question, could you play without a bruiser? or are they optional?
if so then you really just cut down the amount tanks available which would increase the qeue times.
but at the same time removing 1 to be needed would also decrease the qeue times, so it’s really a plus minus equation that has a questionable outcome that you can’t really say for sure that would make a difference in qeue times.
but my solution would be instead of doing that, give either all the tanks a form of barrier and make them balanced so double barriers aren’t too strong or remove the current versions of barriers as they exist now to remove the need for one and rebalance abilities and characters that would be too strong without barriers.
It isn’t about bigger numbers, it’s about lower. Let’s say there’s 100 players in a queue. Like 20 tanks, 30 supports and 50 dps. The matchmaker can create 5 games then, right? Then if we split the tank role and the distribution inside the role would be uneven, but the OT role will chew away some dps players, say 8 MTs, 20 OTs, 30 supports and 42 dps. The matchmaker will only create 4 games.
So your point, there will be a bit less dps dudes in queue? In my example there will be 26 left in queue in 1-1-2-2 model vs 30 in 2-2-2. So 13.5% decrease in wait time for dps role specifically in cost of increasing it for supports and OTs, and also a lot of efforts in rebalancing the new role and readjusting the matchmaker. And it all depends on distribution of players inside the tank role and how many players will queue as bruisers. So the question: if we compare the possible profit to risks and efforts, does it worth it? And yea, the reality can be better than in my estimation but can be worse as well.
Honestly, I dont think buffing barrier tanks will solve the “people don’t wanna play tanks” problem. Like, I remember a few metas where tanks were, like, crazy powerful. when the Goats meta was at peak, people were glad to see a single Orisa in their ranked team. When the double shield (and RQ) came, the problem with Q times started. So people didn’t want to play Tanks, even when there was release Sigma around, who was really deadly, or Orisa who was just an immovable object with a cc. And more players still wanted to queue as dps. No, to make things better devs should make players want to play tanks. Easier said than done tho.
If you divide tanks into 2 sub roles as well why not go back to offense/defense heroes off/main healers … and + tankbuster … those are all valid subroles …
or better yet why not just let the game assign a hero to you. Let it pick depending on what the match demands. No more bickering, right ? Or why not just go play pong where the burden of choice is a non-issue and everything is perfectly balanced …
People clinch SO much to barrier tanks it is unreal … you gotta re-learn how to use cover, retreat, regroup and when to push with your tanks properly at some point.
Queue times cannot be solved by making the game even more predictable and boring.
This is a stellar idea. I’ve had reservations about 3-2-1 because of the effect on heroes such as Zarya, but this might solve that.
The only issue is that the devs would need to combine these changes with massive updates to every barrier tank, which would be very time consuming, and lead to short-term balance issues as things settle.
That’s one of the easy parts.
Just buff barrier tanks to somewhere around where they were in the last 1-3-2 test.
BarrierTank balance becomes a lot simpler when it’s just equalizing 4 heroes.
Without any concern for how 2xBarrier would be too strong or 0xBarrier would be too weak.
And they have the capability to make simple balance changes very quickly. In less than a week.
And the experimental mode, so they don’t have to worry about how it would affect Competitive.
It does both. 50% less Tanks needed, AND 50% more DPS spots, AND the capability to buff Barrier Tanks without worry about DoubleBarrier.
Waaay more than outweigh a few more DPS from a fraction of a low population group. Especially considering there was probably already a lot of overlap from OffTank players, and DPS players.
Spend almost all of your time on one role? Get put on cooldown for 20 QP games where you play the other roles. So, if you only play DPS, then every X-amount of games, you have to win 20 QP games of Support and Tank.
That way, it removes mostly DPS players from the Queue lessening the search times while also teaching the everyone the other roles.
I like this a lot, honestly. I logged in just to upvote this post. First, proposition regarding changing 2-2-2 that I think would be healthy for the game from all perspectives, or most all perspectives.
heroes to make balance.