This game is so unfun. It used to be much better. Returning player rant.

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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.
 
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I remember very briefly playing it at launch but have recently come back to it (courtesy of the Ultimate Bundle that is in a Humble Bundle), sinking several hours into it over the last few days. And frankly I cannot see staying. I have now lost probably 10 games in a row to players who drop cards that just put my Monster Starter Deck to shame. No matter how much scheming, bluffing, and crafty play I use I just get gazzumped by cards that frankly are so much better than mine in strength and synergy there isn't much point in trying. Even worse I have the feeling my opponents can tell pretty quickly with the cards I am playing.

Perhaps I'm just sour (perhaps that isn't really a perhaps and I just am!), but it is extremely unlikely I am going to sweat my way to a win just to get past the 3rd step in my Journey. Because right now that win is like trying to fly to the moon. I imagine my issue is I will never really be able to spend the time (or coin) to put together a "competitive" deck, and that isn't Gwent's fault at all; with more time/effort I could better synergize my cards but I thought on some level even a starter deck would win once in a while. Maybe I'm just on a rotten run. I'll give it a bit more time to see.
 
If the game was enjoyable I'd say just keep grinding, do your daily/weekly quest and contracts and before long you'd have enough scraps for a couple meta decks. But it's not worth it IMO because the meta is [...] and decks that are not meta are just useless (if you want to win that is, I've heard of players that are having fun even when they're losing, but I doubt they really exist)

And from what I've seen the game only has "veterans", guys who played for years and have all the cards and know all the broken combos/synergies. How do I know? I've played 108 hours on Steam and a bunch more hours on mobile for the past 3 months and I receive 9 ore at the end of almost every match when opponents send GG, that means they have reached at least Prestige Rank 4. For context, I'm lvl 33 Prestige Rank 2 and like I said I have 108 hours on Steam since I started playing again, idk how many hours on mobile, and 478 hours played on GOG, before the Steam/Mobile release. Ah and almost every opponent has only premium cards, even the most recent ones like Renfri, it takes a considerable amount of time to achieve this.

I'll probably wait until the next patch and if they don't improve the state of the game, I'll just quit, there are plenty of other games for me to actually enjoy.
 
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That's the thing nowadays. Card designs are bad and calls for changes are ignored. Every release hits, meta is changing to new cards not becuase people want to try them out, but because cards are unstable and are left in that state. This has repeated for years, and finally is out of control. Last three expansions were a disaster.

Loosing round control often means defeat, some combos are much stronger than others - can't be answered or even played around.

I don't know who's fault is it - players demanding more cards, without trying to play around with another 500 they have available? Or CDP's - rushing expansions?

Netdecking is through the roof, there's no variety - everyone has to play the same thing slamming cards with no need to strategise their game.
 
FWIW, I won a round today! And then realized i forgot to actually "activate" the next step in my Journey. So I need to win again, haha.
 
The issue that each patch highlights about this game is the fact that the game has gone from a deck match-up game (where some cards/decks will inherently do better against other cards/decks so everything equals out in the end) to a one card wins all game. These cards/decks include Renfri, Sihil, Cat spam, mill, etc. There are close to 0 ways to combat them so the only way to beat them is to play those decks. This results in stale metas and unhappy players, where the only happy ones are the ones who conform to the meta and use those overpowered cards. Creative deck building isn't rewarded and watching gwent content creators isn't fun because their videos consist of "Sihil Renfri so good, Double Renfri wins, Sihil is actually kind of good, and Handbuff Renfri is fun". Super boring to watch, seeing their content makes me want to actually quit the game (with exception to like two gwent channels, the rest are just boring).
In summary, each patch just introduces OP cards that ruin the game and devs are playing catchup in making the game balanced in the next patch where they create new problems.
To end on a positive note however, it is nice to see regular updates from the devs and they are trying to fix the problems they make.
 
OP Give me a Hugh, i have The exact same feeling as you

This part of your post its exactly what i think about The game

"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 Will just add another fu**ing boring deck its onslaught (with renfri or scenario, it doenst matter).


And i have sure devs Will nerf renfri next patch and Will stay onslaught untouch and everyone Will play that.

And one more month with a boring season where everyone plays only one deck
 
Virtual hug sent my man. It sucks knowing that a few years ago there were some blessed days when I was playing Gwent from dawn 'till dusk (almost) and I still wanted more.
 
Netdecking is not a problem if games are fair. And by fair i mean: little and not gamebreaking rng and a range of points in line with provision cost.
Renfri doesn't respect these two points, neither Nekker, neither Sihil, neither Sigvald, Warritt, cat, Keltullis, Queen, Sabbath and so on, the list can be very long.
I'm close to 2600 mmr with scoiatel and, since players i'm facing are good, games are decided by highrolls. Opponent plays Warrit and i have no answers to save Renfri? I concede on the spot. Opponent plays random spotter and he steals Renfri/Munro/Zoltan? Just concede on the spot.
His Renfri is better than mine? Just concede. Vilgefortz on top end golds? Concede on the spot.
When you lose like that, it's just painful and frustrating. i have completely stopped giving gg against these atrocities, what's the point? The problem is that, according to actions made by designers, this kind of gameplay is "fun" and must be incentivised with broken neutral cards, so every single faction can abuse this stuff and even the worst players have a chance to win closing their eyes and praying, why using brain right?


THIS is the real problem and nothing is suggesting me that their path is going to change soon. i don't care what they say or write on social medias, i just check facts. And, if every expansion/patch you put into the game something that is clearly going to destroy the meta, i guess they are just hoping to attract more casuals. The problem is players like these don't give a damn about gwent, because they will always prefer highroll fiestas like Hearthstone and Runeterra. Always.
So you both risk to lose the old playerbase and avoid to acquire a new one. Marketing genius here, hands down.
 
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Netdecking is not a problem if games are fair. And by fair i mean: little and not gamebreaking rng and a range of points in line with provision cost.
Renfri doesn't respect these two points, neither Nekker, neither Sihil, neither Sigvald, Warritt, cat, Keltullis, Queen, Sabbath and so on, the list can be very long.
I'm close to 2600 mmr with scoiatel and, since players i'm facing are good, games are decided by highrolls. Opponent plays Warrit and i have no answers to save Renfri? I concede on the spot. Opponent plays random spotter and he steals Renfri/Munro/Zoltan? Just concede on the spot.
His Renfri is better than mine? Just concede. Vilgefortz on top end golds? Concede on the spot.
When you lose like that, it's just painful and frustrating. i have completely stopped giving gg against these atrocities, what's the point? The problem is that, according to actions made by designers, this kind of gameplay is "fun" and must be incentivised with broken neutral cards, so every single faction can abuse this stuff and even the worst players have a chance to win closing their eyes and praying, why using brain right?


THIS is the real problem and nothing is suggesting me that their path is going to change soon. i don't care what they say or write on social medias, i just check facts. And, if every expansion/patch you put into the game something that is clearly going to destroy the meta, i guess they are just hoping to attract more casuals. The problem is players like these don't give a damn about gwent, because they will always prefer highroll fiestas like Hearthstone and Runeterra. Always.
So you both risk to lose the old playerbase and avoid to acquire a new one. Marketing genius here, hands down.
I totally agree with you. There is just one point i don't get: you say it's frustrating to lose against some OP cards or just lucky opponents. And you are totally right. But regarding to your descriptions you play one of the most annoying decks (at moment) yourself. I face this Renfri/Munro/Zoltan crap very often and it is not even a hint less frustrating than the cards you mention.

So why are you complaining about the problem but decided to be a part of it?

I just don't play all those cards that i think are totally broken and still manage to reach pro every season. Maybe if more players would just deny to play broken crap it wouldn't be such a big problem...
 
As long as there is OP stuff available, people WILL use it, even in Singleplayer non competitive games. It's the devs duty to properly balance a game and make it fun.

And yes I absolutely agree, I hate the luck factor in this game, it's one of the reasons I quit Hearthstone shortly after I started playing Gwent. I hate losing because the opponent just "created" the perfect answer to my cards.

Gwent should be all about tactics and clever deck building, not about creating cards and other random stuff happening. NG is the absolute worst in this regard. With proper card balancing and a good marketing campaign this game would see lots of new players, returning players and it would stop losing old players, it would generate more money, would be more successful, I just don't get it why they're not doing it.

And bring back Arena dammit!!!
 
I totally agree with you. There is just one point i don't get: you say it's frustrating to lose against some OP cards or just lucky opponents. And you are totally right. But regarding to your descriptions you play one of the most annoying decks (at moment) yourself. I face this Renfri/Munro/Zoltan crap very often and it is not even a hint less frustrating than the cards you mention.
There is a huge difference between Munro/Zoltan and Renfri. In the first case you know exactly what you get, in the second is just pure broken highroll.
That said, a nerf to these dwarves is more than appropriate.

So why are you complaining about the problem but decided to be a part of it?
I'm complaining because the problem is real and obvious. A 13 prov card able to consistently make 30+ point is just nonsense.

I just don't play all those cards that i think are totally broken and still manage to reach pro every season.
Every meta deck that contains Renfri is trash ( design wise ) but, if you want to win at high mmr, there is almost no other choice. Players are generally good and you don't have the luxury to use tier 3 memes. I tried multiple decks without Renfri and the vast majority of them simply don't work.

Maybe if more players would just deny to play broken crap it wouldn't be such a big problem...

The real problem is: overrated card designers, no clear plans, no communication with playerbase, no proper testing..just a bunch of blatantly broken cards that override old broken cards.
Maybe next expansion they will print "Fair Nekker. Deploy: play 10 random cards from your opponent deck. If you make more than 50 points, win the game instantly".

Oh no! On reddit a lot of people complaining, their typical narrative. Just wait three months to gather "datas".

:smart: :smart:
 
Every meta deck that contains Renfri is trash ( design wise ) but, if you want to win at high mmr, there is almost no other choice.
I am in the top 200 without using a single Renfri deck this season on the ladder, and I don't even have that many games played since this season is so boring due to said decks.

I often hear people parrot that they are forced to use the current meta decks no matter which season we are in, but it is simply not true. All you need is an understanding of what makes a good/bad deck, a feel of the current meta so that you can correctly tech against it, and lastly some skill and experience in piloting your deck.

I understand why most people take the easy way out, and the devs are the ones to blame here, but in no way are they forced to do it, that includes if they want to play on high MMR.

I will acknowledge that this season in particular is beyond broken balancewise, though.
 
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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.
Sadly i am with you, i have played 15 match today and 14 of the, was against nilfgaard, and they ALL used the EXACT same build.
 
Sadly i am with you, i have played 15 match today and 14 of the, was against nilfgaard, and they ALL used the EXACT same build.
Damn, I gave up after the 5th consecutive NG Renfri deck, after which I made my own NG Renfri Deck (beat cancer with cancer I guess) and them got matched against 3 Keltullis decks in a row. Talk about bad luck lol.
 
Damn, I gave up after the 5th consecutive NG Renfri deck, after which I made my own NG Renfri Deck (beat cancer with cancer I guess) and them got matched against 3 Keltullis decks in a row. Talk about bad luck lol.

Oh man renfri! i am tired of her! a leader should only have 1 ability, the soldiers should do the fighting. But i understand you my man, sometimes its better just to join them. i just got into two more nilfgard, the one i just posted was actually a great game, he/her had a fun deck to play against, sadly the person just gave up after 1 round.
 

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just played 2 times in a row with the exactly same toxic mill/golden necker/ciri nova deck.

I thought it was the same player, since the first match over and the second match starts almost instantly.

I needed to login in oficial site to see if i was playing agains the same person, but it wasnt.

For my luck/skill i win both of matches (a deck without renfri, for sure), and i played totally diferent one match for other because i thought it was the same person. The only thing i did the same was stealing ciri nova with phillipa, oh, thats is so good hahaha.

My opponents? Well they play exactly the same thing, netdecking and doenst know what they need to do, just spams the card
 
I am in the top 200 without using a single Renfri deck this season on the ladder, and I don't even have that many games played since this season is so boring due to said decks.

I often hear people parrot that they are forced to use the current meta decks no matter which season we are in, but it is simply not true. All you need is an understanding of what makes a good/bad deck, a feel of the current meta so that you can correctly tech against it, and lastly some skill and experience in piloting your deck.

I understand why most people take the easy way out, and the devs are the ones to blame here, but in no way are they forced to do it, that includes if they want to play on high MMR.

I will acknowledge that this season in particular is beyond broken balancewise, though.
I said "almost", in fact not all Renfriless decks are terrible. For example i used siege for NR and poison for SY to climb.
Keltullis is also playable, but i refuse to play that cheese nonsense. Another one is Eist warriors, but it suffers blue coin a lot.
Maybe other stuff out there, i don't know ( of course i'm not counting Sihil, another garbage card that i will never touch ).
 
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just played 2 times in a row with the exactly same toxic mill/golden necker/ciri nova deck.

I thought it was the same player, since the first match over and the second match starts almost instantly.

I needed to login in oficial site to see if i was playing agains the same person, but it wasnt.

For my luck/skill i win both of matches (a deck without renfri, for sure), and i played totally diferent one match for other because i thought it was the same person. The only thing i did the same was stealing ciri nova with phillipa, oh, thats is so good hahaha.

My opponents? Well they play exactly the same thing, netdecking and doenst know what they need to do, just spams the card

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.
I am with you ! I am so TIRED of Nilfgaard! I have just played 12 rounds in a row against nilfgaard and EVERYONE uses the same cards and they loose every time! But still it's getting boring, i actually just finnished a game against a nilfgaard and the bastard won ! He/her Didnt play with ANY of the usually cards, i kept waiting for cultist, banish, poisen, renfri. But they NEVER came so he/her won ! It was a fun game. I even felt good by giving him/her GG
 
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