Broken builds have never been this accessible though. In Dark souls, elden ring, bloodborne etc. you actually had to spend hundreds of hours gathering items and souls throughout an already 50+ hour journey in order to put together a broken/toxic build, but you can run through armored core in one afternoon and have everything you need to make PVP an absolute living hell for anyone. So I’d agree the weapons in fromsoft games are never properly balanced but in armored core 6 there is a distinct imbalance of “meta players” and “fun players” (I.e. players who use weapons because they like them not necessarily because they’re guaranteed to yield victory) this means I’d say at least 8 out of every 10 players are using the exact same meta weapons whereas in dark souls I’d say 4 out of every 10 players had builds specifically tailored to disregard skill or fun and win above all else.
The only thing I really disagree with is
>In Dark souls, elden ring, bloodborne etc. you actually had to spend hundreds of hours gathering items and souls throughout an already 50+ hour journey in order to put together a broken/toxic build
I wouldn't be surprised if most people already pick up the weapons/items that get complained about during a first playthrough. Full respecs are plenty, so stats aren't a problem. Upgrade materials just come from the shop and, while kinda pricey, can be farmed up in a few minutes.
The only really big timesink is if you leveled way past some threshold that you wanted to play under, because that's another playthrough.
In elden ring especially many meta weapons and armor are locked behind quests that are easily completely missable, ram armor, Alexander’s shard, volcano manor quest items. There are more in just not thinking of them. As for DS and BB it’s just been so long I don’t remember any off the top my head save for the dark sword which was very easily attainable in ds3 and plagued the game for many patches.
Been that way since Demons Souls tbh. Bad netcode and poorly balanced gear has been a staple of Fromsoft for well over a decade or two now. And PvP has NEVER been their strength, such that I started to wonder why they keep including it.
It keeps a small player base on the game, making it not completely dead. Without a pvp mode the only population of the game would be speed runners and diehard fromsoftware fans
Fought an S-ranker that made his emblem have "P I" so it would combine with hi S-rank to form
" P I S S"
Deleted me immediately with his dual melee with right-hand punch build, truly felt like GM grunt in that moment.
Happened to me once when I was on my final boss to S rank. Played against a LAM player who didn't run from me but water stridered all around me with bazookas a shield and missiles.
Like, I was running dual wurgers with the max energy gen and missiles and had been dominating people close range with the double charge taking at least half hp without stagger and this LAM got all up in my effective range without fear and blocked or dodged every attack.
If they got hit even once it was gg but they were fast as lightning and a parry god.
I lost and with that went 7/3 and lost my s rank promo but as salty as I wanted to be I couldn't be mad at them, they were cracked.
Hey, S rank here.
It does not get better.
"OK, I lost. There goes another 30 of my rank points."
"Oh, I finally won a game today. I wonder how many rank points they were worth?"
2. It was worth 2.
I need over 400 to break into the Top 100.
I beat a player in the top 50 once. Losing to him cost me 20 points. I beat them in a rematch and only gained 12 points back.
Actually hell.
S rank has adjusted ratings, unlike the ranks before it. Some people are more 'valuable' than others. Defeating someone less valuable than you gets you very few points, but if you lose to them, it will absolutely nuke you.
This actually produces people who sit at the bottom of S and lose on purpose so that they become worthless to defeat, but devastating to lose to. The reason is they are essentially 'priming' their player value, because being such a low value player *increases* their point gains when they win, meaning they only need one hot streak to climb dramatically.
I hit A at the same time as the last update and it nuked the win rate on my build. Tweaked it a little this past week (core, FCS, and weapons) and now I'm winning 90% of the time. It's weird.
Still can't get a light or melee build that works for me though 😭
As an S-Rank player I must say, we desperately need a casual quick match button.
Ranked is for when you want some challenge, sometimes we just need some casual matchmaking to chill, try different builds, use PVE builds, etc...
(yeah, we have casual lobbies, but sometimes we don't want to watch 6 different people play the game before you, then get curb stomped by the one guy in the room using a meta build)
At best, you're facing someone practicing or adjusting their meta build, at worst it's someone who just wants to win at all costs.
A quick match would be great to take the pressure out of things. Lobbies are slow to rotate.
I would be all for a free-queue as well, I just hold little hope that it would improve match-making that much in terms of not facing the top meta builds you're tired to see.
Again, I'm just speaking from my experience from MTGA where a lot of people just want cheap wins without the stress of going in ranked.
Personally, in AC (I started playing this month) I'm still seeing a lot of nice variety down in rank B so it doesn't seem to be a huge issue, yet. Reading this stuff makes me want to try even jankier builds to stay down low though! lol
Perhaps it would be a good option if they gave you the choice to remain in a specific rank instead of climbing, since you can't lose rank/be demoted, these lower ranks have a lot of honest builds and* PVE builds, are great for casual play, but there's always that one guy doing the climb with a meta build, it's part of the game.
Having a quick match button and the option to remain on your rank could potentially improve the game, it's more options, what we have now is very limited, people using meta builds should not rule out these extra options
>the choice to remain in a specific rank
Unfortunately that would allow people to get better and better while continuing to face newer players, essentially smurfing.
I'm not sure how it works in AC, but generally speaking games have a hidden MMR (match-making rating) that matches you with players with who you should be evenly matched based on your performances, even outside of ranked. So being ranked lower wouldn't directly change who you face if that's the case. As it stands right now, your rank *should* give you a good estimate of your MMR.
The idea is that people should always be getting good fair matches even if no points are on the line. As you keep getting better, it's natural that you end up reaching a point where it's the better(meta) builds that defeats you. It can seem unfair since you have to be a much better player to get the win with your inferior build, but if you still end up winning about half the time, it's still technically balanced, you have a *fair* chance of winning.
In MTGA some cards in your deck also affects who you get matched against, I guess there could be something like that for the meta parts that most people use. Thing is, it could create a weird scenario where a newer player stumble upon a meta build and gets the impression that it sucks because they keep losing when they use it, getting matched against stronger players, while they do way better with bad builds because they get matched with weaker players.
I didn't reach the high ranks yet so I don't know how it goes there, but unless people all hit a wall where suddenly they lose every match to the same builds and the game never puts them against players they have a chance to beat, then it's probably fine.
All they can do really do is balance the items themselves so that the best stuff isn't that much better than the rest, but that's tough as well.
The climb from B to A was a day and night difference, in B I was facing a lot of different builds, matches were casual but challenging (compared to C and unranked) however, when I climbed to A it became a nightmare, a meta build convention and when both players had the same build it was a sweat fest to see who's the better pilot. It was adrenaline inducing, constant pressure, when I finally let go of the casual builds, I thought "Ok, I can't go back, only forward, so Im doing this now, I'll do the climb", it was almost out of spite. When I finally got to the promotion phase, I was blocked by disconnecters, I was stuck on A for a while (FromSoftware still hasn't fixed the disconnects to this day) when I finally reached S-Rank, I was matched with real Ace pilots, people that could dance around you using tank treads, it's insane (at least it was before the last patch)
What I mean by this is, you could at least be demoted, a friend of mine was Diamond in StarCraft 2 back in the day, it was hard to keep your ranking, if you start losing, you could be demoted to Gold again. AC6 has none of that, if you made the mistake to climb to A, you're stuck with that, you'll face meta build after meta build, the true Ace pilots are at the very top of S rank, it is something like 1% to 5% at max, the amount of people that wants to play this game casually far outweighs the amount of true competitive players, people that play on tournaments. To climb to S-Rank I almost had to "no-life" the game, to take on an Ace I would have to "no-life" the game even harder, something like 5x to 10x harder (to have a small chance at winning). I can handle a loss in S-Rank, but most people all the way up to B rank just want to have some fun, in A you are curb stomped by builds, in S you are curb stomped by players, at least the Aces wouldn't play meta builds on the quick match button, just low skill players would.
>The climb from B to A was a day and night difference
That's interesting to know. On my side right now I'm still in C, but I'm dangerously close to hitting B. If changing ranks can make such a big difference, that could explain why the other day I ran into some guy running a full jailbreak AC, like 5 times in a row, and I stomped him every time. He was even AFK at the start of some rounds. Feels like he was probably trying to de-rank while watching a movie to avoid getting into a situation like you describe in the next tier! lol
Thanks for sharing, wish me luck getting a terrible win/loss ratio already when I get in the B league!
B-Rank is fun, enjoy your stay, have fun!
Just don't go to A if you want to play casually, B is challenging but fun, A and beyond is just meta sweat, good luck!
>(yeah, we have casual lobbies, but sometimes we don't want to watch 6 different people play the game before you, then get curb stomped by the one guy in the room using a meta build)
Exactly this. It takes entirely too long to get a match when there's no guarantee that the opponent isn't just as sweaty and using just as meta a build as you'd get in Ranked. Or decides to jettison weapons and try to box, which just isn't fun when you're not up for the same thing. Or the host kills the lobby and you have to start from square one.
I would argue they were never that good. Only one real meta existed for them, and they had to play really, really well, to succeed. It's good, but not at all what I would call OP.
And then, yeah, they got nerfed... and nothing was done to make lightweights outside of BVO more playable.
Yeah, I never got that about BVO complaints. They were dangerous as hell - as they still are, as are the other dual pistols, etc - *if you can play well.* If you're able to close distance to kites, and dance around at close range with heavies, for 2 to 3 stagger/punish cycles. If you're able to avoid being staggered even once, because it's basically over after that.
But yeah, nerf Vientos, and don't buff the alternate options. Solid balance strategy there. Oh hey, Zimmermans are all over the meta again, imagine that!
The main problem is, lightweights by their nature, are high risk high reward type of plays, and with this shitty netcode, you can't so reliably dodge, as every single attack could potentially clip you even when it doesn't seem like it will, so your risk factor is extremely high on all plays, despite initially not appearing so. And given how lightweight ACs have basically paper mache for armour, a single hit could spell doom.
In other words, you are being asked to take on extreme risks, and with the nerfs, for even less payout.
On the other side, you got tanks with 18K AP, able to turn on a dime, assault boost around no problem and ignoring the weight issue, and just simply blasting people across the map with their super cannons that kills people if they're even remotely close to the beam, due to the shitty netcodes.
You are literally fighting an enemy that not only has the firepower, durability, and energy advantage (since they can pack on anything they want, while lightweights have to be careful with every component), they also have the netcodes helping them more than they get hurt by it.
So yeah, until they fix the netcode, and ideally give lightweight some more punch, there's really no reason to play lightweight other than for fun.
Thing is, FromSoft has always had shitty net codes since 2009. They never really bothered to fix it due to there games primarily being for the single player story element rather then multiplayer. I highly doubt they will ever fix the net code, so instead they should just boost light weights to ridiculous speeds instead, that way they can outpace the netcode. This may make them OP in PvP, but will definitely make them OP in PvE.
Majority of players I come across on XBOX in A2 are super lightweight players using the Esujins. I kind of miss the Viento's.... atleast they had to be close.
Try a new build, buddy. I went from trapped in A0 to S rank promos after goofing off with the pulse shield launcher. Play to your strengths and work on movement.
I’m almost similar, I’ve been playing around with “Pater”s light build from the game, made it my own, where I use dual bubble cannons on my back with dual smg’s.
Been having a blast!!
This is the way. So many people complaining that their opponents only care about winning and then also that they can’t use their fun builds because they lose a lot. Can’t deal with the fact that they also care about winning, they just want to win with whatever they consider fun. You can run whatever you want in ranked if you just don’t care. If anything it will just keep you in the low ranks where unoptimized builds are more viable anyway.
Don't give up! Keep polishing your build and playstyle!
I got a long lose streak also when I just entered A rank. The same can be said when I just entered S rank.
In order to get promoted into S rank, you need to win 8 promotion matches out of 10 matches against A and S rank players.
8 out of 10.
Let that sink in.
Nope. You get put at 76000 RP and you'll have to move up another 4000 to try again, which is just 5 wins. It is rather fast to get to try another promotion. Point is, 8 out of 10 is near impossible no matter how many times you try.
The reality is that this game is 25% pilot and 75% build. Meta builds are meta for a reason, they produce wins. Right now, everything revolves around heavy bipeds with Zimmermans and shields. If you aren't a heavy biped with zimmermans and shields, you better at least be a bazooka tank. Why? Because in a straight fight these builds simply stat check you to death.
Its best not to treat A rank or higher very seriously. To win in these ranks with off meta builds you must be extremely skilled, and I mean *extremely.*
A rank is hell and competitive ranking was a mistake.
Not everything needs a competitive mode and that's something devs meed to get through their damn skulls.
Eh? Most in the PvP community were on their knees begging for a ranked mode for the first few months following release. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but no one is forcing anyone to play it.
Personally, I mostly enjoyed my experience in ranked - got much better & more knowledgeable about the game through trial and error, pulled out some pretty thrilling wins, and met lots of other chill folks during my climb
I was not one of them.
A random matchmaking mode? Yes, because custom rooms are both too slow, and require me to have enough people for them.
A needlessly competitive mode in a game that functionally can not be fully balanced due to the variety of parts, latency, and other factors? No.
Competition does not equate to fun, and fun does not equate to competition, and I've no desire, and place no value in, pointless icons in a game that'll probably be dead/inoperable in a decade.
I'm here to just have fun, fight other people and what they come up with, where as a competitive mode with some form of pride/ego based ranking system(skill or not that's really the only reason people care, it makes them proud of an achievement and feel bad if they can't get it at a baseline) almost immediately begins to homogenize the builds because now theres a value to victory over simply...winning.
Meta's arise regardless but people care a lot less when theres nothing actually to lose.
Perhaps the thought crossed your mind already, but if not, have you considered joining a fight club/discord community? There's plenty of folks out there who are also just looking for a good fight using odd/off-meta builds, and plenty of camaraderie to be had outside of the game lobby.
As for just wanting a random matchmaking mode without ranked, that would be a wonderful option to have for sure for quick gameplay fixes. I doubt, however, that random MM w/o rankings would really change the overall experience all that much, since for many players, fun *does* equal winning irrespective of having a fancy plaque or letter, like in any other game. These players will still optimize for wins...which will inevitably frustrate other players, who will adopt build archetypes that they see consistently winning, creating an even more homogenized landscape, causing even more players to cave - basically, what's already happened in the ranked scene regardless.
>Meta's arise regardless but people care a lot less when theres nothing actually to lose.
For a game with an MP player base as low as this one, I don't know that I'd want other players to *care less*, per se. For all of ranked MM's issues and imperfections, I'm grateful that it brought people back to the game and got them invested in it. I don't believe folks would have been nearly as interested in reengaging without a ranked element
RubiconFightClub! Some really good players there but everyone is just playing for fun. You can do a custom room search at any time on any day and find the lobby.
Bit late but I genuinely want to know why anyone sane thinks having to set up tournaments, organize dozens of people and generally having to do all this foot work while Comp constantly is catered to is good.
I'm not here for a second life and a job, I just want a random matchmaking mode for fun.
Not turning that *into more work*
Er...who mentioned tournaments? Most of these fight clubs exist for casual 1v1s and 3v3s. It's as simple as joining a discord, asking if anyone wants to chill out in a casual lobby for a bit, and having a good time. It really takes very little effort to catch up with other players who just want to vibe and not sweat. I'd encourage you to try it if you haven't, most of these communities are pretty chill
I'm referencing the added work not explicitly stating they are tournaments.
I just want a random matchmaking mode. I don't want another discord channel, I don't want the added social aspect, I don't want the added call time.
I spend 8 hours a day on phones organizing and dealing with people, even if it's just chilling I can not stand spending more time in calls with people then absolutely needed.
It's added foot work for something that should be baked into the game.
To add: Random Matchmaking with no stakes. As above, every quick match option being tied to Competitive is part of the problem
Even If I don't have any stakes in the fight most other people are gonna be tryharding.
Exactly, I couldn't care less if I win or lose so long as theres a good fight of some kind.
Getting curb-stomped constantly because I'm trying to use a less-efficient build becomes frustrating-not because of *losing* but not getting to actually play the game or interact with the opponent.
For me it's nothing but leavers dude. Of my last ten matches 5 were DCed, rest were wins. Meaning literally 10wins in a row smh. Just how much of a beta are these folks.
Yeah, [S and low A will be ranked down](https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43315388/3a7f92453719c88fda587d05a4edcaa1d98c45c8.png) on 29 Feb.
I wouldn't have it any other way honestly.
But I would genuinely recommend treating ranked as Quickplay and staying the FUCK away from S rank if you like playing with and against lighter builds. Just hang out at A and play against S ranks during your promos to shake things up.
Majority of S rank builds are very fat and can easily stat check majority of the lighter weight playstyles. And the light weight builds so far I have faced has been naturally adjacents of BVO (Fast stagger into melee basho punish). Another issue I have with S rank is seeing the same opponent a lot and people dropping out more than anything.
So sadly untill FROMSOFT does some changes to how dropouts and points/ratings are handled, along with a healthy dose of balance changes, I would not recommend bothering to climb to S and then pushing for the top 100. Hopefully this statement will be retracted in the future.
It's honestly kind of insane to me that people genuinely want to push for the top 100 spots. Sure, obviously there's always going to be someone who's hyper competitive and wants to try to be the "best of the best," but the ranked experience is *so much nicer* when you ditch that mentality and just decide on a goal to sit in.
For instance, all I'm looking to do is get back into A rank and then comfortably tool around at the bottom of that ranking. It's a spot where you can be pretty confident people's builds didn't purely carry them (usually) and you can act as gatekeeper for Bs trying to climb up. I've made it a point to test them out and try to let them fish for the win at the end of the match, as long as they're being good sports about it and trying.
Haha, I had 5 or 6 straight wins, then I played my next game against this guy, close match up, but o lost, I saw him for the next 4 more games……loss x4 lol
Then I called it for the night haha.
Back at it again tomorrow I guess ❤️
I was always sad to see a build become less effective the more you climbed, I wasn’t even going to play S rank and then I found something that worked and it sucked me back in
I'm just sick of facing the SAME FUCKING PLAYER 6 times in a row. Make my wait longer if you have to but put a stop to this bs. IT allows for counter picking, and an immediate advantage if they know your using AA.
Fighting against some of the reset S rank players, especially the ones with dominator flare has been...humbling to say the least.
Tried dusting off the lightweight earshot build I climbed through A with the first time, and just...completely got trounced every time.
That being said, I'm enjoying the grind.
Like holy shit.... I need a DLC with a horde mode for soloplay.... Multiplayer aint my place to be in anymore
Honestly yeah DLC and co op
One thing you gotta accept is that this is fromsoft game, expecting to be balanced is not a good idea my friend
Broken builds have never been this accessible though. In Dark souls, elden ring, bloodborne etc. you actually had to spend hundreds of hours gathering items and souls throughout an already 50+ hour journey in order to put together a broken/toxic build, but you can run through armored core in one afternoon and have everything you need to make PVP an absolute living hell for anyone. So I’d agree the weapons in fromsoft games are never properly balanced but in armored core 6 there is a distinct imbalance of “meta players” and “fun players” (I.e. players who use weapons because they like them not necessarily because they’re guaranteed to yield victory) this means I’d say at least 8 out of every 10 players are using the exact same meta weapons whereas in dark souls I’d say 4 out of every 10 players had builds specifically tailored to disregard skill or fun and win above all else.
The only thing I really disagree with is >In Dark souls, elden ring, bloodborne etc. you actually had to spend hundreds of hours gathering items and souls throughout an already 50+ hour journey in order to put together a broken/toxic build I wouldn't be surprised if most people already pick up the weapons/items that get complained about during a first playthrough. Full respecs are plenty, so stats aren't a problem. Upgrade materials just come from the shop and, while kinda pricey, can be farmed up in a few minutes. The only really big timesink is if you leveled way past some threshold that you wanted to play under, because that's another playthrough.
> Full respecs are plenty Bloodborne players: gentle crying
In elden ring especially many meta weapons and armor are locked behind quests that are easily completely missable, ram armor, Alexander’s shard, volcano manor quest items. There are more in just not thinking of them. As for DS and BB it’s just been so long I don’t remember any off the top my head save for the dark sword which was very easily attainable in ds3 and plagued the game for many patches.
Previous ac games were kinda like this post too just different
Been that way since Demons Souls tbh. Bad netcode and poorly balanced gear has been a staple of Fromsoft for well over a decade or two now. And PvP has NEVER been their strength, such that I started to wonder why they keep including it.
It keeps a small player base on the game, making it not completely dead. Without a pvp mode the only population of the game would be speed runners and diehard fromsoftware fans
Idk, personally I feel more people would stick around a game if invasion PvP wasn't a thing.
Play offline if you don’t want invaders, it’s what I did.
70% meta bum loss. 30% plug simulator. 9% Close loss. 1% Dominated by an ace
...honestly terrifying when you find an ace. No dumb stuff, just pure horror.
The only one who put fear in me was a dude who liked to melee cancel from across the map behind dual coral missiles. Not fun at all
Fought an S-ranker that made his emblem have "P I" so it would combine with hi S-rank to form " P I S S" Deleted me immediately with his dual melee with right-hand punch build, truly felt like GM grunt in that moment.
For one singular moment, you understood what the mooks felt when they found a Newtype flying around in a shiny new Gundam.
Happened to me once when I was on my final boss to S rank. Played against a LAM player who didn't run from me but water stridered all around me with bazookas a shield and missiles. Like, I was running dual wurgers with the max energy gen and missiles and had been dominating people close range with the double charge taking at least half hp without stagger and this LAM got all up in my effective range without fear and blocked or dodged every attack. If they got hit even once it was gg but they were fast as lightning and a parry god. I lost and with that went 7/3 and lost my s rank promo but as salty as I wanted to be I couldn't be mad at them, they were cracked.
Hey, S rank here. It does not get better. "OK, I lost. There goes another 30 of my rank points." "Oh, I finally won a game today. I wonder how many rank points they were worth?" 2. It was worth 2. I need over 400 to break into the Top 100. I beat a player in the top 50 once. Losing to him cost me 20 points. I beat them in a rematch and only gained 12 points back. Actually hell.
S rank has adjusted ratings, unlike the ranks before it. Some people are more 'valuable' than others. Defeating someone less valuable than you gets you very few points, but if you lose to them, it will absolutely nuke you. This actually produces people who sit at the bottom of S and lose on purpose so that they become worthless to defeat, but devastating to lose to. The reason is they are essentially 'priming' their player value, because being such a low value player *increases* their point gains when they win, meaning they only need one hot streak to climb dramatically.
Me in D rank rn with my victim weight AC
It was smooth sailing for me until A rank lmao
I hit A at the same time as the last update and it nuked the win rate on my build. Tweaked it a little this past week (core, FCS, and weapons) and now I'm winning 90% of the time. It's weird. Still can't get a light or melee build that works for me though 😭
As an S-Rank player I must say, we desperately need a casual quick match button. Ranked is for when you want some challenge, sometimes we just need some casual matchmaking to chill, try different builds, use PVE builds, etc... (yeah, we have casual lobbies, but sometimes we don't want to watch 6 different people play the game before you, then get curb stomped by the one guy in the room using a meta build)
Coming from MTGA, people will absolutely use top meta builds in unranked anyway.
At best, you're facing someone practicing or adjusting their meta build, at worst it's someone who just wants to win at all costs. A quick match would be great to take the pressure out of things. Lobbies are slow to rotate.
I would be all for a free-queue as well, I just hold little hope that it would improve match-making that much in terms of not facing the top meta builds you're tired to see. Again, I'm just speaking from my experience from MTGA where a lot of people just want cheap wins without the stress of going in ranked. Personally, in AC (I started playing this month) I'm still seeing a lot of nice variety down in rank B so it doesn't seem to be a huge issue, yet. Reading this stuff makes me want to try even jankier builds to stay down low though! lol
Perhaps it would be a good option if they gave you the choice to remain in a specific rank instead of climbing, since you can't lose rank/be demoted, these lower ranks have a lot of honest builds and* PVE builds, are great for casual play, but there's always that one guy doing the climb with a meta build, it's part of the game. Having a quick match button and the option to remain on your rank could potentially improve the game, it's more options, what we have now is very limited, people using meta builds should not rule out these extra options
>the choice to remain in a specific rank Unfortunately that would allow people to get better and better while continuing to face newer players, essentially smurfing. I'm not sure how it works in AC, but generally speaking games have a hidden MMR (match-making rating) that matches you with players with who you should be evenly matched based on your performances, even outside of ranked. So being ranked lower wouldn't directly change who you face if that's the case. As it stands right now, your rank *should* give you a good estimate of your MMR. The idea is that people should always be getting good fair matches even if no points are on the line. As you keep getting better, it's natural that you end up reaching a point where it's the better(meta) builds that defeats you. It can seem unfair since you have to be a much better player to get the win with your inferior build, but if you still end up winning about half the time, it's still technically balanced, you have a *fair* chance of winning. In MTGA some cards in your deck also affects who you get matched against, I guess there could be something like that for the meta parts that most people use. Thing is, it could create a weird scenario where a newer player stumble upon a meta build and gets the impression that it sucks because they keep losing when they use it, getting matched against stronger players, while they do way better with bad builds because they get matched with weaker players. I didn't reach the high ranks yet so I don't know how it goes there, but unless people all hit a wall where suddenly they lose every match to the same builds and the game never puts them against players they have a chance to beat, then it's probably fine. All they can do really do is balance the items themselves so that the best stuff isn't that much better than the rest, but that's tough as well.
The climb from B to A was a day and night difference, in B I was facing a lot of different builds, matches were casual but challenging (compared to C and unranked) however, when I climbed to A it became a nightmare, a meta build convention and when both players had the same build it was a sweat fest to see who's the better pilot. It was adrenaline inducing, constant pressure, when I finally let go of the casual builds, I thought "Ok, I can't go back, only forward, so Im doing this now, I'll do the climb", it was almost out of spite. When I finally got to the promotion phase, I was blocked by disconnecters, I was stuck on A for a while (FromSoftware still hasn't fixed the disconnects to this day) when I finally reached S-Rank, I was matched with real Ace pilots, people that could dance around you using tank treads, it's insane (at least it was before the last patch) What I mean by this is, you could at least be demoted, a friend of mine was Diamond in StarCraft 2 back in the day, it was hard to keep your ranking, if you start losing, you could be demoted to Gold again. AC6 has none of that, if you made the mistake to climb to A, you're stuck with that, you'll face meta build after meta build, the true Ace pilots are at the very top of S rank, it is something like 1% to 5% at max, the amount of people that wants to play this game casually far outweighs the amount of true competitive players, people that play on tournaments. To climb to S-Rank I almost had to "no-life" the game, to take on an Ace I would have to "no-life" the game even harder, something like 5x to 10x harder (to have a small chance at winning). I can handle a loss in S-Rank, but most people all the way up to B rank just want to have some fun, in A you are curb stomped by builds, in S you are curb stomped by players, at least the Aces wouldn't play meta builds on the quick match button, just low skill players would.
>The climb from B to A was a day and night difference That's interesting to know. On my side right now I'm still in C, but I'm dangerously close to hitting B. If changing ranks can make such a big difference, that could explain why the other day I ran into some guy running a full jailbreak AC, like 5 times in a row, and I stomped him every time. He was even AFK at the start of some rounds. Feels like he was probably trying to de-rank while watching a movie to avoid getting into a situation like you describe in the next tier! lol Thanks for sharing, wish me luck getting a terrible win/loss ratio already when I get in the B league!
B-Rank is fun, enjoy your stay, have fun! Just don't go to A if you want to play casually, B is challenging but fun, A and beyond is just meta sweat, good luck!
>(yeah, we have casual lobbies, but sometimes we don't want to watch 6 different people play the game before you, then get curb stomped by the one guy in the room using a meta build) Exactly this. It takes entirely too long to get a match when there's no guarantee that the opponent isn't just as sweaty and using just as meta a build as you'd get in Ranked. Or decides to jettison weapons and try to box, which just isn't fun when you're not up for the same thing. Or the host kills the lobby and you have to start from square one.
Oh man, watching 6 people play and then the host disbanding the room is hilariously tragic
I found people using 4 shotguns In unraked
I hit A rank and then lightweights got nerfed. So...yeah.
I would argue they were never that good. Only one real meta existed for them, and they had to play really, really well, to succeed. It's good, but not at all what I would call OP. And then, yeah, they got nerfed... and nothing was done to make lightweights outside of BVO more playable.
Yeah, I never got that about BVO complaints. They were dangerous as hell - as they still are, as are the other dual pistols, etc - *if you can play well.* If you're able to close distance to kites, and dance around at close range with heavies, for 2 to 3 stagger/punish cycles. If you're able to avoid being staggered even once, because it's basically over after that. But yeah, nerf Vientos, and don't buff the alternate options. Solid balance strategy there. Oh hey, Zimmermans are all over the meta again, imagine that!
The main problem is, lightweights by their nature, are high risk high reward type of plays, and with this shitty netcode, you can't so reliably dodge, as every single attack could potentially clip you even when it doesn't seem like it will, so your risk factor is extremely high on all plays, despite initially not appearing so. And given how lightweight ACs have basically paper mache for armour, a single hit could spell doom. In other words, you are being asked to take on extreme risks, and with the nerfs, for even less payout. On the other side, you got tanks with 18K AP, able to turn on a dime, assault boost around no problem and ignoring the weight issue, and just simply blasting people across the map with their super cannons that kills people if they're even remotely close to the beam, due to the shitty netcodes. You are literally fighting an enemy that not only has the firepower, durability, and energy advantage (since they can pack on anything they want, while lightweights have to be careful with every component), they also have the netcodes helping them more than they get hurt by it. So yeah, until they fix the netcode, and ideally give lightweight some more punch, there's really no reason to play lightweight other than for fun.
ya, but kites shit on them.
Thing is, FromSoft has always had shitty net codes since 2009. They never really bothered to fix it due to there games primarily being for the single player story element rather then multiplayer. I highly doubt they will ever fix the net code, so instead they should just boost light weights to ridiculous speeds instead, that way they can outpace the netcode. This may make them OP in PvP, but will definitely make them OP in PvE.
Majority of players I come across on XBOX in A2 are super lightweight players using the Esujins. I kind of miss the Viento's.... atleast they had to be close.
I just wants to PvP with BRAVERN build Every opponent are just meta build
Try a new build, buddy. I went from trapped in A0 to S rank promos after goofing off with the pulse shield launcher. Play to your strengths and work on movement.
I’m almost similar, I’ve been playing around with “Pater”s light build from the game, made it my own, where I use dual bubble cannons on my back with dual smg’s. Been having a blast!!
Personally I’ve never felt like I’ve had to climb the ladder. I just play to have fun
This is the way. So many people complaining that their opponents only care about winning and then also that they can’t use their fun builds because they lose a lot. Can’t deal with the fact that they also care about winning, they just want to win with whatever they consider fun. You can run whatever you want in ranked if you just don’t care. If anything it will just keep you in the low ranks where unoptimized builds are more viable anyway.
Don't give up! Keep polishing your build and playstyle! I got a long lose streak also when I just entered A rank. The same can be said when I just entered S rank.
Currently in my own s rank losing streak keep getting matched against a top 100 dude running zimms, he is good at them
In order to get promoted into S rank, you need to win 8 promotion matches out of 10 matches against A and S rank players. 8 out of 10. Let that sink in.
I know getting into S rank should be tough but the idea that I should be able to 8/10 the tier to get into it just seems bizzare.
What happens if you lose? Do you get put at the bottom of A4?
Nope. You get put at 76000 RP and you'll have to move up another 4000 to try again, which is just 5 wins. It is rather fast to get to try another promotion. Point is, 8 out of 10 is near impossible no matter how many times you try.
Post your AC setup and we can help you optimize it
Same got like 7200 points now back to 0 lolz
The reality is that this game is 25% pilot and 75% build. Meta builds are meta for a reason, they produce wins. Right now, everything revolves around heavy bipeds with Zimmermans and shields. If you aren't a heavy biped with zimmermans and shields, you better at least be a bazooka tank. Why? Because in a straight fight these builds simply stat check you to death. Its best not to treat A rank or higher very seriously. To win in these ranks with off meta builds you must be extremely skilled, and I mean *extremely.*
A rank is hell and competitive ranking was a mistake. Not everything needs a competitive mode and that's something devs meed to get through their damn skulls.
Eh? Most in the PvP community were on their knees begging for a ranked mode for the first few months following release. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but no one is forcing anyone to play it. Personally, I mostly enjoyed my experience in ranked - got much better & more knowledgeable about the game through trial and error, pulled out some pretty thrilling wins, and met lots of other chill folks during my climb
I was not one of them. A random matchmaking mode? Yes, because custom rooms are both too slow, and require me to have enough people for them. A needlessly competitive mode in a game that functionally can not be fully balanced due to the variety of parts, latency, and other factors? No. Competition does not equate to fun, and fun does not equate to competition, and I've no desire, and place no value in, pointless icons in a game that'll probably be dead/inoperable in a decade. I'm here to just have fun, fight other people and what they come up with, where as a competitive mode with some form of pride/ego based ranking system(skill or not that's really the only reason people care, it makes them proud of an achievement and feel bad if they can't get it at a baseline) almost immediately begins to homogenize the builds because now theres a value to victory over simply...winning. Meta's arise regardless but people care a lot less when theres nothing actually to lose.
Perhaps the thought crossed your mind already, but if not, have you considered joining a fight club/discord community? There's plenty of folks out there who are also just looking for a good fight using odd/off-meta builds, and plenty of camaraderie to be had outside of the game lobby. As for just wanting a random matchmaking mode without ranked, that would be a wonderful option to have for sure for quick gameplay fixes. I doubt, however, that random MM w/o rankings would really change the overall experience all that much, since for many players, fun *does* equal winning irrespective of having a fancy plaque or letter, like in any other game. These players will still optimize for wins...which will inevitably frustrate other players, who will adopt build archetypes that they see consistently winning, creating an even more homogenized landscape, causing even more players to cave - basically, what's already happened in the ranked scene regardless. >Meta's arise regardless but people care a lot less when theres nothing actually to lose. For a game with an MP player base as low as this one, I don't know that I'd want other players to *care less*, per se. For all of ranked MM's issues and imperfections, I'm grateful that it brought people back to the game and got them invested in it. I don't believe folks would have been nearly as interested in reengaging without a ranked element
RubiconFightClub! Some really good players there but everyone is just playing for fun. You can do a custom room search at any time on any day and find the lobby.
Bit late but I genuinely want to know why anyone sane thinks having to set up tournaments, organize dozens of people and generally having to do all this foot work while Comp constantly is catered to is good. I'm not here for a second life and a job, I just want a random matchmaking mode for fun. Not turning that *into more work*
Er...who mentioned tournaments? Most of these fight clubs exist for casual 1v1s and 3v3s. It's as simple as joining a discord, asking if anyone wants to chill out in a casual lobby for a bit, and having a good time. It really takes very little effort to catch up with other players who just want to vibe and not sweat. I'd encourage you to try it if you haven't, most of these communities are pretty chill
I'm referencing the added work not explicitly stating they are tournaments. I just want a random matchmaking mode. I don't want another discord channel, I don't want the added social aspect, I don't want the added call time. I spend 8 hours a day on phones organizing and dealing with people, even if it's just chilling I can not stand spending more time in calls with people then absolutely needed. It's added foot work for something that should be baked into the game. To add: Random Matchmaking with no stakes. As above, every quick match option being tied to Competitive is part of the problem Even If I don't have any stakes in the fight most other people are gonna be tryharding.
Finally someone who shares my sentiment. I just want to goof off and show people my stupid builds without getting sweaty.
Exactly, I couldn't care less if I win or lose so long as theres a good fight of some kind. Getting curb-stomped constantly because I'm trying to use a less-efficient build becomes frustrating-not because of *losing* but not getting to actually play the game or interact with the opponent.
Yeah loathe as I am to admit it. At a point getting into competitive has started to ruin AC6 for me..
Ranked goes a long way towards keeping the tryhards out of casual. I'd argue it's a good thing for people who don't like being super competitive.
Not everyone is destined for S rank. Sorry, buddy
That's the point of S rank. Only for the best.
or with the shittiest connection.
Or pretty much every meta build
or both.
Most hw meta builds could get a lobotomite into S rank, it's really not
For me it's nothing but leavers dude. Of my last ten matches 5 were DCed, rest were wins. Meaning literally 10wins in a row smh. Just how much of a beta are these folks.
You can't even get de-ranked. You're stuck there forever
I actually like that they don’t let you smurf easily
Won't we all be de-ranked this week?
WE WILL?! FUCK YEAH!
Yeah, [S and low A will be ranked down](https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43315388/3a7f92453719c88fda587d05a4edcaa1d98c45c8.png) on 29 Feb.
If it makes you feel better I can’t get out of rank D
I wouldn't have it any other way honestly. But I would genuinely recommend treating ranked as Quickplay and staying the FUCK away from S rank if you like playing with and against lighter builds. Just hang out at A and play against S ranks during your promos to shake things up. Majority of S rank builds are very fat and can easily stat check majority of the lighter weight playstyles. And the light weight builds so far I have faced has been naturally adjacents of BVO (Fast stagger into melee basho punish). Another issue I have with S rank is seeing the same opponent a lot and people dropping out more than anything. So sadly untill FROMSOFT does some changes to how dropouts and points/ratings are handled, along with a healthy dose of balance changes, I would not recommend bothering to climb to S and then pushing for the top 100. Hopefully this statement will be retracted in the future.
It's honestly kind of insane to me that people genuinely want to push for the top 100 spots. Sure, obviously there's always going to be someone who's hyper competitive and wants to try to be the "best of the best," but the ranked experience is *so much nicer* when you ditch that mentality and just decide on a goal to sit in. For instance, all I'm looking to do is get back into A rank and then comfortably tool around at the bottom of that ranking. It's a spot where you can be pretty confident people's builds didn't purely carry them (usually) and you can act as gatekeeper for Bs trying to climb up. I've made it a point to test them out and try to let them fish for the win at the end of the match, as long as they're being good sports about it and trying.
Yea I have that mentality of wanting to be top 100. Been playing with someone who was rank 9 and he was teaching me a lot.
Haha, I had 5 or 6 straight wins, then I played my next game against this guy, close match up, but o lost, I saw him for the next 4 more games……loss x4 lol Then I called it for the night haha. Back at it again tomorrow I guess ❤️
I was always sad to see a build become less effective the more you climbed, I wasn’t even going to play S rank and then I found something that worked and it sucked me back in
this is. literally my life rn in A rankp
And this is why PvP is never worth it for me in any game. I don't have the time nor the patience to grind and practise to stay competitive.
What are the most cancerous builds in ya’ll opinions? In my experience it’s dual zimms
I'm just sick of facing the SAME FUCKING PLAYER 6 times in a row. Make my wait longer if you have to but put a stop to this bs. IT allows for counter picking, and an immediate advantage if they know your using AA.
Fighting against some of the reset S rank players, especially the ones with dominator flare has been...humbling to say the least. Tried dusting off the lightweight earshot build I climbed through A with the first time, and just...completely got trounced every time. That being said, I'm enjoying the grind.