Aggro Meta

[Dracosx]

Anyone else tired of the constant aggro meta where all forces aside from 1 squad are deployed on one side? I'm seeing it almost every game and i'm basically dropping the game because of it.

I understand why its effective but I don't like constantly playing against it.

[Under_JollyRoger]

No, it got better in the last weeks with the last patches.

[Arakasi]

You really gotta mention what MMR you're at when you make a post like this. Metagame is very different at different levels. Aggro was already not in a good place before the patch at a high level and then they moved the round 1 deployment zone back by 2, so I don't see a world in which it suddenly exploded in popularity.

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by Arakasi:

You really gotta mention what MMR you're at when you make a post like this. Metagame is very different at different levels. Aggro was already not in a good place before the patch at a high level and then they moved the round 1 deployment zone back by 2, so I don't see a world in which it suddenly exploded in popularity.

Ah. I'm just 1100-1200 MMR. I see it constantly. Its not just steel ball aggro either but basically everything lol

[Arakasi]

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Originally posted by Arakasi:

You really gotta mention what MMR you're at when you make a post like this. Metagame is very different at different levels. Aggro was already not in a good place before the patch at a high level and then they moved the round 1 deployment zone back by 2, so I don't see a world in which it suddenly exploded in popularity.

Ah. I'm just 1100-1200 MMR. I see it constantly. Its not just steel ball aggro either but basically everything lol

I could understand why it's popular at that level, where it seems easy to get away with "cheese" strategies to tempo out a game against a player that doesn't know better. But I would encourage you, if you want to improve, to investigate strategies which defeat aggro and fortify yourself against it. It can be just as fun and dynamic as any other strategy.

[Jey]

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Anyone else tired of the constant aggro meta where all forces aside from 1 squad are deployed on one side?

Drop one stormcaller on the other side to insta-kill the defenseless tower at the start of the turn, then strengthen the side the enemy is focused on, knowing that they'll lose their tower at the beginning of the turn.

Either they'll get destroyed by the insta-tower death, or they'll have to move stuff to protect their tower.
But since YOU already have stuff on that side, you'll still win, and you forced them to split a bit their forces, lessening the damage on their main flank.

[Zx-]

man so many people on this forum are just wanna be elitist ♥♥♥♥♥

[glythe]

Originally posted by Dracosx:

I understand why its effective but I don't like constantly playing against it.

The patch moved to address this slightly by removing the first few rows for the initial turn.

[KashanCzechs]

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Anyone else tired of the constant aggro meta where all forces aside from 1 squad are deployed on one side? I'm seeing it almost every game and i'm basically dropping the game because of it.

I understand why its effective but I don't like constantly playing against it.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SOFT.

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by Jey:

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Anyone else tired of the constant aggro meta where all forces aside from 1 squad are deployed on one side?

Drop one stormcaller on the other side to insta-kill the defenseless tower at the start of the turn, then strengthen the side the enemy is focused on, knowing that they'll lose their tower at the beginning of the turn.

Either they'll get destroyed by the insta-tower death, or they'll have to move stuff to protect their tower.
But since YOU already have stuff on that side, you'll still win, and you forced them to split a bit their forces, lessening the damage on their main flank.

A lot of the time their stall units are close enough to where that won't work. Also storm callers are kind of a bad investment to be a front line like that. It might work and potentially get you a round but i'd say more often than not this would be a no go. The most luck I tend to have with rush strats like these is rushing an early vulcan or using scorps against steel balls. Maybe dropping stuff on their flanks like counter steel balls\crawlers.

The main thing is the rush strat are very adaptable and NOT actually cheese but just a very aggressive opening that sets the tempo. I realize its basically a secondary way of playing outside of deploying squads equally on each side.

A lot of strategy games in general turn into a meta of playing for tempo (once they've been out long enough.) I mean most RTS games start out with rushing people until both sides are good enough to where that doesn't work anymore. (Terran Ball in old starcraft 2 for example). Or stuff like Drush in AoE2 or fast castle into knights (not quite a rush per say but still early-ish aggression). Also examples like Hearthstone of building direct damage cards or cards that can attack immediately upon deployment Basically you set a strat and make your opponent adjust to you constantly.

Sorry for my rant - it does boil down to a skill issue in the end - it can be frustrating to adjust to these strats until you finally find a way to deal with them consistently. I'm not good enough to be at that point yet.

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by Noisy Toy King:

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Anyone else tired of the constant aggro meta where all forces aside from 1 squad are deployed on one side? I'm seeing it almost every game and i'm basically dropping the game because of it.

I understand why its effective but I don't like constantly playing against it.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SOFT.

I'm not familiar with the terminology. Is that saying i'm soft for not wanting to deal with these strats or that i'm making my statement too softly? (Or both lol)

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by glythe:

Originally posted by Dracosx:

I understand why its effective but I don't like constantly playing against it.

The patch moved to address this slightly by removing the first few rows for the initial turn.

I didn't know this. I'll have to check into that.

Thanks!

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by Arakasi:

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Ah. I'm just 1100-1200 MMR. I see it constantly. Its not just steel ball aggro either but basically everything lol

I could understand why it's popular at that level, where it seems easy to get away with "cheese" strategies to tempo out a game against a player that doesn't know better. But I would encourage you, if you want to improve, to investigate strategies which defeat aggro and fortify yourself against it. It can be just as fun and dynamic as any other strategy.

Yeah its not really cheese. It is a legit strat. I think its just very rewarding and requires more of an understanding of the game than I have to deal with. I'm bad but I feel like i'm losing to something that isn't exactly "good" per say either. Low risk, high reward maybe?

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Originally posted by Arakasi:

I could understand why it's popular at that level, where it seems easy to get away with "cheese" strategies to tempo out a game against a player that doesn't know better. But I would encourage you, if you want to improve, to investigate strategies which defeat aggro and fortify yourself against it. It can be just as fun and dynamic as any other strategy.

Yeah its not really cheese. It is a legit strat. I think its just very rewarding and requires more of an understanding of the game than I have to deal with. I'm bad but I feel like i'm losing to something that isn't exactly "good" per say either. Low risk, high reward maybe?

Ok so if you realize that it's a skill issue, why not just git gud?

And what you are describing is called noobstomping. The risk/reward directly correlates to your inexperience. It's not necessarily as rewarding as you think.

[Dracosx]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Originally posted by Dracosx:

Yeah its not really cheese. It is a legit strat. I think its just very rewarding and requires more of an understanding of the game than I have to deal with. I'm bad but I feel like i'm losing to something that isn't exactly "good" per say either. Low risk, high reward maybe?

Ok so if you realize that it's a skill issue, why not just git gud?

And what you are describing is called noobstomping. The risk/reward directly correlates to your inexperience. It's not necessarily as rewarding as you think.

Thats a pretty low effort post - just pointing that out. Playing aggressive can be used as a standard opening and you can adapt as you go. You can deploy on the flanks to expand aggression or mix up units to where you are hard to predict. Its obviously not just a noob stomping strat since i've seen streamers using it at 2K ELO. If you're calling them bad well you probably call EVERYONE bad.

[Tungdil12]

Dealing with aggro strats is an art all on its own, and really not easy. You need to learn to anticipate your opponents moves, like for example at what point he will try to pull your chaff away or target your other tower so that you can protect against those moves.
In addition aggro strats are normaly vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, this cam disrupt their plans as well which will help.

Apart from that there arent a lot of general advises I can give you, since it really depends on the specific strat being played. Just try to counter it as hard as you can once you see it. And if it doesnt work, try out some counters in the testing grounds until you find a good solution.

Edit: You can use the movement beacon to let your chaff not be pulled to the side, even if cancelled it changes the targets of units. Just mess around with it a bit^^