Beren Hurin
The Vanguardians
958
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Posted - 2013.08.05 17:48:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'm very slowly starting to see the evolution of the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" of this game evolving. Much like the Five Phases or Five elements there is a deep level of complexity to metas in this game. For a long time, up until now, and except for a short period in Chromosome, there was one primary 'meta' or 'doctrine' for how to play the game. I think we are getting to a point where there is a healthy 'counter-meta' that can be deployed to counter the prior one. The way I see it going now in in the future:
(Metal) Mostly Regen-Shield Buffer + Short range:
This is the classic Caldari AR (right now). They are fast, have good regen (metalic resiliance), can get to where they need to put precise damage on target. They are good at objective oriented maps as they can overwhelm a position quickly and then capture the objective because of their close ranged DPS advantage.
is countered by:
(Fire) Anti-shield mid/long range + scanners:
IMO this is going to be the classic Amarr style. Quick to do burning alpha damage and that then dissapates. A variety of things can be good at countering the shield buffer. Anything that OHKs, the flux/MD. Additionally this is the introduction to the EWAR meta, as scrambler rifles/ lasers + scanners are starting to help teams w/ early detection and range dictation. The close range DPS advantage of the AR is taken away up until the attacking team has a numbers advantage when they can overwhelm an objective.
is countered by:
(Water) Fast/stealthy/ECM and close-midrange (Stealth-Rush):
This fluid and mobile style is currently doable with Minmatar and gallente to a lesser extent because of their lowslots. Avoiding detection from scanners by blending in or even jamming TACNETs, quickly sneaking up on targets, and blasting them with suprise while picking the most important targets for max damage is key.
is countered by:
(Earth) Heavy armor + ECCM & Logistics + suppressive weapons.
Having a large number of equipment slots on your team (minmatar/gallente) along with some high eHP slayers means you have the resiliance, early warning abilities, and suppressive potential that can take on the highly mobile stealth-rush teams and stand your ground. This is likely a setup that trends to favor gallente logistics and armor tanking with the gallente logistics favoring the fitting bonus to high-meta equipment (for detection and repairing). The suppressive weapon DPS rate is enough to wear down the paper thin tanks of rushing groups. These teams will also collect logistics WP at a very fast rate.
is strongly countered by:
(Wood) Shielded Rail Teams
The long range and resiliant tanks of the hybrid rail and strong shield teams mean that fighting against the slow and suppressive DPS of the mostly armor squad with their anti-armor advantage will let their abundant regen speed be utilized with maximum effect. They get to rest easy in the shade their long range weapons provide while crashing solid blows against the slow plodding armor teams.
is strongly countered by:
(Metal) Mostly regen+ shield buffer + close range:
As you can see now the circle is complete. The Metal squad can quickly chop down the wood by closing range and absorbing the reduced damage of railgun systems. Then their own high DPS weapons will chew through their eHP before it gets a chance to regrow and they won't be situated to brawl up close.
Naturally, much like the five phases, no phase exists in exclusion to the others, and they cannot exist without the others. When you run the cycle in the direction I have shown, the cycle is degenerative. However, if you run it in its opposite direction it is generative. I.e. WATER + WOOD is VERY strong because the water can quickly chase and wash away the worn down targets that the wood cannot reach. Or FIRE + EARTH makes for some very hard to hold earth whose heat will stay around longer. |