NPCs Buffed with Necrom Patch

Nestor

NPCs have been Buffed in the last patch. Big time.

I started grinding out to Level 5 as I want to get the pet. So i did dozens and dozens of NPC matches this past weekend going from L2 to L4.6. Won every one, and they were lopsided victories. NPCs never used Patrons, would always leave good cards in middle, no Bewilderment cards etc. Did not matter if they were Proficient or Expert (never tried the Novice ones recently)

Anyway, after the patch, OMG, even the Proficient NPCs are almost unbeatable. Experts, fuggedebouit. The NPCs needed a buff, but this is ridiculous.

tohopka_eso

Ok thought were I didn't play the NPC for awhile I had a bad streek going.

SeaGtGruff

I can still beat them most of the time, but I've lost twice now, and both times I was surprised by many of their moves. It feels more like playing an actual person, that's for sure!

Jusey1

The new meta, at least against novice NPCs, for easy wins is just go Org & Red Eagle. NPCs will always use a Patron if they can afford to do so, but will prioritize buying cards still. So most of the time, they'll use up their gold, get power, and always use power on Red Eagle while you can prioritize Org. Plus it might help from them spamming the Hlaalu Patron if they picked that.

Ehntu

Woaaaaaah.

Luckily I spammed my way to Rank 8 on two accounts before this update made NPCs into actual challenges. Nowadays I just run the daily quest for fun or, now to get some of the new collectables.

Regarding patrons, even Novice NPCs use them pretty religiously now. All three of them really keep the pressure up and don't just convert using the Treasury anymore but instead use everything when available.

I would say that Novice is now where Expert difficulty was before this patch. I just finished a match against a Novice that took about 10 minutes and was impressed how difficult it was - for example when using St. Pelin, in one move the NPC bought Shield Bearer, sacrificed it with Grandmaster, bought Barterer and knocked out Armory. I would have been impressed if even one of those moves had happened but a Novice rank NPC before this doing that would be absolutely unheard of.

I think it's a good change but I think newer players are going to be really frustrated with this level - it's definitely a speed bump, probably needed!

Then again, I also just beat an Expert with a patron victory, even going second. So...? Classic RNG.

Snowy_Wyndra_Karn

YES!

And I love it... kind of - I hate losing, but I've complained about it long enough. It's no longer a bore to face off against NPCs.

I got my a** whooped yesterday by an NPC - 48 -18.

Pelin deck, they just kept spamming their agents.

It was funny and fun.

Luke_Flamesword

I don't mind increased difficulty on higher tiers but novice should stay novice - it was fun to play with building big combos, which is normally not possible when opponent plays reasonably

katanagirl1

I don’t know why everything in this game has to be scaled to the difficulty of the highest 0.1% of players, many past vocal calls for more difficulty both here and in overland. ZOS seems to be wanting to make the game more “accessible” to more players yet they are trying to please both ends of the spectrum at the same time and you can’t be successful at that.

Necrotech_Master

i havent tried playing tribute since the patch so ill have to take a look at that, i did unlock the new deck a day or so ago so i want to figure out that too lol

i usually only play against novice npcs, from the past most npcs almost never used patrons (there were very few they bothered using at all) so it might actually be a little more interesting

DukeCybran

Proficient ones seem dumber than novices, from my experience so far.

Groundhopper

I don't like the change to the novice NPCs. If someone is just getting into Tribute the novice NPCs should remain novice/noob level. I know many people who already had trouble pre-patch with Tribute being difficult for them. Buff the proficient and expert NPCs- but what was the need to make novice so much more challenging?

I agree with the previous poster's assessment as well that proficient NPCs are easier than novice. Which makes no sense.

Bekkr_Bear

I used to play the expert npc's and agree they were ridiculously easy to beat. I don't mind that the expert and proficient npc's were made smarter, however, the novice npc's are very hard to beat, I'm now losing 3 to 4 games to every one I win, and that's just play the novice npc's now.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to their play style, I can't for the life of me figure out their strategy. They pick up a card, turn a patron and sacrifice it for points. To be honest, it's blowing my brain trying to figure it out. I once lost a game to a novice in less than 10 turns and I just sat there staring at the screen thinking what the heck just happened.
The expert and proficient can stay as is, however I hope ZOS changes the novice back to being just novice.

Necrotech_Master

i actually played some npcs in tribute today (novice only) so i could test out the almalexia deck

i would have to say, the npcs to actually tend to use the patrons more, though they are extremely dumb with some of them

played one where crow was in play, the novice npc used the patron immediately on their first turn with only 1 coin gaining no prestige

they also tend to use the hlaalu patron more, but will try to sacrifice every card they have available

in the 3 matches i played, i won every single one, the npc never managed to get above 20 prestige because they would dumbly spend their power, dumbly spend their coins, or dumbly use patrons (or combination of those 3)

honestly i think the novice npcs at least almost feel easier cause they tend to make dumber moves, even though they are using patrons more