Patch Notes 8.0

[replayNinja]

They play for much lower initial value and, SURPRISE, they also have a much lower provision cost. Just because they are worse initial value cards doesn't mean they're not the equivalent of a theoretical Thrive (2) card.

A Thrive (2) card would actually be fairly useless anyway, as it would grow too quickly to fit into the typical Thrive strategy's card progression. At best, it would likely end up only a few points higher than all the other Thrive cards and would get there by boosting on every second card played for the early portions of the round and then maybe gaining a bit of extra value when the point slam cards come out at the end.

EDIT - Or it could be a 5 power / 1 armor card comparable to the Intimidate (2) card and wouldn't get played until midway into the round after the 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 power cards are played. In which case it would only benefit from the end of round cards anyway.

There's a reason Endrega are the go-to starter card for the Thrive mechanic much like the (2) point versions of the other growth mechanics are for their respective strategies. To be honest, I can understand all the people who complain about them being severely under-provisioned compared to the 7 provision (2) cards in the Intimidate / Harmony / Assimilate families. If they were changed to a 7 provision epic card someday, I wouldn't be entirely surprised.

As a MO player, I play Larvae because MO 4/5pt bronzes aren't very good or situational and there aren't better cards to use. The devs force MO players to play tall (very costly cards) which usually means filling the remaining slots with throw away 4 and 5p cards. All you have left at that point is Larvae or Nekker.

I don't think most MO players want to rely on a card that requires several turns to see real value, easily removed and almost assuredly hands NG a win in an assimilate matchup. Other engines like harmony can't easily be operated by NG because you need faction specific cards to proc...not with thrive. So if they nerfed Larvae but gave us better bronze cards...I'd be all for that. I was hoping for that this expansion

 

[thebigbluebug]

The Braathens change is a long term buff but a short-term nerf. What made Braathens so useful as a midrangey card was that there are only three bronze spies in the game, so using him was, in effect, just picking an effect at will. As soon as the devs add another bronze NG spy, Braathens suddenly would have become a RNG card like Auberon, where you might need the Infiltrator (to clean up an Azar Javed, say) but you miss it and cry. This way, you can choose what effects you want on-demand at some deckbuilding cost (like Vigo). Interestingly, the new wording only says a bronze disloyal unit, so if there is ever a bronze neutral spy, Braathens will now be able to play it; likewise in draft mode if there's ever a bronze spy for another faction.

 

[Iwasanumber]

Nilfgaard has just gotten a serious buff, (as if it was not already OP with the coup de grace+informant spamming!) and Imlerith is now a completely useless card. It is NR and NG that needed nerfing.

 

[replayNinja]

Nilfgaard has just gotten a serious buff, (as if it was not already OP with the coup de grace+informant spamming!) and Imlerith is now a completely useless card. It is NR and NG that needed nerfing.

why's Imlerith useless? He got a buff.....I don't like his ability overall because it lacks WH synergy but that aside, this change seems to make his existing ability more flexible. Now you get to decide whether to discard the card you drew (in case it's a bad one) or something in your hand.

 

[Iwasanumber]

why's Imlerith useless? He got a buff.....I don't like his ability overall because it lacks WH synergy but that aside, this change seems to make his existing ability more flexible. Now you get to decide whether to discard the card you drew (in case it's a bad one) or something in your hand.

That is indeed why I dislike this change. I usually play White Frost, 90% WH, and unfortunately this card won't be of any use anymore!

EDIT: My bad, I actually thought it would be a random card in your hand that would be discarded.

 

[Azurovydrak]

Skellige dominance still not touched.
My forecast is 66% winrate for SK decks aggregated.

Playing Skellige is like playing on tutorial level.

Also :
Shieldwall + duel mechanics still untouched.
Either remove boost from Shieldwall ( no need for Uprising+ clone), or make duelling units remove their statuses prior duelling.

Are u serious? Why every whines about Shieldwall (6 point leader) when there's LITERALLY a 12 point SK leader for the same provision! Shieldwall ain't even that popular anymore, deck as Revenants and Warriors are smasing them easily and you still want them nerfed???

 

[Six-Sided-Prism]

Are u serious? Why every whines about Shieldwall (6 point leader) when there's LITERALLY a 12 point SK leader for the same provision! Shieldwall ain't even that popular anymore, deck as Revenants and Warriors are smasing them easily and you still want them nerfed???

A specific interaction of mechanics/cards can still be broken even if there isn't anything wrong with the mechanics/cards by themselves, and Shield+Duel is definitely broken. It isn't remotely relevant what Shield Wall's current win rate is. That interaction should still be addressed. In all honesty, all they would need to do is preface the Duel keyword definition with "Ignoring Shields,".

Admittedly, there are a lot of broken things in Gwent that aren't being addressed, but at the very least, I highly doubt that they will design another card that uses the Duel keyword until they get rid of the Shield problem, so it's probably interfering with future card design, similar to how Damien de la Tour's effect restricts the design of Nilfgaard Leader abilities.

 

[Celadyl]

thrive is waay better than harmony, I dont even understand the argument here.
clear lack of balancing old cards in this patch after 2 months of nothing is honestly a bit disappointing. I'm not sure all of the witcher decks will even be viable in competetive gwent. ST has soo many bronzes that need addressing, I dont see the "new tag" on dwarf chariot do anything at all, as it already had a unique tag (machine) that no other ST had and I doubt it will trigger harmony twice now. let's hope we dont have to wait until june to get some serious reworks like last year after the merchants expansion, that was the most boring gwent experience ever.

 

[Asdfplaya]

Thank you for your hard work Gwent Dev Team
But one thing i want to say:
Since you added the QOL update for assire, can we also have this reveal with Squirrel, Xavier Lemmens and Ozzrel?

 

[Draconifors]

1.3 GB downloading. So close.

 

[EduFerraz]

They took of expansion kegs? I didnt find in The shop

 

[Gyg]

I think the expansion is not released yet and the kegs will be available after release.

 

[Windrunner58]

No matter how many times you call the Braathens buff a nerf doesn't make it true. The decks already using Braathens can remain pretty much the same.
What are these Braathens decks you speak off that have no room for one single Informant or the buffed Emissary that is now a 4 for 6 that also synergizes? I question whether Braathens belongs in these decks at all.

From the face of it, it's really hard to tell whether Braathens is buffed or nerfed yet. The forced inclusion of bronze disloyals is really a major restriction if you try to build a deck. Yeah they are cheap. And now emissary even gets a buff. But other than assimilate, having to include those disloyals makes quite a difference, not only in overall deck building, but also in drawing, mulligan, and in-game decision making. Playing against monsters that play Larva (which is probably 80% of MO players), Braathens has been quite an okay answer to it. But now you need an infiltrator. Yet against most other decks, infiltrator is just a dead card that affects your draws and mulligan quite negatively. So 'will the emissary and Braathens buffs really make up for the new restriction' is quite a serious question.

I didn't realise this until I tried to build a new Ball deck myself and played a few games. All other cards there have their own roles to play in the deck (yes! even the 4 provision bronzes are really some of the only few good proactive plays to either serve as engines or tempt out removals). So to kick out one card or two to include an infiltrator and an informant is hard.

My understanding so far is that now Braathens is just a more powerful card that is significantly less flexible. I definitely won't call that a buff. But maybe time will tell differently.

 

[Messyr]

My understanding so far is that now Braathens is just a more powerful card that is significantly less flexible. I definitely won't call that a buff.

This sums it up well in my opinion. Definitely more powerful where it was used most, but way less useful anywhere else with the restriction in deckbuilding.

 

[Draconifors]

Braathens... is not great in draft anymore. Totally didn't forget about his new ability... oops.

 

[Armistan_Banes]

the balance patch is embarrassingly small, can't believe we've waited for 2 months for this. It's like those numerous unplayable cards and archetypes don't exist for gwent team. Or overpowered SK and Hunger? The game's income grows with more cosmetics and journeys, but the balancing is only getting less active and lazy with time. I really don't like where this is going

It's more balancing than we often get.
SK Warriors and OH are fine.
Warriors and Shieldwall were tier 1 last patch, and they weren't *as* oppressive as they have been in the past.

 

[Kessman]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the new animation when "opponent is deciding" and a card appears face down and then another card just awkwardly drops?

 

[jed9653]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the new animation when "opponent is deciding" and a card appears face down and then another card just awkwardly drops?

Yeah, it threw me through a loop when I first saw that. Really liked being able to actually see the chain of cards rather than just the card back.

 

[Barracuda88]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the new animation when "opponent is deciding" and a card appears face down and then another card just awkwardly drops?

I assumed it was a visual bug.

 

[Draconifors]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the new animation when "opponent is deciding" and a card appears face down and then another card just awkwardly drops?

Yeah, it's annoying.

I literally just now heard Flake say that, as he understands, it is not intended to be like that and will be changed. I guess we'll see.