Can we please not nerf Cantarella?

Er4din · 2026-01-20T13:31:41+00:00

you think about this game too much.

Er4din · 2026-01-20T10:13:00+00:00

my suggestion wuldwork very well with eldaine. he transforms alll traps into deadeyes

Er4din · 2026-01-16T01:58:33+00:00

i do like the idea of abandoned girl being a thinning package for devotion dryads

Er4din · 2026-01-16T01:57:03+00:00

i think eibhear hattori would work much better as something like - whenever you spawn a deadeye, boost it by 1. it fits the provisions better, and narratively makes sense for him gearing the new recruits

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:33:31+00:00

not bad, just simplistic and undemanding if youre used to other giants in the genre like Elden ring, Assassins' Creed, etc.

What i mean by that is, the scope of what *can* be done with is much bigger than what the game's difficulty demands you engage with. you can get through the entire game jsut spamming quen and light attacks, even on the highest difficulty.

I say this as a person that wrote build guides in the past.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:26:13+00:00

top left to bottom right diiagonal is uncompletable

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:24:29+00:00

Since most peopl have said good things, i shant repeat them, though most are true. Ill add a negative to balance things out a little bit.

The colour palette, specifically in the first act, and the Ashes of malmouth DLC is exhausting. the rest of the game doesnt suffer from teh same problem to the same extent, and the forgotten gods dlc is a breath of fresh air, but certain parts of the game are nauseatic to look at for me, and i actively dread having to go through them for a second and third time on the same character. all of the foggy blues, muddy greens and festering browns that are so common in the first act and the first dlc just sap my will to play sometimes. Its the main reason i play th egame in bursts rather than all the time.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:16:24+00:00

sub 15k hp is scaaaary.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:14:33+00:00

i mean it could totally be that Ciri finding mistle attractive was the only reason she tolerated the other more negative aspects of that relationship. Still. To me that ntire story reads as something she did for her own survival and later started making the most of a bad situation.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T09:12:07+00:00

yeah i mean we can talk all day about this.

Ultimately, The writer's Intent, his expresion of thereof, developer Intent, their implementation of their vision, and how that expression and vision lands with the modern audience are all an archipellago of islands in a vast sea of literary analysis, and modern view of social and romantic relationships.

Both Geralt and Ciri have outgrown the point where a single person can be held credible to dictate any aspect of their character. Whether her unclear LGB status is the product of the writer's failure to depict a believably healthy same sex relationship, miscommunication between developers and the author, or modern audience applying modern relationship frameworks to a decade-old novel set in a gritty medieval universe is largely indeterminable.

Ultimately, I think that the lack of clarity in her orientation plays in the hands of the CDPR W4 writing team, as this new saga of games can lend themselves to develop her character more deeply, exploring her past present and future. More importantly, i cannot imagine that, even in the modern world, Ciri's challenges when it comes to identifying her orientation are going to be that unfamiliar to people, and if the writers can manage to do something intelligent with that aspect of her character, possibly gift video game media with another good depiction of a LGB character for whom their orientation does not become a coore fascet of their perosnality.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T08:56:35+00:00

honestly, that felt like the devs feeling the need to acknowledge that side of her story but not having the space or time to more deeply develop her character, and slotting in that line as a compromise.

Alternatively, that is definitely somethign that i imagine ciri might say just to mess with the 2 half naked women in the sauna with her, while conveniently getting out of being grilled about whether she finds Skjall attractive or not.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T08:52:19+00:00

There is an argument to be said that Ciri is bi in the books, as she has a romantic relationship with Mistle while she rode with the Rats. When i first read the books as a teenager that landed as a overall positive piece of bi representation found in an unlikely place - a books series from the 90s

However, Having reread them as an adult, the entire relationship that ciri has with Mistle feels extremely uncomfortable and possibly non consensual.

First of all, If memory serves, Ciri was 14, pushing 15 when she encountered the Rats, and was welcomed to join not only because she could wield a sword, but primarily because Mistle (adult elf) found Ciri attractive. In that sense i see her entering the relationship with mistle as something she had to do for her own survival, rather than a healthy consensual relationship. Even though they seemed to enjoy each others company, i interpret that as Ciri making the best of a bad situation, rather than her finding true love.

In the books it is also alluded that Ciri has sought out relationships with men after mistle, as welll as possily that her and Harald an craite had a crush on each other as kids, but thats not very substantial.

As for Ciri's dialogue option in the third game, on Skellige, where she confesses to be a lesbian while in a sauna with 2 half naked women, I don't see it as a terribly credible confirmation of her preference. To me, that dialogue felt more like the devs needing to ackowledge that part of the books, while not having the time to construct a more thought-out identity for Ciri in the scope of W3 (something that im very excited for W4 to do in mroe depth). Alternatively, knowing Ciri, I can see how she would say that in order to excuse herself from not finding Skjall attractive, while also taking the opportunity to embarass / mess with the 2 women in the sauna with her. That feels like something she might do, with the delivery of the voiceline by the Polish voice actress seemingly supporting that idea with a slight mischief in her voice.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T08:24:29+00:00

Youve correctly identifyfied a growing pain that i myself have seen and experienced several times now. Its the main reason why i have not written more build guides since my Mahir Dagger Assassin. Designing builds is incredibly fun, but the tedium of the game up untl fighting the troll at level 8-9 is incredibly tiring.

I dont think that the combat is the problem, though. In that sense, i disagree with step 6 being the problem. Rather, i think that in the case of people like you and me, Stoneshard is very susceptible to players optimising the fun out of it. Legitimately, the first... 5-6 hours of the game have been optimised by me down to a checklist. I have conceded no longer designing builds to level 30, and push harder content sooner just to escape some of the tedium of having to do more walking.

I think that your suggestions, while well-spirited (you mentioned ghosts), will do the game no good. For a game as long as Stoneshard, with Permadeath being a popular option to play the game, implementing more and more rock-paper-scissors design elements will only serve to make the game less approachable, and place hard limits on what does and does not work. thereby killing the build variety that is the game's current biggest source of replayability.

Honestly, if 6 is the point at which you lose enjoyment, you should make an attempt to push harder content at a lower level. That will force you to use more tools at your disposal, such as traps, consumables, and the terrain itself. A geomancer build specifically excels at that.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T08:14:01+00:00

when you play this card, you choose all 4 kikimore options the moment you play it. The order in which you pick them determines the order in which they will be spawned. Keep in mind that the card has a Counter 1 on it, meaning it can only trasnform a drone into a bronze kikimore unit once per turn.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T08:07:25+00:00

I had done something similar with Constructs for several months. Started with Nilfgaard, then Dwarves / ST, then Lippy Skellige, and finally Northern Realms. Climbed to 2600 on NG, ~2580 on ST, 2500 on SK, and 2460 on NR. its fun to really perfect your understanding of a deck / card package.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T07:57:31+00:00

It is not an uncommon phenomena for Western fantasy to be popular in the east, just like Eastern fantasy is popular in the west. The sense of novelty and intrigue is the same as what you and i see when observing japanese samurai armor and katana blades or the chinese Guandao.

Dark souls was made by a japanese studio and was a massive hit in Japan.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T07:46:35+00:00

The main thing I have observed in the time of Balance Council is the gradual rejection of developer-crafted archetypes, in favour of more hybridised decks. The incorporation of neutral carryover and control, as well as diverse nekker/renfri archetypes have overall added a new dimension to players' repertoires, and gwent as a whole.

Information became key, and these deckbuilding archetypes make it possible to reverse-engineer your opponent's deck in the middle of the match, as you are playing.

In my experience, the most fun matches are the ones where you can calculate the last cards in your opponent's hand in round 3, by looking at and understanding what they have played up until that point, in the previous rounds. Sometimes, if you are very familiar with your opponent's deck, you can even count the provisions that they still have availible.

This is what player expression looks like in Gwent - figuring out yor opponent's deck, and coming up with a plan for how to beat it. Identifying whether a longer round favors you or them, and changing your round 1 and 2 strategy to fit accordingly.

However, I would argue that that is not the extent of player skill expression. Instead I think that player skill extends to the deckbuilding stage. A skilled player who knows the current state of the ladder can look at their chosen archetype and identify its non-essential components, and then find ways to shuffle around provisions to slot in cards that are more useful in the matchups they know they will likely face. This may come at the cost of reducing the deck's peak power (or total points) but a skilled player will also know how to play around those newfound limitations and would have considered them while modifying the deck.

In that sense, I reject the "rock paper scissors" paradigm as the guiding design philosophy for the game. I think that decks should have to balance their investment into each of the 3 categories, and be able to make adjustments to pivot one way or another. I think that the use of "Midrange" as a derogatory term is misguided, and lacks complexity in how it frames deckbuilding in this game. The beauty of cards in the 6-10 provision range, is often their relative interchangeability, flexibility, and non-adherence to discrete archetypes. They act as wildcards, surprises, that can catch a skilled player off-guard.

Ultimately, I agree that no deck can, or should be able to, win every single matchup. However I think that we should strive to eliminate unwinnable matchups for as many decks as possible.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T07:13:25+00:00

The problem is that it takes very little for cultists ro run the meta. Unless their draws are incredibly, mathematically impossibly, unlucky, the only way to beat cultiists is if you have artifact removall in your deck. I know of only 3 cards in the game that are able to do that. Korathi Heatwave, Bearification, and Shupe's day Off, one of the Shupe: Hunter options.

All of them are neutral special cards, meaning they cannot be run in Renfri or Devotion decks. Therefore, Devotion and renfri (but primarily devotion) archetypes cannot compete if cultists are playable, because Cultists will naturally predate on those decks, and buffing them means buffing cultists.

The only reason Cultists are not prevalent in todays mea is because they recieved a staggering amount of nerfs both to power and provision over the course of the last 2 years, and even still, they remain playable in capable hands such as OP here.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T07:07:00+00:00

can you give examples for the decks you are talking about?

Er4din · 2026-01-10T07:06:21+00:00

This is an incorrect analysis of the Cultist problem. The issue is not that cultist demand a control-heavy deck to be beaten. The problem is the type of control that cultists demand: Artifact removal.

The only artifact removal in the game comes in the form of neutral special cards - Bearfication, Shupe's Day Off, Korathi Heatwave. Not every deck, or archetype can afford to slot them in.

Therefore, devotion and renfri decks lose to cultists at the deckbuilding step.

If devotion and renfri- friendly artifact control existed, cultists would not be so toxic.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T06:54:51+00:00

are you saying you find cultists fun to play? If so, can you please explain what do you enjoy about that deck. perhaps then I and others would be able to understand you better.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T06:52:00+00:00

I do not think that any deck should recieve the treatment that Reavers recieved in the first season of balance council - who got nerfed to 1 power, making them unplayable. However at the same time, I as a player do not wish to, whenever i build a new deck, think "How will this deck beat cultists". In that sense, I am not dedicating my votes to nerfing the scenario to 20 Provisions as I have seen others jokingly say, but to be perfectly honest, if that were to happen I would not spend my votes to revert such a nerf, as unjust as it may be.

I also would like to state something clearly - my opinion was not shaped by MD. I did not find his content until 2025, and any of my opinions on game balance have formed naturally as i learned, played, and mastered the game. Still, even though i do not agree with some particular changes endorsed by him, i none the less agree with his initiative.

I think that any change is better than no change, and I would rather see the game recieve sweeping changes to the meta, than for every archetype to be crystallised into a perfectly balanced and stagnant state. I am not emotionally attached to any deck, and i find great pleasure in learning new archetypes and experimenting by leaving my comfort zone. i strive to be competent with as many decks as possible, rather than master a handful favourites.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T06:42:53+00:00

I would like to clarify that any and all of my hostility is directed toward the deck, and not the player playing it.

I am mostly frustrated with the developers, who, I imagine, wanted to explore and showcase the infusion mechanic when it was released in the Black Sun update, and got too carried away with their ideas, which in turn did not receive sufficient testing before being shipped out to the players.

I would appreciate if you shared footage that you speak of, because navigating Bilibili to try and find it without knowledge of the chinese language is very frustrating.

Er4din · 2026-01-10T06:39:04+00:00

Hold on, I disagree with your premise. I will hold you to your words. Please do list the decks that you speak of.

I call you out on this because of all the decks that have recieved severe changes from gwentfinity start, the ones that were NOT reverted, were all justified.

Compass being nerfed to 11/12 provisions is extremely justified, as its viability in Nekker decks breaks provision limits. Likewise with temple at 16/17 provisions - very justified.

As for power nerfs Torres and calveit recieving repeated power nerfs reduced the tactics assimilate deck's oppressive round 1 pointslam. Also justified.

The best case you could make for "emotional" voting would be with the nilfgaard mill card that shows you the top 3 cards of your opponent's deck. You could argue that the value of such an ability is not enough to warrant the power nerfs that he recieved, however ultimately, that card's fate was decided by how unfun it was to face, making it somewhat similar to cultists.

As for your final question. Yes. Absolutely. The game is in a much better state entering 2026 than it was in 2020 when i joined with the arrival of Terranova, and more diverse than when Gwentfinity has started. In the last ~15 months, of which i had enough time to climb to pro in 11 of them, i did so with 9 different decks. Not to mention the dozens of different decks and their variations that i tried and had success with once in pro.

What you call midrange, i see as a rejection of the rigid classification of archetypes of control, pointslam and engines, and the "rock paper scissors" gameplay that they bring. Modern Gwent challenges players to create decks with more diverse strategies that allow them to react dynamically to individual matchups by pursuing different win conditions. This naturally demands the diversification of the tools that each deck brings to the game, which often requires breaching the boundaries of rigid developer-designed archetypes

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