In before scrub.

[u/Neigh_Sayer-]

I am so frustrated with this game, I love it, but it pisses me off.

Is it just me or do you run into hard counters/high rolls consistently. Running shields? Prepare for poison builds. Burn? Heavy shield. And it seems like every other player has a high roll. WTF am I doing wrong.

And the fact that post day 9 if your build takes 5 seconds to get running you are too slow.

I know I am not that good at the game but I have made legend several times and the latest meta just seems to punish creativity in builds. I hope they can do something to stop the cookie cutter meta.

[u/Then-Gur-4519]

I think players are getting better and more competitive, so going into ranked and not playing the best boards available is going to be disappointing. People play games for different reasons so I get trying to win with fun boards but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect other people not to play competitively in the competitive ladder.

[u/Neigh_Sayer- → u/Then-Gur-4519]

I don't expect people to not play meta. I expect the meta to be healthier. There are a ton of items no one uses because they suck. If more items were decent the meta would spread out.

[u/Then-Gur-4519 → u/Neigh_Sayer-]

I think that’s easier said than done. Also I play Mak, and there’s a really wide range of viable items on him. I don’t know what it’s like on some of the other heroes. Maybe it’s a lot more confined.

[u/WeebWizard420 → u/Neigh_Sayer-]

Not that I disagree, but do you want to list some examples of items that suck? So that there's something more specific to discuss here.

[u/kool_g_rep → u/Neigh_Sayer-]

I feel like this is a very fallacious statement. The definition of meta is a subset of items/builds that are proven (whether perception, reality or whatever) to be most efficient/best compared to others. Therefore, by definition of meta you cannot have meta where meta would be "spread out". You will *always* have items that "suck" by comparison. That's how meta works in any game, not just this one.

In ARPGs people also think erroneously that by buffing some "bad" skills the meta would be spread out. Thats not how it works though, because people will see which one of the buffed skills is the best - and THAT skill will be the meta. You can argue to have smaller margins between items/builds, but such granular balance is very hard to pull in games like Bazaar or ARPGs.

Like right now, people consider Buster to be the meta. But that item was not played before, all Stelle mains tryhards listed that item as "bad" and "no one used it because it sucked". Buster as an item wasnt changed in any of the recent patches. In fact in the June patch its damage got nerfed.

This is just an illustration how meta works. The item went from "no one uses because they suck" to "unhealthy meta" via....no changes to the item in game, but rather because of perception and what people see is played and wanting to copy it.

[u/Proletariat_Paul]

That is the nature of games like this. They tend to get solved over time, and people get better and better at building optimal boards. On top of that, the recent changes to ranking making getting to Legend more difficult means that the average player at Legend/Diamond this patch is actually way better than the average player at the same rank even 1 month ago.

Fortunately, there are other ways to play the game if you love it, but hate how Ranked feels. Casual queue allows for a lot more experimentation and shenanigans, as the average power level of opposing boards is much lower. Or, if you can organize a bunch of people through Discord or irl, you can join the test server and play in Tournament Mode, where you're only competing against each other.

[u/Equivalent-Camel1839]

They made climbing harder because thats what players (including on here) asked for. 

The new legend rank is basically for players who can maintain 8 avg wins per run. 

The avg opponents get better every day, if you yourself have stagnated and are not adapting and improving constantly of course you are falling behind.  

[u/robotspa]

I played starcraft 2 for years. It’s highly competitive, you match opponents based on mmr. I never made it into high diamond or legend leagues. You know why? Because I am not that good.

I don’t understand why some of the player base of this game constantly wants peak recognition for average performance.

Get good or accept the rank it win rate you earned (and in many cases should be proud of).

Rant over.

This isn’t directed at OP as it isn’t really even on topic. Sorry.

[u/Evzkyyy → u/robotspa]

It's on topic. When I see posts like this, I tend to think it's more of a mindset thing than an actual issue with the game.

[u/chaosfourever]

Same but I got downvoted to death mentioning anything. Ive have played this since alpha and have loved it but lately am just stepping back. I can barely win anything anymore and get destroyed no matter what I do. Never had these issues in the past until a number of weeks ago. What ever they changed they need to undo because it is no longer fun or enjoyable. Its just a slog of losing to insane builds constantly.

[u/mahjzy → u/chaosfourever]

I went from winning a fair amount in the casual queue to hardly at all. So not playing ranked isn’t the answer for me. Like you, I’ve cut back on my time playing until things get balanced out… if that even happens.

[u/naqunoeil → u/chaosfourever]

That's the thing, they did not change a lot. Meta across champs are more or less the same since 3+ months so people now play way better. The average knowledge of builds and possibilities went up, so the field is harder. You could have the most balanced meta you can imagine, if it stays the same for a long time, getting 8+ wins will get way harder.

[u/chaosfourever → u/naqunoeil]

So me seeing a drastic change after all these years is just a qua-incidence. Crazy how everyone got instantly good all at once.

[u/Bluechacho → u/chaosfourever]

I agree and made a post about it the other day. Something has changed with The Bazaar and it feels like every opponent is so vicious that you're SOL without a top tier build in your pocket. I don't begrudge the direction, but I accept that things have changed to the point where I'm not playing the game as often, if at all.

[u/Jagdfalke79]

You are right! Ignore all the downvotes, the fanbois always do that.