Renegades · Season 28: Lawless
The meta is not only about what is strongest
It could be what is most effective in skilled lobbies, or what is more forgiving for a majority of users to easily pick up. It could be the availability of weapons and armor. For example, if there is a very powerful weapon in Destiny 2 raids, not all PvP may get their hands on it to use. A lesser similar gun to that powerful weapon may take its place in the day-to-day meta of PvP. Also, it may just seem like the meta is defined by what is popular and called out by streamers.
That matters because a weapon, subclass, or loadout can look powerful due to highlight reels, but maybe will feel awful in your hands
Does it work for you in a majority of your crucible games?
What endures...
- comfort picks that let you start fragging out without warm up
- loadouts that keep your survivability up
- subclasses that have a strong neutral game (good movement), and meta defining abilities (yes, some can be gimmicky)
What gets overstated
The loudest meta conversation is not always relevant to you. Different skill bands will have different metas. Different playlists have different metas. What is key is finding the meta that works best with the way you, as a player, enjoy.
As a slightly above than average crucible player...
The meta for Renegades plus much of the new armor stat systems has created some interesting builds that can be considered "gimmicky". You can build highly into melee or grenades for ability spammy builds, and do crazy things like 1-shot glaive melee's and constant void grenade spam. Also, with ways to build into special ammo as well pretty much can grant special ammo consistently throughout an entire play session.
Some builds that are interesting that come to mind are the
- Weavewalk Warlock with Deimosuffusion {{exotic-armor:deimosuffusion}} and Winterbite {{exotic-weapon:winterbite}}. Maybe even with Karnsteins {{exotic-armor:karnstein-armlets}} instead.
- Radiant hunter (solar or prismatic) with high weapon stat and Ace of Spades {{exotic-weapon:ace-of-spades}} charged with Momento Mori can 2 tap opponents
- Strand Glaive Titan running Banner of War, High Melee armor stat, ACD Feedback Fence {{exotic-armor:acd-0-feedback-fence}} and Winterbite {{exotic-weapon:winterbite}} for 1 shot glaive melee's which surprising can be effective
- Arc hunter (or prismatic with arc super) now works with the Mask of Bakris {{exotic-armor:mask-of-bakris}} giving that exotic armor more utility across subclasses.
- Void Warlock with Nothing Manacles {{exotic-armor:nothing-manacles}} can have builds where they could end up with additional improved scatter grenades that can harrass opponents
- Titans with peacekeepers {{exotic-armor:peacekeepers}}, cloudstrike {{exotic-weapon:cloudstrike}}, and smg M-17 Fast Talker {{weapon:1419158093}} is now back in the meta with sniper flinch reduction and peacekeeper buffs. Not to mention that the M-17 Fast Talker {{weapon:1419158093}} is probably the best PvP SMG in this meta.
With the new armor stats, the variety of new weapons (heat weapons for example), and changes in existing subclasses have resulted in being able to build into many new styles of play which overall, I feel, is a good thing. The downside of this is that some builds can feel "cheap" and can make gunplay seem like an afterthought. I cannot disagree with that and is why hopefully we have more instances of Hardware modes.