High Level Meta

So what’s the Bees Knees in the current Meta? Any new trends people are noticing popping up? Leaders becoming viable? Leaders who used to be that are garbage?

What are top shelf players thinking from the recent meta shake-up?

In 2’s I am finding Marines / Flamers along with Colony’s healer/skitters a powerful early game combo. In 3s I find jump brutes, healers/skitters and Marines a good combo.

Mid game it seems to be dominate by air and hogs. Not sure cause I haven’t seen enough.

Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.

shipmaster is the meta in 1v1s, really bs annoying
atreox or shipmaster and cutter in.2v2s
3v3s are juat covy with 1 citrer, there no variation always the eame. cyclop to good

I think Colony Combat Repair+Skittered Engineers is the current thing.

Makes sense for them to be end game, seeing as how they have their own purposes on the Ark outside of Atriox’s wishes. They are just using Atriox as a means to an end.

Colony is now the new meta. Use him a few time with his ridiculous beam and you will quickly feel the power.

Anakin, I told you it would come to this! I was right… The banished are taking over!

JK, I never thought that would happen. But, the meta is undoubtably evolving into banished, as the UNSC can’t hold their own late game anymore without being so dominating early-mid game.

I’d say that Decimus or Atriox are probably the best leaders in the game right now, followed closely by Colony. Without Ship’s teleport shenanigans and OP engineers, he doesn’t offer too much utility in his leader powers offensively or defensively. He does, however, offer great utility to team play as his portal can provide allied UNSC with much needed mobility around the map. In the world of 1v1, though, he just isn’t too great anymore.

Leaders like Isabel and Anders are in a much better spot, and I’d say are actually very viable now in UNSC V UNSC. However, they still can’t really handle banished. Anders is slightly better V banished, thanks to her fast units in the form of sentinels, but overall just doesn’t hold enough utility to deal with what late game banished can throw at her. I do love the retriever sentinel, though! It’s in a very good spot now.

Locusts are easier to deal with, but still way too strong. Mixing in Reavers and Rangers makes a very powerful and borderline unkillable deathball. I think they really need a range nerf, and dare I say even more of a speed nerf. They still can get off too much damage before being caught by their counter units, and they wash hunters because hunters are still way too slow.

Isabel is a lil better, but she still pretty much sucks.

> 2535431178094949;8:
> Isabel is a lil better, but she still pretty much sucks.

She needs to drop units also, then maybe viable.

I’ve found it to be Cutter rushing with marines and flamethrowers. Its hard to stop as the Banished. UNSC has the real big advantage with flamethrowers being good against infantry and buildings. Its the only thing they really have. However if you can survive the rush reasonably well or if they don’t rush, Colony is a wrecking ball. I haven’t lost with him except to rushes I didn’t prepare well for.

I think the meta will always be some type of rush. Its the easiest to “master” and pull off. Which is a little unfortunate but there’s not much you can do about it.

<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

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> I’ve found it to be Cutter rushing with marines and flamethrowers. Its hard to stop as the Banished. UNSC has the real big advantage with flamethrowers being good against infantry and buildings. Its the only thing they really have. However if you can survive the rush reasonably well or if they don’t rush, Colony is a wrecking ball. I haven’t lost with him except to rushes I didn’t prepare well for.
>
> I think the meta will always be some type of rush. Its the easiest to “master” and pull off. Which is a little unfortunate but there’s not much you can do about it.

It’s also the best way to not let games go to long and get the horrible out of sync errors this game has been plagued with.

> 2533274811417927;3:
> Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.

I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?

If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?

<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

> 2533274868399345;11:
> > 2533274871557759;10:
> > I’ve found it to be Cutter rushing with marines and flamethrowers. Its hard to stop as the Banished. UNSC has the real big advantage with flamethrowers being good against infantry and buildings. Its the only thing they really have. However if you can survive the rush reasonably well or if they don’t rush, Colony is a wrecking ball. I haven’t lost with him except to rushes I didn’t prepare well for.
> >
> > I think the meta will always be some type of rush. Its the easiest to “master” and pull off. Which is a little unfortunate but there’s not much you can do about it.

Lag Lag LAG LAG LAG.

That’s all I get in this -Yoink- patch. God this game is hopeless.

the "meta"doesn’t apply to a game where everything has a counter. Its like asking what’s the meta in ufc cage fights. I think good players make less mistakes in the execution of their stratagems. Is that a meta?
nah.

> 2533274792014876;12:
> > 2533274811417927;3:
> > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
>
> I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
>
> If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?

It’s just the jackrabbit nerf which removed aoe from their attacks so now they kill infantry really slowly. This makes it so banished can actually fight for control of the map and not need to make 4 turrets. With rabbits out of the picture suicide grunts just dominate all infantry wars and so banished gets all of the gens and unsc needs to make turrets now .

> 2533274792014876;12:
> > 2533274811417927;3:
> > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
>
> I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
>
> If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?

It’s the leader powers. Atriox has the best economy in the game and his JumpBrute mines are hell to deal with early game. Couple that with him being able to get dying breath and his early-game is otherworldly. His other powers are amazing also.

Decimus has the best passive powers in the game. He’s also an insanely viable rusher. Drop Fury on your troops or Vortex Lightning on enemy turrets and then mix it with Siphon and you should be able to take a base down easily against 90% of players.

Shipmaster has the best Late game in the game imo. You can make a case for Cutter once Battle Hardened gets fixed and you can still definitely make one for Kinsano and Colony, but I’m going with ship. Shroud Cloaking with Displacement, his Spirit Assault provides covering fire and a veteran Hunter and Engineer squad(the 1 weak -Yoink- ranger is irrelevant outside of cloak detection) and he even has a 2nd cloaking leader power. He has Banished Raid as well which gives Infantry increased sight and quicker capture(same thing that Cutter has) and he has an early teleport which can be used to dodge most leader powers. Tactical Gateway ,albeit a double edged sword, provides one the option of moving across the map to-and-fro when they please.

The Banished also has better overall units for the most part.

  • Blisterback>Kodiak - Banshee>Hornet - Engineer>Nightingale - Wraith>Tank - Hunter>Cyclops - Marauder>Warthog

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> > 2533274792014876;12:
> > > 2533274811417927;3:
> > > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
> >
> > I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
> >
> > If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?
>
> It’s the leader powers. Atriox has the best economy in the game and his JumpBrute mines are hell to deal with early game. Couple that with him being able to get dying breath and his early-game is otherworldly. His other powers are amazing also.
>
> Decimus has the best passive powers in the game. He’s also an insanely viable rusher. Drop Fury on your troops or Vortex Lightning on enemy turrets and then mix it with Siphon and you should be able to take a base down easily against 90% of players.
>
> Shipmaster has the best Late game in the game imo. You can make a case for Cutter once Battle Hardened gets fixed and you can still definitely make one for Kinsano and Colony, but I’m going with ship. Shroud Cloaking with Displacement, his Spirit Assault provides covering fire and a veteran Hunter and Engineer squad(the 1 weak -Yoink- ranger is irrelevant outside of cloak detection) and he even has a 2nd cloaking leader power. He has Banished Raid as well which gives Infantry increased sight and quicker capture(same thing that Cutter has) and he has an early teleport which can be used to dodge most leader powers. Tactical Gateway ,albeit a double edged sword, provides one the option of moving across the map to-and-fro when they please.
>
> The Banished also has better overall units for the most part.
> - Blisterback>Kodiak - Banshee>Hornet - Engineer>Nightingale - Wraith>Tank - Hunter>Cyclops - Marauder>Warthog

Cyclops > Hunters and Warthog > Marauder both for the same reason - the UNSC variant is way quicker.

Also kodiaks are T2 so… They obviously are not gonna be as good as blisterbacks.

Banished also get locusts which are amazing alongside their teleporting abilities.

> 2533274792014876;12:
> > 2533274811417927;3:
> > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
>
> I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
>
> If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?

Without a doubt movement and lack of a locust equivalent. Banished can walk in, rinse a base, and walk out using locusts before the UNSC can catch up. Unit and power wise, UNSC and banished are very balanced (aside from the locust), but all of the UNSC endgame units are way too slow.

> 2533274924073601;18:
> > 2533274792014876;12:
> > > 2533274811417927;3:
> > > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
> >
> > I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
> >
> > If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?
>
> Without a doubt movement and lack of a locust equivalent. Banished can walk in, rinse a base, and walk out using locusts before the UNSC can catch up. Unit and power wise, UNSC and banished are very balanced (aside from the locust), but all of the UNSC endgame units are way too slow.

So unit’s strengths/weaknesses at this point you believe feel balanced, but the key difference is just movement speed across UNSC Tier 3 units do not match the Banished variants of the units.

> 2533274792014876;19:
> > 2533274924073601;18:
> > > 2533274792014876;12:
> > > > 2533274811417927;3:
> > > > Banished all the way. Cutter is the best of the UNSC leaders, but he still can’t really compete against any banished at the moment.
> > >
> > > I keep hearing a theme that people are saying Bannished are making out like bandits now. What do you see as the tipping point of them being better? Is it unit abilities? Movement? Leader Powers? Specific Unit combinations that just out perform the UNSC counter parts?
> > >
> > > If there was one or two key things to make the game feel more balanced - what would you all think that should be?
> >
> > Without a doubt movement and lack of a locust equivalent. Banished can walk in, rinse a base, and walk out using locusts before the UNSC can catch up. Unit and power wise, UNSC and banished are very balanced (aside from the locust), but all of the UNSC endgame units are way too slow.
>
> So unit’s strengths/weaknesses at this point you believe feel balanced, but the key difference is just movement speed across UNSC Tier 3 units do not match the Banished variants of the units.

I’m in agreement about the balance. I find that unit balance is in a good spot finally. Games are finally coming down to player skill versus unit balance. between counter play and scouting, Players should be able to recognize strategies and adapt. As I’m watching streams, I’m noticing a common issue is that players do not scout and gain map control which ultimately places the loss on the players hands and not to unit balance. However, one difficult tactic right now is in the UNSC vs Banished games. All it takes is one time the UNSC army is out of place and the banish player can very easily take advantage and wipe the base with little counter play. At that point, the game turns into a base race and then being able to run into the Banished forces in time to wipe them out/defend your surviving base. That’s why the Shipmaster arguable the best leader because with micro, you can keep your opponents always on the defensive and, in general, behind. Note, this is from a 1v1 perspective.