What Makes a Meta Operator? | Arknights Discussion

thank you to my bf for voicing vigil

btw, I'll put this in the description:
The video isn't named "how to recognize a meta operator", the video is named "what makes a meta operator". To recognize e meta operator you need to recognize what is effective. The talk about effectiveness is implied when I also talk about "Versatility" and "Niche". I state that things that are effective, but not "universally" effective wouldn't qualify. Now WHAT is "universally" effective is a topic for a whole other video. The point was never to teach you how to recognize meta operators, the point is to define why operators defined as meta are defined as such, and to define the word "meta" itself. It's a process that happens after you've already decided who is meta and who isn't. Recognizing meta operators is an entirely different process for an entirely different video. This video is more about the meaning of the word "meta" itself in the context of this game, and what characteristics the operators called meta share. It's the backwards process of looking at what exactly makes those operators so strong, not the forwards process of attributing the "meta" nomiclature on someone

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ARTWORK SOURCES:
Aosta, Broca, Chiave, Elysium and Thorns: Pixiv ID 94384335
Surtr art: Pixiv ID 90444393

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SUPAH, Arknights, Gummy, Gacha games, Arknights Gameplay, Arknights Guide, Operator Showcase, Should you build, IS4, Typhon, Texas Alter, Surtr

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
2:16 - Versatility
4:31 - "Meta" can only exist in comparison
7:04 - Kit Coherence
10:31 - Video is over bye

[namensklauer]

5:00 i think the reason "mid" became a popular insult is because it's hard to argue against. If you say someone is not good or even bad, that just makes you a clueless hater. by calling it mid you acknowledge that there are some positives. basically turning your argument from "REEE garbage op" to "After careful consideration of the factual situation i have come to the conclusion of this operator being severely lacking in certain aspects, therefore giving it a suboptimal performance not warranting giving said operator an overall good rating. And if you disagree and think the operator is great because of its strengths, it means you are not intelligent enough to notice the weaknesses."

[arandomstar]

"what makes a Meta Operator Meta?" being gummy of course

[galuhdesuka]

"Are you the strongest because you're Meta? Or are you Meta because you're the strongest?"

[AWildRaito]

As a meta-slave who drinks Texas Alter’s sweat with my coffee in the morning, I’d agree that being meta comes down to the reasons you said, but you did forget one thing: meta operators need to be unbelievably hot.

[axios]

Tl;Dr: Ease of use and high utility, superiority in their role or a special defining gimmick, a consistent kit. -Being hot AF-

[SUPAH_SUPAH_SUPAH]

9:33 whoops. That's the wrong talent.

[pureequicrystal]

supah never fails to fill me up whenever he uploads a new video

[livingrain]

What makes an operator truly meta is a set of big ears, one yellow glove, and a tail with a silly tuft at the end

[Lichtonatus]

Mid is a shortening of Mediocre and not Middling? Whack

[Oscar-uycq]

Supah is no longer arknights most hated youtuber he's arknights only youtuber left, I am very thankful to still have your videos to watch

[Truck-kun]

I would say that a META character is a character that changes the way you approach the game or opens up a whole new type of play style.
For example, characters like Ling, Chen Alter, Texas Alter, Eyja Alter and Skadi Alter allow you to play in a way you couldn't without them and are almost irreplaceable.

[walnut]

3:05
I noticed the fact you changed meta to meat

Most
Effective
Available
Tactic

[MinoTaurus]

Requirements for becoming a META:
- Over Power
- Useful
- Being Good
- Not Useless
- Powercreep other Operators
- Easy to get and build
- Have some good quality
- I don't know what i should add here

[kyarumomochi]

The thing that makes operators meta is their Utility. People seem to think Utility means just "debuff" or similar things but no. Utility means MANY things at once.

For example Surts Utility resides in its many dps abilities taking a form of a strong helidrop and her kit works extremely well together.
She deals arts damage so her talent ignoring res is important. Her s3 slowly kills her and is a helidrop skill so her other talent preventing death becomes crucial.
Her s3 gives more range and multiple targeting on top of a abysmal attack boost wich makes her dps role even more potent. All of these factors play together to make an insane dps wich makes her the most optimal arts damager on most stages. In other words: "Meta"

But meta comes in MANY other flavors. Skalter gives a massive health defense and damage buff pseudo globally for extremely low cost and infinite uptime wich enchances many operators and espiecelly makes operators with multiplative damage more insane.

Or take texas alter wich is like he weird mix of many strong elements. She has insane arts dps that even beats surtrs on s2 with added bonus of being a helidrop and insane map control that no operator in the game has with s3 thats capable of still dealing same dps as surtr while targeting aerial units and stunning multiple targets at once. But lets not confuse "having alot of niches" with being meta here. Texas has tons of use cases with her massive niche coverage. But she is meta NOT because she covers those niches but because she absolutely DECIMATES those niches with her sheer strength espiecelly as a low cost fast redeploy operator.

For example. Muelsye (Mumu for gods sake) has the single largets niche coverage in the entire game (she covers 80% of the available niches in the game all by herself lol) but it doesnt mean that she is extremely broken as despite her niche coverage being abysmal her niche "impact" isnt wich doesnt make her much of a meta operator.

Its easy to see meta operators these days. If an operator has multiplative damage or any form of self sustain trough passive talents without the cost of damage. Or just buffing the entire field for little to no cost then those operators are meta.

Weird thing is. The word "meta" DOESNT MEAN what people use it for. Normally we should be using the word meta in a stage based context as it stands for best available strategy but people use it for operators strength instead wich isnt what the word means lol

[Werday-bveh]

i dont hate meta, i just hate overpower units.
seriously I like units that have characteristics that cannot be replaced rather than units that are too strong 😅

[CJdoesntlikehandles]

kit coherence in this video is whether an operator solves the problems they have to solve in order to function

but i think another important example of bad kit coherence exists when an operator themself is the source of the problem they have to solve
first example that comes to mind is carnelian (totally not because of my pfp), who has the problem of needing to get "charged", which they "solve" by making themself charge faster

[mimiondes]

Supah always uploads when im bored yaeyyy excited to see this vid

[pixelice]

"There's a lot messy and confused 6-stars"

Me: 'Looks at 5 stars operator'

[Surged-eufs]

Welcome to supahs 4th “1st positive video”!

[katrinecondukta]

For me what makes a meta operator is how an operator can reduce the amount of operators you need for clearing a stage. That is why i think Ling is the best op. Of course then you will have include how generalist they are, which gains more points than niche ones.

For example, Mlynar alone can dish out the damage of like 3 snipers in your team with one sweep. Texalter can be used to deal with a bunch of problems, kill flying enemies, stun and even dish out a lot of damage with skill 2, filling up a lot of roles and possibly denying the need of other operators like lane holders to a certain lane if you play her well.

Of course, this is considering a more "Meta" way to play, which for me is records of lowest amount of op clears. To me that is what makes operators really good. You can argue that some operators don't deserve to be there, like Lin being really good at some chapter 12 stages and clearing one of the last ones on a duo with texas, she is niche and if you consider a different more generalist way of playing instead of going for records (such as afk braindead) she would NOT be meta. But on my definition she is. It is kinda flawed, but that is how i see things. If an operator can fill many roles on your squad and denying the need of other operators for me is what makes then good. Less pulls you need to do, less raising... Which, i know, are part of the game.

Really really great video tho supah, agree with all you said ;3 W take