The Problem with Cheetahs.

Ever since they were first added to the game, the cat build has been a dominant force in the meta. The largest ones, they square up with some of the most powerful builds of the Ice Age. And in the current meta, even the smallest variants can rack up absurd KD ratios. However, not all cat builds are such an impressive meta-defining force. The cheetah is one of the few feline builds facing some serious challenges lately. But are they truly a bottom tier build? They have quite a few impressive abilities and a stat spread unlike any other cat. But they've also got some pretty major weaknesses. So today I'd like to take the time to elaborate on the generalizations I made in my original cat tier list video a few years back. Realistically, every build on that list deserves a video to itself. And seeing as cheetahs are my favorite of the bunch, I'll start with them. We'll begin with the positives. So cheetahs have a rather unorthodox stat spread. While most cats focus mainly on power and stealth, the cheetah has sunk all available evolution points into mobility, granting it the highest mobility stat in the game. This is pretty important because it makes the cheetah the only carnivore build in the African meta that can actually chase down and outspeed herbivores like the impala and gemspot. All the other carnivores need to either pull off a successful stealth strike, or keep up the chase at a distance and wait for their target's stamina to run out. Cheetahs can actually close the distance on any fleeing player at top speed. The cheetah also has a few other abilities that it specifically specs into to support its high-speed strategy. The cheetah has a much longer tail than most cats, which grants it bonus stability and a tighter turn radius while running. This makes it very difficult to juke of pursuing cheetah. Cheetahs also have dark streaks under their huge eyes, which reduces glare and grants them bonus accuracy on their attacks. Cheetahs also took a page from the canine playbook and opted for non-retractable claws, which is a big change from what most felid players spec into. Keeping their claws unretracted grants the cheetah extra traction while running. Cheetahs often don't get enough credit for their effectiveness using team strategies. Their high intelligence allows them to organize some pretty coordinated attacks that enable a party of cheetahmen to take down some surprisingly large targets, or stand their ground in some normally unwinnable confrontations. This is about where the positives end though, and pretty much every ability I just mentioned comes with some serious downsides. The cheetah's over-specialization into the agility skill tree leaves it with some highly exploitable vulnerabilities. In order to remain lightweight enough to achieve its incredible movement speed, the cheetah drastically cut its defensive stats. With a tall, lanky frame, thin skin, and no body fat, a cheetah can't afford to take any hits at all, a fact that affects every aspect of their gameplay. First, this means they cannot take many risks while on the attack. Now, most predators will avoid risks and go for easy kills on low-leveled players. However, in the cheetah's case, a player deciding to put up pretty much any resistance at all is too risky. This makes sense though, as unless they land a critical hit on an opponent's weak point, they can't deal much damage. Since their claws aren't retractable, they are blunted while running, which debuffs their potential slash damage and eliminates one of the cat build's signature combat moves, the paw swipe. Cheetahs do have one claw on the back of their paws that is not used for traction and therefore remains sharp, and this claw gives them a bonus to grappling attempts while pouncing. However, its placement on the back of the foot makes it useless when a cheetah player is defending themselves. And unfortunately, the inability to defend themselves is the crucial weakness that keeps cheetahs low on the tier list. Because a cheetah player will need to do a lot of defending. In particular, there are two scenarios where cheetahs run into issues. The first is defending a kill. Using a burst of speed this powerful costs a lot of stamina and generates a huge amount of heat, to the point where after making a kill, cheetahs will need to wait for their stamina to regenerate before they can start eating. And it's during this huge window of time that other predator players will take advantage of the cheetah's lackluster defensive skills. Hyena and lion mains have no problem stealing a cheetah's kill. Most of the time, the cheetah player will wisely choose to concede the kill. But if they do put up a fight, they're likely to get bodied pretty hard. Now, while this is frustrating for the cheetah player base, it's not impossible to simply play around this weakness. Most cheetah players simply avoid hunting while hyenas are nearby, and also try to get most of their kills while the lion player base is offline. And considering lions only spend about four hours a day logged in, this is a decent window of opportunity. Objective defense is tough enough for cheetahs. But if you think they struggle to defend a control point for just a few dozen minutes, imagine how tough it is for them to complete the game's escort mission. Due to their low spawn rates, protecting offspring is a core part of the mammal build's gameplay. Cheetahs unfortunately do terribly at this, because similar to with defending a kill, a persistent predator player will pretty much always win. All a cheetah can really do is try to chase players away before they even get within range of detecting their cubs. Low level cheetahs also spec into coloration that's meant to fool players into thinking they're actually a honey badger, which would be a much less free kill. However, once they're found out, even a max level cheetah using its best attacks and intimidation techniques will stand little chance of actually stopping an attack from a lion or hyena. In fact, even smaller predator players like jackals can score kills on cheetah cubs using team strategies, as chasing away multiple attackers at once is near impossible. Because of their poor defensive skills, cheetah players have only a 30% chance of even unlocking their first level up achievement. All this to say that unfortunately, despite plenty of very valid points put towards me on places like reddit and twitter, cheetahs are indeed bottom tier, and honestly I'd expect the build to completely disappear from the meta if they don't change their strategies up. And I know it'd be a difficult task to give up on holding the record for the fastest movement speed in the game, but it's worth mentioning that this movement speed has its own limitations too. It's really only useful in open terrain, and is severely hampered by any obstacles. In fact, one of the best counterplays to the cheetah's attack strategy is simply to stay near cover and move into a less open area if a cheetah player makes an attack attempt. Moving at such a high speed is not without risks, and these risks can become insurmountable if the terrain isn't favorable. And the cheetah's mobility also suffers in other areas too. Their blunted claws are much less useful for climbing, removing what might have been a low level cheetah's best defense against predators like the hyena and jackal. I could go on to talk about the cheetah's lack of access to the ability roar, or talk about how the cheetah's player base is so small that it's actually hampering their ability to gain new evolution points. But I think you get the picture. Cheetah players, I wish you the best of luck, but I don't have high hopes for you. As tough as a playthrough of the cheetah build can be, they are fascinating to watch. And if you're interested in seeing more of the cheetah's struggle for survival, you should check out The Secret Life of Cheetahs, a documentary that chronicles the life of a family of cheetahs as they navigate life in the savannah. You can watch it right now on CuriosityStream, the sponsor of today's video. CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service where you can watch thousands of high quality documentaries and nonfiction titles. There are several on cheetahs and also a bunch of my personal favorites like Walking with Dinosaurs and Out of the Cradle. In addition, every new CuriosityStream member also gets access to Nebula, a streaming service made by and for creators like myself. I've made a few exclusive videos on there, but I also recommend some of the originals made by fellow creators, such as the game show made by Tom Scott. To get access to both of these awesome services for only $2.99 a month, head to CuriosityStream.com slash Tears You or click the link in the description. As always, thank you so much for watching. Thanks especially to my patrons on Patreon. And good luck out there, especially to those of you who main the cheetah.