That is to say, if its just an Arcade mode, that is fine, but as a competitive mode, it is inherently broken.
i will try to explain the best i can my thoughts, if you have any questions, i will try to explain as best i can.
the only upside to the system: lower queue times for DPS.
- yes the queue times for DPS are long for Comp, but this will always be a thing. People love to play DPS, they love to have the power to kill people quickly, they love having free rein on anyone they want to, and the only things holding you back are your own mechanics. Because there are so many people who want to play DPS, it means that it takes longer to get a match, its like if 50 people want to get through a door, it creates a bottleneck and slows down how fast someone can get through the door. having an extra slot lowers this time to get through the door to play a match.
Now why 1-3-2 is terrible for a Competitive mode.
1 tank
- A tanks job is to soak up damage, and create space for the dps to get damage onto the enemy team. when you have 3 damage shooting at you all at once, it is nearly impossible to create space long enough to have your team throw down damage. so the match breaksdown into basically Team DeathMatch (TDM). no structure to the game, its just a free for all but with friendlies.
and then there is the CC. do you all remember when doom, mei, and brig were all meta, and brig could stun through shields? do you remember all the rage from tank players about the abundance of CC in the game? 1-3-2 is basically that 2.0. Being a Tank without any peel feels terrible, especially when Sombra exists.
Tanks cant play the way the characters are designed to be played, because they werent designed for that kind of playstyle. (dont worry ill get to the “reworks” soon.)
Pocket Healers
- Playing support with 1-3-2 feels terrible because you need to focus all of your attention to trying to keep your tank alive. so you basically are forced into being a pocket for your tank. the DPS go out everywhere, not staying with the team, because they have more freedom to spread out, without an off tank, DPS have free reign on supports and the solo tank. But this is about Supports. supports now, because of the exclusion of Off tanks, whose main role is to peel, or protect the supports, the supports are next to free kills for any flanking DPS. Which, as stated earlier, is all DPS.
the "Reworks"
- the reworks for off tanks, to be more Main tank like are fundementally broken. they are not designed to operate as a main tank, and so giving Zarya a chain bubble ability, doesnt make zarya a main tank. as stated earlier, Main tanks create space and soak up damage. this is most easily down with shields because all the area behind the shield DPS are safe to lay damage through. that is way any tank with a shield is considered a main tank. (yes, even Sigma) How does a bubble create space? it doesnt, yes it soaks up damage, but it doesnt last long enough, either because of its duration, or the bubble health, to get any meaning full damage done. the only rework that seems acceptable is the hog “vape” rework. Players have been asking for something like this because Hog cant create space, and due to any damage abosortion abilities (i.e. DM, Bubble, Shield) it makes him feel incredibly squishy, even for someone with 600hp. the Vape heal over time (HOT) helps negates this, in conjunction with the damage reduction from his vape. it allows him to easily tank damage, and not get severely penalized for it. this is a great rework for Hog, but if you are the only tank, and this new vape is the only survival ability you have against 3 DPS laying damage into you, then the HOT, is near useless, and you basically just become a 3rd healer.
The Broken Structure
- The Fundementals of the game are completely destroyed with the 1-3-2 mode, in a Comp Setting. because there are not longer Off-tanks to peel for supports, while the main tank creates space for DPS, supports become sitting ducks. DPS no longer play with the team because they dont need to. they dont have to worry about waiting for the right time to jump on a support and delete them, they dont need to communicate with the team to organize an attack, they can just freely go in, and kill the supports, the only things that is preventing them from killing the supports, are their own mechanics, and the supports aim to either kill you before you kill them, or to land a clutch sleep. and even if 1 support gets killed, then there isnt enough healing to keep the tank up, so the tank dies and it creates a domino effect. The Characters were not designed to have 1 tank, and 3 dps.
TLDR:
- Fun for DPS
- DPS have free reign
- Tanks get deleted too quickly
- Supports become tank Pockets
- breakdown of Game structure
- Characters werent designed for it so it wont work
- ability reworks dont make off tanks into Main tanks
- CC hell will come back
- Fine for Arcade, Not for Comp.
