I’m really enjoying the new legend 1 bracket and harder modifiers, I think it’s great that there’s a mode where higher skill players can express themselves. That being said I think it really exacerbates how important having a healthy meta is. The meta is incredibly one-dimensional currently and the modifiers being harder than before force you to use meta.
At legend 1 ground/smash attacks are largely dead right now. There are numerous YouTubers, famous for high legend placements etc etc who NEVER use air who have switched completely to air attacks, or have stopped uploading videos. Gj who placed in the top 10 recently using roots before they received a new level in this update hasn’t uploaded once. Applesauce who was pushing top 100 - top 1k using superbowlers has switched to air spam. Destro who helped popularise zap quake throwers has switched to air spam. And itzu who always prefers ground has also made the switch.
In a recent video Itzu showcased his defence log, and noted it was doing really well, largely because he’d been attacked by ground/smash attacks which are just in a far more difficult spot than air spam right now. The reason is largely the modifiers but also the seasonal defence doesn’t help, the lava launcher is far better than any other options, it cannot be totem’d and it can destroy a whole smash army with 2-3 shots. Combine it with the semi-recent spring trap rework and the fact all smash attacks are reliant upon healing from support troops and you can see why the meta is currently so one sided.
The majority of Strats are ground/smash attacks. Alienating that entire portion of the playerbase is just a bad idea. Some may simply not enjoy air spam, others may not have key parts of air Strats upgraded such as minion prince equipments.
I don’t think it’s fair to expect the difficulty to be at the perfect level on release, I just hope that this doesn’t last for months like it historically has. Given time I’m sure someone will be able to cook up some strategy that works, but currently warden charges and ground smash is dead at a high level, and that makes for a very unappealing game for most people.