What! What is this? A Miko guide that I’ve missed? And I wasn’t even notified!? I do not accept this!
Joking aside, there are a few things I’d like to say with regards to both the video itself as well as its content.
Before I get into it though, I know it was said at the start of the video that it wasn’t meant to maximise anything and it was a build to have fun with, but it was structured more as a character guide than a build-suggestion video as it builds on the premise that the viewer is not familiar with Miko or his helixes. Therefore I’ll treat the video as if though it is a character guide and you can treat excessive criticism as, well, excessive depending on the intention of the video.
For the video itself;
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It takes too long getting into the actual content of the video in my opinion. This is something that almost all gaming youtubers to do though to my experience, which is one of the main reasons why I barely follow any of them. It’s not until 50 seconds into the video until the “actual” content of the video starts, and 2 minutes until the helix is looked at. It could be good to go through the character’s abilities as was done in the video, but then make sure to have gameplay in the background to show the skills in action. After all, there’s a big difference between reading the descriptions of a skill and seeing it in action.
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The vocabulary should be more correct and primarily distanced from self. Spore Cloud was referenced as a “grenade” which is entirely out of place with regards to Miko. In the same sense, you want to try to never mention yourself when talking about the subject at hand for a much better analysis (e.g “I’m going to lean towards Pervasive Poison because…” → “Pervasive Poison is better because…” etc.).
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Change the showcases of damage/healing to individual rather than accumulative to better illustrate the differences in values (such as for Healer’s Oath).
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More consistent showcase videos. Some seem to be in public games, others in private matches. You typically don’t want to mix the two without a reason since it makes it more confusing. The best way to showcase differences for specific aspects is for everything else to remain consistent.
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Reduce the “dead time”, both in the videos and the audio. There are multiple instances where nothing is happening in either the video, audio or both. Trim the videos more precisely and make sure to never be quiet in the video.
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Add background music if you can, it greatly elevates the experience of watching guides.
My favourite gaming youtuber, who is the only one I subscribe to as well, is Datto. He played Battleborn for a while and wanted to make content on it, but it wasn’t worth the time and effort in relation to other content as it wasn’t as popular. He made a good guide for Montana before he quit;
It’s not perfect, it has some of the same problems I mentioned earlier, but this guide is otherwise simply pleasant to watch and listen to because it doesn’t have awkward pauses, a pleasant tone of voice and appropriate background music.
You got a large thing right though which he didn’t; showcasing each individual helix with the corresponding helix & description shown at the screen. To be even more picky than I’ve already been, the execution could be better to make it look better, but the principle of having there is spot on in my eyes.
For the content;
- Do more research into the character before doing these by looking up guides, tips & tricks and players who main the specific character in question for better accuracy with regards to the viability of certain helixes and why. For instance;
Here’s Kitru’s guide for Miko;
Here’s my guide for Miko;
Also, it was awkward having the narration not knowing what pronoun to use for Miko at the start. It was a running gag in the marketing for the game, but for guides it comes off as being ignorant of the character which undermines the credibility of the guide. I consciously use “him” rather than “them” for instance purely to avoid confusion in a broader sense.
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Again, I know this was meant to be a build suggestion video, but I felt that the video too heavily streamlined his helix tree. Miko has, in my eyes, one of the best helix trees in the game because virtually no level is a “wasted level” in terms of helixes and few helixes are actually bad. Most are good and have great synergies with one another depending on how to spec for it. In my guide, I made 4 different suggestions depending on circumstances, team comps and modes.
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There are multiple things in the video I disagree in terms of various helix’s viability, but my thoughts are in my guide I linked if you wish to see what I think of the respective helixes.
The levels and helixes I have in mind are;
Reasoning at level 1
Reasoning at level 2
Evolutionary Emergence
Reasoning at level 4
Reasoning at level 5
Probiotics
Reasoning at level 8
Reasoning at level 9
We Are Many
- As for gear, my guide is incomplete but still points to what Miko benefits from & @blainebrossart1 covered what I haven’t in the guide.
A last thing as well; review the video before publishing it to make sure it’s correct.
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When showcasing First Responder, you never actually show it since Biosynthesis never gets activated.
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When showcasing Spore Storm, the video and audio more or less completely fails, I initially thought my device was spazzing out.
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When showcasing Resilient Strain, you say that it’ll synergise with Trail of Spores while you’re showing footage of Sticky Spores instead.
This became a bit longer than intended, but hopefully it helps!
