New metas?

[Destroyer Bravo]

Since I have played GoI a lot of jargon seems to have evolved that I have been left behind with (I played when rank 15 was high)

So what exactly are the new metas?

Gat/mort ships? I have no clue what's good.

[Dementio]

Gat/Mortar Pyramidions will always be a thing. Pyramidions with a Carronade on the front paired with either Gatling or Flamer is also rather popular. When long range is going on then many tend to take a Pyramidion with either a Hades or Mercury paired with an Artemis.
Goldfishes, with either Heavy Carronade or Hwacha.

Galleons and Mobula are popular in the competitive scene, because they require good crews and gunners. When you see a Galleon in public matches, it has probably 4 hwachas or gunners that can actually hit.
For many competitive pilots the Junker's weaknesses are oftentimes not outweighted by it's strengths, so few competitive pilots fly it competively, but a lof of these things are seen in public matches where Mobulas are less seen.

Squids and Spires are ships that everybody has as their favourites, I get the impression, but are not flown anywhere because they tend to die very quickly or are not as useful as other ships. Depends on the pilot, crew and ally though.


Gatling/Flamer is very popular in pub matches, I don't know why exactly but a lot of newer players take this combination on their Junkers and Pyramidions...

Yes, this is a super exciting age for the Meta.

[Arturo Sanchez]

Iunno bout new metas but I really like my sniper spire build.

Top guns art, merc.

lower guns hwacha and flamer.

Can fight up close and from afar. So any brawlers that think they can get close gets disabled on the face and their whole ship set alight, by the time they handle the fire (guaranteed as freshly rebuilt ship parts are not chemmed) the 2nd hwacha destroys them, or disables them again. Rinse and repeat until death.

As for long range. Hwacha disables other snipers or kills them depending on hull break or not while the merc and art lend support.

[Omniraptor]

Lumberfish can singlehandedly carry a match, don't disregard it.

[Indreams]

As long as you aren't involved in serious/competetive matches, here are the metas.

Goldfish:
Hwachafish - Hwacha front, close range weapons (flame/carro) side.
Blenderfish - Heavy Carronade Front, close range weapons side.
Lumberfish - Lumberjack front. Side guns at your discretion.

Junker:
No real "meta". The ship is quite versatile and guns are quite variable. But typically
Artemis/Banshee front. Side guns are light gun pairs, like gat-mortar, flame-carro, hades-flak, etc. etc.

Pyramidion:
Metamidion - very common. Gat-Mortar front combination.
Metamidion - variation with Gat-Flak. Not recommended.
Carrotmidion - Pyramidion focused on disables. Flame-carro, carro-carro, or flame-flame.

Galleon:
Hwacha Galleon - bunch of hwachas.

Squid:
Close-range Squid - Flame, carronade, and a gun of your choice.

Spire:
Long-Range - Flak or Lumber, with a long range light guns.
Short-Range - Two gat, mortar, Hwacha/carronade.

Mobula:
No real meta here. Usually either long range or short range.

I think that's about it. You'll usually see metamidions in Match Made pub games. You'll rarely see a spire or squid. You'll also rarely see a lumberjack.

[BlackenedPies]

I suspect that the Ryder mobula will become the default meta.

Originally I used to see merc top with the arts on the wings. The Ryder mobula has an art on the left wing, but the right art is on the bottom position. For close range the left side hull engi jumps down to the close range gun (carro), and the merc gunner jumps to the top right wing gun (flame). I use a mine launcher instead of the flame and the merc gunner has charged heatsink lochnagar for it (medium/close range mine ammo).

Been seeing more buff burst hwatcha fish (buff engi on front with burst). I like a greased carronade as my right side gun for complete disable. Hold fire with hwatcha until they are close and you will break every component on their ship. If necessary have the top deck (buff) engi bring heavy clip.

I am somewhat surprised (and very relieved) that double heavy clip carronade pyramidions are quite rare.

For hwatcha spire i do top gat art, bottom art hwatcha. Two burst arts and buffed heavy clip hwatcha disable at range, then gat for closer.

Double gat heavy carro spire new meta. Two heavy clip gats will break a gun in less than a second. Charge!

[BlackenedPies]

As long as you aren't involved in serious/competetive matches, here are the metas.

Goldfish:
Hwachafish - Hwacha front, close range weapons (flame/carro) side.
Blenderfish - Heavy Carronade Front, close range weapons side.
Lumberfish - Lumberjack front. Side guns at your discretion.

Junker:
No real "meta". The ship is quite versatile and guns are quite variable. But typically
Artemis/Banshee front. Side guns are light gun pairs, like gat-mortar, flame-carro, hades-flak, etc. etc.

Pyramidion:
Metamidion - very common. Gat-Mortar front combination.
Metamidion - variation with Gat-Flak. Not recommended.
Carrotmidion - Pyramidion focused on disables. Flame-carro, carro-carro, or flame-flame.

Galleon:
Hwacha Galleon - bunch of hwachas.

Squid:
Close-range Squid - Flame, carronade, and a gun of your choice.

Spire:
Long-Range - Flak or Lumber, with a long range light guns.
Short-Range - Two gat, mortar, Hwacha/carronade.

Mobula:
No real meta here. Usually either long range or short range.

Excellent list, but I'm making some additions to this that include meta ships used in competitive, or by experienced crews in pub matches

Goldfish:
Hwachafish - Hwacha front, gat or flame side
Blenderfish - Heavy Carronade Front, flame side. This is a ram ship!
Lumberfish - Lumberjack front. flare and flame sides
I always put a flare on the left sides of fishes, it's more efficient to shoot the right side gun.

Junker:
meta junker- Artemis hades left side with front artemis for trifecta, right side gat mortar. Hades and gat are downstairs.
The front deck is the hull engineer (repair the hull from below). The bottom deck is gunner/gungineer.

Pyramidion:
Metamidion - gat mortar
Long range- hades flak/artemis, also merc artemis
Carrotmidion - the "carrot" is carronade artemis. carro flame is very effective, same with gat flame vs pyras

Galleon:
Hwacha Galleon - not nearly as effective as hwatcha carronade (with gat).
meta galleon - hades lumberjack flak left side and hwatcha carronade (or double carro) right.
gunner on lumberjack/hwatcha/carro, buff engi with charged on flak, main engi with lesmok on hades

Squid:
Close-range Squid - carro front flame right.
Bring tar as a squid, you don't need phoenix when your throttle is at neutral.
Double flame squid is the easiest ship if they dont have chem.

Spire:
Flak spire- Merc artemis top with bottom artemis. +variations
Lumber spire- hades mine/flare top with bottom artemis
Short-Range - Hwatcha! Heavy carronades don't really belong on spires (although they are very fun).
For short range, hwatcha gat mortar works quite well (even with AI). Hades artemis/banshee hwatcha is pretty common too.
I am very partial to gat artemis top, artemis hwatcha bottom.

Mobula:
meta mobula is merc with double artemis. Close range guns usually involve flame carro, but there are many variations
mobulas dont need phoenix claw, but they NEED drogue shoot if their balloon breaks (they fall very fast). Hydrogen kerosene drogue chute
Also hades double artemis

[Arturo Sanchez]

I suspect that the Ryder mobula will become the default meta.

Originally I used to see merc top with the arts on the wings. The Ryder mobula has an art on the left wing, but the right art is on the bottom position. For close range the left side hull engi jumps down to the close range gun (carro), and the merc gunner jumps to the top right wing gun (flame). I use a mine launcher instead of the flame and the merc gunner has charged heatsink lochnagar for it (medium/close range mine ammo).

Been seeing more buff burst hwatcha fish (buff engi on front with burst). I like a greased carronade as my right side gun for complete disable. Hold fire with hwatcha until they are close and you will break every component on their ship. If necessary have the top deck (buff) engi bring heavy clip.

I am somewhat surprised (and very relieved) that double heavy clip carronade pyramidions are quite rare.

For hwatcha spire i do top gat art, bottom art hwatcha. Two burst arts and buffed heavy clip hwatcha disable at range, then gat for closer.

Double gat heavy carro spire new meta. Two heavy clip gats will break a gun in less than a second. Charge!

That mobula has been my mob sniper for a loooooong ass time. I say poo to your implying Rydrs invented it.

Though recently one of my arts is replaced by a carousel. I forget why.

[GeoRmr]

Thanks ceresbane!
You've been the backbone behind our ship choices this whole time!
Who knew!

_{It's not like we've been flying it since before you bought the game in May 2014 or anything.}

[Extirminator]

I suspect that the Ryder mobula will become the default meta.

Originally I used to see merc top with the arts on the wings. The Ryder mobula has an art on the left wing, but the right art is on the bottom position. For close range the left side hull engi jumps down to the close range gun (carro), and the merc gunner jumps to the top right wing gun (flame). I use a mine launcher instead of the flame and the merc gunner has charged heatsink lochnagar for it (medium/close range mine ammo).

Been seeing more buff burst hwatcha fish (buff engi on front with burst). I like a greased carronade as my right side gun for complete disable. Hold fire with hwatcha until they are close and you will break every component on their ship. If necessary have the top deck (buff) engi bring heavy clip.

I am somewhat surprised (and very relieved) that double heavy clip carronade pyramidions are quite rare.

For hwatcha spire i do top gat art, bottom art hwatcha. Two burst arts and buffed heavy clip hwatcha disable at range, then gat for closer.

Double gat heavy carro spire new meta. Two heavy clip gats will break a gun in less than a second. Charge!

That mobula has been my mob sniper for a loooooong ass time. I say poo to your implying Rydrs invented it.

Though recently one of my arts is replaced by a carousel. I forget why.

I think what blackenedPies wanted to say is that this specific mobula is associated with the ryders since they are more known for using it. I highly doubt that any "innovative" build that was ever flown in competitive was "invented" by the people who primarily use it. There aren't that many guns in the game for a build to not have been used before dozens of times already.

[Dementio]

As the one Rydr pilot who primarily flies that "Rydr Mobula" I can say that I started out flying it in pub matches with simple Top middle Merc, Top wing Artemis on both sides and bottom wing Flamer on both sides as well. At the time I was playing before flying that Mobula I barely saw any Mobula and when I saw one it had not even a remotely similar build and I am not sure if the Hades was around that time either when I started flying it.
I heard of some other people that were "known" for Mobula piloting, but they have very likely been in a different timezone than me. One of them was in SAC, I believe Richard LeMoon, don't quote me on that though.

And actually, you can call the Rydr Mobula the Rydr Mobula, just because I don't think anybody had an Artemis on the top hull side and the other on the bottom balloon side instead of the top and have Carronade / Flamer for close range as well before us or before me specifically.



I think the Gat/Carro Pyramidion was actually invented purely for competitive, not specifically for competitive actually, but a lot of reasons behind it had competitive as their basis.
The Metajunker (The double Artemis/Hades one and not the Triple Artemis one) that the Mandarians used to fly together might have been one of those rare innovative builds that have been flown in competitive and invented by the people who primarily use(d) it. But I am not sure actually if it was the Gents or the Ducks that used that build first.

[Sammy B. T.]

Todays history lesson is brought to you by Sammy using facts as best as he can recall. Therefore it will be biased.

-------

Let me tell you the tale of the birth, rise, and fall of the metajunker

I am pretty sure we ducks got most of of our Junkering ourselves. When I began flying I just had a love of the Junker that the meta of the time did not allow as the ship was basically a light gun galleon (a lot of guns but little maneuverability). My first competitive play was the infamous (among just a few ducks) "Flight of the Dover" a complete destruction of new ducks against the Corvus Marauders (the iteration of Goldwater Thralls during the first season of Cogs). I brought a Junker, my co pilot brought a Spire (which was even worse than it is now) and we were rightly obliterated for bringing the worst ships imaginable.


However it received a buff and you started seeing it used in competitive by several duck teams. The Raft (the team Frogger was on) and the Brood (the team I was on) were basically using them as more tanky sideways charging pyras. Symmetrical gat/flak (gat/flak was that days gat/mortar) with some random gun on the front (frogger was always merc I tried both gats and carousels until I stuck with artemis) paired with a metamidion (again gat/flak) were the basic builds for those two teams. These were aggressive, charging teams which were basically just an extension of charging pyra tactics.


Conversely the Paddling was also experimenting with a support Junker. Now the Paddling just the undisputed masters of range with Squash's legendary Lucky Duck galleon. However this was supported by Captain Smollet who protected the lumbering behemoth and lent weight to its firepower. Initially an old school metamidion (gat flak front, double merc side) Smollet began trying out asymmetrical junkers. One of these gat/flak right and art/carror/art left. This is to me the prototype of the modern meta junker. Asymmetrical with two ranges to engage with, it worked great at disabling any enemy that came to close to the Lucky Duck.


Now time of course marched on. We saw the ascendance of the mortar as the flak's role became longer ranged, which was just a simple replacement for brawls but then there was the game changing addition of the hades. We ducks loved the hades. It gave our galleons much bigger arcs, it gave good firepower to our spires, and our Pyras were engaging in whole new ways. Hell I even liked the hades on my Junker. Taking inspiration from Smollet I started trying out art/hades/art with a right side of carro/carousel (I saw myself as a support ship for pyramidions) something important to note though while the left side of this junker seems modern, it was not used as the mid range killed that is the modern meta junker. This was solely a rarely used harass side as the headlong charge was still my main tactic. My crew would joke about how I would never call left guns.


Move forward a bit and we see some reshuffling of our teams. Frogger and I team up and one of our things was showing that the Junker was viable as the main ship, not just the support ship. So we happily charged and brawled, got used to flying with each other and all that good stuff for a fledgling team however we ran into the classic problem of the Junker, its slow speed combined with its diagonal engage means it can not control its engage range. Meaning if a ship can just back away from our brawl side and keep shooting at us, there isn't much we can do.

During a duck practice Frogger and I were just getting absolutely destroyed by the Waddling who were using a Spire and Galleon. They would set the Spire slightly foward, force the charge on the Spire, back pedal the spire and just expertly obliterate our charges.  I think there were 4 or 5 games in a row with us just getting annihilated as we just couldn't charge. Now as stubborn as the two of us are, eventually we got the point that our Junker charge would not work against this. So we decided to try something out. Frogger copied my my left side, we had our bottom decks abandon the greased for the gatling in favor of lesmok for the hades and we decided to try mid range sniping.

This was the birth of Metajunker as well as the Mandarins and it was amazing. 1 hades is alright but 2 hades is exponentially greater than just 2x hades. We began what we called peekabo sniping which basically gave up the open ground to true sniping teams in favor of slow attrition sniping fights from cover. My left side went from harass side to being an equally potent kill side.

I think (this is a little speculative) we also started a paradigm shift about the application of the hades. Previously the hades was seen as the compliment of the carousel. Just as the carousel can break perma hull but mainly exists to set fires, the hades was seen as can break armor but mainly exists to set fires. We'd see hades carousel pyramidions or double hades Junkers. However plenty of people in the community but especially the ducks saw the potential the hades had as a straight armor stripper. Thus we ducks demanded a higher caliber of hades gunning than the community had seen and honestly I am not sure if anyone matches the skills that Sunderland and Illmatar developed during the Mandarins run.

The metajunker was great and so freaking versatile. I'm sure if we looked back we'd see that our kills were a fairly even mix of short and mid-long range. We knew we reached the top when there was a forum thread complaining about how Junkers are OP. Myself and the rest of the Mandarins could not have been more proud. During our run we played 56 competitive games. We won 51, lost 4 and had 1 draw. We did that with two Junkers and only two Junkers.

Of course the sands of meta switches. People began realizing they couldn't outsnipe us or out short range kill us and thus we began seeing control builds. Carronades, flamers, and mines (oh my!) all designed to remove our balloons and overwork our engineers. We should have lost a few matches but we were just ridiculously seasoned by that point. If we had seen the control builds against us earlier in our career it would have stopped us dead in our tracks as these are just such good counters to metajunkers. We were able to narrowly come out on top and retire with our heads held high but the undisputed supremacy of the Junker is definitely over.

[Kamoba]

Sammy that was a thoroughly great read.
Because of that tale I shall vow to use Junker more! Not because its OP, but because it is the ship of such a fine story. *Salutes.*

[Mezhu]

That mobula has been my mob sniper for a loooooong ass time. I say poo to your implying Rydrs invented it.

Ceresbane secret rydr advisor confirmed

[Arturo Sanchez]

Thanks ceresbane!
You've been the backbone behind our ship choices this whole time!
Who knew!

_{It's not like we've been flying it since before you bought the game in May 2014 or anything.}

If only you knew sooner...