Merchants of Novigrad Leek list.
Internal/Roadmap
April 2nd is patch day.
They are trying to rework the partner program due to the lack of Gwent team manpower so it will be more meaningful for partners.
Also regarding the partner program - they don’t want to include partners in the PTR for expansions any more, due to expansion cards being leaked in the past and that partners don’t contribute enough in the PTR for the risk of cards getting leaked.
However Gwent partners will still have a part in the reveal campaigns in the next expansions.
Road map update. 2 expansions rest of year. 1 taking place in the summer and 1 taking place in the winter. Jason claims the current expansion philosophy is to ship out the expansions super polished. Quote "taking a more methodical approach."
Jason claims "They are not downsizing or falling apart". Another reason why the expansions are going down is because it allows the team to work on other projects.
Something called "Special" is coming out later this year. Has never been done before and it's "Really exciting to work on.". (My guess is an auto-chess or Tournament mode.)
Arena rework is still incoming.
Trying to get a more intuitive UI with numbers and figures updating (an example would be for the Lined Pockets or Hidden Cache abilities)
Cards
2 or 3 Scoia'tael cards will be changed that are not Dwarves.
Skellige cards will have a few changes as well.
New card word Initiative will be added to Scorch and Geralt: Igni. Said keyword is designed that the card will be more powerful if it is the first thing you do in the round (no more non-interactive pings from orders).
Potential new Wild Hunt cards incoming in the next expansion.
A Bribery nerf that is/was considered that bronze duplicates would account into the odds of showing up in the create pool.
They do not consider Bomb Heaver a problem card at the moment. They are willing to change their minds, if the data shows Bomb Heaver is more oppressive.
They are considering in the second half of September between the expansions, returning leader card arts (old leader abilities become cards in the game?).
Bear Abomination power will be changed from 5 to 6.
New resilience ability on a card again.
Barclay Els may have been changed.
Zoltan Chivay has been changed.
Specific Card re-work leaks
Pyrotechnician
3 strength 4 provisions
Zeal. Order: Destroy an allied artifact and damage a unit by 2. Cooldown: 2.
will be changed to.
4 strength 4 provisions
Order: Damage a random enemy unit and self by 4
Yarpen Zigrin
3 strength 8 provisions
Every allied turn, on turn end, if there are no allied units on the battlefield, boost self by 3.
will be changed to.
5 strength 9 provisions
Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by 3
Barricade: at end of turn lose armor and boost self by that much
Future ST Design philosophy.
Dryads focus will be on Harmony (Jason also noted that they will be "Exploring Dryad Archetypes" and didn't want to elaborate past that).
Dwarves focus will be on resilience and armor "tough guys" (dwarves are also getting reworks +buffs).
Elves focus will be to deal damage.
New leader abilities.
(SK) Blaze of Glory
15 provisions
Order: Move a Skellige unit from your deck to graveyard, then damage an enemy by its power.
(SY) Hidden Cache
15 provisions
Order: Gain 3 Coins.
On round start, refresh this ability.
Your Hoards require 3 less Coins to trigger.
(NG) Imposter
13 provisions
Order: Lock an enemy unit, then Spawn its base copy in the opposite row and boost it by 2.
(ST) Mahakam Forge
15 provisions
Order: Spawn and play Tempering.
All Dwarves in your starting deck get 1 Armor.
(MO) Overwhelming Hunger
13 provisions
Order: Destroy an allied unit, then Spawn an Ekimmara in its row and boost it by destroyed unit's power.
Charge: 3
(NR) Uprising
14 provisions
Order: Boost an allied unit by 1.
Charge: 4
Once all Charges are used up, Spawn and play Lyrian Scytheman.
Final Notes.
The Balance team has tried to get patch notes a day before the patch but due to translation issues, it proves to be harder than originally anticipated.
A twitch question was asked if there a seasonal mode of "Classic Gwent" where there is no provision limits in decks is planned. Jason answered that was something he always wanted to do, but wasn't planned this year and wants it to be special and not seem like it was "sneezed" out.
They also talked about the result of the ‘should we continue controller support’ poll. And the polls most likely indicate that support will be continued.
