I would like to point out… this is the change the topic is about:
It was given some extra frames of delay (I forget the exact number, I think its mentioned in the livestream). But I hardly think this is a ‘kneejerk’ reaction that some are claiming. In fact some of the first posts about it were positive, as players felt it gave ‘weight’ to the heavy attack.
Don’t get me wrong, its a nerf. It adjusts TTK in a higher amount which is a nerf. But the actual spears themselves were not adjusted outside of a few that got different movesets (I don’t believe the spears that did were even in common use).
What I find interesting is in any game there is two METAs. There is the known META and the actual META. Both are similar in the fact that they are the tactics, weapons, builds, etc that are the most effective. The difference is that the known META only encompasses the META that is known by the general community. The actual META can include things that aren’t known, but still there.
This is why we can see complaints about things that haven’t had any patches for months or years. Sometimes it takes that long to find something that is actually effective.
With that said, just because something is found to be a new META doesn’t make it OP. The issue with known METAs is its all relative. Let’s do a little thing here to illustrate this. We’re going to assign imaginary numbers to make an analogy, these numbers aren’t real and are just for the sake of argument.
1 being near useless, 10 being grossly over powered.
Lets say Spears are around a 6. Other weapons are around 4 or 5. The perception is that Spears are OP. They have a significant advantage over 4s and 5s. But let’s say for the sake of argument that Two-Handed Hammers are found to be quite effective and their perceived META goes to a 7. Well everyone is going to cry foul. Lets take a weapon that is a 4 and see why its a 4. Maybe it takes a bit more practice to use, and once someone gets good with it, it goes to a 7. Well… when someone does this, everyone is going to try to get good with it so they can dominate with it. Or in many cases they cry foul of OPness.
The problem here, its all relative and perception based. These numbers, like the known META don’t tell the whole picture. And one of the biggest problems with the Spear META is that its been the Known META for so long (since early access) that it is the baseline that everyone goes to. Its the default weapon so everyone uses it.
Why? Because it was the easiest to use weapon. It was the weapon every guide said to use. Its the weapon every clan starts out with and get their newer players to start using. Its a self fulfilling problem. Is the weapon actually that OP though? Its a little hard to tell because of the inherent bias towards it.
You could argue that it is OP and the bias is in part due to that fact. But the Spear has seen significant changes that most would consider detrimental. Such as the light attacks changing entirely. But despite that, the META didn’t change. Was it because Funcom didn’t do enough, or was it because of the sunk cost fallacy of the investment many had with it?
What I do know is when there is an anomalous user of a different weapon, it throws things into chaos. For example the bows. They hadn’t really had much change over the last major updates. In fact the last time bows saw any significant changes was in Isle of Siptah or even before. But that bow thread that just hit the front page again popped up in February. Why? Because someone on a server got good with a bow. Someone found everyone using a singular weapon and decided to exploit them.
That’s the problem with gauging the META. When EVERYONE is using the same thing. There’s going to be a counter and that counter is going to hit everyone in the balls. When many people get invested in one way of playing, it gets very hard to engage in counters.
The dueling server has major issues with that. I will give them credit, they are probably the best pikemen all of Conan Exiles. And if you try to match them spear to spear, its going to be an uphill battle. But if you find a counter to their spears and get decent enough, they’re going to make threads about it. Usually claiming there’s a glitch, exploit, or some weapon is OP. I’ve seen this with daggers, bows, great axes, etc. They usually make threads until someone figures a way to deal with it, and then ego-checks the rest and then they stop.
The only reason to shake things up in the way @erjoh just suggested above, would be to get the spear bias out of the game. Effectively make them useless so they’re forced to try other things. I don’t agree with doing this however. Especially if the problem is simply a bias and not a problem with the actual weapon.
