in the end ak is a resource management game, knowing how you want to play the game and where/why you're using your mats the way you are is the most important thing, be it meta or waifu
I guess the basis behind the whole "build if waifu" is the implied meaning of "If you really wanna use this unit, try it, it'll probably feel more fulfilling to use them to clear a difficult stage". It has become kind of a default option when someone asks you about a non-meta op, but idt that's bad, as long as you're not devaluing meta ops
Your waifu sucks? It's ok, if she's a ground unit there's a good chance she can be used for stalling and as a meat shield, in true pre-amnesia doctor spirit 😎
Okay, here's my two cents on guides. I'm a busy person, I have a job, friends who I want to hang out with, other games I want to play as well. When it comes to story and supply stages, I've never used a guide and I never plan to, as I can clear those at my own pace. But missable content, and especially when there's an event shop that requires you to use your sanity with 100% efficiency to even get close to clearing it, I just use guides. There's no guarantee that I'll have the time available to focus on the limited time event myself, and guides let me clear the event quickly so that I can focus on the other things in my life without missing too much in the game. TLDR: Imma use guides because I don't have the time to spend 8 hours banging my head against the wall trying to clear CC Risk 18 on my own.
That's about my stance on the whole thing. With the exception that I *only* use guides/strategies for High Risk CC (ie. Weeks 1 and 2 max) I can clear all the rest of the content with enough time. I just don't have endless hours a day to make strategies to clear high risks, but I want the satisfaction of having completed it. Just because you followed a guide for it, doesn't make it any easier. It just saves the time.
Total concurrence with this stance. Personally I’ll give every stage a try myself, and all things considered I prefer to figure it out myself. But my time is not infinite. Whenever I watch a guide video I butcher it and do my own variation anyway.
this reminds me of the old days... "There are no bad operators, only bad doctors" Except I took a year long break, came back, remembering loving my Mostima for carrying me way back and going "how tf did I use you again?" since I don't make as good use of her cc options as I used to.
Tbh. I like watching Eckogen and Kyo's guides prior to doing a stage just to see what the gimmick of the stage is. I also ignore them half the time because I have every shift operator in the game and watching enemies fly around the map like a yoyo is funny as crap to me.
I think what makes Arknights so valuable is the flexibility for people building whatever they wanted it. Tbh, now I understand why the meta discussion is so hard in this game because we actually don't have a competitive mode between other players and I agree with this statement. You should be free to build whoever you want in Arknights and be creative with your gameplay in the end. I advised my friends what each operator does and what are easy to build it and so one. In the end, I always tell them that they should build whoever they want and being happy playing Arknights
Exactly. Even if you find your waifu underpicked and somewhat is outmatched by most, you can always find a way to use them. Time and time again, people like Kyo and Ecko find a way to make some of the unpopular ops to work
Highly doubt that competitiveness would solve the meta problem, lf something it will just skyrocket it since Thorns, Surtur, and Eyja are the most broken units in the game and there would be completely no point in using anything other than them in PvP since they have no real counter. In my opinion I think the game needs proper scaling for the lower rarity units just like: "Princess connect re-drive"-where there's no real difference between the 3*(the in-game equivalent of our 6*) and the 1* exept the toolkits, since you technically can promote any 1* into 6*. Ofc, I don't mean changing AK into something as casual as endless level scaling, character-level *only* dependent levels, and equal max level cap for all units, but perhaps maybe more 5* alter version of the 3* that are lore accurate upgraded versions of them (just like Lava the Purgatory) expect that they locked behind "personal quests" for those characters and are more like achievements/rewards for the people who bother to invest in them?
@@peterdenov4898 The third paragraph sounds like a good idea. I personally believe that the real problem is that literally every operator in Arknights *is* META but the fandom only see the famous ones as META because their gimmicks are widely supported by the stages. If the gimmicks of the underappreciated operators would occur more frequently in both main story stages and event stages, things will actually come to light. Remember how CC#1 Pyrite Gorge encouraged the use of supporters, especially the slow ones? Remember how Originium Dust encouraged the use of AOE and splash damage dealing operators? Remember how Under Tides encouraged the use of operators with stuns? All players who struggled with these events were players that got screwed because they didn't have such operators built at the time.
@@peterdenov4898 Nope, it wouldn't resolve it by itself. I just said that because we're debating meta in a game where we don't have such a competitive placement to the point we highly rely on it. Of course, I understand that meta in Arknights mostly means "clean the game in 95% (?)" most of the time, but as Yii shows in his video and of course many other people on social media that Arknights can be cleared with whatever you want to build on this game. Heck you could even clear a map like Patriot's one with only little progression with your operators and that's it. About what changes AK could have, the level cap is always a problem in gacha games and so I agree with you that endless leveling up your characters is just pointless. Alter characters would be cool with the 3* stars and the recent modules in CN are also quite nice to give some buffs to the characters. At least, AK is going ok with this progression and hoping to see more in the future too
i will concede that I'm a small brain player. I'm not that great at the game. 90% of the time when I use guides, I modify the strategy with potential synergies I see in the team I pick. On CC5's Abandoned Mine stage, I followed Kyo's guide but I brought Saria S3 instead of my usual S2 because Saria S3 debuffs the Resistance of enemies, making everything a lot more smooth. I frequently shove Hellagur into the strategies because he's one of my favourite Operators and I enjoy using him. When it comes to story stages, I simply just use the guide as a base to what to bring or I just look up the enemies that I'll be facing. I like to make sure that my squad is suited for that stage specifically. Hellagur helped carry me in CC5 R18 because Mountain's Attack was only surpassed by Melantha and Hellagur in the squad I brought. Blaze and Hellagur helped keep the L lane clear while I focused on getting the rest of the operators I needed into position or waited for them to get off cooldown. It's just the way I play the game and I'm actively trying to make my auto deploys less guide reliant and my own unique clears.
Good job man! It's really fun making new strategies from the guides as the basis.I also try to make my auto using other ops,instead of the guides 3* ops
For auto deploy try using summoners but if you haven't build them yet that's ok too. You can try to auto farm a stage with less then 5 op to challenge your self.
I mean, people interact with the game in all sorts of different ways. Some may totally not care about the thrill of coming up with their own strategy and they just want to collect cute operators or something. Still, I think it's easy enough to get a pile of meta operators anyways just by waiting for them to rotate into yellow cert shop and such. I do think meta operators are good for introducing a lot of the basics of strategy to players who do want to learn some basics since you don't need to get super refined strategies. Having some meta operators can also help your waifus shine, as their power can make enough margin that it's not hard to fit in a fun pick into your lineup or two without having to brew a super complex strategy. I think people shouldn't feel pressured to just pursue the meta characters so long as they are aware of the limits of choosing favorites. If you rolled passenger cuz he was hot, then all power to you. He can have his moments regardless. But if you rolled just passengers and then didn't raise bread and butter units and aren't a galaxy brain and are struggling with normal maps, you did dig your own grave.
I feel like i should say sorry that i prioritizes to see your skit when i saw your new video pops up then watches it for the 2nd time to actually what it's all about
exactly what i feel for Yii's channel. always love the shenanigans with Amiyapog, then roll back to try understand what the point of the video. but tbh it's a good thing cause it has replay value.
I believe having a fair balance of both is optimal. Using units that you feel a connection to and watching them fight (even if they are being hyper-carried lol) is an amazing feeling.
For a very long time I couldn’t take adnachiel off my team. But when I found out that he was power creeped by fucking rangers I was like Andy in toy story. I love waifus and husbandos but it’s sad if they make so little impact
I remember that when I found out Kroos at her E1Max outperforms Jessica at her E1Max I knew there was only one solution. E2Max S1M3 Jessica. But that was after I had maxed out Apple Pie and Blue Poison. I'm no fool.
my personal opinion on this is that you can use whatever you want, just dont get angry when something is more difficult or too easy bcause of what you used
everytime i try to teach a friend something about arknights, i tend to forget the magical phrase that boils down to. "if they actually care, they'll do their own research"
I've been focusing on getting "make the game easy" characters first while expecting to come across my favorites later (like Iris or Shamare) but limited characters punched a giant hole in that. Nian and Dusk I like and Skalter, Summer Chen and now Nearl Alter are probably meta as hell for seemingly basic reasons. Part of me is very pessimistic about those last two because it seems like they've got a "become meta" switch flipped, Chen dealing true damage and Nearl ignoring deploy limit, like their kits are kinda just objectively better versions of already existing playstyles.
@@raynardrapael5559 She might as well deal true damage, pulled her a couple months ago by accident and haven’t encountered a level she doesn’t trivialize yet lmao
In most cases a 3* E1Max will have better stats than a 4* E1Max because the 4* hasn't reached their limit. Which is why my Jessica is E2Max S1M3 and blows poor Kroos out of the water.
In my use of guides (only event stages cause I dont have the time), I have found that they NEVER go to plan. I don't use one to one copying and stubbornly use operators that should absolutely not substitute for the things they should. My gameplay style is using only operators that have not reached maxed trust yet because I want to read all their background stories. And this is extremely harder than I would have thought since my teams are super ragtag as a result of me already maxed trusting my favorite operators and meta ones. In a good (and slightly painful gameplay wise), I managed to scrounge up a team of only six stars which have made stages MUCH harder than they should be. Since I have limited ways to generate dp, most of my planning in any stage is focused on how to most efferently use my dp since I get so little of it for very expensive units. On the bright side, I finally got myrtle after 2 fking years which have helped me immensely.
I like doing a bit of both waifu AND meta, I have my Surtr and my Blaze and I love them to death, but I also enjoy experimenting with other Ops to see what I can pull off with them And with guides, when I use them (they're a last resort), it's just to get a general idea to what happens in a stage so I can adapt the strategy to my own style
"Beginners will fall into a trap where they will follow 1 to 1 guides in order to clear stages" Can confirm. This happened to me and I'm still struggling to beat that mentality out of my head
I 100% agree that leveling ones waifu/husbando is arguably one of the most important parts of gacha games as a whole, but to have fun you have to be comfortable. It'll be worth the time saved if u lay back on those rocks and give em to someone meta, it's better to wait and upgrade your waifu later than to bash your skull into a wall for 2 weeks because you refuse to level anyone else. Unless you're me... Than you beat every stage to chapter 6 with an e1 Ayerscarp, a bunch of random 4 stars, a Mudrock, and a support Ash.
As a hardcore Kal'tsit fan, in regards to the Waifu/Meta argument, I think the choice is quite obvious: Kal for Meta. Mon3tr for Waifu. As always: Cheers everyone! ^_^
Another great video, Yii. You encapsulated what I feel about this whole guide vs. self attempt affair. I started playing during CC Beta, and decided to pre-raise and copy units, masteries, and strats for CC2 and CC3 and each time achieved Max Risk minus one. The experience was pretty instrumental for me in understanding how certain units performed, why sometimes ASPD over ATK is the answer, deploy order/talents, and other such things. My two CCs of perma-map copying taught me a lot about AK, but I can say that I 100% agree with you in that you have to try and understand why units do what they do. If a guide puts down an E2 Archetto to tank a hit, the player has to understand that the Archetto's talent is allowing this, and it can't just be any other unit. That's why I'm a huge proponent of text or voiceover guides that detail critical timings, stats, or talents, because that might help players understand. But at the end of the day, it is still a guide. Anyways if you read this far Zafang said he'd do merch once he got like 10,000 subs or something so let's freakin go (citation needed)
Tbh ,what makes me follow guides is the fact that arknights is a mobile game ,and sanity is a valuable thing in the game ,and I hate waiting bc I'm a speeding player ,which means I don't want to be stuck in a stage for to long bc then that'll make lose interest in the game ,so I try to watch a bunch of guides, and then create my own using the knowledge I gained from them
Revisiting again this video remind me of how in my early day I have so much anxiety when you're not having the same operator to follow those guides and keep thinking of how I can't do any progress. But in the end I muster the courage to do it my way. It is actually scary at first when you're not used with "mission failed" screen, but when I used to struggle, finished with my bad but "my own" strategy is way more satisfying.
I quite agree with you. From my perspective, I have Magallan as my first E2 and quite had a rough time in game on the first period of the game is not to funny on some beginner level. (but E2 Magallan is not a mistake though, I have a fun times with summoners) Have some of the meta is quite okay in my book because it should be great if you can pass it first and do some challenge things later. And guide is a okay one for seeing how other operators do in the same situation. I really motivated to upgrade a shift operators for sometimes now because of the guide, they make something funny with them.
Imma be honest, i like 5-3. It was the first time i actually struggled in terms of strategy and not just firepower. i beated it without any guides and oh boy did i gain a lot of seratonin. Idk why i like it so much when it gave me more pain and suffering compared to seratonin, but i guess it just made me feel like i was actually playing like a tactical genius for the first time. I literally used powerpoint to make a plan and kept adding on to it the further i get. It was pure trial and error and i loved it.
Agree to points but wanting to add to this, I feel like Arknights has taken a step back in encouraging people to try strategies. When u were free to practice stages however much u wanted (or so I heard) I have a feeling that, the game would have been a whole lot more engaging for new players. Because as mentioned you lack knowledge and trial and error is one way to close that gap but that isn't an option when ur attempts at that is limited. Their intent was probably to slow gameplay down but new players, including myself, choose to watch a guides instead as a means to bypass the first few tries of learning the stage. Working with limited resources, no overcap on sanity results in being pushed but also slowed down. That's why I believe one of CC major points of success has been the remove of those limiters. It brings forth that mentality of "Here try sht, nothing to hold you back expect time." and an unpopular opinion of mine would be that the same aplies with annihilations but the trick there is how many people know how to refund full sanity.
exactly this, couldn't agree more. I am perfectly fine with doing things myself and without guides, but sanity moment is extremely annoying, specially if you want to clear challenge modes or annihilations and its easier to me to just follow guides and do not waste precious sanity. I like gameplay of arknights by itself, but it's really annoying that I can't just play it as long as I want.
I basically only ever use guides for optimized 2-op or 3-op trust farming and MAYBE a guide for some event stages that causes extreme malding e.g. Emperor's Blade.
I like tihs video. I spend my time trying to make my waifu meta, by building a team around them, and then once the team is max trust I try to wean them out and play with newer operators. Often replacing completed maps for resources with newer teams. This has helped me see units in new lights but takes a lot of work. Ngl its easier for me to do this since I already have a meta team. So if I get stuck on an event and scared of running out of time I'll bust out the meta team, complete it, then go back to using the weaker team with an extra meta operator. It's been so much fun I've forgotten to progress further in the story since I keep replaying chapters 4-6
As someone who turbo simps for Surtr I simply win. Either way I'm still rather new to the game, if I struggle too much on a stage I'll go and reference a guide and adjust it to my own OPs, that's done a solid job of teaching me where I can use which OP and when. Though I never do a 1 to 1 copy, that shits way too boring
im a bit late finding this video but this is such a interesting take. It is true that at least as a player u need to know what u are doing, knowing the kit, the boss and stage gimmick is fun since that's also the core of this game. I do still relying on guides when i'm outta irl sanity or when i need see who exactly i need for trust farming in event stages but i tried to clear all of it first then searching for certain guide for more efficiency.
metaslave keeps pursuing the _most overpowered operater based by opinion and not by their own knowledge_ having meta is fine, but if you just keep hunting meta especially in this f2p non competitive game is just stupid
@@3takoyakis Why is it stupid? People find enjoyment in their games in different ways. If people find it more fun to have the strongest characters in their team rather than having waifus then that's their business and no one has the right to judge them, this is also true for the opposite of course. As long as your not being obnoxious about it(e.g. "YouR PlAyiNg ThE GamE WroNg", etc) then there's nothing wrong with either.
@@3takoyakis Dumbasses think that chasing meta units is wrong and trying to make it like it's a bad thing to do Well you're wrong. It's a resource management game and the most efficient way to use resources is to invest on the meta OPs since they can take the job of several well built OPs by themselves. Look, you can go all kyostinv all you want and used low rarity or maybe using waifus only squad and come up with a peculiar big brain strategy after hours of tinkering, and that's fine since I can't tell you how to play the game. But some of us just like to sit down and think for 5-15 minutes to resolve a stage and having meta OPs enabled us to do so. Stay in your own lane and don't tell others how to play the game.
i remember my turning point from relying on guides so much was when i was able to max risk most of the rotating maps in a cc event without ever referring to guides, felt pretty cool
I’m running through the current CC with no guides, no info, and it’s exhilarating. Stall or burst? Hunker down or adapt with fast redeploy? I’m growing. I’m almost there, Magallan. I’m almost smart enough to use you…
When I started out I had no idea that guides were a thing and when tell you I spent WEEKS on a difficult stage istg absolutely miserable but I’ve learnt quite a lot from those experiences and thus has picked my own style of gameplay and the category I favour the most (snipers)
Max risk cc is a thing, usually arknights is a side game for me but when cc comes it becomes insanely enjoyable I can sit I front of my screen for hours and hours trying different strategies, although it gets frustrating but it really makes it enjoyable
You can make those three become worst then a crippled worm by taking lvl 3 decrease attack risk, lvl 3 decrease def and res, lvl 3 boss tag (the one that doesn't give camouflage), lvl 2 decrease ally HP, lvl 3 spear dude tag and lvl 3 increase enemy HP.
I will just write the same comment I wrote on Drails video. I think that, amongst games where "meta" is actually a thing, AK might be one of the most "Waifu over meta" game out there. Simply because of how the game works, a players familiarity with operators and seeing ways of how to use them in a given situation incredibly scales the operators strength. Yes, there are stages that can make it difficult or even pointless to use some operators and that is fine - that is why this game is fun. Sure, new players might find it annoying that they need to adapt for different challenges, but if they can't handle it, then AK probably just isn't for those players. From personal experience, I rarely see beanstalk be used and she is ranked low in tier lists. But I started when Beanstalk was released and she was one of my first 4* as well as my first E2, and the only E2 I had when clearing CC4 risk 18. There were no guides that used beanstalk. Sure it took a lot of tries, but I pulled it off just 2 weeks after starting the game. I started on 7/7 and obtained the medal on 22/7. She has been in a lot of my boss clear strategies since then. I even used her in my CC5 risk 18 and used her as the only vanguard and sole DP generator for the seashore annihilation. Not because I want to go against the meta, but because I genuinely see her strengths, if used correctly. I am sure there that other players have similar experiences with other non-meta operators, where they can use a weaker operator to overcome a fitting challenge that 6* operators need handholding to clear a challenge. TL;DR - I am on "Waifu over meta" side because of personal experience with using operators outside of meta for clearing hard content. It's really fun and where the game shines.
Arknights is a game first and foremost. It isn't homework. IRL takes precedence, so copying guides and clears is perfectly fine if you are ok with not having the strategy aspect of the game in play. In my head, since I beat day 1 risk 18 from CC Beta to CC#3 by using both strategies I came up with and stuff my friend told me other players do, like common Ifrit lanes and choke points, along with reading about enemy pathings, I judged that I could probably beat any other stage. So, if I happened to be really busy IRL or was too lazy, I used to copy guides for various stages for medals with the justification that I could probably do it myself if I just had the time to. As for the ops I raised first, other than SA who I only raised after I ran out of ops to raise (I just irrationally disliked SA back then), I basically did what Yii recommended, just a few more meta ops. I raised 6 core ops that were strong back then, then the preferences came in when I decided to M3S3 Mostima and M3S3 Aak as my first ever M3s. And let me tell you, I enjoyed the game far more than my waifu>meta friend, and my meta>waifu friend, so I can personally attest to Yii's recommendation of Core Meta>Waifu>Other Meta
I wanted Mostima so bad, so when i got her i e2ed her immediately (i spent some oranges around 3-6 i think, yeah, i dont regret that). She is good when you need to slow things down (i dont have any slower beside 3-5*, which i am not going to raise, but even if i had Suzuran or Angel, i would still raise my Mostima girl, waiting for her skin ^-^ ).
The slow she had and shift ability on S3 has helped me finished CM OD-EX-8 with the help of Shira S2. She may not be the most useful in general game but if you find a right stage and right situation for her she will shine the most. Btw Mostima is my first waifu in AK and I got her since she first came out and already bought her skin.
For an AOE caster like her she can dmg, crowd control and shift enemy so she is still great to use especialy for some CC content amd integrated strategy.
I like most of the 3-5* slowers, especially the older ones. Istina is still my go-to slower over my level 90 m9 Angelina unless I really need to burst or I really need passive healing. Her s2 is very nice, but you do have to pay more attention to placement and placement order.
funny thing is, the game teaches us about retreating ops and aggro on last deployed ops too. But it's just one measly tutorial, with no follow up to see how we implement it.
From personal experience, as long as you have a E2 SilverAsh, you can build whoever you frikn want. My squad mostly consists of niche and underappreciated ops I and still managed to beat most of the games content, only deploying SA when things get too hectic.
I only go full meta when I can't figure out a stage after trying to clear it for so long. Even still, I don't go and fully copying the strat and/or the operators used; but that's because I've invested in my ops enough to E2 lvl69 them and having 3-5 ops per type, giving me the flexibility of more strat variation possibilities. I had been adamant about not leveling SilverAsh, Thorns, and Mountain for so long because I refused to level heavily meta ops, but I found that just limits the amount of strats I can use.
I'm contemplating to build my Thorns cause I'm salty and I refuse to, for stealing my Surtr pity. But I gotta admit he is a delicious meta (tried him in support). That's why I want Surtr cause she both waifu and meta (plus if I get her, I can forgive Thorns).
5:44 White stage = try it myself, red stage = straight to guide For events I'll usually play until I lose twice, then guides for the rest (usually 3 stages) 6:17 Not every stage can be AP-5 where it's obvious that the mortarers are killing you and if you do something about that you'll have more success. Most of the time I have no idea what's happening. Then there is a style of stage with a tough enemy, like CC buff contracts or red stages (which usually have a boss). I get that the enemy is tough but I don't know what to try to deal with them.
Yea. The build ur waifu idea is like a newbie trap. If early on u build someone u like and it's non meta, u will struggle at some parts of the story and extra content like cc events.
In my perspective there's a third perspective tho: Gameplay For example may, she isn't my waifu, she is well quite good but not meta, but as a gameplay character i like building ways to use her specially for snipers only teams
I also agree. Ifrit is still my most favorite operator to use and I'll always try to find a way to utilize her to the fullest, and this has been the case way back when she was still judged for her range. I do plan to do the same for Rosa once I finally got her. Unique range operators are just very fun to play with
Gameplay has always been my number 1 reason. I really don't get how people can go so crazy over jpegs, waifu has never been a thing for me. I am always super tempted to build units with differing gameplay/attack ranges because they allow you to play different. Rosa is probably one of my favourite examples for this. Funky range, but it allows her to do things other units juat can't.
I started out using guides a lot because I’m very dumb and mostly play this game for the amazing world and story (which has been a decent inspiration to my own writing endeavors) and the gameplay wasn’t the main draw. However, as more time has gone on, and especially watching this channel, I have strayed away from guide copying to watching guides so I understand what sort of stuff is goin on in the level, then formulating my own team (often staying similar to the niches and ops of the guide). I’m still far from the stage where I can do it all on my own (in regards to higher difficulty stages, obviously I can play a stage with recommended levels E0 level 1 and beat it with E2 level 20 ops), but I look forward to the day I can. I suck at Arknights, and at first I didn’t want to get better at the gameplay, because it didn’t draw me in. Now? I want to get better, because there’s a lot less satisfaction from copying a guide. The first time I beat a E1 level 70 stage without a guide, that was when I realized. This game is really damn fun sometimes!
Good video. I think a better way to respond to a person asking you if they should raise a non-meta waifu is asking them first, "Do you want advice or validation?" Depending on their answer, you can probably steer the conversation in a more effective manner than bashing your head over the "waifu over meta" debate.
Copying™ or imitating is a form of lesrning on itself is a stepping stone, you can start even developing your own strategy and starting to think as the whole level clearing with rhe resources (operators) you have which is great imo and you do it naturally you dont need a degree on tower defense 101 i agree might depend on person to person, but i have find myself in this current cc not looking for guides just seeing map layout, if i know enemy spawns ill just use the best operators for the situation at hand (or the ones i like the most archetto over ash exu any day *mic drop*) but most impotantly have fun at ur own pace
On the guide part of the discussion, I've learnt a lot from when I've been forced to use them (usually in esp hard boss stages & and late event stages....or just all of dusks event mechanics..... )Mostly bc I find my reaction speeds are never as good so I have to fumble around until it works with my units and reaction times lol. But I've always maintained I'm OK with doing a guide if I've already given a stage a fair few tries and done the easier stages on my own. Sometimes the process of going thru those tuts makes you reach a better understandings of the mechanics-esp for things explained vaguely or in a way that feels way too abstract for you to really get even in practice on your own (which was dusks event mechanics for me, it drove me nuts) But also as a male character liker and only a thin sliver of em being my faves it's been a non issue for me. Honestly the daily investment vs reward is generous enough to e2 many utility, strong, meta, cc specialised and "ooo pretty much plot" characters many times over if that's what you enjoy.
I think rather than meta it is more important that you raise a wide variety of operators. I think the best advice is to build one of every sub class and with that find your own personal playstyle that fits with your tactical brain. That allows you to raise your favorite anyway in the subclass they are a part of, but also allows you to raise meta operators if you like them. Want a melee arts guard? You can raise Astesia, if you like her or Surtr if you like her, in the end you will end up with a few meta operators anyway if you follow that path.
In AK maps can be won with suboptimal setups. There are 3 aspects of game where mata matters: -Efficient farming: You want fast arn consistent auto clears. Also, you may want to do it with the smallest core team for trust farming. -Challenging content: hard content (like high-risk CC, some challenge mode maps) requires you to use strong operators if you don't want an excessive amount of trial and error to be involved. -Integrated strategies: That mode punishes you for half-assed setups, even a single mistake can end runs.
Sometimes a solution as simple as "leak 2 in the top lane" eludes me and I watch a video and go, baka. As well as I'll get some hints like, what risk tags to pick. I figure if they can defeat Risk 18 with those tags and those operators I can too. Early on in the game, before I fully understood the mechanics I really liked watching Kyo, because he explains the in and outs of why. Also I really don't want to spend so long in Anhilation, so I'll watch a guide to see the enemy composition and make up my own mix.
+100 for just play the game. Guides are great for when it's the last day of the event and you NEED to clear a map or else you're gonna miss out on rewards, but in other scenarios, patiently iterating through the map yourself will almost always be more rewarding and fulfilling in the long term.
So I play both Arknights and GT Sport, a racing game. Both have guides, albeit for different purposes. However, the stigma for both games and using guides is vastly different. For Arknights, it's somewhat looked down upon if you use guides, especially when you're in the late game with a lot of meta operators. For GT Sport, you're considered stupid if you don't use lap guides to improve at the game. Of course, they are completely different games in genre, mechanics, and even competition, as Arknights is PvE and GT Sport is PvP, yet it's still interesting in seeing how using help is seen differently between the two platforms. I think the main reason for this is time limit. In GT Sport, once a race starts, that's it. No more practice, no more restarts, and every mistake will have a ripple effect until the end. Especially, no pausing, at least in online races. Now for Arknights, even CC events will give you an entire day to practice the content and eventually clear it, and you're allowed to restart and pause. I wont say one game is harder than the other, since they're too different to compare, but it is apparent that using guides to increase the chance of a successful run is viewed in different lights between the 2 games
I think another part of the issue is that not enough players tend to talk about the gameplay publicly. People usually say "I followed this guide" or talk about it in private forums - looking at Twitter, for instance, I see people who say they struggled to even approach Risk 18 for a CC for instance and most of the time, the discussion I see on such media is tailored entirely towards lore or fanart or headcanons. That's not to say that's bad - it's just that the gameplay aspect of the Arknights is almost entirely neglected and it's almost the same on the subreddit I think. The main places I see gameplay particularly discussed is on private Discords or in the Official AK subreddit Discord - and not everyone has the benefit of knowing people who know the game's mechanics well enough to make do with "waifu only" gameplay. That said, you make a really compelling point - I think there should be more guides on "Gameplay Mechanics" of which there are mechanics in spite of the nature of the gameplay of Arknights.
Yeah, there would be less need for guides if you didnt have limited try outs for a stage. They could remove the 30 limited test entry tickets (which burn REALLY fast on challange stages) for benefit of literally everyone. If I could bash my head against the stage long enough to try out what works and what doesnt, I would be less inclined to look up a guide. Just having a guide doesnt mean you have to follow it 100% without any change, and even if you do there are stages that require split second unit managment. Thats still fine, but when I am limited by small amount of tries per day the guide value suddenly skyrockets. Being lazy to think is one thing, but being hamstrung into "not playing" the game is entirely different. Anyway great content, love the edits with characters. Keep up the good work!
The thing is meta unit isn't the only way to clear hard stage. Balanced team composition is something i have always do since the beginning and i still have enough to raise waifu and beat hard stages. Now on late game my aim is for CC so ofc i raise "meta" Ops
I know I'm late to the party, but another thing we should take into account is that not everyone will have meta-operators when they start out. For example, when I started out, I had Meteor, Amiya, Siege, Nearl and Matterhorn as my core operators and when it came to "raising the meta operator" among them, I had issues. Eventually, I got other options (Myrtle, W, Lappland) to even out my team but initially I needed to invest in the operators I had.
Yii: says may fictional non existent waifu matoimaru is trash Any human with a brain: lol he’s just messing around Me: your life free trail has been *EXPIRED*
I sort of have an MVP team that I use to clear most hard stages, but I usually just use operators that I'm currently trying to increase their bond with.
The game is designed to be beatable with 4 and 3 stars. All stages get tested with these operators first before higher rarity operators for balancing purposes. The truly skilled Arknights players can beat any stage with any Operator. So raise whoever you want.
As he stated, just raise whoever u like, but atleast have a comfortable squad that u can rely on and the skills needed to clear stages. Seeing new players raising waifu without considering the fundamentals and then quit the game cus they cant beat a stage is kinda stupid to me.
"I don't believe in waifu>meta, because my waifu is meta" -FrostByte262 I personally care less about the waifu in AK, and if I have to pick a waifu I choose W or Blemishine
I like building meme comps (M3 Bubble, M3 Mint, M3 Deepcolor, M3 Tomimi, etc) but I always recommend players build (and pull for) strong cornerstones first. IMO the good cornerstones don't even have to be the most meta 6-stars. Not everyone has Thorns or Mountain or Bagpipe, and in 95% of gameplay (non DP-down Risk CC), an Arene, Estelle or Vigna will do almost as well. I'm not a form or function purist, but prioritizing strong or meta operators early not only makes your life easier, it also makes it easier to experiment and have fun with the game. If you have Flagpipe, you can put down any operator you want. If you have Thorns or Mountain guarding a lane, you can pretty much forget about that lane and goof off in the other lane(s). So even the meta- and non-meta- aspects of the game can be complementary, _but_ you have to realize that Arknights is a resource-limited game, so I would recommend being rational and dispassionate about building your core team first.
great points. When I want to meme I make sure to bring some strong operators as well to make up for their slot-inefficiency. A Mudrock or Thorns will do the job of 3-4 operators, so you can use these slots elsewhere to do your meme thing.
I wish there was a similar system to FGO grailing or Genshin Impact Crowning in Arknights. A limited and severly limited item that can be used to power up low rarity operators to be more usable or power up meta operators even more.
As someone who's working abd playing multiple gatcha games at once, Guides are pretty helpful to get a grasp of what is happening in those maps especially for CC where there is just too much combo to think of and i genuinely don't have the time commitment to do so. Even if i look at guides, i still need to adapt them according to my ops which is not exactly zero brain usage. All in all, demonizing people who uses guides would push casuals away from the community and they are usually the majority of the community. Each of us have our own way to play the game hence no need to create any unnecessary fissure
Meta or Waifu is the wrong argument, particularly when those units we consider "meta" are not guaranteed to every player. The argument, or really the conversation over raising a unit should be "Is my waifu going to be useful?" Which in most cases is a resounding yes. Do you have a thing for fluffy tails? Then certainly E2 Provence. Can you use her on every map? Probably, but if you want to raise her then you need to learn how to make up for deficiencies in her kit, and how to use her strengths. Do you raise her before Apple Pie or Ash? Of course, but the same caveat applies. Anyway, not one single unit can solo every single map so unless you are a serial cheater /cough/ I mean polygamist this concern over spending the resources on your waifu should be nothing in the grand scheme of raising up all the other units you will still need anyway.
In regards to guides, I use guides often because my "sense of pride and accomplishment" comes from the growth of my operators and my account, not beating stages. To fill up my pokedex by having every character, even if Ill never use them. To have as many E2s and M3s as I can. Beating a stage on my own is nice but its not where I get the most enjoyment. A particularly annoying stage is not fun for me to solve. I just want to beat it so I can get the Mats I need to keep growing my account.
Personally, I'm someone who rarely ever is motivated to play the game, or even has the time to figure out how to beat a stage. I usually use guides for events and the like because I don't wanna miss out on mats and limited time content, but I try to do main story and other permanent content by myself whenever I feel motivated to do so. That having been said, I've barely cleared ch5 of the main story, so you can probably guess how that's working out for me. For me, the most fun part is simply collecting and raising the characters I like and using them to curbstomp enemies once they're vastly over-leveled, the gameplay aspect itself is something that comes after that
I know this is old but as someone who started less than a year ago i think a much bigger contributor to prevalence of guides and handholding is the fact that the game actively punishes you for trying to learn it. Challenge mode stages are generally the ones where you need to think and strategize more and those stages punish you for failing them by scamming you out of sanity. You can of course use practice drills but those are limited and for whatever reason challenge modes take 3 drills instead of 1, in the end you are still limited in how much you can practice and learn the limits of your operators. Because you are limited you are more likely to just not even bother and go look up a guide instead. Chapter 10 was an absolute breath of fresh air in this regard, i cleared everything except for h10-3 without looking up a guide once, all because i didn't have to think about running out of practice drills or getting scammed out of an already extremely limited sanity. Failing or quitting stages should always refund all sanity, that alone would make learning the game so much more enjoyable and as a result reduce the reliance on guides and handholding in the community at large.
For a mass upgrade dokutah like myself. The debate didnt really get to me. I raise everyone equally and tried them all equally, the one that i like the gameplay i promote them to e2 and mastery their skill. I do max pot max level max masteries my waifu and husbando, but i do it after raising the unit i use often.
btw ur waifu is trash
No you
U N S U B S C R I B E D
You’re my waifu
Reported. My mom works at CZcams.
in the end ak is a resource management game, knowing how you want to play the game and where/why you're using your mats the way you are is the most important thing, be it meta or waifu
i also agree
we are so in sync
So when's the wedding then
Waiting for wedding invitation
Zafang best waifu
I guess the basis behind the whole "build if waifu" is the implied meaning of "If you really wanna use this unit, try it, it'll probably feel more fulfilling to use them to clear a difficult stage". It has become kind of a default option when someone asks you about a non-meta op, but idt that's bad, as long as you're not devaluing meta ops
Exactly. Most people devalue meta ops bc "waifu is better" bs.Its no wonder these people have no brain and takes about days just to kill an event boss
I explain it to people like this. Whatever is gonna make you play the game and enjoy it more. If it takes forever to do things who gives a shit
Your waifu sucks? It's ok, if she's a ground unit there's a good chance she can be used for stalling and as a meat shield, in true pre-amnesia doctor spirit 😎
veteran doctors already have this mindset of use some operators to stall, basically die to buy us time.
*laughs in robot*
@@jusjase_3229 Chiave: are you sure about that?
@Minh Đức Nguyễn chapter 8 when u sacrificed red and gravel to bait Tallulah burns. Tru pre amnesia doctor moment
Yoooo an Estelle Bright pfp :D
You can't separate me from lancet
I found a wild Zumama in the comments!
Gordon still searching for you.
Dylan is that you????
Can we share bru ?
Me with Earthspirit
Waifu>Meta debate is invalid when you're unlucky ;_;
i can relate.
300 pulls no skalter.
@@HiImYii Didn't you get Skalter in 2 pulls? :^)
@@HiImYii I can relate too. 110 rolls on the under tides banner, none of the rateup 6*s.
I just wanted Ex-Wife or War Crimes
Ah, oof
Basically
Beating a CC Risk 18 without using a guide is so satisfying.
Sanity: -100
Serotonin: +100
Good for you but sad for me huhuhu
As it should be
Acid Trip: +100
heh i didnt beat risk 18 😎
@@pole8740 you know what I think its to late too say about cc
Okay, here's my two cents on guides. I'm a busy person, I have a job, friends who I want to hang out with, other games I want to play as well. When it comes to story and supply stages, I've never used a guide and I never plan to, as I can clear those at my own pace. But missable content, and especially when there's an event shop that requires you to use your sanity with 100% efficiency to even get close to clearing it, I just use guides. There's no guarantee that I'll have the time available to focus on the limited time event myself, and guides let me clear the event quickly so that I can focus on the other things in my life without missing too much in the game.
TLDR: Imma use guides because I don't have the time to spend 8 hours banging my head against the wall trying to clear CC Risk 18 on my own.
That's about my stance on the whole thing. With the exception that I *only* use guides/strategies for High Risk CC (ie. Weeks 1 and 2 max) I can clear all the rest of the content with enough time. I just don't have endless hours a day to make strategies to clear high risks, but I want the satisfaction of having completed it. Just because you followed a guide for it, doesn't make it any easier. It just saves the time.
Total concurrence with this stance.
Personally I’ll give every stage a try myself, and all things considered I prefer to figure it out myself.
But my time is not infinite.
Whenever I watch a guide video I butcher it and do my own variation anyway.
@@PhantomTangeant Same chief. I usually use the guide as a nice foundation to build up a mean scheme I have for the stage in question
this reminds me of the old days... "There are no bad operators, only bad doctors"
Except I took a year long break, came back, remembering loving my Mostima for carrying me way back and going "how tf did I use you again?" since I don't make as good use of her cc options as I used to.
How does it feel being the only arknights youtuber?
feels great
Tbh. I like watching Eckogen and Kyo's guides prior to doing a stage just to see what the gimmick of the stage is. I also ignore them half the time because I have every shift operator in the game and watching enemies fly around the map like a yoyo is funny as crap to me.
I think what makes Arknights so valuable is the flexibility for people building whatever they wanted it. Tbh, now I understand why the meta discussion is so hard in this game because we actually don't have a competitive mode between other players and I agree with this statement. You should be free to build whoever you want in Arknights and be creative with your gameplay in the end.
I advised my friends what each operator does and what are easy to build it and so one. In the end, I always tell them that they should build whoever they want and being happy playing Arknights
Exactly. Even if you find your waifu underpicked and somewhat is outmatched by most, you can always find a way to use them. Time and time again, people like Kyo and Ecko find a way to make some of the unpopular ops to work
Highly doubt that competitiveness would solve the meta problem, lf something it will just skyrocket it since Thorns, Surtur, and Eyja are the most broken units in the game and there would be completely no point in using anything other than them in PvP since they have no real counter.
In my opinion I think the game needs proper scaling for the lower rarity units just like: "Princess connect re-drive"-where there's no real difference between the 3*(the in-game equivalent of our 6*) and the 1* exept the toolkits, since you technically can promote any 1* into 6*.
Ofc, I don't mean changing AK into something as casual as endless level scaling, character-level *only* dependent levels, and equal max level cap for all units, but perhaps maybe more 5* alter version of the 3* that are lore accurate upgraded versions of them (just like Lava the Purgatory) expect that they locked behind "personal quests" for those characters and are more like achievements/rewards for the people who bother to invest in them?
@@peterdenov4898 The third paragraph sounds like a good idea. I personally believe that the real problem is that literally every operator in Arknights *is* META but the fandom only see the famous ones as META because their gimmicks are widely supported by the stages. If the gimmicks of the underappreciated operators would occur more frequently in both main story stages and event stages, things will actually come to light.
Remember how CC#1 Pyrite Gorge encouraged the use of supporters, especially the slow ones? Remember how Originium Dust encouraged the use of AOE and splash damage dealing operators? Remember how Under Tides encouraged the use of operators with stuns? All players who struggled with these events were players that got screwed because they didn't have such operators built at the time.
@@thanoof The real advice then is to have a healthy and varied group of operators so that you can adapt to any stage? Yup makes sense.
@@peterdenov4898 Nope, it wouldn't resolve it by itself. I just said that because we're debating meta in a game where we don't have such a competitive placement to the point we highly rely on it. Of course, I understand that meta in Arknights mostly means "clean the game in 95% (?)" most of the time, but as Yii shows in his video and of course many other people on social media that Arknights can be cleared with whatever you want to build on this game. Heck you could even clear a map like Patriot's one with only little progression with your operators and that's it.
About what changes AK could have, the level cap is always a problem in gacha games and so I agree with you that endless leveling up your characters is just pointless. Alter characters would be cool with the 3* stars and the recent modules in CN are also quite nice to give some buffs to the characters. At least, AK is going ok with this progression and hoping to see more in the future too
Raise the 3* and 4* ops to prep for Integrated Strategies
i will concede that I'm a small brain player. I'm not that great at the game. 90% of the time when I use guides, I modify the strategy with potential synergies I see in the team I pick. On CC5's Abandoned Mine stage, I followed Kyo's guide but I brought Saria S3 instead of my usual S2 because Saria S3 debuffs the Resistance of enemies, making everything a lot more smooth. I frequently shove Hellagur into the strategies because he's one of my favourite Operators and I enjoy using him. When it comes to story stages, I simply just use the guide as a base to what to bring or I just look up the enemies that I'll be facing. I like to make sure that my squad is suited for that stage specifically.
Hellagur helped carry me in CC5 R18 because Mountain's Attack was only surpassed by Melantha and Hellagur in the squad I brought. Blaze and Hellagur helped keep the L lane clear while I focused on getting the rest of the operators I needed into position or waited for them to get off cooldown. It's just the way I play the game and I'm actively trying to make my auto deploys less guide reliant and my own unique clears.
Good job man! It's really fun making new strategies from the guides as the basis.I also try to make my auto using other ops,instead of the guides 3* ops
For auto deploy try using summoners but if you haven't build them yet that's ok too. You can try to auto farm a stage with less then 5 op to challenge your self.
@@fredosslave7558 1-7 magallan speedrun🤣
@@finisherm0ve Nah fam I farm sniper chip with Mayer
@@fredosslave7558 Wait,Mayer?You mean Magallan?Anyway,definitely getting Magallan if I somehow got a chance to get a Top Op tag in the recruitment😂
I mean, people interact with the game in all sorts of different ways. Some may totally not care about the thrill of coming up with their own strategy and they just want to collect cute operators or something. Still, I think it's easy enough to get a pile of meta operators anyways just by waiting for them to rotate into yellow cert shop and such. I do think meta operators are good for introducing a lot of the basics of strategy to players who do want to learn some basics since you don't need to get super refined strategies. Having some meta operators can also help your waifus shine, as their power can make enough margin that it's not hard to fit in a fun pick into your lineup or two without having to brew a super complex strategy. I think people shouldn't feel pressured to just pursue the meta characters so long as they are aware of the limits of choosing favorites. If you rolled passenger cuz he was hot, then all power to you. He can have his moments regardless. But if you rolled just passengers and then didn't raise bread and butter units and aren't a galaxy brain and are struggling with normal maps, you did dig your own grave.
me: cat ear > meta
i will make nekopara a reality.
I feel like i should say sorry that i prioritizes to see your skit when i saw your new video pops up then watches it for the 2nd time to actually what it's all about
i dont know how i feel about this
exactly what i feel for Yii's channel. always love the shenanigans with Amiyapog, then roll back to try understand what the point of the video.
but tbh it's a good thing cause it has replay value.
I believe having a fair balance of both is optimal. Using units that you feel a connection to and watching them fight (even if they are being hyper-carried lol) is an amazing feeling.
For a very long time I couldn’t take adnachiel off my team. But when I found out that he was power creeped by fucking rangers I was like Andy in toy story. I love waifus and husbandos but it’s sad if they make so little impact
Not disagreeing btw just saying my experience
I remember that when I found out Kroos at her E1Max outperforms Jessica at her E1Max I knew there was only one solution. E2Max S1M3 Jessica. But that was after I had maxed out Apple Pie and Blue Poison. I'm no fool.
Why not pick passenger? Meta and Waifu all in one package!
Bob Dylan - Knocking on *heavens door*
@@Stone15656 Is this a Rohan reference because same JP VA?
@@Giovansbilly OFC
the skits feel more and more like dankpods' mic tests
what does that even mean
yes
lmfao, didnt make that connection until you pointed it out, but you aint wrong.
Why is that actually true tho-
*Amiya says nothing*
Scarlet fire intensifies
my personal opinion on this is that you can use whatever you want, just dont get angry when something is more difficult or too easy bcause of what you used
everytime i try to teach a friend something about arknights, i tend to forget the magical phrase that boils down to.
"if they actually care, they'll do their own research"
I've been focusing on getting "make the game easy" characters first while expecting to come across my favorites later (like Iris or Shamare) but limited characters punched a giant hole in that. Nian and Dusk I like and Skalter, Summer Chen and now Nearl Alter are probably meta as hell for seemingly basic reasons. Part of me is very pessimistic about those last two because it seems like they've got a "become meta" switch flipped, Chen dealing true damage and Nearl ignoring deploy limit, like their kits are kinda just objectively better versions of already existing playstyles.
Chen and her alter does not deal true damage, big oof
Shamare is an amazing support though. I think she's in the meta. But not really a necessity.
@@raynardrapael5559
She might as well deal true damage, pulled her a couple months ago by accident and haven’t encountered a level she doesn’t trivialize yet lmao
I know jessica have nothing special
I know jessica gets powercrept by kroos
but i still love her and bring her everywhere
she is a cat girl
@@HiImYii No way....
In most cases a 3* E1Max will have better stats than a 4* E1Max because the 4* hasn't reached their limit. Which is why my Jessica is E2Max S1M3 and blows poor Kroos out of the water.
In my use of guides (only event stages cause I dont have the time), I have found that they NEVER go to plan.
I don't use one to one copying and stubbornly use operators that should absolutely not substitute for the things they should.
My gameplay style is using only operators that have not reached maxed trust yet because I want to read all their background stories. And this is extremely harder than I would have thought since my teams are super ragtag as a result of me already maxed trusting my favorite operators and meta ones.
In a good (and slightly painful gameplay wise), I managed to scrounge up a team of only six stars which have made stages MUCH harder than they should be. Since I have limited ways to generate dp, most of my planning in any stage is focused on how to most efferently use my dp since I get so little of it for very expensive units. On the bright side, I finally got myrtle after 2 fking years which have helped me immensely.
I like doing a bit of both waifu AND meta, I have my Surtr and my Blaze and I love them to death, but I also enjoy experimenting with other Ops to see what I can pull off with them
And with guides, when I use them (they're a last resort), it's just to get a general idea to what happens in a stage so I can adapt the strategy to my own style
"Beginners will fall into a trap where they will follow 1 to 1 guides in order to clear stages"
Can confirm. This happened to me and I'm still struggling to beat that mentality out of my head
"build at least a few meta units first"
nice, i have none of those
I 100% agree that leveling ones waifu/husbando is arguably one of the most important parts of gacha games as a whole, but to have fun you have to be comfortable.
It'll be worth the time saved if u lay back on those rocks and give em to someone meta, it's better to wait and upgrade your waifu later than to bash your skull into a wall for 2 weeks because you refuse to level anyone else.
Unless you're me...
Than you beat every stage to chapter 6 with an e1 Ayerscarp, a bunch of random 4 stars, a Mudrock, and a support Ash.
As a hardcore Kal'tsit fan, in regards to the Waifu/Meta argument, I think the choice is quite obvious:
Kal for Meta.
Mon3tr for Waifu.
As always: Cheers everyone! ^_^
An exquisite opinion.
The only right answer
Yes, yes...
Another great video, Yii. You encapsulated what I feel about this whole guide vs. self attempt affair. I started playing during CC Beta, and decided to pre-raise and copy units, masteries, and strats for CC2 and CC3 and each time achieved Max Risk minus one. The experience was pretty instrumental for me in understanding how certain units performed, why sometimes ASPD over ATK is the answer, deploy order/talents, and other such things. My two CCs of perma-map copying taught me a lot about AK, but I can say that I 100% agree with you in that you have to try and understand why units do what they do. If a guide puts down an E2 Archetto to tank a hit, the player has to understand that the Archetto's talent is allowing this, and it can't just be any other unit. That's why I'm a huge proponent of text or voiceover guides that detail critical timings, stats, or talents, because that might help players understand. But at the end of the day, it is still a guide.
Anyways if you read this far Zafang said he'd do merch once he got like 10,000 subs or something so let's freakin go (citation needed)
my personal advice would always be
"why you asking me? I'm not playing in your account. you do you."
Tbh ,what makes me follow guides is the fact that arknights is a mobile game ,and sanity is a valuable thing in the game ,and I hate waiting bc I'm a speeding player ,which means I don't want to be stuck in a stage for to long bc then that'll make lose interest in the game ,so I try to watch a bunch of guides, and then create my own using the knowledge I gained from them
Revisiting again this video remind me of how in my early day I have so much anxiety when you're not having the same operator to follow those guides and keep thinking of how I can't do any progress.
But in the end I muster the courage to do it my way. It is actually scary at first when you're not used with "mission failed" screen, but when I used to struggle, finished with my bad but "my own" strategy is way more satisfying.
I quite agree with you. From my perspective, I have Magallan as my first E2 and quite had a rough time in game on the first period of the game is not to funny on some beginner level. (but E2 Magallan is not a mistake though, I have a fun times with summoners) Have some of the meta is quite okay in my book because it should be great if you can pass it first and do some challenge things later.
And guide is a okay one for seeing how other operators do in the same situation. I really motivated to upgrade a shift operators for sometimes now because of the guide, they make something funny with them.
Imma be honest, i like 5-3. It was the first time i actually struggled in terms of strategy and not just firepower. i beated it without any guides and oh boy did i gain a lot of seratonin. Idk why i like it so much when it gave me more pain and suffering compared to seratonin, but i guess it just made me feel like i was actually playing like a tactical genius for the first time.
I literally used powerpoint to make a plan and kept adding on to it the further i get. It was pure trial and error and i loved it.
„Malding is the only reason to play the game“ ~Bald Cardio, probably
Agree to points but wanting to add to this, I feel like Arknights has taken a step back in encouraging people to try strategies.
When u were free to practice stages however much u wanted (or so I heard) I have a feeling that, the game would have been a whole lot more engaging for new players. Because as mentioned you lack knowledge and trial and error is one way to close that gap but that isn't an option when ur attempts at that is limited. Their intent was probably to slow gameplay down but new players, including myself, choose to watch a guides instead as a means to bypass the first few tries of learning the stage.
Working with limited resources, no overcap on sanity results in being pushed but also slowed down.
That's why I believe one of CC major points of success has been the remove of those limiters. It brings forth that mentality of "Here try sht, nothing to hold you back expect time." and an unpopular opinion of mine would be that the same aplies with annihilations but the trick there is how many people know how to refund full sanity.
exactly this, couldn't agree more. I am perfectly fine with doing things myself and without guides, but sanity moment is extremely annoying, specially if you want to clear challenge modes or annihilations and its easier to me to just follow guides and do not waste precious sanity.
I like gameplay of arknights by itself, but it's really annoying that I can't just play it as long as I want.
I basically only ever use guides for optimized 2-op or 3-op trust farming and MAYBE a guide for some event stages that causes extreme malding e.g. Emperor's Blade.
The little story segments with you and Amiya give me life, thank you
I like tihs video. I spend my time trying to make my waifu meta, by building a team around them, and then once the team is max trust I try to wean them out and play with newer operators. Often replacing completed maps for resources with newer teams. This has helped me see units in new lights but takes a lot of work. Ngl its easier for me to do this since I already have a meta team. So if I get stuck on an event and scared of running out of time I'll bust out the meta team, complete it, then go back to using the weaker team with an extra meta operator. It's been so much fun I've forgotten to progress further in the story since I keep replaying chapters 4-6
As someone who turbo simps for Surtr I simply win.
Either way I'm still rather new to the game, if I struggle too much on a stage I'll go and reference a guide and adjust it to my own OPs, that's done a solid job of teaching me where I can use which OP and when. Though I never do a 1 to 1 copy, that shits way too boring
The only thing I dont like on the Waifu over Meta side is that they consist of crybabies all the time and it's kinda annoying
im a bit late finding this video but this is such a interesting take. It is true that at least as a player u need to know what u are doing, knowing the kit, the boss and stage gimmick is fun since that's also the core of this game. I do still relying on guides when i'm outta irl sanity or when i need see who exactly i need for trust farming in event stages but i tried to clear all of it first then searching for certain guide for more efficiency.
Love your channel man, keep it up
meta: only uses a group of operators to make strategies
waifu: uses more variety which opens a new set of strategies
metaslave keeps pursuing the _most overpowered operater based by opinion and not by their own knowledge_
having meta is fine, but if you just keep hunting meta especially in this f2p non competitive game is just stupid
@@3takoyakis Why is it stupid? People find enjoyment in their games in different ways. If people find it more fun to have the strongest characters in their team rather than having waifus then that's their business and no one has the right to judge them, this is also true for the opposite of course. As long as your not being obnoxious about it(e.g. "YouR PlAyiNg ThE GamE WroNg", etc) then there's nothing wrong with either.
@@3takoyakis dont know about that bud you sound stupid judging people. Since when did pursuing power become a stupid thing.
@@3takoyakis Dumbasses think that chasing meta units is wrong and trying to make it like it's a bad thing to do Well you're wrong. It's a resource management game and the most efficient way to use resources is to invest on the meta OPs since they can take the job of several well built OPs by themselves. Look, you can go all kyostinv all you want and used low rarity or maybe using waifus only squad and come up with a peculiar big brain strategy after hours of tinkering, and that's fine since I can't tell you how to play the game. But some of us just like to sit down and think for 5-15 minutes to resolve a stage and having meta OPs enabled us to do so. Stay in your own lane and don't tell others how to play the game.
@@3takoyakis Devalueing meta units are stupid either.
i remember my turning point from relying on guides so much was when i was able to max risk most of the rotating maps in a cc event without ever referring to guides, felt pretty cool
I’m running through the current CC with no guides, no info, and it’s exhilarating. Stall or burst? Hunker down or adapt with fast redeploy? I’m growing. I’m almost there, Magallan. I’m almost smart enough to use you…
When I started out I had no idea that guides were a thing and when tell you I spent WEEKS on a difficult stage istg absolutely miserable but I’ve learnt quite a lot from those experiences and thus has picked my own style of gameplay and the category I favour the most (snipers)
after getting thorns, surtr and blaze i literally find no enjoyment in beating hard stages
it's up to you to challenge yourself :)
guardknights rots the brain.
Walked this path, removed them from my team and I suddenly enjoy the game again. Try using less operators too as another challenge.
You already finished cc max risk right?
Max risk cc is a thing, usually arknights is a side game for me but when cc comes it becomes insanely enjoyable I can sit I front of my screen for hours and hours trying different strategies, although it gets frustrating but it really makes it enjoyable
You can make those three become worst then a crippled worm by taking lvl 3 decrease attack risk, lvl 3 decrease def and res, lvl 3 boss tag (the one that doesn't give camouflage), lvl 2 decrease ally HP, lvl 3 spear dude tag and lvl 3 increase enemy HP.
I will just write the same comment I wrote on Drails video.
I think that, amongst games where "meta" is actually a thing, AK might be one of the most "Waifu over meta" game out there. Simply because of how the game works, a players familiarity with operators and seeing ways of how to use them in a given situation incredibly scales the operators strength. Yes, there are stages that can make it difficult or even pointless to use some operators and that is fine - that is why this game is fun. Sure, new players might find it annoying that they need to adapt for different challenges, but if they can't handle it, then AK probably just isn't for those players.
From personal experience, I rarely see beanstalk be used and she is ranked low in tier lists. But I started when Beanstalk was released and she was one of my first 4* as well as my first E2, and the only E2 I had when clearing CC4 risk 18. There were no guides that used beanstalk. Sure it took a lot of tries, but I pulled it off just 2 weeks after starting the game. I started on 7/7 and obtained the medal on 22/7.
She has been in a lot of my boss clear strategies since then. I even used her in my CC5 risk 18 and used her as the only vanguard and sole DP generator for the seashore annihilation. Not because I want to go against the meta, but because I genuinely see her strengths, if used correctly. I am sure there that other players have similar experiences with other non-meta operators, where they can use a weaker operator to overcome a fitting challenge that 6* operators need handholding to clear a challenge.
TL;DR - I am on "Waifu over meta" side because of personal experience with using operators outside of meta for clearing hard content. It's really fun and where the game shines.
Arknights is a game first and foremost. It isn't homework. IRL takes precedence, so copying guides and clears is perfectly fine if you are ok with not having the strategy aspect of the game in play.
In my head, since I beat day 1 risk 18 from CC Beta to CC#3 by using both strategies I came up with and stuff my friend told me other players do, like common Ifrit lanes and choke points, along with reading about enemy pathings, I judged that I could probably beat any other stage. So, if I happened to be really busy IRL or was too lazy, I used to copy guides for various stages for medals with the justification that I could probably do it myself if I just had the time to.
As for the ops I raised first, other than SA who I only raised after I ran out of ops to raise (I just irrationally disliked SA back then), I basically did what Yii recommended, just a few more meta ops. I raised 6 core ops that were strong back then, then the preferences came in when I decided to M3S3 Mostima and M3S3 Aak as my first ever M3s. And let me tell you, I enjoyed the game far more than my waifu>meta friend, and my meta>waifu friend, so I can personally attest to Yii's recommendation of Core Meta>Waifu>Other Meta
Honestly the more someone tells me an operator is bad, the more likely I am to build them.
I think it's a great way to play the game, challenging yourself and learning things that are overlooked.
Same
Reminds me of how I almost always bring purgatory to a stage, managed to get to risk 16 with her
Surtr bad
Thorns bad
Mudrock bad
I wanted Mostima so bad, so when i got her i e2ed her immediately (i spent some oranges around 3-6 i think, yeah, i dont regret that). She is good when you need to slow things down (i dont have any slower beside 3-5*, which i am not going to raise, but even if i had Suzuran or Angel, i would still raise my Mostima girl, waiting for her skin ^-^ ).
The slow she had and shift ability on S3 has helped me finished CM OD-EX-8 with the help of Shira S2. She may not be the most useful in general game but if you find a right stage and right situation for her she will shine the most.
Btw Mostima is my first waifu in AK and I got her since she first came out and already bought her skin.
For an AOE caster like her she can dmg, crowd control and shift enemy so she is still great to use especialy for some CC content amd integrated strategy.
I have e2 mostima and never use her once...
@@rzwei Maybe some day..
I like most of the 3-5* slowers, especially the older ones. Istina is still my go-to slower over my level 90 m9 Angelina unless I really need to burst or I really need passive healing. Her s2 is very nice, but you do have to pay more attention to placement and placement order.
I learned mechanics from watching kyo in anni 1. From retreating ops to enemy hitting last deployed ops. Good stuff
funny thing is, the game teaches us about retreating ops and aggro on last deployed ops too. But it's just one measly tutorial, with no follow up to see how we implement it.
From personal experience, as long as you have a E2 SilverAsh, you can build whoever you frikn want. My squad mostly consists of niche and underappreciated ops I and still managed to beat most of the games content, only deploying SA when things get too hectic.
I only go full meta when I can't figure out a stage after trying to clear it for so long. Even still, I don't go and fully copying the strat and/or the operators used; but that's because I've invested in my ops enough to E2 lvl69 them and having 3-5 ops per type, giving me the flexibility of more strat variation possibilities.
I had been adamant about not leveling SilverAsh, Thorns, and Mountain for so long because I refused to level heavily meta ops, but I found that just limits the amount of strats I can use.
I'm contemplating to build my Thorns cause I'm salty and I refuse to, for stealing my Surtr pity. But I gotta admit he is a delicious meta (tried him in support).
That's why I want Surtr cause she both waifu and meta (plus if I get her, I can forgive Thorns).
So basically focus of your waifu when you've settled down in arknights, which is literally how real life also works
Agree
5:44 White stage = try it myself, red stage = straight to guide
For events I'll usually play until I lose twice, then guides for the rest (usually 3 stages)
6:17 Not every stage can be AP-5 where it's obvious that the mortarers are killing you and if you do something about that you'll have more success. Most of the time I have no idea what's happening. Then there is a style of stage with a tough enemy, like CC buff contracts or red stages (which usually have a boss). I get that the enemy is tough but I don't know what to try to deal with them.
remember what frostbyte said
"i don't believe waifu > META
because apperatly my waifu is META"
-Surtr Stan
Yea. The build ur waifu idea is like a newbie trap. If early on u build someone u like and it's non meta, u will struggle at some parts of the story and extra content like cc events.
With a good foundation,you can build any waifu you want to,and not struggle😂
Waifu vs Meta have no effect on you if you cant pull your Waifu in the first place :(
In my perspective there's a third perspective tho: Gameplay
For example may, she isn't my waifu, she is well quite good but not meta, but as a gameplay character i like building ways to use her specially for snipers only teams
I also agree. Ifrit is still my most favorite operator to use and I'll always try to find a way to utilize her to the fullest, and this has been the case way back when she was still judged for her range. I do plan to do the same for Rosa once I finally got her. Unique range operators are just very fun to play with
Gameplay has always been my number 1 reason. I really don't get how people can go so crazy over jpegs, waifu has never been a thing for me. I am always super tempted to build units with differing gameplay/attack ranges because they allow you to play different. Rosa is probably one of my favourite examples for this. Funky range, but it allows her to do things other units juat can't.
I started out using guides a lot because I’m very dumb and mostly play this game for the amazing world and story (which has been a decent inspiration to my own writing endeavors) and the gameplay wasn’t the main draw. However, as more time has gone on, and especially watching this channel, I have strayed away from guide copying to watching guides so I understand what sort of stuff is goin on in the level, then formulating my own team (often staying similar to the niches and ops of the guide). I’m still far from the stage where I can do it all on my own (in regards to higher difficulty stages, obviously I can play a stage with recommended levels E0 level 1 and beat it with E2 level 20 ops), but I look forward to the day I can. I suck at Arknights, and at first I didn’t want to get better at the gameplay, because it didn’t draw me in. Now? I want to get better, because there’s a lot less satisfaction from copying a guide. The first time I beat a E1 level 70 stage without a guide, that was when I realized. This game is really damn fun sometimes!
Good video. I think a better way to respond to a person asking you if they should raise a non-meta waifu is asking them first, "Do you want advice or validation?" Depending on their answer, you can probably steer the conversation in a more effective manner than bashing your head over the "waifu over meta" debate.
Copying™ or imitating is a form of lesrning on itself is a stepping stone, you can start even developing your own strategy and starting to think as the whole level clearing with rhe resources (operators) you have which is great imo and you do it naturally you dont need a degree on tower defense 101 i agree might depend on person to person, but i have find myself in this current cc not looking for guides just seeing map layout, if i know enemy spawns ill just use the best operators for the situation at hand (or the ones i like the most archetto over ash exu any day *mic drop*) but most impotantly have fun at ur own pace
On the guide part of the discussion, I've learnt a lot from when I've been forced to use them (usually in esp hard boss stages & and late event stages....or just all of dusks event mechanics..... )Mostly bc I find my reaction speeds are never as good so I have to fumble around until it works with my units and reaction times lol. But I've always maintained I'm OK with doing a guide if I've already given a stage a fair few tries and done the easier stages on my own. Sometimes the process of going thru those tuts makes you reach a better understandings of the mechanics-esp for things explained vaguely or in a way that feels way too abstract for you to really get even in practice on your own (which was dusks event mechanics for me, it drove me nuts)
But also as a male character liker and only a thin sliver of em being my faves it's been a non issue for me. Honestly the daily investment vs reward is generous enough to e2 many utility, strong, meta, cc specialised and "ooo pretty much plot" characters many times over if that's what you enjoy.
“Waifu vs meta debate”
Peoples whos waifu is meta: “I have no such weaknesses”
I've been waiting for your video
I think rather than meta it is more important that you raise a wide variety of operators. I think the best advice is to build one of every sub class and with that find your own personal playstyle that fits with your tactical brain. That allows you to raise your favorite anyway in the subclass they are a part of, but also allows you to raise meta operators if you like them. Want a melee arts guard? You can raise Astesia, if you like her or Surtr if you like her, in the end you will end up with a few meta operators anyway if you follow that path.
In AK maps can be won with suboptimal setups.
There are 3 aspects of game where mata matters:
-Efficient farming: You want fast arn consistent auto clears. Also, you may want to do it with the smallest core team for trust farming.
-Challenging content: hard content (like high-risk CC, some challenge mode maps) requires you to use strong operators if you don't want an excessive amount of trial and error to be involved.
-Integrated strategies: That mode punishes you for half-assed setups, even a single mistake can end runs.
Sometimes a solution as simple as "leak 2 in the top lane" eludes me and I watch a video and go, baka. As well as I'll get some hints like, what risk tags to pick. I figure if they can defeat Risk 18 with those tags and those operators I can too. Early on in the game, before I fully understood the mechanics I really liked watching Kyo, because he explains the in and outs of why. Also I really don't want to spend so long in Anhilation, so I'll watch a guide to see the enemy composition and make up my own mix.
the "voice" of amiya in this video seems like dialogues in kirby
been watching you a while now. finally subscribing. love your vids especially blemiskills, taco burned and analysis vids
+100 for just play the game. Guides are great for when it's the last day of the event and you NEED to clear a map or else you're gonna miss out on rewards, but in other scenarios, patiently iterating through the map yourself will almost always be more rewarding and fulfilling in the long term.
So I play both Arknights and GT Sport, a racing game. Both have guides, albeit for different purposes. However, the stigma for both games and using guides is vastly different. For Arknights, it's somewhat looked down upon if you use guides, especially when you're in the late game with a lot of meta operators. For GT Sport, you're considered stupid if you don't use lap guides to improve at the game. Of course, they are completely different games in genre, mechanics, and even competition, as Arknights is PvE and GT Sport is PvP, yet it's still interesting in seeing how using help is seen differently between the two platforms. I think the main reason for this is time limit. In GT Sport, once a race starts, that's it. No more practice, no more restarts, and every mistake will have a ripple effect until the end. Especially, no pausing, at least in online races. Now for Arknights, even CC events will give you an entire day to practice the content and eventually clear it, and you're allowed to restart and pause. I wont say one game is harder than the other, since they're too different to compare, but it is apparent that using guides to increase the chance of a successful run is viewed in different lights between the 2 games
I think another part of the issue is that not enough players tend to talk about the gameplay publicly. People usually say "I followed this guide" or talk about it in private forums - looking at Twitter, for instance, I see people who say they struggled to even approach Risk 18 for a CC for instance and most of the time, the discussion I see on such media is tailored entirely towards lore or fanart or headcanons.
That's not to say that's bad - it's just that the gameplay aspect of the Arknights is almost entirely neglected and it's almost the same on the subreddit I think. The main places I see gameplay particularly discussed is on private Discords or in the Official AK subreddit Discord - and not everyone has the benefit of knowing people who know the game's mechanics well enough to make do with "waifu only" gameplay. That said, you make a really compelling point - I think there should be more guides on "Gameplay Mechanics" of which there are mechanics in spite of the nature of the gameplay of Arknights.
Passenger is my waifu.
And I use him a lot xD
He's basically does the same thing Angelina does, except costs more and doesn't have added bonuses.
Arknight community: just use surtr
Me: but I don't have her
Yeah, there would be less need for guides if you didnt have limited try outs for a stage. They could remove the 30 limited test entry tickets (which burn REALLY fast on challange stages) for benefit of literally everyone. If I could bash my head against the stage long enough to try out what works and what doesnt, I would be less inclined to look up a guide.
Just having a guide doesnt mean you have to follow it 100% without any change, and even if you do there are stages that require split second unit managment. Thats still fine, but when I am limited by small amount of tries per day the guide value suddenly skyrockets. Being lazy to think is one thing, but being hamstrung into "not playing" the game is entirely different.
Anyway great content, love the edits with characters. Keep up the good work!
The thing is meta unit isn't the only way to clear hard stage. Balanced team composition is something i have always do since the beginning and i still have enough to raise waifu and beat hard stages. Now on late game my aim is for CC so ofc i raise "meta" Ops
I know I'm late to the party, but another thing we should take into account is that not everyone will have meta-operators when they start out. For example, when I started out, I had Meteor, Amiya, Siege, Nearl and Matterhorn as my core operators and when it came to "raising the meta operator" among them, I had issues.
Eventually, I got other options (Myrtle, W, Lappland) to even out my team but initially I needed to invest in the operators I had.
Meanwhile whenever I saw 3 ground tiles on same line with a ranged tile
IFRIT LANE!!!!!
Yii: says may fictional non existent waifu matoimaru is trash
Any human with a brain: lol he’s just messing around
Me: your life free trail has been *EXPIRED*
smh Yii left a trail of ip address
@@Istreakilaz don’t mind if i diddly do
I sort of have an MVP team that I use to clear most hard stages, but I usually just use operators that I'm currently trying to increase their bond with.
The game is designed to be beatable with 4 and 3 stars. All stages get tested with these operators first before higher rarity operators for balancing purposes. The truly skilled Arknights players can beat any stage with any Operator. So raise whoever you want.
As he stated, just raise whoever u like, but atleast have a comfortable squad that u can rely on and the skills needed to clear stages. Seeing new players raising waifu without considering the fundamentals and then quit the game cus they cant beat a stage is kinda stupid to me.
"I don't believe in waifu>meta, because my waifu is meta" -FrostByte262
I personally care less about the waifu in AK, and if I have to pick a waifu I choose W or Blemishine
7:18 the reason why I will still build Savage when I finally get her despite having Blaze and Specter S2M3. Sorry La Pluma.
My plan is always to level my 6 stars units first and then focus on waifus because that way I'll have a few characters to rely on in difficult stages
I like building meme comps (M3 Bubble, M3 Mint, M3 Deepcolor, M3 Tomimi, etc) but I always recommend players build (and pull for) strong cornerstones first. IMO the good cornerstones don't even have to be the most meta 6-stars. Not everyone has Thorns or Mountain or Bagpipe, and in 95% of gameplay (non DP-down Risk CC), an Arene, Estelle or Vigna will do almost as well.
I'm not a form or function purist, but prioritizing strong or meta operators early not only makes your life easier, it also makes it easier to experiment and have fun with the game. If you have Flagpipe, you can put down any operator you want. If you have Thorns or Mountain guarding a lane, you can pretty much forget about that lane and goof off in the other lane(s). So even the meta- and non-meta- aspects of the game can be complementary, _but_ you have to realize that Arknights is a resource-limited game, so I would recommend being rational and dispassionate about building your core team first.
great points. When I want to meme I make sure to bring some strong operators as well to make up for their slot-inefficiency. A Mudrock or Thorns will do the job of 3-4 operators, so you can use these slots elsewhere to do your meme thing.
I wish there was a similar system to FGO grailing or Genshin Impact Crowning in Arknights.
A limited and severly limited item that can be used to power up low rarity operators to be more usable or power up meta operators even more.
Do you really think that OP-Red-Thing should be even more powerful?
That's just illegal
@@VCE4 Im just saying i want to powerup Noir Corne to use him instead of Mudrock
@@imtoolazyforaprofilepic4961 well, on this point I totally agree. Starters gang definitely deserved some love
As someone who's working abd playing multiple gatcha games at once, Guides are pretty helpful to get a grasp of what is happening in those maps especially for CC where there is just too much combo to think of and i genuinely don't have the time commitment to do so. Even if i look at guides, i still need to adapt them according to my ops which is not exactly zero brain usage. All in all, demonizing people who uses guides would push casuals away from the community and they are usually the majority of the community. Each of us have our own way to play the game hence no need to create any unnecessary fissure
Exactly!! All Haill Convictioooon!!
"Yeh, I'm a waifu player."
Arknights: "I got tou, fam." *gives meta operators in 50/50s instead*
Meta or Waifu is the wrong argument, particularly when those units we consider "meta" are not guaranteed to every player.
The argument, or really the conversation over raising a unit should be "Is my waifu going to be useful?" Which in most cases is a resounding yes.
Do you have a thing for fluffy tails? Then certainly E2 Provence. Can you use her on every map? Probably, but if you want to raise her then you need to learn how to make up for deficiencies in her kit, and how to use her strengths. Do you raise her before Apple Pie or Ash? Of course, but the same caveat applies.
Anyway, not one single unit can solo every single map so unless you are a serial cheater /cough/ I mean polygamist this concern over spending the resources on your waifu should be nothing in the grand scheme of raising up all the other units you will still need anyway.
In regards to guides, I use guides often because my "sense of pride and accomplishment" comes from the growth of my operators and my account, not beating stages. To fill up my pokedex by having every character, even if Ill never use them. To have as many E2s and M3s as I can. Beating a stage on my own is nice but its not where I get the most enjoyment. A particularly annoying stage is not fun for me to solve. I just want to beat it so I can get the Mats I need to keep growing my account.
Personally, I'm someone who rarely ever is motivated to play the game, or even has the time to figure out how to beat a stage. I usually use guides for events and the like because I don't wanna miss out on mats and limited time content, but I try to do main story and other permanent content by myself whenever I feel motivated to do so. That having been said, I've barely cleared ch5 of the main story, so you can probably guess how that's working out for me.
For me, the most fun part is simply collecting and raising the characters I like and using them to curbstomp enemies once they're vastly over-leveled, the gameplay aspect itself is something that comes after that
I know this is old but as someone who started less than a year ago i think a much bigger contributor to prevalence of guides and handholding is the fact that the game actively punishes you for trying to learn it. Challenge mode stages are generally the ones where you need to think and strategize more and those stages punish you for failing them by scamming you out of sanity. You can of course use practice drills but those are limited and for whatever reason challenge modes take 3 drills instead of 1, in the end you are still limited in how much you can practice and learn the limits of your operators. Because you are limited you are more likely to just not even bother and go look up a guide instead.
Chapter 10 was an absolute breath of fresh air in this regard, i cleared everything except for h10-3 without looking up a guide once, all because i didn't have to think about running out of practice drills or getting scammed out of an already extremely limited sanity. Failing or quitting stages should always refund all sanity, that alone would make learning the game so much more enjoyable and as a result reduce the reliance on guides and handholding in the community at large.
For a mass upgrade dokutah like myself. The debate didnt really get to me. I raise everyone equally and tried them all equally, the one that i like the gameplay i promote them to e2 and mastery their skill.
I do max pot max level max masteries my waifu and husbando, but i do it after raising the unit i use often.