Arknights Changed.

They should make a module for Gummy wherein for every heal she does a random enemy in the map just straight up vanishes.

Shining is my favorite medic. I'm excited for Shining the Swishy Swoosh.

After they turn to guard, they turn to thorn. It's all thornification all along

Gummy the boneshatter (alter) S1: Defense up by 150%. S2 : Third hit deals AOE damage, stun and heals Gummy by a 30% of the damage dealt. S3 : Gummy consumes enemies while the skill is active.

Kal'tsit: Prevention is better than cure. Therefore, if I kill my enemies before they touch my operators, that makes me an effective healer.

Now this is a topic I can't pick a side, the old AK was more straightforward on how each archetype was structured and meant to work, while the current is more on niche/dps heavy, resulting to more unique clears and antics. Like I still remember when chapter 7 came out, fighting patriot and using schwarz just because she's one of the few operators that actually deals damage to him, because thats what her archetype was meant for, to shred high armor enemies. But the with the variety of new niche and archetype also made the current game more fun with the introduction of nicheknights(Birb Supremacy btw). So I'll probably stay neutral for now.

As someone who has been playing Arknights since year one, I started mere weeks before the first contingency contract even, I can confidently say that the game is in a much better state now than it was before (Yostar’s current scheduling disaster not withstanding). I remember the old meta of “throw the big 3 into your team and win” (SilverAsh, Eyja and Saria), they were the best of the best meta operators, but now we have so many powerful operators across the classes that even nicheknights clears of even harder content has become possible when it just wasn’t before. As long as HG don’t do anything stupid like implement PvP or try to “balance” content around needing the newest operators this game has changed for the better.

It's not only Defenders being guard-ified too. Gladiia is pretty much a guard that can DPS, pull and tank with her module.

8:00 You forgot to mention that thanks to Myrtle, all Vanguard OPs have small but still present HP regeneration

It's true that almost new unit is DPS DPS DPS WHOOOOOO So far, it's not feeling too overwhelming. But I do notice that I rarely take any medics besides Honey & NG. And the meta team comp you showed as an exapmle, easily relatable. Either way, they do it better than many other gacha games. I'll stick with their Design PCreep over FEH's nonsense.

powercreep is also a very handy tool to shorten the gap between veteran and newer players. veteran players had to slowly build their strength forced to use old units (which were the only ones available at the time) to clear contents newer players have the option to only roll newer stronger unit, letting them catch up with the meta. veteran players obviously have undeniable advantage becuse their roster will be more complete which allows specific clears that requires older units powercreep makes a game friendlier towards new players, but it also could piss off veterans since it might make them feel like they wasted resources on older weaker units (even though they had no better choice back then)

Arknights has changed. It's no longer about archives, nicheknights, or events. It's an endless series of Contigency contracts, fought by Surtr and Ling. Arknights--and it's consumption of my wallet--has become a well-oiled machine. Arknights has changed. Limited operators carry level 3 modules, use chapter 12 mats. Skins on their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Orundum control, Originite control, LMD control, Battle record control…everything is monitored and kept under control. Arknights…has changed. The age of rushed schedule has become the age of no events, all in the name of global players from getting dorothy, and he who controls the dorothy, controls my wallet. Arknights…has changed. When the map rotation is under total control, CC becomes routine.

I just want a 6 star Defender Protector that just has insanely high amount of Def, Hp, and block count (and maybe 5 Res) but absolutely have the lowest damage, making them only used to block enemies and take damage.

Playing IS2 extensively made realise that the game is actually still very balanced. Medics are needed to clear a lot of stages and yes mudrock stomps everyone but her 34 DP cost makes her such a bad choice for fast stages and I see myself leaning towards much cheaper alternatives.

I mean, i think its criminal that they didn't make an hunting horn bard 6* unit for the MH event colab. As a hunting horn enthusiast i think its one of the most unique weapons in the game, i wouldn't say iconic but instantly recognisable, despite us dooters being like 0.0005% of the player base.

Ah yes. Gummy, the Flesh Devourer with her on-kill sustain will be aweaome.

The guard-ification of AK is imo, mainly targeted to new players. Afterall, self-sustaining units that deals big numbers is very easy to understand and deploy, instead of having to y'know... understand the game, strats, niches, synergies, calculations, etc. Just carry a flagpipe + mountain and boom, that's the first half of the round cleared, it literally cannot be more braindead than that. And for veterans, the new powerful units is filling more niche roles they need for high risk CC clears that newbies won't even touch. So yeah, both sides kinda win overall... as long as they pay up for the new units because stronger units means the game have to scale to them or it'll get too easy.

I started playing exactly because of guardnights because I thought it was an interesting take on the tower-defense formula. Just drop people directly on top of the enemies and watch them kill instead of building turrets around a straight path. Because of that, I kind of like the new design philosophy of independent operators.

Everything was born from Guards and they will return to Guards.

Isn't "design powercreep" just a new word for "metagame"? The video itself is clear that the old units didn't get worse, nor did they get replaced by more powerful versions of themselves. The meta simply evolved from favoring highly specialized units to more flexible ones. This is the real change, and it affects more than just medics and defenders. Across the board the metagame for all classes is moving from specialization to flexibility. Gone are the days when you needed a specialized physical or arts damage dealer depending on the enemy's def of res. New DPS operators tend to offer either a blend of both arts and physical damage OR their damage numbers are high enough to blow through even the toughest enemy defenses. I think this move towards flexibility was at least partially meant to facilitate the advent of RNG game modes like SSS and IS. When players can't guarantee having specific units on their team, it becomes that much more important for operators to be a jack-of-all-trades that can fulfill a variety of functions. Perhaps the only specialization that is rewarded in the current meta is resistance to arts damage. This keeps Nightingale in the meta, but it's a bit of a hilarious twist as well because resistance to arts damage was one of the only specializations that was NOT relevant during the early days of Arknights.