Time and time again this community is plagued by kids who can barely shoot straight begging for nerfs on what they think is overpowered, and the follow that to the inevitable grave of what they want, but I’m here to say one thing. Literally most of you have no -blam!-ing clue what you’re talking about. You all hear the word “meta” and start quivering in your leg armor at the dastardly thought of “this weapon is slightly better than others!” But I don’t think any of you actually know what that word means. A meta is when a gun or ability is so good you’re pretty much handicapping yourself by not using it if it’s available to you. Such things considered meta are One Eyed Mask, Spectral Blades, Blade Barrage, and (rest their soul) Nova Warp. But the thing is, the basis on Subclass Meta seems to be determined on their super, yknow, the thing you use twice a game. And not the neutral game, yknow, the thing you use all the time. Hunters are deemed “overpowered” for their very good supers and strong neutral game. When in reality, basing a meta off of a few abilities instead of gunplay when both things are separate are dumb. I can lose to a person using a non meta subclass because he simply beat me in a gunfight, whether that be because of my poor decision making, poor aim, or simply just being out of position and getting picked. This is the intermission where you call me a hunter crybaby before you read the rest of my teenage angst. You done? Good. Let’s continue. This meta is not forced whatsoever. Everyone will tell you that “Shotgun Lunas howl is so op, there’s no way you can counter it.” And to that I say. Get better. This game is very lenient on what class you can play as your guns will define how good you are. Forced meta is GOATS in Overwatch, where if you don’t play it you’ll lose, no objection, no exceptions. After getting my Lunas, I just don’t like the feel of it. I’d simply rather Last Word snipe, it’s what I’ve done for 4-5 years after all. Maybe I’m just bad with the gun, but I do better just playing with what I have been forever. But wait? Why? I thought Luna’s was supposed to be the key? The key to everything! I was supposed to be the slayer of Kings! Luna’s isnt as overpowered as everyone says. In order to actually do something with Luna’s, you need to hit every headshot, which most of the people on this forum can’t do. You have to fight Last flinch and if you miss even 1 headshot, it’s just your normal 180 handcannon. Of course, I’m not fully used to it still and I’m trying to play from the range of my Trust, which had almost as much range as NF. People who can use Luna’s to its fullest are going to massacre you regardless, if they are hitting every headshot, you’re going to get rolled, that’s how it works Then we get into the topic of composition and playstyle. It’s odd isn’t it? That doing something other than walking into bullets works. Cammycakes is a good example of what I’m talking about, specking himself for a certain gimmick and executing it properly, sucks as using a Bow and Coldheart on a DevourLock. But I know if I talk about *shiver* [i][u][b]Streamers[/b][/u][/i], that the people reading this post will throw a shitfit, and then claim they know more than the people who make content and analyze this game for a living. The problem with playstyle though, is that this community is sheep, and it’s current trend is “run at people with a shotgun and do the bang bang”. I will agree, this meta is getting stale since we’ve had it awhile, but it’s by no means a bad meta. In Overwatch, people loved dive, until they played it for a year and they decided they wanted something new. It’s the exact same thing, we don’t hate this meta, we’re just bored. The only time you hate meta is when you’re not good at it. My favorite meta was the year 2 sniping meta in D1, I was really good with a sniper, and could put click most people in a lobby, it was fun for me. Then people got angry about it, said sniping took no skill (even though sniping is the hardest thing to do in this game and takes a lot of skill) and then cried for the nerf on 4 shot snipers, toning down their aim assist and scope in speed. Once the meta shifts, people will complain something else in the grave. Yes, shotguns are very dominant, but that’s why we have the last word, side arms, and fusions. Quit thinking about the game as a tier list, and instead think of it as a game of Rock Paper Scissors. Counterplay is a thing, don’t just ram the same thing into the head of something that’s killing you. Some people are just better than others, it’s frustrating getting stomped, but sometimes it’s necessary to get better and improve as a player. Playing comp can make you a better player because it forces you to actually think, there’s consequence. And that’s what a person needs to improve. Bottom line. Spectral is the best class. There, I said it, it has the best super and the best neutral game out of most if not all classes. But you have to be good at the game and understand your kit, to be good with the flawless execution, you can’t just run in a straight line at enemies with your super and get a reaper. You can outrun most of Spectrals duration. You died doing it? Well, at least now it’s gone and you won’t die to it after you spawn in like when you just tried shooting at it by yourself. That’s called decision making folks, like jumping off the map so the enemy team doesn’t farm super when you know you’ll lose a round of comp. The warlock neutral game is good. You have good names, certainly not the best, but good grenades. VoidLocks have devour and lifesteal from two of their trees, and people have been rocking Slova recently too. Blink is also a very good tool for confusing your opponent and changing position. That’s my extent on the warlock class though (as I only really played NW when it was busted because I was handicapping myself by not using it, that’s called playing the meta kids) Titans, you can run at people with your insane resilience and just press your melee Buttons to get kills. It’s that simple. If that doesn’t work, you have some of the best grenades in the game. And a strong neutral game. Shield is INSANE if you play around it properly your supers are good too, they may not be the strongest in comp, but it’s still a super, quit acting likes it’s unusable. Because you aren’t getting reapers. Hunters, you got some pretty shitty nades (plz buff tripmine it literally doesn’t do anything) but your hops are great and you are the best and changing your direction in the fly, titans may be faster, but they can’t switch it up quite like you can. Roll is a good tool, it may suck bad (why can you be shot out of roll), but of used correctly you can get out of situations the other classes couldn’t dream of. Be annoying, jump above people, sensitivity in the game sucks so you’ll get easy kills. Simply changing things up and doing something the enemy doesn’t expect can throw them off. I find it a lot harder aiming against a person who doesn’t know what they’re doing than a professional, because I’m trying to be fancy to make sure I don’t lose, but that throws me off as they simply stand still and take my wife home with them. It doesn’t work? Try something else. I hear Erentil is nasty these days, sniping is viable, shotgunning is great. Sidearms can put them down though. P l e a s e b u f f s c o u t s a n d a u t o s. Simply having good positioning can win you games. It’s crazy how much you can customize in this game, I can have 4 totally different playstyles because of different exotics, I’m not forced into one right fitting glove. This meta isn’t strict, you’re just making it strict. I’ve seen people pubstomp with fusions. Simply find your gimmick and run wild with it. Of course not everything is going to be good at the same time, that’s how games work. [spoiler]Buff warlocks give me a reason to play them bungie make the glide not suck[/spoiler] Tl;dr: Meta isn’t forced. Practice makes perfect. Please buff warlock glide. Edit: Apparently using Luna’s makes my entire argument invalid, sorry you can’t get yours bud. Last Word sniped my way through the competition, maybe you’ll find your way too. Edit 2: oof that’s a lot of downvotes. I guess it’s because I’m right or because I play meta, yknow, like a good player does. Playing meta isn’t a sin, and you’re not better than someone for not playing it. At least this meta isn’t GOATS