Patch Notes 10.7

[DolphPingus]

Damn, i just built this deck today (sir Scratch a lot + Arachas Queen) and i thought i was the only one, apparently not.

Still, i suspect my version is way more 'meme-ier' - i use Eltibald, which happens to reduce cooldown when units are played (cats) and cursed units are played (cats!).

I lost a few matches because i didnt draw the necessary cards, or faced NG which just went through defender and locked everything (only the original cat is immune, and loses its immunity after its replayed the 1st time).

Then i faced a vampires, on a long R3, he played tome, for 4! fleders, getting 3 boost every turn, against my 3 cats + eltibald. Around midround, the tides turned, and iwas outpointing him by a lot, with 3 cards left it was +-140 for me and 70 for him and he forfeited.

It was GLORIOUS, unfortunately it was on my mobile and i still dont know how to take screenshots there, it was more epic than 99% of Great Dandelion Show clips.

I don't think it's meme at all, sadly.
A refined list could be a sort of selfwound 2.0, the points generated by this deck are just nonsense. Or you have answers (purify/locks/graveyard control) or you insta lose.

Lame.

 

[DRK3]

I don't think it's meme at all, sadly.
A refined list could be a sort of selfwound 2.0, the points generated by this deck is just nonsense. Or you have answers (purify/locks/graveyard control) or you insta lose.

Lame.

Unfortunately, that is true for so many decks in Gwent, its definitely not a new issue.
Think Kelly decks, Kolgrim, Viy, or pretty much anything Arachas Queen is used with (Gernichora, triple kelly,...).
Or even the old kiki queen deck that worked similar to this sir scratch a lot strategy.

Yes, the cat spam deck might not be balanced, but i would deem it still on the lighter side of that pool of problematic strategies.

 

[DolphPingus]

Unfortunately, that is true for so many decks in Gwent, its definitely not a new issue.
Think Kelly decks, Kolgrim, Viy, or pretty much anything Arachas Queen is used with (Gernichora, triple kelly,...).
Or even the old kiki queen deck that worked similar to this sir scratch a lot strategy.

Yes, the cat spam deck might not be balanced, but i would deem it still on the lighter side of that pool of problematic strategies.

Arachas Queen is one of the worst designed card in the game, everything paired with this bs is just pure highroll.

If devs want to make monsters playable, they need to raise skill floor giving the players multiple options. Gifting braindead slampoint is lazy and could easily get out of control.

 

[EduFerraz]

Damn, i just built this deck today (sir Scratch a lot + Arachas Queen) and i thought i was the only one, apparently not.

Still, i suspect my version is way more 'meme-ier' - i use Eltibald, which happens to reduce cooldown when units are played (cats) and cursed units are played (cats!).

I lost a few matches because i didnt draw the necessary cards, or faced NG which just went through defender and locked everything (only the original cat is immune, and loses its immunity after its replayed the 1st time).

Then i faced a vampires, on a long R3, he played tome, for 4! fleders, getting 3 boost every turn, against my 3 cats + eltibald. Around midround, the tides turned, and iwas outpointing him by a lot, with 3 cards left it was +-140 for me and 70 for him and he forfeited.

It was GLORIOUS, unfortunately it was on my mobile and i still dont know how to take screenshots there, it was more epic than 99% of Great Dandelion Show clips.

spyro did the same, using etilbald too.

 

[yeahalright]

People are complaining about cat when it's like the first time monsters have gotten a good card in nearly 7 months. Can we please stop nerfing the weakest faction in the game, lol?

 

[DolphPingus]

Another release with another broken garbage card. It's clear by now that power creep is INTENTIONAL in this game. [...]

When you play this card you are not getting one but TWO leaders basically, I can't be bothered being more constructive than this because all you have to do is actually play this game to see how this card is not fine. But hey! We know these cards get fixed.. after a month or two of wrecking havoc on the ladder, that is until the next release of equally broken card(s) come out, sigh.

On this forum they were given a lot of good and reasonable advices ( quintivarium is one of the best example that comes to my mind ). I agree that shouting at devs is pointless and irritating, but he always brought very articulated thoughts in a polite manner. Devs sistematically ignore and do the opposite, so we have different possibilities:
- the number of people hired for balancing purposes is way below the optimal threshold, they don't have time and resources to test new cards and fix them. In this case, the easy way always works for the short/medium term: print broken cards and rework them months later. Why does it work? Because of addiction and not justified hope for future changes by the players. Plenty of examples out there, not only for card-related products.
- the game is no longer a concern for cdpr, it just doesn't make enough money to be properly supported. So, just push to the casual audience every flashy card to sell the highest possible amount of kegs, skins, journeys etc.. before closing or selling the property to someone else.
-the ultimate plan is to guide gwent towards a very casual-friendly experience, in that case testing is just a waste of money and time. No one is so mad to balance a game for an audience that doesn't even understand it.

 

[Krucifikator]

Powercreep this patch is almost unbelievable. This patch is completely RIP to my favorite (weak anyway) devotion decks.


I can´t tell if its from beginng but current (+ half year when i started) meta = everyone use same 5-10 broken neutrals+ currently OP combo. It is boring and no diverze.

I would love if we can get some no neutrals mode or some way to play against other noncancer decks. I like art of cards and love theme decks, i would love to play vampires against firesworn etc. Sadly even at my pleb rank 8 i am constantly facing meta deck. Autoloose from begginng is very fun, love it.


No more Renfri, no more heatwave, no more orien.


I

 

[DRK3]

What the hell, when i think i've finally figured out the new scenarios, i face some weird BS i cant explain.

There was NEVER, in almost 6 years of Gwent, a card i couldnt understand, but these new scenarios are something else, specially the NR and NG ones.

I just faced a NR opponent with Renfri + Knight scenario. He triggered the full scenario, that give him a lot of points, ok.
Then on his last two turns, played units that WERE NOT knights, and no grace was triggered because they've all been triggered before, and yet i still saw several boosts coming out of the damn scenario, can someone please explain me what did i miss?

I mean, i hit him with syanna double Igni, (the 2nd one had just the perfect 35pts on row to work), that alone should count for 100 wins!
And i would have won if there wasnt those mysterious boosts.

 

[DolphPingus]

What the hell, when i think i've finally figured out the new scenarios, i face some weird BS i cant explain.

There was NEVER, in almost 6 years of Gwent, a card i couldnt understand, but these new scenarios are something else, specially the NR and NG ones.

I just faced a NR opponent with Renfri + Knight scenario. He triggered the full scenario, that give him a lot of points, ok.
Then on his last two turns, played units that WERE NOT knights, and no grace was triggered because they've all been triggered before, and yet i still saw several boosts coming out of the damn scenario, can someone please explain me what did i miss?

I mean, i hit him with syanna double Igni, (the 2nd one had just the perfect 35pts on row to work), that alone should count for 100 wins!
And i would have won if there wasnt those mysterious boosts.

Next turn: knights in the backrow activate their grace at 8 and 9 ( from left to right ). Reynard will be boosted to 12, so he can use his "grace" order.

Just to let you know, i tried a Vanadàin version with Simlas ( after replacing censor with a couple of tech cards ). Believe it or not, you can't keep up with Renfri and monsters. Crazy.
And this was one of the strongest deck last month.

 

[Slizzl]

Just had a match where I somehow managed to force my opponent to use both his Scenarios and both his Amphibious Assaults before a short R3. I figure there's no way I can lose now since my deck is more evenly distributed, but nope, still he manages to shoot out 50+ points on mostly deploy in a short R3. I'm at a loss.
To me this just solidifies how the provision based balancing has been a failure. Sure, sometimes a simple provision change is enough, but more often than not they were bad ideas to begin with and need their abilities nerfed. This has not happened often enough.

I'm taking a break. When I can predict and deal with every threat optimally and still lose and my only choice is to play the exact same deck as everyone else the game is just not fun for me.

 

[yeahalright]

.

bigger numbers win, such balance

 

[Cyncynat88]

Just had a match where I somehow managed to force my opponent to use both his Scenarios and both his Amphibious Assaults before a short R3. I figure there's no way I can lose now since my deck is more evenly distributed, but nope, still he manages to shoot out 50+ points on mostly deploy in a short R3. I'm at a loss.

I had a similar but even worse experience today and it broke my will to play the game for the next several days. I made a Scoiatel deck with Renfri and included a lot of thinning (as most decks do). My deck was kind of a meme since it included cards like Portal, Nivellen, Vlodimir etc. and worked well maybe once every three games. In this one game, everything went as it should - I had all the most important cards in my hand, thinning went splendidly, I had two Dol Blathanna Sentries in the back row, two cat witchers, Gezras etc. I played my final card (Vlodimir von Everec, which actually took away 3 points from Dunca, there was no other target) and the result was 145 : 35 (around that). My opponent had several cards on board but no engines, just cards like Renfri's Gang, one Reinforced Ballista and some other cards but nothing really that would make much of a difference. And then.... he played his Renfre's ability (damage everything by 1 or 2 if different than base power AND 8 damage) which was followed by Ornate Censer. The game ended with 85 : 95 with one of his Renfri's Gang reaching 68 points. That's 120 point-swing in one round without ANY set-up. How can something like this exist? I understand big swings, some archetypes can pull it off (rain, for example) but it requires an entire round of preparation. It's ridiculous, simply ridiculous.

I'm taking a break. When I can predict and deal with every threat optimally and still lose and my only choice is to play the exact same deck as everyone else the game is just not fun for me.

Same, I'm taking a break for at least several days, it's too frustrating right now.

 

[DRK3]

Next turn: knights in the backrow activate their grace at 8 and 9 ( from left to right ). Reynard will be boosted to 12, so he can use his "grace" order.

The moment you see in the screenshot is my turn, right before i double igni the epic knight and Reynard.

And yes, the bronze knight that is at 8pt in screenshot reaches grace next turn and gets buffs, but that doesnt explain why there were also buffs on the last two turns, those were the ones i didnt understand (and my opponent didnt play any other grace knight).

 

[EduFerraz]

Well i am one of The players who problably Will skip this season too.

I reached pro rank yesterday and i have no fun to play anymore.

I have a feeling i am always facing broken shit

 

[Smith_X]

After a week of playing the meta in my opinion are:

Tier 0
- MO Triple Cat

Tier 1
- MO Koshley Renfri, ST Handbuff Renfri
- NG Double Scenario

Tier 2
- SK Pirate Discard Scenario
- ST Harmony Scenario
- MO Thrive Scenario

Tier 3
- NR Knight Scenario
- SY Hidden Cache Scenario

 

[Philido]

After a week of playing the meta in my opinion are:

Tier 0
- MO Triple Cat

Tier 1
- MO Koshley Renfri, ST Handbuff Renfri
- NG Double Scenario

Tier 2
- SK Pirate Discard Scenario
- ST Harmony Scenario
- MO Thrive Scenario

Tier 3
- NR Knight Scenario
- SY Hidden Cache Scenario

Don't know about the rest because I don't play the game right now because of its current state, but the NG deck looks abysmal on blue coin.

 

[DolphPingus]

The moment you see in the screenshot is my turn, right before i double igni the epic knight and Reynard.

And yes, the bronze knight that is at 8pt in screenshot reaches grace next turn and gets buffs, but that doesnt explain why there were also buffs on the last two turns, those were the ones i didnt understand (and my opponent didnt play any other grace knight).

The knight goes at grace 9 and gives shield to adjacent units. I suppose you utilized Vernossiel in front row and, after destroying shields with her ability, you gave +2 for every shield popped.

 

[quintivarium]

I hate to be negative about a game I really like, but for me the black sun expansion is significantly reducing my enjoyment of Gwent. There are two main reasons for this:

• Too many of the new cards are just too powerful. This makes all decks not playing those cards incapable of competing, so variety in played cards and decks is very limited. It also forces all viable decks to be inconsistent — drawing a 10 point card instead of a 40 point card is almost always game losing; how a person plays is secondary to what they draw.
• The new cards are often too complex, without compensating strategic value. Figuring out which cards are infused with which traits is tedious and clunky. Looking up every card to identify how special powers are triggered is rarely strategic; it is time consuming. It is very possible to have cards that are interesting without demanding fifty properties and seven pages of description (witness Villentretonmirth or Artis).

I have generally really enjoyed the new approach to balance patches — they were generally sufficient to reshape the meta; they were progressing toward a state where multiple viable archetypes were available to most factions; they were powercrept to the point that previously broken cards (e.g. the original scenarios) were beginning to feel almost balanced. But with one ill-considered expansion, the balancing and design efforts of the past two years are completely discarded.

I wish I had constructive suggestions to fix this — I don’t. Rescinding cards is hardly feasible. But it’s not a matter that tinkering with a couple of the worst offenders will handle — there are at least 9 new cards that are totally out of whack (the new scenarios, Renfri, Scratch a Lot, and Corsair) in terms of power, and 6 more that are too convoluted (Maiden’s Shield, Flyndr’s Crew, Master of Ceremonies, Treasure Huntress, Eternal Eclipse Initiate, Orchard Mantrap). Hopefully with about a year’s worth of effort, the game can be rebalanced — provided no new broken expansions are introduced.

 

[yeahalright]

Hopefully with about a year’s worth of effort, the game can be rebalanced — provided no new broken expansions are introduced.

Wouldn't count on that too much. People gotta pay the bills and inflation is really steep nowadays. You're better off just accepting the new cards.

 

[rrc]

After a week of playing the meta in my opinion are:


Tier 2
- SK Pirate Discard Scenario
- ST Harmony Scenario

If by Tier 2, you mean "You can win 2 out of 20 games" then yes, Harmony is Tier 2. Otherwise, this entry alone disqualifies your tier list.

Did you even play Harmony or face Harmony?? The new cards would only achive a slight increase in the playrate for harmony.. win rate, I don't think it is going to have any big improvements on Harmony.