Quote Originally Posted by TofuLove View Post
This is one of many threads that criticise new shatter. I want to just insert this message from Olivia, who is a very well known commander in NA, and made guides for frontline that are actually very good (hi Olivia). https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6407076

Current shatter is the worst version of shatter we have had. I think the game mode really struggles with it's identity to what it wants to be. Seal rock - epic battle across a vast landscape, strategic positioning, defending/capturing/recapturing points. Onsal - fast paced battle - capture and move on, reliant on high mechanical skill as well as tactical reactive positioning. Shatter - build Battle High and avoid death in favour of destroying ice, kill team to get objective to yourself? Seems simplistic, but it basically is a recipe of how to win in this mode, you don't actually even need to fight the other team if your BH is higher. The only real optimisation I found is making sure a certain pattern repeats, so that you are always put in a favoured pattern. Having 2 big ice at the same time makes the average games really boring and 1 vs 2 pinching basically non-existent. Having small ice spawn twice a match means that the top section of the map is basically wasted space. Having kills matter so little basically means pvp matters very little and come backs very difficult and games too long. It's the only game mode out of the 3 where 3rd team 100% determines who wins and can win trade (not that it matters because any self respecting pre made is going to lose in this game mode easily), and 1st place team can just ignore everything apart from ice. I think the average games aren't aggressive enough and there is no reason for them to be aggressive - kills don't matter, only bh matters.
I respect Olivia's understanding of FL, but this is just nonsense. One emergent strat that I've seen to be extremely successful (and which, unfortunately, could be exploited by a premade far too effectively, particularly with a shot-caller like Olivia), is to hide above big ices and jump the opposing team once it has assembled. With many players in Shatter being tunnel-visioned on the ice, the effects are devastating.

My guess is that Olivia's previous approach with her premade is ineffective on the new map (which to me is a vast improvement). Adapt or die.