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Can we take a moment to talk about the current meta?

InvisibleDagger·3/31/2015, 4:41:15 AM·4 votes·2,289 views

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time starting this up, i just wanted to pool peoples ideas and thoughts on the current meta.

This is my OPINION of the current meta. I've noticed that the majority of team comps lately are highly geared towards very tank champions with high mobility and great cc (Hello Blitzcrank, Udyr, Sejuani, etc) I get the point of tanks, to soak up damage and maybe make engages and the occasional "OH MY GOD" plays. But I've come to feel like the tank balance of the game is slightly askew. With the addition of constant new tanky items that are -- surprisingly -- actually good (Cinderhulk, Bami's Cinder, Sunfire, ZZ'rot in its own regards) are throwing the game into a super tanky beating each other over the head with a pillow while slowing burning the squishies to death with the insane amount of magical damage tanks have with Sunfire/Thornmail. Some might say," but Invis! Why not just play tank killers like Vayne, Kog'Maw, etc?" While I do love playing these ADC's, a lot. I find it hard to lane as Vayne in the current meta of people spamming Graves and blitz/thresh bot for "freelo" and with Kog while he has the potential to do very well in lane he still gets destroyed in team fights due to the high mobility tanks running through the team and smashing him with hard cc due to his lack of mobility. Lastly, I also feel like we are missing out on viable armor pen. items. Yes we have three, but lets be honest, only very select people use Black clever and I feel that BC should be updated into a new armor pen item to answer for this frustrating new meta.

This is turning into a rant and that wasn't the intention. I was just trying to bring to light how I've seen the "meta" in this new season. The hope of this thread is for you (the readers) to comment your views, criticize (not attack), or even add on to my post.

P.S. I'm sorry if there was already a post like this, I did look but I could have missed it.

TL;DR Feel free to post about your view of the meta in hopes of pooling the communities thoughts in one place. Have a good day :) ~Invis

15 Comments

redniwediS3/31/2015, 5:05:41 AM8 votes

As a tanky, immobile melee main I have the exact opposite opinion about this meta. For the longest time my preferred role has had to answer to highly mobile mages, assassins, and marksmen. One mistake when it comes to positioning usually kills someone outright, with there being little I can do as a front liner besides either spam CC on whoever's diving and hope it works, or dive the enemy backline and hope they focus me.

My role is almost always talked about as being a member of the "wet noodle fight" in top lane, yet most bruisers and some tanks have significant burst and/or sustained damage. Bruisers are almost always grouped in with tanks, and tanks are almost always considered to be low damage, even though the truth of the matter is not so black and white. We cannot one shot carries and tear other tanky champions apart the same way carries and assassins do, but our damage has almost always been significant enough to turn fights.

Now, for the first time I can remember since season 2, tanks as a role are able to carry games without the need for heavy team coordination. Teamfights are less about initial positioning and more about maintained positioning. There are chances mid fight to correct mistakes, and there's finally enough CC to punish mobile champions who get too cocky.

With every meta some champions rise, and some fall, however I feel that more champions are viable at the same time than there has been in the past few metas. Things are different, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. Graves and the other supercarries of bot lane will eventually be replaced by carries who can survive this tankier meta a bit better, and perhaps that means now is the perfect time to tweak the tank busters of old. Bot lane has been a bit stagnant lately, and this meta might be just the thing it needs to move things along.

With all that said I'm hoping things stay on the tanky side for a while to come. Maybe it shouldn't last until the end of the season, or maybe it will last well into season 6, however I just hope it lasts long enough to shake things up in a way that won't just return to the old after it's gone. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

SmokingPuffin3/31/2015, 3:04:35 PM3 votes

You really need to present more evidence and less "I feel" statements if you want to convince anyone of anything. Also, you say this meta is "frustrating", but I don't see much discussion of why you think that is.

For example, you complain that Vayne is too hard to lane with, but she's a winning champion in every elo today. Admittedly just slightly, at 50.4% in diamond and 50.2% in gold, but she's working just fine right now. No need for changes on her account.

On the Kog front, your complaint sounds more like "people need to learn to peel" more than any real balance problem. Let's get serious here, Sejuani doesn't stick to anything Thresh doesn't want her sticking to. With a hitbox that big, Q into E into R is basically guaranteed on a diving Sejuani. Pretty sure Kog likes this sort of jungler way more than he liked the Kha'Zix meta, and certainly the current stats say he's doing well.

I think this "tank meta" thing is being way overstated. The only place tanks are any different from patch 5.4 is in the jungle, because Cinderhulk is really strong. That item probably needs some tuning downwards, but it's still only one champion different per team. We were already playing Thresh bot and Hecarim top patches ago, and it's not like the previous jungle picks of Jarvan and Vi were super squish or something. Doesn't seem like that big a change for the rest of the game if we swap out bruiser junglers for tank junglers.

MindSmash3/31/2015, 8:12:59 AM2 votes

The previous meta, it almost felt as if playing a tank was a mistake, because they would be paper thin due to their lack of farm in jg. The cinderhulk item simply brought out what was already there by giving them viable wave clear. This meta is harder, but as a squishy you shouldn't be in their engage vicinity. Simply poking them slowly with a skill or two before you reach a position to deal real damage to their back line. I like this meta. It forces me to be a little less aggressive, and a little more patient, waiting for opportunity. Before, carries could destroy a tank before they could do anything, so hard engage bruisers like jarvan and vi were the meta, bit now the slower more calculated approach this game has taken has brought a little more intensity to the carries I play. The balancing has definitely brought me more joy as a mid apc main.

KaisadiIIa3/31/2015, 1:22:04 PM2 votes

You haven't played Season 2, when tanks were REALLY painful.

Tanks aren't dominant now. Tanks are just another viable option. People is playing more tanks now because we are were bored of playing the same champions: In my specific case, when Cinderhulk came out, I shifted from playing Rek'Sai or Vi to playing Nautilus or Zac. It's not because "omg they are op", just because I was getting bored of picking Vi every time I had to jungle, and it's cool to be able to play Zac again without feeling useless passed 10 minutes.

Also, as an assassin main (Mainly Talon, but also LeBlanc, Zed and lately Katarina), pre-cinderhulk I could just ignore tanks throughout all the game. Even more, if an enemy Zac was being problematic, I could burst him down with no problems. Now I have to think more about what I can do, not only "let's get fed and win every teamfight".

Kitten of Evil3/31/2015, 7:47:37 AM2 votes

I main immobile mages and supports. Personally, I like the increased variety of this meta. I got so tired of seeing assassins every single game in season 5, because the entire meta could be boiled down to "how fast are your reflexes?" and "press some combination of QWER to delete squishies in one burst". I still take Exhaust every time I blind pick mid.

As far as I'm concerned, a meta where all members of the team are valued is better. And that's what we have now. Assassins can still dive the backline and kill carries, while tanks now can survive the early game and so can now be disruptive in teamfights. Mages provide AOE which is much more useful now that fights last a longer time and involve more people. Supports provide peel, utility, and damage mitigation. AD carries help kill enemies, but also secure objectives. In assassin meta, the only teammates who matter are the carries, because tanks didn't get beefy enough to do their job until it was too late, and support CC is often limited.

Not to mention, there are a ton of champions who counter tanks -- ADC: Kog'Maw, Vayne, Varus Mage: Brand, Malzahar, Vel'Koz Bruisers: Vi, Irelia, Gnar Tanks: Amumu, Sion? (I'd assume, with his max HP % shield and passive)

There are fewer champions who counter assassins -- virtually every ADC and mage were weak to them (notable exceptions being Lissandra and Malzahar)

IcyPepper3/31/2015, 4:47:21 AM2 votes

In my opinion, tanks aren't dominating. Keep in mind that bruisers were the gods, and I rarely if ever saw a "bruiser meta" thread (though we did get jungler gods threads).

Considering that adc+support bot lane has been prevalent for so long, and tanks are just coming back into the meta again, it's perplexing people will complain about a tank meta but never really argue against that one.

Also, I don't really mind the new meta. If someone builds cinderhulk, item 3153 is going to deal even more damage. And considering the number of anti-tank items item 3035 item 3135 item 3151 item 3031 , I'd say it's relatively even field to counterbuild each other (tanks got thornmail, randuins, etc).

You're still going to get assassins, mages, bruisers, adc's, and supports. Just because tanks are back in the game doesn't necessarily mean they'll crowd out other choices, considering there are a lot of tank counters Gnar Vayne KogMaw Taric (only a little, but he does help) Irelia Twitch .

I'm not joking. Whenever I play Sejuani (haven't played her after cinderhulk came and waited until her nerf, to be honest) and see a Vayne on the enemy team, I cry inside.

Ruudi3/31/2015, 4:54:59 AM1 votes

Tanks, huh?

item 3153 item 3071 item 3035 item 3078 item 3135 item 3089 item 3717 item 3001 Darius Katarina Heimerdinger Zyra Volibear Olaf Nasus

What tanks?