tier 1 war - overboost or you die
startropics
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tl:dr it's a boring post, congrats if you read it
as the game changes and defenders get more complex, interactions start becoming a problem. we're in the middle of one of the easiest war globals in years so no complaints there but i've noticed that certain matchups almost require a giant stack of grey and powerback boosts just for safe clearing and it wasn't really like this 3 years ago.
how are average t1 guys supposed to reasonably fight shocker, who is not an OP defender by himself, on node 48 using medusa WITHOUT powerbacks and a ps1?
i know i can be wrong but please walk me through this scenario:
-node 48 has conflictor and does a lot of block damage with prowesses and block pen
-the global causes wither debuffs and conflictor gives him power
-a high sig shocker can spam back to back sp1s
-two sp1s give him autoblock on specials and medusa only gains true accuracy at the end of her special, which means we get autoblocked the first hit
-which means we either use a ps1 and launch it immediately or go to sp3 without one
-let's assume we don't use greys or powerbacks which means rushing to an sp3
-if we go to sp3 then sp2 to finish the fight, assuming that's enough, how many sp1s will we have to bait before clearing? 12-15+?
-and in this global we have to knock him down to get slow or he gets unstoppable and medusa has a lot fury buffs and we have to dex his sp1s which means a lot of knockdowns
-but knocking him down is a problem even with a wags prefight because his stun timer is short and her heavies have a chance to cause bleeds anyway fueling conflictor which means a longer fight, more dexes, and high risk heavy attacks
i know i'm probably missing something like better counters or better ways to play it but how do we do this and other fights like it with skill instead of having to cheese it with expensive special boosts?
am i right that overboosting is basically necessary on more fights now than before?
as the game changes and defenders get more complex, interactions start becoming a problem. we're in the middle of one of the easiest war globals in years so no complaints there but i've noticed that certain matchups almost require a giant stack of grey and powerback boosts just for safe clearing and it wasn't really like this 3 years ago.
how are average t1 guys supposed to reasonably fight shocker, who is not an OP defender by himself, on node 48 using medusa WITHOUT powerbacks and a ps1?
i know i can be wrong but please walk me through this scenario:
-node 48 has conflictor and does a lot of block damage with prowesses and block pen
-the global causes wither debuffs and conflictor gives him power
-a high sig shocker can spam back to back sp1s
-two sp1s give him autoblock on specials and medusa only gains true accuracy at the end of her special, which means we get autoblocked the first hit
-which means we either use a ps1 and launch it immediately or go to sp3 without one
-let's assume we don't use greys or powerbacks which means rushing to an sp3
-if we go to sp3 then sp2 to finish the fight, assuming that's enough, how many sp1s will we have to bait before clearing? 12-15+?
-and in this global we have to knock him down to get slow or he gets unstoppable and medusa has a lot fury buffs and we have to dex his sp1s which means a lot of knockdowns
-but knocking him down is a problem even with a wags prefight because his stun timer is short and her heavies have a chance to cause bleeds anyway fueling conflictor which means a longer fight, more dexes, and high risk heavy attacks
i know i'm probably missing something like better counters or better ways to play it but how do we do this and other fights like it with skill instead of having to cheese it with expensive special boosts?
am i right that overboosting is basically necessary on more fights now than before?
3
Comments
Also, it's fairly safe to argue that Wags prefight is a reliable stun against Shocker. Since passive stuns aren't effected by limber, he can't make the stun duration any lower than .75 seconds. That's enough time to get a heavy off.
Just today I did MLL hits, backdraft to intercept, guess what? AI recovered and dashed in superfast even before I finished my backdraft animation 😀
Next round AI held block, so I did MLL on block, went back to bait intercept,
Guess what? AI dashed in superfast even before I finished my backdraft animation.
But ofc this is not consistent,
Sometimes AI will dash at you in normal speed, intercepts connects no problem
Other time, AI goes superfast frame skip dash crazy.
Now as to your issue. Bait heavy and counter heavy is a good strategy to knockdown. Conflictor is fine so long as you can remove his charges with intercepts and throwing specials will be fine as long as he is below 50. Yes intercepting right now is kind of sketchy but that’s literally his counter play. The sp3 to sp2 rotation also works if you really struggle with the former. I find shocker has a squirrely AI though to at times.
Good luck with future shockers.
As to your point on boosts, that’s been the standard in T1 war for a very, very long time at this point. And as long as boosts can be used in war, it will remain the standard. In wars that are frequently decided by a single death, if you give one up and you weren’t boosting, I can’t imagine you staying in T1 for very long. You’re expected to do everything you can to clear your fights, doing less than that and then coming up short is not gonna go over well.
shocker example aside, reliance on broken boosts is a problem and takes the skill part out of AW, much more than it was 3-4 years ago imo.
another example...in the last second of secutor/provacateur a lot of proper counters were banned and players were forced to use super boosted champs just to get through mangog on 46. it was poor design imo, if a fight can't be solo'd without an invul there should be adjustments to the pool, the tactic, the nodes, or the ban system.