Right now, roamers and cloud type of players stand no chance against any organized group following the current boon ball meta. It is a tanky cele meta that has access to all the tools the game has to offer including condi dmg, power dmg, all boons including stab, resistance, alac, and aegis spam, superspeed, great barrier output and condi cleanse, powerful range resurrecting, and good hard and soft cc. This post will examine this meta and invoke balancing discussions so that solo players can have a chance of winning against organized group. Feel free to post your suggestions as well.
The boon ball meta as I understand it involves in each party a cele firebrand, cele renegade , cele scourge, a minstrel scrapper, and a power dps (berserker/marauders) like holosmith, soulbeast, berserker.
The Cele Firebrand:
This build provides good stability and aegis spam, and some quickness while dealing high burning condi dmg through the passive of Tome of Justice. Sometimes, the cele firebrand can even be the top damage dealer in the meter. The burning condi dmg works well in this meta because the cele scourge outputs all type of condi that helps to cover the burning condi from getting cleansed. A lot of roamers run cele or some high toughness stats and the burning here will just rip through it.
I recommend hard nerfing (maybe even completely removing) the burning condi output from Tome of Justice.
The Cele Renegade:
This build provides perma alacrity, perma fury, good resistance and even better stability than the firebrand while outputting decent boon strips. It is possible for this build to also output decent condi dmg, but it will have to sacrifice some of its boons output to do so.
I recommend completely removing alacrity like how it was done for druid, scourge, and tempest. Right now, it is giving perma alacrity to the entire party just by pressing one key every ~16 seconds. I also recommend hard nerfing the fury output by at least 50%. The healer/power dps can sacrifice a little bit of their kit to output fury. The weakness condi spam from using road should also be removed to lessen the insane condi spam from this meta.
The Cele Scourge:
This build provides good barrier, good boon strips, powerful resurrecting in blood magic and transfusion, and many different types of condi spam to cover the burning condi from the cele firebrand from getting cleansed.
I recommend completely removing the teleporting of downed allies from transfusion. I know it got nerfed by increasing the cooldown of Garish Pillar to 60 seconds, but that doesn't matter when every party has a cele scourge. They just rotate their transfusions. They still have signet of undeath for long ranged resurrecting. I also recommend heavily decreasing the different types of condi that can be outputted from this build so that solo players survive with their condi cleanse. It is what makes the condi component of this meta so much stronger than it should be. By nerfing this condi component, maybe the meta will shift back to 2 minstrel supports + 3 berserker/marauder dps instead of the current 4 tanky supports + 1 berserker/marauder dps.
The Minstrel Scrapper:
This build provides good condi cleanse, boons, superspeed, and barrier.
I recommend completely removing the superspeed and decreasing the barrier and protection boon output a little bit. The superspeed just makes it very hard for solo players to cloud around them.
The Power DPS:
I feel berserker is in a good spot, but I think holosmith and soulbeast might be over tuned.
I recommend nerfing the damage of some of these so that the meta can shift to taking more than 1 berserker/marauder dps per party.
Edit: I posted this as someone who plays with an organized group 25-30 following this meta. The 4 tanky supports + 1 dps per party setup makes the outcome of a fight less dependent on skill and more dependent on numbers. Because of the current meta, I see way less of the following underdog victories:
1.) A cloud of veteran solo players beating an average skilled group of 25-30 comped players.
2.) A highly skilled group of 10-15 comped players beating an average skilled group of 25-30 average comped players.
3.) An average skilled group of 25-30 comped players beating a map blob 50+ below average skilled group of comped players.
Before this meta, I occasionally witness one of the three underdog victories outlined above. But ever since everyone started running cele, I cannot recall any of these adrenaline filled victories occurring. Now the only two factors in winning seem to be the number of players in your squad and whether or not they are obeying this 4 tanky support + 1 dps setup.
Edited by A Hamster.2580
