Thoughts from a returning player

[kirabi]

• Why spend 3 days grinding for a pack when I can spend 10 bucks and get a couple of them right.

I get pack every day in about 15 to 30 mins completing the quests.I get close to second pack if play for awhile after on that day.You get one pack from the boss battle.Every month has at least 29 days. So that is 29 packs for just logging on losing 4 games and completing other quest(super easy now with a unranked mode).Add in the 3 boss battles that is 32 packs every month at minimum. I didn’t even mention grinding out a second pack or gauntlet which greatly increase what you can make. If it is taking you 3 days to get a pack you are doing something wrong.

• Where I used to be able to win through skill alone I now can’t even do that because anybody with their parent’s credit card can just spend money to win.

I posted the core of arguably 3 of the best decks in Duelyst right now.The Vet plays Amara Healer sometimes,Vanar plays spell Jammers. It is not hard to put together a competitive deck. Claiming Duelyst is pay to win BS right now

In past I have played Magmar decks that look like this

It is complete nonsense to say in the past duelyst was all totally about skill.The Devs have actually done a good job keeping the game fast pace and midrange and that has made it less legend focused which makes the game way cheaper than in the past.They have been Vet,Abyss and Magmar deck that would you cry if you think right now is “pay to win”

[thematsjo]

Would you be willing to post your daily decks? Maybe we can find a way to improve your experience.

[owlington]

Would love to know what meta you left in.
Finding it hard to agree with any of your points since I also joined the game around this time but unlike you I kept playing so I was able to keep up with all the expansions and obtain ALL the cards I wanted.

Don’t leave a game for months them complain that you dont have the same amount of content that the loyal players do.

[reignzu]

@judojugs just for your information and motivation, i am still f2p until now.
i played first around late 2016 and stop because IRL stuff.
And i was terrible at duelyst back then, you can look at my profile (screenshot below) i got 3 bronze medals.
Came back at june with those small collections and left behind by 3 expansions (Shimzar, Bloodbound and Ancient Bond) and the upcoming Unearthed Prophecy.
I was like at your position now, i did blame this game for being paytowin back then
( i remember created a thread ).

You know what i did? I searched and created a budget deck and focus on only one faction (Songhai), where you seem don’t believe it’s working. But it’s works.
Well i still don’t have full collection, but i have 10+ competitive deck now from advice of people here.

I also don’t understand where everybody is getting the notion that if you focus on one faction you can accumulate cards you need when they don’t give any reasonable form of progression for playing a faction.

And honestly, you have a lot of options :

1. play 1 hour a day for quest and buy a pack.
2. if you busy, play at weekend all day.
3. or try gauntlet if you really as skilled as you said, if you get at least 7 wins you already profit.

And about grinding, every game has grinding. As long as a game doesn’t locked a certain content for f2p player, i’m still fine with that.

Here is a screenshot to proof me from bronze to S-rank.
Even after S-rank, i don’t want to stay up there anymore.
Too much pressure there, Lol. I’d rather stay in gold but consistenly wins (and still get those monthly legendary reward).

Don’t give up, buddy @judojugs.

---

[grismy]

I think p2w is not the right term.

But the OP has some things right.

2 years ago it was a good point to begin this game. Now is not!
Learning the game, slowly building a collection is a chore now.
You’ll constantly meet decks, that outvalue your own and beat you with card value, not skill.

Sure you could spent all your money and/or spirit on one competitive deck.
But as a new player, you cannot know, if you like the playstyle or the faction, or that it even is competitive. Or that it won’t change next patch. Or that the cards you disenchant are those you’ll want next month.

Still the game is not p2w. A skilled veteran can pilot a smurf to S in less than a month without spending money.

But the entry fee has gotten very high, so it might be pay2learn!

[beelakor]

It is more “invest time2win” honestly…

If building a collection is a chore to you, you might not have fun with the game itself.

[baharoth]

You’ll constantly meet decks, that outvalue your own and beat you with card value, not skill.

Since i love repeating myself so much i will say it again, the spirit value of your deck is entirely meaningless.

If there was any sort of truth to your statements then Abyssian would be the strongest faction followed by Vetruvian since they tend to be more on the expensive side. But Abyssian is probably the weakest faction right now and the top tier Vet deck right now plays barely any legendarys, if at all. You can’t even build the current tier 1 decks using tons of legendarys because then you would be missing key cards, making them more expensive would actually make them WORSE.

I know it can be hard to admit that your the reason for your losses and not your deck, but believe it or not, 99% of the time the problem is in front of the PC.

[epicflygon]

Has anyone mentioned yet that there is still always this player who climbs to S with only basics? Well it still happens.

Also seconding what baharoth says.

[boronian]

Gauntlet is the perfect place for you because you are a skilled player. So it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get to 7 wins after learning the new cards. That gets you big rewards to improve your collection.

It took me 2 days to build a good budget deck to go to Gold and higher.

[intellectazulean]

the op has yet to respond to any of the positive post, he just wanted an echo chamber to confirm his choice not to play the game. I will agree with all the other non-P2W confirms in this thread.

[alplod]

TBH, I’d probably leave game if I came as a new player now. I always want much with little effort and for free, and I would be demoralised seeing all these fancy decks out there.

Really, more than a year ago I’ve met infinite sarlac deck I could do nothing against. I thought I would give up a game, cause the deck was full of epics and legendaries and super effective against me.

Now I understand that the opponent probably just got lucky draw, I probably sucked, and the deck is not that good, very funny though. But if I were a new (or returning) player I would be overwhelmed by the vast amount of possibilities open for a veteran player while I have…golems?

That’s actually the problem of every TCG or CCG that’s been around for a while. That’s probably why I chose Duelyst, since I started playing it in the times of 2-draw, where options were scarse, and not so much veteran players existed.

So, I fully understand what OP feels. I disagree with any of his arguments, though, being a veteran player myself, and thus understanding the game better.

[birdetta]

god i played that same deck when I came back recently and it tilted me so badly too, on a different day I could have quit bc of it also

[buddybluebomber]

3 days to grind for a pack? Do you not get daily quests?

It might be a bit frustrating to build up a collection, but that’s the nature of free-to-play games. And of course that burden only increases as there are more cards added to the game.

With rotations coming, it should be easier for newer players to keep up, as they can focus on the sets in standard. Also just play gauntlet, everyone is even there.

[judojugs]

an update: I’m not going to quit playing the game. I found that I like playing my little rogue Abyssian swarm deck and making people who put extreme amounts of time and effort into their meta decks cry when I swarm them and win by turn 3 unless they draw mass removal. Progression in this game is still god awful but if you get lucky like i’ve been and get a bunch of epics and legendaries in the packs you get you can build a collection relatively quickly. My only real problem is with crates now. I have a bunch of crates but no keys and no way to earn keys.

[jukeboxery]

Just to continue the sentiments of others, but;

• Every day you get 10 spirit from the Daily Common

• Every 2-3 days you get at least 180 spirit for the 3 orbs you can afford from the daily quests.

Thus, you can earn ~190 spirit every 3 days, again at least. This all depends on if you get higher rarity cards in your orbs, which is highly likely at least some of the time.

[unreason]

At least 180. An orb can never be worth less than 60 spirit, four commons and a rare.

[judojugs]

I’ve been getting really lucky pulling epics and legendaries so it’s closer to 200+ an orb lol

[jukeboxery]

Damnit! I even looked up the cost of disenchanting a rare to make sure my numbers weren’t wrong.

[grismy]

My only real problem is with crates now. I have a bunch of crates but no keys and no way to earn keys

Since crates contain only cosmetics and prismatics, they are really not needed to play the game. That’s
Also you can get keys in gauntlet, but it’s not easy.