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Hi all, just wanted to give a few comments on how the strongest attackers in the current meta have a bit too much utility to the point it becomes difficult to counter / these attackers are almost always used ...
This list is by no means exhaustive, but I just want to raise a few examples to show how much utility these attackers have so much so they overcome almost any defense catalyst or SA the defender tries to use. My point is basically that if a character has high attack already, it is a bit too much to give that same character a lot of utility at the same time. I think the common thread among meta-attackers is above average attack stat plus high utility. Please correct me if people think that the below candidates are easily "countered" and my assertions are wrong... I dont think anyone will disagree that these are the strongest attackers in the meta right now, and for good reason.
1) Summer salt
Very high attack stat made even stronger by critical marquee. I list defenses and how summersalt (easily?) overcomes them.
Defense1: hex -- blocked by immune taunt
Defense2: unflinching/laststand -- SA1 buff removal
Defense3: invincibility -- SA1 buff removal
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope -- precision from SA2 and taunt
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- blocked by immune taunt
Defense6: curse debuff -- removed by SA2
Defense7: armor on hit -- precision for SA and removal of buff by SA1 if armor from cata
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- blockbuster lock burst
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA -- precision, bleed countered by immune
Defense10: crit resist substat -- precision
As one can see, the combination of very strong attack, buff removal, debuff immunity (taunt), removal of curse by SA2, ignoring enemy SA, blockbusterlock burst is really really strong.
Only viable counter is painwheel (a glass cannon) with tainted blood marquee to reflect critical damage. Painwheel barely has enough hp to go for a reflect damage strategy....
2) Cerebella, especially Harlequin
High attack stat with ability to spam specials benefiting from 20% damage boost. Biggest deal is Cerebella-exclusive command grab special, enabling her to endlessly loop specials without any chance of enemy retaliation given enough special cd reduction.
Defense1: hex --
Defense2: unflinching/laststand --
Defense3: invincibility --
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope --
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- Harle can do enough damage with specials only so meter debuffs do not affect her.
Defense6: curse debuff --
Defense7: armor on hit SA -- armor break
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- marqueeSpam to control enemy meter, plus command grab endless loop prevents all enemy retaliation.
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA --
Defense10: critresist substat --
Certainly less utility than summer salt, but almost all of the blank spots are suddenly filled in with the use of a cheap/easily accessible sketchy. By swapping between two Harlequins (or any attacker Cerebella), the haste/immune on tag in and the curse on the enemy basically counters all of the remaining defenses above (fills in all the blank spots).
3) Double with chaos marquee, especially doublicious.
The key point is inflicting 20+ debuffs on the enemy hitting up to 5 stacks of bleed + 1 heavy bleed for very strong damage-over-time while inflicting hex, curse etc to disable any buffs or revives. What's more, the debuffs last 20s at max, much longer than typical 5s random debuff SAs such as Wildcard peacock.
Defense1: hex -- removed by SA2, gains immune from stealing autoimmune
Defense2: unflinching/laststand -- doublicious SA buff removal
Defense3: autoimmune -- SA1 buff removal
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope -- hex or inverse polarity is near guaranteed with marque
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- steal autoimmune by SA1
Defense6: curse debuff -- removed by SA2
Defense7: armor on hit SA -- removal of buff by SA1 and marquee curse prevents future procs
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- wither or blockbuster lock near guaranteed with marquee
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA -- hex is near guaranteed with marquee.
Defense10: critresist substat --
Critresist is possibly the only real defense against chaos marquee, but substantial investment close to 100% resist is needed, as 50% resist halving the debuff number makes little difference as double can easily combo up to 30 hits in one juggle using only special moves. there have already been many youtube videos showing how to reliably do this. imo, 15+ debuffs per full combo is still very very strong.
4) Surgeon general spam on every triple node attacking team.
This returns to suggestions by other forum members on having an attacker diversity requirement/penalty. The immunity and heal every 30s is very strong and allows dps characters to bulldoze over almost all defense strategies stated above.
In summary, these are very very common attackers used in rift because of all the factors mentioned above. While understandably there is always a "meta" for any game, it is my opinion that defenders should be able to "force" lower dps attacker choices with certain tricky catalyst/defender combinations rather than the abovementioned 3 attackers solving 95% of all rift defense nodes. Rift was supposed to test the diversity of the defender / attacker collection. Unfortunately, now the reality on the ground seems to just be about a handful of "meta" characters.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but I just want to raise a few examples to show how much utility these attackers have so much so they overcome almost any defense catalyst or SA the defender tries to use. My point is basically that if a character has high attack already, it is a bit too much to give that same character a lot of utility at the same time. I think the common thread among meta-attackers is above average attack stat plus high utility. Please correct me if people think that the below candidates are easily "countered" and my assertions are wrong... I dont think anyone will disagree that these are the strongest attackers in the meta right now, and for good reason.
1) Summer salt
Very high attack stat made even stronger by critical marquee. I list defenses and how summersalt (easily?) overcomes them.
Defense1: hex -- blocked by immune taunt
Defense2: unflinching/laststand -- SA1 buff removal
Defense3: invincibility -- SA1 buff removal
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope -- precision from SA2 and taunt
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- blocked by immune taunt
Defense6: curse debuff -- removed by SA2
Defense7: armor on hit -- precision for SA and removal of buff by SA1 if armor from cata
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- blockbuster lock burst
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA -- precision, bleed countered by immune
Defense10: crit resist substat -- precision
As one can see, the combination of very strong attack, buff removal, debuff immunity (taunt), removal of curse by SA2, ignoring enemy SA, blockbusterlock burst is really really strong.
Only viable counter is painwheel (a glass cannon) with tainted blood marquee to reflect critical damage. Painwheel barely has enough hp to go for a reflect damage strategy....
2) Cerebella, especially Harlequin
High attack stat with ability to spam specials benefiting from 20% damage boost. Biggest deal is Cerebella-exclusive command grab special, enabling her to endlessly loop specials without any chance of enemy retaliation given enough special cd reduction.
Defense1: hex --
Defense2: unflinching/laststand --
Defense3: invincibility --
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope --
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- Harle can do enough damage with specials only so meter debuffs do not affect her.
Defense6: curse debuff --
Defense7: armor on hit SA -- armor break
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- marqueeSpam to control enemy meter, plus command grab endless loop prevents all enemy retaliation.
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA --
Defense10: critresist substat --
Certainly less utility than summer salt, but almost all of the blank spots are suddenly filled in with the use of a cheap/easily accessible sketchy. By swapping between two Harlequins (or any attacker Cerebella), the haste/immune on tag in and the curse on the enemy basically counters all of the remaining defenses above (fills in all the blank spots).
3) Double with chaos marquee, especially doublicious.
The key point is inflicting 20+ debuffs on the enemy hitting up to 5 stacks of bleed + 1 heavy bleed for very strong damage-over-time while inflicting hex, curse etc to disable any buffs or revives. What's more, the debuffs last 20s at max, much longer than typical 5s random debuff SAs such as Wildcard peacock.
Defense1: hex -- removed by SA2, gains immune from stealing autoimmune
Defense2: unflinching/laststand -- doublicious SA buff removal
Defense3: autoimmune -- SA1 buff removal
Defense4: revival SA i.e. last hope -- hex or inverse polarity is near guaranteed with marque
Defense5: blockbuster-related catalysts -- steal autoimmune by SA1
Defense6: curse debuff -- removed by SA2
Defense7: armor on hit SA -- removal of buff by SA1 and marquee curse prevents future procs
Defense8: haste into bb3 -- wither or blockbuster lock near guaranteed with marquee
Defense9: dreadlocks reflect damage SA -- hex is near guaranteed with marquee.
Defense10: critresist substat --
Critresist is possibly the only real defense against chaos marquee, but substantial investment close to 100% resist is needed, as 50% resist halving the debuff number makes little difference as double can easily combo up to 30 hits in one juggle using only special moves. there have already been many youtube videos showing how to reliably do this. imo, 15+ debuffs per full combo is still very very strong.
4) Surgeon general spam on every triple node attacking team.
This returns to suggestions by other forum members on having an attacker diversity requirement/penalty. The immunity and heal every 30s is very strong and allows dps characters to bulldoze over almost all defense strategies stated above.
In summary, these are very very common attackers used in rift because of all the factors mentioned above. While understandably there is always a "meta" for any game, it is my opinion that defenders should be able to "force" lower dps attacker choices with certain tricky catalyst/defender combinations rather than the abovementioned 3 attackers solving 95% of all rift defense nodes. Rift was supposed to test the diversity of the defender / attacker collection. Unfortunately, now the reality on the ground seems to just be about a handful of "meta" characters.
