The Boarding Meta, Merfruit, and Naval Combat

@itzeggward it's still the same. I think you underestimate or misunderstand the value of boarding back then. You basically just described the normal meta. Basically any changes in the way people are playing is cus the best players have left and it's easier to play the game now.

@habiki It doesn't really matter which weapon you're using. Boarding and defending boarders is almost exactly the same.

@itzeggward I mean being down a person will never be good unless you're already winning in high tier v high tier fights. It doesn't matter if you're duo/brig/gall. I don't even consider solo a mode in case you're talking about that. I haven't been playing SoT but I still know what is happening. Its really just that you're getting way less high tier equal fights so boarding is way better. You can easily stomp mid tier crews by instantly boarding and getting anch. That's really where the discussion is. Every good player I knew stopped playing the game in the last 2-3 months. Like the actual meta is the same there's just no reason to run it cus you can win faster by doing other stuff. Eventually the game will recuperate its skill and it'll be back to the old meta.

@captain-fob4141 I literally explained everything that's actually relevant to the discussion and cleared stuff up. You should really be considering the impact of boarding when there is a mid to large size difference in skill level between opponents. No matter what you do boarding isn't going to be incredible on any boat in an actual high tier fight. You're always sacrificing either your extra bucket, cannon, or helm to board. And that boarder is easily negated by helm, while still letting them helm the boat and rep as necessary. Its literally just not that good. Giving up cannon line, angle, or how much pressure you can handle is just a recipe for disaster. In actual high tier fights you have to have a good reason to board, which is usually cus you have an extra man or already maxed your pressure.

@habiki Bro just stop, the meta hasn't changed one bit despite all these new weapon changes.
The fundamentals are the same, Blunder/Snipe in 99% of serious fights is still the best loadout like it has been since day 1.
The ''Meta'' is non-existant in this game. Sorry the meta change is irrelevant is what I'm trying to get to. 99% of players are still completely botted out in PvP, that a 'Meta' is irrelevant to them when they struggle to even get the basic fundamentals down such as timings and what to priotise in certain situations.

we spam board because it wastes less of our time dealing with folks who can't or won't keep a consistent angle.

You're playing against players who are completely lost in a PvP setting.

End of the day this whole PvP discussion is irrelevant, RARE do what they want to do. They already showed they don't care about feedback/discussions, 10 fold when it comes to PvP changes...

@ItzEggward

The old naval-dominant meta from a year or two ago is getting replaced. For the highest level, it's a fight between the MC and the Helm

It isn't getting ''replaced'' it's the exact same, gally vs gally from today to a year ago, the only difference is people found the perfect timing of Helm/MC sync of when to send a boarder or not. I wouldn't consider that ''meta'' changing.

I'm sorry to say but 99% of players will never experience that level of skill, matter of fact it's a dying skill set since those competitive players are and have been leaving the game in record numbers the past few months, and rightfully so.
The PvP meta has been stale for months now despite new weapons and cannons being added...

@itzeggward said

Top comp teams transitioned away a month ago or so but they were way better than ex arena and early hg players like mixel.

Err no, the current comp teams (What's left of it) are not as good as what Peak Hourglass teams where in their prime like Veno, Bloody Rascals, Pestilence.
Comp doesn't even exist anymore outside of pockets of tournaments happening once in a blue moon. comp crews today didn't grind as much for comps as they did just a year ago for League Of Thieves. Those players put down a solid blueprint concerning galleon 1v1 PvP of how it's meant to be played, they would dominate and win 99% of hourglass fights until a comp team faced each other and it was a coin toss.

League of Thieves is pretty much dead, Nimsy tried to make it work but RARE didn't care about his demands nor the community in general, removing Arena gave RARE a clean slate to kill off a community like nothing ever happened.

Galley Gauntlet was a direct copy cat of League of Thieves and they magically expected that to hold up in value, when in reality it kept the exact same community and added nothing new of value to it, and that also died off very quickly.
The interest for SoT comp is almost none existent outside of Minus MAYBE AT BEST less then 50 players that still ''compete'' (For nothing btw) , which is laughable compared to what it once was.
Logically those players are considered the ''best'' which isn't much of a brag when the good players left to be replaced by them. If old competitive players magically all came back and spent the time to get as good as they once where, that would be a different scenario.

I've stomped Stirling, Lightning, SaltScum, Tank, and Idbz with this method.

You get to a certain level, the best players stomp one another, no one is unsinkable, the game is so bug prone that a simple backsplash or two in a row means you won. Or having your weapons not pull out because of major De-sync,bug.

There isn't a GOAT of SoT when it comes to PvP, although Strictly talking off stats, that would be ItzMino for winning the most competitions such as NAL. Of course I think he quit the game a while back so a decent PvP could beat him convincingly if he ever came back until he got his skillset and muscle memory back up to par.

@Fysics3037 is right in that the meta has always been about MC winning pressure, and giving an opportunity for a board. (Flex or MC for the board depending on Bilge pressure in that moment).
The pattern HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE EXACT SAME, Give enough pressure, send a good board timing to try and close out the fight.
The meta hasn't changed, one bit...
Scattershot introdution? Nada.
Did the New Weapons change the meta in skilled PvP? Nada.
New ship updates? Nada.
Did and will S14 even change the PvP meta? Nope, outside of the quickswap bug it brought back in...

Throwing blunderbombs at the back of the galleon to disturb the bilge isn't a meta, it's a bug that hasn't been fixed for a good year now..

@itzeggward I never said he was peak SoT, he's just easy to find and has some good high tier gameplay. I'm not telling people to track down clips of comp galley from 1-4 years ago.

@itzeggward also yeah the game has changed but only cus everyone got worse. Like there's no reason to swear out and drag out fights when the people you're fighting are 2x worse than the best players were. That doesn't mean the "meta" has changed tho. It just means there's no reason to play the "meta" Which is why I've said 5x that the actual topic of discussion would be the power of boarding in unequal fights, where one crew is significantly better. In equal high tier fights boarding is in a fine spot.

@veronik5682 oml someone else that actually knows what is happening 🙏 Yeah the actual macro meta (y'know the one that has all the stuff relevant to the original post like boarding vs naval) is the exact same and it really won't ever change unless Rare did something like alpha harpoon gun. Some of the micro stuff (like where to stand with blunderbuss or what weapons to use) has changed but overall boarding is still the same strength. Just cus you're using TKs instead of blunderbuss doesn't mean that you're going to get up ladder any easier. The only thing that has slightly changed boarding is the harpoon gun but honestly it's not even that good since you usually just get knocked off or die before getting anch or anything.

@habiki 50% of that doesn't apply to hg. The other 25% is useless. The remaining. 25% doesn't even matter in the discussion of macro gameplay. I don't care what the meta is for stopping a boarder, they still can't easily get on and you should be able to kill them before they get any value.

@veronik5682 said in The Boarding Meta, Merfruit, and Naval Combat:

End of the day this whole PvP discussion is irrelevant, RARE do what they want to do. They already showed they don't care about feedback/discussions, 10 fold when it comes to PvP changes...

Yeah I mean they're literally never listening to anyone again so it's kinda wraps. Idk why but Rare feels "attacked" when anyone says anything bad. There's a reason you're supposed to "take stuff like a professional" Idk if its the devs, the big wigs at Rare, or CMs, or what but they cannot handle feedback well at all. You say anything negative and they get mad, instead if improving and making their product better (don't ban me for this, I ain't break no rules).

I'm sorry to say but 99% of players will never experience that level of skill, matter of fact it's a dying skill set since those competitive players are and have been leaving the game in record numbers the past few months, and rightfully so.

This is exactly what I've been saying. Nobody good plays this game anymore. Just cus now the two mid high tier players left in this game can stomp on everyone else without playing properly doesn't mean the meta has changed. You will literally never fight a top player in HG anymore so theres no point in playing like you're against a top player. Once that skill void heals (if it ever does (it probably won't)), it'll be the same exact macro meta from 7 years ago. People literally just have it easy rn.