I started playing Gwent towards the end of the Closed Beta, and then I played through the Open Beta up until they released the Homecoming update in 2018 I think, and then I quit because it wasn't fun. And because of artifacts, especially Sihil.
My GPU broke 3 months ago and while I was waiting for it to get fixed, I thought of passing the time by playing Gwent on my phone since I already had all the old cards, lots of resources to craft the new ones and some knowledge of the mechanics.
And it was pretty fun until I hit rank 15 or something like that, after said rank only meta decks were played. I thought ok, I'll just play Arena. But they removed it and replaced it with Draft which sucks big time unless you manage to build a Syndicate deck which mops the floor with everything else. And it still sucks because it's almost like constructed, hell you can get even better decks than constructed. It's damn boring. So back to ranked I went, I copied a few meta decks, found success with some Waylay Vernossiel deck and Armor Dwarves deck (don't remember names) and grinded slowly to rank 7 or something. But it wasn't an enjoyable grind, everyone was playing the same Waylay deck, or NR Siege deck, or NG Poison deck, and in rare cases the goddam awful Sihil deck (I hate this card with a passion). It was pretty bad and boring but in Training Mode vs Player I could get a decent match every once in a while.
But NO MORE! Since this new goddam Renfri patch, even Training mode is full of the same 3-4 broken decks over and over again. It's 80% NG Assimilate with double Renfri, like one wasn't OP enough, then it's the damned MO cat deck which plays 3 cats, and if it's not the damned cat, it's the damned Keltullis deck with 2 Keltullis so they can go 2:0 all the time. Then it's the SC Renfri Handbuff deck which you can do nothing about (but it's a bit better than the previous 3 decks). And on top of that, there are still some [...] that are STILL PLAYING SIHIL.
I was never a PRO player back in the day, highest rank reached was 20 and I think 21 was max. Now I'm rank 3 but I don't wanna climb any more. It's both boring and frustrating. The game used to be more fun. Sure there were broken decks back then like Greatswords and Viper Witchers and whatnot, but nothing like this bullsh!t Renfri and that damned Sir Scratch A Lot or Keltullis. NG was always unfun and antifun but now it's so much worse with assimilate, lots of locks and poison.
So my suggestions are to add Doomed from the start to these broken cards, make them cost more provisions and at the same time put fewer points on the board. AND REMOVE/REWORK SIHIL ENTIRELY.
For example, Renfri should cost 15 instead of 13, have 5 points instead of 7 and have Doomed. And maybe Immune too so they can't Purify the Doomed status and play it more than once anyway.
The Stratagems are too strong IMO, especially Crystall Skull which is used 90% of the time in every deck. If I use a meta deck and I go first I win the game 2:0 most of the time, and If not, I lose in the same 2:0 style. When facing most decks and going second I know from the start that I'll lose the game and I struggle to win the first round so I can get half a crown, because everyone ALWAYS pushes for 2:0, I don't remember it being like that, almost no one pushed for 2:0 back in the day. Nowadays they even manage to win on card disadvantage because of broken combos.
But I don't think CDPR even cares about fixing the game, making it playable and fun. And I'm gonna quit again, which is a shame, because the cards look so nice in this game and they're relatively easy to get. They should stick to good old Singleplayer Games with a story focus. I loved Thronebreaker and I'd gladly buy another game of similar quality, but I'm not wasting more money on this broken unbalanced mess.
My GPU broke 3 months ago and while I was waiting for it to get fixed, I thought of passing the time by playing Gwent on my phone since I already had all the old cards, lots of resources to craft the new ones and some knowledge of the mechanics.
And it was pretty fun until I hit rank 15 or something like that, after said rank only meta decks were played. I thought ok, I'll just play Arena. But they removed it and replaced it with Draft which sucks big time unless you manage to build a Syndicate deck which mops the floor with everything else. And it still sucks because it's almost like constructed, hell you can get even better decks than constructed. It's damn boring. So back to ranked I went, I copied a few meta decks, found success with some Waylay Vernossiel deck and Armor Dwarves deck (don't remember names) and grinded slowly to rank 7 or something. But it wasn't an enjoyable grind, everyone was playing the same Waylay deck, or NR Siege deck, or NG Poison deck, and in rare cases the goddam awful Sihil deck (I hate this card with a passion). It was pretty bad and boring but in Training Mode vs Player I could get a decent match every once in a while.
But NO MORE! Since this new goddam Renfri patch, even Training mode is full of the same 3-4 broken decks over and over again. It's 80% NG Assimilate with double Renfri, like one wasn't OP enough, then it's the damned MO cat deck which plays 3 cats, and if it's not the damned cat, it's the damned Keltullis deck with 2 Keltullis so they can go 2:0 all the time. Then it's the SC Renfri Handbuff deck which you can do nothing about (but it's a bit better than the previous 3 decks). And on top of that, there are still some [...] that are STILL PLAYING SIHIL.
I was never a PRO player back in the day, highest rank reached was 20 and I think 21 was max. Now I'm rank 3 but I don't wanna climb any more. It's both boring and frustrating. The game used to be more fun. Sure there were broken decks back then like Greatswords and Viper Witchers and whatnot, but nothing like this bullsh!t Renfri and that damned Sir Scratch A Lot or Keltullis. NG was always unfun and antifun but now it's so much worse with assimilate, lots of locks and poison.
So my suggestions are to add Doomed from the start to these broken cards, make them cost more provisions and at the same time put fewer points on the board. AND REMOVE/REWORK SIHIL ENTIRELY.
For example, Renfri should cost 15 instead of 13, have 5 points instead of 7 and have Doomed. And maybe Immune too so they can't Purify the Doomed status and play it more than once anyway.
The Stratagems are too strong IMO, especially Crystall Skull which is used 90% of the time in every deck. If I use a meta deck and I go first I win the game 2:0 most of the time, and If not, I lose in the same 2:0 style. When facing most decks and going second I know from the start that I'll lose the game and I struggle to win the first round so I can get half a crown, because everyone ALWAYS pushes for 2:0, I don't remember it being like that, almost no one pushed for 2:0 back in the day. Nowadays they even manage to win on card disadvantage because of broken combos.
But I don't think CDPR even cares about fixing the game, making it playable and fun. And I'm gonna quit again, which is a shame, because the cards look so nice in this game and they're relatively easy to get. They should stick to good old Singleplayer Games with a story focus. I loved Thronebreaker and I'd gladly buy another game of similar quality, but I'm not wasting more money on this broken unbalanced mess.
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