Meta Snapshot 9/8 - 3rd installment

Been a while since the last Meta Snapshot, I've been busy!
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1st one [1st of July] https://forum.battlebay.net/threads/meta-snapshot-1-7-bigger-boat-patch.7334/#post-27393
2nd one [15th of July] https://forum.battlebay.net/threads...ille-day-speeder-nerf-fixer-boost-patch.9625/
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Some caveats:
- Its not on the final day of the season this time, as I doubt I'll have time this sunday.
- Top 50 changes constantly and some of the players there play more than 1 boat. This being a snapshot is just intended to show what it looked like at the instant I was recording it.
- For consistancy whales are people with more than 1 legendary equipped (or a mk2 legendary item). This does exclude some of the older whales though, so its more a legendary user messurement.

Class Representation
21 Speeders (42%), best placed speeder is #1.
16 Shooters (32%), best placed at #4.
6 Enforcers (12%), best placed at #8.
4 Fixers (8%), best placed at #2.
3 Defenders (6%), best placed at #25.

Speeder info
- Stable representation, it was also 42% last time. HP nerf perhaps had a tiny impact when it first landed, but class is still going strong.
- MK Destribution: 17 mk6 & 4 mk7.
- 3 out of 21 speeders are whales (14%).

Shooter info
- 16 shooters last time, 16 shooters this time. 32% is still well above the expected average, but shooters being prevalant is probably not surprising anyone?
- Mk Destribution: 8 mk6 & 8 mk7.
- 7 out of 16 shooters are whales (44%).

Enforcer info
- 6 enforcers is a record for the meta snapshots! Perhaps a speeder or two has abanded the banana after the HP nerf?
- Mk Destribution: 5 mk6 & 1 mk7.
- 1 out of 6 enforcers is a whale (17%).

Fixer info
- Another impressive record, this time 4 Fixers in the top 50! That is 40% of what we would see if classes were evenly destributed. Good thing they nerfed Repair Pulse to keep this unbalanced monster in check! (very biased here, naturally!)
- Mk Destribution: 3 mk6 & 1 mk7.
- 1 out of 4 Fixers fall into the whale counting net (25%).

Defender info
- Coming in at a sad lonely 3 defenders this time around. That is half of the last meta snapshot. Hope that you get some love guys!
- Mk Destribution: 3 mk7.
- 2 out of 3 Defenders are whales (67%).
- Drawing meaningfull conclusions on the back of 3 boats is impossible, but I suppose it's interesting how all defenders that made it to the list are mk7 & 2/3 are decked in legendaries. Worth noting that the 3rd is Fix who is running a full lvl 50 epic setup.


Weapons
- The number added at the end shows how it has changed since the 2nd meta snapshot. Bare in mind that alterations in class representation naturally has an impact on which weapons are used.
Tier1:
35 Sniper Cannon [+1]

Tier2:
20 Explosive Cannon [+1]
16 Blast Cannon [-1]
16 Missile Launcher [+2]
14 Flare Gun [-]
14 Mines [+3]

Tier3:
9 Railgun [-1]
9 Big Torpedo [+4]
8 Cannonade [-]
5 Firebomb [-1]

Tier4:
3 Napalm Launcher [-4]
3 Grenade Launcher [-]
2 Big Berta [+1]
1 Triple Torpedo [-3]
1 Ballpark Mortar [-]
1 Cannon [-]

Tier useless crap:
0 Swift Torpedo [-1]
0 Long Range Mortar [-1]
0 Standard Mortar [-]

Comments:
- Mortars are not as overpowered as one might think when reading this forum
- Perhaps the mine nerf thread is a slight overreaction? Just because something is different & very noticeable when it works, does not mean that it is unbalanced or too powerful.
- Sniper Cannon reign supreme. Being able to hit a target that can't fire back is powerful, 7.5% nerf or not
- The 1 shotting weapons are on the rise, solid increases for both Mine & Big Torpedo.

Thoughts? Comments? Do you prefer a purely numbers based post, or one with more emotion & opinions (like the one today)?

 

I was just waiting for the moment when you would do a topic like this again. I was really curious about the chances, so thanks again for all this info.

And plz do show your emotions and opinions, you're human, not a robot (or at least I hope so). Wether I agree with your opinions or not, it's more fun to read it that way

Even if sniper were to receive another nerf, people would still use it. It's all about the ability to hit enemies from a distance where they can't hit you.

And yeah, of course mortars aren't overpowered. The people who complain about it probably don't have any turbo installed on their ships, or they are the type of players who runs to the frontline too soon, and thus get punished by a rain of mortars for their not so smart action.

 

I love to see this monthly. In my opinion sniper crit is still way too op and too easy to hit for such big damage

 

Blast cannons not in danger for nerfing . Long live bc

 

But it doesn't always crit, there's nothing "OP" about it. It's like when you gamble, you can win a million dollars, doesn't mean you always win; would you call it OP? When sniper doesn't crit you would have been better with a blast cannon shot or with standard cannon with lower cooldown and around same damage.

 

But with fire bonus the crit chance Will increase. Probably up to 50%

 

All cannons have burn dmg bonuses sniper isn't special there. But if you add burn dmg perks on your sniper it will hardly ever crit

 

But at high tier play, don't snipers have 45% crit chance? That's essentially every 2nd shot. That's not particularly 'gambly', yeah it doesn't always crit, but it is still hitting from a huge rand with good accuracy, and the fact that it does railgun level of damage every secondish shot, then it's pretty darn strong (not saying OP, but it's definitely probably slightly stronger than it should be).

 

Brilliant. I liked the commentary. Gives life to the snapshot. Worth noting... i got pissed after seeing some cheating players throwing matches and decided to goof off a bit (as u know), which tanked my infamy. But I can guarantee u that there will be 4 defenders back in top 50 by end of season.

 

Takes time for meta to shift(mines). And top 50 is not representative of the player base imo as mk6 loadouts change a lot - speeder being a classic example as you cant run tb,ts and OB until mk6 which is what most run.

Still, its a really interesting and useful snapshot, thanks!

 

Nice, thanks again for the interesting write-up. I like the style of this one.

 

It's good to see a rise in enforcer, that will control speeders.

Defender and fixer seriously need some love, self healing nerf was a big mistake I think and defenders need more defense and lesser hp.

 

Exactly, you need actual perks to be able to make it have a chance to be high damage. Look at blast cannon, you add fire perks and light the enemy on fire and you already do over 1k dmg with chance being no factor at all. Is this overpowered? No, simply they are 2 different weapons that work differently.

 

You'll need to be a nightmare level player just to build 45% crit chance on your sniper, I've been playing for 4 months, master 2 and I have only 20% right now.

Coming across epic crit chance perks when you HAVE the gold to buy them is no joke. It'll also take us till nightmare to build a level 50 rare sniper and a majority would quit a long time before then.

 

Epic perks are not hard to get. The other day I had 0 gold and an epic perk showed in my shop. 3 hours of farming and I got it.

I have been playing for 3-4 months aswell. My rare sniper has a 32.5% chance to crit and doesn't even have a 4th perk slot. I'm sure someone who spends money and has a tier 4 epic sniper (which is very common where i'm at 2700-2800) will have at least a 40% chance to crit

 

first of all comparing sniper crit with lottery is total nonsense, as top players have around 45% crit chance. The problem about the sniper is not just the crit itsself, try to hit a moving enemy from a little further with flare or blast cannon and then try it with sniper (which also has a huge range). Blast cannon takes a lot of skill to hit a fast target, while sniper is able to deal easily the same damage plus the damage that you make when enemies are still far away.

 

Not hard to get? The last epic perk I saw was 3 weeks ago, and I've been checking all my shop refreshes including the free/video one. They're stupidly rare, and when you finally get one to appear, 9 out of 10 times it's for something you don't use.

 

Skilled players can lead shots with BC and can be more effective than sniper is in a lot of situations. (Yes sniper has the advantage at very long range). Blast cannon has a good arc compared to sniper. Meaning you are going to be waiting extra time after the cooldown frequently to make sure you don't hit a wave. If you use a sniper on sub zero you will see how easy it is to hit a wave and that you are not going to be shooting every 11 seconds. Are you seeing the balance between 2 different items yet

 

Hard to find yes but not hard to buy once you find one if you have the time to spare and go for it. But lots of p2w players refresh their shops a lot when they really need perks. I'm sure Banderas is running 100% all epic perks on every one of the items he uses.

(The p2w players are usually the ones you will see with a tier 4+ epic sniper)

 

There is a reason why Sniper is played more than twice as much, and its not because BC is more effective in alot of situations