| 1 | [[quoteright:248:[[Videogame/MarvelVsCapcom3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sentinel-vs-sentinel-3_707.png]]]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:248:"We are the Sentinels! It is our destiny to command this game!"]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | [[folder:Action-Adventure]] |
| 7 | * ''VideoGame/GhostwireTokyo:'' You get many more charges for your wind attacks than for water or fire (ratio is about 6:2:1), which does not encourage experimentation beyond "spam wind until it's dead." |
| 8 | [[/folder]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[folder:AR Games]] |
| 11 | * Vaporeon in ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' had a reign of terror on the 0.29.0 versions of the game onward, because it was a MasterOfAll - fast and sturdy, with an easily spammable and damaging Water Gun that meant battles could be won by mindlessly tapping the screen. On top of that, it was relatively easy to raise, evolving from a common {{mons}}ter for 25 candies (instead of 50, like for most top evolutions), and the random nature of Eevee's evolution could be bypassed by [[EasterEgg naming it "Rainer", guaranteeing a Vaporeon]]. Snorlax and Lapras were similarly powerful, but much more rare. For the 0.31.0 update Niantic nerfed Vaporeon by rebalancing the attack damage calculations, cutting Water Gun's attack power and boosting attack power of underperforming monsters. Vaporeon's still very strong, but you're not likely to see it sitting on top of every gym you pass any more. |
| 12 | ** Similarly, most gyms even now contain at least one Dragonite - though harder to rear up than Vaporeon, its maximum CP of 3500 means it often rises to the top of gyms immediately, so that trainers have to plow through up to nine other monsters before they get to yours. Since an update that changed CP totals and buffed it heavily for certain Pokemon, Rhydon's now a gym staple for the same reason. |
| 13 | ** The release of [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Generation 2 Pokemon]] into the mix has added two new ubiquitous monsters, Tyranitar (a 3670 maximum CP puts him at the top of Gyms easily) and ''Blissey'', who's at 0.29.0 Vaporeon levels. [[StoneWall Having twice the health of its nearest rival and a scary-high Defense stat]] means [[GameBreaker there's nothing else in the game which can touch it as a defender...]] so far. |
| 14 | ** Now that the GO Battle League has been introduced, allowing players to battle each other online, the different leagues have been dominated by one or two Pokemon each. Great League is the most diverse, but most teams usually end up running an Azumarill (high HP, charge moves that can hit almost everything else for super-effective damage) or Registeel (extremely tanky, charge moves can kill almost everything in one hit). Ultra League is the stomping ground of Giratina, and Master League is owned by Metagross and Dialga, both of which carry the Steel subtyping to ensure they don't take much damage. Dialga, though, takes it a step further: it has Steel/Dragon typing and one of the most dangerous fast moves in the game, meaning it can chew through almost everything else and ''nothing'' (bar other Dragons, usually Dialga itself) serves as a hard counter to it. Niantic therefore recently introduced the Premier Leagues, where legendary Pokemon can't be used, ruling out things like Dialga, Giratina and Registeel. Azumarill and Metagross are still powerhouses, though. |
| 15 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Ingress}}'', organized players rarely use Very Rare Shields (60% damage reduction), AXA Shields (70% damage reduction), or either of the "virus" items (flips one Portal's alignment and prevents that kind of item from being used on the same Portal for one hour) because they're TooAwesomeToUse, instead banking them for Anomalies (competitive city-wide events that influence the game story) and other major operations such as massive region- or country-filling Fields, or donating those items to people who can attend such events if one is not able to do so themselves. Posting about using them in any other situation may get you scolded for wasting such valuable items. |
| 16 | [[/folder]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | [[folder:Card Battle Games]] |
| 19 | * ''VideoGame/AnimationThrowdownTheQuestForCards'' has two types of player hero variety: |
| 20 | ** Expect to see a lot of PayToWin-based players using premium heroes [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Zapp Brannigan]] and [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Consuela]]. Zapp is a versatile JackOfAllStats who can buff his entire deck's attack, heal low-health cards and deal additional damage with his punch ability, while Consuela is a powerful tank who's good at stalling by healing her entire deck at once while lowering the entire enemy team's attack. |
| 21 | ** FreeToPlay-based players will usually use [[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Tina]], [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad Roger]], [[WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill Dale and Bobby]] because none of them have abilities that require specific show cards to activate, making them versatile for a variety of decks. |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'': |
| 23 | ** While the game encourages deckbuilding, you can expect the entire Ranked Mode ladder to consist of nothing but the top meta decks. It's simply easier to Google whatever deck works best and copy+paste that. It's especially bad when the top deck is Aggro, since those decks tend to take [[AttackAttackAttack a lot less nuance]]. On a related note, any time a new set is released, only about 5-10% of the new cards see any play. Exceptions to this rule are because the set is a GameBreaker. |
| 24 | ** Arena's draft style is ''supposed'' to force the player to make educated decisions about their archetype. Most players get around that using mods like [=HearthArena=], displaying statistics that compare your choices and discuss synergies for your deck type. Even top-tier Arena players advocate for mods like that, since even if you live, breath, and eat Hearthstone, there's no way for you to exactly how well X bad card works compared to Y bad card and whether your deck favours one or the other. |
| 25 | ** In Battlegrounds, Nightmare Amalgam was considered the undisputed best minion in the game. The game mode revolves heavily around tribe-based synergies, and Nightmare Amalgram can be targeted by ''all of them''. It was available as early as Tier 2, it benefits from every [=AoE=] buff and is the quickest and easiest way to get a minion with Divine Shield, Taunt, ''and'' Poisonous, and just as a kicker, at that time it's the ''only'' dragon in the game that Zoobot and Menagerie Wizard could buff. Every single deck wanted Nightmare Amalgam and it was the backbone of every single strategy in the game. Blizzard eventually removed Nightmare Amalgam from the game, which caused a ''huge'' shake-up in the meta. |
| 26 | * As ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'' is a card game, the symptoms of Complacent Gaming Syndrome match those of physical trading card games. At high-tier Ranked modes or during Grand Prix events, you will eventually begin to see the most popular deck much more frequently as you get matched with people striving to win to raise their score, with the occasional stray deck specialized to counter whatever's most popular. Unlike its sister game ''Hearthstone'', this problem can even persist into ''unranked'' games, because all Daily Missions require the player to win games rather than just play through them, and so even in unranked mode one can expect the presence of whatever deck would give the fastest and most convenient win. |
| 27 | [[/folder]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Fighting Games]] |
| 30 | * Around 70% of all ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' players use [[{{Shotoclone}} Ken]] and 20% use Sagat. This was for a fairly simple reason: Ken, as a {{Shotoclone}}, was the easiest character to pick up and use, had access to the Hadoken for pressuring an opponent, and had the best version of the Shoryuken, which covered a lot of vertical range, meaning it could be used to counter an enemy trying to advance. This led to the infamous "[[http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/streetfighteriv-howtoken.gif Flowchart Ken]]" playstyle--stay in the corner, spam fireballs, and Shoryuken when they approach. Ken was never considered top-tier in tournaments, but the sheer ease of use of the playstyle, along with being ''really'' unfun to play against, made him very unpopular in online matches for those using any other character. |
| 31 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'': |
| 32 | ** The game only carried over Ryu and Ken from the previous games. 75% of all players of the first release used Ken (Shinryuken super), 20% used Ryu, and 5% used someone else. It got a little better in ''Second Impact'' and ''Third Strike'' once players realized the new characters had a lot of potential. |
| 33 | ** Even so, high-level TournamentPlay almost always consists of the top-tier fighters (Chun-Li, Ken, and Yun) with the occasional Akuma in the mix. There's a reason ''3rd Strike'' has its ''own'' nickname (''Chun Fighter III: Ken Strike - Yun for the Future''). |
| 34 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha 3'': |
| 35 | ** Of the three [=ISMs=], expect majority of players to use V-ism for its game-breaking custom combos. With the right setup, just about any character can do massive damage and even set up infinite combos. Whatever benefits X or A-ism have are overshadowed by the sheer freedom and power that V-ism brings. The only character that can work with the other [=ISMs=] is Dhalsim, who is a such a Main/GameBreaker himself that he can choose any ISM and be top tier. |
| 36 | ** In terms of characters, expect to see lots of Akuma, Ryu, and Sakura thanks to them being easier to play compared to other top tiers in ''Alpha 3.'' Funnily enough, this is one of the few ''Street Fighter'' games where Ken ''isn't'' the most played character, as he's objectively worse than the three aforementioned [[Main/ShotoClone ShotoClones]]. |
| 37 | * ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'': |
| 38 | ** Found a tally of character usage of over 4,000 matches, [[http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2010/sep/26/ssf4-character-usage-numbers-over-4000-matches/ which you can see here.]] Ryu and Ken make up over 1,000 of them. Apparently, the stranglehold of these two is weakening... |
| 39 | ** Apparently this effect can even be ''preemptive'': a good number of ''Super Street Fighter IV'' players said that, if the ''Arcade Edition'' of the game were released on consoles, Evil Ryu and Oni [[spoiler:Akuma]] would be heavily overused in online battles, and thus argued against a console release for the sake of keeping the online playable. Oddly enough, when the ''Arcade Edition'' did come to consoles, this didn't happen - if anything, the online community actually diversified. |
| 40 | ** Although discussion afterwards suggested that with Yun being top tier AND a braindead mixup character to boot (easy way to get in, divekick, instant reversal AND command throw? Why yes please.), ''SSFIV AE'' tournament preparation will either be about training your Yun, or figuring out how your character can deal with Yun. This was eventually lessened in ''AE 2013'' and ''Ultra'' with Yun getting nerfed, although the Edition Select in ''Ultra'' has ''AE'' Yun in all his infamous glory. |
| 41 | ** ''SSFIV 3D Edition'' on the 3DS introduces a control mode in which you can set special moves, Ultras, and Supers to single buttons. You can also make it so unless you're pushing a button or being thrown, you autoblock. This does wonders for charge characters, who no longer have to contend with pesky charge times before they can do any of their moves. Needless to say, unless you do a particular search for players who DON'T use this control method, at least half your fights in ''[=SSF4=] 3D'' online are going to be against Guiles doing walk-forward Sonic Booms and Flash Kicks. The other 49 percent are going to be against Ryu. |
| 42 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' |
| 43 | ** As series tradition, Ken was by ''far'' the most used character online, especially in early seasons with his massive burst damage. Even with more characters added in throughout the game's life, Ken is a ''very'' common sight online. |
| 44 | ** After his buffs, Kage became popular on ranked matches. |
| 45 | ** And as of ''[[UpdatedRerelease Championship Edition,]]'' Luke became a VERY common sight. He's a ShotoClone and a MasterOfAll, with insane damage, lots of moves that are safe on block, two of the best V-Triggers in the game, and advantageous matchups across the board. |
| 46 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighter6'': |
| 47 | ** Ken, regardless of level of play, will be a common matchup. ''6'' buffed Ken to being a MasterOfAll with lots of tools for any situation, and a simple yet effective high/low/throw mixup game that all players need to respect. |
| 48 | ** Luke and Juri are also common sights online. Luke is a ShotoClone with fantastic damage and pressure and greatly benefits from the new Drive System and Modern Controls. Juri has a simple mixup game and has lots of combos and can quickly overwhelm any opponent she faces. |
| 49 | * ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'': |
| 50 | ** [[AIBreaker For some reason]], the computer in ''Soulcalibur III'' doesn't seem to be able to block a retreating vertical attack, or the double swing A+B attack, from an Iron Sword Create-A-Soul character. It's too easy to just use that one class and attack throughout the game. This then bites you in the rear when human opponents easily dodge and clobber you while you're using what's a fairly slow and very telegraphed attack. |
| 51 | *** Additionally, the Katana discipline. Forward B+K will baffle AI 90% of the time, and it sets them up for your mid-air attack throw perfectly (just avoid the katana that gives you added knockback, as it throws off the timing). As long as they don't get a cheap shot on you, you are guaranteed to win against all but the most extreme AI. |
| 52 | ** Players who have played the series since ''Soul Edge''/''Soul Blade'' will often pick Seong Mi-na, Voldo, Siegfried or Mitsurugi when they play one of the new ones. In the first game, a lot of people played as Li Long, and whilst some like using his replacement Maxi, a lot of players preferred Li Long due to his better defense. |
| 53 | ** In ''Soulcalibur IV'', a lot of people use either Maxi, Kilik or Cervantes. |
| 54 | *** Many custom characters are based on Nightmare, Kilik and Siegfried's styles. Kilik's style being the most common. |
| 55 | *** Playing online, nearly every one of the high ranked players plays as Sophitia. She looks like a pushover... but frequently annihilates you before you have the chance to get a move in. |
| 56 | *** This becomes so commonplace, a "counter-intuitive" strategy is forming: pick someone else. Even if you're absolutely horrible with them, there's at least a 1-in-3 chance that the person you're fighting is ONLY used to "top-tier" characters and suddenly gets waylaid by Astaroth. |
| 57 | ** As of ''Soulcalibur V'', a very large chunk of the online population uses Natsu. |
| 58 | ** Expect plenty of Kilik and Siegfried online in ''Soulcalibur VI''. |
| 59 | * ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'': |
| 60 | ** From ''3'' onwards, Eddy/Christie has been this trope due to their easy combos, [[SkillGateCharacters Skill Gate status]] aside. Earlier in the series it was usually Jack or Kazuya and later on it became increasingly Mokujin due to the fact people want to show they can beat you with any character on the roster. Most people playing ''Tekken 3'' for the first time either went for Jin (he's on the box) or Yoshimitsu (he has a sword). |
| 61 | ** The Eddy/Christie thing was mostly applicable at ''Tekken 3'''s release, but they do have their flaws. Eddy telegraphs his attacks, follows the same pattern for 80% of his moveset and has some massively glaring weaknesses in his combos that are sometimes overlooked if you aren't careful. |
| 62 | ** In terms of modes, Time Attack has been around since ''Tekken 2'' but hardly anyone uses it. |
| 63 | ** Survival and Team modes are also much under used, but not to the extent of Time Attack. |
| 64 | ** ''Tekken 4'' is the epitome of this trope in this series. Jin Kazama is in a league of his own in this game, and half of the cast are nothing but shells of their former selves. The only consistent counter to Jin is Steve Fox, who is an entirely separate can of worms that spans the subsequent games up until his nerf in ''Tag 2''. |
| 65 | ** ''Tekken 5'' fanatics would prove mathematically that playing with anyone but Nina, Steve, or Bryan Fury was a waste of time. |
| 66 | ** ''Tekken 6'', despite being an objectively more balanced game, is an even worse offender, with the competitive metagame consisting of Bobs, Lars', Steves and Laws. The Evo 2011 ''T6'' Grand Finals had the final matchup be... Bob vs. Bob. Can anyone spell B-O-R-I-N-G? |
| 67 | ** Play ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'' online and expect to see these teams show up a lot: Jun/Asuka, King/Armor King, Marshall Law/Forest Law, Jack-6/Prototype Jack and any combination of the Mishimas, Capoeira users, Devil Jin, Lars and Paul. |
| 68 | ** Dr Bosconovitch ever since players learnt that the ''slide across the floor on his ass'' move could take out most players of average skill who couldn't work out how to counter it. |
| 69 | ** ''VideoGame/Tekken7'' introduces several new faces and with that accusations of being SkillGateCharacters taken too far. Common targets for this are Katarina Alves (due to powerful [[ButtonMashing button-mashable]] strings that are hard to break up) and Shaheen (tricky, hard to punish attacks and a strong offense to go with it). GuestFighter [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis Lucius Caelum]]'s release on the console versions has also incurred this reaction (caused by easy to use lows and an inordinately long reach for a ''Tekken'' character, what with using melee weapons in a game where most only have their arms and legs). |
| 70 | ** Going back to Bob's dominance in ''6'', ''Tekken 7'' season 3's DownloadableContent character Leroy Smith was seen as a massively overpowered character that people flocked to in order to pad their win record. Evo Japan 2020 featured a field of ''six'' Leroy Smiths in the top 8 (even Bob's infamy only capped out at four players). The final character, Fakuhmram, also gained some notoriety in the twilight months of the third season (but not as much as Leroy Smith). |
| 71 | * ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' gives us Sol Badguy and Chipp Zanuff. Sol is meant to get in the opponent's face and beat them to death, while being mostly ineffective at long ranges. Chipp Zanuff is a FragileSpeedster who in the hands of a skilled player will be nigh untouchable. The relative ease of playing these two characters means that most of the roster is ignored in multiplayer. |
| 72 | ** ''Xrd'' players in Japan seem to favor Faust and Ramlethal Valentine (who both have gigantic weapons and whose primary battle strategy is "fill the screen with crap"), while no one plays as Bedman, a highly technical character whose moves require a lot of thought in placement. |
| 73 | ** In ''Xrd -REVELATOR-'', Faust is still fairly prominent, but Ramlethal has dropped off the face of the earth after being nerfed. She has since been replaced by Millia Rage, who can terrorize opponents with her insane mixup game and safe blockstrings for pressure. Returning veteran Johnny has also become quite popular due to his long range pokes and strong pressure. |
| 74 | ** In ''Strive'', May became the new scourge of online matches in the lower brackets because a lot of players don't know how to deal with the Totsugeki/Mr. Dolphin spam. Imagine reliving the days ''[[VideoGame/BlazblueCalamityTrigger BBCT]]'' Jin "Ice Car" spam, but even more spammable and harder to punish, while also having to deal with massive counter hits. Ramlethal is also popular in the early meta thanks to her high range, corner pressure, and low execution requirement. Sol dominated ''every'' bracket for a long time because not only was he a beginner-friendly JackOfAllStats, he was a borderline GameBreaker. |
| 75 | * ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2''. |
| 76 | ** Every team will include Cable and take advantage of his BFG special. |
| 77 | ** Him, Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel are so overpowered they've earned the FanNickname of the 'Four Gods'. Other commonly used characters include Psylocke, Strider Hiryu, Doctor Doom, Cyclops, Iron Man, Tron or Captain Commando (This game has a ''lot'' of characters, by the way), most of them used solely for one overpowered assist move. Apart from the button-mashing ''du jour'' Cable, heavy-hitters like Doom and Magneto require [[DifficultButAwesome great skill and handling]] to reap their rewards; this lends them a sort of exclusivity. |
| 78 | * ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3''. |
| 79 | ** In the early days of vanilla, every team has Dante, Deadpool, and/or Wolverine in it. ''EVERY. Freaking. Team''. Dante and Deadpool are particularly used by new players because they share similar mechanics, as is X-23 due to button bashing as she's so quick. Wolverine was more likely to be used by more advanced players who can pull out ridiculous combos with him. You can also expect the ridiculously powerful Akuma, or the ridiculously fast and strong Wesker to frequent a large number of teams as well. |
| 80 | ** Sentinel is back, and just as obnoxious as before. His extremely powerful Sentinel Force assist made him a common pick in high-level and his easy execution made him a popular pick online. People had initially nicknamed the game "Sentinel vs. Sentinel 3: Fate of Two Sentinels" because of the number of people picking him. However, the number of Sentinel players ''did'' drop when a patch {{nerf}}ed his health (formerly the highest in the game; where most of the other characters rank in somewhere between 1 million and 850K, he had 1''.3'' million) down to 900K, and his presence in competitive became nowhere near what was in ''[=MvC2=]'' once everyone figured out his major weaknesses. |
| 81 | ** Phoenix is an extremely powerful CrutchCharacter for high-level players, simply due to how powerful a lvl-3 X-Factor Dark Phoenix is. Who needs health when you can kill the opponent with several seconds of sustained BulletHell? |
| 82 | ** ''[[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3]]'' introduced us to the monster known as [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Vergil]], who quickly went to put a stranglehold on the meta with an iron grip. Vergil is a [[MasterOfAll Swiss army knife of a character]] who is good no matter what team comp or position he's placed in. |
| 83 | ** ''Ultimate'' also inexplicably buffed two already strong characters: [[Videogame/MegaManX Zero]] and [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Wesker]]. In fact, a team including Vergil, Dante, and Wesker (not necessarily in that order) was so popular that you could make a DrinkingGame. Wesker fell out of flavor for more zoning based teams, while Zero maintained his status as one of the best characters in the game. |
| 84 | ** Most high level teams will have Dr. Doom in them. While Doom isn't the best character by himself (he has good damage and zoning, but struggles when he's by himself), he really shines as a support character with three incredibly useful assists and the ability to do infinite combos off of team aerial changes. Doom/Strider, Doom/Vergil, and ''[[BulletHell Morridoom]]'' are very powerful shells at high levels at play. |
| 85 | ** Want to use Chris, She-Hulk, or Iron Fist on your team? Better bring Spencer along. Spencer’s B assist, Wire Grapple (Slant Shot), is the only assist in the game that restands the opponent. The three aforementioned characters have their combo routes gutted (Iron Fist more so than Chris or She-Hulk) if their opponent isn’t standing, and Spencer is the ''only'' character who can allow them to get max damage. |
| 86 | * ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium'': |
| 87 | ** The game will gladly let you create a team up to four fighters with the Free Ratio system. You're given four Power Points, and are allowed to use those points any way that you want. In theory, you could have four Level-1 characters, one Level-4 character, or any combination inbetween. In practice, most players use either a 1-1-2 or 1-1-1-1 combination. Even though a Level-3 character has great attack and defense, and a Level-4 character is nearly a PhysicalGod, relying on only one strong character means that it takes only a few slip-ups before your opponent can wipe you out. |
| 88 | ** Any competitive team in Capcom vs. SNK 2 will be using A-groove (for high damaging custom combos and roll cancelling), C-groove (ease of use plus the ability of roll cancelling), or K-groove (for just defends and being the easiest groove to use). N-groove is used, but not as much as those three. Hardly anyone uses S-groove or P-groove as their mechanics aren't as powerful as the other grooves and only so many characters can take advantage of them. |
| 89 | * The ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' series has Ragna and Jin, the two main rival characters. They aren't particularly overpowered -- in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger Calamity Trigger]]'', Nu-13 is far superior to both of them, and in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Continuum Shift]]'', Litchi and Bang were in no way hard to find online. In terms of mechanics, expect to see every Ragna and Noel use the Stylish (combos are performed automatically) style. You'll be seeing a ''lot'' of the same combo from the both of them. |
| 90 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' is not safe from this. Play online, and enjoy fighting some of these six characters again and again: Ryu, Ken, Kazuya, Jin, Rolento, Raven. And after the 2013 patch, Hwoarang became incredibly overused. |
| 91 | * ''UFC Undisputed 3'' purports to have over 40 different fighters, but good luck trying to find a match which is not against the top 4: Jose Aldo, Georges St. Pierre, Jon 'Bones' Jones or Cain Velasquez. |
| 92 | * ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' might as well be called "Injustice: Bat-Family Characters Among Us" after launch. ''Everyone'' used either Franchise/{{Batman}} or ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}. In this period of time, the most overused character online was ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}, since it's pretty easy to run away and spam people with his guns. |
| 93 | ** Expect lots of Franchise/{{Superman}} and [[Franchise/MortalKombat Scorpion]] as well. |
| 94 | ** After the version 1.5 patch which nerfed Superman, Scorpion, and Deathstroke, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and ComicBook/MartianManhunter then became the most used characters, because they're now on top of the tier list. |
| 95 | * ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' players push back against this trope by "softbanning" (a tacit agreement between players to not pick a character in order to encourage diversity, although there is no hard rule stating it) the ''Super Street Fighter II'' ("Old") version of Sagat in ''Super Turbo''. His Tiger Shot space control is simply too good and results in large swaths of players using him if there was no prior understanding. Akuma, on the other hand, is explicitly banned for being [[GameBreaker plain unfair]] (and this still remained true when ''HD Remix'' attempted to balance him but either did nothing or made him even worse). |
| 96 | * In the first season of ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' online play, it was nearly impossible to find a team that ''didn't'' include Perfect Cell! Come the second season, ditto regarding GT (kid) Goku. |
| 97 | ** Post-Season 3 added Lab Coat Android 21, and she came with a [[GameBreaker very funny super]] that debuffs the ''entire enemy team's damage for the whole match'' by 21%, which can also be comboed into and costs just one bar to use. And just how do you counter such an insane move? [[FightFireWithFire Another Lab Coat Android 21]]. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[folder:First-Person Shooters]] |
| 101 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 2'': |
| 102 | ** Go into the server list and find a section without any "Strike at Karkand 24/7 Infantry Only" servers. Good luck! |
| 103 | ** Or Wake Island for the vehicle whores. This also extends to that map's debut game, ''Battlefield 1942'', and every version of it included in later games as well. |
| 104 | * For ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' the map of choice is Camp Gibraltar. It's a meat grinder of an assault map with lots of close-in fighting and very limited vehicle availability. |
| 105 | ** Try to find a team that isn't mostly made up of players armed with rifle rockets and the Voss; the former basically being the 'noob tube' common in these games and the latter being a [[MoreDakka very high rate of fire]] assault rifle. Sure it's the least accurate, but both sides can use it (so you don't need to learn the ins and outs of the faction differences) and it slings lead so fast that most enemies will be dead by the time they realize you're shooting at them, especially in a close-quarters combat situation like Camp Gibraltar. |
| 106 | * Despite being a rather well-balanced game overall, ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany 2'' players will tend to pick very similar loadouts within each kit, comprised of the weapons considered to be [[GameBreaker OP]]: |
| 107 | ** Assault players often use the 40mm Grenade attachment exclusively, often with explosives-buffing specializations. Known as 'noob-tubing' due to the perceived lack of skill required by short-range almost-instant [[OneHitKill one-hit kills]] with splash damage. Oh, and they also supply their own ammo. |
| 108 | ** The AN-94 is very popular, due to the fact that it does the highest damage out of all the assault rifles and fires an accurate 2-shot burst. Made even deadlier when paired with the 4x scope and magnum ammo. |
| 109 | ** Engineers use the Carl Gustav rocket launcher like a deadlier 40mm grenade. With their [=SMGs=], the most popular choices are the [=PP2000=] since it has hardly any recoil, or the SCAR-L carbine. Both with Magnum ammo of course, like everyone else in the entire world. |
| 110 | ** Medics use the M60 machine gun with magnum ammo specialization. With the last patch, medics began to explore other options, although the M60 is still extremely common. |
| 111 | ** Everyone uses the M1911 handgun, or, post-patches, the REX revolver and tracer dart gun. |
| 112 | ** Pump action shotguns equipped with slug rounds are perfectly stats-matched (damage-wise) with bolt-action sniper rifles. By which we mean a one-hit kill to anyone at less than 20 metres. |
| 113 | ** Recon doesn't seem to have any clearly best weapon, but the sniper fans tend to gravitate towards the GOL rifle - yes, with magnum ammo. Failing that it's always the VSS, which is both silenced and full-auto to allow for more Assault-like play. |
| 114 | ** Bad Company 2's developers had been (attempting) to adjust the balance of the game's weapons. As of the last patches: the M60 and M1911 are no longer kings, the AN-94 rifle is up while the M16 rifle is down, the [[FanNickname Hot Carl]] is still popular, and--of all things--the ''tracer dart gun'', a weapon that does not damage players directly and is only useful when fired at a vehicle that a friendly Engineer can see, is apparently too powerful. Like any other attempt to mess with complacent gamers, these balancing attempts result in a degree of fan backlash. |
| 115 | ** Just take your class's weapon with the highest damage rating and add a sight and Magnum ammo to it to make it do even more damage and be more accurate. |
| 116 | ** This game can be a rather blatant example of people running around with the same loadout despite how the game demands a more reasonable mix, mentioned near the top of the page. If a squad (or squads) on your team is filled with one class, it will likely be filled with Recon. That rarely ends well, especially if your team on the offensive in Rush. |
| 117 | ** It has 3 major configurations like this: "24/7 Atacama only" for tank lovers, "24/7 Arica Conquest" as it's the closest thing to 24/7 Karkand [=BC2=] has, and "24/7 Rush Isla only". Which is weird since Isla on Rush is one of the worst maps in the game because 90% of the attacking team will be Recon. Atacama has since mostly been replaced by "24/7 1000 Ticket Heavy Metal", alongside quite a bit of 24/7 Harvest Day. |
| 118 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' also has some extremely common loadouts, which can be split from before the March 2012 patch and after it: |
| 119 | ** Assault: Pre-patch assault players used the F2000, AEK-971, or the FAMAS due to their high rates of fire. Post-patch the FAMAS's handling and ammo capacity changes nerfed it into oblivion and the F2000 is useless beyond 20 meters. The [=M16A3=] with Heavy Barrel now reigns supreme. |
| 120 | ** Engineers gravitate to the A-91 or the [=M4A1=], again, due to the high rate of fire, while some go for the SCAR-H + ACOG + Heavy Barrel for long range damage. Post-patch, players that prefer a good medium-range weapon with minimal recoil will likely use the [=SG553=] with the [=AKS-74U=] being configurable as a very good short-ranged hip fire weapon. |
| 121 | ** The Support class, with its variety of well-balanced guns but no superior weapon, inverts the trope. The class only contains {{Scrappy Weapon}}s that ''aren't'' used like the QBB, [=MG36=] and Type 88, which heavily suck compared to the rest. |
| 122 | ** Damn near every Recon use the [=M98B=] since it's the most powerful sniper rifle in the game, though after Back to Karkand the L96 is seeing some action since it shoots like a laser and it doesn't require as much grinding to unlock as the [=M98B=]. |
| 123 | ** Pre-patch the only semi-auto sniper rifle of any use was the M39 EMR: very accurate, quick to fire and could be used in medium range as a 'designated marksman' style of play. Post-patch, the SKS has been buffed to the stars to the point it can compete with assault rifles. |
| 124 | ** Gun attachments: Pre-patch nearly everyone used the Foregrip/Suppressor combination to significantly reduce recoil to the point hardly anyone used bipods or heavy barrels. Post-patch, the Heavy Barrel is the new hotness for its very large spread reduction while aiming down sights with only a minimal vertical recoil increase. Foregrip and suppressor usage depends on the situation rather than being no-brainer attachments and they generally only get used for very close quarter combat. |
| 125 | ** Gun sights are a matter of preference, but out of the various versions, the main ones used are the Kobra, US Red Dot Sight, ACOG 4x, US Holographic, and the 8x or 12x for sniper rifles. Pre-patch everyone used the IRNV sight due to it lighting up enemies in obvious bright orange tones without taking forever to sight in or zooming in so far as to be useless in close range, though nerfs eventually came to make the sight take time to fade in on aiming and limiting the range at which enemies' heat signatures showed up - but it still sees a decent amount of use anyway, since for some reason the nerfs came on a case-by-case basis through scripts applied per map, rather than applying them directly to the sight, so [[GoodBadBugs it still works how it used to]] on maps where they forgot to apply those scripts. |
| 126 | ** Post-patch pistol changes mean the best players will use one of three sidearms: the G18 Suppressed, a fully-automatic pistol with a high rate of fire that is equivalent to the [=MP7=] at very close range and is used for players who want a true 'backup' weapon; the 93R burst fire pistol, which received a major buff in the patch for those who feel they need a more controllable gun than the G18; and finally the .44 Magnum, which is a two-shot kill due to a buff giving it a 1.25 damage multiplier to the chest, used by players who are extremely accurate and will pick and choose either their primary weapon or the Magnum based on the situation. |
| 127 | ** [=MP7=] with Laser + Extended Mags is ''the'' hip fire weapon. Its hip fire is often ''more'' accurate than many guns when aimed down sight and it is quicker to get bullets on target because you're not taking time to aim. Its only drawback is that the extended mags mean you only have less than a handful of reloads, so playing a support kit or having the Ammo perk is mandatory. |
| 128 | ** [[HighTierScrappy The USAS-12 with Frag rounds]]. It's basically a [[GameBreaker handheld IFV cannon]]. It's super accurate, has no "bullet" drop, kills in 2-3 direct hits, creates splash damage if it misses, and (since the USAS-12 is an automatic shotgun) is extremely spammable. Anyone using it will be met with much gnashing of teeth, and it's so bad that it was severely {{nerf}}ed before eventually becoming a battlefield pickup only in ''VideoGame/Battlefield4''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rFGMatKLM This video]] is an only slightly exaggerated demonstration of what it was capable of. |
| 129 | ** Camouflage-wise, Spec Ops Black as it hides your heat signature from infra-red optics. It's also useful for hiding in buildings since the interior is usually dark. |
| 130 | ** In team deathmatch or domination modes, expect to see only assault player running around, with the ability to heal themselves and dislodge campers with grenade launchers. |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 1}}'' |
| 132 | ** During the beta and upon the game's release, most players immediately favored the [=M1911=] as their sidearm of choice, due to it being the sidearm most familiar to modern gamers and its availability for all classes alongside the Luger, FN [=M1903=] and Borchardt C93. |
| 133 | ** Scout classes are very popular thanks to the bolt-action/lever-action rifles. In spite of their lower fire rate, the single action rifles are capable of killing a player in one hit. Special mention goes to the DifficultButAwesome Martini-Henry, which is essentially a OneHitKill machine, despite its outdated design. |
| 134 | ** The AT Rocket Gun also gains its popularity for being a {{BFG}} available for the Assault class at the very beginning and being another OneHitKill machine due to being an anti-tank weapon, although it requires your character to be prone before firing it. |
| 135 | ** Battlefield history repeats itself again, as mostly every person who plays Assault regularly will agree that the Automatico, the weapon with the fastest fire rate in the game at 900 ROF, is the best choice for any Assault player worth their salt on account of the sheer amount of bullets it can throw up before anyone can react. Targets up close get 'chainsawed' as the community puts it, and medium ranged weapons can still get outgunned with proper burst firing. |
| 136 | ** Any Assault players who don't use the Automatico would almost always be using Hellriegel, which offers an impressive [[MoreDakka 60 bullet magazine]] and has decent accuracy at range. |
| 137 | * In ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' and ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'', most players will go through both of these games piling on all of the upgrades for their wrench/drill and only taking out something else when they ''really'' need to (for example, to kill a Big Daddy). ''2'' even encourages players to do this with a Gene Tonic that significantly lowers the EVE cost of plasmids but also has the "drawback" of not letting you use any guns. You know, the guns you weren't using anyway. |
| 138 | ** Most of the multiplayer community for ''2'' use a combination of Electro Bolt and the Elephant Gun in order to pull off easy one-hit-kill headshots on stunned players. The Elephant gun was later replaced. Now everyone at level 50 uses the Crossbow and Electro Bolt with a perk that boosts headshot damage. If you play the multiplayer expect to be stunned then quickly headshotted many times. |
| 139 | ** While the backup weapons and plasmids vary a lot of players use a Grenade Launcher for secondary weapon and Geyser Trap for secondary plasmid. |
| 140 | ** In the very beginning of the multiplayer's lifespan, practically everyone used nothing but Grenade Launchers with heat-seeking rounds. Anyone who didn't hadn't unlocked them yet. |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'': |
| 142 | ** For weapons, the Shock Rifle and Sniper Rifle tend to be used more often because of their capabilities as the only {{hitscan}} weapons which actually [[ATeamFIring hit where the crosshair says they will]], have the potential to OneHitKill an enemy (the former via either Shock Combo or simply blasting them into hazards, the latter via [[BoomHeadshot removing the head]]), and even outside of that will bring unshielded enemies from their normal maximum health to dead in two or three shots depending on the game. Fortunately though, most weapons ''do'' see some use since each is meant for a particular situation, and Siege finally gives players a good reason to use the otherwise-pathetic Bio Rifle (can splash-damage buildings and basecores from a distance, unlike the Minigun which is only effective at close-range). |
| 143 | ** The Rocket Launcher. In the early games it was an absolute terror that could load up to six rockets at a time and fire them either normally, or dump them as grenades to bounce around corners and ambush players. Later games removed the grenade mode and reduced the number of rockets you could load up at once to three since even that is still overkill, but it did next to nothing to make it any less used because you can still ''lock on'' to enemies with your full three-rocket barrage of guaranteed death. |
| 144 | ** Most weapon mod full conversions like Arkon tend to fall into this trap. In Arkon specifically, the recharging thermal blasters you start with are obscene. Only the long recharge time keeps them from being out all the time. Similarly, the sniper version, which replaces the lightning gun... insane instant damage as long as the reticle is on the opposing player/vehicle. Makes mincemeat of flying vehicles and anything that's not a tank. Now imagine how this plays out in normal vehicle-less deathmatch. |
| 145 | ** Facing Worlds (CTF-Face) and [=Deck16=] are this for the entire series, so much so that every game has included remade versions of them - heck, through bonus packs even the game that introduced Facing Worlds ended up with ''three'' versions of it. This in spite of Facing Worlds, despite its popularity, being considered one of the worst-designed of all the maps, primarily for how easy it is to spawn-kill people from anywhere on the map (which, naturally, only one of the three variations in its debut game does anything about). |
| 146 | ** A quick look at the last known snapshot of the ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' [[http://web.archive.org/web/20180724054912/http://ut2004stats.epicgames.com/index.php?stats=maps stats page]] before its closure - dating to nearly the end of 2018 - and the [[https://www.youtube.com/user/UT2004Community/videos UT2004Community Youtube channel]] (dedicated to footage from high-level tournament matches) during its last days reveal that you'll have a huge probability of finding a Deathmatch, Duel, Clan Arena or Team Deathmatch match taking place in DM-Rankin, DM-DE-Ironic, DM-1on1-Roughinery, DM-[=Deck17=], DM-DE-[=GrendelKeep=] and some third-party remakes (including the "Fixed Editions" and "FPS editions" of these already mentioned maps). Outside of those modes the most popular modes are CaptureTheFlag and Onslaught, with [=CTF-FaceClassic=] and ONS-Torlan at the helm. |
| 147 | * ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'': |
| 148 | ** Especially in Versus mode, people seem only use Uzis and Auto Shotguns while the Assault Rifle falls down the middle. Using a Pump Shotgun or especially the Hunting Rifle will get you [[StopHavingFunGuys scolded by many people who only care about winning]] - until you start [[BoomHeadshot sniping smokers and hunters waiting on buildings in the face.]] And trying to jump on you. And boomers trying to fall on you. Then they complain about how much it sucks to get killed before they can get anywhere near you. The Hunting Rifle has also become more accepted in Versus since the release of The Sacrifice DLC, where it was modified to match its accuracy in the sequel. Similarly in the sequel, the most used weapons are either Auto Shotguns or AK-47s with a laser sight (if one can find them), simply because of how powerful they are. |
| 149 | ** People would also pick one particular spot to hold out during finales because the common infected would trickle in through just one or two spots, making them easy to pick off. The sequel changes it where you either have to be on the move or how the infected can come in from many more places to discourage camping. The new special infected were also made to address the issues of camping, one of which can completely deny an area to the survivors for several seconds (Spitter) and another which will barrel the entire team down if they're all standing in the same spot (Charger). |
| 150 | ** In one Scavenge map, there is an exploit where you can throw a pipe bomb just so and it will blow several gas tanks closer to you. This map shows up in random matches a lot. And since Scavenge is just the Dead Center finale turned into a game mode, the Dead Center map is very familiar to everyone from the get-go, and is also picked often. |
| 151 | ** Valve acknowledged how players would always pick one gun and stick with it thanks to tons of ammo piles in the maps, so they changed it in the sequel where the ammo piles were much less common and the only way to keep firing was to pick up a new gun entirely. It partly worked, partly just caused a lot more use of pistols or the new melee weapons, especially if the player has a good gun (read: the AK) with a laser sight. |
| 152 | ** Allegedly, this trope is the reason the maps are [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom so linear]], with at most a few alternate paths that barely separate from one another; they were originally supposed to be much larger open worlds which, combined with the AI Director, would offer a different experience every playthrough. However, somewhere along the line Valve realized that players would inevitably determine what the most optimal route through each map was and then never do anything else again, thereby rendering the open worlds pointless, so they decided against making them in the first place. |
| 153 | ** ''Survival'': |
| 154 | *** Despite how difficult it is when zombies and specials swarm you much faster than in a regular game, has this in the form of finding the most optimal corner or similar spot to camp in, spread all the gas cans and explosive cans to keep the infected at bay, and only moving to get health packs and/or ammo or if a Tank shows up. Despite patching to nerf the exploits, players will still find a spot where zombies suddenly can't reach you or stop trying to find you because you're considered off the map. |
| 155 | *** As noted above, the sequel introduces new special infected designed to completely break up the survivors so that camping is generally a bad idea. Valve also upgraded the AI Director where trying to cheat by going off the map or something similar where the zombies can't reach you [[NoFairCheating causes the director to spawn acid under you to force you to move back into play or risk going down.]] If the players manage to find a way to avoid this check, [[DevelopersForesight the director will then just literally fight fire with fire by cheating as well and directly damage the players over time]] (of course this is not completely foolproof). This forces players to actually try different strategies in every attempt rather than one end-all solution that may not even be fun for everyone playing. |
| 156 | *** The mutation Survival VS also gives a wake up call to people who still try to camp in one spot. Unlike the infected AI, who are not that complex or advanced, the infected players can see where you will hide and where you toss explosive cans out and will try to get around the plan, forcing players to actually move around to stay alive. |
| 157 | ** And for playing VS mode itself, there's the rushing tactic, where all survivor players blaze through the level, only stopping if there's supplies in the path or if they can revive a fallen player. This makes it difficult for the zombie players to keep up since they first have to find a place to spawn where they cannot be seen, and the move in for the attack while the survivors keep running ahead. Most players rush since hordes generally spawn behind the player and rarely in the front and there is a limit to how many zombies the game can have in the field. The ports of the ''Left 4 Dead'' maps have been adding rushing events, which magnifies this tactic. |
| 158 | ** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' has several game modes to choose from (Campaign, VS, Realism VS, Scavenge, and Mutation). Despite the several modes to choose from, people generally stick with either Campaign or VS modes, making it very difficult to find and form games in the other modes. Originally, Realism VS was a Mutation mode but had gotten enough popularity to warrant it as permament game mode. After it was added, player activity for that mode declined in favor of Campaign or VS. |
| 159 | ** Once Valve made all mutations playable from the get go, the TAAANK!!! mutation gets the most attention just because it's VS mode where all the infected players are Tanks. Alternatively, Versus Survival (which is self-explanatory) and Gib Fest (Campaign where the players all get [[MoreDakka M60s]] with [[BottomlessMagazines infinite ammo]]), both of which had the highest number of encore appearances when the mutations were weekly. |
| 160 | ** When it comes to modding the game, most modders dedicate their time to making different skins for Zoey more than they do for other survivors, since MostGamersAreMale. There's also at least a dozen mods that replace Rochelle with Zoey. |
| 161 | ** As for weapon mods, expect 90% of them to be new models and/or animations lifted directly from various modern-day and future-set ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games. |
| 162 | ** ''Left 4 Dead 2'' introduced Realism mode (campaign with tweaked settings for a better challenge) and Scavenge mode (a different flavor of VS mode), but most people ignore them in favor of campaign and VS. Realism VS mode was one of the first mutations introduced alongside The Passing DLC and was made a permanent game mode due to popular demand, but now no one ever plays it, going back to normal VS and campaign. |
| 163 | ** Same for the campaigns, in both the first and second game. While co-op players will play anything (though with clear bias towards custom campaigns over the standard ones), trying to find anything other than No Mercy, Blood Harvest or The Sacrifice in ''Left 4 Dead'' is not that easy. In the sequel, Dead Center is added to the mix and at least the other originally released campaigns are played more commonly, but still not as bad. |
| 164 | ** When ''Left 4 Dead'' got released, you even got kicked out of the game for not picking the Auto-Shotgun in Versus. That has thankfully changed since and the other weapons are also more commonly taken now. In the sequel, it was similar with secondaries - you were called a Noob for using dual pistols. |
| 165 | ** And on the off chance you ''do'' find a Scavenge game, 90% of the time it will be the No Mercy Rooftop. |
| 166 | ** For modding in general, expect to see a ton of custom skins consisting of mostly anime related media. Impressively, a great deal of these aren’t ripped from other games due to it not existing. The dedication of fandom at work. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault'': |
| 168 | ** The players get very tetchy when you try to use something other than an SMG or sniper. Rocket, rifle grenade, or portable turret? Overpowered. Shotgun or machinegun? Causes lag. |
| 169 | ** People didn't like the original shotgun because they became frustrated by less experienced players besting them, due to its short range stopping power. So the "hardcore" mod was introduced specifically to up the power of the SMG to ridiculous levels and drop the power of the shotgun, such that you were forced to [[ShortRangeShotgun jam it right in someone's face to ever hope to kill them]]. |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'': Nearly everyone used the [[RevolversAreJustBetter Bronco .44]], the [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Reinbeck]], and the [[MoreDakka Mac-11]] since all three are very powerful and cover both short and long distances. If a player has the Wolf Pack DLC, then expect to see a lot of appearances from the AK and the [[GrenadeLauncher GL40]]. |
| 171 | * ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'': |
| 172 | ** The game tried to avert the trope by limiting people to only two guns instead of three, and encouraging the use of weapon mods on their guns so players can always have something to switch with instead of sticking to one gun and never using anything else. This more or less failed in regards to high-level play, where primary weapons actually will vary depending on preference or necessity, but everybody only ever uses The Judge with a Shhh! suppressor for stealth/Dodge builds or the China Puff 40mm for loud. This backfired with the RandomDrop system via cards. Players may or may not earn weapon mods at the end of a heist and they quickly drifted towards playing quick heists like Jewelry Store and Four Stores so they can farm for weapon mods quickly and mod the hell out of their guns. All of the farming happened during the ''beta'' to boot. |
| 173 | ** Heists with large payout during the beta were also farmed, like Watchdogs and Rats, since players could easily earn half a million dollars on the highest difficulty and never be short of money to buy items and skills. |
| 174 | ** Rats also became the go to heist for LevelGrinding since it gives the same amount of experience points whether you cook the meth and grab money off the bus or decide to skip everything. |
| 175 | ** Several patches more or less resolved most of the above issues; certain mods can be obtained through achievements and you can complete daily side jobs to get a chance at a weapon mod. Money and EXP payouts were boosted across the board and a system was added to include experience bonuses to heists you haven't played recently and experience penalties to those you've played repeatedly, so people would have an incentive to try different heists instead of farming the most EXP efficient ones, though some still do that anyway. |
| 176 | ** The Silent Killer perk, which gave +30% damage to suppressed weapons, was hugely popular and most players suppressed all their weapons. Update 173 removed it however, presumably do to how obviously broken it was. |
| 177 | * ''VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege'' |
| 178 | ** Ash is picked on offense in basically every round of every match. Her gadget is incredibly basic, a breaching grenade launcher, and her secondary ability is either a breaching charge or flashbangs. However, her primary assault rifles have high DPS and low recoil. On top of this she's had a persistent issue with her headshot hitbox, which, combined with all of the above, makes her a popular choice with players who prefer to blindly rush in like they're playing ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''. |
| 179 | ** Jager has a 70% pick rate in all games even at high levels of play, due to his powerful and rare Assault Rifle on Defense, and his fire-and-forget Gadget which stops any thrown projectiles from getting past it. Despite multiple nerfs and several new Operators who offer abilities similar to his with a different twist, he remains a ubiquitous pick. |
| 180 | ** On the opposite end, Jackal, Mira, and Echo are near universally banned in ranked play. Mira offers a bulletproof one-way mirror which allows her to see incoming enemies and shoot them through walls, Jackal has the ability to briefly track enemies around the map from their footprints, and Echo has a pair of invisible drones which can fire concussive blasts. Mira and Jackal are banned typically due to countering the play styles popular with the aforementioned Ash players who prefer to rely on their reaction times to win gunfights and tend to walk straight into ambushes, while Echo is banned due to his ability to prevent Attackers from planting the bomb defuser with his drone's concussion blasts, forcing them to instead instead gather intel to find the location of him or his drones to win the round. |
| 181 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': |
| 182 | ** The game's "Stock" weapons (the weapons each class starts with upon installing the game: the Scattergun, Rocket Launcher, Medigun, etc.) were designed at the game's launch to be useful in the majority of situations, and, with a few exceptions, have remained the most reliable weapons to fall back to after over ten years of minimal rebalancing. |
| 183 | ** It eventually buckled to the competitive audience and added server options to disable absolutely ''every'' random factor in the game, including ones that are factored in to balancing weapons against their alternatives. Most servers with a large enough community will have these turned on. |
| 184 | ** The originally-informal, now-official 9-vs-9 Franchise/{{Highlander}} game mode averts this a bit, because as we all know, ThereCanOnlyBeOne of each class on every team, where players have to split their duties accordingly and work together efficiently. You know -- be a ''team'', like the game's ''title'' suggests. It was originally an out-of-game ruleset, but Valve eventually made it an official game mode in a patch. |
| 185 | ** Eventually, when the game went free-to-play, the log-in interface was changed to feature a "Find Me a Game" option in addition to the traditional server list. Since the system was impartial to map, many veteran players joked the mechanic was installed to put new players on solid footing with experienced ones because "New or old, no one plays Hydro". |
| 186 | *** You could easily be forgiven for thinking that there are only two King of the Hill Maps: Nucleus and Harvest. Lakeside and Sawmill will occasionally see some play, but Badlands, Viaduct, and Kong King are almost never played on. Likewise with 2Fort and Dustbowl. [[StopHavingFunGuys Certain players]] will complain that 2fort is only populated by {{Noob}}s, while they themselves can only be found on Dustbowl. Worse yet are the servers that only play ''one part'' of Dustbowl. |
| 187 | ** The community tends to only accept one good loadout for each class and that's it, regardless of how well anyone has gotten any of the other items to perform. For instance, if you don't use the Degreaser and Axtinguisher to puff and sting everyone, then you don't know how to play Pyro. That's right, [[PlayingWithFire the]] ''[[KillItWithFire Pyro]]'' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint is never supposed to kill with fire, ever]]. CGS can be weird sometimes. Of course, the combo has since been {{nerf}}ed to oblivion[[note]]After Tough Break, the Axtinguisher's downsides totally overruled the Degreaser's reduced bonuses, making the synergy virtually non-existent. Subsequent updates have buffed the combo again, but it's now only useful as a finishing blow rather than just taking out most of the enemy's health.[[/note]]. The Degreaser is still fairly infamous for being used by far too many Pyro players, as while it is the best "combo" weapon of the bunch, many Pyros who use it don't actually combo with it and resort to W+M1--something the Degreaser is designed to be terrible at. |
| 188 | ** Ask any Spy which watch they use, [[http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=11024 and about 80% of the answers will be Dead Ringer]]. Again, has been nerfed, and is now more of a tossup after the Cloak 'n Dagger got buffed. |
| 189 | ** By a similar count, unless you're playing Medieval Mode, any Medic is going to be running the Ubersaw. |
| 190 | ** The Crusader's Crossbow is infamous for being overused by Medic players, despite still being generally considered the best choice. This is because it provides a very unique advantage--that being, [[HealingShiv it can be used to shoot other players and heal them]], with the healing coming in a single big burst that increases at range rather than a continuous heal-over-time. However, what makes it infamous is that it's a little tricky to master the Crossbow (it has a slow firing rate and non-hitscan projectiles that arc), and many players try to use it before they've mastered it--or worse, use it even in situations where the Medigun would be much better. This can lead to the frustrating situation of a Medic repeatedly shooting at a critically-injured teammate at medium range with the Crossbow and missing repeatedly while their patient begs them to just switch to the Medigun. |
| 191 | ** Now applies to Mann vs Machine, apparently, there is only one proper class set up for each map, and if you try to use anything else, you will be met with anger. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IERRTAh90HA This commentary]] discusses the topic. |
| 192 | ** This is what "w+m1"[[note]]the keys for "move forward" and "attack"[[/note]] is all about in reference to Pyros, the theory is that inexperienced players would settle for having the flame thrower on at all times as the only tactic in game. |
| 193 | ** Some people also tend to settle up for one class and play it all the time, no matter the team setup and how much that class is needed now. This sometimes leads to frustratingly common situations where a quarter or more of your team are [[BoomHeadshot Snipers]], making it weaker overall in a close-quarters fight as there are more people supporting the frontline and less actually fighting the incoming enemies. This also tends to happen to really good [[DifficultButAwesome Demomen]], as they mastered the art of using the Stickybomb Launcher in close-quarters fights and can win a one-on-one duel with anyone. Since they are so powerful and mincemeat everyone, they just never want to play any other class. |
| 194 | ** A problem with new players (especially during the early days of Free to Play) is that they tend to default to the Sniper or Spy during a game. Why? Because the former is more similar to traditional FPS gameplay (scoped rifle and a fully automatic weapon that requires no windup) while the latter effectively let you waltz into the enemy base without much fear. Unfortunately both classes are designed as support classes, which most of the time won't actually be on the front lines completing the objective. |
| 195 | ** And in competitive 6v6 play, the meta is almost completely centered around the Soldier, Scout, Demoman, and Medic (with the occasional switch). The three former combine [[LightningBruiser mobility, versatility, survivability, and high damage,]] while the Medic keeps them all alive and occasionally drops an Ubercharge. This is also because competitive play favors [[AbridgedArenaArray 5CP-style maps]], which encourages both teams to be moving constantly on offense and defense. Engineers, Heavies, and Snipers occasionally get switched to for brief periods or on attack/defense maps, and Pyros and Spies might as well not exist. |
| 196 | ** [=DeGroot=] Keep, the game's only Medieval Mode map, removes the vast majority of ranged weapons from player use. Because of this, about half of any given team in such a map will be Demomen (the best melee class) equipped with a shield and boots, and most of the other half will be Snipers and Medics (the only classes with reliable ranged weapons in the Crusader's Crossbow and Huntsman bow), with the occasional Soldier or Heavy (primarily when a fight has become too much of a stalemate for the Demomen to break alone). Scouts are only really useful for capping the first two points as BLU, and either disappear or become long-range supports during the battle for the courtyard. And while Spies are in theory much more powerful than in normal gameplay (due to difficulty of effective spychecking and being restricted to fighting at the Spy's best range), they're all but useless on offense because the enemy team can attack from beyond the reach of anyone but a Demoknight or skilled Scout. |
| 197 | ** Most Attack/Defend Control Point maps are linear in nature, with two points that must be captured in order. The attacking team is not allowed to capture Point B until they first capture Point A. Gravel Pit, on the other hand, is non-linear and has A and B both available for capture right away, with a Point C that stays locked until both are captured. The clearly intended way to play the map is for both teams to divide their forces between the two points, but literally nobody does this. Defending teams always heap 100% of their defenses on B, the easier of the two to defend, and simply abandon A to the wolves. This in turn forces the attacking team to all attack B, with maybe a token Scout sent to A for a quick capture before joining the rest of the team at B. In practice, this amounts to this unique map turning into just another linear Attack/Defend map with two points that must be captured in order, same as any other. |
| 198 | * ''[[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Star Wars: Jedi Knight]]'' series: |
| 199 | ** The no-Force, saber-only game setting. There are ranged weapons and Force powers in the game, but one could be forgiven for thinking they're only in the singleplayer mode, given that at ''best'' a server will only allow the use of first-level Jump and maybe Speed to make navigation a bit easier. Map selection likewise has next to no variety: the Italian community favors Bespin, while everybody else marathons Death Star in an unmodded game and Duel of the Fates for ''Movie Battles II''. |
| 200 | ** As for actual in-game combat, in ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast'' everyone just does the Strong style jumping slash, an attack which is AwesomeButImpractical at best due to heavy, unblockable damage, but also being so slow that it's useless except as an ambush tactic - most one-on-one duels in that game consist entirely of both players alternatively using or dodging that one attack until one of them either gets the timing right to hit the other before they can roll out of the way or gets it so wrong that they jump ''into'' the other guy's attack. ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'' has ''slightly'' more variety - everyone still spams just one attack, but which attack that is depends on their preference, with a good chunk foregoing the old jumping slash in favor of the rolling stab or the mouse1+mouse2 combos for double or dual-bladed sabers. |
| 201 | * ''Videogame/StarWarsBattlefront'': |
| 202 | ** Expect 90% of the servers you see in ''[[VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefrontII Battlefront II]]''[='=]s browser to be Mos Eisley, Hero Assault, the only non custom map where you can play as a Jedi/Sith all the time. It's nearly impossible to find a server above 25% its maximum player count that ''isn't'' running on this map and game mode. The Xbox version of the game didn't help, considering its DownloadableContent almost solely consisted of adding the mode to even more maps. |
| 203 | ** And while in there, expect it to be a clusterfuck of Count Dookus and Emperors for the Force Choke + Force Lightning tactic, or the Force Choke + Stab Tactic. If playing as a Sith, expect a lot of Force Pull + Lightsaber from the enemy team. Expect to only see Aayla Secura for the Heroes' side and Darth Maul on the Villains' side, who are two of the only hero characters who use two lightsabers. And don't even dream about seeing a hero character who doesn't use a lightsaber. |
| 204 | ** Good luck finding a Skilled player that isn't using either the Rocket Launcher or Sniper, for the reasons of high damage and you don't have to lead your target respectively. And if you do, it will only be because you are playing the sequel, where everybody uses the Engineer with its instant-kill-at-decent-range shotgun (rather than the first game's weird and hard to use grenade launcher) instead. |
| 205 | ** Did you know that it has a CaptureTheFlag mode? Probably not, because it almost never appears on most servers and the few ones that feature it usually have a rule of "no CTF", meaning that players don't capture flags and just kill each other the whole match until the time limit runs out or the server admin feels like changing the map. They do this because CTF has two advantages: no total kill limit, and you cannot capture command posts (which are used as spawn points, and are not very fun to have captured by the other team). Some other servers don't use CTF so that there is a kill limit, but instead have a "no CP" rule for the normal game mode. |
| 206 | * ''{{VideoGame/Tribes}} 2'' has the map [[GeniusBonus Katabatic]]. It even made its way into ''Tribes: Ascend!'' |
| 207 | * ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'': |
| 208 | ** The maps [[{{Qurac}} de_dust, de_dust2]], and to a lesser extent, [[{{Mayincatec}} de_aztec]]. |
| 209 | ** ''Counter-Strike'' and its players are inextricably associated with the AWP sniper rifle and the [[FanNickname deagle]] handgun. |
| 210 | ** ''Counter-Strike'' has a total of 24 guns that can be chosen from (6 pistols, 2 shotguns, 5 [=SMGs=], 6 assault rifles, 4 sniper rifles, and 1 light machine gun) but basically all are inferior to the 3 mainly used guns: The AWP sniper rifle (1 hit kills), or the [=M4A1=] and AK-47 assault rifles, as these latter two are the most powerful and accurate by far of all the guns. Anyone using any of the other weapons, except possibly the pump shotgun, usually gets called a {{noob}}. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty2'' has Toujane, Tunisia. Also notable that [[GameBreaker almost everyone used bolt-action rifles and nothing else because of how much better they were]] - one shot nearly anywhere on the body was a guaranteed kill, while even the semi-auto rifles [[ArbitraryGunPower firing the exact same rounds]] were bee stings in comparison. |
| 212 | * ''VideoGame/{{Call of Duty 4|ModernWarfare}}'': |
| 213 | ** There's bound to be at least one 24/7 one-map-only server for every map in the game, but Killhouse, Broadcast, Crash and Crossfire are the most popular, the former two for allowing extremely quick and rush-tastic gameplay while the latter two allow for a lot of sniping. The PC version also sees a notable amount of Shipment, with the combination of its increased player count (50 players per server, versus about 18 on consoles) and the fact that Shipment is meant for one-on-one matches allowing for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK4WXnfOiLU retardedly-glorious amounts of grenade spam]] and a ton of kills to be made with air support if you can survive longer than about one second. |
| 214 | ** Weapon variety, likewise, sees every class of weapon get some use, but within those classes only one specific weapon is ever used. Snipers are the most notable: due to a bug, attaching an ACOG scope to the [=M40A3=] [[GoodBadBugs raises its base power slightly]]. Combine with the Stopping Power perk and the usual increased damage with a body- or head-shot, and you've basically got a shorter-ranged, slightly-less-powerful version of ''Counter-Strike'''s AWP: OneHitKill on anyone, even if they have the Juggernaut perk that normally cancels out Stopping Power (chest and above is still a one-shot kill), which damn near ''everybody'' uses constantly. Any other weapon variety usually depends on the user's playstyle - if they like to rush and get in close, they're using the P90 for its fast fire rate and high capacity (usually with a suppressor so nobody can see them on the map from the gunshots). If they prefer blowing people up with the grenade launcher, they attach it to the AK-47 for the rifle's versatility and the faster switch time to its unique launcher (this got so bad that almost every ''[=CoD=]'' since has made the AK or its equivalent the ''last'' weapon unlocked, despite it in itself not ''actually'' being noticeably overpowered). The Desert Eagle is the only sidearm that gets any use barring the rare situation where a silenced secondary is needed, due to being the only one to deal greater damage than the others, with the only variation being that players at the highest level use the [[BlingBlingBang gold-plated one]] to show off (this sometimes gets combined with the [=MP44=], an assault rifle that is likewise only used for showing off since the only unlocks it gets are camo patterns for dealing headshots, or as a stepping stone to getting the golden AK to show off even more). The light machine guns somewhat avert this, as while most users are drawn to the RPD with its very low recoil and extremely open sights, the M249 and M60 still see a noticeable amount of use, the former for its [[MoreDakka incredible rate of fire]], faster reload than the other two, and still having better ironsights than the M60, while the latter because it deals the most damage and also has easily-controllable recoil owing to its slower rate of fire; the only complacency in this case is that everyone uses the ACOG because for some reason the scope actually lets the machine guns sight in faster. The shotguns, meanwhile, are near-universally ignored except as an improvised sidearm with the Overkill perk or when the aforementioned Killhouse comes up, thanks to their {{short range|Shotgun}} making using one as a primary weapon essentially a death sentence in most maps; on the rare occasions they are used, it will nine times out of ten be the semi-auto M1014 instead of the pump-action Winchester 1300, even though the latter deals more damage per shot and has more ammo per magazine. |
| 215 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar'': |
| 216 | ** The game has two cooperative modes: co-op campaign, or [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies Nazi Zombies]]. Absolutely ''nobody'' plays the former - even if a public lobby is hosted in co-op campaign, it will inevitably switch to Nazi Zombies before the game starts. Treyarch entirely abandoned campaign co-op for their next two games in favor of Zombies mode due to this, not bringing it back until ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' seven years later, while the other developers were forced to include their own variation of Zombies due to its popularity. |
| 217 | ** Weapon variety is more or less entirely focused on the submachine guns, thanks to the time period meaning that bigger fully-automatic weapons are heavy and better used with the bipod as an emplaced weapon. All the submachine guns likewise only ever have one attachment anybody uses with them - if they're not using a suppressor on a Type 100 or MP 40, then they're using extended mags on a Thompson or [=PPSh=]. The only sniper rifles ever used are the Springfield and the PTRS, since they're the only ones that don't require grinding out kills to unlock their scopes. The SVT-40 is the only semi-auto used for non-sniping purposes since [[ArbitraryGunPower all of them are pathetically weak anyway]], but it at least has the bonus of next to no recoil. Machine gun use is restricted to either the FG 42 if they like fast movement, or the MG 42 if they prefer using the bipod, due to both having the fastest rate of fire and, again, low recoil despite that. |
| 218 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' has Nuketown and Firing Range, to the point that there's an actual ''game mode'' based around playing solely on the former, and the latter was remade for one of its sequel's DLC packs. Try to find a team that doesn't have everyone using some combination of the FAMAS, Galil, or AK-74u. Anyone who isn't using one of those three is using the AUG instead. |
| 219 | * ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2 Modern Warfare 2]]'' in spades. |
| 220 | ** The only two primary weapons used online are the UMP and the ACR, both because [[GameBreaker they shoot straighter than an arrow and make better snipers than the sniper rifles]], with the UMP also dealing damage comparable to or better than any of the assault rifles (the ACR is on the weaker end of the scale in return for ''no'' recoil at all). Usage of secondaries is restricted to either machine pistols or shotguns, both with dedicated long- and short-range options; for short range, they prefer the G18 or Model 1887 Akimbo to spray a lot of lead in a short period, while for longer ranges they prefer the M93 Raffica (due to being so powerful that, with Stopping Power, a single burst kills even at extreme ranges) and SPAS-12 (due to an extremely glitchy range that makes it the only shotgun usable past 7 feet). As for Perks, expect to see the tele-knifing Commando on almost every class, often combined with Marathon and Lightweight for faster, infinite sprinting to boot. |
| 221 | ** Now the go-to setup is the "God Kit": an underbarrel grenade launcher for an assault rifle, which is so predictably accurate that the fan nickname of "Noobtube" is more recognizable to the fanbase than "grenade launcher", Claymores for a cheap lazy kill, One Man Army so the Noobtube keeps firing and you can double up claymores to guarantee a kill regardless of player health or protection, and Danger Close, just to double the radius of the insta-gib explosives being spammed all over the map. This isn't even the worst part, as this kit is intended to get lots of kills so the player can spam Apache helicopters or AC-130 gunships, which get even more kills... The game is nearly unplayable if you don't have this gear equipped, or some kind of pathetic game breaking hack, simply due to the large number of players using it. |
| 222 | * ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3 Modern Warfare 3]]'': |
| 223 | ** A ton of people (especially those who are new or have recently prestiged) use the [=G36C=] with [=M320=] and Red Dot Sight, since it's a late-unlocked weapon [[ATasteOfPower available from the beginning through a default class]]. Barring that, the [=PP90M1=] (also available in the default [=G36C=] class for earlier use), the [=MP7=], and the Type 95 are the most popular primary weapons, with [[GunsAkimbo dual FMGs]] (all the machine pistols are ridiculously good, but the FMG is a cut above even that standard) as everybody's secondary, since despite multiple attempts at nerfing them all four [[GameBreaker still kill people in half a second at nearly any range]]. Beyond this most people still swear by the 6.8mm version of the ACR, thanks to its increased damage for minimally-heightened recoil, or the Mk 14, due to its relatively clear sights and low recoil alongside higher per-shot power and a very generous fire-rate cap. The few people that dip into the light machine guns focus on the L86, which combines the belt-fed guns' hundred-round capacity with the mag-fed ones' faster reload, and usually pair it with the thermal sight since that combination almost completely negates the recoil and makes anyone not using the Assassin perk light up. As for maps, ones that pit Delta Force vs. Spetsnaz are the most popular because of their tendency to be the smallest and quickest maps to play, particularly Dome. |
| 224 | ** Infected mode does a lot like ''Left 4 Dead'' - since the only win condition for the survivors is to, well, survive until time runs out, survivors will often pick one specific hard-to-reach area to hold out from and stay there until the infected manage to swarm it and kill everyone. The downside is that most survivor-preferred areas are ''very'' cramped - one good Semtex or Bouncing Betty from the initial infected could potentially kill half the team, and later infected that manage to get in can easily stab multiple people in a row before anybody really notices. Once the mode became official, though, some of this went away - unofficial servers running the mode had everyone get to [[GoodBadBugs glitchy areas that were really hard for infected to get at]], but when playing the mode through IWNET, attempting to go to such areas as a survivor [[NoFairCheating has you drop dead and switch sides without warning]]. |
| 225 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'': |
| 226 | ** A patch for the game saw developers leave their jobs, and in some cases, the entire industry. They were made uncomfortable by waves of death and rape threats (for both the devs and their families) [[FelonyMisdemeanor because the patch slightly lowered a few guns' rates of fire.]] |
| 227 | ** The new version of Nuketown is just as popular as expected. The counterpart for Firing Range is now Hijacked; like the previous game, these two are so popular there's actually a separate lobby, "Nukejacked", based entirely around playing Nuketown and Hijacked on every mode. |
| 228 | ** The small size of most maps has lead to [=SMGs=] being the dominant weapon type. Particularly with both the fact that the excellent [=MP7=] from ''Modern Warfare 3'' is now the first weapon of its type, unlocked from the beginning, and the expansion of Create-a-Class making it easier for a player to use both a LaserSight and foregrip and make SMG spray-and-pray more viable in a lot of situations than aimed fire from stronger but slower and heavier weapons. Barring the [=MP7=], almost all of the [=SMGs=]s see a noticeable amount of use. The Vector K10 has very light recoil even with Rapid Fire (which can easily be negated with a Foregrip). The Chicom CQB fires in bursts but has zero delay between them, allowing for the best of both worlds between a full-auto death machine and a burst-fire marksman's weapon, on top of the same extremely clear sights as the FMG in ''[=MW3=]''. The Skorpion Evo gets one of the fastest reloads in the class, even before Fast Mags, as well as an extremely high rate of fire. The MSMC has the highest damage in its class and low recoil allowing for good use at range. The PDW-57, though with a lower rate of fire and more recoil than the P90 of old, still carries the most ammo per magazine, allowing it to compensate through larger concentrations of lead walls thrown at the target. |
| 229 | ** The same thing that makes the [=SMGs=] so good also allows for more prominent use of the otherwise ShortRangeShotgun[=s=]... but good luck seeing any of the semi- or full-auto ones (S12 has an excruciatingly-slow reload, M1216 has too-wide spread and a forced delay after every four shots, Executioner is just not good). Every shotgun user quickscopes with the KSG like it's a shorter-ranged sniper rifle since its slugs kill in one shot so long as you're within its max range, the R870 only seeing use if they don't have the KSG unlocked yet and/or they prefer having some leeway for missed shots. |
| 230 | ** As for those players using light machine guns, thanks to buffs they've received from prior games and the aforementioned expansion of Create-a-Class facilitating three attachments on a primary weapon, expect constant use of the Mk 48 and more rarely the HAMR with a Grip, Suppressor, and either the new Target Finder or the Dual Band Scope. |
| 231 | ** Assault rifle players tend toward the SCAR-H, since it has low recoil, slightly higher damage than the other full-auto rifles, clear sights and a ridiculously-fast reload time if you cancel out the animation as soon as your bullet count updates. |
| 232 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' |
| 233 | ** Players can expect to see plenty of people using the Gorgon. The Gorgon is an LMG which has an extremely slow rate of fire, but is so powerful that it can kill in 2 shots, guaranteed. That's only part of why it's good. The other part is that [=LMGs=] have practically infinite range, and the Gorgon has very little recoil, making it a perfect substitute for Sniper Rifles at long ranges. Just set up shop in a building with a good vantage point and start painting the (Nuke)town red. This eventually got so bad that the Gorgon was nerfed in a patch, and it has since disappeared from the face of online. A later patch buffed it again, but it still wasn't enough to make it viable. |
| 234 | ** For quite some time, the "Holy Trinity of [=SMGs=]" were the most popular weapons in the game due to their high damage, great range, and high accuracy. This trio consisted of the Kuda (an extremely well-rounded gun which has the effective kill range of most Assault Rifles), the VMP (this game's equivalent of the [=MP7=], a fast-firing gun with decent recoil and large magazine), and the Vesper (the fastest-firing SMG which was designed as an extreme close quarters weapon but ended up being able to shred opponents into pieces just as easily from medium range). All three of these ended up getting nerfed, but so did other [=SMG=]s. Now, with the rising prominence of fast assault rifles like the HVK-30, the entire SMG class faces extinction from the world of online. |
| 235 | ** As for secondary weapons, expect the majority of players to forego them in favor of a melee weapon, since regular QuickMelee is no longer a OneHitKill, but a standalone melee weapon like the Combat Knife is; on top of that is that it lets them show off, both from being able to close in to melee distance and because the Combat Knife is now locked away until the high levels rather than automatically equipped if you forego one or both weapons like in the last game, while everything else, save the "Prizefighters", is a RandomDrop from the Black Market. Failing that they'll have the NX Shadowclaw, whose sole balancing measure is that it too is a rare prize from supply drops - one hit kills at decent range, can be [[GunsAkimbo paired up]] to be more easily spammed in a tight spot, and can retrieve its own ammo if they miss. |
| 236 | ** Expect to see the following maps voted for constantly: All 4 of the beta maps (Combine, Evac, Hunted, and Stronghold), [=Nuk3town=], and Fringe. And expect to be playing on them for a long time because the new voting system allows you to vote for previous maps ''indefinitely''. |
| 237 | * Maps from the ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' series are remade in almost any other FPS, the most notorious example is [=Q2DM1=]: The Edge. |
| 238 | * In the ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' mod ''Weapons Factory'', Marines were the most common character class due to being heavily armed, and equally suited for defense and offense. Clan matches sometimes included one side fielding all Marines. As the various classes were nerfed and upgraded, other classes became more popular, but Marines remained the most popular choice. |
| 239 | * In ''Quakeworld'' duels, you would be hard-pressed to see anything less than the grenade launcher used as anything other than a last resort. Even the grenade launcher has a niche role (to flush people out or lock them in) - for 90% of the game, you will have the rocket launcher in one hand and lightning gun in the other. Possibly with a set of aliases to facilitate switching to the LG in a pinch, and switch back just as quickly. |
| 240 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' has several instances of this for various reasons. |
| 241 | ** The PC port of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' features 24/7 max vehicle (but no Banshees) 16 player CTF matches on Blood Gulch and nearly nothing else (this may be due to the fact that Blood Gulch is the only map available in the demo, which is more or less the only way to get the game on PC anymore). You will never see anything resembling an organized 4v4 game. |
| 242 | ** In general ''Combat Evolved'' multiplayer revolved around the original [=M6D=] Pistol which was able to kill players in three headshots. It tended to be the go-to weapon unless you were able to find a specialized weapon like the Shotgun, Sniper Rifle or Rocket Launcher, though the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle are able to counter it in close enough quarters. This was all because of a very late stage modification to its damage values, so late in development they failed to catch that it oneshots Hunters (as does the Sniper Rifle). |
| 243 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' multiplayer had less of this because players were unable to pick the specific gametype they wanted to play in matchmaking, as there were no public server browsers and the inability to vote for a new choice in map or gametype. What it lacked there, it more than made up for in the weapon department. In fact, it's accentuated for Halo 2's sandbox, as [[GunsAkimbo Dual-wielding]] is present, and weapons had to be adjusted so they wouldn't be two powerful when dual-wielded; it doesn't help that there are more weapons in this game — weapons which either serve the same arbitrary niche or just being plain useless in any competitive setting, overall. While power weapons still mattered, if players didn’t have a power weapon, they would '''only''' stick to the Battle Rifle, due to it taking only one more shot than the Halo 1 pistol to kill a player, and Halo 2 having much slower [=TTKs=], in general. Not only that, but the BXR button combo allowed players to almost instantly kill another player at close range, making the battle rifle the preferred weapon of the game over all. While Bungie refused to nerf in Halo 2, 343 wasn’t so down with the power. |
| 244 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' multiplayer generally skewed to Battle Rifle starts due to its use as a utility weapon (moreso in Halo 2, since the BR didn't have spread in that game), though it was still possible to get a game of Assault Rifle starts. Bungie compromised by starting players with Battle Rifle primaries and Assault Rifle secondaries in most gametypes. |
| 245 | ** ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', oddly enough, revolved around the Infection gametype. Players would break the map within a week of their premier and force the Infected players, equipped with only swords, to jump up to them or sprint over to them while raining bullets upon them. Players would play just for the opportunity to farm easy kills as a human against zombies. |
| 246 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'''s multiplayer originally revolved around the DMR (just as in Reach), as the Battle Rifle had been nerfed to have an identical kill time but lacked the range that the DMR boasted. The Battle Rifle was later buffed to its former glory, moving the meta game toward it in all but the biggest maps. Meanwhile, Big Team Battle/Big Team Infinity Slayer is typically the most populated playlist due to the confused nature of the rest of the game, which can't determine if it's ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' or ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''. |
| 247 | ** In general, ''Halo'' players primarily play Team Slayer and other variations, and the most used weapon in these games are mid-range pistols (Combat Evolved,) or rifles (every game after CE). Creator/{{Bungie}}'s internal studies showed that if any sort of objective-based game were introduced in to a playlist that the population would drop by 20% immediately and continue to bleed until it was emptied. If the average player didn't get to play exactly the gametype they wanted to twice in a row they would leave that playlist, never to return. Because of this both Bungie and their successors at Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries have concentrated on Slayer gametypes as opposed to Objective ones, much to the chagrin of some. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/BlacklightRetribution'': Pure [=HeloDeck TDM=] servers are amongst the most popular servers, but most 'Pure' servers randomly shuffle the map or gamemode to keep things from getting too complacent. There are also official 'Pure' servers for other popular or new maps and modes. Netwar can only be played on Offshore, and Siege can only be played on Nuken, which makes for artificial complacency since they can only appear in Pure Netwar/Siege or Pure Random servers. There's a pretty decent spread though so not ''everyone'' is doing the same thing. |
| 249 | * Multiplayer-only game ''VideoGame/ShatteredHorizon'' originally ''enforced'' this by including only one weapon to focus the game more around player skill. Shortly after release a patch increased it to five due to complaints. |
| 250 | * ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': |
| 251 | ** In competitive play, the super shotgun will be the weapon in your hands 70% of the time. 10% will be with the pistol as you respawn, and the other 20% will be equally split between the plasma rifle and [=BFG9000=] - both highly-regarded weapons in a deathmatch, and hotly contested. |
| 252 | ** Specifically while [=ZDaemon=] was still popular, it had [=MAP01 and MAP07=] (both the classic and [=DWANGO5=] versions[[note]]counts double for the fact that there were ''sixteen'' other DWANGO map packs with more than 300 maps across them all that the playerbase was steadfastly ignoring after its namesake hosting service died[[/note]]) on the vast majority of 24/7 servers, with very little deviation from this rule. Nowadays, you see mods like All Out War 2, [=WhoDunIt=], ''Videogame/MegaMan8BitDeathmatch'', and other mods dominating the Zandronum server listings. |
| 253 | ** Cooperative servers almost universally run ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' and nothing else, save maybe its associated level pack. |
| 254 | * ''VideoGame/Doom2016'': |
| 255 | ** On the single player side, the Super Shotgun and Siege Mode mod for the Guass Cannon eventually become the be-all-end-all weapons for short- and long-range, respectively. After a certain point, only a handful of other weapons get used outside of grinding for masteries and level challenges: the Chainsaw to get one free "large enemy" kill and the BFG for emergencies. Only bosses (of which there are very few) can consistently entice the usage of other weapons. |
| 256 | ** Initially, the Super Shotgun's immense up-close power is balanced by the fact that it uses up twice the ammo as the Combat Shotgun and has a long time between shots. As more ammo capacity upgrades and the reload speed upgrade are acquired, it handily eclipses the Combat Shotgun. Its final upgrade pushes it from "workhorse weapon" to "unstoppable", as it can now fire twice before reloading and each of those shots only uses up one shell, rendering the effectiveness at least double what it was before. |
| 257 | ** The Siege Mode mod for the Gauss Cannon starts out as DifficultButAwesome, as the powerful beam prevents all movement while it charges up and uses up a fair amount of ammo. The charge speed upgrade makes it easier to handle and the splash damage upgrade enables it to deal immense damage to multiple enemies so long as you barely miss them, making it the go-to ranged weapon if you're not being swarmed. The final upgrade enables the player limited movement while charging, pushing it into "mini-BFG with way more ammo" territory. |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'': |
| 259 | ** Prior to a patch that reduced the effectiveness of doing so, most online matches would include at least one player using The Bee shield and a multi-pellet weapon like the Conference Call shotgun. The reason for this being that amplify shields like The Bee add damage to your first shot if your shield is full at the cost of some of the shield energy. The Bee's amplify effect cost 0 shield energy, resulting in an extra 40-52k damage on ''every'' projectile you fire, which was added to ''each'' pellet or projectile. Did we mention The Bee would recharge in the blink of an eye? Sure, it has a quarter the capacity of most other shields its own level, but who needs shields when you turn everything into a fine pink mist in a single shot? |
| 260 | ** Post-patch, The Bee is still a very common thing to see. It doesn't add quite as much damage, and the amplify damage is split among all pellets fired so that it only adds a ''total'' of 40k or so damage per squeeze. It's also been given a longer recharge delay than most any other shield in the game. Multiplying your burst-fire assault rifle's damage by 6 is still pretty attractive though. As well, the patch only split the amp damage evenly between ''shotgun'' pellets. Other weapons like [=SMGs=] which fire multiple projectiles still get the full amp boost to each projectile - most people pair the Bee with the Sand Hawk now. |
| 261 | ** When people discovered "health gating" (a mechanic that prevents you from being killed in one hit as long as you are above 50% health), Moxxi weapons (which heal you for a percentage of the damage you deal) became very popular. If you don't have a Rubi (or a Grog Nozzle) with slag element on all of your characters (and one with a bayonet if you're playing as [=Zer0=]), [[StopHavingFunGuys you simply don't know how to play the game correctly]]. |
| 262 | ** A ''lot'' of people use a Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold. It's very strong even if your character doesn't get any boosts to explosive or pistol damage. |
| 263 | ** Salvador is generally considered a GameBreaker when specced for pistols and DualWielding a slag-element Rubi and a Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold. It's even worse if he's equipped with the Grog Nozzle. |
| 264 | ** The Two Fer Maggie was very popular before people discovered the Harold. It helped that it was very easy to farm, dropping from a boss that was guaranteed to spawn every time you loaded up the game, while the Harold dropped from an enemy that had a rare chance of spawning when you loaded up the game. When ''Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage'' came out and players could just buy Harolds from vending machines, that was the end of Maggie use. |
| 265 | ** Like all games where you get to choose which stats you gain as you level up, there is only one generally agreed-upon "correct" build for each class, and if you don't play with that build, you're a skill-less noob. |
| 266 | * ''VideoGame/AceOfSpades'' always had at least three servers hosting the "Pinpoint" map 24/7, but [[DefiedTrope the player-base rebelled against this trope]] and the map's fans would often be flamed mercilessly on the forums. Played straight with the rifle, however, which for a long time was ridiculously overpowered despite many attempts at rebalancing it. |
| 267 | * ''Videogame/PlanetSide 1'' featured customizable loadouts, allowing players to carry anything as long they had enough slots for the gun and its ammo. In practice, everyone carried the exact same loadout - a heavy assault gun (minigun, shotgun, or a energy cannon depending on the player's empire), a rocket launcher, [[HealThyself medapp, BANK armor-repair tool]], and maybe a couple grenades or a [[HollywoodHacking REK hacking tool]]. The only common deviation was for very specialized roles - snipers would carry two sniper rifles to [[LagCancel swap between shots]] and Engineers would carry no weapons so that they could carry a "[[MagicTool glue gun]]" repair tool and as much ammo as possible to repair their vehicle. |
| 268 | * In the video game adaptation of ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', expect to see the Hutchinson A4 '''a lot''' in Multiplayer. |
| 269 | * ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': |
| 270 | ** Players usually avert this pretty well, but like in most online shooters you will often run into TheLoad who will [[http://imgur.com/r0jq8Rb only play as a sniper no matter what the situation]], even if the team really needs a healer. Hanzo players in particular are infamous for refusing to ever play as another character. This may be why Blizzard introduced a healer who is also a sniper, but that didn't seem to fix the problem as she can't get [[BoomHeadshot headshots]], which is most likely why these people gravitate to snipers in the first place. Less often, you might run into people who will only play as Reaper no matter what the situation, but they're probably just trying to get onto [[https://twitter.com/ReaperNames the @ReaperNames Twitter account]]. |
| 271 | ** During the first year or so of the game, you typically wanted two supports (almost always Ana for her amazing solo heals and Lucio for his speed and healing boosts on top of both having spectacular ultimates for their team), two to three tanks (Zarya being a must here with the others being either Reinhardt or D.Va or both), and filling the remaining team slots with dps, Reaper being the go-to pick for that class due to his spectacular close range damage. Blizzard has tried to mitigate these problems with nerfs to Zarya's shields and Ana's ultimate, but the meta is still heavily reliant on tanks at the moment for numerous reasons leaving many doubtful as to Blizzard's balancing ability especially since in the same update where they nerfed Zaryas's shields they gave D.Va a heavy buff. As it is expect your team to express audible disapointment in your choices if they don't apply to this setup, and lord help you if you pick one of the admittedly low-tier defense heroes. |
| 272 | ** The GOATS meta, which consists of 3 Tanks, 3 Healers and no Damage Heroes, became widespread and was named after the e-sports team that used the composition with great success. Notably, virtually every team in the Overwatch League used it starting around mid 2018, and all of Blizzard's attempts to nerf it were unsuccessful as teams simply would not budge from it as the strategy most likely to win, to the detriment of crowds who were growing tired of watching nearly identical matches for months. As a result of growing outcries and the failed nerf attempts, Blizzard finally resorted to killing GOATS not by tweaking the gameplay but by [[ObviousRulePatch simply enforcing a 2-2-2 rule]] (2 Damage, 2 Tanks, 2 Healers) along with a Role Queue starting July 2019. |
| 273 | * ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'': This audience reaction is why every Hunter in the game has a jetpack. Originally, there was a choice of specific equipment and buffs before each match, but the developers noticed play testers almost unanimously gravitated towards the jetpack due to its massive speed and mobility advantage (since the majority of each match was spent pursuing a monster that was much faster and more agile than the humans). In response, the jetpack was made a default equipment for every Hunter character. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder:Idle Games]] |
| 277 | * ''VideoGame/{{Synergism}}'': Most players respecc their talismans to give effects to the Duplication, Thrift, and Superior Intellect Runes (a setup known as 2/4/5) as they can increase the amount of Coins earned significantly and make beating Challenge 10 quite a bit easier. |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
| 279 | |
| 280 | [[folder:Mecha Action Games]] |
| 281 | * In ''VideoGame/ChromeHounds'', you'll find there's always player matches at South Cemo Oil Fields (and hardly anywhere else), [[StopHavingFunGuys everyone uses funky stick mechs,]] and well,[[{{Scrub}} best of luck to ya if you use Heavy Gunning to drop a base.]] |
| 282 | * ''{{VideoGame/Starsiege}}'' is all about this trope these days, stubborn little game that it is for still being around. There are about half a dozen "standard" vehicle configurations that have been in use for about the last ten years and deviations are pretty uncommon. What's popular is popular for good reason, but some otherwise very skilled players have been known to {{ragequit}} when the status quo is challenged enough to render their favorite ride ineffective. These setups and the tactics they are built for have simply been standard issue for so long that many of those who still play haven't bothered to keep up the skills to deal with anything outside the norm. |
| 283 | * The ''Videogame/MechWarrior'' series: |
| 284 | ** The series has always had two staples in its energy weaponry: medium lasers, which are the most efficient energy weapon and either the primary loadout for medium mechs or backups sprinkled wherever there's space/tonnage left for heavies, and [=PPCs=], the heavy-hitters that you can only fire every now and then, but when you do your enemy ''hurts''. If you have an energy-based Mech that doesn't have either, you're doing it wrong. ''Mechwarrior Living Legends'' sought to dethrone the Medium Laser by making it weigh twice as much, putting it closer to its ballistic counterpart. |
| 285 | ** ''Mechwarrior 4'' and its expansion packs had complacent gaming on such a wide scale it became GameplayDerailment; behold, the Poptarter. Entire servers would be populated by nothing but players in JumpJetPack equipped battlemechs with the exact same loadout - 2 Clan [=ERPPCs=] and 2 Clan Gauss Rifles. They would hide behind a hill in third person, and upon visual contact with the enemy they would jump up, fire their guns, fall back down and rinse and repeat until one of them was dead, hence the name "[[FanNickname poptart]]". The UpdatedReRelease by [=MekTek=] and the next game, ''Mechwarrior Living Legends'' both implemented a swathe of changes to kill the poptarter, such as heavy CameraAbuse and OverHeating while jumping and no third person view in ''Living Legends''. |
| 286 | * ''Gundam Breaker'' allows a great deal of customization thanks to its central conceit, wherein the players use [[LivingToy animate Gundam model kits]] rather than HumongousMecha as in every other ''Gundam'' game. However, most players rely almost entirely on BeamSpam [[LimitBreak EX Actions]], since two or three can clear an entire map with ease. If you play online with PickUpGroup[=s=], expect to see a lot of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ Gundam]] heads, [[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Satellite Cannons]], and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Freedom]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Strike Freedom]] parts. |
| 287 | ** There's also the most coveted weapons in the game, [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wing Zero]]'s [[{{BFG}} twin buster rifle]] and the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Destiny Gundam]]'s [[{{BFS}} "Arondight" beam sword]], which are the strongest gun and sword in the game respectively. The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 00-Raiser]]'s [[SwissArmyWeapon GN sword III]] is also highly valued, but primarily because earning it unlocks the Raiser Sword EX Action, which is the strongest melee-type EX-Act in the game. Once players unlock it, they tend to swap over to a stronger melee weapon; expect to see a LOT of Arondights paired up with the Raiser Sword. |
| 288 | [[/folder]] |
| 289 | |
| 290 | [[folder:[=MMORPGs=]]] |
| 291 | * ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': |
| 292 | ** Despite the huge number of options in the character creator, you will still see some players who have dozens of characters, each with different superpowers but all look identical and have the same name with a number after it. That's only some though, most players consider these to be either concept players or just really, ''really'' weird. |
| 293 | ** Some days it seems like every other Scrapper (melee-centric class) one sees has claws and regeneration - half of those are named some variation of 'Wolverine' or 'Logan'. |
| 294 | ** A Fire/Kinetics Controller is the go-to character for all manner of farming and power-leveling as well as general gameplay, combining awesome damage potential with crowd-control ability. Rare is the player without one of these in the roster. Toning down (i.e. nerfing) either Fire or Kinetics will unfairly punish those who use one powerset without the other, so it continues to reign supreme after years. Villain-side it's a little less cut and dried, but Super Strength/Willpower Brutes come the closest. |
| 295 | ** Also, as a way of ComplacentGamingSyndrome of MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame players, every team ''allegedly'' needs a healer. |
| 296 | ** This tends to happen with the harder Task Forces and Trials in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''. The community will tend to settle on a strategy which can work for most random groups and repeatedly follow it even if it's not the best option. |
| 297 | * ''VideoGame/MapleStory'': Whenever a new class comes out, nearly everybody will flock to that new class, and for good reason: it's usually [[GameBreaker hideously overpowered]]. |
| 298 | ** As far as the actual equipment goes, you can expect a player that is over level 150 to have their classes version of the Chaos Root Abyss gear, a set of Gollux stuff (with all four variant of ring for good measure) Nova/Tyrant Shoes and Cape and their classes version of the level 100 sub weapon. Anything that seems to stray is usually an Infinity +1 Sword. |
| 299 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': |
| 300 | ** While battlegrounds provide more variety than usual, there is only one tactic used for each. Even if it sucks. Case in point: Warsong Gulch. Both sides run to the opposing flag (usually completely ignoring each other), take it, run back and either clash in the middle (often with both flags getting returned) or both flags end up in the opposing fortress, heavily defended for most of the battle. There is a good reason a 25 minute time limit was added to this battleground. |
| 301 | ** Alterac Valley suffers from a similar case, turning into a rush to kill the opposing general as soon as possible. The fact that this got much harder in a later patch didn't deter players from this procedure much. |
| 302 | ** This also happened in "Vanilla" World of Warcraft wherein most classes had one viable talent tree (two if they were lucky). That's because the others were completely ''useless''. |
| 303 | *** This was most prevalent in druids, who didn't really have Balance and Feral considered viable until ''Burning Crusade'' and ''Wrath''. It didn't help that they and warriors were the most gear-dependent classes in the game and the gear was mostly made for healing or tanking if they were warriors. As a result, feral and balance druids were scoffed at by guilds because there was no gear and they were needed to heal since a good 70% of people are DPS-classes anyways. This has ''thankfully'' gotten ''much'' better after Burning Crusade where specs were made more viable and gear made available for [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] classes, also to stop the issue of how DPS classes got their [=PvP=] Gear. (By running Blackwing Lair.) And other trees were made more feasible too, so even if you played a pure DPS class like Mage, Hunter, or Rogue, you had more than one option. (Most mages in "Vanilla" were Frost because everything was immune to fire.) While there are a few that are still OvershadowedByAwesome, it's nice to have a wider variety of classes available to fit certain roles. Plus, as an MMORPG, sometimes a build that was OvershadowedByAwesome became the awesome itself. |
| 304 | *** In the original World of Warcraft, ''all'' classes that could potentially play the role of a healer [[note]]Priests, Paladins, Druids, Shamans[[/note]] were {{railroad|ing}}ed into playing ''only'' that role for PvE content, as their other specializations were so much worse than every other class (a Shadow Priest would always be worse than a straight-up Warlock, for example). Whether intentional or coincidental, every weapon or piece of armor for these classes at higher levels was also oriented exclusively towards healing, making this one of the few instances where this trope was blatantly enforced by the developers. |
| 305 | *** This was also the reason why talent trees were revamped to a more streamlined form in ''Cataclysm'' and Mists of Pandaria: For all the complexity offered, there really were only a few builds for each class that were acceptable. Even the new system suffers from this a little bit (''every'' monk but the healers have the talent that grant extra chi), but in the end, there are at least some choices that are up to personal preference, and a few that may have a different version for a different specialization. Same goes for Glyphs, with some universal picks being moved to core mechanics for the class to allow for more flexibility. |
| 306 | *** As of ''Dragonflight'', this has become zig-zagged. On one hand, classes generally have a few talents that can easily be swapped in and out depending on playstyle. On the other, what you intend to do with your character will largely determine what kind of build you want to make. A player who prefers to raid will usually opt for a more single-target build and focus more off of sustaining. Whereas a player who prefers to do mythic dungeons would prefer more on a build that focuses off of [=AoE=]/Cleaves, as mythics require things to be done fas |
| 307 | ** This happens whenever an expansion pack is released: [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory ignore all of the plot]], then go on the boards and complain that there's no content. Or deliberately underplay your usefulness so your class gets a buff in the next patch. |
| 308 | ** Since its introduction in ''The Burning Crusade'', no one goes into a raid without inviting at least one player who can cast Bloodlust/Heroism or their equivalents, which increase attack speed by 30% and provide crucial increases to DPS in burn phases. Likewise, warlocks and mages(the latter of whom has the Bloodlust/Heroism equivalent Time Warp) are frequently desired for the sheer amount of utility spells they bring besides dealing damage. |
| 309 | ** If one is using Mythic dungeons, one would want to pull as many group(s) as they can to minimize time spent moving between bosses. As a result, DPS will focus more off of [=AoE=] so they can burn these groups down as fast as possible instead of jumping from one target to the other. |
| 310 | * ''VideoGame/DiabloII'': |
| 311 | ** ''Diablo II'' 's multiplayer was this: Log onto multiplayer. Pay people in-game loot to run you through the game, sitting by and absorbing all the experience so you can level up as fast as possible. You look up a stat sheet on the internet and follow it ''to the tee'', with no room for deviation (unless you want to be laughed at by all the {{Munchkin}}s, unless you're doing something like a "Crazy run") Then when you hit level 80, you run the final act again and again, get [[BetterOffSold nothing but junk 98% of the time]] in hopes of finding that "perfect loot", until a player bribes you with something that ''isn't'' junk and you run them through the game. |
| 312 | ** Expanding on what was mentioned above - The game is played in three difficulty levels. When you beat one, you play the same five acts and their quests again. Very few who play on the public servers do anything besides pay other players in-game loot to beat all the bosses for them, skipping sidequests, so that they can sit and leech experience in games run by high-level characters/bots and shoot from level 1 to level 80+ within a few hours. This is justified when making a [=PvP=] character to avoid all the grinding, but most do it so they can rush bosses looking for perfect loot or just because they're bored of the repetitive nature of a three-difficulty playthrough. |
| 313 | ** When you play the game in multiplayer, you look up a stat-sheet on the internet, carbon-copy it in your character, and follow the ''exact skills'' in the playthrough. Blizzard was savvy enough to know that the same thing would happen in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' and letting people customize stats would be [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment redundant]] anyways, in part because of this trope. |
| 314 | * ''VideoGame/EverQuest'': |
| 315 | ** At its worst basically the only thing the player had any reasonable say in was selecting their class. Everything else was more or less preordained by what the community had judged to be the optimal selections, setups, and strategies. Picked the "wrong" race for your chosen class? good luck finding any group that will want you. Distributed your stat points in anything less than the optimal way? Have fun being considered dead weight compared to better created characters. Picked a class more famous for playing solo instead of grouping? Get used to playing alone since no good group will want to fill its already optimized array of roster slots to accommodate a class that breaks with established strategy. Want good experience at level X? Go to one specific zone in the entire world and fight (or, rather, wait in line) with dozens of other groups for the extremely limited number of enemy camps that can sustain constant combat for a group of players. Like the lore or intrigue behind a certain quest or item? Everyone will laugh at you for not going with the bog-standard gear for your level/class. Almost every facet of the game has been ruthlessly dissected and analyzed to figure out what the "best" way to do things are, and especially since the player community is largely made up of long-time players who have stuck with it for decades or returnees after time away from the game, it tends to have particularly ruthless expectations for everyone to stick to those preordained setups and progression paths. |
| 316 | ** The game developers have tried to alleviate this through the years, but mostly with mixed results. PowerCreep means that newbie gear can max out a player's stats regardless of cap with almost trivial ease making racial stat differences irrelevant. But now it means that choosing a race boils down to the innate benefits and bonuses, still making for optimal choices, or at the very least suboptimal ones (especially Humans, who have absolutely no advantages over other races now that original starting cities and player moral alignments are mostly useless). Hot Zones try to push groups to explore different areas by offering experience bonuses, but instead of distributing groups across a variety of zones to prevent excessive amounts of people from having to compete for limited "good" XP-gaining camps, it simply moves the issue from one zone to the next on an ongoing basis. The shrinking population of players forced the creation of a central starting city which all races have access to, but this just bunches everyone up even more as they fight for space to quest and play in the same handful of zones outside that city (it also used to be that only monthly-subscription-fee accounts even had access to the option of starting their character in the old-world traditional starting cities of the game). The end result is that many flavors of complacency have never been properly addressed, simply swapped out for something a little different but just as restrictive. |
| 317 | * ''VideoGame/WarhammerOnline'' has very vocal complaints about "bomb squads" - namely parties that guard and buff up a single (''long range'') DPS character who then solely runs through enemies spamming a short range area of effect ability that happened to have no cooldown or cast time. After 16 months of complaints about the inability to defend against it, suggestions to change the mechanics of the ability or noting that players were using a long range character to do more damage than a dedicated melée character, the game developers actually played some games and immediately issued a notification that they would nerf the mechanic in the upcoming patch. Although the mechanic has changed slightly, it is still feasible (and hated) and rumors persist of entire guilds who only accept one of the few classes who make this technique possible to avoid using any other tactics. |
| 318 | * ''VideoGame/GuildWars'': |
| 319 | ** This trope goes skipping hand-in-hand with elitism. Don't have the skillsets or professions to match the popular cookie-cutter team builds everyone else is running? You do, but want to play your own way? Good luck finding a pick-up team for [[BonusDungeon FoW]], [[BonusDungeon UW]], [[BonusDungeon Slavers]], or [[BonusDungeon DoA]]. Your Lightbringer and Sunspear titles aren't maxed out? Forget [=DoA=] altogether unless you run your own guild. Lacking levels in other alliance titles will also get you viewed as a liability, depending on the attached skills, the mission, and the group build in question. |
| 320 | ** One of the lodged complaints about the [=HA PvP=] bracket was the demand that players have a certain rank of the associated [=PvP=] title. The only way to get the rank was to play [=HA=], but no group would accept you without the rank. There's a reason that format eventually collapsed on itself. |
| 321 | ** Even outside of those, players have gradually migrated to a handful of tried and tested builds, as opposed to diversifying. Many people only ever use one or two skill bars. Nowhere is this more prevalent than the surge in Ritualist players who only have the skills to play the [=SoS=] build, and literally nothing else. |
| 322 | ** Historically, there were even worse examples which the developers eventually nerfed into non-existence. Perhaps the most infamous was the Ursanway, where six players would use the ''exact same skillset'' with two healers keeping them alive. |
| 323 | * ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' has this, especially in dungeons and fractals, combined with a healthy dollop of elitisim. There's a set of builds generally considered to be the "right" thing to do, and anything else is sneered at. One whole profession - the Necromancer - is scorned as being a mostly-useless MasterOfNone, and a lot of dungeon strategy has been boiled down to "get a Warrior, a Mesmer, and 3 Elementalists, stack (that is, put all five characters in exactly the same spot), then use Banners and Wells while spamming melee attacks that don't cause you to move". Otherwise largely subverted, however, because outside of some highly elitist guilds and the speedrun community, this is really not even enforced informally (to the point that one of the leading speedrun guilds, qT, write guides for all 9 classes and ''explicitly tell people not to do this''), and lots of other strategies, even really unconventional ones, work just fine. Which was [=ANet's=] big idea in the first place. For more specific examples: |
| 324 | ** GlassCannon Warrior builds - the idea is to use all your trait points and all your gear slots toward increasing damage to the exclusion of all else. This means using [[GlassCannon Berserker]][='=]s or [[FragileSpeedster Assassin]][='=]s weapons and armor and ruby jewelry or the ascended equivalent, and relying on dodging to stay alive. Trouble is, though this build does insane amounts of damage, there is absolutely no room for mistakes, even with the Warrior's high HP. Among all but the very most elite, "Brass Cannon" builds that add [[MightyGlacier Knight]][='=]s or [[JackOfAllStats Celestial]] gear and maybe a few points in the Defense line to greatly boost survivability with only a small decrease in damage output are more popular and far more effective. (This is, of course, because the dead do no damage!) |
| 325 | ** The Underground Facility fractal - a popular strategy against one miniboss was to run to a set of pipes and stack there while whacking the boss and ignoring the mooks. Trouble is, you need a lot of DPS to do this well, or a really on-the-ball [[MagicKnight Guardian]] or [[RedMage Elementalist]], and it's the only strategy anybody knows. It's usually a lot easier - although slower - to drag the boss around the room, dodging his attacks and [=AoE=]-bombing the mooks. In a later patch, [=ANet=] took out the pipes, so the complacent strategy is going to have to change. |
| 326 | * ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'''s [=PvP=] has this. most matches will be on the Tavern stage, Elimination mode, no Mages or Gunners (Especially Summoners or Mechs, respectively) allowed. If you try to switch the mode or stage to anything else, or try to use a Mage or Gunner, 99% of the time somebody's going to complain that it's "unfair". |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'' players tend to gravitate towards the BossRush quest "Towards the Future", since it's the fastest way to [[LevelGrinding Level Grind]]. You will rarely find anyone playing anything else. |
| 328 | * ''VideoGame/SpiralKnights'': |
| 329 | ** Players can be expected to have some or all of the following items if they have the money for them; Vog Cub, Divine Avenger, Gran Faust, Polaris/Biohazard, Grey Owlite Shield, and whatever krogmo trinkets boost your preferred weapon types. |
| 330 | ** Skolver Sets and Chaos Sets are encountered often in [=PvP=] matches, with former defending against most popular immobilizing status and latter being blatant GlassCannon setup. It spawned a moniker "Skolver/Chaos Clones". |
| 331 | ** Divine Armor Set is a big offender, due to being a very good counter to perils of both [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Firestorm Citadel]] and one of the [[BonusDungeon Danger Missions]], Ghost in the Machine. Both are considered to be farming grounds. |
| 332 | ** The insane overuse of the Wolver armor set. This is because out of all weapon types swords deal the most raw damage numbers and as a result are the [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome most popular choice]]. Guns deal pathetic damage per hit. However, swordies have to dodge or block enemy attacks once in a while while gunslingers can just keep pumping lead into the enemy, resulting in higher average damage over time in some cases. Bombs are good for support or inflicting StatusEffects... a playstyle unlikely to be a ComplacentGamingSyndrome in ''Spiral Knights''. |
| 333 | * ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': |
| 334 | ** Two months after it rotated out, the Avatar of Boris Challenge Path is still the most-played path by far. The sad part is that many players took one look at the Bugbear Invasion path that replaced it and decided on the spot to ignore it in favor of constantly doing Boris runs. Chat and the forums were filled with comments along the lines of, "If this doesn't hook me immediately, I'm dropping this run and going back to Boris". |
| 335 | ** A lesser example: most players refuse to choose Moon Signs other than the three that allow access to Degrassi Knoll (with two exceptions: one trip to the Gnomad Camp to get Torso Awaregness, and Bad Moon runs). |
| 336 | * ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': |
| 337 | ** Like many [=MMOs=], ''[=RuneScape=]'' is a game with a multitude of high-level armor and weapons, allowing for a near-endless degree of customization. The only thing that matters to players, however, is the damage they can inflict. To that end, you'll see ''lots'' of players armed with something from the very small pool of level 90+ weaponry. Expect to be questioned or even ridiculed if you try to join a boss hunting team with anything weaker. |
| 338 | ** For a very long time, Ancient Magicks completely ruled the [=PvP=] scene in members' worlds, all thanks to the ice spells. These were quite damaging to begin with, but had the secondary effect of freezing a player in place for several seconds. This meant that anyone with a melee-focused setup had almost no chance to fight back, since like all other spells, ancients could be cast from a few tiles away. One would just have to repeatedly cast an ice spell to "reset" the freeze timer and destroy the enemy in three or four hits. Later on, several updates made melee more viable, but even after Evolution of Combat, the spells are not to be taken lightly. |
| 339 | ** On Free-to-Play servers, expect to see most mid-to-high leveled players wearing full Rune armor or a trimmed variant with some kind of rune weapon (usually scimitars, maces, or two-handed swords), as there's little reason to wear anything else if you're a melee character. Same deal with Blue dragonhide and magic bows or rune crossbows for rangers, and Mystic equipment for mages. |
| 340 | ** Two-handed weapons tend to be the preferred weapon for PvE scenarios due to their generally superior ability pool and area-of-effect capabilities compared to dual wielded weapons. One particular example for melee is halberds' larger reach than other melee weapons, allowing players to hit vast multitudes of enemies at once when used with [=AoE=] abilities. There's a very good reason why the Noxious scythe costs nearly 3 times as much as all 3 drygore weapon sets ''combined''. Two-handed weapons are also more popular for [=PvP=] due to not having to worry about protecting an off-hand weapon in the event of death, which can often make a difference of ''millions'' over dying with dual wielded weapons in the Wilderness. |
| 341 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'': For a significantly long time, Ninja as a sub job. Thanks to its Dual Wield trait, most classes whose primary melee weapon is one-handed, and have no need for shields (I.E. the dagger focused Thief class) use it to strike multiple times which is considered a very massive boon to gain TP used for Weapon Skills. Then it was discovered that the Ninjitsu spell Utsusemi was very useful for avoiding most attacks altogether, thanks to it creating shadow images which take hits for you and that with its higher tier upgrades, means one can keep it up almost constantly. At first this led to the creation of the Ninja tank. A Ninja that subbed Warrior had good enmity gaining abilities, and eventually its Double Attack Trait after reaching Ninja 50, giving it a chance to strike up to 4 times for each auto attack, rapidly gaining TP for their Weapon skills making them nigh-invincible tanks with very good DPS skills. In turn, end game parties also began demanding players sub Ninja solely for Utsusemi, even if it would severely nerf the max capabilities of a job because it relied heavily on using a Two-handed weapon, and thus, couldn't Dual Wield effectively (Such as Samurai and Dragoon), simply to make Healers' lives easier. |
| 342 | ** Players starting doing this to combat the NintendoHard nature of the game, and as such Square-Enix started designing encounters under the assumption that players were using Ninja as a subjob. They also massively boosted the power of two-handed weapons to compensate for how much better two one-handed weapons were. |
| 343 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' |
| 344 | ** The infamous "[=A2B=]" build, which utilizes two or more copies of the Bridge Officer skill "Emergency Power to Battery", boosting Attack Power, Engine Power and Shield Power to insane levels, allowing a player to constantly attack at full power, especially with attacks such as "Fire at Will". |
| 345 | *** That's not what made [=A2B=] so powerful. Powerwise alone it was powerful, but not OP. What totally broke it was the addition of Technicians to the Duty Officer Roster, which reduced the Cooldown of all other Bridge Officer Abilities. Prior to this you had to have 2 versions of an ability to spam it, now all you need is [=A2B=] and three Technicians and you have virtually every ability twice on board, even auxiliary-independent hull heals, which where the limiting factor of [=A2B=]. |
| 346 | *** Interestingly [=A2B=] has yet become second-class to other builds, as powercreep marches on and more and more abilities and traits are released which mimic its effect without actually compromising anything. [=A2B=] is still a very cheap (meaning: Not costly!) possibility to build a ship. |
| 347 | ** Using ''Scimitar''-class Dreadnoughts while playing as the Romulans. Because of its strange build, it's easy to set things up so that the machine can steamroll through everything. |
| 348 | *** Romulans as a whole are this: For new characters, they provide the most benefit (best ships, fastest missions, capable of getting twice the Duty officers of the other factions, able to recruit costly Bridge Officers, best Player- and Bridge Officer Traits... and more). They have battle cloak on every ship, so they can cloak in combat, making them a hell to fight against in [=PvP=] (prior to this only the Klingon Bird of Prey could to this, but had far less hull and shields than the Romulan Warbirds), especially in random matches without a premade team. With premade teams there are possibilities to work around this, which gets hilarious if a premade joins random matches and utterly Curbstomps cloaked Romulan ships. |
| 349 | ** In terms of Ship builds them selves, for Level 50 and beyond Escorts, the most popular build and strategy is to stick as many Dual Heavy Cannons in the front, (possibly with one slot left open for a Torpedo Launcher), and preferably as many 360 Degree firing arc weapons in the back as possible, primarily turrets, or a few crafting specific and Reputation weapons, then trying to ensure your Weapon power levels stay as high as possible. Granted, it's extremely effective, as combining it with Bridge Officer abilities like [[MoreDakka Rapid Fire III]] means you can easily pump out 7000+ Damage volleys rather quickly... unless you're up against the Voth, introduced in Season 8 with abilities tailor-made to break up the escort-centric park-and-shoot meta at the time, including an invulnerable shield they can quickly put up to fend off {{Alpha Strike}}s. |
| 350 | ** Damage builds. It's generally much more effective to focus on one damage type (such as Plasma, or Antiproton) then you have weapons with different damage types. This is because Tactical consoles provided greater damage boosts for specific energy types, over the ones which just provide a bonus to all damage of the same weapon type. |
| 351 | ** On the flip side, you will rarely have anyone suggest to you a ship weaponry build that recommends Tetryon energy damage. Tetryon weapons have a chance to inflict bonus damage to shields. There's a variety called "Piercing" that can also punch through shields and directly damage the hull of the targeted ship). Sounds good right? Now compare that to the following other energy weapon types for ships: Phaser[[note]]Chance for 5 Second Subsystem disable, which means either the enemy ship can't Shoot, reduced shield recharge/defense, become "dead in the water" with no speed, or can't turn and make effective use of Deflector Dish based powers, or exotic damage abilities[[/note]], Disruptor[[note]]Chance for -10% Damage Resistance Debuff[[/note]], Plasma[[note]]Deals DamageOverTime directly to the ship's hull, regardless of shields.[[/note]], Polaron[[note]] chance to inflict a flat -25 power to all sub systems: Weapons, Shields, Engines, and Auxillery, so basically a Phaser effect with reduced effectiveness, but hits all of the systems at once[[/note]], or Antiprotons[[note]]20% Critical hit Severity[[/note]]. Considering that a properly set up ship, or team working together can chew through shields easily, Tetryon is OvershadowedByAwesome. |
| 352 | ** Since quite some time Beam Arrays fall under this, even for escorts (which still might prefer Dual-Beams with less angle for more precise fire strikes). Meant to be an energy siphon par excellence (prior to powercreep a cruiser with 8 beams did less damage than one with 6, by virtue of how weapon power amplifies weapon energy damage). Now you either have way too much power or way to high resistances/regeneration to have that problem. Adding the bonus that you have to only maneuver slightly for all beams to be in the firing arc and can just fly circles, reducing incoming damage, its become a common sight to only see beam-boats. |
| 353 | ** One of the most common Science boff powers to see is Gravity Well, because using it while maneuvering is fire-and-forget (many other offensive Sci powers require you to keep the target in the forward arc or it ends early), it's good for bunching up opposing ships for AreaOfEffect attacks, and Gravimetric Scientist doffs to buff it are readily available. The Tzenkethi break this tactic, however, since their cruisers can make nearby ships NighInvulnerable. |
| 354 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': |
| 355 | ** During version 1.0, the game had players who picked the Warrior class over Paladin because the Warrior could not only tank as good as a Paladin, but a Warrior's damage output was so high that Warriors could clear crowds of monsters with very little effort. This resulted in players who took on the Paladin job being ignored for party requests. Bards also had the ability to use skills from the Conjurer class so that they could double as a DPS and healer, making actual healers almost obsolete. Patch 2.0 and beyond made the classes more or less even with each other. |
| 356 | ** Nearly every healer will have the Swiftcast spell (gained from leveling Thamaturge to 26), an ability that lets the user cast their next spell with zero charge time. Swiftcast for a healer is mainly used in conjunction with Raise/Resurrect since casting the spells normally takes about 7 seconds. Later patches made had Swiftcast be a part of every healer job's natural skill set. |
| 357 | ** When it comes to types of classes players use, the majority stick with DPS since it's generally easier to master and has less micromanaging when compared to the more difficult to use tank and healer classes. Because nearly every other player has DPS as their main class, the wait times for the duty finder if one is a DPS can be up to 30 minutes or even longer since there's less players performing as a tank or healer. Additionally, within the DPS role itself for 2.0, you're more likely to see Bards and Black Mages than the others. The melee jobs require the player to not only keep shifting with the movements of an enemy, but also they have to shift to the target's flanks and rear to trigger their weaponskill combos (approx. every 20 seconds for Dragoons, and 10 seconds for Monk). Summoner require managing a pet, and upkeeping upwards of 5 Debuffs (Bio I & II, Miasma I & II, and Shadow Flare) plus several other long duration cool down abilities. Bards on the other hand, have no combo positioning to worry about, and just simply keep firing with nearly zero down time beyond needing to let their stamina recover (which it can easily by cross-classing the Lancer class' Invigorate, and by using its own Army's Paeon), and a well geared Blackmage can pump out 600 to 1000+ Burst damage every few seconds, by simply casting Thunder III, Fire I, and Blizzard III, with occasional free casts thanks to their passive traits of Fire III and more Thunder III (which applies the full sum of the Damage over time effect of a normal Thunder III cast, AND applies the Damage over time Debuff). Or using Flare when they're about to run out of MP while on Astral Fire stance. Later patches would rebalance all classes in one way or another, so preferences shifted with them. |
| 358 | ** Speed running dungeons is a highly popular tactic; the tank pulls several clusters of enemies in a row while the DPS players spam their AOE abilities to whittle down the clusterfuck all at once. Most groups who use this tactic are either aiming to earn their tomestones (currency to obtain stronger gear) quickly or running the same dungeons over and over again for their Zodiac quests so that they don't have to suffer going slow while dealing with the RandomDrop needed for their quest. |
| 359 | ** During 3.0, raiders that were raiding the [[HarderThanHard savage]] versions would always bring an Astrologian and Scholar to their groups for healers because both jobs could give the party shields and other buffs like temporary increased damage. White Mage only had raw healing and regen effects, which weren't desirable, thus White Mage players were usually left out of raid recruitment. Patches later on rebalanced healers so they were more or less equal. |
| 360 | ** Most players grinding their relic weapon(s) will queue for the Antitower, as it is a quick dungeon that can be easily done multiple times per hour. |
| 361 | ** Unless you care about the HarderThanHard content? Most content you end up getting in the daily roulettes will be one of two things: Current content so players can gear up, or ''A Realm Reborn'' content since it's very low-effort to do and item scaling will put them at the higher tier. Plus, the Duty Roulettes will actually take your item level into account - but only what you ''currently'' have equipped. As a result? Most players will strip themselves mostly naked to [[LoopholeAbuse force the roulette finder to put them into]] ''A Realm Reborn'' content. As of patch 6.5, a minimum item level appropriate for your level is required to queue for Alliance Roulette. |
| 362 | [[/folder]] |
| 363 | |
| 364 | [[folder:[=MOBAs=]]] |
| 365 | * ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'': |
| 366 | ** It has this in scores. However, the game is updated and tweaked so often its players are likely to have to change their preferences or find another game if they are displeased with changes as the developers do not hold back on the matter. While the specific strategies and characters change, common patterns that stick include players refusing to consider ever playing certain roles (jungling and support roles most commonly), certain characters (the "champions") getting jumps in popularity for a specific strategy with them being discovered, a currently dominant team-strategy that many players will use as a baseline with which to choose their champions... and just {{Flame War}}s when anything or anyone gets {{Nerf}}ed or buffed, which is all the time. |
| 367 | ** It has a metagame based around a certain lane composition: duo bot (support and an Attack Damage carry), solo mid (Ability Power carry), solo top (most variable role), and one jungler to farm neutral creeps. In addition, certain champions are considered "acceptable" to play in each lane, with deviations often being regarded with negative reactions ranging from the verbal equivalent of a dirty look to UnstoppableRage. It should be noted that some anti-meta strategies exist solely to [[BatmanGambit exploit what the enemy is expected to do]]. For example, it's become more and more acceptable to field an AD assassin or even a bruiser in mid lane in hopes of crushing a SquishyWizard there who was not planning on buying much Armor. Even strategies that look batshit insane can work if [[RefugeInAudacity an opponent is so used to certain champions being played in a lane that they don't know how to deal with something out-of-the-box.]] |
| 368 | ** Not only are the champions and lanes well-defined by the metagame, but so are builds. If you're playing a champion with both AD and AP ratios, only one of them will be 'right' and you'll catch flak for building the other way, even if it's perfectly acceptable mechanically. Additionally, there's a 'best' order and 'best' items for certain classes to build (especially [=ADCs=] and AP mages) and people will often be flamed if they deviate from these paths. Good luck finding an Attack Damage Carry or any non-bot lane Mages that doesn't build with Infinity Edge, or Rabadon's Death Cap respectively. |
| 369 | ** It should be noted that player opinion changes constantly as the metagame does; champions that are considered worthless for playing solo top today might be the new best thing tomorrow. |
| 370 | ** The start of season 4 is proving to be one of the most stagnant periods, particularly in high level professional play- top lane is almost ''exclusively'' dominated by manaless tanky bruisers with high base damage (specifically Dr Mundo, Shyvana and Renekton) and bottom lane basically contains only 3 played AD carries (Jinx, Lucian and Caitlyn) and 3 supports (Thresh, Annie and Leona). Mid and jungle are more varied, but still heavily dominated by Gragas, Ziggs, Elise and Vi and the only reason Kassadin isn't picked in every game is because he's ''banned'' in every game (that's almost NotHyperbole- he's banned in '''over 90%''' of LCS matches on both sides of the Pacific and when not banned he IS picked). |
| 371 | ** In pro play, it's gotten to the point that averting this is a legitimate (if uncommon) strategy- a team will pick an unusual[=/=]considered underpowered champion (Teemo, Mordekaiser, et cetera) just because they're so rarely played that [[LethalJokeCharacter nobody on the other team will actually know how to counterplay said champion]]. |
| 372 | * ''VideoGame/DOTA2'': |
| 373 | ** Similar factors apply to Dota 2 as in League: the game is tweaked in a major way at least two times in a year, and player opinions change alongside the metagame. However, it should be noted that Dota 2 is much more loose (at least in the professional scene) with what's considered acceptable lanes. A particularly noteworthy example of this derivation is Faceless Void: before patch 6.80 he was built exclusively as a safe-lane carry that took a long time to start mattering in a match, but buffs to him in 6.80 and 6.81 made him viable in the offlane as a teamfight initiator / controller. Pros began to pick Void most often in the controller role so they didn't have to wait for the hero to come online (and in some cases they chose to go for some late-game insurance if Void's needed to carry still). Although Void saw a subsequent rise in usage amongst casuals, the old carry Void remains as the most common way to build him in pubs. |
| 374 | ** Also, it's worth noting that Dota 2 tries to combat this with many different game modes, where the only difference is the method used to select your hero. If you get tired of seeing Pudge every game then it's as easy as removing All Pick from your matchmaking settings. |
| 375 | * ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'': |
| 376 | ** While the game is much simplified compared to the other two examples, people will still get flamed for picking certain talents at various levels. For example, rolling Diablo and ''not'' picking Domination at level 16. It can extend further than talents, too. Being able to choose between two distinct Heroics is one of the biggest features of the game. Regardless, expect to get yelled at for picking the wrong one. It especially stings when the Heroic isn't bad, but rather OvershadowedByAwesome (which is sadly pretty frequent). Some of the big ones are Reverse Amp on Lucio and Pyroblast on Kael'thas. Blizzard usually tries to address over-centralizing talents in a few ways: buffing other talents in the tier to make them competitive and/or nerfing the go-to talent, shunting that talent into a different tier to force players to pick between two must-haves, or in a few cases, incorporating it into the hero's base skillset (as was the case for Medivh's The Master's Touch and Zul'jin's You Want Axe?, among others) if it doesn't make them broken. |
| 377 | ** Despite a heavy emphasis on healers and tanks for team balance, expect Quick Match to consist of 90% Assassin players. QM's free pick environment and the flashiness of damage characters tend to encourage this kind of composition, not helped by over half the character roster being composed of Assassins. Blizzard tried to address this issue by forcing teams to have a guaranteed healer and tank (as well as offering a substantial account XP boost for picking one of them), but it mostly resulted in queue times exponentially increasing. |
| 378 | [[/folder]] |
| 379 | |
| 380 | [[folder:Platformers]] |
| 381 | * ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' has a lot of players choosing to play as [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow Soma Cruz]] due to his ability to [[GameBreaker tear the game to shreds]] with certain souls and weapons. |
| 382 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/CopyKitty''. The more you use the same weapon combination, the weaker it gets until you find a new one. |
| 383 | * ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'': |
| 384 | ** Many players gravitate to using Dixie Kong more often than Diddy and Cranky because of how useful her ponytail hovering ability is. |
| 385 | ** Speedrunners always gravitate towards Cranky, as his cane bouncing is capable of retaining momentum caused by rolling jumps, allowing for some amazing Sequence Breaking. |
| 386 | * ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'' offers six counselors to play as. Of those, two of them, Mark and Crissy, can run fast as well as jump high, putting them leaps and bounds over the other four in terms of usefulness. If one or both of them dies (and Laura, who has the speed but not the jump height), the game becomes much more of a chore to play. |
| 387 | * A recurrent feature of ''Franchise/MegaMan''. |
| 388 | ** In any given game there is a particular stage the community overwhelmingly agrees is the best to start on, usually because its boss is the easiest to beat with the buster and then you can follow the weakness order to plough through the rest. e.g. Toad Man in ''VideoGame/MegaMan4''. |
| 389 | ** In other cases, it's because that boss's stage comes with an extra item that aids in platforming sections. This is most prominent in the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series where each game has hidden capsules that offer permanent upgrades. |
| 390 | ** Speaking of the platforming sections, only a handful of a game's special weapons will see use outside of boss fights. This is because many weapons aren't ''that'' much more convenient than the buster that it's worth the brainpower it takes to switch to them outside of niche cases, and some are [[ScrappyWeapon actively worse]] because they're slower, have weird trajectories or put the player at risk to deal damage. Generally, the most popular weapons have any of these qualities: enough damage to rip through tougher enemies (e.g. Spin Wheel from ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX2 X2]]''), piercing capability (e.g. Storm Tornado from ''X1''), hitting in directions other than straight ahead (e.g. Metal Blade from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''), or some platforming utility (e.g. Pile Driver from ''VideoGame/MegaMan11.'') |
| 391 | ** In ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'', you can only carry one secondary weapon at a time. Until you unlock (and grind up to unlimited ammo) the Shining Laser or Active Buster, your secondary weapon ''will'' be the Machine Buster or Vacuum Arm save for the two or so times you need the Drill Arm or Grand Grenade to blast open walls. The rest are very useful against specific enemies but useless against others, while the Machine Buster is basically a better but limited Mega Buster that works well enough against everything, so players rarely use anything else save for the brief novelty of a new weapon or a SelfImposedChallenge. |
| 392 | * ''VideoGame/NotAHero'' gives you a whole roster of playable characters, each with their own unique playstyle. Once you've practiced enough, though, Mike's fast speed, quick melee, and deadly shotguns are all you need. |
| 393 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{Spelunky}} Spelunky 2]]'' added alternate zones, but damn near everyone will always go Volcana and Tide Pool over Jungle and Temple. The reason is the benefits from those zones far outweigh the other. Volcana gives you Vlad's Cape, an item which was totally eclipsed by the Jetpack and was found way too late in the game that is now an InfinityMinusOneSword, and the quest item for free, while the only advantage the Jungle has is the Black Market (which you will need to be rolling in dough to take advantage of) and one Rope/Bomb pickup, and it requires you to save up $40,000 for the quest item[[note]]Robbing the Black Market is also much harder than in the first game.[[/note]]. Going to the Jungle is made even more pointless by the fact you need to go to Volcana to trigger the sequence needed to get [[spoiler:the Alien Compass]], if you decide to not go to the Tide Pool. The Tide Pool lets you [[SequenceBreaking Sequence Break]] and [[spoiler:enter Abzu without using the Ankh]] while for the Temple [[spoiler:you have to die to access Duat, which forces you to drop your back item, which includes Vlad's Cape[[note]]You can store Vlad's Cape with Waddler to carry it past the Temple, but that still means you don't have it for the Temple. Also, Duat was buffed by guaranteeing a free Jetpack drop, but Jetpacks are MadeOfExplodium in this game and is significantly riskier to use.[[/note]]]], and the Moon Challenge rewards are also worse: Clone Gun is insane for generating resources if you can find a way to carry it to the next stage (like playing co-op), while all the Elixir does is heal you - which barely matters because you have to die in the next level anyway [[spoiler:if you want to access Duat]] - and remove Poison and [[HPToOne Curse]], the latter which is so detrimental you might as well end your run as soon as you catch it. And the worse zones also have ''harder'' enemies. Going to the Temple became more viable after Elixir was buffed, which now gives you a status buff that doubles your healing and dispels itself to remove Poison and Curse after contacting them. Player favor is still very stacked against Jungle, though. |
| 394 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' has four different playable characters to play as, but its all too easy to fall back into the habit of using Princess Peach to beat the entire game, since she [[GameBreaker breaks the game]] in half with her floating ability, and her supposed "disadvantages" (namely her low pickup speed and power) aren't all that glaring either, or at least not as debilitating as the other characters' weaknesses. Whenever you see gameplay videos on ''Mario 2'', you're going to see a ''lot'' of Peach users. |
| 395 | * The Avatar is a custom character in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' in which you can designate a species for him or her and equip him or her with one of seven Wispons, handheld weapons with different effects. When you get to pick other players' Avatars to use, you'll find that there are more Wolves and Hedgehogs than any other species (because Wolves attract Rings to themselves and because Hedgehogs are always popular for fanmade characters); and Burst and Lightning Wispons take up about three-quarters of all Avatars' Wispons (due to them being the first two usable ones in the game, the two simplest ones to use, and the two with the most potential to break the game). |
| 396 | * ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' has twelve different guns, but by far the most useful one is the Beam Reflexor. It fires shots that reflect off walls and enemies (doing damage in the latter case) and also home in on enemies. All you have to do is fire a few times and everything in sight will die, no aiming required. You obtain the Beam Reflexor early on and there's no point using anything else. It does become less effective in open areas, since the shots have longer to travel, but still remains useful. |
| 397 | * In the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' games: |
| 398 | ** While there are [[{{Tagline}} over 30 weapons and gadgets not fit for this world]], most players will always have the game's rocket launcher in their weapon rotation. While other weapons may be fancier and deal more damage if fired right, [[BoringButPractical the rocket launcher is fast, simple, can be fired rapidly and deals a lot of damage]], helping it remain viable even once it's been fully upgraded. [[DevelopersForesight This is probably why they take a lot of XP to upgrade in the first place]]. |
| 399 | ** On a similar note, the Chimp-o-matic and Transmorpher weapons from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankAll4One All 4 One]]'' have long range, transform enemies quickly and use no ammo, making them frequent picks for how easy to use they are. |
| 400 | ** [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 First game's]] Blaster is in similar position. It's first truly long-range weapon you can get and obtainable on second planet, has some degree of auto-tracking and fires fast. This game's enemies HP scales only very slowly, so it'll stay relevant for the rest of game and it's one of few weapons useful against FinalBoss. Even after getting this game's rocket launcher, Devastator, the Blaster will get more use overall because its ammo is dirt cheap and the game's economy is rather tough. Consequently, most players will use Devastator for enemies the Blaster can't help you with. It also helps that you can get an upgrade for it during first playthrough, [[GuideDangIt if you know where to look]]. |
| 401 | * The gist of the video game ''VideoGame/{{SOS}}'' is to make your way out of a sinking ship with up to seven survivors. In order to get the best endings? You must exit the ship with your player character's key passenger(s) and more than 25 points worth of passengers within an hour of real-time. However, not all passengers are created equal as some are worth more points than others, some are further out of your way than others, and some can only be recruited by different playable characters. As a result, players seeking the good endings often go for passengers that are recruitable in groups of 2-3, their key passenger(s), and sometimes one more person as this can easily push you over 25 points and keeps you from wasting time. |
| 402 | [[/folder]] |
| 403 | |
| 404 | [[folder:Platform/Arena Fighters]] |
| 405 | * ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' began with a "Testpunch," a demo of the game before its official release in which players can play against each other online. Though Master Mummy was the preferred character early on due to how he has SuperArmor on weak attacks and how he can heal when attacked while blocking, Ninjara soon overtook him due to Ninjara's speed, ability to teleport to dodge attacks, and his very fast, very effective grab move. Since grabs can damage blocking enemies, Ninjara became an easy counter to Master Mummy. |
| 406 | * In ''VideoGame/PowerStone'', the power stones themselves are subject to this, as, while you need to collect three to transform, the SuperMode activated upon doing so is quite powerful for every character. Expect all players to prioritize getting them. It's likely an intentional example a la the GoldenSnitch, what with them being the [[MacGuffin MacGuffins]] and all. Averted with the characters, as PS doesn't have much of a competitive fanbase and no characters stick out as overpowered. |
| 407 | * ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'': |
| 408 | ** The community analyses the hell out of every character, game mode, stage and glitch, developing the fabled "tier lists" for each game to show which character is considered the "best", and these lists are considered the gospel among most players. Thus with each new tier list, expect at least 50% of your opponents to play either S, A, or B tier fighters ([[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Meta Knight]] in ''Brawl'', anyone?) The series is also the UrExample of AbridgedArenaArray with 90 percent of stages being flat out [[MemeticMutation BANNED]] and the rest being either legal (due to being completely flat, so they're "fair") or counterpicks. |
| 409 | ** The original game on Nintendo 64, while not being as popular in competitive play compared to its sequels nor having as big of a case of this trope because of its small roster (again, compared to its sequels), still nonetheless has its own case of ComplacentGamingSyndrome. Watch any Smash 64 tournament and more often than not you'll see somebody playing as [[LightningBruiser Pikachu]], Kirby, Fox, or Captain Falcon. |
| 410 | ** ''Melee'''s top eight characters (Fox, Falco, Marth, Sheik, Jigglypuff, Peach, Ice Climbers, and Captain Falcon) on the current tier list are of special note. You will almost ''never'' see anyone make a notable tournament placing without using one of those characters. Most notably, Fox, the game's best character is so viable that even players who main one of the other seven top tier characters in ''Melee'' will either switch to him mid-tournament or drop their current main altogether to exclusively main the leader of Star Fox. This is where the "20XX"[[note]]a hypothetical year in which everyone mains Fox and can play him perfectly[[/note]] joke comes from. |
| 411 | ** Ice Climbers' time in the sun during ''Melee'' was smeared by a technique known as "wobbling" that involved Popo grabbing and pummeling the unlucky foe while the desynced Nana performed downward tilt attacks in an alternating cycle that locked opponents inside the grab ''infinitely'', rendering them helpless to escape and becoming basically a kill confirm. If not for this technique the Ice Climbers would probably be overlooked as viable characters, but thanks to it they have a constant presence... that tournament crowds usually hate seeing, since wobbling is both boring to watch and is widely considered an underhanded tactic. It has since been banned, and the Ice Climbers' popularity has dropped accordingly. |
| 412 | ** In years past, many professional Smashers tried to defy the norm by maining mid- or low-tier characters (and even managed to place surprisingly high) and became known for representing the underdog characters, but the majority of them have since switched to Fox or another top-tier character to maximize their efficiency. That said, a Japanese player named aMSa started making waves in the ''Melee'' community by kicking ass and taking names with Yoshi, a character previously perceived as low tier who many top players had been ignoring for years. |
| 413 | ** Stock seems to be the go-to game mode. No one even considers Coin Mode, everybody assumes you accidentally forgot to change the default with Time Mode and Bonus Mode never returned after ''Melee''. The popular ''Brawl'' mod Project M even acknowledges this by having Stock, not Time, be the default mode upon entering "free for all" mode in the multiplayer section. |
| 414 | ** Players also tend to have an irrational fear of any items being added into a match (lampooned when the official site sneaked in the message that "Real men use items!"), leading to the MemeticMutation "NO ITEMS! [[VideoGame/StarFox FOX ONLY!]] [[AbridgedArenaArray FINAL DESTINATION!]]" If you're lucky, you'll have a friend who occasionally likes to mix things up (99 stock super sudden death with high items). Mostly it's complacency in the above pattern, rarely it's someone who refuses to not play with items due to personal rules. |
| 415 | *** Final Destination is a particularly troublesome example because, in the opinions of many tourney-goers, it's actually ''not'' the most balanced stage - it favors projectile-users and fast characters a lot, due to its lack of platforms and enormous width. To no one's surprise, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs fast projectile users]] like Fox and Falco tend to dominate the ''Melee'' and ''Project M'' tier lists, and make a strong showing even in vanilla ''Brawl'' and ''[=3DS/Wii U=]'' (jury's still out on ''Ultimate''). Battlefield, which is about two-thirds as wide and features three evenly-spaced platforms, gets far fewer complaints. Final Destination is a "counterpick" for these purposes; there is no dispute that it's legal, but other stages are preferred. |
| 416 | *** ''Super Smash Bros.'' for Wii U[=/=]3DS saw fit to include an online multiplayer mode where there are no items and Final Destination is the only stage available. However, in order to force ''some'' variety onto the competitive scene, almost every stage comes in both the usual variant for regular play and an "Omega" one that consists of a Final Destination-like flat platform for the "For Glory" mode. However this comes at a cost that nearly reaches [[GameBreaker game breaking]] territory and that is. |
| 417 | *** [[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac.]] He is the most played character in online play, due to his immense ground play and fast speed (at the cost of having poor aerial play which means almost nothing on Final Destination and Omega versions). In other words, he is practically ''built'' to exploit Final Destination's above-mentioned flaws. Some people even ended up [[HighTierScrappy quitting For Glory mode because of him alone.]] It almost feels that his mere presence would cause people to request for FD itself to get [[HilariousInHindsight banned]]. The large number of players using Mac actually resulted in him having the ''[[http://www.kotaku.com/little-mac-is-smash-bros-biggest-loser-1658263617 worst win/loss ratio in online play]]'', due to players' perceptions that his overpowered advantages make him easy to win with, but most lacking the actual skill to deal with his weaknesses. People coming up with more ways to counter him thanks to all the experience probably contributed too. |
| 418 | *** Thankfully ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' [[AuthorsSavingThrow adds the option]] to play every stage as a Battlefield clone in addition to Omega mode, so competitive players have more options. It remains to be seen whether Battlefield will completely overtake Final Destination because of this. |
| 419 | ** Pre-[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Mewtwo]] patch, Diddy Kong was raising all sorts of hell in the competitive community when a previous patch made his down throw plus up air combo stupidly good. So stupidly good that many people were quick to demand that he be banned (or at least banned until the next patch). Several top players also bitched about Diddy only to quickly main him afterwards. This reached its climax when APEX 2015 Grand Finals for [=Sm4sh=] featured Diddy Kong dittos. Currently, many players main either Sheik, Zero Suit Samus, Rosalina, Mario, Sonic, Villager, or Ness. |
| 420 | ** The release of DLC characters has ignited this trope for ''[=3DS/WiiU=]'' once again. Early on, a few people mained series fan favorites Mewtwo, Lucas, and Roy. Then when the first DLC newcomer [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]] joined the battle, quite a few people mained him, but his unique playstyle barred some people from trying to use him seriously in competitive Smash. Then all hell broke loose with the release of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]] as the fifth DLC character. Being ridiculously easy to pick up and play as, many players dropped their mains for Cloud and started winning weekly tournaments with the iconic spiky haired JRPG protagonist. Many threads on reddit also sprang up complaining about how "cheap" Cloud is in For Glory or just in general. This cooled off a bit when people started exploiting his terrible recovery (sans Limit Break). |
| 421 | ** Finally, in the February 2016 patch, (which added [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Corrin]] and VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} among other things) many players have been once again dropping their mains for Bayonetta, whose sick aerial combos attracted many a player. Like with Cloud, many players who almost never won their weekly locals previously started making a name for themselves exclusively playing as the Umbra Witch herself. On the For Glory side of things, Corrin has been making the rounds due to his/her shapeshifting abilities. Back to Bayonetta, it really says something when a patch comes out and '''only''' the one character everybody has been complaining about gets any changes (mostly nerfs). |
| 422 | ** While ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' is the most balanced Smash game by a wide margin, some of its characters are still more heavily used then others in the competitive scene. [[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Palutena]] is one of the most common characters in the game, even after she was nerfed several times. She has fantastic mobility both in the air and on the ground, great aerials with her back air being very strong and has invincibility while her neutral air is disjointed, possesses great combo potential, is good at edgeguarding, plays a great grab game and had her specials changed from ''Smash 4'' due to the removal of Custom Special Moves. The general community sees her as a top 5 character who is immensely used in all forms of play due to how well balanced she is. |
| 423 | ** [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra/Mythra]] is considered to be a top 3 character in ''Ultimate'' at top level alongside [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]] and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]]. Not only are very relatively simplistic to play, their moveset is also incredibly overwhelming and overtuned, with Mythra having some of the best overall mobility alongside Sonic, Sheik and Zero Suit. Both Pyra and Mythra have small hurtboxes and shift their hurtbox often to avoid attacks, while having large range on their moves due to wielding a large sword. Mythra packs fantastic frame data on her aerials and tilts, while having generally good smash attacks and fantastic combo potential due to how lagless all her moves are, while Pyra has great kill power and a very strong down air that has a large spike which can combo into kill moves. Many people complained when the overall top 3 of the Smash World Tour 2021 (the biggest Smash invitational of all time) were all Pyra/Mythra players. They have generally had comparisons to ''Smash 4'' Cloud, due to their overall strengths, ubiquity and a very similar recovery weakness. Not only that, but they are also common on Elite Smash for a more casual audience too, [[https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/research/articles/500071/9 being the most popular characters in Japan]], due to their overall simplicity. |
| 424 | * ''VideoGame/PlaystationAllStarsBattleRoyale'': This fast became the case with [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] not long after its release. Partially due to his immense popularity and heavily to do with his versatility, AP-Gain and general ease-of-use, it's not uncommon online to see at least several of them in a [[http://pyroantiform.deviantart.com/art/Playstation-Allstar-Matchmaking-349534504 standard free-for-all match]]. It also didn't take long for him to be labeled a HighTierScrappy by a large part of the community, with many calling for several {{nerf}}s to him. It also didn't take long for some of the more advanced players to figure out his weaknesses. Within those circles where Kratos is less of an issue, you're more likely to hear loud complaints in the direction of [[VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Raiden]] or VideoGame/SlyCooper. |
| 425 | * ''VideoGame/RivalsOfAether'': You're unlikely to fight random online players without facing VideoGame/ShovelKnight every other match. His general ease of use, strong kill power and recovery, and the MagikarpPower nature of his gimmick lets most low-level players go gorilla and [[SkillGateCharacters steal a couple of wins from players who just picked up the game]]. In more serious matches, Shovel Knight players are generally ''reviled''. |
| 426 | * ''VideoGame/NickelodeonAllStarBrawl'': |
| 427 | ** Expect to see a lot of [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Reptar]] players online, due to his extremely high damage output and weight. |
| 428 | ** [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Toph]] is also very common online, due to her powerful, easily spammable strong attacks. |
| 429 | [[/folder]] |
| 430 | |
| 431 | [[folder:Racing Games]] |
| 432 | * ''[[Creator/{{Gameloft}} Asphalt 8]]'' has a time limited event, where players drive a specific stock vehicle on a specific track. After a day, the experienced players follow a specific route, only deviating if they make a major mistake. |
| 433 | ** The Citroen Survolt, a starter Class B car in the game, is a popular car in multiplayer due to the car's fast acceleration (rated at 3 seconds when the car is newly purchased), coupled with its low price (since it is a starter Class B car, after all). |
| 434 | ** Related to that: '''class kings'''. The community will tell you it is literally impossible to get to win multiplayer races and reach highest ranks of Multiplayer League unless you have a properly tuned class king car. On higher car levels, the Trion Nemesis (an upcoming American supercar), BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage, Chevrolet Camaro SS 2016, and [=McLaren=] [=MP4-25=] Mercedes (F1 car) dominate, while lower end car levels are dominated by Range Rover Evoque (an SUV, requires specific tuning), Donkervoort D8 GTO (a Dutch Caterham clone), Citroen Survolt (as mentioned), Renault [=DeZir=] (an electric concept car), and Mazda RX-8. |
| 435 | * If you’re playing ''Asphalt 9'' online, be prepared to meet hordes of Lamborghini Asterions on the track. This is due to the game giving you blueprints of the car in the game’s daily goals menu, most likely making it your first B Class car, with a pretty nice staring rank for its class. (compared to the Porsche 911 GTS Coupe, the starter B Class car for that game.) |
| 436 | ** In general, cars that have high acceleration, handing, and nitro with low top speed are very popular among the community due to them being easy to use, especially for [=TouchDrive=] users. |
| 437 | ** For D Class, expect to see at least one DS Automobiles DS E Tense or the Lotus Elise Sprint 220 in any match as the two are relatively easy to obtain and use. Expect to people to use the E Tense up until gold league. |
| 438 | ** For C Class, no race is complete without the Dodge Viper ACR, Acura NSX, or the Pininfarina H2 Speed. All of these cars are easy to obtain and feature decent stats. |
| 439 | ** For B Class, ask anyone what car they will use in gold league, expect to see cars such the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport or the Lamborghini Hurcan Evo Spyder to be answers. The former due to it being easy to obtain and its high nitro and handling even after the nerf which brought down its top speed. The latter due to it having jack-of-all stats that can be competitive even in the higher leagues. |
| 440 | ** For A Class, expect a lot of people to use the Porsche 918 Spyder, the Pagani Huayra BC, the Lamborghini Aventador SV, the Lamborghini Aventador J, or even the VLF Force 1. The Spyder having decent stats and can be obtained through the Legend Store, the Huayra BC having the largest nitro capacity, the Aventador SV for its top speed and acceleration, the Aventador J having a high handling stat, and the Force 1 being obtainable in Daily Events. |
| 441 | ** Though S Class cars are usually hard to obtain and difficult to master, expect a lot of players who prefer to play using manual controls to use the Trion Nemesis due to it being obtainable in a Daily Event and having high top speed. The Lamborghini Egoista can also be seen in the hands due to its high acceleration and nitro stats and also being obtainable in a Daily Event. |
| 442 | * Competitive players who target for scores in ''VideoGame/{{OutRun}} 2'' and its derivatives will only use flagship Ferrari vehicles such as Enzo Ferrari, F40 and Testarossa. |
| 443 | * ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing]]'' gave us characters on bikes, who can boost in addition to drifting by popping wheelies on any course, which makes them a nightmare for racers in cars. The worst of all of these characters is [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog Shadow]], who has lightning-fast aerial tricks, so that a player can easily get a max-level boost from an otherwise low jump, on top of being able to boost on the ground virtually at will. Fans were calling for Shadow to be [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] very quickly, and even now, he's still a HighTierScrappy. The other characters on bikes, like [[VideoGame/{{Shenmue}} Ryo Hazuki]] and VideoGame/AlexKidd, aren't too far behind him. |
| 444 | * ''VideoGame/InitialDArcadeStage Ver. 2'': |
| 445 | ** Everybody and their brother used the Honda Integra Type R ([=DC2=]) and selected Irohazaka for every single multiplayer match, mostly because the [=DC2=] was a GameBreaker that wouldn't slow down nearly as much as other cars from hitting walls and guardrails, and Irohazaka was a narrow zig-zagging series of hairpins, which gave a huge advantage to the [=DC2=]. |
| 446 | ** When Version 3 came out, that changed thanks to the Home Course Advantage: if you drove a car on its in-game home course (e.g. driving the [=AE85=] Levin on Myogi, the [=AE86=] Trueno on Akina, or the [=MR2=] on Irohazaka), your car would be slightly faster and quicker to recover from error than cars that weren't from that course. Of course, a skilled opponent could overcome this, seeing how the Mazda RX-8 sits as the fastest vehicle for Shomaru (as well as the fastest vehicle in that version OVERALL) and the car that supposedly has a home course advantage in that course, the [=AE86=] Levin, sits at bottom tier with its weaker [=AE85=] counterpart. |
| 447 | ** Arcade Stage 8 Infinity mostly averts this, but the 2-door [=AE86=] is still pretty common in online play. |
| 448 | * ''VideoGame/WanganMidnight Maximum Tune'': |
| 449 | ** Expect to see a lot of Mazda RX-7 [=FDs=] and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, especially the eighth and ninth iterations of the latter. The Mazda RX-8, Nissan Skyline GT-R [=R32s=] and Toyota [=AE86=] Trueno are also quite common, along with the occasional [=R34=] Skyline GT-Rs and Mazda 110S Cosmo. |
| 450 | ** As for as music choices go, if it's a particularly crowded day, expect to hear the ClimaxBoss and FinalBoss themes ("Feel the Moment", "Phantom of Blue", and "Blue Blazes", just to name a few examples) played over and over. As of [=WMMT5=], expect to hear a lot of "Fallen Angel" as well. |
| 451 | ** For the longest time, nobody at a serious level used anything below a "Balanced" tuning setup, but the Japanese version of ''Maximum Tune 5'' and the international version of ''Maximum Tune 5DX'' finally correct this with the Shibuya/Shinjuku sub-center line, in which the widely-accepted best setup is 680 HP / G (Grip). The Kobe course in ''5DX'' and Hiroshima course in ''5DX+'' further encourage grippy setups, with their player-recommended setups being ''640 HP'' / HG (High Grip). |
| 452 | * ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': |
| 453 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'': |
| 454 | *** Snakers would use nothing but the [[FragileSpeedster Dry Bomber]] since its mini-turbos lasted the longest out of all karts and it made snaking easier. |
| 455 | *** Time trial champions often use the [[LightningBruiser ROB-BLS]] because of its almost perfect stats. |
| 456 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'': |
| 457 | *** Bikes reign supreme over karts because they can wheelie at any time for a speed boost. When it comes to Nintendo's tourneys, if it's karts only, expect to hear many [[StopHavingFunGuys bike purists whine about how they're forced to use something so inferior as a kart]]. |
| 458 | *** Certain players will only play as Funky Kong in the [[MightyGlacier Flame Runner]] or Daisy in the [[GlassCannon Mach Bike]] because they are the two best combinations statistically: they share a great top speed (especially the former) coupled with powerful turbos and precise drifts (especially the latter). Everyone else plays as their Miis. |
| 459 | *** Another popular strategy was to play as Toadette in the [[StoneWall Magikruiser]] to get the highest possible off-road stat, and then [[AbridgedArenaArray play only on GBA Shy Guy Beach]], where you could just drive through the water with minimal loss in speed and hug the edge of the map while everyone else was forced to stick to the actual track. |
| 460 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' |
| 461 | *** When looking up time trial records for ''Mario Kart 7'', expect to see nearly everyone using [[GlacierWaif Metal Mario]] for the high bonus in top speed (even though Bowser gives the same bonuses). When it comes to what parts everyone uses, expect to see a lot of people using the B Dasher with the Slick or Gold Tires (or other similar parts that give a lot of speed). |
| 462 | *** ''Mario Kart 7'' has nearly everyone using the [[GlassCannon B Dasher]] because of its extremely high top speed and how cool it looks, along with the Mushroom Wheels (despite their ridiculous looks) since it gives a good boost in speed and handling. |
| 463 | *** [[MightyGlacier Zucchini with Red Monster tires]] is another popular combination for time trials because of the considerable top speed and weight it gives, but also thanks to its ludicrous off-road to take shortcuts. |
| 464 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' (''Deluxe''): |
| 465 | *** The game has people using either Wario, Dry Bowser, Morton, Bowser, or a heavyweight Mii for Time Trials because said characters have the best top speed. ''Deluxe'' had a similar phenomenon with the first two because they sacrificed some weight for more handling and traction while keeping their ludicrous top speed. Cruiser characters like Roy, Donkey Kong and Waluigi took over since for similar reasons. |
| 466 | *** 200cc mode reversed the problem, as players would often use a lighter character in an attempt to REDUCE their top speed, thus not hitting walls or falling off the track as much as if they chose to race with a heavier character in 200cc. These players often choose the [[FragileSpeedster Biddybuggy with Roller tires]] to increase their chances in this area. |
| 467 | *** Sometime during 2020, players settled on Waluigi on the Wild Wiggler or Biddybuggy with (Blue) Roller wheels in online races. He has a high top speed but not so high as to be uncontrollable in 200cc, has a very high hidden Mini-Turbo (boost) stat giving him huge bursts of speed that last a long time, and handling and acceleration passable enough to adapt to the item-filled chaos. Donkey Kong and Roy have the same stats as Waluigi but take up more of the screen. It is not quite as extreme as the other Mario Kart examples on this list though, considering how it took a few years for this combination to become popular and how getting attacked while cornering with this combination is effectively a death sentence for your standings. |
| 468 | *** The updates which were released concurrently with waves 4, 5, and 6 of the Booster Course Pass gave subtle, yet impactful buffs to every kart part and character that wasn't among the best, which resulted in heavyweights - Waluigi and the Wild Wiggler in particular - falling out of favor. Predictably, the playerbase settled rather quickly on a new favorite in Yoshi on the Teddy Buggy, as it now has a more favorable stat spread that better rewards technical driving compared to heavyweight combos (high mini turbo), without making too significant a sacrifice in ability to come back after falling behind (lower top speed, which affects items such as mushrooms and Bullet Bills). |
| 469 | * ''VideoGame/ForzaMotorsport 3'' had ''every'' player converting their cars into all-wheel-drive due to the massive [[CharacterTiers performance index]] drop it caused, allowing players to put in even more upgrades on their grippy AWD car. Online way was utterly dominated by the Audi S4 and [[GameBreaker AWD Dodge Vipers]]. ''Forza 4'' reverses this and makes rear wheel drive dominate, leading to players converting all their cars (when possible) to rear-wheel-drive; the rear-wheel-drive converted 1997 Honda Civic dominates C-class, with the Honda NSX dominating B through A class. |
| 470 | * In ''[[VideoGame/RidgeRacer Drift Spirits]]'', the Honda CR-Z (particularly at 3*++ or 4*++ rarity) is extremely commonly used due to it having the lowest gas cost per race in the game (its other stats bar acceleration are mediocre at best without the right parts, even for a 3* car), making it a BoringButPractical vehicle that is even more highly used than it already is during Boss Battle Events (where double the normal gas cost is used per race). |
| 471 | * The always-online ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed2015'' game has a stat that tracks a player's favorite car, essentially the car used most often by the player. For much of the playerbase, this is either the Nissan GT-R or Lamborghini Aventador due to them having great top speeds and high horsepower coupled with the grippiness of an AWD car. |
| 472 | * Before the Vol 2 update, the Lakeshore Online mode in ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnbound'' is plagued by the absurdly broken Ferrari 458 Pista (with a 5-speed gearbox fitted) for being used as a B-Class by a majority, meaning if you're new to this game mode, expect the majority of players using this infamous car to [[CurbStompBattle obliterate you]]. |
| 473 | * Racing Soft tires in ''VideoGame/GranTurismo 5'' and ''6'' are considered a must if one wants to win open lobby races, since it is the most grippiest tire level in the game. Of course, unless the lobby admin turns on tire wear. Open drift lobbies demands Comfort Hard tires, the tire with least grip, instead. |
| 474 | ** Meanwhile in ''Sport'', Sport Mode and FIA-sanctioned races are typically dominated by a small handful of vehicles in each category. For example, the KTM X-Bow and Ferrari F50 (detuned) dominate N300, while the Porsche 911 [=GT3=] RS reigns supreme in N500, the Alfa Romeo 4C, Toyota [=GT86=], Audi TT Cup and Renault Megane Trophy in Gr.4 and the Audi R8 LMS and Porsche 911 RSR in Gr.3. |
| 475 | [[/folder]] |
| 476 | |
| 477 | [[folder:Real-Time Strategy]] |
| 478 | * The ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' equivalent is "Seton's Clutch" for 4v4 games and "Fields of Isis" for 2v2 games. Despite a large number of 3v3 maps to choose from, 3v3 games are always on Seton's Clutch again with 2 of the player positions left empty. A large proportion of the player base also insists on playing "20min no rush" (which is built into the game) and with nukes and heavy artillery disabled. |
| 479 | * In the old days, when playing ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' online, any game that ''didn't'' start off in "Post-Iron Age" (highest level of technology, every inch of the map known to every player, etc.) was doomed to languish in solitude until the game leader caved -- god help you if you ''liked'' building a civilization. |
| 480 | * ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'': |
| 481 | ** Try and play in the game's early days without every enemy [[ZergRush rushing your base with hundreds of paladins and trebuchets]]. Heck, try playing anything BUT Deatchmatch Huns. |
| 482 | ** As the game matured this changed. Now the dominant map type is 1V1 Arabia or Black Forest. |
| 483 | * ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series: |
| 484 | ** Almost all 3v3 games in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Yuri's Revenge]]'' were played on Tour of Egypt. |
| 485 | ** ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3 Red Alert 3]]'' players tend to pick a side (Allies, Soviets, or Japanese) and completely forget about the other two. Even worse, players will then develop a strategy that works well for them and stick to it (Allied air-power, Soviet armor, Japanese mobility) and fail to remember their other possible strategies (Allies stealth/sabotage, Soviet glass cannon/zerg rush, Japanese heavy bombardment). |
| 486 | ** For that matter, the older ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'': Custom-made maps with large walls and completely flat ground, teams build bases behind the wall. No air or underground units until you pass the "gate" (the entrance in the large wall). Et cetera. |
| 487 | * The vast majority of casual ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' games are played on "Fastest Possible" or "BGH-style" maps with lots and lots of money. Additionally, all players are now expected to choose a race - no random! Of course even the "serious" gamers fall into the rut: over the years the "most popular map" has changed: Lost Temple -> user-created Lost Temple editions -> Gaia/Azelea -> Python -> Destination. The one currently gaining popularity (possibly because it's the most balanced map made in ''years'' for almost all levels of play) is called Fighting Spirit. (Incidentally, translating the Korean name better would have called it "elan", which is way cooler.) |
| 488 | ** And, of course, the [[TropeNamer Trope Naming]] ZergRush spawned from this game. |
| 489 | * ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft II}}'': |
| 490 | ** The most blatant is any 1v1 game between two Terran players. Expect only Marines, Siege tanks, Vikings and Medievacs. That is unless one of them knows how to use [=IEchoic's 2Fac2Port=] build which is specifically tailored to take the standard [=TvT=] build by the balls and make it that player's bitch. Protoss vs Terran has similar issues, as the Protoss player will always go Robotics Facility for Colossi and lots of Stalkers to deal with Terran bio-balls comprised of Marines and Marauders with escorting Vikings to counter the Colossi and allow the Marines to wipe out the Immortals. Zerg vs Zerg matches are usually decided by who can get a fast spawning pool and still maintain enough of an economy to outproduce the other in terms of zerglings. Innovative players have created builds that have broken the monotony of these scenarios but trying to use them outside of a tournament or higher league play will result in being harassed for cheating, or even being formally reported to Blizzard simply because most middle-to-bottom tier players, once happy with a build for any kind of match up, will tell you that not even God himself can play the game any other way. |
| 491 | ** The major issue with the second game is the presence of far more 'hard' counters (units and tactics which can decisively shut down certain aspects of play unless massively outnumbered or behind on upgrades) than in the original game allowing the outcomes of matches to be set in stone rather early unless both sides scout well. This results in a more methodical and technical {{Metagame}} with a heavy emphasis on timing and memorization. |
| 492 | ** Not long after the introduction of Co-Op mode in ''VideoGame/StarCraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'', some players already developed insane methods of guaranteeing success on some of the maps. Notably, on the map "Void Launch", many players who play any form of Protoss will start by ''building a pylon followed by a large array of photon canons right in front of the warp gates''. |
| 493 | ** Co-Op already gives players a smaller selection of units than the norm, but you'll still see players gravitating towards certain units more than other on each commander. For instance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Karax's only offensive units are Photon Cannons and Carriers, Blizzard had to buff all of Alarak's mech units to make players build something other than Ascendants for a change, and the guides for any commander with Mutalisks will heavily recommend using them due to all of them having ridiculously good Mutalisk upgrades. |
| 494 | * ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': For players who want to minimise the impact of the randomness caused by the tech system, setting tech costs to a quarter of the original is a must. |
| 495 | ** Since it's near impossible to have pops specialized in a particular job actually remaining in said jobs, "universal" traits become more attractive. |
| 496 | ** Research and Alloy production trump everything else because they're the chief resources where producing more than is necessary can be turned into immediate benefits. Higher research gets technology faster and a larger alloy reserve means more warships can be built, both of which enable further snowballing. Most players prioritize these two resources over everything else. |
| 497 | ** Players on low-spec machines or players that use a lot of mods will quite inevitably end up playing as some kind of Empire that has genocide as a core policy ([[AbsoluteXenophobe Fanatic Purifiers]], [[AIIsACrapshoot Determined Exterminators]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Devouring Hives and Terravores]]), as allowing the galactic population to get too high will result in the game slowing to a crawl. |
| 498 | * ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer:'' |
| 499 | ** A "doomstack" refers to an army composed almost entirely of one type of unit capable of defeating practically any other single enemy army, usually taking minimal damage in the process. The leader and/or heroes of a doomstack are ones that offers significant buffs to the unit in question. It's typically comprised of a expensive single-model unit, as this makes them easy to micromanage and heal. So you could run an elegantly balanced Vampire Coast army with zombie gunners, giant undead crabs, cannons, and vampire warriors... or you could just have 19 [[BodyOfBodies Necrofex Colossi]] led by Count Noctilus riding his unique mount, a Necrofex Colossus, and he can heal each one while increasing their stats. |
| 500 | ** The Vampire Counts faction has an early technology that makes their skeleton warriors have no upkeep cost, and their standard building that increases regional growth also increases the recruit rank of Necromancers faction-wide. Thus they can maintain armies practically for free with the caveat they only contain skeleton units, and immediately hand them all a high-level necromancer hero. The tactic of swarming enemies with endless armies of skeletons while using the powerful Wind of Death spell to scythe down multiple units was so prevalent that when Creative Assembly announced an overhaul of the faction they noted it had rendered most of their Vampire Counts' unit list obsolete. |
| 501 | [[/folder]] |
| 502 | |
| 503 | [[folder:Rhythm Games]] |
| 504 | * Don't play ''VideoGame/AuditionOnline'' unless you know how to do more-than-3 key chance and enjoy high BPM songs. Basically the usual symptoms of Rhythm games you should be familiar with. You can't find players who are willing to do a no-chance game, since chance adds a point multiplier. |
| 505 | * ''VideoGame/{{DJMAX}} Technika 2'''s Crew Race mode. In Crew Race, you create a course consisting of 3 songs, each with your best score on it, and people who challenge your course must complete it and optionally beat your combined scores for the 3 songs. As soon as it was fully implemented, it became everyone's [[NintendoHard worst nightmare]] come true: The ''large majority'' of the courses have [[ThatOneBoss high-end difficulty songs]] like Fermion, D2, and Son of Sun, many which are played in Maximum difficulty. |
| 506 | * If you just like to play the ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' or ''VideoGame/RockBand'' games for fun, stay the hell away from the public Xbox Live matchups. Every single time, you'll be forced into playing the hardest song on that particular disc, and if so, god help you if you pick any other song when it's your turn to choose, you'll ended up hearing a lot of hateful insults from the other players. Ditto if everyone else has a particular DLC song (usually balls-hard as well) and you don't. And ditto if you play on anything but Expert, and ditto if they forced you to play Expert, where they are ''well-aware'' you'll suck at it, and so on. ''Especially'' don't play ''Rock Band'', because alot of people would play every session with Coheed & Cambria's "Welcome Home". |
| 507 | * ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}} saucer'' attempts to curb this with the "song swap" system, in which every month, a selection of songs are removed and some other songs, old and new, are put in. So if you're one of those players who only plays, for example, [[Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun "only my railgun"]] or "Sandstorm", and those songs are due for removal, it's time to start playing other songs. |
| 508 | * ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}}'': |
| 509 | ** Did a new ''IIDX'' version just arrive at your local arcade? If players are not trying the new songs, they're most likely playing [[KyuAndDanRanks Dan'inintei]] mode. Justified, in that moving up a version resets the player's ''dan'' rank so they have to re-establish it by clearing the updated course for their rank. Give it a week or two and most players will be back to playing whatever modes and songs they want. |
| 510 | ** At the highest levels of play, almost nobody plays without using Random, a modifier that shuffles key notes on a per-column basis (for example, notes in column 1 are now in column 5, notes in column 2 are now in column 3, etc.). The idea behind this is twofold: It can make some charts easier [[LuckBasedMission depending on how the RNG feels]], and it helps players practice awkward note patterns. |
| 511 | * ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' gets some of this from the CasualCompetitiveConflict in the game's fanbase. |
| 512 | ** Almost no one at competitive levels takes any achievements on charts below Expert difficulty seriously. The only time such a thing might be viewed positively is if it's done with a SelfImposedChallenge, like actually dancing while hitting the notes or using only one foot to clear the song. |
| 513 | ** Any ''DDR'' forum is going to be dominated by people who talk about the songs with high-end charts, reserved only for the most difficult of songs. This is at least in part due to the same handful of songs getting played on the competitive scene, despite ''DDR'' releasing dozens of songs with every iteration. Going onto such a forum, website, etc. and saying that you play ''DDR'' because you like the songs themselves is likely to be met with confusion or accusations of not liking the "real" game. |
| 514 | * Whatever you do, stay away from ''VideoGame/BangDreamGirlsBandParty'' online! Players would regularlly choose [[Manga/AttackOnTitan Attack On Titan's "Guren no Yumiya"]], [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Rutouni Kenshin's "Sobakasu"]], and [[Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun A Certain Scientific Railgun's "Only My Railgun"]] just for the fandoms, and they will start attacking you if you pick other songs regularly. |
| 515 | * A number of ''VideoGame/GrooveCoaster'' players, particularly in the US, will only play ''GC'' for the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' arranges and nothing else. |
| 516 | * In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory'', "What Lies Beneath", the ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Olympus Coliseum]] battle music, is very frequently played due to having a lot of double notes, and being easy to get a Full Chain on, meaning playing it non-stop is the fastest way to get the achievement for killing 100000 enemies. |
| 517 | [[/folder]] |
| 518 | |
| 519 | [[folder:Roguelike]] |
| 520 | * ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': |
| 521 | ** Among the Keepsakes, it's easy to rely on Cerberus' and Skelly's: The Spiked Collar and the Lucky Tooth. They're both obtainable pretty early on and have extremelly simple, but useful effects. The Spiked Collar will give the player a Max Health boost, which also boosts the amount of healing the player gets over a run, while the Lucky Tooth will simply give the player one extra Death Defiance, extremelly useful for beginner players. |
| 522 | ** Athena's Divine Dash is easily the best dash in the game and the one most players will prefer given the option.While any dash has a few frames of invincibility, Divine Dash makes the player invincible during the entirety of it, bouncing projectiles back in the process, which makes it incredibly useful and central for a defensive playstyle. |
| 523 | [[/folder]] |
| 524 | |
| 525 | [[folder:Role-Playing Games]] |
| 526 | * Imoen is one of the most recurrent characters in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' playthroughs. She was just a last minute addiction assembled from some vocal demos just because beta testers complained that the early game didn't have good alignement thieves. Yet she became so popular among players and widespread in parties that Bioware brought her back in the sequel and gave her additional background lore. Still, early plannings where for her to leave the party after chapter 1 and then die when you find her back in chapter 4, but again beta testers and early access players complained so hard that they wanted to play with her, that Bioware again changed everything at the last minute. |
| 527 | ** And thus in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' the most common recurrent choice in party composition is to bring Yoshimo from the very first moment and conveniently replace him with Imoen when the time comes, since [[spoiler:he's a strong character, he betrays the party right before rescuing Imoen, and you can cheese the upcoming battle with him by dual-classing him right before his betrayal for a ton of free XP]]. |
| 528 | ** Also, Imoen became a mage/thief in the sequel because most players recurrently dual classed her. |
| 529 | ** There is almost no paladin setup that doesn't imply using Carsomyr, except for the inquisitor kit which gets some of the powers of that sword. After the release of Throne of Bhaal, the Purifier became a decent alternative though. |
| 530 | ** Which mage never memorized magic missile? |
| 531 | ** After hidden bonuses like the diamond in a tree out of Candlekeep became known, no aware playthrough ignored them unless in a SelfImposedChallenge. |
| 532 | ** Almost every player ignores Garrick in the first game and Cernd in the second game, the latter is maybe recruited just for the XP of his personal side quest, but then most players dump him. |
| 533 | * ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheSeasons'': |
| 534 | ** Since each run resets the party's levels, but not their inventory or money, the Gift Card accessory tends to be the most used in the early stages in order to farm as much money from each run as possible. |
| 535 | ** Due to the weakness triangle system, having two or more Nukers of different attributes is a common strategy to get through the stages faster, even [[RocketTagGameplay at the cost of more defensive options]]. |
| 536 | * Late-game in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', every battle is going to go roughly one of two ways. |
| 537 | ** The most common way: have Aika use Delta Shield (blocks magic), have Enrique use Justice Shield (halves all damage), have Fina use Focus or heal with items, and have Vyse either act as a secondary item user or attack with Pirate's Wrath to decimate an enemy. Rinse and repeat. |
| 538 | ** If not that, the other strategy that will be used is similar, but with Vyse also using Focus to charge up the Spirit Pool to full. Once it's full, use Prophecy to [[ColonyDrop drop a moon on all enemies for heavy unblockable damage]] while making the enemies skip their turn. Then do it all over again. |
| 539 | * Most games in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' give you more team members than can fit in an active party, and while the games tend to be fairly balanced on the whole, there are definitely a few characters who end up sitting on the back bench in a lot of playthroughs. |
| 540 | ** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'', Pascal's fighting style is unorthodox and Malik can't heal. Combining this is the fact that before ''Graces F'' (the remaster for the [=PS3=]), neither of them could use Nova Artes, which the endgame monsters were all weak to. Because of those two limitations, the standard party across the board is Sophie, Hubert, Asbel and Cheria. |
| 541 | *** In the "Lineages and Legacies" campaign, Hubert or Asbel are often kicked for Richard. |
| 542 | ** ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' |
| 543 | *** It tends to showcase a bit more variety (having ''nine'' playable characters will do that to a game), but taking Raine or Lloyd out of the party almost amounts to a SelfImposedChallenge. The former is the group's primary healer, and the latter is in the group most often, so players generally control him. |
| 544 | *** Next to Raine, there's also the chance that Genis will be kept in the party at all possible times because he's a pure magic-user and has spells that cover majority of elements. |
| 545 | *** Colette is either benched, or put under player control. Colette is often perceived as a bad character - but the main problem is that her AI just [[ArtificialStupidity doesn't know how to position her or chain her artes together]]. When put under a player's control, she becomes almost ''dangerously'' competent. |
| 546 | ** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' contains two healers in the party, one focusing on party-healing and the other on single-healing, but most parties will consist of Luke, Tear, Jade and Anise. Tear because she uses party-healing, which is really necessary in some later battles, Jade is your best mage period, and Anise is good at magic, while also being enough of a tank to help in melee-fighting and taking hits. Luke could be replaced with Guy, whose style is more familiar for previous Tales-players, but the story involves battles where one fights with only Luke, so knowing how to use him is advantageous. [[CombatMedic Natalia]] tends to be ignored, unless one is doing the coliseum battles with her, or you absolutely need her single-target healing spells for a certain battle (of which they're aren't many). |
| 547 | ** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' usually combines OneManArmy Yuri Lowell with CombatMedic Estelle and GlassCannon Rita. The fourth member (either Raven, Judith, Karol, Flynn, Patty, or Repede) tends to rotate by player preference. |
| 548 | ** While ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' tends to restrict the party in gameplay missions, when the choice ''is'' available most favour a party of Ludger (who's always mandatory), Elize, Gaius and Milla. It's a good balance of the main character, a CombatMedic, a MagicKnight, and having the previous game's [[spoiler: FinalBoss]] on your team, which is way too cool to resist. It also helps that Gaius deals an ''insane'' amount of damage, too. |
| 549 | ** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'', there's less characters than in the previous Tales games, but as soon as Harold is available the party usually ends up consisting of [[TheHero Kyle]], [[WhiteMagicianGirl Reala]], [[TheRedMage Harold]], and either [[MightyGlacier Loni]] for his secondary healing abilities or [[MagicKnight Judas]] because he's a cool GlassCannon (and one of the series' [[EnsembleDarkhorse Ensemble Darkhorses]]). Though a liked character, Nanaly is almost never used, simply because her damage output is kind of low and she specializes in fire magic whereas the other two wizards have four elements to pick from. |
| 550 | ** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'', most players ''never'' remove Ange from the party, this carries over to R. |
| 551 | ** While you will occasionally see a few people without them (due to the cameo feature in the DS version), Hisui was always in the party in ''VideoGame/TalesOfHearts''. In ''R'', he is still kept in the party by most players, except every video you will see features the player as Chalcedony instead of Shing. |
| 552 | ** ''VideoGame/TalesOfArise'': Most players will usually keep a party of [[LightningBruiser Alphen]], [[CombatMedic Shionne]], [[BlackMagicianGirl Rinwell]], and [[MagicKnight Dohalim]], as it covers most bases easily and offers enough survivability. It also helps Dohalim is a supplementary unit that can heal in a pinch and has high combo ability as well as dodging perks. [[StoneWall Kisara]] is usually situational but can be switched into the party easily, and [[GlassCannon Law]] sadly gets the short end of the stick for not contributing much to the party except high damage. He is good when controlled by a player (Especially when they are good with dodging and counterattacking) but most people prefer Alphen since he can take more damage. |
| 553 | * ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games tend to be crazy hard to begin with, and the bonus bosses are even worse. Beating them with anything but the preferred method can result in an effective SelfImposedChallenge. |
| 554 | ** Few are the players who tackle the {{Superboss}} of ''VideoGame/Persona4'', or most of the endgame for that matter, without the combo of Yoshitsune + Power Charge + Hassou Tobi. The only variation comes in how many buffs you use beforehand. Persona 5 also has Yoshitsune available to the player, and he's just as overpowered and common as a way to defeat the {{Superboss}}, although since one of the component Personas is the Ultimate Persona for the Magician Arcana (which maxes out on the evening of December 23), he can't be fused until the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of the original game. |
| 555 | *** Yoshitsune on the other hand does not exist in any of the three versions of Persona 3, perhaps for the better as that game's {{Superboss}} will kill you instantly if you void their attacks. In this case, the meta for this is mainly to use the Persona added in the UpdatedRerelease, [[spoiler:Orpheus Telos]], who is only available for completing every social link in that game. Given that this Persona is strong against, but not immune to, every normal type of damage it can be assumed that this was the intended use of them. |
| 556 | ** Looking at most of the videos on Website/YouTube for ''Persona 4'', you might be surprised to find that Kanji and Teddie are in fact playable characters, since every video features a party of the player character (who is locked), accompanied by Yosuke, Yukiko, and Chie. This may be because they're the first three party members (and so are more likely to have high Social Links, which strengthen party members in battle), or because they're well-balanced in terms of elements and roles. Occasionally, one of them may be replaced with Naoto, but otherwise, it's those four. |
| 557 | ** The party in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' is quite diverse, but a lot of people never let Akihiko, Aigis, or Mitsuru out of the party once they join. Most likely because Aigis and Akihiko both come with immensely useful party buffs and enemy debuffs respectively, while Mitsuru comes with both the best single-target healing spell in the game and passive boosts to the power of her ice spells. |
| 558 | ** Because of their sheer strength and lack of skill space, you'll be hard-pressed to find a late-game team in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' and ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'' whose combatants have neither Pierce-augmented Physical attacks or Almighty attacks. Spica of ''Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker'' becomes rather punishing to players who don't branch out of this complacency due to its AdaptiveAbility making it invulnerable to the last attacking element used to defeat its buds. |
| 559 | ** ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' [[InvertedTrope Inverts]] LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards, making physical attackers total [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]] in the endgame. Expect to see 99% of final boss attempts use either Akihiko, Chie (whose personal skills [[CriticalHitClass greatly raise critical rate and make criticals do more damage respectively]]) or Aigis (Orgia Mode massively boosts her damage) with Power Charge, Shura Tensei and Hassou Tobi/Myriad Arrows, supported by the Persona 4 Hero's Heat Riser and Persona 3 Hero's Debilitate. |
| 560 | ** ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'': It's very common to see Let's Players on [=YouTube=] to have a set party of the four protagonists (Joker, Yu, P3 Hero, and [=P3P=] Heroine) plus Akechi. The four protagonists eventually gain resistances to almost every element in the game (only Joker gets resistance to nuclear or psychic spells, and [=P3P=] Heroine remains weak to curse) and get some BoringButPractical unique skills (all elemental damage boosted from P3 Hero, near-guaranteed half damage taken for a row of the party from Yu, high critical boost modifier from Joker, and stacked link damage from [=P3P=] Heroine), while Akechi loses his only weakness gets a skill that seals the abilities of an entire enemy row. |
| 561 | ** For every SMT game that uses the "1-3 humans, summonable demons" format, the difficulty of any battle will be determined by whether or not the enemy groups resist your human gunslinger's element. Was [[VideoGame/MegamiTensei Yumiko's]] [[PlayingWithFire Agirama]] reflected back at her, leaving her with 4 HP? You've probably already lost. This is especially true in Soul Hackers, due to the fact that the resident magic-user, Nemissa, can use Fire, Ice or Lightning depending on an early-game choice, and it's a very long time before she stops being more useful than the rest of the party combined. Her Lightning route is also considered the best because she learns Megidola. |
| 562 | ** Most builds for the player character of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' heavily favor physically offensive builds, with the only magic skills being for support and healing. This is mainly due to the fact that two of the most useful skills in the game, Focus[[note]]Increases the next attack power by more than double[[/note]] and Pierce[[note]]attacks ignore all defenses except Repel[[/note]] only affect physical attacks. |
| 563 | ** The "meta" of ''Videogame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' can be summed up as "put most of Nanashi's points into Magic and some into Agility, ignore the other three stats, and whisper elemental spells from your demons." This allows magic spells to do lots of damage especially when exploiting elemental weaknesses; a diverse set of spells ensures that every enemy with a weakness can be milked for extra turns. Builds focusing on Strength or Dexterity (but not both) are also somewhat common, due to Physical and Gun skills being cheaper to cast (as a way of making up for demons specializing in those skills and stats not having as much MP) and gaining the ability to pierce (along with all other elements) when Nanashi learns Awakened Power in the neutral routes, on top of critical hits giving extra turns even on enemies lacking weaknesses. |
| 564 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': |
| 565 | *** The player is given four party slots to work with. The player CantDropTheHero with Joker, so that's one. At least one of the other three slots is going to be either Morgana or Makoto, who are the healers of the group. The third is probably going to be Ryuji, since he's the MightyGlacier of the group with good physical skills, and there aren't many Shadows who use wind-based attacks. That leaves the fourth slot for the player's personal choice of Joker's LoveInterest or fulfilling some other role that Joker would have a hard time covering on his own. |
| 566 | *** A common endgame team is Ann, Makoto, and Ryuji for their utility against powerful enemies, especially bosses. Ann can learn two stacking passives to increase her fire damage in addition to a move to increase her next magic attack's damage by more than double, making her a valuable magic attacker. Ryuji meanwhile learns some of the best physical skills in the game, can buff the party's attack, and learns a physical equivalent to Ann's magic charging move, making him the most powerful physical attacker besides possibly Joker. Makoto comes with both a defense buff for the party and a spell capable of healing the party to their maximum HP, allowing her to keep the party alive while everyone else focuses on offense. |
| 567 | *** One of the more popular team combinations for the Third Semester in ''[[UpdatedReRelease Royal]]'' is Makoto, Akechi and Kasumi. Both Akechi and Kasumi are likely to be used because they're introduced near the tail end of the game and have a wide array of powerful physical skills and utilities (Akechi can lower particularly troublesome enemies' stats while Kasumi can boost the team's critical hit rate), but are likely to lose health quickly due to their high HP cost and relative fragility - Makoto fixes this problem by being able to heal the entire team and boost their defenses when necessary, letting the former two focus on pure offense. |
| 568 | * In ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'', everyone uses all four immortals in their five-man party, not because they auto-revive themselves in battle a couple turns after being "killed" (which isn't really that useful), but because all four of them can each learn ''every ability in the game'', so what's the point in using anyone else? They do have a limited number of slots to equip abilities in, though, but by the endgame this number becomes fairly large and it's fairly obvious which abilities a given character should and shouldn't have (of the four immortals, two are physical fighters and two are mages, you figure it out). The fifth party slot might as well not even exist. The usual choice for filling it is the guy who has passive abilities that double XP and money earned from battles, mostly so the immortals can skip those skills (though he, uniquely and conveniently, also ignores the game's row mechanics with his attacks). |
| 569 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' and [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor its sequel]]: |
| 570 | ** Every time you level up, you get to choose whether to increase your Heart Points (health) by 5, Flower Points (mana) by 5, or Badge Points (slots for equipped skills and bonuses) by 3, but for most people there is no choice at all: Badge Points. Every time. Encouraging this mentality is the existence of badges that increase either HP or FP by 5 and cost 3 BP to equip, basically meaning you get to respec your stats for free whenever you want. |
| 571 | ** Many people utilize the {{Game Break|er}}ing "Danger Mario" build, which involves stacking multiple copies of badges that increase Mario's Attack and Evasion while he is in the "Danger" state (5 HP or lower), then using the game's respeccing NPC to lower his ''maximum'' HP to 5 so that he is always in this state. This turns Mario into a powerhouse that will do huge damage every hit while never getting hit himself. |
| 572 | ** There's also several partners each game with various useful abilities and attacks. However, it's likely you'll only even have out each game's Goomba partner the vast majority of the time due to each having multihit attacks that work on most enemies and both having the Tattle ability, which provides useful, interesting, and sometimes funny information about every enemy, NPC, and area in the games. It's because of this that you'll likely only use the other partners when a particular enemy or obstacle specifically requires them. |
| 573 | ** If it isn't the Goomba partner, then it'll be Watt in the original ''Paper Mario'' or Vivian in ''The Thousand Year Door''. Both have the ability to hit any enemy regardless of position and defenses. Watt's attacks bypass defense while Vivian's attacks cause burns when performed successfully. |
| 574 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': You can choose from four different characters, each of whom have different special abilities. In practice, most players will simply play through most of the game as Mario, who has by far the most useful special ability (being able to flip the world into 3D to see secrets and solve puzzles) and only change to the other characters when their abilities are needed... at least until they acquire Carrie, a partner who transforms into a rideable platform. She turns Bowser into a total GameBreaker, since she moves at the same speed regardless of who's riding her, removing Bowser's main weakness which is his slowness. Additionally, Bowser's fire breath can only be used while standing on the ground. With Carrie, he's always technically standing, even while jumping (since Carrie is the one actually jumping, not him), allowing use of his fire breath in the air. |
| 575 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Most of the time, the party will be comprised of Cyrus (the best magic user), Olberic/H'aanit (tied for the best physical fighters), and Alfyn (whose Concoct skill makes him a very versatile healer). The fourth slot is going to be Therion (a reliable physical attacker who can also supply SP to allies), Ophilia (a great healer whose ultimate can double up an ally's skills for several turns), or the character whose quest you're currently on, since a character is a RequiredPartyMember for their own tale. |
| 576 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 577 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': |
| 578 | *** You can teach any character any spell. So even though you have 14 different characters, each with differing stat growths and unique special abilities, you'll almost always see people who assume that the only real way to play the game is to teach everyone [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ultima]] and win the game with nothing but that. |
| 579 | *** Master Scroll / Offering plus Genji Gloves. The first lets a character attack four times with his weapon, the second lets them wield two weapons. Adding it to Setzer's Loaded Dice (which ignore enemy defense and deal damage in the thousands) it kills any enemy barring some bosses in one hit. |
| 580 | ** Compared to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' had greater issue: You could easily grind a specific weapon (or barehanded) before the first boss! Due to how easy it was to increase skills, you could have characters strong enough to one-shot early bosses with their [[ViolationOfCommonSense bare hands]]. |
| 581 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', for many diehard fans, has a few rules: 1) avoid level-ups as enemies will scale with your party, 2) acquire lots of cards via the Card ability and Triple Triad, 3) use the Card Mod + the other Mod abilities for easy high level spells to junction to your party's stats for massive boosts. You've now broken the game even faster. |
| 582 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has [[https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Quick_Hit Quick Hit]], an attack that has less recovery time than a regular attack. Due to the damage cap, in high-level play it's more efficient to use rapid attacks like this than powerful attacks with longer recovery times. Battles against bonus bosses thus tend to consist of spamming Quick Hit over and over again. Quick Hit was nerfed in later versions, but not enough to stop it being used in this way. |
| 583 | ** This shows up in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Because it's so damn ''easy'' to teach every character every spell and skill in the game thanks to the License Grid, many players have a party with identical skill-sets and equipment. Re-release ''The Zodiac Age'' averts this by only allowing two jobs per character, meaning more specialized characters to encourage swapping in battle. |
| 584 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' had the OptionalBoss Vercingetorix vulnerable to poison. Due to his sky high stats, the target time for him was 20min for an endgame party. Cue everyone facing him with Vanille/Fang/Snow, poisoning him and spamming Mediguard until it needs re-poisoning or it dies. |
| 585 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': When it comes to end game parties, you'll want to use as many unique characters as possible to provide powerful variety. Typically this means the final party will consists of a generic White Mage, Agrias, Cid, Mustadio (or Balthier in the ''War of the Lions'' remake), and Beowulf. As for Ramza, depending on which version of the game you play, you'll almost always use Ramza as a Squire at end game, or a Dark Knight in the 'War of the Lions'' remake. |
| 586 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' suffers from this with regards to the monster allies. For Commandos, most people pick up a [[DiscOneNuke Dragoon]] in Augusta Tower 200AF, then swap over to Tonberry, Chichu, or Twilight Odin once Noel and Serah start surpassing the Dragoon. According to WordOfGod, the most commonly used monster ally is the BoringButPractical medic Flanitor. |
| 587 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The game's leveling system doles out the highest rates of XP gain based on how much the player spends on lodging for the night; ergo, if a player spends the highest amounts of Gil to stay in suites at high-class hotels, they will get ''much'' more experience than the budget option. As such, there is little-to-no reason to cheap out on lodging if the player can help it, especially when campfires yield the lowest XP gains. However, neglecting the campfires and springing for expensive lodging often means the player will miss out on important night-time cutscenes between Noctis and his companions. |
| 588 | * ''VideoGame/FoodFantasy'': Black Tea and Milk are two of the first Food Spirits the player will get as part of their introduction to the game and its mechanics. Their combo is also quite the Game Breaker as, when they're in the same team, they unlock special skills, with Black Tea getting an extremelly powerful SpreadShot while Milk gets an equally powerful healing skill. As a result, most players will just stick with these two characters up until they can make a team that is exclusively with Ultra Rare characters. |
| 589 | * In ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'', it is ''vital'' to have more than one weapon type. (For example: an edged smallsword with Light affinity against Evil enemies, a blunt two-handed mace with three gem slots against Beasts, a piercing crossbow to get down the GoddamnBats...) It's entirely left up to the player which ones to use, but you'll be spending at least a third of the game honing your weapons. You're also forced to use status effects and buff spells. In short, ''Vagrant Story'' does everything it can to prevent this trope. |
| 590 | * ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'': |
| 591 | ** Lenneth cannot be removed from the party. Due to the ability to gain endgame quality weapons in Chapter 4 via alchemy, most parties will consist of her Einherjar as being Aelia, Lawfer, or Arngrim, and for the Sorcerer, most likely Mystina. Both Aelia and Lawfer have decent attacks (Justice Stream having some ''insane'' damage multipliers), Arngrim ''also'' has a great finisher, and Mystina is a powerful sorceress beaten only by Lyseria and Gandar (who you can only get on hard mode, and join way later than she does.) Clinching it is the fact that Arngrim and Mystina are required for the "A" ending. |
| 592 | ** "Auto Item" and "Guts" are more or less mandatory skills to equip on your characters. "Auto Item" allows characters to automatically heal using potions, or even use revival items, while Guts will let them [[HPToOne survive attacks that should kill them]], thus you do not have to waste your time healing. |
| 593 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 594 | ** In the games, lots of people keep their starter throughout the game, even though there is the option to not use it. This is because many of the starters have a solid movepool and good set of stats. The idea is to assemble a strong team, and most players have no reason to ditch what is probably their strongest to begin with. |
| 595 | ** In possible emulation of [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash]], many players seem to make a team with Pokémon that are Fire, Water, Electric, Grass and Flying, with something else they like rounding out the 6th member. |
| 596 | ** One notable example for in-game players is Staraptor in the Generation 4 games. Unlike other early game birds, Staraptor is a powerful, speedy physical attacker with Close Combat for coverage. With it being so useful and obtained right at the start of the game, many players have trouble turning it down for something else. |
| 597 | ** The competitive tiers, as well. On Smogon, the Standard or "OU" ([=OverUsed=]) tier has just around 50 Pokémon in it, out of a total of 800+ monsters. And up to the top 5 Pokémon in a tier are on more than 20% of teams, which means you'll be seeing the same Pokémon ''a lot''. Pokémon is probably the only game on this page that regularly has tournaments only for mid-tier or low-tier Pokemon. Generally, underused (one step below OU) also has the same few Pokemon being used over and over, though. |
| 598 | ** Most Pokémon players stick exclusively to single battles. This is not because of any sense of superiority, but that the thought about other battling types never occurs. They need to be reminded of doubles battles to even recall their existence, even with triple and rotation battles showing up. This is most definitely due to single battles being the ''only'' mode until ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', when double battles were introduced. Additionally, every main series Pokémon game deals in single battling almost all the time, so it's natural for people to think about that mode and no others. The focus on single battling is so strong that, despite official tournaments taking place in double battles, the aforementioned competitive players are unique among video games in that most do not attend them, as they are outside of their comfort zones. Website/{{Smogon}} only started delving into doubles when Generation 6 rolled in, long after it had become the official format. Japan is the exception to ComplacentGamingSyndrome, whose players welcome all battling modes and are equally proficient in them. |
| 599 | ** The move Surf is usually so powerful and consistent across the series that many players with a Water-Type will use it constantly. The exception being ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', where former Hidden Machine moves like it are replaced by the Poké Ride system, and the TM for Surf isn't available until the postgame. Its usefulness started to wane in Generation IV when moves were split to be Physical or Special based on the individual move rather than just their typing, and Waterfall became the go-to move for physical-based Water-types. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' then introduced Scald (a decently-powered Water move that causes burns). Due to official formats using Doubles mentioned above, Surf isn't as useful since it hits everyone on the field. Another issue is that moves that hit multiple targets (like Surf) have their damage reduced by 25 percent. |
| 600 | ** The move Stealth Rock was considered required on every serious competitive team in Generations 4 and 5. Stealth Rock is an entry hazard that deals damage based on [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type-effectiveness]] upon the opponent switching in. Rock-weak Pokémon take more damage, making them far more difficult to use -- indeed, Pokémon that otherwise would be useful such as Charizard[[note]]whose HP gets ''cut in half'' when Stealth Rock is on the field[[/note]] became [[LowTierLetdown nearly useless]] because of this move alone. What made this move so omnipresent is that it takes only one turn to set up (unlike Spikes and Toxic Spikes, which stack), ensures KO's that would otherwise be risky, the only move that removed entry hazards (Rapid Spin, an otherwise weak attack) could be blocked simply by having a Ghost-type on a team, and unlike the other moves in the Spikes family, there are no Pokémon immune to it, rendering the Focus Sash and the Sturdy Ability useless. It's telling that even in Generation 6, where the move Defog was buffed into an unblockable Rapid Spin[[note]]on both sides of the field, making it a double-edged sword of sorts[[/note]], Stealth Rock remains popular for its ease of set-up. |
| 601 | ** Going through Super-Secret Bases in ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' for experience grinding? Expect to see (Mega) Latias/Latios and shiny (Mega) Metagross ''a lot''. There's nothing wrong with that- they're both powerful Pokémon that are easily obtainable- but it gets rather tiring to see them constantly. Expect to see plenty of Sceptile, Swampert (Blaziken is far less common, oddly), and the main legendaries as well. |
| 602 | ** This trope reared its head in the 2015 Video Game Championship for Pokémon battling. In the top five, ''every'' player had Mega Kangaskhan and Therian Landorus, four had Cresselia, and three had Incarnate Thundurus, Aegislash, Amoongus, and Heatran on their teams, while every of the top five had only one Pokémon on their teams that ''wasn't'' one of the aforementioned Pokémon. Compare [[http://i.imgur.com/DgL6em3.jpg the top five of the previous two VGC tournaments]] to VGC 2015's top five to see how bad this trope can get. |
| 603 | ** In double battles, you'd be hard-pressed to find a team that doesn't have a Pokémon with the Intimidate ability, with Therian Landorus and Incineroar being the most common ones. In double battles, the ability lowers both opposing Pokémon's Attack as soon as the Pokémon enters the battle. Since some of the top threats in the {{Metagame}} are physical attackers, it gives a huge handicap for those Pokémon immediately as the battle starts. It's so good, that certain Pokémon that start with Intimidate before they Mega Evolve may choose not to Mega Evolve right away in order to preserve Intimidate for later. |
| 604 | ** Also in Double Battles, expect 95% of Pokemon to use [[DefendCommand Protect.]] There is absolutely ''no'' other competition for "the best move in Doubles" and Protect is key to the majority of the mind-games at play there. If your opponent double-targets one of your Pokemon and you predict that and use Protect, you just rendered your opponent's entire turn useless, which is ''huge''. Protect is so ubiquitous that otherwise questionably-useful moves like Feint, Encore and Imprison are often considered in Doubles just because they mess with Protect users. |
| 605 | ** In ''Sun and Moon'', if you're playing missions at Festival Plaza to grind festival coins (needed to buy goodies, level up your plaza and get better shops), odds are you'll be playing "Type Matchup Tests" and "Inverse Type Matchup Tests" a lot, due to both having straightforward rules that don't rely on luck and offering a lot of festival coins for successful completion, and the fact that people pick these most of the time, leading to more people playing them and crowding out other options, and so on. It's an excellent way to get lots of coins, but can get pretty tedious and boring fast. |
| 606 | ** Dracovish from ''Sword and Shield'', or more specifically, its SignatureMove, Fishious Rend. It has fairly high base power of 85 to start with, which then doubles if the user goes first. It's also considered a biting move, and Dracovish can have the ability Strong Jaw, which boosts the power of biting moves by 50%. Add in STAB for another 50% boost, a Choice Band for ''another'' 50% boost, and rain for ''yet another'' 50% boost, and your abomination of science will be able to one-shot pretty much anything that isn't outright immune to Water-type attacks. Which meant players were ''forced'' to run such {{mon}}s on their team to prevent Dracovish from effortlessly sweeping their entire team by itself. This was so overcentralizing that Website/{{Smogon}} eventually banned Dracovish. Something similar happened with Galarian Darmanitan, who could deal 50% more damage (coming off a monstrously high Attack stat) but could only use the first move chosen for it (the same effect as the Choice Band, which stacked with it), such that Smogon also banned Galarian Darmanitan. Averted in the official games' Ranked battles, which are 3v3 single battles and 4v4 double battles, where Dracovish and Galarian Darmanian both eventually dropped out of the top 10 most-used Pokémon, all on their own. |
| 607 | ** Max Airstream is by far the most-used Max Move in competitive battling in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' due to the fact that it's both hard-hitting and raises Speed. Max Airstream allows its user to move ahead of many Pokémon that would normally outrun it, with enormous potential to wreck opposing teams by defeating their Pokémon before their Pokémon can even attack. The most consistent counter to Max Airsteam is itself, leading to various Pokémon having Flying-type moves for no reason other than that they turn into Max Airstream when Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed. To a smaller extent, this also applies to Max Strike, which decreases the targets' Speed, leading to some otherwise out-of-place Normal-type moves in some Pokémon's movesets. |
| 608 | ** Ever since Ranked Battles in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' started allowing Restricted Pokémon,[[note]]Strong Legendary Pokémon ordinarily banned from Ranked and official competitions, but ''not'' Mythical Pokémon[[/note]] Zacian, holding the Rusted Sword, has been the go-to Restricted Pokémon to use. This Hero of Galar has few weaknesses, many resistances, a blisteringly fast Speed, an Ability that grants an immediate Attack boost the moment it shows up, and a SignatureMove that directly counters Dynamax and Gigantamax. No other Pokémon comes close to frequency of usage as Zacian. The same holds true for [=VGCs=] in 2021 and 2022, where the same rules apply regarding Restricted Pokémon, with nearly all competitors having Zacian in their teams. |
| 609 | ** In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers of Sky'', Riolu and Vulpix are by far the most popular hero and partner pair among let's players and fanartists. |
| 610 | ** ''Videogame/PokemonLegendsArceus'': |
| 611 | *** While Hisui has far more fire types to choose from with than base Sinnoh, Cyndaquil and Chimchar are still far easier to get, useful far quicker and longer than the other choices, and their evolved typings and movepools render both incredibly useful throughout the game. |
| 612 | *** Speed has always been the OneStatToRuleThemAll in Pokémon, but in Legends: Arceus, it's even moreso. Thanks to a lot of under-the-hood changes to stat formulae in Legends: Arceus, MightyGlacier and StoneWall Pokémon end up becoming ''just'' as much a GlassCannon as Pokémon ''intended'' to be such. Even super-effective moves done by Pokémon ''fifty levels below'' can still hit like a ''truck''. |
| 613 | ** Website/{{Smogon}}'s unofficial Gen VIII Pure Hackmons provides an extreme example with Eternamax Eternatus. It has monstrous stats, but what really pushes it over the top is that (1) a positive Nature can make one of its defenses overflow, leaving it effectively invincible to one type of damage, and (2) it can run Neutralizing Gas to shut off opposing Abilities that would otherwise help deal with it. It's so much of a GameBreaker that every competent player runs at least two (one for Defense and one for Special Defense), and the entire metagame revolves around what could possibly kill it. |
| 614 | * ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 615 | ** Intelligence is the OneStatToRuleThemAll, as is standard for ''Fallout'' games. Like in ''Fallout 3'', it affects the number of skill points you get upon levelling up. However, while in Fallout 3 you could easily max out every skill eventually even with moderate Intelligence, you get far fewer skill points per level in ''New Vegas'' and there are far fewer skill books scattered around, making Intelligence even more important. Anyone who doesn't start at 10 will start at 9 and proceed immediately to the New Vegas Clinic to get the Intelligence implant, using the Stealth Boy found in the Goodsprings school to sneak past the multiple {{Beef Gate}}s meant to prevent you from reaching Vegas early and then selling the Courier's Stash DLC items to get the 4000 caps required to purchase the implant. |
| 616 | ** Universally regarded {{Dump Stat}}s are Perception and Charisma. The former affects the distance enemies show up on your radar, and the latter affects the damage and defense of your companions. Companions do plenty of damage even at 1 Charisma and their defense can be boosted by just giving them some better armor. Perception is even more useless because the earliest companion you can acquire is a RobotBuddy who buffs your radar to that of a full 10 Perception while he's following you, and since he's considered a "pet", taking him along doesn't prevent you from taking another companion. |
| 617 | ** Luck is typically considered a DumpStat unless you are specifically aiming for a CriticalHitClass build. Incidentally, this is also the only real reason to raise Perception, since you need 6 Perception to get the "Better Criticals" perk. Luck also increases your chances of winning at gambling, so it's not uncommon for people who would otherwise get no use out of the stat to raise it [[ItAmusedMe purely for the enjoyment of getting banned from every casino in Vegas because you were winning too much and taking all their money]] (there is also an achievement for doing this, so completionists would therefore be interested in the stat as well). |
| 618 | ** Old World Blues introduced the Skilled and Hoarder traits which both are common picked for their borderline DiscOneNuke effects: |
| 619 | *** Skilled grants +5 to every skill (or 65 skill points total, four levels worth of skill points at maximum intellect) at a cost of a -10% experience gain rate. This reduction in experience gain is just a minor annoyance that can either be almost completely negated with the Swift Learner perk (available as early as level 2 and bringing the penalty down to just 1%) or just simply ignored since there is no shortage of experience points in the game. Perhaps more importantly, there's [[GoodBadBugs a bug]] in the option to remake your character when leaving the tutorial area and with the AutoDoc in ''OWB'' proper, where removing the skill removes the experience penalty, but not the skill point bonus - you can keep gaining the extra skill points without incurring further experience penalties for it, as many times as you want to pick the option to remake your character, or you can just remove the skill to take away the penalty but ''keep'' the bonus skill points. |
| 620 | *** Hoarder gives +25 lbs of carrying capacity, but gives -1 to all stats if you're not carrying at least 160 lbs worth of equipment. Given the nature of the game, it's quite rare to see players not carrying 160+ lbs if they aren't doing a low strength run. It's not helping that 160 lbs worth of unowned junk is conveniently lying around the house you start in, allowing players to carry it around as filler while they collect guns and ammo. |
| 621 | ** Melee and Unarmed are now very overpowered, so don't be surprised if practically everyone you talk to about the game is running around with Oh Baby! or a Ballistic Fist and [[ItsEasySoItSucks complaining about how they can 2-shot Lanius]]. They're quite well balanced for the higher difficulties, though - they're cheap, easy and reliable, but you're never going to be a badder mofo in close combat than an alpha deathclaw, much less Lanius or the Legendary Deathclaw. |
| 622 | ** The above-mentioned RobotBuddy can have either his laser or his armor upgraded, but not both. Nearly everybody chooses to upgrade his armor, since his laser isn't very good to begin with and doesn't get much better after upgrading. Plus, upgrading his armor makes him look all clean and shiny. |
| 623 | ** In ''Lonesome Road'', the final DLC for the game, it's far more lucrative to fire the nuclear missiles than to have ED-E stop them. Your reward for stopping the warheads is a semi-pointless reputation boost with the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel (the former is easy to get already, the latter confers no benefits beyond the title), while bombing both targets gives you access to two new areas with a MontyHaul of ammo, healing items and absurdly-powerful weapons and armor (including a variant of Legate Lanius' armor that can be worn anywhere without incurring the wrath of factions). The latter choice comes at the cost of a significant NCR and Legion reputation hit... which can be negated entirely if done early enough in the game, as both Caesar and Ambassador Crocker will forgive the player's indiscretions once you meet House and Benny on The Strip. |
| 624 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', Intelligence is the way to go unless a player is specifically doing a challenge build. Due to the reworked leveling system, perks are the new form of leveling, and each level in a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat will unlock a new perk to level up. Intelligence has Gun Nut in it, which leads to more weapon modding options at a work bench, and Science!, which does the same as well as other things such as new settlement machinery. Intelligence also increases how much EXP you get, making grinding much less frustrating. |
| 625 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Re: Chain of Memories]]'' gave access early on to the sleight "Sonic Blade." With enough Hi-Potions (and insane levels of AP), players could set themselves up to be ''near-invincible.'' 90% of all bosses could be beaten within 5 minutes just by spamming the â–³ button, and making sure to use a Hi-Potion once you ran out. It was a bit of a GameBreaker. Sure, it was rather dull to watch, but it got things done quickly and effectively. Why try out other methods when you could kill everything in a matter of seconds? |
| 626 | * Pick any game based on the Dungeons and Dragons. At some point, the developer had to make compromises to make the game playable and often adds extra features to make the game more unique. Most builds are going to be based off what is effective in the pen and paper game and most unique features are going to be ignored. |
| 627 | * The first ''{{VideoGame/Disgaea|HourOfDarkness}}'' game, due to the theory behind it being thoroughly mapped by the nerdy playerbase. Any player who is grinding to take on the {{Superboss}} knows that there is one true strategy: make a Divine Majin and {{Level Grind|ing}} the "Beauty of Evil" stage for literally hours on end, simply because there is no quicker way to gain levels. |
| 628 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', most people end up choosing Mario ([[CantDropTheHero who can't be dropped]]), Peach ([[WhiteMage who can heal the entire party at once]]), and [[EnsembleDarkHorse Geno]] ([[LightningBruiser who is the most powerful attacker]]). Bowser is strong and tanky, but has low Magic Attack and Magic Defense. The latter means most late-game bosses will tear right through him, while the former means he's relegated to spamming normal attacks the majority of the time, which pale in compaison to Geno's powerful specials, several of which hit all enemies at once, and another of which only targets one enemy, but will always deal [[{{Cap}} 9999 damage]] when timed perfectly ([[ContractualBossImmunity but not against bosses]]). Mallow has a variety of [[BlackMage elemental magic]] that can take advantage of enemy weaknesses, but again, Geno's specials are so goddamn strong he doesn't ''need'' to care about enemy weaknesses. Mallow also gets a single healing spell early in the game that only heals one target, therefore making him basically a worse version of Geno ''and'' Peach at the same time. The remake tries to avert this by letting you switch out party members mid-battle, but the previously mentioned character attributes means Mario, Geno, and Peach are still what most people settle on, occasionally switching a character out to use the {{Limit Break}}s Shooting Star Shot or Starry Shell Spike. Speaking of Peach, expect everyone to equip her with the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Lazy Shell]] and [[AntiDebuff Safety Ring]] to make her completely unkillable (which, since she is the healer, essentially makes the rest of your party unkillable as well). |
| 629 | * No self-respecting ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' player ever uses a shield. They will almost always be holding their weapon with two hands for extra damage and maintaining a light weight to have full mobility and dodging effectiveness. The left hand is therefore relegated to StatSticks that provide passive effects when out, even if they're [[SticksToTheBack stuck to your back]] when two-handing your main weapon. The most common one by far is the Grass Crest Shield[[note]]Yes, it's a shield, [[ExactWords but they're still not]] ''[[ExactWords using]]'' [[ExactWords it]], just sticking it to their back.[[/note]], which increases stamina recovery speed. On the rare occasion you actually see a shield in someone's hand instead of on their back, they will use it exclusively for parrying, never blocking. GlassCannon FragileSpeedster builds are the norm, and anyone who ''does'' wear heavy armor that can tank a few hits has [[MinMaxing minmaxed themselves]] to the point that [[LightningBruiser wearing it doesn't hamper their mobility or dodging at all]]. |
| 630 | ** In the first game, infusing a weapon with an element significantly increased its base damage but eliminated all of its stat scaling (how much your stats increase the weapon's damage). While a non-elemental weapon is typically stronger than an elemental version of the same weapon after levelling the correct stats high enough, the elemental versions are still plenty strong plus there is no need to increase your stats beyond the bare minimum required to use the weapon in the first place, making them extremely popular for PVP since you can put all the levels that you don't need to use on your weapon into HP and equipment load instead and turn yourself into a LightningBruiser. Or if you're feeling particularly evil, stay at a low level and use your late-game death machine to one-shot helpless newbies who are just starting out. Future games would {{nerf}} elemental infusion by giving elemental weapons stat scaling, bringing them down to par with other weapons, while the UpdatedRerelease of the first game kept elemental weapons the same but implemented a matchmaking system where you can't invade anyone whose highest level weapon is too far below yours (getting a [[ElementalTiers Lightning or Chaos]] weapon requires you to upgrade a weapon to +10, so no more one-shotting newbies in the Undead Burg for you). |
| 631 | ** You will find most invaders sporting a full set of Havel's armor, with an elemental Zweihander (2-handed with Grass Crest Shield on their back, of course), and a pyromancy flame, built to have obscene amounts of stamina and health. The armor has the second highest physical defense in the game and ''the'' highest poise (stagger resistance), and good magic defense too. With enough endurance to not be stuck with the 'fat roll' you will be hefty enough to tank through most hits, and just quick enough to avoid the heavy hits. The Zweihander and Pyromancy flame will have no stat scaling, but have incredibly high base damage so it hardly matters until NewGamePlus. |
| 632 | ** If tanking isn't your thing, another incredibly simple and effective strategy is to make a dexterity-based build. The game practically railroads you into doing so with all the dexterity-scaling weapons you get showered with early-game. One only needs to level their dexterity and stamina stats to their soft-cap, dump the rest in vitality, and gear up with as much stamina-regen items as they can, since they stack. With a fully upgraded dex-scaling weapon and the hornet ring (which greatly increases backstab damage), it's very rare for a backstab to not be a one-shot kill, even against players with over-leveled vitality and all but the heaviest armor sets. With regenerating stamina and the ability to fast-roll, you'll rarely if ever sustain much damage, and the combination of a very quick animation compared to the second and third games and the less-than stellar servers make landing a backstab or two a non-issue. Even the infamous Giant-Dad build could be countered with this. |
| 633 | ** [[SpellBlade Buffing a weapon]] with a resin or spell adds a fixed amount of damage to every attack. People who use weapon buffs will almost always be using something relatively weak but fast-swinging, such as a two-handed curved sword (usually either the Falchion since it's actually a decent weapon even without buffs, or the Painting Guardian Sword since it swings the fastest out of all curved swords), or Ricard's Rapier, which has a [[BladeSpam rapid flurry of weak stabs]] as its strong attack. |
| 634 | ** In the second game, Havel's set remains prevalent because, even though poise took a considerable nerf, its defensive stats are just as good as they were, and DSII's equip load limit is far more lenient. Additionally, the whole getup can be upgraded to +5. |
| 635 | ** Because of how the third game's weapons tend to be on set-in-stone tiers, you're going to see more than half of your summons and opponents using one of the following: The Dark Sword, the Gargoyle Flame Spear, the Greatsword, any katana, and the goddamn [[ButtonMashing Carthus Curved Sword]]. Also, expect every sorcery build to wear the Crown of Dusk regardless of its terrible fashion, although that one is at least somewhat understandable since it gives a large damage boost to sorcery. |
| 636 | ** The Prisoner's Chain in ''Dark Souls 3'' is a ring that boosts Vigor, Endurance, and Vitality by 5 each. That's equivalent to 15 levels. The only downside is that you take very slightly more damage. It's mandatory for any decent build that wants to remain in the metagame level range for [=PvP=] and co-op. |
| 637 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Kritika}}'' most people would use the Crimson Assassin to dominate the World Boss challenge. The top players of the challenge's leader board is almost entirely made up of Crimson Asssassins. |
| 638 | * Due to the longevity of the franchise and the numerous rebalancing facotrs with each installment, different Monster Hunter titles inevitably end up refining general strategies down to a handful of options. |
| 639 | ** In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter 3 Ultimate'', common strategy for High Rank is to farm Brachydios again and again to make Slime-element weapons, which cause very damaging explosions to their targets, then never use anything else ever again. This has changed beginning in ''4''; although there are more varieties of Slime/Blast weapons, they've been {{nerf}}ed so that players actually use different elements rather than just sticking to Blast. |
| 640 | ** Come ''Generations'', the meta shifted to ''heavily'' favor Crit-based builds due to reworking the Weakness Exploit skill to make it more universally useful since attacking any weak point would raise your affinity by 50% for the hit. [[note]]Previously, Weakness Exploit would proc when attacking a hitzone value of 45 or greater, and treat the hitzone as being 5 points better than it actually was. In practice it was only worth incorporating in a build if the weak spots were anywhere from 45 to 50, wherein the actual net bonus damage would translate to around 10% more damage overall due to how damage was calculated. Against more fragile weak spots, Weakness Exploit ironically got diminishing returns compared to more consistent and reliable damage-boosting skills.[[/note]] This is all on top of all the other meta-defining aspects of Generations, and especially Generations Ultimate. Try finding a Sword and Shield user not running Chaos Oil, or a Switch Axe user not using the Striker or Alchemy Styles. Or better yet, see how long you can go in multiplayer without seeing someone use [[InfinityMinusOneSword an Ahtal Ka]] or [[InfinityPlusOneSword Elderfrost Gammoth]] weapon. |
| 641 | * The Gwent card game, a minigame featured in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'', has multiple factions the player can choose, but most players stick to either the Northern Realms or Nilfgaardian Empire factions, due to them having Spy cards, with the Scoia'tael and Monster factions lacking them. Spy cards allow the player to draw extra cards and thus gain a huge edge on the opponent, because you normally only get a hand of nine cards to use in three rounds. Having more cards your opponent has allows you to use them more freely, while your opponent can't as he has to ration them. This trope is also accidentally enforced by the game itself, by giving you only a Northern Realms deck upon starting a new game. By the time you have enough cards to create a deck of another faction, you'll probably have a much more powerful Northern Realms deck, giving you no reason to switch. A sidequest during the ''Blood and Wine'' expansion averts this trope, as it limits you to only playing the newly added Skellige faction. |
| 642 | * Despite a planned cast of 90 party members, ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'' falls into this since it's way too easy to simply pick one time that suits your needs and stick with them to save on gear, only swapping out to access the Ultra Bosses. Later versions attempt to avert this by making the characters more specialized, rebalancing the stats and allowing the ability to swap out party members mid-combat. |
| 643 | * Its follow-up, ''VideoGame/RakenzarnFrontierStory'', is also susceptible to this due to the class system. The core idea is that everyone has access to a pool of class changes they can swap out and level up at will, with the idea being customizing your character's skills to suit a situation. The downside is each character can have up to four exclusive classes, and these are usually the most versatile in terms of skills and strengths. So it's easy to pick a sub-class, level it until you get all its skills and then stick with your character-exclusive class of choice through the game. |
| 644 | * In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', it's become a {{meme|ticMutation}} that no matter what kind of character you ''intend'' to play as when first starting a new game, you will always eventually end up playing as a stealthy archer. ''Skyrim'' overhauled the stealth system which has been in place since the series' inception, taking it from near UselessUsefulStealth levels and buffing it to damn near GameBreaker levels. At high skill levels and with the right perks, it becomes difficult for [=NPCs=] to [[StealthExpert detect you at all]], which added to the [[BackStab stealth combat enhancements]] the game brings, makes it a devastating CriticalHitClass. Additionally, for many encounters, it is damn near suicidal to charge into a group of enemies using melee or blasting spells without first clearing out some of the enemy mooks, which stealth shots allow you to do easily without aggroing the others. And hey, since you've already cleared out ''some'' of the mooks with stealth shots, you might as well clear out the rest too, right? |
| 645 | ** Since archery is so damn useful, there's really even less of a contest for which of two characters the player is likely to resolve a quick, early LoveTriangle subplot in favor of than there already was. Effectively, you can choose between Sven and Faendal, and whoever you help becomes a potential follower from then on. You can take whatever you want out of your current follower's inventory. On top of Faendal just straight being better suited for the game's combat than his romantic rival, he's also an ''archery teacher'', so you can [[DiscOneNuke pay him to train you up, then go into his inventory and take your money back to pay him again, up to five times per character level]]. Sure you have to ''get'' that kind of money first, but you'll find plenty of gold or things to sell in the early game, and he'll be right there following you as soon as you get enough. Poor Sven really has nothing to offer. |
| 646 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': For chapters four through ten, a sizeable majority of players will have a party consisting of Rex, Nia, and [[spoiler: Special Inquisitor Morag]], due to filling the DamagerHealerTank roles most effectively. The other available party members are perfectly useable, but Tora suffers from not being able to use any rare blades (though when you reach the Endgame, the blade he ''does'' have can be boosted to GameBreaker levels) and the other available party member suffers from LateCharacterSyndrome as well as simply not performing any individual role as effectively as the characters the player already has. |
| 647 | * ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' has an elaborate class system based around swapping Elemental Djinn around to create different combinations. However, it is not uncommon for players to simply match Djinn to character elements, keeping them in their (suboptimal, but more than adequate) base class line for the entire game. ''The Lost Age'' attempted to force the player to experiment by giving them a Mercury Djinn before they have any Mercury-aligned characters, but even this can be ignored by keeping the Djinn in standby mode until Piers joins. |
| 648 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', many players agree that [[ExtraTurn Chrono Burst]] is just an absurdly powerful quartz in the game. Coupled with restoration items and it's possible to solo a boss with just one character, even pulling [[LimitBreak S-Crafts]] like they're going out of style. It's even worse if players use items that also refill Craft Points to redo the process over and over again. Coupled with a maxed out Moebius Master Quartz, park all your characters on one spot of the map and just keep on using items that refill CP and just have your other characters just spam their S-Crafts till the boss is dead. |
| 649 | ** In ''Cold Steel III'', the combination of Juna Crawford's Brave Order and Kurt Vander's Brave Order is absurd. Juna's Brave Order allows players to break the [[BreakMeter break gauge]] faster so that bosses can be weakened and are vulnerable to critical hits, status debuffs, and S-Crafts dealing even more damage than they should. Kurt's Brave Order reduces delay for the characters to act again, making their turns come up faster. Combine the two and even bosses on [[HarderThanHard Nightmare difficulty]] drop like flies. Even more so if players use Sara's Brave Order that immediately makes characters get their turn up right away. These were so absurdly powerful that the game had to nerf these in ''Cold Steel IV'' till players cleared the trial chests to boost them and even then, their costs and effects aren't as great as they once were in ''Cold Steel III''. |
| 650 | * ''Videogame/MightAndMagic'': |
| 651 | ** The easiest way to win ''Might and Magic VI'' is to have a party of only Clerics and Sorcerers. The former is TheMedic with all what that implies, the latter has access to elemental magic, which includes support spells such as Flying that averts VideoGameFlight or Lloyd's Beacon, which allows you to place teleporter marker wherever you want and return there whenever you want as long as the marker lasts. Both classes are the only ones with the access to Dark and Light Magic that provide strongest nukes and buffs respectively. Hybrid classes lose access to those while not providing anything substantial in return, and Knight can slash and stab things, which your Clerics and Sorcerers will do just as well if not better once Hour of Power spell is cast. This is not helped by the fact both classes have easy promotion quests that can be completed ''before you technically start main questline''. |
| 652 | ** ''Might and Magic VII'': |
| 653 | *** Having a Cleric is an absolute must, due to being the only class able to cast Protection from Magic at Grandmaster level. What it does? Protects your team from status ailments. However, it protects from two worst ones, Instant Death and [[DeaderThanDead Eradication]], only at Grandmaster level. Due to how frequent such attacks are (since monsters come in three strength varieties, which all can spawn where one spawns, and the strongest one usually has such attacks), having access to it is essential. What's more, Cleric and Sorcerer are the only ones that have access to all spells of Dark and Light magic and Cleric's second promotion quest is laughably easy compared to Sorcerer's one, meaning it is the easiest way to access it. |
| 654 | *** While not ''as'' essential, Sorcerer from the same game is in similar position, being the only class that can fully level the Elemental Magic. Grandmaster offensive spells are rather strong nukes, but the main reason is supportive magic that makes the life in Ernoth ''much'' easier. The notable examples are the Town Portal, which at Grandmaster level allows you to teleport to town ''while being in the middle of combat'', and access to Lloyd's Beacon, which allows you to place the teleporters ''wherever you want''. And they can access all of Dark and Light magic as well. |
| 655 | ** Dragons in ''Might and Magic VIII'' combine high natural stats with OneStatToRuleThemAll. They cannot equip anything besides rings and amulets. To counter this, their attack and damage they take are determined by exclusive Dragon skill. The same skill also allows to access to special Dragon magic, that allows to unlock advanced spells like Dragon breath and Flying much sooner than normal. Plus, since they ''are'' dragons, their attack is ranged by default. Since there are not many skills Dragon can learn, you can just dump all points into Dragon skill, Learning (which raises gained experience) and Bodybuilding (raises base HP) and make them engines of destruction capable of wiping out enemies by themselves. |
| 656 | * ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' |
| 657 | ** Any adventurer who's the focus character of a banner is bound to be really common, since many people re-roll their accounts until they get a 5-star adventurer they want. Some notable examples include: |
| 658 | *** Ezelith is ridiculously common online due to being the game's very first focus character. It's pretty common for more than one person to use her on the same team even though only one copy of her co-ability can be active, and she also tends to show up in non-Wind maps. Some people even use her in ''Water'' maps, even though she's at a disadvantage due to being a Fire Adventurer. |
| 659 | *** Lily is also rather common, being the second ever focus character and one of the best crowd-control characters in the game, since her first skill is a ''ginormous'' [=AoE=] which inflicts Freeze. Once again you can even find Lilies getting put into wind maps, despite her being at a major disadvantage (she's really too squishy for those kinds of shenanigans). |
| 660 | ** Among the launch adventurers, Hildegarde is the go-to character for healing duties. Both of her skills provide team healing, with one even granting a shield that blocks one attack under a certain percentage of her teammate's HP. Additionally, her passives can grant boost her healing potency and provide up to 100% Skill Prep, meaning that she can have her healing skills ready right from the beginning. Finally, she's a light-element adventurer, which means she has no weaknesses, so in most quests Hildegarde will be welcomed. |
| 661 | ** On the dragon side of things, you'd be pressed to find someone who doesn't use Jeanne d'Arc as their go-to Light dragon. While hard to pull on behalf of being a 5* (although during the game's launch period, she was more common as a re-roll target), her immense attack and Defense-boosting special make her a valued tank in co-op. |
| 662 | ** Phoenix is a popular choice for a support dragon. She's one of the few who can heal, and on top of that she also grants regenerating health for a short while. Her healing ability is so useful that there is usually no objection if someone selects her as their shapeshift dragon, even if the adventurer is not of the fire element or the quest has water enemies in it. |
| 663 | * ''Videogame/MarvelPuzzleQuest'' has a few GameBreaker duostrios, such as "Thorkoye" (5* Thor, who gets stronger with low health + Okoye, who boosts allies' strength), Carnage (spams attack tiles) + Medusa (heals whenever attack tiles are destroyed), and, true to the comics, any combination of Luke Cage and Iron Fist. And in 2019, the one that seems [[https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelPuzzleQuest/comments/cpey72/this_pve_mode_is_so_exciting_nowadays/ ridiculously overused]] is Gritty (4* Rocket & Groot, who create strike tiles right away + Kitty Pryde, who enhances said strike tiles every round) with Bishop in the third spot. 4* Juggernaut (who has a innate enhanced defense and whose attacks have an aftershock onto the entire enemy team) and 4* Captain America (who like Bishop, [[TakingTheBullet jumps in front of attacks]], and also changes the board while doing so) also emerged as popular thirds. Both Bishop and 4* Cap were {{Nerf}}ed in 2020, particularly their "taking damage for others" moves, but that year saw the emergence of two other overused characters, Polaris (who paired well with Gritty because she spams more special tiles when they're destroyed, and downright starts rounds with an attack dependent on how many friendly specials are in place - in fact, 2021 had [[https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelPuzzleQuest/comments/mdxzcl/all_day_long_im_skipping_this_team/ PolarisGrocketJuggernaut as the overused PVP trio de jour]]) and Karnak (starts the game by placing a protect title, easily deploys critical tiles, and eventually enhances his strength up to fivefold). |
| 664 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' |
| 665 | ** The go to strategy for 99% of content is to always use your best support Servant focusing on one offensive Servant plus one powerful Servant from your support roster, which is quite likely to be the ''same'' support Servant. The most obvious example would be either Scáthach-Skadi or Artoria Caster: Their skills let their target use their super move Noble Phantasm three turns in a row from the very first turn, which is enough to end most battles if you're on the right side of ElementalRockPaperScissors, especially with the latter. These strategies are so so simple and reliable that they can literally be automated. With the front row covered, it's then typical to just fill up the back row with Servants to either gather bond points or just hold items to improve drop rates with no concern of actually having to use them at all. |
| 666 | ** For fights built to be more challenging, such as by having enemies with multiple health bars, the strategy often changes to 'Throw two Merlins at the problem and just grind the enemy down.' (Or if the enemy has an Ignore Invincibility buff, one Merlin and one Artoria Caster who can simply put her Anti-Enforcement buff up against them as it counters Ignore Invincibility.) As the best healer in the game and with arguably the best defensive buffs ''and'' the best long term support abilities as well, the devs have often had to design quests around specifically dealing with both this strategy and the above, such as by inventing entirely new mechanics or [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard simply ignoring/removing the player's buffs one way or the other.]] |
| 667 | ** One fallback strategy is to just drop Heracles in with his bond Craft Essence, allowing him to revive three times for free. Given his high damage output, he can often win battles unassisted. Other popular Servants for this role would be one of the Cú Chulainn variants, which tend to be capable of both, Guts (which is self-revival) and Evade attacks across multiple turns, earning them the charming nickname of Cockroach. |
| 668 | ** The go-to Mystic Code 90% of the time is the Chaldea Combat Uniform (as well as its late-game upgrade, the Decisive-Battle Chaldea Uniform). The main reason is because of the Order Change skill, which lets you swap out a frontline party member for a backline one. The sheer versatility of being able to essentially bring in a fourth party member's worth of skills and Noble Phantasms is too good to pass up most of the time. |
| 669 | * ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'': |
| 670 | ** ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'' lets you rearrange the party however you like, but it gives you two of the best characters right off the bat -- Rudo TheGunslinger in the town of Arima, and Amy the WhiteMage in Oputa. Whoever is in the fourth slot depends on how far in the game you are: Nei is required up until Climatrol, Kain can combat the robotic enemies you face for the remainder of your quests on Motavia, and once you go to Dezoris, you'll probably keep Kain or switch to Anna. |
| 671 | ** ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'' has its final dungeon which allows you to pick the fifth potential party member to accompany Chaz, Rune, Rika, and Wren. But everyone knows that you're just going to take [[WhiteMage Raja]]. |
| 672 | * Most endgame parties in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' will be Crono, Ayla, and Frog. Sometimes replacing Crono for Magus. In the SNES&[=PS1=] versions, Marle and Robo were [[LowTierLetdown Low-Tier Letdowns]], though this [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap changed in the DS and PC versions]]. Frog and Ayla are forced into the party during a lot of the mid-game, Crono cannot be removed until fairly late in the game anyway, and Magus is an EleventhHourRanger who needs to be trained before he'll be caught up in terms of abilities. Thus? Most people go for Crono, Frog, and Ayla. |
| 673 | * ''VideoGame/StarShiftRebellion'': In the offensive skill tree, Electric Discharge is a nigh-mandatory skill due to the tankiness of synthetic enemies. It helps that the player will likely learn this the hard way when the enemies use this skill to deal heavy damage to the party's synthetic members. |
| 674 | * In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'', you are practically ''guaranteed'' to have Butters as your partner for the entire game, save for parts where using another party member is mandatory to progress. He was purposely designed to be a MasterOfAll type character, having solid attacks, a good group-damaging technique, some buffs and debuffs, and the ability to heal, with the intent that this would be balanced out by his built in weakness ''Born Victim'' [[DrawAggro makes enemies twice as likely to attack him]]. However, this "weakness" [[CursedWithAwesome actually helps you out a lot more than it hinders you]], which makes Butters much better than all the other characters. |
| 675 | * ''VideoGame/ViewFromBelow'': The Blessed Ring accessory is probably going to be the most used, since it increases the rather low accuracy of normal attacks and gives the player a cost efficient way to deal damage. |
| 676 | [[/folder]] |
| 677 | |
| 678 | [[folder:Run-and-Gun]] |
| 679 | * ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' provides a variety of powerups that can be equipped, but out of all of them, Smoke Bomb is by far the most frequently used among all but the most hardcore of players. It grants you complete invulnerability to attacks while dashing, which makes both stages and boss battles ''far'' easier as you can literally dash through enemies and attacks. Considering this game is NintendoHard as it is, anything that lowers the difficulty is very welcome. For those who don't use Smoke Bomb, Coffee (which causes your Super Meter to slowly automatically increase, on top of any Super you gain from attacking and parrying) is usually the replacement choice. And of all the Super attacks, Super II is probably the most used, as it grants complete invincibility for a short time. Many difficult bosses have attacks that can be completely trivialised using this Super, such as Beppi's rollercoaster or King Dice's cards. |
| 680 | * In all ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' games, entering and exiting a Slug grants you MercyInvincibility, which means players can exploit this advantage by repeatedly entering and exiting a Slug to kick ass. Check out any No-death runs for the game on [=YouTube=] - and expect the player(s) to repeatedly jump in and out of their vehicles. |
| 681 | * ''VideoGame/Commando2'' (and ''3''), from the Miniclip series of ''Metal Slug'' clones, introduces new weapons for the players, while explosion-based weapons like rockets and grenade launchers have a pause between each round. Using a little-known tactic called the "[[https://commando2.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ultimate_Destruction Ultimate Destruction]]" where players holds on the fire button while scrolling the mouse gets rid of the pause and allows the player to basically spam whatever attacks they have, shredding entire chunks of health from their targets. |
| 682 | [[/folder]] |
| 683 | |
| 684 | [[folder:Shoo 'em Ups]] |
| 685 | * In older shmups wherein ships have wider arrays of weapon selections, expect shmuppers playing for score to pick the ones that can hit the most amount of targets onscreen and still be able to do reliable damage. This is especially true for Seibu Kaihatsu titles like ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'' and ''Viper: Phase One'', the latter of which popularized the screen-filling Nuclear Missile powerup later seen in ''Raiden Fighters''. This mentality has even carried over into other shmups, albeit often balanced out against ship speed; expect the slower ships to possess wider-reaching firepower to compensate for their lack of maneuverability. |
| 686 | * On the topic of ''Raiden'', many players will grab a purple powerup for the iconic Bend Plasma (or [[FanNickname "Toothpaste Laser"]]) as soon as possible, and use nothing else. While it's not ''quite'' a GameBreaker, its ease of use and its cool appearance make it one of the most popular elements of the series. ''Raiden III'' in particular got criticized for [[ReplacementScrappy replacing the Bend Plasma with the Photon Laser]]. |
| 687 | * Ask competitive ''VideoGame/RaidenFighters'' players what's the best ship to use. Have fun finding someone who recommends anything other than the Slave, which is [[GameBreaker so overpowered]] that all of the non-ship-specific leaderboards on ''[[CompilationRerelease Raiden Fighters Aces]]'' are dominated by it. |
| 688 | [[/folder]] |
| 689 | |
| 690 | [[folder:Simulation Games]] |
| 691 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': |
| 692 | ** It's fairly easy to surround your entrance with a ridiculous number of traps and reduce invading enemies to LudicrousGibs before they ever get near the front doors, and it's rare to find a player who'll start a fortress anywhere that doesn't have magma. On the other hand, these are just basic tactics, and beyond that, it's expected that any player will try random things that [[strike: might]] ''will'' get their fortress killed ForScience! |
| 693 | ** Indeed, players who aren't doing something that could get their entire fortress killed are considered to be doing it wrong. Exceptions may be made for sufficiently epic 'Megaprojects', however even most of these have a good chance of killing everyone if they go bad. For example, if you want the eyes of your colossus to be magma behind obsidian, then you're going to have to pump magma up some dozens of stories in order to get it there. |
| 694 | * ''VideoGame/SimCity'': |
| 695 | ** In ''VideoGame/SimCity 4 Deluxe'', expect most cities to be crammed packed full of skyscrapers due to only Dense zone use, as well as to never see one railroad or elevated rail system as opposed to avenues, roads, subway and bus stations. That is of course, if somebody's trying to [[SeriousBusiness rebuild a real-world city]]. Oh yeah, almost nobody plays the game without a GameMod. |
| 696 | ** In VideoGame/SimCity 2013, everyone will lay out roads in a neat, orderly grid. The reason for this is because the map size being so small means doing anything ''but'' a grid is wasting space. If you're playing online, also expect to find most online public games to be set in the region of ''Titan Gorge''. |
| 697 | * In ''[[VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014 Story of Seasons]]'': |
| 698 | ** The Safari gets frequented as soon as it unlocks in Fall Year 1 because it's the location of the mining node, where the player can find high-level ores and gemstones, making a trip lucrative when it comes to making money. [[GuideDangIt If the player knows that going there too frequently results in less valuable drops, meaning they need to take a break and let the spawn point 'replenish']]. |
| 699 | ** Very few players will not end up making money by abusing Flax. Flax is rather cheaply bought and has no set season, so the player can plant and harvest at almost any time of the year. It doesn't sell for much by itself, but taking the Flax and turning it into Golden Thread, then turning that into Golden Linen will multiply its value and selling price by several times! Especially if the player has managed to grab the deed for the field that lets plants like Flax grow faster. And since this game doesn't require any actual material to dye items into various colors -- just throw the wool, cotton or flax into the machine -- this makes money hand over fist in no time, leading to 5 out of 7 vendors to be easily unlocked before even reaching Year 2. |
| 700 | * Oddly enough, the language barrier is not a major issue for Americans (and others that don't know Japanese) playing the ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'' games. This is because the first option in a given dialogue almost always raises at least one of the girl's affection level, which makes them better in combat. The only times you don't choose option 1 is when you know ahead of time it will actually decrease the affection level of the girl you're after. Some of the levels, on the other hand, can be headache-inducing, moreso if you've been mean to the girls (which makes them worse in combat). |
| 701 | * ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' has this problem with its [=PvP=] online play. |
| 702 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'''s online consisted of noobs and spammers that used either the [[SuperPrototype CFA-44]] and its [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Electromangetic Launcher]], or any aircraft that could carry the QAAM, especially DLC aircraft like any of the ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'' aircraft, particularly the Su-47 Miki-EX. This resulted in a contest of who could press B first. |
| 703 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' gets worse, as players abused Capital Conquest to the point that matches could be done in '''minutes'''. |
| 704 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'', with its differing damage types, instead sees most of the focus on attackers and high-tier multiroles, due to the fact that most maps have far more ground targets than air ones. In particular, after the Su-47 and F-15 S/MTD were added, people realized how ridiculously overpowered the Unguided Bomb and Long-Range Air-to-Ground Missile could get and everyone started flying them; even after the two weapons were nerfed, you can still expect to see a lot of people still using the S/MTD (Berkut, surprisingly, has fallen by the wayside; probably helps that the S/MTD at higher levels also gets the Fuel-Air Explosive Bomb, which is reasonably powerful with an extremely wide radius but is otherwise only available on the low-tier MightyGlacier that is the A-10). Fighters, outside of air-to-air-focused special missions, are now limited to the F-22 and T-50 or the fictional superfighters, which are the highest-tier aircraft available and can still do respectable damage to weaker ground targets. In particular is the X-02, the cheapest of the superfighters by a ridiculously-wide margin[[note]]only about 700 thousand to purchase, versus four and a half ''million'' for anything else - for that much you can bring the X-02 to level 10 and have near-perfect stats across the board[[/note]] with extremely good special weapons[[note]]it's an air-focused Multirole that ''doesn't'' get the [[ScrappyWeapon HCAA]] like nearly everything else, and it also has the rather powerful Stand-Off Dispenser for air-to-ground work[[/note]] and an extremely-high number of part slots to make the already-ridiculously-capable craft even more ridiculously capable. |
| 705 | * In ''VideoGame/GameDevTycoon'', some players have already developed strategies that will ensure quick success and migration to the second building as early as the 2nd year. Most of them involve gaming the system by constantly restarting the game until a set of at four topics that are excellent for the PC and G64 is obtained (usually containing Fantasy+Space or Fantasy+Medieval) as to reduce unnecessary research, then researching for game engine at earliest possible convenience, the first two parts of the game engine, and building the first custom engine, then using it to build a good game. Done right, said game will have at least one perfect 10 score and you'll be prompted to move to a new building within minutes. |
| 706 | * ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' |
| 707 | ** Try to find a player that uses a farm other than the Standard or Forest farm, which isn't a SelfImposedChallenge run. The Mountain farm cuts the land in half with a river, and has only a pitiful section of mining stones on the left that is a waste of time to anyone that goes to the mines often. The Riverland farm cuts the land up even worse because it's basically a bunch of islands connected over water to entice fishing, but the fish caught are the same as in the village's river, with a higher chance of fishing up trash. And the Monster farm is basically the Standard farm with monsters appearing at night. Meanwhile, the Standard farm has no gimmick and gives adequate room to build and farm, while the Forest farm has a frequent supply of hardwood stumps on it. |
| 708 | ** Find a player that ''won't'' fill their farm up with the money-making crops, of particular note being blueberries. They are available in Summer, can be harvested multiple times, and unlike the Strawberries in Spring (Seeds only available for purchase during the Egg Festival halfway through the season) are easily purchased from Day 1 onward. |
| 709 | * In ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'', Vasudan fighters armed with the Mekhu HL-7 and Rockeye missiles are the most popular loadouts by far in multiplayer. The multiplayer version of the Mekhu HL-7 has excellent DPS and ''phenomenal'' energy efficiency, making it the best weapon in multiplayer, and the Rockeye doesn't set off enemies' lock indicators, making it the only missile with half a chance of hitting an experienced player. In the single player game, the Mekhu HL-7 is SoOkayItsAverage and the Rockeye is a poor weapon that is outclassed early in the game by the Interceptor and later the Trebuchet (both of which are ''useless'' in multiplayer). |
| 710 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'', whether by design from the start or simply from escalating difficulty, colonies have relied on the "killbox" strategy - where enemies are funnelled into a heavily fortified enclosed space and then shot to pieces by turrets and armed colonists firing at them from all sides. With the introduction of sappers and improved AI priorities, killboxes are less of a sure bet but still are the go-to for base defense. Pirates will set up mortars to bomb your killbox from long range, and tribals will [[ZergRush charge in and overwhelm the box with sheer numbers]]. By the same token, most players prefer [[ElaborateUndergroundBase digging bases deep into mountains]] as opposed to outside structures, because they make killboxes easy to set up, the thick mountain walls are hard to tunnel through and mortars can't target the base; insect hive infestations were introduced to make mountain bases less dominant but those came with their own problems. |
| 711 | * ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'': ''VideoGame/ZeusMasterOfOlympus'' and ''VideoGame/EmperorRiseOfTheMiddleKingdom'' give new options to combat enemies, by surrendering (which forces you to pay tribute and only works once) or bribing the enemy to go away. unless the map sends enemies right away, your economy is often able to handle the bribe, and because combat is so clunky (even/especially when it's handled by the AI), it's by far the more convenient option. |
| 712 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', how you end a stage in your creature's evolution impacts what passive abilities you'll have by the time you reach space stage. In theory, this results in (assuming you go from a cell all the way to space) 81 possible combinations of traits, but a savvy player will nearly always go red-red-green-blue, which gives your spaceship 1.5x more health, halved energy usage, a +10 base relationship boost when you contact new empires, and increased spice production on your colonies, which are generally considered to be the best bonuses out of their respective stages. |
| 713 | [[/folder]] |
| 714 | |
| 715 | [[folder:Sports Games]] |
| 716 | * By default, every single sports game aspiring to be realistic and featuring a large number of playable teams/athletes will suffer from this, since it reflects RealLife. Unless the player has an attachment to a team of lesser-than-God tier, or is CherryTapping, or the selection is made at random, inevitably only a select number of elites you can count on one hand will be played most of the times. For example, ''VideoGame/{{NBA 2K}}14'' players usually played as the San Antonio Spurs or Miami Heat, the previous year's NBA Finals participants, and ''VideoGame/FIFASoccer'' will often have players going through SmallReferencePools in Europe such as Barcelona, Manchester United, Milan, and Bayern Munich. |
| 717 | * If you ever plan to play with a semi-decent player in ''VideoGame/MarioStrikersCharged'', expect to see ''A LOT'' of Waluigi/Daisy/Boos action. Amazingly enough it's not for their actual skills (all of them have the worst shooting power, Waluigi and Daisy can barely pass at all and Boos can't defend), but rather for their innate ability to break the game, either because of their powers (Daisy, for instance, has a special item that allows her to knock the ball out of the opponent's goalie to score an easy goal) or thanks to a very floaty "lob" system that lets them perform a variety of glitchy shots. |
| 718 | * Most ''VideoGame/RocketLeague'' players default to Octane, the starting car, with a few picking Breakout, [[ProductPlacement the Batmobile or the DeLorean]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the primary difference between the vehicles are miniscule stats and their hitboxes; the latter three are basically flat boards, while the more curvy and oddball-shaped cars like the Masamune are more difficult to work with. The Octane's hitbox benefits from its spoiler and the car has very desirable stats, resulting in 90% of serious competitors using it. |
| 719 | [[/folder]] |
| 720 | |
| 721 | [[folder:Stealth-Based Games]] |
| 722 | * In the original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': |
| 723 | ** Every player who is introduced to the game is given a choice of three weapons by lead character JC Denton's brother, Paul, just before beginning the mission on Liberty Island. The choice he gives you is a lopsided one -- he offers one of three weapons: a tranquilizer rifle (which is already carried by several enemies on the island), a sniper rifle (carried by a single enemy a short walk away from the ramp to the island proper) or the GEP Gun, a rocket launcher that doubles as a devastating crowd control tool, comes with several free rockets, and can be used to destroy enemy robots ''and'' breach doors, at the cost of eight inventory squares. Even if you're running a stealth-pacifist playthrough, sneak attacks with melee weapons are easier and more consistent to use, and the GEP gun can actually assist with nonlethal playthroughs by allowing you to blow open walls and take down robots more easily; it's otherwise teaser gear that you won't get for several missions. |
| 724 | ** Once the Dragon's Tooth Sword is found (about a third of the way through the game), there is no reason to carry any other melee weapon. The DTS is a four-inventory square weapon that can break down doors and some chests, open crates, perform large damage against enemies (few of which have any countermeasure against it) and acts as an impromptu light source in dark areas. Compared to the Sword (introduced in the same area), the crowdbar or the baton, there is no need to utilize an alternate melee strategy, and as the game doesn't penalize players for lethal options that far into the plot, it's a safe bet that the DTS will have value for every player regardless of intent. |
| 725 | ** Once you discover that the humble, unassuming pepper gun, a nonlethal crowd control device that's found a short walk away from the starting position of Liberty Island, can be used to temporarily disable ''laser grids'' (thus saving valuable Multitools in the process), there is no reason ''not'' to carry it. Even with the caveat that ammunition for it is finite, the pepper gun's usefulness extends through the entire game, and the only thing the player has to do is crouch in front of the grid, spray a quick blast in front of the signal emitter and move through it. |
| 726 | * ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'': |
| 727 | ** Due to the way the plot is structured and the smaller size of stages, there is no reason to opt for paying Sid Black to fly you closer to your objective when the same thing can be accomplished for free via Ava Johnson, who generally drops Alex off near sidequest start points, is plot-relevant (she is [[spoiler:searching for JC Denton, meaning her goals are aligned with Alex's quest to find out the conspiracy behind the attack that claimed his hometown]]) and not getting her help generally cuts off content that would otherwise be seen. |
| 728 | ** Because of GameplayAndStorySegregation, there is no penalty for finding and working for ''all'' of the game's factions at once, as foregoing one factions functionally cuts you off from some missions -- which is a huge hinderance in the already-small areas. This also means you can play any way you want up until the endgame, as the player is never limited from any of the three options in the UNATCO Ruins (barring the EverybodyDiesEnding). |
| 729 | * In ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'', it's tough to find someone who goes for Alison versus raiding the Versalife vault during the SadisticChoice section. Besides the fact that the Versalife vault is directly tied in to Adam's overarching mission (getting closer to the Illuminati), it also provides an item that is responsible for getting the GoldenEnding (the antidote for the Orchid), a cutscene that provides a major reveal for Adam (the whereabouts of Megan are finally confirmed to him), a hint at a major plot twist ([[spoiler:the clone body(?) of Adam]]) and has an e-book that ''must'' be read to get an achievement. All of these items are {{permanently missable|Content}} (as Versalife clears out the vault after completion of the mission) afterwards, whereas the apartment building where the Church of the Machine God are located can be visited after completion of the bank heist (with very little hostile presence, to boot, making farming experience from the terminals and locked doors simple). |
| 730 | * Ever since it was introduced in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', there is ''very'' little incentive to use weapons other than the M9 in the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series, barring boss battles where you're required to use something else. It's silenced, it's effective from a good distance, it can drop enemies effectively (in one shot if hit in the head or anywhere on easy difficulties), enemies not dropped with one hit don't notice the attack, and a tranquilized guard will merely be woken up if found instead of an alarm being raised because of a dead body. This makes the series an odd example of a game where doing a PacifistRun tends to be ''easier'' than a run where you go for kills. |
| 731 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': |
| 732 | ** Just as in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', there is little-to-no reason to use any weapon besides the Wu Silent Pistol against enemy combatants instead of violent means, despite a spread of lethal weapons, unless the player wants to go out of their way to play an action game. The Wu Pistol is generally cheap to upgrade, comes outfitted with a suppressor (albeit one that breaks after about 20-30 shots), is cheap to resupply and has little drawback. Tellingly, most high-end stealth players will rely on the Wu Pistol as their go-to weapon (as there are few other suppressed non-lethal options until the endgame, and even then, the Wu can be upgraded with an infinite suppressor), foregoing other methods of combat. |
| 733 | ** In the long run, there is no reason ''not'' to Fulton enemies off the battlefield. Not only is it a relatively-cheap way of removing combatants (at 300 GMP a pop), but the player is incentivized to keep stealing soldiers to build up Mother Base and get access to higher-end equipment and weapons. This extends to the multiplayer (FOB) mode, where it is highly inadvisable to shoot and kill high-ranking soldiers (''particularly'' S+ and S++ soldiers) instead of kidnapping them. |
| 734 | [[/folder]] |
| 735 | |
| 736 | [[folder:Survival Horror]] |
| 737 | * The first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' game gave you a choice of Jill who could pick locks and carry 8 items, or Chris who could carry 6 items and had to carry tons of small keys. Even though it's ''well-worth'' playing as Chris since the story and gameplay are very much different, most people only play as him as a SelfImposedChallenge. While Chris has more health than Jill, Jill has better items and inventory space. Jill also has access to the GrenadeLauncher, which is a great weapon to use against boss monsters. Chris gets the Flamethrower, which has limited range, weak power, and can't be taken outside of the underground area due to certain doors need it to be unlocked. |
| 738 | ** The [=GameCube REmake=] and later versions of it balance this out somewhat, as Chris also has a higher chance of dealing {{critical|Hit}} headshots to enemies, a much better use of his unique item (burning fallen zombies with his lighter, so they don't resurrect as much-tougher Crimson Heads while backtracking through the room later), and a better companion (Rebecca gives you a few free heals to let you save the game's limited healing items, compared to Barry assisting Jill in boss fights where she already has plenty of firepower to deal with it herself). |
| 739 | ** This carried over into [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 the sequel]], where most players are much more comfortable with Claire, since her campaign is considered better experience for those playing for the first time. To elaborate, Claire's campaign is generally considered harder than Leon's, due to Claire being more frail, having weaker items, and the multiple encounters with [[ImplacableMan Mr. X]]. As a result, her campaign is considered good practice for evading enemies and ammo conservation, especially since those who decide to play Leon's campaign first are more likely to be caught off guard by how difficult Claire's campaign is. The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake 2020 remake]] plays out similarly. Though both campaigns are given buffs to make them equally hard, Claire's is still relatively easier since her grenade launcher has a better chance against Lickers and Ivies. |
| 740 | [[/folder]] |
| 741 | |
| 742 | [[folder:Third-Person Shooters]] |
| 743 | * ''VideoGame/GunZ'': |
| 744 | ** There's K-Styling, essentially a glitch exploit that involves using swords and jumping around the maps at obscene speeds. Players attempting to legitimately use guns are sometimes chastised as "sprayers" and kicked from games. |
| 745 | ** It's even worse when you know the basic mechanics behind the ranged weapons as the assault rifle (the weapon most used by "sprayers") is the most accurate weapon in the game and is one of two weapons (the other being the semi-auto pistols) that can hit from a very long range. Anyone who is good at the game BECAUSE they reject K-Style and focus on the shooting part of the game are usually accused of being a cheater because they take advantage of the fact that they don't have to be up close to score a kill, nor do they have to use 4-12 key combos to attack. |
| 746 | ** It has the shotgun type of weapons. Everyone uses these along with a sword and do fancy-schmancy things like "K-Styling" (short for Korean style). Because of a bug the shotguns will actually pump a new bullet into the chamber while they are actually not in your hands (they are not automatic), which is the reason everyone carries TWO shotguns for the sake of switching between the two to rapid-fire. Everyone using any other weapon (except the ones where you have to actually aim, which is impossible in this game since there is absolutely no lag compensation, all bullets will hit when THEIR PC receives the packets, not earlier) is regarded as a noob, sprayer, etc. People are very elitist about this, and you always have to bow before someone before fighting them (feigning stuff like "honorable battles"). |
| 747 | * The entire ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' series is played using only the [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Gnasher Shotgun]] and almost nothing else. Using anything else is a mark of NoTrueScotsman in the community and will get you plenty of hatred. It doesn't help that due to the GameplayDerailment of the series, using anything else is usually detrimental. Gnasher players use the TakeCover mechanic for "wallbouncing", a.k.a. taking cover for split instances to move around the map much more quickly than intended and dodge shots in a shotgun duel. Taking the time to stop and aim a rifle at an opponent is just begging for one of his teammates to bounce up behind you and blast you to pieces. It's safer for you if you just joined everyone else in bouncing around with a shotgun and never staying still for a moment. Despite this, the Gnasher purists [[InsaneTrollLogic somehow insist every other weapon is too overpowered and cheap, which is supposedly the whole reason they exclusively use the Gnasher in the first place]]. Also, because every match is fought with almost nothing but shotguns, everyone plays as the skinniest characters in order to have a slightly smaller hitbox that will catch less incoming shotgun pellets. |
| 748 | * ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': |
| 749 | ** In multiplayer, every Gold difficulty match is Geth/Firebase White. For a well-coordinated team, White is easy to bunker down in and resist assault. Geth are often seen as the easiest enemy to fight, lacking any form of instakill attacks (not even grenades) and only having one 'tank' enemy, the Geth Prime, which is usually easier to deal with than the Cerberus combination of Nemeses, Atlases, and Phantoms. Reapers are barely chosen, mostly because of the Banshees. As of the map changes to White after the Rebellion DLC however, Geth[=/=]White has been mostly abandoned as a farming strategy. |
| 750 | ** The game takes several steps to avert this. For one fighting in an unknown location or against an unknown enemy nets you more XP. For another each region of space has a score that goes down over time, to get the score back up (and thus get a better ending in single player) you have to do well maps belonging to that region: playing Firebase White for the hundredth time might secure Earth but what about the Terminus Systems (you still get a slight increase to the overall score, but it takes a long time)? Third, as you level up all the characters in that class level with you, so you can take a WeakButSkilled Engineer and think, "Would I have been better giving it multiple Overloads than a flamethrower?" And lastly, the game has ArtificialBrilliance that learns the more you play, a bunkered Adept spamming Shockwave will be rushed, enemies will pick up on how to deal with a Vanguard's Biotic Charge and so on. Changing to a soldier and spamming Concussive Shot will throw it off its game. |
| 751 | ** Bioware is actually pretty active to prevent this trope, patching the game on a weekly basis to nerf the overpowered weapons and buff underpowered ones, promoting variety. Of course the nerfing of fan favorite guns is often a cause [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for obligatory flame wars in the Bioware forums]]. |
| 752 | ** Up until mid 2013, there were also events every two or so weeks that sometimes encouraged playing in a specific style to achieve a global goal. For example, one such event involved killing a certain number of Banshees. And if the players failed to achieve a goal, Bioware would even impose a penalty for the next event (case in point: when the Banshee event failed, the next event featured additional Banshee spawns, even when playing against other factions). |
| 753 | ** In-universe example with geth sniper Legion, whose ''N7: Code Of Honor: Medal Of Duty'' record lists 200,000 kills with a sniper rifle...and three with a shotgun. |
| 754 | * ''Franchise/DeadSpace'': |
| 755 | ** The Plasma Cutter is the first weapon you receive in both games, and it's all you'll ever need. There's even the "One Gun" achievement for playing through the whole first game using only it (you can still buy, equip, and upgrade other guns, just not fire them). |
| 756 | ** Other weapons are still useful, and some more so than the Plasma Cutter in certain situations. However, the Plasma Cutter really is a perfectly fine weapon throughout most of the game, and using only one gun allows you to focus your upgrades into that one gun, as well as your health and stasis unit. Even without the achievement, it's a pretty legitimate strategy to just focus on using the Plasma Cutter, and maybe carry a Force Gun to knock away groups of enemies that get too close. |
| 757 | ** Also all ammo drops from fallen enemies are for guns you are carrying. If you carry four guns, the ammo will be for one of the 4 guns, and you will eventually run out of ammo for your preferred guns. If you only carry your preferred guns, 100% of the ammo will be for those. If you stick with just the Plasma Cutter, you will get so much Plasma Cutter ammo, you can sell it off for a profit. |
| 758 | ** It was mentioned that some of the changes made in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' (weapon crafting, the changes to the upgrade mechanics, UniversalAmmunition) were in order to break up this pattern. However, as it is a starting weapon, still reliable, and something of the iconic weapon of the series, most players still carry the Cutter with them. |
| 759 | * ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla'' has this to some extent. Quite a few games are exclusively [[GameBreaker enforcer (a slightly nerfed assault rifle with homing bullets]] or rocket-whoring contests (making certain maps with unequal power-weapon distribution hideously broken), often revolving on how many people on your team have jetpacks, heal packs or firepower packs. However, it averts this trope more often than not by only giving players a choice of two maps at a time and providing lots of clever counters to everything. |
| 760 | * ''VideoGame/SplinterCell Conviction'' has a big case of this. There are over 20 weapons in the game, but only one pistol that can be upgraded to mark four targets (the Five-seveN) and only one rifle that can be upgraded with both a silencer and a scope (the [=MP5SD3=]). There's no reason to use anything else once you've unlocked these two weapons. |
| 761 | * ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' is much better than most of these examples, but you'll run into a disconcertingly LARGE number of online players using staves (read: snipers) with high-end Ranged-Stars and energy charge. In fact, the most common strategies even outside that seem to be devoted to OneHitKill[=s=], which makes sense in Free-For-All, but not as much in the team-based Light Versus Dark mode where the abundancy of such strategies makes every team a GlassCannon, since One Hit Kill weapons have very high values, which makes the Team Life Bar deplete faster, which necessitates StoneWall and Gradual Grinder strategies to balance the teams out. |
| 762 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The game suffers from this hard in the endgame, with there being only a handful of weapons that are considered acceptable and about half the roster of characters never seeing play. Majority of these builds was and may actually still be Rhino Primes, that have NoSell abilities and High-critical weapons (such as the infamous [[InfinityMinusOneSword Soma]] and its [[InfinityPlusOneSword Prime]]) and the [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Brakk]]. Some even resolve to Paris Prime for its occasional "Red-crit" capability. Fortunately, most of the practical anti-NPC weapons within the Conclave [=PvP=] section have been removed since Update 16, thus averting this trope at a certain degree. |
| 763 | ** If this issue wasn't noticeable enough, think of a build, any build. Unfortunately for the majority, most Warframe builds involve High-Shields, High-Power, High-Energy, Low-Health, Low-Armor and No-Resistance. Why? RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth. And a few skill-boosting mods are generally more useful than hundreds of situational mods (such as Ice resistance) that the game has provided after said skill mods were introduced. |
| 764 | ** Similar case with weapons, none of the builds involve increased [[CountingBullets magazine sizes]], [[SightedGunsAreLowTech zoom]] and everything else situational, unless the stat originates from Dual-stat mods. Most builds will use Damage-boosting mods as a mandatory statement, like having more than 6 of them in one gun, as enemies become incredibly durable, the game simply forces players into this. |
| 765 | ** Naturally, in a game that receives updates as constantly as this, the meta has shifted over time. While power-enhancing mods are still the way to go for Warframes, shields have been pushed to the wayside in favor of health, since shields don't benefit from armor's damage reduction, certain damage types can bypass shields, and there are quite a few ways to restore health despite the lack of innate regeneration. Meanwhile, the addition of powerful mods that enhance critical hits and status effects has led to the playerbase shifting towards weapons that naturally excel in those stats, leaving weapons with high raw damage but poor supplemental stats in the dust. |
| 766 | ** Due to the way enemy LevelScaling works, the damage reduction provided by armor makes the Grineer the most [[DamageSpongeBoss tanky]] faction in the game at mid-high levels. As such, many endgame weapon builds focus on damage types like [[AntiArmor Corrosive]] or [[ArmorPiercingAttack Slash]] that remove or ignore armor entirely. |
| 767 | ** Melee over the course of several patches turned from a [[CantCatchUp weapon type that barely did anything compared to Primaries/Secondaries mid-way through the star chart]] to the only thing many players will use for the majority of content. They're incredibly effective for their ease of use (most of the top melees can kill a room by just mashing the melee button/a specific combo due to their raw power, as well as some insanely good mod support), don't need to worry about ammo, and are cheap and easy to build/mod for most of the game [[note]] Serration and Hornet strike, the flat-out damage bonus mods that you put on everything 99.9% of the time, are Rank 10 uncommons, which comes with a steep resource cost for new players, along with having [[GuideDangIt obscure and random drop areas]]. The Melee equivalent, Pressure Point? A ''Rank 5 common'' that can drop from every Grineer enemy as well as a wide variety of missions. [[/note]] [[DiscOneNuke making them great for new players with limited resources.]] The complacency is so widespread, in fact, that Melee and the mods for it has been getting nerfed ''routinely'', with a lot of patches either toning down/changing one of the mods, or nerfing a mod ''again''. And despite all of this, many players will ''STILL'' go into missions mashing rooms to death, ignoring their primaries and secondaries. |
| 768 | * ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' series: |
| 769 | ** An interesting gameplay-wise aversion comes from the core mechanics. While matches of objective-focused shooter games tend to descend into "kill enemies" over "accomplish the objective", in order to actually accomplish anything effectively in any multiplayer mode of ''Splatoon'' you have to also focus on covering everything in ink (which is always one of your two main objectives, if not the ''only'' objective). Since painting the arena not only increases mobility options, but also lets players recover ammo faster and charge up a LimitBreak, players will see themselves turn into an ink-stain on the ground incredibly quickly if they try to focus solely on splatting opponents. |
| 770 | ** Averting this is stated as the main reason for the series' stage rotation system, with the developers hoping that players would experiment and learn multiple weapon classes in other to adapt to each stage and/or ranked mode. Despite this, some weapons (if only briefly) still rise to overpowered and overused status within the community before they inevitably get nerfed a few weeks later. |
| 771 | ** Veterans of the series will remember ''[[VideoGame/Splatoon1 Splatoon 1]]'''s Global Testfires, a series of one-hour demos preceding the game's release, which saw a large number of players using the Splat Roller set. The weapon covers insane amounts of ground in a game where the main mode has painting the most turf as the victory condition over kills, can flick ink onto others at short range for good damage, and anyone caught under the roller itself is [[OneHitKill roadkill]]. However, this did not carry over to the game proper, as players quickly learned to exploit the roller's various weaknesses (namely its limited range and nigh-nonexistent vertical reach) and devised multiple ways to defeat them. |
| 772 | ** One example from the first game is the Dynamo Roller, a powerful weapon that has a massive start-up that's made-up for by having the longest range of any weapon in the Roller class. The issue? Even if you're at the tail-end of the ink splash, you'll receive a ridiculous amount of damage. Combine this with a generous application of the "Damage Up" ability (which along, with Defense Up, was removed in the sequel for obvious reasons) to your Inkling's clothing, and enemies can be destroyed just by the edges of the ink thrown at them. After a couple of nerfs to the Dynamo Roller's mobility, damage and ink consumption, the amount of people who mained this weapon decreased slightly. |
| 773 | ** If you're playing [[EscortMission Tower Control]] in the first game, expect to see either the Luna Blaster or its cousin, the Luna Blaster Neo. Blaster class weapons are powerful but somewhat slow weapons that shoot a large ball of ink, which then explode a certain distance away, with anyone caught in that explosion being [[OneHitKill instantly KOed]]. The Luna Blaster duo have the shortest range of any blaster, but the largest blast radius. Since the objective in Tower Control involves standing on top of a small tower for an extended period of time, this renders anyone standing on the tower incredibly vulnerable to the Luna Blaster, more so than any other weapon in the game. This is even more true with the Luna Blaster Neo, as it has the Bomb Rush [[LimitBreak special weapon]], in which you throw lots and lots of bombs -- a skilled player can render both the top of the tower and most of the surrounding area unsafe by filling the space with bombs. Even outside of Tower Control, the Luna Blaster and its Neo variant are very common sights at every skill level due to the ease of which they can sneak up to opponents and KO them with the help of the "Ninja Squid" ability that enables players to swim through ink without making the usual waves that would alert foes. |
| 774 | ** Overall, the Tentatek Splattershot is far and away the most used weapon overall, mainly because it has good all-around stats and a powerful special which makes it useful in every mode. |
| 775 | ** The Dualie Squelchers in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' are definitely a contender for most used weapon, given that they are just as strong as most other dualies but without the short range that is supposed to be the weapon type's biggest drawback. |
| 776 | ** The Splash-o-matic has always been a fairly good shooter weapon, with a high firing rate balanced out by its short range, but ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' saw a ''massive'' boost in its usage. This is mainly due to it having the new Crab Tank special, which can shred far-away foes, turn into a LightningBruiser, and in general is very difficult to fight head-on. While several other weapons can use Crab Tank, the Splash-o-matic is easily the best at quickly charging up the special meter, and thus spamming the special over and over again. Combine that with the shooter's short-range strengths and the useful Burst Bomb sub, and you get a meta essentially ''defined'' by this one weapon, to the point that tournament teams frequently run at least two Splash-o-matics. |
| 777 | [[/folder]] |
| 778 | |
| 779 | [[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]] |
| 780 | * ''VideoGame/ArteryGearFusion'' |
| 781 | ** '''Grace''' is often regarded as the best cleaver and fodder farmer, capable of tearing through many stages on her own. She has a free innate 30% crit chance and crit resist. Whenever Grace kills any enemy on field, the cooldown of her ultimate ''resets''. Paired with the fact that triggering a critical hit advances her own action bar, Grace is incredibly easy to gear and capable of taking on many stages on her own. The cherry on top is that she's only a 3*, and the costs to upgrade her are lower than those of a 4* or 5*. Grace is a character that gives you the most bang for your buck. |
| 782 | ** '''Alice''' is another indispensible member of any team. Her short cooldown on her second skill allows her to give her allies many, many extra turns, helping your units to deal much more damage to the enemy than they would without her. Her other skills are not bad, either: her third skill can lower the speed of all enemies on field, and her basic attacks increase the action bar of one random ally, helping your units get their turn back quicker ahead of enemy units. |
| 783 | ** '''Morris''' is an extremely solid healer that all new players get for free. Her third skill heals and cleanses all debuffs on all of your units, and her second skill can be used to advance any of your units' action bars by 50%. When used on herself, Morris can pump out heals and cleanses like no tomorrow. |
| 784 | ** In addition, the speed set is a gear set that is almost always run over any other set. Speed is an important stat that determines who starts first and how fast your units get their turn back. The only sources of speed are on the thruster gear piece, substats, and the speed set. Compared to other target elimination bosses, the Centaur boss that droops speed equipment is also the easiest boss with no gimmicks. All this means that a solid 90% of Artery Gears use the speed set. |
| 785 | * In ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]'', most players almost ''always'' use Sasha as her Market Crash can reduce enemy [=CO Power=] meters. Dual Strikes are ''devastating'', and [[ScrappyMechanic widely disliked by the fanbase for it]] to the point [[https://awbw.amarriner.com/ Advance Wars By Web]] included everything from Dual Strike ''except'' the titular mechanic), thus Sasha is practically mandatory in the game since she's the only way to fend them off. |
| 786 | * ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': |
| 787 | ** Multiplayer games tend to ignore all other modes of winning other than conquering everyone else because the others A) take a lot longer, since they require a lot of techs from the end of the tech tree; B) aren't as exciting; and C) are riskier, since focusing on another mode will usually mean you lack the gold to have a decent military, making it practically an open invitation for others to kill you, especially if you're close to winning. Expect people to be picky about who gets the combat-buffed leaders. |
| 788 | ** In ''V'', rulers can choose between an array of Social Policy trees to suit their playstyle - Honor to buff combat units, Aesthetics to boost Culture output, Patronage to get the most out of city-state diplomacy, etc. But as soon as you reach the Renaissance Era, regardless of what victory you're working toward, you ''have'' to max out Rationalism. Science is so important to the game that neglecting it means that you'll fall behind in progressing through the TechTree, meaning you're likely to lose the race to build important Wonders, your military units will be outclassed by your rivals, and you'll be late to reach the endgame techs that can help cinch a Diplomacy or Cultural victory, or are required to build the spaceship components for a Science victory. Most ''Civ V'' guides thus run along the lines of "pick whatever two Policy trees you want because you can't pick Rationalism yet, then pick Rationalism." |
| 789 | * ''VideoGame/CombatMission'' has King Tiger v. Super Pershing battles. |
| 790 | * ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series: |
| 791 | ** ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' has the Majin class, which outranks everyone at everything, coupled with the Yoshitsuna sword that has the highest stats among all weapons and for some odd reason, the normal attack works like a gun (4 range). |
| 792 | ** ''VideoGame/Disgaea2CursedMemories'' has the Magic Knight class, which was the worst class of the previous game. In that game, magic is better to absolutely all other types of attacks, the Magic Knight has the highest INT rate in the game and her evility increases the elemental damage of her spells. |
| 793 | ** From ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' onward, players usually ditch the creatable classes for the numerous unique characters (gained from the main game, bonus stages, or DLC) for their superior stats, abilities, and skills. This is especially noticeable with [[VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten Disgaea 4's Netherbattle Tournament]], a mode that allowed players to upload their characters for other players to use, where [[GameBreaker Tyrant Valvatorez]] made up the majority of the list. |
| 794 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': |
| 795 | ** The series has people that will focus on items and job classes that give a big boost in speed because higher speed usually means your turn comes up sooner than the enemy's. |
| 796 | ** In the original Playstation 1, and PSP War of the Lion versions: the Ninja and Samurai. Or rather, specific passive traits players can learn from them. Samurai let's a character learn a trait that boost damage if you are using a two handed weapon, which, for any character you intend to keep as a Dragoon, is amazingly powerful for their Jumps and regular attacks. Ninjas, grant Dual Wield, which means character can equip one handed weapons to both hands, and attack twice with the Attack command. As there is a wide variety of one handed weapons for Attack, Defense, Support, or some combination of the three, once you unlock the ability, you will almost never use a shield on such melee characters ever again. And they will just put out huge numbers of damage. And if you need defense? Double Knight Swords provide that. |
| 797 | ** The attacks of monks scale quadratically with a single stat, quickly overshadowing all other melee attackers by stacking that one stat, so there's little point in using fighters that aren't dual-striking monks. As far as mage skills go, the Calculators' command lets them situationally hit almost or literally everyone on the map with any spell, so you can just instakill the entire enemy team without caring for your own characters' safety. |
| 798 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': |
| 799 | ** Despite the fact that units can promote upon reaching level 10, many newer players refuse to promote a character until they hit the LevelCap of 20. This is to avoid a character losing up to ten levels of growth, but players have a habit of doing this even to characters that will [[AbsurdlyHighLevelCap never hit those levels]], or characters whose maximum growth is overkill--effectively meaning they deprive themselves of a hefty powerup for several chapters for no real reason. |
| 800 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' is especially prone to this. Despite the fact that there are literally thousands of possible pairing combinations, most of which are at least decent, for a while, 99% of StopHavingFunGuys use [[BodyguardCrush Edain/Midir]], [[SlapSlapKiss Ayra/Lex]], Lachesis/[[KnightInShiningArmor Finn]] or [[KnightInSourArmor Beowulf]] (likely [[ReallyGetsAround both]]), Silvia/No-one, [[CrackPairing Fury/Claude]], [[ThirdOptionLoveInterest Tailtiu]]/[[DiskOneNuke Lewyn]] and [[CrackPairing Briget/Holyn.]] This was loosened over time, with other pairings being more commonly considered (pairing Silvia started being seen as actually good), and general consensus leaning towards the ''actual'' best units of the second generation being those with fixed parentage, letting you do whatever you want with the other kids. |
| 801 | ** ''Videogame/FireEmblemAwakening'', which not only features an absurd amount of potential pairings, and significantly more options for class changing and mixing for each character, but also lets you see even more variability in being able to recruit each pairing's child from the future, who inherit their parent's ''skills and class options''! For the most part, you're going to find most players trying to figure out how to selectively breed [[GameBreaker Galeforce]] into as much of the army as possible, which requires very specific pairing options for some of the children.[[note]] [[TheBigGirl Kjelle]], [[SplitPersonality Noire]], and [[{{Weredragon}} Nah]], to be specific.[[/note]] |
| 802 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' not only includes the shipping and children mechanics of [=FE4=] and [=FE13=] (and all the debates that come along with ''those''), but an online [=PvP=] mode as well. Expect to see lots of Swordmasters and Master Ninjas, due to their high speed, decent strength, and good weapon types; Kinshi Knights, thanks to their high movement and bow/yumi access; and [[MagicMusic Azura]] with [[GameBreaker Warp]]. |
| 803 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and ''[[VideoGameRemake Echoes]]'' tends to get this with which classes to promote the villagers into. Most players will insist on Gray as a Mercenary, Kliff as a Mage, Tobin and Atlas as Archers, and ''Echoes''[='=]s Faye as a Cleric. If there's any variation, you ''might'' see people suggesting to swap Kliff and Tobin's roles (due to Tobin's early Excalibur while still wanting to have an archer), but that's about it. And, again, God help you if you suggest turning any of Alm's villagers into Cavaliers or Atlas into a Mage/Mercenary, which is frowned upon in these cases since Alm and Celica's parties have an overabundance of other characters in those classes. In addition, the free DLC pitchfork items are almost always used on [[MightyGlacier Lukas, Forsyth, and Valbar,]] and usually the former two are then promoted into Mercenaries, due to the [[LightningBruiser Lightning Bruisers]] that result from this. |
| 804 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' |
| 805 | *** Endgame armies usually consist of a bunch of Wyvern Lords, plus a Dancer and a unit with Warp. Flyers, and Wyvern Lord in particular, are so good in ''Three Houses'' that even units like Dimitri and Felix who the game very much does not intend to be put into the class usually end up there. Combining them with the game's really insane movement options like Warp trivializes maps with very little effort. |
| 806 | *** Nearly every player puts their physical units through the Brigand class and their magical units through the Mage class to unlock the skills Death Blow and Fiendish Blow, which add +6 to the user's Strength or Magic respectively during their turn. The only unit who doesn't make good use of either of them is Dimitri, who possesses the unholy combination of Battalion Wrath and Battalion Vantage and does his best work on the enemy's turn. |
| 807 | * ''VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle'': Most people use Luigi and Rabbid Peach in their teams (with Mario being part of the trio due to CharacterSelectForcing). Luigi is the only character with a Precision weapon, granting him incredible range. Combine that with the fact that, like most characters and enemies, he has a techinque that allows him to instantly blast any enemy that runs into his range of fire while moving, with his Steely Stare ability in particular granting him three such shots before requiring a cooldown (and even then, it only has a one-turn cooldown when fully upgraded), and Luigi is invaluable. Meanwhile, Rabbid Peach is the only character besides Peach that can directly heal allies, and since players need at least one Rabbid on their team, Rabbid Peach is often picked if the player wants to use Luigi. Finally, both of them also have a Sentry as their secondary weapon, which is useful for its power, long range, ability to hit multiple enemies, and drawing fire from enemies using Villain Sight. |
| 808 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'': There's a reason the series has its own GameBreaker page. Since the units that are overpowered tend to be a huge chunk of the playable cast, tier lists are determined simply by what units can finish the map the fastest. |
| 809 | * ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'': |
| 810 | ** The randomised TechTree was implemented for the purpose of preventing this. You may have a winning design and loadout in mind, but if the RandomNumberGod doesn't like you, you'll just have to throw your best-laid plans out and work with what's available. |
| 811 | ** There is a tiny chance of you getting a "missing" technology from a wreck of an enemy ship, provided you are the winner and you have scavenger ships in your fleet. Even then, you have to run a special project to even determine what you'll get from the wreckage. |
| 812 | ** If you play your cards right and ally with a Liir computer player, they may occasionally offer to share some of their tech with you. You can't pick which tech they give you, but it's always something you don't have and can't learn through the current game's tech tree. |
| 813 | * ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila:'' No matter which faction is chosen (except the two Hunnic factions, as they can never settle down), the player's first strategic goal is to make a break for the sea, and to secure a seazone. Securing a seazone dramatically reduces the monetary losses due to piracy within the zone to around 10%, and sea ports can be converted to fisheries [[note]]except ports where spices are traded; such ports are exclusive to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea[[/note]], which provide a steady source of food (which is not affected by climate change mechanics) ''and'' income. Securing seazones are also vital in the ''Last Roman'' campaign. [[note]]''Charlemagne'' presents a more complex situation for ports, as fisheries no longer provide income. On the other hand, it also did not feature climate change mechanics.[[/note]] |
| 814 | ** On climate change, players who really dislike the mechanic will choose factions which start in or near deserts, where the mechanic has the least effect.[[note]]Desert factions also have the option of building camel farms, which are unaffected by climate change mechanics.[[/note]] |
| 815 | *** On a related note, players who can afford it would almost always try to have a Food Trader at every provincial capital, because it provides another steady source of food (which is not affected by climate change mechanics). |
| 816 | ** With the introduction of the White Huns, players who choose the Sassanid Empire will tend to make peace with the Ghassanids and focus on the war with the Huns, as they can do so much more damage. |
| 817 | * ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'': It's hard to find a player that doesn't engineer a revolt from the very first turn when playing as Spain to change the government to republic. The reason is simple - you start with Carlos II the Bewitched as your king. Republican government is so-so, especially for Spain (which as a monarchy gets a handful of special units) but anything is better than having Carlos as your king. |
| 818 | * ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles:'' "Scout Rush." Scouts have low to middling damage and the best mobility. Most battles require you to capture an objective on the far side of the map, and the game rewards you for winning quickly, so you can probably see where this is going. |
| 819 | * ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'': |
| 820 | ** In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', for their second class perk, Snipers get to choose between Snap Shot, which lets them fire their rifle after a move, albeit at a -20% Aim penalty, or Squadsight, which lets a Sniper ignore their usual vision limit to fire at a target ''anywhere on the map'' so long as both the Sniper and a teammate acting as a spotter can draw line-of-sight to it. This was such a no-brainer that the ''Enemy Within'' expansion tried to balance things by reducing the Aim penalty from Snap Shot and imposing one to Squadsight, and also introduced the Seeker, an alien unit specifically designed to go after any XCOM soldiers sitting on their lonesome. |
| 821 | ** In the modern ''XCOM'' games, there's Overwatch camping. When soldiers take the Overwatch action, they forgo making an attack on their turn to instead take a reaction shot against the next enemy that moves, interrupting the enemy's turn. Now, when an alien pod gets "activated" by coming within sight of one of your soldiers, the aliens get a free "scamper" move to move into cover. If you encounter aliens on your turn, they'll interrupt it to scamper into cover, then you get to take any remaining actions before the aliens have their normal turn. If the aliens encounter you on ''their'' turn, they'll get the scamper move, but take no further action for that turn. Therefore, it is most beneficial for XCOM to ''not'' aggressively seek out aliens, but instead put soldiers in a good position and set everyone on Overwatch - this means that if an alien pod moves into range, the aliens will scatter, XCOM will get a round of reaction fire on the aliens' turn, and then it will be XCOM's turn, giving them a good chance to wipe out the pod before it has a chance to make a single attack. This can make high-difficulty ''XCOM'' gameplay difficult to watch, as the player spends turn after turn turtling, hoping the aliens kill themselves by blundering into Overwatch fire. |
| 822 | *** The ''XCOM: Enemy Within'' expansion tried to dissuade Overwatch camping by introducing Meld, a resource vital to augmenting XCOM soldiers with gene mods and cybernetics, but which is most easily found in Meld Containers placed in the center of maps, and which will self-destruct in a few turns unless XCOM hustles in to harvest them. Other updates and DLC added timed missions, in which XCOM quickly had to reach an objective or extraction point, making turtling impossible. |
| 823 | *** ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' went even further, and just about every mission has a strict time limit, requiring XCOM to move across the map as efficiently as possible while taking out any enemies between the objective and the extraction zone. This naturally met with some controversy, and the ''War of the Chosen'' expansion later introduced the option to double these turn limits, allowing for more conservative play. |
| 824 | [[/folder]] |
| 825 | |
| 826 | [[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]] |
| 827 | * ''VideoGame/{{Inkulinati}}'': The Boredom stat is intended to counteract this. In-universe, Inkulinati get bored from drawing the same creatures over and over. As such, Beasts get a point of Boredom for every time they are created during a battle, which increases their Ink cost and is reduced by not drawing them. This encourages players to swap Beasts in and out of their roster, while punishing overreliance on a small set of troops. |
| 828 | [[/folder]] |
| 829 | |
| 830 | [[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]] |
| 831 | * ''VideoGame/{{Carmageddon}}'': |
| 832 | ** In the games, the player can complete a regular race in three methods: take down all pedestrians, cross all checkpoints in order for some laps, or waste all opponents. Very rarely will players want to race or kill pedestrians, as fun as it is. This is also true regardless of the current vehicle's weak strength. |
| 833 | ** Killing all pedestrians is purely for SelfImposedChallenge value, and almost completely impossible without both the Pedestrians Shown On Map powerup and Stella Stunna's Electric Blue car (with built in permanent unlimited electro bastard ray). That said, it's also the most rewarding way to win in terms of mission completion credits. |
| 834 | * ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': |
| 835 | ** It is game where you can literally do anything you want in the world and build anything you want. However, most players, when they start to build a home, they tend to make a basic square house with one or two floors since it's simple and suits the basic needs such as having a place to sleep, store items, smelt stuff, and craft new items. Other players will make more elaborate homes with more complex mechanisms, such as using pistons to make hidden doors or using certain blocks and items to make a makeshift chair, though these methods are more for show than for practicality. And others will just hollow out the hill closest to spawn and put in a door. |
| 836 | ** Iron tools and iron armor will be the most common items used by the majority of the players since iron based items last quite a while and iron swords are pretty strong. Diamond items are better in durability and power, [[TooAwesomeToUse but their rarity and the high probability of losing your items in lava make diamond items more of a trophy than a tool]]. Leather armor and golden tools and armor are too weak to be of any use as well. Since iron is quite common in caves (and since Iron Golems were added to the game, effectively renewable and farmable), players will be using iron for everything. |
| 837 | ** One the player has iron, almost every savvy player will move to two simultaneous objectives: find a village to farm books, emeralds, and iron, and then begin destroying and replanting a lecturn until a villager becomes a librarian who sells the Mending enchantment. Once you have an unlimited source of this valuable enchantment and the iron to make an anvil, you can basically shift to using diamond and even Netherite gear with reckless abandon as they'll never wear out (provided you keep them topped up) and tools with that enchantment are no longer TooAwesomeToUse. |
| 838 | ** Cobblestone houses are extremely common, due to stone (which turns into cobblestone when mined) being one of the most common types of blocks and being more durable than wood (with immunity to fire being a major perk over wood). It's not as strong as brick (which can resist Creeper explosions better than cobblestone can) but it's definitely easier to make it. Especially since a cobblestone generator, a "machine" that basically lets lava and water flow into the same space to form cobblestone, provides a quick, efficient, infinitely renewable source of building material that you don't need to even mine for! |
| 839 | ** Many multiplayer servers offer different types of play, but the majority of the servers are usually either clan wars, survival with griefing allowed, or servers in creative mode where players build large structures or pixel art. |
| 840 | ** The ''WebVideo/{{Mindcrack}}'' guys demonstrate this Trope very clearly with their Ultimate Hardcore [=PvP=] series. In the beginning, the competitors ALWAYS went looking for a full set of Iron Armor and a bow and arrows before going hunting for prey; if they could find any diamonds it was a great bonus but too rare to be counted upon. As the series evolved and became more refined, certain (ever more convoluted) tactics became a necessity; for example, prior to LetsPlay/EthosLab 's pioneering of getting one during a Free-For-All match, an Enchanting Table was an expensive and tricky luxury even in the team games. Nowadays, it's virtually mandatory if you want to make it to the top 5, let alone win the series. In the same vein, virtually no one risks 'hunting' for other Players in the first 3 or 4 episodes despite the advantage of surprise, and going to the Nether is usually seen as far, far too risky despite the rewards it offers. |
| 841 | ** Similarly, the Player with the biggest pack of friendly Wolves [[TooDumbToLive (and isn't accidentally killed by them first)]] usually wins; players have been known to spend whole episodes and wasting numerous hearts worth of health trying to harvest enough bones to recruit them, sometimes when they'd be better off conserving their limited resources and investing the energy into more practical advantages. |
| 842 | * ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': |
| 843 | ** As in ''Minecraft'', you can let your imagination run wild and build all manner of wonderful things, like imposing castles and sprawling villages, and equip them with a wide variety of furnishings and decorations with elaborate mechanisms hidden within. Also as in ''Minecraft'', most players will promptly discard their imaginations upon starting a new world and build plain wooden box houses with the bare minimum amount of plain wooden furniture, with all rooms identical and arranged in an obvious grid pattern, and one room crammed tightly with crafting stations and chests. |
| 844 | ** And despite being the main draw of the game, and what almost everything is balanced around, the combat still suffers from this. Players will reliably base their arsenal around the LifeDrain introduced in 1.2, either as melee with Vampire Knives or magic with Spectre Armor. Other equipment is largely ignored except for situational use, and ranged and summon builds are all but non-present (and when they do show up, expect the Vampire Knives to be sitting on the hotbar anyway). |
| 845 | ** No longer the case after the 1.3 update, where Vampire Knives'/Spectre Armor's LifeDrain are [[NoSell completely useless]] against the [[FinalBoss Moon Lord]], who regularly reapplies a debuff that prevents ''any'' form of life drain from occurring. Furthermore, the endgame weapons heavily outdamage anything else and shred bosses in seconds, with magic (Last Prism) and ranged (SDMG) being the two strongest options. |
| 846 | ** The Solar Eruption. Put simply, this is a weapon that everybody, no matter their build, should consider getting in their inventory once they hit the end game. It's very affordable to craft, being made only from the drops of a lunar pillar and thus not requiring the final boss to get at, and so can very easily obtained by everybody. To put it simply, it's a melee weapon with crazy reach, hits enemies through walls, and is one of the most powerful weapons due to being made of end game material. Not only does it hit through walls, but it will also light up wherever it goes, basically being a direct upgrade to the Death Sickle, a previous InfinityPlusOneSword. |
| 847 | ** Regardless of the build, expect to see a lot of players taking on the Stardust Pillar early on in the Lunar Event to get the Stardust Dragon staff. Even though it was nerfed in later updates, it's still a fairly powerful summon for even non-summoner classes. |
| 848 | * ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' players gravitate towards the Small {{Chainsaw|Good}}, dropped from Adam the Clown, an optional boss available on the first night (who coincidentally allows a very useful shortcut to open). It's not as powerful as the full-sized Chainsaw, but it still shreds apart zombies and Psychopaths extremely quickly, with each individual attack being much faster than its larger cousin. Plus, the Chainsaw is too big and heavy to be placed in the inventory, while the Small Chainsaw is not. The game also suffers from BreakableWeapons, but you can pick up magazines that will improve the durability of specific weapon types if they are held in the inventory. Unlike most other weapons, there are ''three'' separate magazines that apply to the Small Chainsaw, which means it can last a ''really'' long time. And ''without even leaving the area'' you can pick up 2 right after beating the boss! |
| 849 | * ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' players use the [[WolverineClaws Knife Gloves]], and that's it (unless using a gun is absolutely required). Like all combo weapons, it can be crafted without a blueprint if you know the recipe. If you ''do'' have the blueprint, you get bonus PP for every zombie killed with it. They attack fast, hit hard, the components to build it are easy to find, and in a case of UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay, can't be knocked out of your hands like most other weapons (you're ''wearing'' them, not holding them, after all). |
| 850 | ** In the very early game, the Tenderizers. While they don't attack quite as well as the knife gloves, the components and an item that gives the combo card are available within ten feet of the home base, making it easy to rack up PP and get those crucial first few levels. |
| 851 | * {{Defied|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor''. Players might naturally favor one of melee, ranged, or stealth combat, but sooner or later they're going to find themselves needing to take out an Uruk who is outright immune to their style of choice. |
| 852 | * ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'': |
| 853 | ** The Zap-o-Matic, a LightningGun that you unlock as your first weapon in each game, is likely the weapon that you will use 80% of the time when fighting on foot. It is one of only a few weapons whose ammo recharges naturally, said ammo recharges quickly, an upgrade allows its attacks to {{chain|Lightning}} to nearby enemies, it has enough power to take on most human foes, enemies being shot with it are stunned and can't shoot back, and unlike the DisintegratorRay and the [[GrenadeLauncher Ion Detonator]], it leaves a corpse that you can harvest the brain from, which is especially important in the first game where Furon DNA serves as your in-game currency to upgrade your weapons, saucer, and abilities. In short, while it's not as powerful as the later weapons you unlock, it's still an excellent crowd-control weapon for killing large groups of enemies without having to worry about running out of ammo, especially when it's been upgraded. The second game nerfs it a bit by making Furon DNA much less important, shortening the range of its ChainLightning, and adding more enemies that are resistant to it, such that you'll probably switch over to a well-upgraded Disintegrator Ray halfway through, but it remains a potent weapon against a ZergRush, and it retains a specialized use in [[spoiler:taking down the shields of [[GiantEnemyCrab Blisk aliens]] before you switch to something else]]. |
| 854 | ** In [[VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans2 the second game]], when you're not using the Zap-o-Matic against enemies on foot, you're using the Dislocator against their vehicles. At first, it sounds like a gimmick weapon, until you see that it's just as effective at launching tanks into the air as it is at launching cars, especially when it's been upgraded. Oh, and like the Zap-o-Matic, it too has recharging ammo, and it's the second weapon you unlock. By the time you unlock the Ion Detonator, you'll probably have a heavily upgraded Dislocator that can do far worse. It's only late in the game, when you start fighting MiniMecha [[spoiler:and Blisk]] that are too big for the Dislocator to send flying, that you will want to switch to other heavy weapons. |
| 855 | [[/folder]] |
| 856 | |
| 857 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 858 | * Most [[LetsPlay Let's Players]] playing games with character customization will unlock options and then forget about them immediately. If there are powerful but difficult techniques, they'll try them once or twice and then never again. Instead, these players almost always default to repeated use of the earliest abilities, unless a game requires advanced or unlockable abilities to progress on a regular basis. |
| 859 | * ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'' and its sequels. The whole premise of the game is a seemingly endless scope of things you can do and make and set up in the game, but this unfortunately makes Complacent Gaming Syndrome nigh inevitable. |
| 860 | ** If a level involves some type of platforming, usually "WINGS" or "JETPACK" will be the first thing the player makes. Even if a player comes up with a unique mode of transportation, they'll often resort to using it over and over throughout the entire game, rather than coming up with new things for every stage. |
| 861 | ** Even though many different strange mythological creatures are in the game such as the Shoggoth or even Cthulhu himself, most players will probably just make regular animals when in need of something, or to just straight up put in the word "MONSTER". |
| 862 | ** Synonyms also make this trope very easy to fall into. Perhaps you already used the word "GUN" and the game tells you to use something else. Why come up with something new and strange and interesting when you can type in the word "PISTOL" and save yourself the trouble? |
| 863 | ** One of the biggest problems is that sometimes the most outlandish and interesting things you can make are just outclassed by [[BoringButPractical simpler solutions]]. Constructing a gigantic winged flaming bazooka may be awesome, but it usually won't get the job done any more than a simple "GUN". This is especially true in Challenge Levels, where the need to conserve your adjectives for possible use later is apparent. |
| 864 | * ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooieNutsAndBolts'' manages to largely subvert this despite being a game where player-designed vehicles are the crux of the gameplay, primarily by limiting their selection of parts to build with in the early game. However, due to a well-known bug allowing the player to float and obtain newer parts early, its common to see bland one-size-fits-all vehicles made to circumvent most challenge restrictions with as few alterations as possible. It's also somewhat common for players to abuse the aformentioned glitch in missions themselves so changing off of the default Trolly isn't necessary. |
| 865 | * ''VideoGame/HappyWheels'' has many available characters, from a fat woman in a shopping cart to a crazy old guy in a rocket wheelchair to Santa Claus. If you browse the level creator, though, a large number of them have any character other than the Segway man or the dad on the bike turned off. |
| 866 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'': |
| 867 | ** The series discourages this via the optional Stylish Rank meter (which goes up as you hit your enemies, but sees diminishing returns from using the same moves over and over, and eventually won't increase it at all), ''but'' that still doesn't stop players from overusing the [[DeadlyLunge Stinger]] move which makes Dante dash forward and likely knock back enemies on contact (mechanics that became staple since ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' and onwards) when they'd rather not bother with the whole variation and complex {{combos}}. Other characters [[SharedSignatureMove can perform Stinger as well]] or have their own version of it (i.e. Nero's Streak and Vergil's Rapid Slash). It got to the point where [[{{Memes/DevilMayCry}} fans have memes]] about "Stinger Spam" and the sound effects associated with the move. |
| 868 | ** A common strategy with Vergil involves spamming his [[ChargedAttack Judgement Cut]] ability with the Yamato. It can hit enemies from a distance, is executed rather easily (you just need to hold down and release the attack button), and has a stronger version if it's [[JustFrameBonus perfectly-timed]]. Because of its simple input method, Judgement Cut is also used to end combos, or to [[LagCancel cancel the long recovery animations]] of some attacks if the player prefers an aggressive method over the sheathing animations' bonuses. |
| 869 | ** Since [[OneHitPointWonder everything dies in one hit]] when playing on the "Heaven or Hell" difficulty mode, players just tend to use their ranged attacks to kill the enemies as quickly as possible, and greatly reduce the risk of getting hit in return. This strategy trivializes the mode, but at the expense of scoring minimal Stylish points. |
| 870 | ** Giant EliteMooks and bosses aren't easily knocked back, so players developed a common strategy of abusing the [[LagCancel Jump Cancel]] trick when performing aerial combos to maximize their damage output whenever possible before the target could retaliate. |
| 871 | * In ''VideoGame/ElementalStory'', expect a lot of either light or dark elemental monster only teams in Battle Arena when special rules are not in effect. Also, the usage of piece switch monsters is commonplace for most parties. As for individual elements, these monsters are commonly seen in Battle Arena: |
| 872 | ** Fire: Frey, Feena, Zenobia, Athos, Gawain & Rebecca |
| 873 | ** Wood: Sakuyahime, Ferdia, Artemis, Ushiwakamaru, Blade & Endymion |
| 874 | ** Water: Nut, Forneus, Tesla, Napoleon, Lancelot & Alamiss |
| 875 | ** Light: Athena, Jeanne D' Arc, Arianrhod, Vishnu, Aran, Guinevere & Magdalene |
| 876 | ** Dark: Hades, Yamatotakeru, Anubis, Gilgamesh, Persephone, Hel & Nefertiti |
| 877 | * ''VideoGame/{{Zombidle}}[='=]s'' ItemCrafting system has fallen into this. Ever since Greed and War Splinters became craftable (instead of being limited to making one around every three days), the majority of players feel that the only "right" way of using the Arcane Forge is for crafting the ingredients for these, the splinters themselves, or their Shards which require three Greed or War Splinters respectively. This is somewhat justified since Greed and War Shards double your income and damage respectively, and stack ''multiplicatively'', [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards compared to]] most other craftable items which only stack ''additively'' and suffer DiminishingReturnsForBalance. |
| 878 | ** With the advent of items that boost the damage multiplier given by Carl the Monolith it's gotten even worse. Once you get a few of the basic items it's generally agreed that you should only ever make Fortune Shards. As for the new surgery system everyone has at least two sets of organs, one that gives only orb multipliers and one that gives only reset portal multipliers, to gain as many white orbs per reset as possible. |
| 879 | * ''VideoGame/SixAges'' has a plethora of gods your clan can worship, with various useful blessings. But in ''practice'', the food gods are invariably the most important, and they only get more so [[CerebusSyndrome as the game progresses]]. The manual openly tells you that without Busenari/Inilla/Uryarda/etc shrines your clan will be unable to support itself. Since shrines are limited by the amount of population you have, any successful player's strategy will go like this: food gods, then war gods if you have any slots left over, then one or two gods related to whatever it is the player ''actually wants to do''. Any other playstyle will end the game in short order. |
| 880 | * ''VideoGame/ImmortalSoulBlackSurvival'' players often suggest people who are new to the game do this. The reason for this is because the most important things to know how to craft are armor and food, if you focus on one character you only have to learn one type of weapon instead of all seven. In ranked the most common characters to see are Shoichi, Hart, and Echion because of how simple they are to play. It isn't uncommon to see one or more in a single lobby. |
| 881 | * In ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'' and its [[VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris2 sequel]], almost everyone you meet online will be playing Tetris simply because it lets you drop more garbage on your opponent faster. In Puyo Puyo, due to the offset/counter rule rendering the garbage from smaller clears inconsequential, you have to plan large chains out ahead of time (which can be quite time-consuming) to do any substantial damage to the enemy, while also being able to adjust your strategy on the fly if Garbage Puyos get in the way. In Tetris, you just have to clear lines. Puyo Puyo also lacks any sort of fast-drop feature, which only widens the difference in skill ceilings; it's easy for a Tetris player to overwhelm a Puyo player with garbage, but the inverse is quite challenging. |
| 882 | * The Story Mode in ''VideoGame/WarioWare: Get It Together'' allows the player to form their own crew of 3, 4, or 5 members depending on the course, and only requires bringing in that course's host on the first run through it. After assembling the whole cast, the vast majority of players will use some combination of Orbulon, Ashley, Wario, Mike, Dribble & Spitz, and Red for their crew, as they can move around freely and are mostly interchangeable. Quite a number of the missions require playing with all the crew members though. |
| 883 | * ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': |
| 884 | ** Most games will have two impostors, as this allows Impostor players to have a much ''much'' more fair chance of winning (since the crew wins when all impostors are gone). |
| 885 | ** Most players want to be the Impostor as it is perceived to be the most fun. Because the game offers almost ''no'' punishment for leaving beyond a mild slap on the wrist, just about every player [[RageQuit leaves]] when they get assigned to the crew. |
| 886 | * ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': |
| 887 | ** A very common strategy for the early game is to have Kel use Annoy on Aubrey to make her Angry, and then have Aubrey use Headbutt. Headbutt can be learned for free fairly early in the game just by completing a very easy optional sidequest, and it does decent damage which is boosted if Aubrey is Angry. Many will often combine this with having Omori use Sad Poem on himself to make him Sad, allowing him to use Stab in tandem (a skill he starts out with, which ignores Defense when Omori is Sad). While this strategy will fall to pieces against later bosses like Sweetheart, it's more than enough to get you up to that point. |
| 888 | ** Another very common strategy players often use is to equip Aubrey with something that boosts Defense greatly (like the Cellphone obtained from the recycling machine in Otherworld, which gives +10 Defense and can be obtained as soon as you get to Junkyard if you grind a bit) and have her spam Counter to draw enemies' attacks while Hero uses Cook to keep her HP full, while Omori plays main damage dealer and Kel uses Juice Me to keep the others' Juice topped up. This simple strategy completely shuts down any encounter, with the exception of enemies that abuse area of effect attacks (like, again, Sweetheart, or Humphrey's first phase). |
| 889 | ** Omori has many Skills that debuff an enemy with a certain emotion, but out of all of them, you'd be hard pressed to find any player who uses anything other than Mock. It's the first one he obtains, and it's also the most useful, as it harshly debuffs an Angry enemy's Attack stat. For those who aren't aware, Angry increases Attack at the expense of reducing Defense. An Attack debuff turns Angry into an emotion with nothing but downsides. Even better, Kel is usually the fastest party member with Omori being the second fastest, meaning it's very easy to chain an Annoy from Kel into a Mock from Omori, which Aubrey can follow up by using Team Spirit to give her and another party member (usually Omori, who tends to share the main damage dealer role alongside Aubrey most of the time) the Happy status, causing their attacks to do extra damage against Angry targets. |
| 890 | [[/folder]] |
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