I am not 100% sure but it seems to me that the meta shifted away from archers. Like 1-2 years ago it was very archer-heavy, especially M@A into 2 Ranges. Applied for top level pro games as much as mid elo. That is not the case anymore, is it?
I am not talking about early DE times when pathfinding was broken but even before that.
I remember that Daut, when rewatching his HC3 games vs Hera, mentioned that "2 ranges is not meta anymore".
I don't see the reason for that, maybe because I never really figured out how to play M@A-2 ranges myself. What changed? I don't see in the game any balance changes that would have caused that. Maybe some Archer-civs were slightly nerfed here and there but not much, some (like Vietnamese) were also significantly buffed. The new Civs are rather Cavalry-based but that doesn't seem a reason to prefer playing Vikings with 1 instead of 2 ranges.
Did the people just figure out how to counter it or doing it better? Are the transitions all a bit faster due to queue-clicking and that eliminates the time window for the Archer power spikes?
I also remember that in the past, going Skirms in Feudal usually caused you to reach Castle Age fairly late which gave the Archer player the opportunity to destroy you early Castle Age with Xbows and Mangonels..that doesn't seem a big thing anymore? But the ecos didn't change. Do people adjust their eco better for Skirms? If so, how didn't they manage to do it before DE and how is that a thing on differing elo levels at the same time?
Related to that, Drush-FC makes a big comeback which was for a while seen as a very very risky strategy. How did that become less risky?!
Throw your explanations at me
I am not talking about early DE times when pathfinding was broken but even before that.
I remember that Daut, when rewatching his HC3 games vs Hera, mentioned that "2 ranges is not meta anymore".
I don't see the reason for that, maybe because I never really figured out how to play M@A-2 ranges myself. What changed? I don't see in the game any balance changes that would have caused that. Maybe some Archer-civs were slightly nerfed here and there but not much, some (like Vietnamese) were also significantly buffed. The new Civs are rather Cavalry-based but that doesn't seem a reason to prefer playing Vikings with 1 instead of 2 ranges.
Did the people just figure out how to counter it or doing it better? Are the transitions all a bit faster due to queue-clicking and that eliminates the time window for the Archer power spikes?
I also remember that in the past, going Skirms in Feudal usually caused you to reach Castle Age fairly late which gave the Archer player the opportunity to destroy you early Castle Age with Xbows and Mangonels..that doesn't seem a big thing anymore? But the ecos didn't change. Do people adjust their eco better for Skirms? If so, how didn't they manage to do it before DE and how is that a thing on differing elo levels at the same time?
Related to that, Drush-FC makes a big comeback which was for a while seen as a very very risky strategy. How did that become less risky?!
Throw your explanations at me