History ComplacentGamingSyndrome / VideoGames

*** The 2.3.0 update completely flipped the meta by giving every character lighter than Waluigi a 0.25 speed boost and a select few small/medium characters (like Baby Mario, Toad, Yoshi and Luigi for example) a 0.25 mini turbo boost. Additionally, every kart and tire (sans (blue) rollers, button, leaf and vehicles in the Wild Wiggler, Pipe Frame, Landship and Biddybuggy class) got a 0.25 mini turbo boost. As of now, players have decided on Rosalina with the Teddybuggy or Cat Cruiser with (blue) rollers to be the best build even though several other builds aren't far behind in viability. Even the Mario standard build is faster than Waluigi in the Wild Wiggler now!

** ''VideoGame/Tekken7'' introduces several new faces and with that accusations of being {{Skill Gate Character}}s taken too far. Common targets for this are Katarina Alves (due to powerful [[ButtonMashing button-mashable]] strings that are hard to break up) and Shaheen (tricky, hard to punish attacks and a strong offense to go with it). GuestFighter [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis Lucius Caelum]]'s release on the console versions has also incurred this reaction (caused by easy to use lows and an inordinately long reach for a ''Tekken'' character, what with using melee weapons in a game where most only have their arms and legs).

** From ''3'' onwards, Eddy/Christie has been this trope due to their easy combos, [[SkillGateCharacter Skill Gate status]] aside. Earlier in the series it was usually Jack or Kazuya and later on it became increasingly Mokujin due to the fact people want to show they can beat you with any character on the roster. Most people playing ''Tekken 3'' for the first time either went for Jin (he's on the box) or Yoshimitsu (he has a sword).

* ''VideoGame/RivalsOfAether'': You're unlikely to fight random online players without facing VideoGame/ShovelKnight every other match. His general ease of use, strong kill power and recovery, and the MagikarpPower nature of his gimmick lets most low-level players go gorilla and [[SkillGateCharacter steal a couple of wins from players who just picked up the game]]. In more serious matches, Shovel Knight players are generally ''reviled''.

** For a very long time, Ancient Magicks completely ruled the PvP scene in members' worlds, all thanks to the ice spells. These were quite damaging to begin with, but had the secondary effect of freezing a player in place for several seconds. This meant that anyone with a melee-focused setup had almost no chance to fight back, since like all other spells, ancients could be cast from a few tiles away. One would just have to repeatedly cast an ice spell to "reset" the freeze timer and destroy the enemy in three or four hits. Later on, several updates made melee more viable, but even after Evolution of Combat, the spells are not to be taken lightly.

** A "doomstack" refers to an army composed almost entirely of one type of unit capable of defeating practically any other single enemy army, usually taking minimal damage in the process. It's typically an expensive single-model unit, as this makes them easy to micromanage and heal. So you could run an elegantly balanced vampire coast army with zombie gunners, giant undead crabs, cannons, and vampire warriors... or you could just have 19 [[BodyOfBodies necrofex colossi]] led by Count Nocticulus riding his unique mount, a necrofex colossus.
** The vampire counts faction has an early technology that makes their skeletons have no upkeep cost, and their standard building that increases regional growth also increases the recruit rank of necromancers faction-wide. Thus they can maintain armies practically for free with the caveat they only contain skeleton units, and immediately hand them all a high-level necromancer hero. The tactic of swarming enemies with endless armies of skeletons while using the powerful Wind of Death spell to scythe down multiple units was so prevalent that when Creative Assembly announced an overhaul of the faction they noted it had rendered most of their vampire counts' unit list obsolete.

* As illustrated on the main page, around 70% of all ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' players use [[{{Shotoclone}} Ken]] and 20% use Sagat. This was for a fairly simple reason: Ken, as a {{Shotoclone}}, was the easiest character to pick up and use, had access to the Hadoken for pressuring an opponent, and had the best version of the Shoryuken, which covered a lot of vertical range, meaning it could be used to counter an enemy trying to advance. This led to the infamous "[[http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/streetfighteriv-howtoken.gif Flowchart Ken]]" playstyle--stay in the corner, spam fireballs, and Shoryuken when they approach. Ken was never considered top-tier in tournaments, but the sheer ease of use of the playstyle, along with being ''really'' unfun to play against, made him very unpopular in online matches for those using any other character.

** Ice Climbers' time in the sun during ''Melee'' was smeared by a technique known as "wobbling" that involved Popo grabbing and pummeling the unlucky foe while the desynced Nana performed downward tilt attacks in an alternating cycle that locked opponents inside the grab ''infinitely'', rendering them helpless to escape and becoming basically a kill confirm. If not for this technique the Ice Climbers would probably be overlooked as viable characters, but thanks to it they have a constant presence... that tournament crowds usually hate to watch, since wobbling is both boring to watch and is widely considered an underhanded tactic. It has since been banned, and the Ice Climbers' popularity has dropped accordingly.

[[quoteright:300:[[Videogame/MarvelVsCapcom3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sentinel-vs-sentinel-3_707.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"We are the Sentinels! It is our destiny to command this game!"]]

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** The move Surf is usually so powerful and consistent across the series that many players with a Water-Type will use it constantly. The exception being ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', where former Hidden Machine moves like it are replaced by the Pokeride system, and the TM for Surf isn't available until the postgame. Its usefulness started to wane in Generation IV when moves were split to be Physical or Special based on the individual move rather than just their typing, and Waterfall became the go-to move for physical-based Water Types. Gen V then introduced Scald (a decently-powered Water move that causes burns). Due to official formats using Doubles mentioned above, Surf isn't as useful since it hits everyone on the field. Another issue is that moves that hit multiple targets (like Surf) have their damage reduced by 25 percent.

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[[folder:AR Games]]
* Vaporeon in ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' had a reign of terror on the 0.29.0 versions of the game onward, because it was a MasterOfAll - fast and sturdy, with an easily spammable and damaging Water Gun that meant battles could be won by mindlessly tapping the screen. On top of that, it was relatively easy to raise, evolving from a common {{mons}}ter for 25 candies (instead of 50, like for most top evolutions), and the random nature of Eevee's evolution could be bypassed by [[EasterEgg naming it "Rainer", guaranteeing a Vaporeon]]. Snorlax and Lapras were similarly powerful, but much more rare. For the 0.31.0 update Niantic nerfed Vaporeon by rebalancing the attack damage calculations, cutting Water Gun's attack power and boosting attack power of underperforming monsters. Vaporeon's still very strong, but you're not likely to see it sitting on top of every gym you pass any more.
** Similarly, most gyms even now contain at least one Dragonite - though harder to rear up than Vaporeon, its maximum CP of 3500 means it often rises to the top of gyms immediately, so that trainers have to plow through up to nine other monsters before they get to yours. Since an update that changed CP totals and buffed it heavily for certain Pokemon, Rhydon's now a gym staple for the same reason.
** The release of [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Generation 2 Pokemon]] into the mix has added two new ubiquitous monsters, Tyranitar (a 3670 maximum CP puts him at the top of Gyms easily) and ''Blissey'', who's at 0.29.0 Vaporeon levels. [[StoneWall Having twice the health of its nearest rival and a scary-high Defense stat]] means [[GameBreaker there's nothing else in the game which can touch it as a defender...]] so far.
** Now that the Go Battle League has been introduced, allowing players to battle each other online, the different leagues have been dominated by one or two Pokemon each. Great League is the most diverse, but most teams usually end up running an Azumarill (high HP, charge moves that can hit almost everything else for super-effective damage) or Registeel (extremely tanky, charge moves can kill almost everything in one hit). Ultra League is the stomping ground of Giratina, and Master League is owned by Metagross and Dialga, both of which carry the Steel subtyping to ensure they don't take much damage. Dialga, though, takes it a step further: it has Steel/Dragon typing and one of the most dangerous fast moves in the game, meaning it can chew through almost everything else and ''nothing'' (bar other Dragons, usually Dialga itself) serves as a hard counter to it. Niantic therefore recently introduced the Premier Leagues, where legendary Pokemon can't be used, ruling out things like Dialga, Giratina and Registeel. Azumarill and Metagross are still powerhouses, though.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ingress}}'', organized players rarely use Very Rare Shields (60% damage reduction), AXA Shields (70% damage reduction), or either of the "virus" items (flips one Portal's alignment and prevents that kind of item from being used on the same Portal for one hour) because they're TooAwesomeToUse, instead banking them for Anomalies (competitive city-wide events that influence the game story) and other major operations such as massive region- or country-filling Fields, or donating those items to people who can attend such events if one is not able to do so themselves. Posting about using them in any other situation may get you scolded for wasting such valuable items.
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* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', most people end up choosing Mario ([[CantDropTheHero who can't be dropped]]), Peach ([[WhiteMage who can heal the entire party at once]]), and [[EnsembleDarkHorse Geno]] ([[LightningBruiser who is the most powerful attacker]]). Bowser is strong and tanky, but has low Magic Attack and Magic Defense. The latter means most late-game bosses will tear right through him, while the former means he's relegated to spamming normal attacks the majority of the time, which pale in compaison to Geno's powerful specials, several of which hit all enemies at once, and another of which only targets one enemy, but will always deal [[{{Cap}} 9999 damage]] when timed perfectly ([[ContractualBossImmunity but not against bosses]]). Mallow has a variety of [[BlackMage elemental magic]] that can take advantage of enemy weaknesses, but again, Geno's specials are so goddamn strong he doesn't ''need'' to care about enemy weaknesses. Mallow also gets a single healing spell early in the game that only heals one target, therefore making him basically a worse version of Geno ''and'' Peach at the same time. Speaking of Peach, expect everyone to equip her with the [[ArmorOfInvincibility Lazy Shell]] and [[AntiDebuff Safety Ring]] to make her completely unkillable (which, since she is the healer, essentially makes the rest of your party unkillable as well).

** In ''Might and Magic VII'', having a Cleric is an absolute must, due to being the only class able to cast Protection from Magic at Grandmaster level. What it does? Protects your team from status ailments. However, it protects from two worst ones, Instant Death and [[DeaderThanDead Eradication]], only at Grandmaster level. Due to how frequent such attacks are (since monsters come in three strength varieties, which all can spawn where one spawns, and the strongest one usually has such attacks), having access to it is essential. What's more, Cleric and Sorcerer are the only ones that have access to all spells of Dark and Light magic and Cleric's second promotion quest is laughably easy compared to Sorcerer's one, meaning it is the easiest way to access it.
** While not ''as'' essential, Sorcerer from the same game is in similar position, being the only class that can fully level the Elemental Magic. Grandmaster offensive spells are rather strong nukes, but the main reason is supportive magic that makes the life in Ernoth ''much'' easier. The notable examples are the Town Portal, which at Grandmaster level allows you to teleport to town ''while being in the middle of combat'', and access to Lloyd's Beacon, which allows you to place the teleporters ''wherever you want''. And they can access all of Dark and Light magic as well.

** While ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' is the most balanced Smash game by a wide margin, some of its characters are still more heavily used then others in the competitive scene. [[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Palutena]] is one of the most common characters in the game, even after she was nerfed several times. She has fantastic mobility both in the air and on the ground, great aerials with her back air being very strong and having invincibility while her neutral air is disjointed and possess great combo potential and is good at edgeguarding, a great grab game and had her specials changed from ''Smash 4'' due to the removal of Custom Special Moves. The general community sees her as a top 5 character who is immensely used in all forms of play due to how well balanced she is.
** [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra/Mythra]] is considered to be a top 3 character in ''Ultimate'' at top level alongside [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]] and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]]. Not only are very relatively simplistic to play, their moveset is also incredibly overwhelming and overtuned, with Mythra having some of the best overall mobility alongside Sonic, Sheik and Zero Suit. Both Pyra and Mythra have small hurtboxes and shift their hurtbox often to avoid attacks, while having large range on their moves due to wielding a large sword. Mythra packs fantastic frame data on her aerials and tilts, while having generally good smash attacks and fantastic combo potential due to how lagless all her moves are, while Pyra has great kill power and a very strong down air that has a large spike which can combo into kill moves. Many people complained when the overall top 3 of the Smash World Tour 2021 (The biggest Smash invitational of all time) were all Pyra/Mythra players. They have generally had comparisons to ''Smash 4'' Cloud, due to their overall strengths, ubiquity and a very similar recovery weakness. Not only that, but they are also common on Elite Smash for a more casual audience too, [[https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/research/articles/500071/9 being the most popular character in Japan]], due to their overall simplicity.

* ''VideoGame/RivalsOfAether'': It's unlikely to fight random online players without facing VideoGame/ShovelKnight every other match. His general ease of use, strong kill power and recovery, and the MagikarpPower nature of his gimmick lets most low-level players go gorilla and [[SkillGateCharacter steal a couple of wins from players who just picked up the game]]. In more serious matches, Shovel Knight players are generally ''reviled''.

** Since its introduction in ''The Burning Crusade'', noone goes into a raid without inviting at least one player who can cast Bloodlust/Heroism or their equivalents. Likewise, warlocks and mages are frequently desired for the sheer amount of utility spells they bring besides dealing damage.

** The ''LetsPlay/MindcrackServer'' guys demonstrate this Trope very clearly with their Ultimate Hardcore [=PvP=] series. In the beginning, the competitors ALWAYS went looking for a full set of Iron Armor and a bow and arrows before going hunting for prey; if they could find any diamonds it was a great bonus but too rare to be counted upon. As the series evolved and became more refined, certain (ever more convoluted) tactics became a necessity; for example, prior to LetsPlay/EthosLab 's pioneering of getting one during a Free-For-All match, an Enchanting Table was an expensive and tricky luxury even in the team games. Nowadays, it's virtually mandatory if you want to make it to the top 5, let alone win the series. In the same vein, virtually no one risks 'hunting' for other Players in the first 3 or 4 episodes despite the advantage of surprise, and going to the Nether is usually seen as far, far too risky despite the rewards it offers.

** Unless you care about the HarderThanHard content? Most content you end up getting in the daily roulettes will be one of two things: Current content so players can gear up, or ''A Realm Reborn'' content since it's very low-effort to do and item scaling will put them at the higher tier. Plus, the Duty Roulettes will actually take your item level into account - but only what you ''currently'' have equipped. As a result? Most players will strip themselves mostly naked to [[LoopholeAbuse force the roulette finder to put them into]] ''A Realm Reborn'' content.

** Cobblestone houses are extremely common, due to stone (which turns into cobblestone when mined) being one of the most common types of blocks and being more durable than wood (with immunity to fire being a major perk over wood). It's not as strong as brick (which can resist Creeper explosions better than cobblestone can) but it's definitely easier to make it. Especially since a cobblestone generator, a "machine that basically lets lava and water flow into the same space to form cobblestone, provides a quick, efficient, infinitely renewable source of building material that you don't need to even mine for!

** Cobblestone houses are extremely common, due to stone (which turns into cobblestone when mined) being one of the most common types of blocks and being more durable than wood (with immunity to fire being a major perk over wood). It's not as strong as brick (which can resist Creeper explosions better than cobblestone can) but it's definitely easier to make it.

** Of the three [=ISMs=], expect majority of players to use V-ism for it's game breaking custom combos. With the right setup, just about any character can do massive damage and even set up infinite combos. Whatever benefits X or A-ism have are overshadowed by the sheer freedom and power that V-ism brings. The only character that can work with the other [=ISMs=] is Dhalsim, who is a such a Main/GameBreaker himself that he can choose any ISM and be top tier.

* ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series:

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

* The ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' series has Ragna and Jin, the two main rival characters. They aren't particularly overpowered -- in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger Calamity Trigger]]'', Nu-13 is far superior to both of them, and in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Continuum Shift]]'', Litchi and Bang were in no way hard to find online. In terms of mechanics, expect to see every Ragna and Noel use the Stylish (combos are performed automatically) style. You'll be seeing a ''lot'' of the same combo from the both of them.

* In ''VideoGame/Spore'', how you end a stage in your creature's evolution impacts what passive abilities you'll have by the time you reach space stage. In theory, this results in (assuming you go from a cell all the way to space) 81 possible combinations of traits, but a savvy player will nearly always go red-red-green-blue, which gives your spaceship 1.5x more health, halved energy usage, a +10 base relationship boost when you contact new empires, and increased spice production on your colonies, which are generally considered to be the best bonuses out of their respective stages.

* Most endgame parties in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' will be Crono, Ayla, and Frog. Sometimes replacing Crono for Magus. In the SNES&PS1 versions, Marle and Robo were [[LowTierLetdown Low-Tier Letdowns]], though this [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap changed in the DS and PC versions]]. Frog and Ayla are forced into the party during a lot of the mid-game, Crono cannot be removed until fairly late in the game anyway, and Magus is an EleventhHourRanger who needs to be trained before he'll be caught up in terms of abilities. Thus? Most people go for Crono, Frog, and Ayla.

** The Splash-o-matic has always been a fairly good shooter weapon, with a high firing rate balanced out by its short range, but ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' saw a ''massive'' boost in its usage. This is mainly due to it having the new Crab Tank special, which can shred far-away foes, turn into a StoneWall, and in general is very difficult to fight head-on. While several other weapons can use Crab Tank, the Splash-o-matic is easily the best at quickly charging up the special meter, and thus spamming the special over and over again. Combine that with the shooter's short-range strengths and the useful Burst Bomb sub, and you get a meta essentially ''defined'' by this one weapon, to the point that tournament teams frequently run at least two Splash-o-matics.

* ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}} provides a variety of powerups that can be equipped, but out of all of them, Smoke Bomb is by far the most frequently used among all but the most hardcore of players. It grants you complete invulnerability to attacks while dashing, which makes both stages and boss battles ''far'' easier as you can literally dash through enemies and attacks. Considering this game is NintendoHard as it is, anything that lowers the difficulty is very welcome. For those who don't use Smoke Bomb, Coffee (which causes your Super Meter to slowly automatically increase, on top of any Super you gain from attacking and parrying) is usually the replacement choice. And of all the Super attacks, Super II is probably the most used, as it grants complete invincibility for a short time. Many difficult bosses have attacks that can be completely trivialised using this Super, such as Beppi's rollercoaster or King Dice's cards.