Being called a meta player

Mureel

Sheeet. I wish I had enough real life time to be awesome at everything, but I got 99 problems and fuguring out the math for the best performance ain't one. Because other people kindly do it for me.

LuminaLilly

Then again guys.....he was a mag dk who ran some heavy armor snb with valkyn skoria. Don't tell me that's not meta

Raraaku

I just do what I think is the most fun. As long as I can fulfill a archetypical dungeon role without compromising my team, I could care less if it's the most optimal. It's a game, I'm not going to spend my time grinding out a build I don't even like playing just so I can squeeze out just a little more DPS.

Phinix1

It depends on the psychological state of the player in question.

If they are rational and well adjusted, most "meta" players simply enjoy optimizing their builds, either for personal enjoyment or to function better with a team at a particular task. This type generally plays games to have fun, or for the challenge, and would take a challenge to their build as a potential learning experience. They would probably enjoy debating the merits of any suggestions. These types hang out a lot on sites like Tamriel Foundry where theory crafting goes down.

There is another type however, with a rather large demographic footprint in most MMO's; very high-strung, insecure, hyper-competitive types that only play games so they can compare themselves to others as a form of validation and boost to their self esteem.

It has been sighted as a form of mental illness by professionals, and should come as no surprise that this type of personality tends to overreact and take WAY too seriously things related to that 'game' they have made a function of their sense of self worth.

Incidentally, it is this second personality type that is the target audience for every pay-to-win gimmick ever sold. It is also at the core of the video game and gambling addiction phenomena, and it is people in this group that are most likely to go off on you for not having the build they see as 'right.'

Most well adjusted people have no problem accepting people playing how they personally enjoy playing, unless it is directly affecting them in some way. Like a tank refusing to slot defensive gear or skills causing repeated wipes or something. But the 2nd type would probably go off on a tirade if you missed an AOE in one of your rotations.

O_LYKOS

So many names that people call people which a lot of people get so salty about. Worst is when the salty person is calling you out on using certain sets or having a particular play style.

Being called out for being an elitest. Using proc sets. Using the "meta". People pay money for a game, people should play as they wish regardless of how salty peoples tears get.

grannas211

Honestly it's usually the players that purposely "go against the meta" that are worse with the elitism. Nothing wrong with your special snowflake build but they usually wanna judge people who want to maximize their toon.

itscompton

Whatever the entomology of the term, "meta" here means playing the most common build (because it's clearly BiS) for that class/role. Sure some people get the build by watching videos but a lot of the time it doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out what sets are BiS. Take Viper for example, as soon as I saw it in the patch notes before it was released to live I knew it would be ridiculously good for stam characters in PvP and put a set together day one for my NB. Of course two weeks later just about every other stam character was running it too but that didn't make me feel bad for using it. If you beat someone in PvP because of damage procs and they get mad they should direct their anger at Devs for making that Meta, not at you for using the best tools in the toolbox you've been given .Your "friend" needs thicker skin, if a build or tactic is part of the game and you use it to succeed because it's fun to play and clearly more effective than other options that's nothing to be ashamed about no matter how you learned about it.

MLGProPlayer

ecru wrote: »

You insulted and undermined the effort he put into his characters by claiming he's a "meta" player, suggesting he plays how he's told or uses builds others say are the best, rather than coming up with whatever else on his own. You're a bad friend and you should feel bad.

That doesn't make any sense.

There is only one "best" build. Everyone who min-maxes (whether you copied the build from a guide or did the math yourself) will arrive at the same build.

Baconlad

Nothing wrong with playing to the Meta.
Although its a bit shotty when a meta player gets the kill on you and proceeds to teabag. A procblade from before the viper chande would be a good example. Being hard to kill from a magplar perspective. Normally if a meta player kills me open world and TBs...i call him out on it.

Another great example is magplar. The meta being heavy armor, skoria using sweeps as spam. With sword and shield offbar and DW mainbar. It is quite the effective playstyle, but not worth a TB just because he won a duel.

Now that same player, who put together a dark flare spam build, who was able to defeat the above build. That is an off meta build. And clearly takes more skill to accomplish on another skilled meta player. I would accept the teabag, and go off and lick my wounds, while trying to figure out where my skill faltered.

Metas change, players change builds to compensate. Running the meta can help you be a better player. But nothing says badass like playing off meta and still wrecking ***

Waffennacht

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

ecru wrote: »

You insulted and undermined the effort he put into his characters by claiming he's a "meta" player, suggesting he plays how he's told or uses builds others say are the best, rather than coming up with whatever else on his own. You're a bad friend and you should feel bad.

That doesn't make any sense.

There is only one "best" build. Everyone who min-maxes (whether you copied the build from a guide or did the math yourself) will arrive at the same build.

Not in PvP. A Bleed Build will wreck a permablocker build, while the bleed build will not do well against a mag Templar etc etc. With the specialization of builds in PvP, there is no "best" build against all others.

Now I do get mad when someone running a Meta build decides to call something OP. By running your fotm or wuteva build, you lose the whole, "X, Y, Z is OP" perspective

Blacksmoke

LOL what?! How can someone get triggered by that? X'D I play meta for my main builds healer/dps I want to be usefull and make sure every dungeon goes smoothly

EnglishTea123

I mean... if your buddy came up with the build but the setup is more or less same as others and have the EXACT same skills and playstyle as others, I don't see how he/she should be offended by that... lol now if he/she were running completely different gears with a brand new skill rotation and you called him/her as a meta chaser, then I can see why lol