Restore Skellige and Spygaard ad nauseam

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Restore Skellige and Spygaard ad nauseam

According to GwentUp meta report as of last week(18-24 Nov), the most popular leaders at 4K+ MMR range are King Bran(16,1%) and Emyhr (15%) (total 31,1%).

-King Bran's popularity alone is 0,8% higher than WHOLE ST combined (which is 15,3%)
-The most balancedly distributed faction is NR (F: 8,9%, R: 7,8%, H: 8%)
-Least played leaders are Dagon (0,9) and Harald (0,5)

Factions popularity:

M- 19.2%
NG - 19.8%
NR - 24.7%
ST - 15.3%
SK - 21%


In a utopia where every leader and every faction is balanced and people choose their decks according to their desired playstyle, leader ratio should be 6.6% for each. Of course it's just a theoretical number and it will never be reached but we can only try to get close.


Playing against the same decks every game with everyone making the same plays every turn is not the way the game should be. Instead of adding new cards that doesn't add much value to the game (Avallach Sage, Flaminica, Blue Dream etc..), trying to fix balance and diversity should be the priority for development.
 
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Certain units are mated with leaders at over 90% as well. Experimenting with SK, Bran just makes sense due to the resurrection options, and if you run Bran, you are pushed toward other discard strategies and gold cards.
 
Most diversity ever. Nice.
SK being only 2nd most popular is also nice to see considering they are strong autopilot faction beginners love to play.
But i am most happy with NR on top of popularity. both with all 3 leaders being played and the faction not really being an `easy` one.
Good times indeed.
P.s. putting aside your personal feeling, i am not sure if the title really reflects the data you posted though?:)

 
I think that Bran and Emhyr just have overwhelmingly good synergies. But its hard to say what would work better buffing others leaders up or reducing the synergie power of this two.
 
oOxhaosOo;n9902561 said:
I think that Bran and Emhyr just have overwhelmingly good synergies. But its hard to say what would work better buffing others leaders up or reducing the synergie power of this two.

Ninj'ed.

Tier 1 decks are most of the time those whose leader has a strong synergy with.

It would be like Movement ST/Wild Hunt/NG Reveal/NR Machines with one more synergy Gold card.
 
Remember when Emhyr was like 4 STR, than got buffed to 7 and no one still played him? Was not that while ago.

The Enforcers gave this Archetype a huge boost and a one that was, indeed, needed. Two patches later I think Emhyr must go down 2 to 3 points, so he can be in line with Calveit and both can sort of balance each other.

And also Cantarella should go up to at least 12. Like, all the Silver Spies should be the same STR (maybe even 15), as proven yesterday when with two Silver Spies played my opponent got the draw in R3, because his was Cantarella and mine Frightener. It's just ridiculous with the Spy Synergy in NG and everything.

Bran is just too good in SK with the thinning he provides and with Battle Maidens now his deck can get even more consistent, but if you nerf him to discard 2 instead of 3 cards... I don't know. Maybe the other two leaders should get at least the veteran tag too.
 
Why discuss popularity instead on winrate of leaders? Just because something is more popular doesn't mean it's better
 
If you compare all the meta reports in the past months, you will see that balance has improved a lot.
Devs are definitely working hard on that and will certainly continue to do so.

That being said, I like getting new cards here and there, even though some of them may be not that strong :D
 
What disgusts me the most is the rate at which people change decks, i remember for most of the time King Bran played that Cerys deck with harpooners, but one day literally every single SK opponent suddenly switch to the skirmisher/veteran one. Even in the worst dictatorship on the planet, if the leader commands people to change decks, i still think there would be some who refuse to delay.
How can everyone fall in line in a matter of hours is beyond me.
 
Ramcius;n9902861 said:
Why discuss popularity instead on winrate of leaders? Just because something is more popular doesn't mean it's better

You really think that King Bran would be popular if he had %30 WR? Bran, Emyhr and Henselt has the highest WR.
 
Iuliandrei;n9903181 said:
What disgusts me the most is the rate at which people change decks, i remember for most of the time King Bran played that Cerys deck with harpooners, but one day literally every single SK opponent suddenly switch to the skirmisher/veteran one. Even in the worst dictatorship on the planet, if the leader commands people to change decks, i still think there would be some who refuse to delay.
How can everyone fall in line in a matter of hours is beyond me.

This. Thank you. You can arrange a teeeeerrible deck and label it as "Swim's" and there. Tens of thousands people playing it in a few hours.
 
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altaybek;n9903251 said:
You really think that King Bran would be popular if he had %30 WR? Bran, Emyhr and Henselt has the highest WR.

Yes, Henselt have best, but Emhyr is 5th with 50,2%, Bran 51,6%, you barely win more than you lose. Also, lowest is 45,9%, so your example of 360% winrate is little off, no leader is even close to being that bad
 
Ramcius;n9903331 said:
Yes, Henselt have best, but Emhyr is 5th with 50,2%, Bran 51,6%, you barely win more than you lose. Also, lowest is 45,9%, so your example of 360% winrate is little off, no leader is even close to being that bad

That "barely" winning is all that matters above 4k+ range. Most of the times, even 50-53% WR is not enough to advance because of (for example: win grants 20 and lose deducts 20+ so you need 2 wins to compensate a lost game) . So -6% is actually a veeeeeery big difference.

My point was Bran being nauseatingly popular since August and devs only encouraged it more with adding cards like Wolfsbane and Heymaey. Dagon before gold immunity was definitely worse than this and they kinda stopped it with creating King Bran's present revive archetype (than overnerfed Dagon which was wrong).
 
altaybek;n9903681 said:
That "barely" winning is all that matters above 4k+ range. Most of the times, even 50-53% WR is not enough to advance because of (for example: win grants 20 and lose deducts 20+ so you need 2 wins to compensate a lost game) . So -6% is actually a veeeeeery big difference.

My point was Bran being nauseatingly popular since August and devs only encouraged it more with adding cards like Wolfsbane and Heymaey. Dagon before gold immunity was definitely worse than this and they kinda stopped it with creating King Bran's present revive archetype (than overnerfed Dagon which was wrong).

Bran is on par with Foltest, Unseen and behind of Henselt, Emhyr is behind all 4 of these decks, so you can't make assumption - "Emhyr and Bran are popular, because they best", it's simply not true, another funny fact - Eitne is on par with Henselt, Foltest and Unseen in popularity, but only 47,8% winrate. It clearly shows that popularity isn't indication of strongest decks
 
Threads like these really go all over the place. The statistics are good and all, but they don't really show the actual problem and definitely don't give any insight as to how to solve it. Henselt suddenly has the biggest win-rate but isn't even that popular. Maybe even more importantly, no leader has a win-rate far above the 50%. Yet Bran and Emhyr still remain the most popular. Why?

Balance should be more important than popularity, but a lot of players perceive popularity equals strength. So when they see the endless Bran and Emhyr match-ups, they are asking to nerf those decks, which ignores the actual problem and isn't really the solution. To put it simply: how do you reduce the popularity of something that is already balanced? You make other archetypes more attractive, which can only be done by buffing them or introducing more interesting cards for that faction.
 
4RM3D;n9903901 said:
...a lot of players perceive popularity equals strength

Well they are not wrong. Though most people miss the point that's also weakness. I was having a blast with homebrew Spelltael with Ale deck before Swim made it popular and people started countering.

4RM3D;n9903901 said:
Henselt suddenly has the biggest win-rate but isn't even that popular.

Sudden bursts of popularity or WR are OK because people will tech quick and dust will settle. But a persistent popularity and WR for 4 months should be something to look into.

4RM3D;n9903901 said:
To put it simply: how do you reduce the popularity of something that is already balanced?

I always say spies is the most perfect 25 card deck Gwent has because it doesn't rely on RNG, can always thin to 0 and you are only thinking about "when" to play "what" instead of hoping for a good mulligan. Nerfing it would be a disgrace. Buffing/balancing others is the only way to increase popularity (hence making spies less popular) imho.
 
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