WOE Meta with the arrival of Bard and Dancer

Bard and Dancer has finally been announced to arrive in ROPH servers this coming February 28, 2018. These job classes is the alternate job for archer class which specializes on support role. They use instruments and whip when using their skills. With their arrival will surely change the current landscape of ROPH. Announcement can be viewed on the ROPH Official Page.

Current WOE Meta:
The number of Knights in the guild is the defining factor of the guild strength. The only viable build for the class is Bowling Bash regardless of stat allocation. Bowling Bash in unison can break defenses and at the same time it can also be defensive skill. The more knights a guild has the more it can defend and attack opposing guilds.

Monks are the best damaging character in-game and the second defining factor of the guild strength. They can one shot anyone with Guillotine Fist except for Ghostring armored characters. They can easily pass through pre-cast thanks to their Body Relocation skill.

Wizards are still good for pre-casting together with Priests. Unlike before, Meteor Storm is now the desired pre-cast because the damage stacks with each other. However, Storm Gust is still a good skill for delaying advancing enemy guilds. Quagmire, Stone Curse and Safety Wall is not required but a plus factor during the war due to its debuff and support capabilities. Other sills are no longer usable because the damage output is not amazing.

Trapper Hunters are also desired class because they can delay Emperium Breakers using Ankle Snare. High INT hunters also use damaging traps like Claymore trap which can kill enemies. Spreading status ailment using Arrow Shower is a good complement for trappers. Other builds are not that great.

Both Devotion and AGI Crusaders are also viable. AGI Crusaders are good counter to Ghostring armor users while the Devotion build can be the second life to crucial characters.

Specialized characters like stripper Rouge, Full Support Sage and Alchemists are usually being handled by High Councils of the guild. They are hard to build and can be a trump card to the successful defense of the agit. All guilds should have at least 1 Full Support Sage because it has the skill that can counter a lot of things. It is also advisable that they are the priority for Devotion.

Unfortunately, Blacksmiths and Assassins are not viable to the current meta. Blacksmiths can only be used for Hammer Fall's stun or Adrenaline Rush support and that's about it. Assassins can use status weapon for Grimtooth or build for Emperium breaker. However they still cannot compete with the versatility of Knights which can do both but better.

For defending guild, there are 3 main post of defense. The first post is near the portal composed mainly of Knight and other melee characters which we can call the Knight lane. The second post is for the Wizard lane which compost mainly of Wizards and Priests. Other support characters are also in this lane. Last post is the Back lane which is the place for Trapper Hunter and Monks. The Back lane is the last line of defense.

For attacking guild, the success of breaking the defense is highly dependent on survivability of the attacking Knights, Crusaders and Monks to disrupt the defense. A small opening at the portal can create a ripple effect to let the other characters get in the room. Once a sage laid an offensive Land Protect, the chances of successful infiltration becomes higher.

Predicted WOE Meta:
The arrival of Bard and Dancer will surely shake-up the current Meta. Both job class has a big impact to the game play because most of their skills are party play and affects a number of characters.

Bard's defining skills during the war are Frost Joke, Bragi's Poem, Assassin Cross in Sunset and Idun's Apple. Frost Joke is a screen wide skill with a high chance of freezing all characters that are not immune to frozen status. With this in mind guilds will surely require members to have either Marc carded armor or Evil Druid carded armor. Strip armor and Armor Breaker weapon will greatly help on removing enemy armors and can ensure almost permanent frozen players. Big guilds with funds will surely counter this with Chemical Protection Armor from Alchemist. Bragi's Poem is an area of effect song that improves casting time and removes a bit of aftercast delay. Wizards and other casters will surely love this skill. Assassin Cross in Sunset is a good support during Emperium Breaking while Idun's Apple is good buff before breaking into the defenses of the enemy guild.

Dancer's defining skill during the war are Scream, Please Don't Forget Me and Service for You. Scream is a screen wide skill that inflicts stun status. It will hurt a lot of low VIT builds which might make them permanently stun as long as the Dancer is using the skill. The worst part is when more than 1 dancer is doing the skill. This might make a lot of builds obsolete during the war. Please Don't Forget Me is an area debuff skill that lowers the move speed. It is a good skill to delay advancing enemies or delay Emperium Breakers. Combine this with Quagmire and Emperium Breakers will surely have a hard time breaking the Emperium. Service for You is an area skill which increases the SP temporarily and reduces SP consumption. It is the best partner for Bragi's Poem for faster skills with low SP consumption. The dance can also greatly help in increasing the damage output of monks due to increase of SP Pool.

Aside from the things I mentioned above, what makes Bard and Dancer meta defining is their ensemble skill Loki's Veil which prevents any use of skill when you are in the area of effect. This area of effect skill is usually use defensively at the portal to prevent attacking guilds from doing anything until they get passed the ensemble area. The said tactic will surely give defending guilds an edge to the war.

In Summary:

• A lot of low VIT builds will reconsider their participation on the war
• Immunity to frozen status will be required to all guilds
• Knights is still the defining factor of guild strength
• Monks is still the next defining factor of guild strength
• Assassin and Blacksmith will still be under represented due to lack of viable build
• Aside from buffing, Priests will be very busy using Status Recovery during clashes
• Bard and Dancer will be a priority kill
• Defense will be harder to break because of Loki's Veil
• Chemical Protection Armor will provide better survival when breaking defenses
• We might see specialized builds to emerged that counters the current meta such as VIT Monk or VIT Crusader with spear build

The next war is coming this weekend so let's all wait and welcome the new meta ~