Overview
Having trouble figuring out how to get your head around the new 2.13 XP system? Getting rofl stomped by xXMLG360QuickscoperXx? Then this is the guide for you!
Introduction
The problem I’ve been seeing with the new XP system in pubs is, no one has even attempted to adapt to the new features and try to change their play style to best benefit the system.
So I thought I’d make a small ins and outs to using the XP system to the best of its abilities and how you should probably change your playstyle.
So sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride.
Level 1-9 -The Burst Period
Close to the same itemization meta as last patch honestly with most of these nauts (Generally building either strong CC upgrades or good burst upgrades that haven’t been nerfed to the ground), generally ‘nauts that have strong dmg upgrades or great scaling dmg dominate this stage of the game. In team comps with these types of nauts right now can very easily snowball if the enemy has no idea how to do calculated aggression and how to make plays.
‘Nauts that I generally put in this period include with their own reasons include:
High base dmg + Good scaling – Froggy G, Penny, Coco & Nibbs
Good area control + Rewarded for good aggression – Derpl, Ted McPain, Lonestar, Genji & Gnaw
Great when fed – Ayla, Clunk & Rocco (Sentry, Ksenia & Swiggins to an extent)
High Teamwork Reward – Sentry & Swiggins
Level 10-12 – The CC=Wipe Period
And no, 911 pun not intended
While yes a lot of ‘nauts will have already bought their CC upgrades before this. Every ‘naut should have their team fight CC bought and a wipe out during this period can very easily decide the game due to 90% of ‘nauts having very good turret pushing power by this stage.
‘Nauts that work very well in the Level 9-11 team fight period include:
High Teamfight Dmg – Clunk, Ayla, Penny & Nibbs
Good Teamfight Control + Front-line Prowess – Skolldir, Sentry, Scoop, Genji & Swiggins (Gnaw/Yuri if early game went well)
Back-line dmg dealers – Derpl, Ksenia, Raelynn, Rocco & Voltar
Opportunistic burst control – Froggy G, Vinnie & Spike, Coco & Ted McPain
Level 13+ – The Fatman Period
It’s brawling time! This is where high health scaling nauts have far more health than possible to be burst down in a quick 1 second. Calculated aggression is highly rewarded as towers get punished if people have to stay behind them, some lower health scaling ‘Nauts may also have some essential team fight upgrades along their health to allow them to effectively control fights too.
‘Nauts that fit well into the brawling period include:
High Frontline Prowess, Sustain and Extended Dmg Control (Essentially your brawlers) – Clunk, Skolldir, Ayla, Scoop, Lonestar, Leon & Penny
High CC and/or Dmg Dealers – Sentry, Froggy G, Nibbs, Swiggins, Genji, Vinnie & Spike & Derpl
Teamfight Bursters / Teamfight-ish support – Coco, Voltar, Ted McPain, Rocco & Ksenia
Xp System Playstyle & How You Should Adapt
The XP system rewards heavy, calculated, aggression. As the more you keep enemies away from droids and creeps the more xp you will be gaining over your enemy and the greater the plays you make the greater the reward you gain. (Which both of is what 90% of the EU/AU/US community do, sorry guys). Essentially it’s the Japan meta.
Keeping aggressive can be hard especially if lag is present in the game, but it’s good to learn the positioning on each map where you can keep up the maximum amount of pressure on the enemy while at the same time being safe to any initiations that could catch you off guard, a good rule of thumb to being aggressive is ‘If there’s no threat of you dying in the area, take it over’ and unless you have a team with a case of extreme ‘How do I read chat’, you should be able to become the ‘Shot caller’ and hopefully your team will follow you and listen when you press 2, 3 and 4.
Just never give the enemy ground unnecessarily and keep it in your head to keep the pressure up. Remember though, if you ARE pushed behind, comebacks are made from you outplaying the opponent, not stalling the game out behind your turret. Only delaying the time it takes for them to get to your base is giving them more time to get a triple and just flat out end the game.
And with the addition of the health bar on the UI you can now accurately gauge your current health and yes while dmg numbers are all over the place you should be able to approximate how much dmg you could take in certain situations so you know whether its fight or flight time.
That’s All Folks!
And there you have it, a basic guide to the xp system that’ll hopefully make you consider changing the way you play and abuse the xp system to its fullest potential.