I was trying to explain the various META builds of Crossout to someone who doesn’t play the game recently, and I realized there are actually quite a few build styles that are seen as competitive.
Here’s a partial list of what I see a lot of, but please add any that I’ve missed:
shotgun wedges
fire dogs
MG spiders
reaper bricks
spaced armour sideways hovers
drone boats (don’t see these very often anymore)
banana/sausage builds
spider cannons
dusk/pyre cars
sparkvesters (also don’t see many of these anymore)
tilted mandrake (no longer viable, but figured I would include it for the memories)
That’s like… Every PS together? There’s more. Trucker Borer Skinner at 5k PS, etc…
The thing is, I feel people usually talk about CW when they talk about “viability”. And it’s better than before, but still not awesomesauce. Snipey hover, porc hover, facehug bigram Nova/Humpback, Mastos. Dogs and bananas are lagging behind. (There’s also the supersicrit chad Whirls brick, but I’d rather not talk too much about it… Legendary Whirls leak anyone? @_@)
Overall, there’s still a good chunk of epic movement parts, legendary cabs, and legendary weapons which are dead weight in CW, and that’s a bit sad.
I can’t believe I forgot about porcs!
I feel like I’m seeing them on omniwheels a lot lately, although I still see some people running them on hovers or augers.
And yes, I’m thinking across the whole PS range, so trucker/borer builds definitely should be included.
Not enough people play CW to justify framing all balance and META conversations around that mode.
Edit: forgot to include tilted incinerator builds. I still see a lot of them, even if they aren’t as effective as they used to be.
Because META doesn’t only refer to CW.
As I said in a previous post in this thread, not enough people play CW to justify restricting the conversation to that.
If we are talking about “The best of the best” then we are talking CW meta.
I do understand that other builds do well at different power scores in PvP and yes you might have more “popular” builds at those levels. But that’s not really what Meta is.
For many people when you say “Meta” then we are talking about the best of the best end game builds, which for this game would be CW. I think that is a common definition.
For example
Someone might say that at 8k - 10k remedy, spark, scoop, with hover catchers is meta. I would say that they have a long way to firebugs and flash, then they could call it meta.
Just because a build at a lower level mimics the play style of a Meta build, does not make it the Meta build.
If someone asked me what a Meta fire build used, I’m not going to say Remedy’s because that’s just not true.
Sure, but the overall style of the build isn’t much different than the higher PS version, and performs just as well at the PS where it sits.
I know for some of you the whole game is CW, but you are a minority, and your definition of META is needlessly specific.
But the minority defines the Meta, everyone else just follows.
Even all the low/mid PS versions of meta builds are all “Monkey see, Monkey do” (no pun intended) of what high end CWs players are currently doing or have been doing for years.
The true meta is fluid, forever evolving, the “Flavor of the week builds”, whatever is OP this second in time. Most guys will never have enough coins to be able to move with the Meta. By the time they can build a Meta build they need to pray the Meta has not changed, because it’s a good chance that they are just building a echo of an old Meta past.
End game players in any game I have played have the resources to stay on top of the Meta, and not just a ghost of what it once was.
What is sad about this game, is new guys don’t have a chance. The grind and power gaps are huge. The only thing they can hope for is it make low PS knock-offs of real meta builds or work on one real meta build and try to pull themselves out of the low PS gutter.
I don’t think you are wrong, but I don’t think any of that is a real problem.
And yes, I see this thread as more of a chronology of various metas, some of which are no longer relevant.
I firmly believe that the quickest way to ruin Crossout for yourself is to chase the current meta, because as you point out, by the time you can afford a top tier version of it, it will get nerfed.
I just don’t see that at a problem. The high level CW players are going to find the exploits, and if the exploits become too commonly used, they will get nerfed. That’s how balance works in Crossout, and I accept that.
In some ways, that’s why I love this game: I feel no pressure to chase any particular meta, because in a few months things will change again.
As a result, I actually see decent build diversity in PVP. People play old metas, and also play non-meta builds, alongside all the current meta builds. And given how many different styles of builds have been strong over the years, I see a lot of variety.
I know you don’t see much of that in CW, which is one of the many reasons I can’t be bothered with it.
I see this concept presented often but I disagree with the notion that CW lacks diversity. Particular build type will tend to drift toward being similar due to the copying of success but there are several build types that are used.
Most of the epic list have kinda fallen out of favor with diamond level but are still viable for many clans. I did this off of memory, so I likely excluded a couple of other viable weapons.
I tried that combination, and I was surprised at how awful it performed. It was pretty disappointing. Dusk works great with the Trombone and the Nest, but I thought it was terrible with Pyres, like it’s perk is contrary to the functionality of those particular homing missiles. I would have loved for it to have been a good couple, but I didn’t think it was.
I was getting the impression that build was making a comeback. I hadn’t seen any of that since I started playing, but I got pwnd multiple times with one of those recently.
It didn’t surprise me at all that you have a more narrow and concise definition of “META.” I actually thought it was funny; you even min-max your language…but you’re probably right.
I’m changing your storefront from “Rough Monkey’s Used Auto Parts” to “Rough Monkey’s Precision Engineering” next time I do a riff on that.
I would love to see a visual chronology of those builds, like if you hit the Exhibition for some classic examples of all those builds (that mercilessly wreck my art corner). Some of them are pretty interesting looking (most are not). The Tilted Mandrake, for instance, is actually a little obscene.
I’ve seen a lot of those in PVP lately, but without some kind of support they haven’t been that frightening. However, I find that if I can make sure the Hover guy on my team survives (by taking out the rush) we do usually win (or it’s close), but without some close range security, they get mauled pretty easily and often, at least in PVP where I dwell. Those things are hard to fly, IMO, and some kids are a lot better at it than others. That particular build seems (currently) to be one that works in a narrow range of circumstance really well, or not so well at all.
I hear people rage about Hovers a lot, but that’s never been the build that ticks me off. It’s the one that hits me in the side (or almost anywhere), I can’t move, and it grinds me to powder. It’s the just push W build, and it’s almost always garbage on Small-Tracks. Why nobody complains about Small-Tracks needing a nerf, and instead calls for another Hover nerf is weird to me. In PVP they aren’t much of an issue. Small tracks have been a horror in PVP for almost a year now,ever since the fix, I think.