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GWENT closed beta now underway

Reducing Birna to drawing 3 cards isn't the worst thing in the world. She could really screw you over sometimes. All it means now is that you won't be able to thin your deck to 0 by the last round. To empty the deck now you'll have to use King Bran *shudder*
 
Reducing Birna to drawing 3 cards isn't the worst thing in the world. She could really screw you over sometimes. All it means now is that you won't be able to thin your deck to 0 by the last round. To empty the deck now you'll have to use King Bran *shudder*

As someone that plays exclusively Skellige, I can tell you that the nerf is terrible, mostly because Bran can be useful but you basically have to give out all the card advantage you can build with Skellige in order to gain 1 card and maybe you can't win with that card, meanwhile with 3 cards advantage you are basically unbeatable. And Birna is not only essential to build card advantage but also to stream down the deck, and while she has royally screw me over a couple of times, the amount of times she screw me are rather low compared to the amount of times I actually got the shit I needed either for my hand (Geralt Igni, Restoration, Donar, etc) or graveyard (bears, Skirmishers, Queensguard). The risk reward for Birna was fine as it was.

I can't speak of the buff/nerf for other decks because I haven't played any other deck but Skellige for quite a few days now, personally I think the buff they did to the deck were meaningless compared to how much they screw over the discard deck, since Birna was always the last attempt to getting that card you wanted/needed and now you have even less chances of pulling it out.

I guess is time to build another deck with other factions if they keep messing around with Skellige while basically giving no incentives of playing as them with this patches.
 
Good times were had

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This is the most extreme case, but that's not the first time it happens. I have no idea how to counter this since they always pull this shit after I've passed my turn
 
As someone that plays exclusively Skellige, I can tell you that the nerf is terrible, mostly because Bran can be useful but you basically have to give out all the card advantage you can build with Skellige in order to gain 1 card and maybe you can't win with that card, meanwhile with 3 cards advantage you are basically unbeatable. And Birna is not only essential to build card advantage but also to stream down the deck, and while she has royally screw me over a couple of times, the amount of times she screw me are rather low compared to the amount of times I actually got the shit I needed either for my hand (Geralt Igni, Restoration, Donar, etc) or graveyard (bears, Skirmishers, Queensguard). The risk reward for Birna was fine as it was.

I can't speak of the buff/nerf for other decks because I haven't played any other deck but Skellige for quite a few days now, personally I think the buff they did to the deck were meaningless compared to how much they screw over the discard deck, since Birna was always the last attempt to getting that card you wanted/needed and now you have even less chances of pulling it out.

I guess is time to build another deck with other factions if they keep messing around with Skellige while basically giving no incentives of playing as them with this patches.

I think going from 4 cards to 3 is pretty significant, but that Birna is probably still worth playing. I would have preferred it if they compensated by lowering Birna's strength a bit, but being able to dig 3 cards deep for the one you need is still pretty good, as well as potentially being able to set up discard combos.

I won't disagree that Skellige got nerfed, but I think the other meta decks all got nerfed too: ST special card spam, Monsters Weather, NR Promote, etc. Also King Bran got buffed, and Harold's tweak is arguably a buff too.

I've been playing Skellige since I first got access to the Beta, and have thought several times "It'd be nice to try another deck" but it always boils down to "Oh I don't have these cards" which are crazy expensive in terms of scrap. I just crafted Geralt:Igni the other day, and I'm still missing quite a few cards that are good in a number of decks (Operator, Borkh), and always missing cards that are good for factions that aren't Skellige :/
 

Sorian

Banned
I think going from 4 cards to 3 is pretty significant, but that Birna is probably still worth playing. I would have preferred it if they compensated by lowering Birna's strength a bit, but being able to dig 3 cards deep for the one you need is still pretty good, as well as potentially being able to set up discard combos.

I won't disagree that Skellige got nerfed, but I think the other meta decks all got nerfed too: ST special card spam, Monsters Weather, NR Promote, etc. Also King Bran got buffed, and Harold's tweak is arguably a buff too.

I've been playing Skellige since I first got access to the Beta, and have thought several times "It'd be nice to try another deck" but it always boils down to "Oh I don't have these cards" which are crazy expensive in terms of scrap. I just crafted Geralt:Igni the other day, and I'm still missing quite a few cards that are good in a number of decks (Operator, Borkh), and always missing cards that are good for factions that aren't Skellige :/

They did, the changes to skellige are not significant enough to be whining about imo. The only terrible change skellige ever got were the shield smith nerfing last patch. Stop reading the notes in a bubble, the effective strength of ever faction will be dropping, it's not a nerf if they are all in line.

Edit: Also, thin your deck with first light as intended.
 
They did, the changes to skellige are not significant enough to be whining about imo. The only terrible change skellige ever got were the shield smith nerfing last patch. Stop reading the notes in a bubble, the effective strength of ever faction will be dropping, it's not a nerf if they are all in line.

Edit: Also, thin your deck with first light as intended.

My problem is that most of the Nerf are to avoid factions to exploit certain abilities (like Scoia'tael basically having access to 4 or more decoys building massive card advantage) meanwhile the nerf to Birma Bran isn't to avoid exploits and to be honest Skellige doesn't have that many ways to break the game like other factions have, in fact most of the changes in the new patch are to avoid all other factions but Skellige to keep breaking the game.


I finally got Pavetta in a Keg and with that I have all cards for NR and Skellige, now I only need some Legendary cards for Monsters (Imlerith, Nithral and Grave Hag) to complete my Monster deck while complete Scoia'tael is going to take some time since I am missing like 14 cards between Rare and Legendary cards.

 

DrSlek

Member
Good times were had

This is the most extreme case, but that's not the first time it happens. I have no idea how to counter this since they always pull this shit after I've passed my turn

Wait, what? You're in the last round and passed with 5 cards left in your hand and you passed? You had a scorch. Use the scorch before they use promote.
 
New patch is out, I have been trying 2 new decks, one with Skellige and trying out new Harold and a new NR deck basically surrounding The Redenian Elites, Margarita and Dandelion, so far it has been great since you can reuse the Redenian elites for the next round
 
Any more thoughts on the patch? Lost the feverish urge to play since I took a break. Will probably wait it out until there's a big influx of cards
 
Any more thoughts on the patch? Lost the feverish urge to play since I took a break. Will probably wait it out until there's a big influx of cards

I am loving the Drowners ability, it works great for monster weather decks as control for high buffing units, you will only need to time them up properly to mess up your opponents tactics, I have seen a lot of people rage quitting after I send their high buffed unit right up to the rain, though sometimes I have to have up to 3 rains to try it since some people are well aware of the strategy already and basically clear sky as soon as I cast rain and then have a strong unit they want to defend. So far the tests have been great with this deck and Drowners are my current favorite units in the monster deck, too bad you can really build card advantage with this deck.


I have been trying the new Harald ability and it works fine, though I think the division of damage should be 4/1 instead of 3/2 (damage to wounded units / Damage to non wounded units), mostly because now with Savage bear being nerfed I think it is harder to wound units and it doesn't offer that much of a reward when before you could take out almost all 5 damage units cards with a Savage bear and Harald. I don't really like the nerf to Birma nor the rally effect of First light but I guess now there is a reason to have a clear skies in the deck even as monsters. Though I have seen an increase in Skellige players, mostly because I think people are seeing that with Scoia'tel nerfed, Skellige is now the deck that you want to use for massive card advantage, since you have 3 spies (Donar, Birma, Udalryk) and you could combine them with Ciri, decoy and maybe Syg to use a spy that your opponent used on you.


I like the new Dandelion, it is perfect for promotion decks that basically use Margarita/Ves, but I don't see that much use for him outside of that, but then again I suck as a NR player. The Redenian elite change was also great since now he is out of Manticore Venom Range and with Dandelion he is out of range of almost all wounded cards which free you to reinforce him easily or even use Foltest and then use reinforcement. The changes to promotion are also great since you can reuse units on the second round that you promoted on the first one, but most people that use NR seem to be at lost yesterday since I had some people tried the Rush-Promote Strategy and got surprised when on the next round I just used Geralt Igni on them or in other case used Frost.

I haven't played as Scoia'tel so I can say anything about them other than it seems to have massively decrease the numbers of Scoia'tel players that play control deck and then build massive card advantage. And I think it has to do with Scoia'tel being below Skellige into building card advantage now.

I thought there were going to be new cards on this patch... I saved scraps and kegs for nothing, I wonder if the new cards are bound to come shortly.
 
I feel like the starter decks they give you are so awful. I mean I get it, they want you to buy cards, but holy fuck is it hard to have enjoyable matches when just starting out.
 

hoggert

Member
Sick of ST Dwarf and any NR deck with Borkh now. Some guy managed to play Borkh 3 times against me, shackles can't come soon enough
 
Starting to get really sick of getting matched with people who spam golds left and right. Besides Geralt I only ever got one gold, Milva, and it was very early in the game.

Either I'm really unlucky with kegs or I'm playing with people who have a much higher level than me (11).
 
Starting to get really sick of getting matched with people who spam golds left and right. Besides Geralt I only ever got one gold, Milva, and it was very early in the game.

Either I'm really unlucky with kegs or I'm playing with people who have a much higher level than me (11).

as someone who is shamefully level 74... its probably that


i just had an interesting interaction... i decoyed an elven mercenary, but isengrim spawned a commando onto that same row, which also had an ambush card that wiped the row, and so i didnt get the mercenary back in hand

nobodys gging me anymore :(
 

Wagram

Member
Starting to get really sick of getting matched with people who spam golds left and right. Besides Geralt I only ever got one gold, Milva, and it was very early in the game.

Either I'm really unlucky with kegs or I'm playing with people who have a much higher level than me (11).

They definitely need to improve matchmaking. Especially if they plan to not wipe when Gwent officially releases. I can't say I've been matched versus someone with no golds, but that would be really bad.
 
Progress for new players (who are more likely to be F2P) is too slow. I barely play anymore at level 4 because I need to win games with my shitty deck(s) and pray I dont get paired with people with actual functional decks.

I know the solution is "buy packs and support the game" but no. I'm not going to invest in a game I'm unsure about and neither will most new players. Real world tcgs and such often have events (like a draft) that mitigate the need for a well developed collection, or they sell starter decks that can actually take you somewhat far if played competently. This game has neither. Hell in real world tcgs without those things I can still buy individual cards (and even sell them later!), but here I need to buy kegs and pray for the cards I need, or pray that I get enough to mill to craft the cards I need. Its more exploitative than a real tcg/ccg,
 
Progress for new players (who are more likely to be F2P) is too slow. I barely play anymore at level 4 because I need to win games with my shitty deck(s) and pray I dont get paired with people with actual functional decks.

I know the solution is "buy packs and support the game" but no. I'm not going to invest in a game I'm unsure about and neither will most new players. Real world tcgs and such often have events (like a draft) that mitigate the need for a well developed collection, or they sell starter decks that can actually take you somewhat far if played competently. This game has neither. Hell in real world tcgs without those things I can still buy individual cards (and even sell them later!), but here I need to buy kegs and pray for the cards I need, or pray that I get enough to mill to craft the cards I need. Its more exploitative than a real tcg/ccg,

Yeah progress was definitely rough for me at the start. The fact that you get basically nothing for losing is really rough, especially at the start. I gravitated towards Skellige because of the starter cards synergy (Savage Bear + Axeman) and was lucky enough to be matched with people who seemed like they hadn't played Witcher 3 Gwent ( Never thought about spreading out buffs for Scorch, easily baited into over committing etc) for the first few levels. I actually remember being pissed because for a while I was only losing against people who had like 4 gold cards when I had none.

I believe they are redoing the progression system before the end of the year, so maybe try again once they put that in?

Once you break out of the initial rough start, I do appreciate the fact that I can get a new keg in just 3 wins per day. That normally takes me less than half an hour.
 
Yeah I also heard they are redoing progression, which I hope is true. It is a total mess.

I also would like to see the inclusion of a "starter pack" bundle. A lot of online CCGs have those now. Duelyst I know does. Hearthstone has the occasional deal. But a bunch of packs/kegs for a discounted initial price.
 
But radovid isn't a weak card

All those cards are 12 value though which is pretty much the average for gold card. They don't do anything that can effect the whole board. Best case scenario they can take out gold threats before they can get replayed (ciri, aglais, scoia'tael zoltan). If there's no major threats those cards are basically gold strength with up to an alzhur's thunder attached in iorveth's case.

They're probably the least likely cards to get nerfed

Also you never have to draw Radovid. Just having him makes Ciri useless.
 
But radovid isn't a weak card

I have been trying today a Radovid deck and I think it is a great leader for control. I pull out of my ass a control deck and so far I have been doing great, I understand now why people like to play control decks with Radovid, it is fun to see the opponent try something and then you just cocknblocking it with control out of the ass. I still need to improve the deck because I have not enough power for certain rounds despite being able to control the board without problems. Need to find a balance between control cards and control units. Still I need to check some other cards and see what I cut from the deck and what not but I have already been playing for less than 2 hours and already level up the 3 levels of the day and opened 3 kegs, got 2 legendary cards but for the first time I got to choose between 3 repeated legendary cards... damn that sucked.
 
Once the game go live, do we still retain the cards we obtained through kegs?

It is predicted they will do a reset, so you'd be refunded whatever you spent on kegs. Or I guess given the amount of kegs you bought.

Personally I'm not buying a single keg until I know if they'll ever have the same policy literally every other online CCG has; full scrap refund for nerfed/buffed cards for a certain grace period.

edit: Though a reset/wipe is not confirmed. Pretty much we cant be sure right now.
 
I have 1900 scraps and don't know what to buy. Might save for the new cards.

What level are you/How many kegs did you buy? I've not spent any money on the store and am level 50+ now, but I've always been hurting for scrap. Every deck I've wanted to play I've always felt like I was missing Legendary cards that were crucial, e.g. Cerys, Isengrim etc.
 

Wagram

Member
What level are you/How many kegs did you buy? I've not spent any money on the store and am level 50+ now, but I've always been hurting for scrap. Every deck I've wanted to play I've always felt like I was missing Legendary cards that were crucial, e.g. Cerys, Isengrim etc.

I'm level 79 so (81 Kegs). I haven't spent a single penny on the game.
 
If they do a reset you'd be refunded the kegs you purchased anyway. No "progress" is lost.

Oh yeah it will be. People have been playing for several hours now, I haven't bought a single Keg but I almost have all the cards in the game with the exception of 9 legendaries. If they do a reset I doubt I would invest the same amount of time into the game again to build good decks all over again, specially when the tactics I used to for starter decks no longer works thanks to the changes the patches did to the game.

I have 1900 scraps and don't know what to buy. Might save for the new cards.

I would say that it depends on your type of deck but there are certain cards that are useful in all decks, Decoy, Octvis, Geralt Igni, Borkh, Ciri.
 
Oh yeah it will be. People have been playing for several hours now, I haven't bought a single Keg but I almost have all the cards in the game with the exception of 9 legendaries. If they do a reset I doubt I would invest the same amount of time into the game again to build good decks all over again, specially when the tactics I used to for starter decks no longer works thanks to the changes the patches did to the game.

Fair point.


Also I'm struggling to see some of the synergy in Northern Realms. All your units benefit/buff your non-gold units. But then you have Promote/Other Cards/That leader who turns all cards on a row into gold.

So what's the goal there? Buff the shit out of your cards and gamble your opponent doesn't counter you with weather or something before you turn them to Gold? Because for whatever reason, gold cards are unaffected by weather, but if a card is being effected by weather and gets turned into gold it gets stuck with 3 strength (1 base, +2 from NR passive).
 
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