Mid-Season Item and Ship Popularity Snapshot [12/12/18]

Hey there,

Back with the Item and Ship popularity Snapshot!

The shot is based on Statistics laid by data analysis of Top 50 players just after the mid-season.
At least, this season there was something very interesting happening on the Leaderboards.

Let's start off with the Overall Item Popularity Snapshot:

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• Comments:

1. Turbo and Big Shield: As always, dominating the leaderboards, only reason 8% of players not using Big Shield is they were Fixers, hence slot constraints come into play.Else, the combo has occupied a prime position in every possible setup.
2. Sniper and Explosive Cannon: Usage of these two have declined significantly, compared to previous season. Also, as a result, some new weapons have been introduced into Snapshot and Flare Gun have climbed up some popularity among top players.
3. Mortars and Torpedoes: Still not popular among top players!

Coming to the Ship Popularity Snapshot:

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• Speeders experienced a fall in popularity among top players with the rise of Enforcers.

I made another chart to observe the trend in ship popularity among top players :

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For top places occupied by ships at Mid-Season:

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• Comments:

1. Almost every ship was found among top 10 places on Leaderboards.
2. Surprisingly, Fixer was seen on 7th position, Enforcer on 4th and Defender on 3rd.

Coming back to Ship wise Item Popularity Snapshot,

Let's begin with Shooter:

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• Comments:

1. Fall of Sniper Cannon: Players have started using alternatives, where Sniper was found on every shooter last season, now barely 85% of players use it!
2. Big Berta and Long Range Mortar: Finally, two of them have found a spot in Ship Setup among Top Players.

Second, Speeders:

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• Comments:

1. Over Boost: Gaining back it's popularity, the Turbo, Bandage, Big Shield and Over Boost combo can be seen on every speeder.
2. Flare Gun-Explosive Cannon Combo: 8 out of 18 Speeders use the same setup and most with the similar setup with minor changes in Red Items.

Setup :

• Explosive Cannon
• Flare Gun
• Overboost
• Tesla Shield
• Tesla Bolt
• Turbo
• Big Shield
• Bandage

Third, Defenders:

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• Comments:

1. The Deadly combo: Explosive Cannon, Turbo, Big and Standard Shield can be seen on every defender.
2. Grenade Launcher: Seems to gain a bit of popularity among top Defenders, with Flare Gun still not so popular.

Fourth, Enforcers:

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• Comments:

1. Popularity: This ship has gained a sharp Popularity among top players.
2. Blast Cannon: Can be seen on every Enforcer paired up with Turbo, Over Boost and Big Shield.

Final, The Fixer:

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Snapshot ends here with Fixer still being the most underused Ship, but surprisingly the fixer has climbed top position on Leaderboards this season.

• Extra Comments:

1. Just because we have a skilled Fixer doesn't mean we should call in a Fixer Nerf.
2. Almost every ship is present among top 10 spots, so the Ships seems well balanced.
3. Top Players using any specific ship, use a specific combination of weapons that suit the ship, limiting the diversity of weapons used.
4. Turbo and Big Shield almost fit into every setup and now have "Fixed" spots in every loadout.
5. We might witness the rise of Enforcer by the next season.
6. Sniper Nerf requests are everywhere on the forums, with less than 16 players using it among top players, seems like the weapon ain't that strong at higher level!

Thanks for reading!

 

Ok

 

I had a lot to say about the Explosive Cannon- Flare Gun combo too!

Basically , when we consider 2 elements fire and frost, nerfing down one will make another OP(results are in front of us after the frost nerf).

What I want is that, just like the frost is removed as soon as a hit lands on enemy, in a similar way, the burning effect should also be removed as soon as a hit lands on the ship!

Exactly the same mechanic as frost!

 

Dude but ,
That's the same scenario as the frost torp pre-update , freeze the ship and shower the torp,
Now , it's burn the ship and shower the Cannons!

 

Ya that has led to promotion the "one same setup" among speeders and other ships! Just burn them n take them down!

At least, the burn should be removed after hit from every other weapon except the firebomb and flare. Like grenade launcher etc

 

Probably in similar way! The mortars too had indirect nerf there.
All the perks were depended on frost , and both torp n mortars were brutally nerfed!

 

There must be some other way to do it! Maybe first hit must be harder!
Or something else!

 

Okay lets take a differnet approach,Focussing on blue items now

Why is Turbo,Big and Std shield,bandage overused.Simple thing,They are better than gear lube or rudder in a much better way

Since Turbo and big shield is permitted By each boat at mk6(Except fixer),Those are the things which does not help one boat outweigh another.

Bandage is the Factor which makes Defender,Shooter and speeder ridiculously strong compared to the other Two.So,i suggest bandage nerf

Considering the bandage gets nerfed,Will leave all ships(With Xtra blue slots) using std shield.But not rudder/Lube for sure.Again the very small nerf of std shield should be ladder
[Not mandatory]

(However this will be effective if and only if enfo and fixer get big shield priviledge at Mk5)

How will it help

1) speeders who complain about getting hit Freq,Its Too difficult to take down a rudder speeder.Have faced them,They are too good at dodging shots.

2)Defender and shooter will utilize Lube For better turret,Complains about escaping speeder can be taken care off.Defender also does quite well with rudder

3)The other two get an indirect buff

It sound ridiculous,But via this post i m conveying that superpowerful bandage is the reason why other Good items are overshadowed

My point in short,

Heavy nerf---> Bandage(Affects all three ships-->Much more to shooter and speeder)

Mild nerf ---> std shield,should Solid enough to be used a HP buff,But a nerf That makes player consider the use of Rudder/Lube

P.S.---> some of it can be non sense,But atleast my point is clear.Rudder/Lube are fine,Its the other item which should be scaled down

 

Agreed with tirth make burn same as frost or make frost same as burn.
Both are supporting weapons frost does not even do damage flare does so it makes sense that fire so extinguish after a hit. If it remains bhurt talents are giving everyone buff. Which is insane.
If forst breaks on 1 damage so should fire.

 

It ain't that way!
Speeders are meant for both damage and distraction!
As much as I know, speeders are best at distractions and I've seen tons and tons of matches where speeders have least damage but most contribution(technique wise).
Whereas, Shooter are meant to do damage! They are known for their firepower!
So a nerf will for sure effect shooter too as they will have to switch the entire setup!

Speeders have an advantage over there!

I completely understand your point on nerfs being a bit harsh on speeders , but trust me it's rather more painful to switch 5 weapons than 2 , so it ain't that shooters don't suffer!


PS: I play every ship so , I ain't partial by taking Shooter's side , but that's the truth!

 

I think we need to nerf the Big Shield instead, I agree with some points about bandage but Turbo and Big shield have a fixed position in every setup which should be taken off!

 

But it will be way better than just Cannons and flare guns in the bay, game should be balanced and usage of all weapons to atleast some amount should be encouraged!

 

Agreed,Mine was more reliant on end game.But yes! Big sheild nerf can increase the popularity early in the game

However since all ships use it,Some weapons will hurt a lot without Huge Hp bonus at low level(Like crit sniper).So tweaking(nerfing) all weapons for a low HP can be complicated.


Big shield and turbo need a downright nerf,But the roots are established so deep that it wont be easy to nerf them