What BGs are OP

Back to playing pox nora again once my laptop comes in the mail. What Bgs are hella op?

 

the ones you can play better.

 

(said that, it seems that SL meta, FS adaptive, KF rangers, ST frost, and all factions in SP or ST split with meta runes are considered in best spot)

 

ST

 

Frost amp is the big thing i feel

 

KF Plants are the best .

 

I hate stuff like this. No shade on op, but I personally don't wanna play something just cause it's good. Most of the fun of this game for me has been tinkering with decks, tweaking here and there. Granted, i have played very little pvp in the last week since I started. Is it necessary to "play the meta" to win pvp? In other games I've found great success in playing off the meta, whether it catches opponents off guard or what have you.

Must be due to my non-conformist nature. Cheers.

 

SL meta is still probably the strongest deck, we just dont see people playing it all that often, and most high level SL players have been absent.

 

Go for FF UD Minotaurs, you get a real good start there for just 5k gold, then a few extra shards or another 5k and some shards and you are up and running with the same deck as nr2 in the game runs in a few minutes.

 

IS

 

I was thinking about ST frost but don't know the faction very well. Even thinking about making a Lonx BG but how good are those?

 

Lonx with an equip sub-theme is really strong but difficult to navigate.

 

Whatever i most recently lost to

 

ud, and kf is really strong, as are sl. There's a lot of bad players on recently, so it's hard to say.

 

The following are the current set of OP decks that are the most popular:
Split Mixed Meta Decks: Pick two of ST, SP, SL, or FS
FF SL Mixed Meta
KF Rangers
ST Frost Amp (KF Magic Amp and FS Psychic Amp are also strong, but a tier below this)

There are some sleeper OP decks but I'm not going to start advertising them and they don't receive near as much play as the above

 

Hmmm, Could one of them be minotaurs?

 

Nah, Minos were at their strongest right before the (warranted) nerfs to dimension doors. In addition, Minos have also been indirectly nerfed from the (also warranted) CD increase of most pseudo-range abilities, which they also rely on. That was probably the period of time which one could make the best case for them having been OP. While they've stayed strong since, they've tailed off over time since they didn't really develop further past strong melee options. A lot of their decrease in power is also related to problems in development of UD as a whole. Currently, Minos have too many weaknesses that they couldn't be run frequently at high ranks, at least not in the current meta. Most factions have available cheap soft counters, most of which are worth running even against non-Mino decks, since they (1) hamper Minos mobility (main strength and reason to build minos) and (2) at least half of them don't allow minos to use their pseudo-range -> Humble (ST), Inhibit Power (KF), Distract (SP), Planar Dissonance (SL), Increase Gravity (IS).

To a lesser degree, the frequency of seism in the split meta decks I mentioned above is also difficult to deal with. Also, a strong deck has champ control options that completely shut down momentum of melee-driven decks, e.g. a well-played reverberating blast is literally gg against most UD decks because there is nothing you can do (inb4 sacrifice = cleanse joke). Minos also have glaring weaknesses haves in terms of limited healing/cleanse, range or anti-range, anti-spell dmg, champ control. Over the past 4 expansions, Minos have received additional champs that directly help with their melee dominance, but not much for utility or support. The nerf to boundless enthusiasm also got rid of a secondary gap closer (which, in a melee dominant theme, is necessary to have) and the nerf to fiery ambush took away my main CC option (as an aside, frigid barrier has the same problem as fiery ambush in that it deals too much upfront dmg).

Note that I agree most the nerfs, direct and indirect, were justified and I am fine with Minos being melee dominant as they are, but there are too many things that they aren't good at for me to consider them OP (Mixed meta FF UD is stronger regardless). However, I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated that every gap closer UD gets ends up being nerfed. The decks I mentioned above are OP because they have no glaring weaknesses. Most of the "Minos are OP" talk comes from reactionary, mediocre-at-best players that freak out at high damage champs without realizing they have limited defensive capabilities and are pretty easy to play around.

 

I'd hazard a guess he's referring to some FW and IS themes mainly.

 

I'd also say that the minos are op talk comes from the fact that you can lose a game within the first few turns out of no fault of your own.

It's also the reason UD isn't allowed to have nice things like gap closers. +2dmg for ranged champs is a fair bonus imo. Putting gap closers on melee champs is like making them ranged. It essentially puts +4 dmg and reduces the cost by the ranged penalty, on a ranged champ. It's simply not a fair idea.

 

Oh, I understand the nerfs to gap closers. Prime example at the time of the boundless enthusiasm nerf was DE fanatic triple tapping at a mid-font to get a kill off for only 25 nora as well as securing the font. Some of the frustration stems from the appearance that abilities, spells, champs, etc. that directly impact dmg are often the first things on the chopping block. Other things, such as supports, usually go under the radar longer because their impact is indirect and, not only harder to gauge how strong they are, but I believe more difficult to evaluate what part of their ability set needs nerfed and how or to what degree. So in this case the frustration is immature - why do they get to keep their OP stuff but I can't keep mine? Further problems with lack of gap closers are also maps that favor turtling. Dimension doors are usually enough, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet, charge in, and hope your opponent messes up. Admittedly, it isn't as bad as it used to be many years ago with the whole "Whoever initiates combat first loses" turtling end results (specifically I recall the meta being to deploy cheap champs to match your opponents and then stall enough to finish with spell spam, oh the nightmares).

The whole "sleeper OP" mention is kind of a misnomer. It describes:
(1) Decks I think are OP due to encounters with them but currently under the radar
(2) Gimmick decks that abuse combinations of abilities that may be considered OP because they lead to certain draw win scenarios, but may not be OP since they usually don't hold up at the higher ranks or aren't consistent enough
(3) Decks that I think have the available tools to be OP, but I haven't seen anyone run them well enough and I'm too disinterested to try them out myself, so I remain too unsure to mention them