasn't been a lot of new cards to really play with aside from the couple we had a couple of days ago. Even then a hand full of new cards doesn't really interest me to put more time into the game. It just makes the game a bit repetitive or boring. Game balancing (I know I am so creative) does need to be worked but even different game modes would be nice. The seasonal matches I think are on the right track I do like the banish mode as it forces me to build a different deck style. I would love to see something of a multiplayer mode like Commander from MTG. Even something where I can play with friends like a tag match would be interesting to see.

 

[Adanedhil]

Returned to GWENT after two months of "vacation" and can't believe that Oneiromancy/Amphibious Assualt weren't removed from the game. That's a joke tbf.

 

[G3nome]

I think cdpr didn't planned out very well by making the power of cards too low (why no keep some values from beta?) even in this state a 1 power nerf or buf is a great difference

 

[DRK3]

Since im not facing NG as much, i actually started to think they might be on the lower end of the meta, which i couldnt remember when was the last time that happened...

Then i faced a doublecross with ball and portal, and that idea vanished, its still the same OP crap.
I actually managed to survive on blue coin, without using leader, and my opponent used ball, Joachim, Brathens and Vigo. He was about to overtake me, so i passed before losing CA, thinking to myself "he overcommited, he doesnt have much left"...

I was so wrong. He of course went for the push and managed to 2-0 my pirate deck, because he still had portal and that overprovisioned leader that now every NG is using (not that it was weaker before, now its just more blatantly obvious how ridiculous it is)

I would actually rather face BoG warriors most of the times instead of this NG crap that seems to always have another powerplay up its sleeve.

 

[Innkeep3r]

Im expeting changes for mm.
Its the most trash thing i ever seen. I lost somthing like 90% games cuz your pretty card drawing and match making is so trash. Im was all the time r0 and now cant eneter r0 and stuck in r1.
I spend a lot of real money for ornaments and deck revers, spending a lot of time in this game but now i dont have any reason for playing. More negative emotions than positive. No fun all time this same deck combinations. Playing meta deck lose playing my self deck lose. I destroyed my computer cuz 10th times in a row enenmy got one point more at the end or i get bad card draws.
Now i will make all where i can negative opinions for this game.
Just sit and think a moment. You are making game for fun or just meta decks who looks this same.
Horrible horrible horrible.
I was playing this game since 2k16.
Im geting out form this game guys. I spend a lot of time in a Gwent groupes and as i can see, you dont hold so much players for long.