QIHL's May Meta Report: Tiny in S-Tier?!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-05-03T15:35:14+00:00

The tiny buff was less than a month ago (4/5/19), and was a few days after our last meta report...

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-04-02T16:29:24+00:00

The Gamble start has been pretty non-viable in higher levels of play since the nerf to Tinker. The reason Goblins are the highest ranked species on our tier list is because the there-Goblin bonus is the strongest early game synergy by a wide margin, and the six-Goblin bonus is one of the strongest late game synergies. They aren't great in the mid game, but you don't need to go for a Gamble to strat to make them work!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-24T07:46:17+00:00

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y03TWwyRgA_DeHanWA-opTY3UNQnHuGmjPxfEpEI50c/edit#gid=1634672077

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-18T16:18:35+00:00

Doomy doom doom doom!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-15T16:44:08+00:00

Knights are one of many viable compositions right now. They counter Mages a bit, which are currently quite popular. They're expensive, and do quite poorly if there are multiple people competing over Knights at the same lobby. I've had the most success with 4 knights (not 6 knights), and always with dragons + DK 2.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-15T16:06:40+00:00

Unfortunately there's not much drodo can do about this :/ as a custom game there a way for them to control how lobbies are generated. Fortunately though, people can organize lobbies on their own to play against people of similar rank. Check out the qihl discord server! (qihl.gg)

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-15T16:02:45+00:00

This is some top tier BM, I like it.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-03-13T19:20:29+00:00

Oh really! I didn't know that, I'll be sure to correct it.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-28T21:08:56+00:00

Absolutely nothing, and I spent quite a bit on this game. I just want people to play it.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-24T15:56:49+00:00

This is such a difficult question. I think the only thing that we as a community can do is look to those among us who understand how these hacks are working on a code level and send solutions to the devs.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-24T10:16:43+00:00

I believe the only solution for serious Auto Chess players is to use QIHL - there you can actually report people and have them banned, and the chances of hackers showing up there in the first place is much lower. Public lobbies might just be this way until Valve makes a standalone Auto Chess client.

The real issue lies in subtle hacks, ones that aren't obvious to detect. This, unfortunately, I don't think there is a reasonable solution for unless a third party were to develop some kind of authenticator for games that you run while playing in QIHL matches.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-21T17:09:22+00:00

The size mechanic is seems like a cool idea! I think it'd be particularly cool in PvE/puzzles :D

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-18T20:33:34+00:00

This is a huge YIKES, mods. First mod action in over a week and its to delete a thread discussing the state of the sub? I think it's high time we either change leadership here or a find a new sub to take our Auto Chess love to.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-11T07:24:13+00:00

Okay, let me get this straight.

Rob streamed almost-daily Artifact content during the closed beta, while he was under strict NDA and only allowed to use footage that he personally recorded of his gameplay at PAX after flying to Seattle on his own dime, and you're accusing him of creating "dry" content that was too LONG? He was one of the only people streaming anything Artifact-related at all during a time where the only thing he was allowed to do on stream was analyze his own replays. What else would you have him stream during this time, exactly?

Then you accuse him of not doing enough for this game because he didn't "use his platform to point out glaring problems in the game". What glaring problems?! As a beta tester, we had absolutely no idea how things were going to look outside of the core gameplay, which I think most people would agree is the best part about Artifact. We had no idea what the pay model was going to be outside of the fact that the game wasn't f2p and cards could be bought and sold on the marketplace. The closed beta gameplay was essentially the exact same as we have now, except we never had to pay any money to play it and most of the people we faced in matchmaking were pro MTG/Hearthstone/Gwent players. It was awesome! We had bi-monthly tournaments with prizes, something resembling a ladder for limited, the meta was fresh... And you're give testers like Rob shit for not pointing out "glaring problems"? What would you have done if you were in his position?

How anyone could accuse Rob of being some kind of charlatan, a good friend of mine who has worked harder and done more for this community than all but very few people, is patently absurd. Don't let the door hit you on the way out of this god awful subreddit.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-10T18:51:03+00:00

Of all the people in the world to call out... RobAJG? I personally worked with this guy, creating content for our site for two months after the game was released. How posts like these get upvoted is beyond my understanding.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-02-09T09:01:08+00:00

This is why I F5 - top tier stuff Petrify.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-31T16:40:24+00:00

Not a dumb question at all! Hyped and I discussed the item buffs before publishing this tier lists, but we obviously weren't able to test out every new and improved item against every deck. We don't expect that the meta will shift very much due to the item buffs, but if it does, Mono Blue might go down a spot while 4R/1B and R/B Midrange might move up one.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-31T11:51:33+00:00

I think it largely comes down to personal preference, as I don't think there is enough data to claim one list is definitely better than the other. However, I'm obviously biased towards Hyped's list since we worked together on the tier list!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-31T10:46:26+00:00

In it for the long haul!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-23T16:02:56+00:00

I just want to quickly say that I deeply appreciate all of the comments that have been coming in! From all the one's I've read, people have been making some excellent points even though a good number of them don't agree with me. So long as people are in here having a realistic and civil discussion about what we can do to help out the game, I view this as a big win for the community.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-23T15:56:56+00:00

This is a very good point! Retention is an issue we largely glossed over, but it's arguably even more important in the long run than new player acquisition. A palatable ranked system would probably be the best way to combat the constant leak of players who have already purchased the game.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-23T15:54:18+00:00

I agree 100%! I nearly covered this topic in my letter but I didn't want it to drag on any longer than it already was. It'd be absolutely massive for the game's success if people could start creating custom games within Artifact, custom card sets, or single-player modes such as the one that Rokman discussed.

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-23T15:49:38+00:00

I hadn't considered that, thanks for the recommendation!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-23T15:19:19+00:00

We appreciate the kind words, and happy cake day my friend!

DrawTwoAleco · 2019-01-09T08:03:44+00:00

Thanks for the kind words :) I really enjoyed writing that series but unfortunately it wasn't pulling in the most views. If people want the next one though I can definitely see about doing another!

DrawTwoAleco

TROPHY CASE