6v6 developer Q&A summary

General Discussion
1

Everything is from Spilo’s Q&A with Aaron Keller and Alec Dawson. Sections and points within them are ordered from most to least interesting.

6v6 future

  • They’re not open to removing 5v5 right now 2:21:40.
  • Depending on popularity and retention, future could be 2:22:09:
    1. Another queue, with a ranked version. This is if the test is really popular.
    2. A limited time event that returns often like Classic.
    3. A limited time event that returns rarely, like April Fools, possibly once a year, if the test is not that popular.
    4. Nothing if it’s very unpopular, but they don’t expect this.
  • Worried about player fragmentation, might remove some other queues if 6v6 returns as a permanent queue. Alec Dawson uses Open Queue as an example queue that could be cut, but Aaron Keller says it’s the 3rd most popular mode and that they’re not talking about that right now 2:23:57.
  • Success gradient is dependent on popularity, retention, and whether players return for the test. They’ll look at what roles play the test and what it does to queue times of both 6v6 and the standard gamemodes. Worst case scenario is too many tanks prefer 6v6 and have long queues in it, while queue times for other roles in standard gamemodes gets much worse. Best case scenario is the right amount of tanks so that 5v5 queue times aren’t too affected and queue times are good in 6v6 1:58:32.
  • Team feedback on Min 1 Max 3 mixed, possible if it fails they revert the test to 2-2-2 1:38:22.
  • Long queue times not unacceptable if people want to play 6v6 more anyway and are willing to wait 2:09:20.
  • 2-2-2 6v6 test rescheduled to be near beginning of Season 14, before Min 1 Max 3 test 1:37:32.
  • Worried about hero divergence. What if a rework is needed in one mode but not the other? 2:03:10.
  • Committed to faster balancing, using double shield as an example 2:11:50.
  • Season 14 tests will be for a total of 6 weeks 1:39:30.
  • Technical performance data is very important 2:01:20.
  • 2-2-2 is the test the team is most excited for 2:33:04.
  • Can make changes to increase a role’s popularity as they did for Support in Overwatch 2, no silver bullet 2:10:30.
  • Aaron likes the passion and how strongly people prefer 5v5 or 6v6 2:40:38.
  • Downside of 2-2-2 6v6 first is they were hoping having Min 1 Max 3 first would help initial 2-2-2 6v6 balance 1:40:48.

2-2-2 6v6 balance examples

  • Tanks keep ult charge reduction passive, but health passive, crit reduction passive, and knockback reduction passive removed. Tanks will have less uptime 1:42:20.
  • DPS passive stays 1:43:09.
  • Self-heal passive goes from 5 to 7 seconds, 2.5 to 3.5 seconds for supports 1:43:20.
  • No discussion of Season 9 changes.
  • Anything that stays in the playspace for long durations will have duration nerfed, such as Mauga Cage and Lifeweaver Tree 1:45:36.
  • Roadhog rework reverted, alt fire returns, no Pig Pen which is more clutter 1:45:00.
  • Winston keeps alt fire, they removed it but Aaron Keller wanted it back 1:44:35.
  • Reinhardt loses one firestrike, charge has less steering and increased cooldown but can still be cancelled 1:46:16.
  • Ramattra shield cooldown increased by a few seconds, typical of tank cooldown increases 1:42:55.
  • Zarya has separate bubble cooldowns again 1:46:12.
  • Kiriko and Lifeweaver healing increased because they were struggling 1:52:38.
  • Ana cooldown reductions, full sleep potency against tanks 1:43:50.
  • Zenyatta Discord orb is stronger and cooldown on a target removed 1:43:42.
  • Mei freeze not returning, they don’t want more hard CC 1:45:50.

General game future

  • Quicker, good updates are healthy. Not variety for variety’s sake but some players appreciate the variety. It’s taken time to lose old habits, design was very defense-oriented, wanted attackers to have to use teamwork to crack the nut, Paris and Eichenwalde were intentionally designed like this. They now like people being able to move, escape, make plays, don’t want teams just stall out in areas. Too many symmetrical gamemodes at this point, but less stalling. Playmaking and carry potential a huge deal to a lot of players, Overwatch has some of the lowest carry potential of competitive shooters, maybe of competitive PvP games, but this phiilosophy shift helped 2:12:47.
  • Want more strategy, more layers of decisionmaking, whether it be prematch or in match. Also searching for something permanent for more casual players, Junkenstein’s Lab was in this direction 2:34:50.
  • New heroes maps and modes isn’t enough, Overwatch should change more fundamentally 2:39:28.
  • Vision for core Overwatch is a serious competitive game, but they want more of a beginning-middle-end story for a match with things to look forward to 2:36:28.
  • Will continue to test but rounding corner, want to implement lessons from them more. Open Queue Quick Play is 3rd most popular mode, 7% to 10% of player hours per day. There could be better versions of Open Queue, they want feedback 2:29:10.
  • They have other format ideas that are less “crazy” or maybe closer to something they’ve done previously, but are looking at the reception to Season 14 tests 1:40:35.

6v6 versus 5v5

  • Support was almost as unpopular as tank at the start of Overwatch 2, but quickly rose in popularity over the first two seasons 1:53:48.
  • Support is more engaging in Overwatch 2 than Overwatch 1. Aaron thinks parts of the tank experience are better in 6v6, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better for other roles 1:54:30.
  • There’s less space for DPS role, but you can coordinate with your offtank. You don’t get to flank as freely, but you can duel tanks 1:55:57.
  • In 5v5 it felt like there was more space to breath. In 6v6 tanks still have freedom of movement but other roles have a lot less 1:56:34.

Min 1, Max 3

  • DPS is most popular role, and they recognize that the best compositions will usually only have one, tension between how players want to play and what’s optimal, this mode is probably not the right answer 2:05:39.
  • Attempt to find a hybrid for fast queues with some structure that solves problems from Open Queue, 6v6 2:04:39.
  • 3-1-2 is pretty popular, but 2-1-3 can be quite good too, double sniper maybe on certain maps 2:05:12.

Kingmaker

  • If they ever implemented anything like Kingmaker, bonuses would be more individualized 2:27:30.
  • Sole Tank gets a speed boost and CC reduction 2:26:57.
  • Sole Damage gets a health bonus and cooldown reduction 2:27:04.
  • Sole Support gets a health bonus, heal more, and cooldown reduction 2:27:08.
  • Hero swapping is clunky 2:27:50.

Classic event

  • This event is just the launch meta, no changes during it besides hero limits 1:35:55.
  • Repeats will depend on reception, but would visit different metas 1:34:56.
22 Likes
2

Thanks for the summary!

7 Likes
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You did link the Q&A but in case anyone wants to watch it here:

Timestamp: 1h26m50s

6 Likes
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This is a rough read. No one is going to want to play tanks with nerfed health and all their passives stripped away while DPS keeps anti and we’re playing with S9 hitboxes. It makes sense to not want tanks to have the same survivability as they currently do, but what they’re proposing is way too far.

10 Likes
5

No, no no, all role wide passives should go keep the self heal and normalise it between the roles (no supports triggering it faster)

I hope they change more than just these things. Especially things like Cardiac and shout because if they don’t 6v6 will not work.

Thank god for that…

No support changes for 222? Do they want it to fail?

1 Like
6

I mean tanks will take a hit regardless going to 6v6….so tanks players better get used to the idea at some point if that’s what they really want

Ty for summary/link KaKafe

1 Like
7

Yes, these were examples, but in general they said Overwatch 2 tanks were designed differently and will need adjustments so there are windows of opportunity to make plays, I expect at least cooldown increases across the board.

2 Likes
8

Nah they need more than just cooldown adjustments, cardiac shouldn’t affect allies for a start same with shout.

1 Like
9

Not sure exactly how I feel about this. I’m also worried about spreading the playerbase too thin in certain areas. I think keeping both formats permanently may do more harm than good. Considering that the balance team will then have to have 2 separate balancings per hero. But hopefully I’m wrong and they can both work alongside each other.

1 Like
10

Yeah,well,6v6 is never gonna be that good if they do this. Are they really expecting to balance 2 separate team formats individually?

11

Nah, screw it, Neonwight was right! 5v5 is better.

3 Likes
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I mean personally I just don’t care. I tried it and eventually just quit tanking in OW2. I did spend all day tanking in OW classic though and actually had fun in it.

2 Likes
13

Yeah honestly this is setting the test up for failure. I don’t know what they are thinking here.

4 Likes
14

I like this part. It should happen regardless of 6v6, imo.

So… You’re ok with giga tanks, only now there are two of them? The main argument of 6v6 is that tanks should be killable again, but in return they can synergize with each other and “have fun”.

15

Maybe it’s a psyop to get people to stop demanding 6v6, either as a returning or separate format.

5 Likes
16

I mean, they are all things not present in ow1. Even losing 150 health; most tanks prob still have as much as in ow1. Maybe still more.

I do think ppl will be used to how busted tanks are atm, and moving to a more reasonable state once there are 2, will be jarring.

2 Likes
17

If I had to guess rein will still keep his since he had it in 6v6 already. You’ll be fine

Sigma will probably be the same hero. Still. At the very least I will hardly find it jarring

1 Like
18

In 5v5 absolutely

They should also get rid of the DPS passive in 6v6. Stripping only tanks of their passives is my issue. I’m ok with tanks losing their passive in 6v6 but DPS absolutely should lose theirs too. And the support passive should go as well. Passive healing existing for all roles is fine but supports shouldn’t get it faster in 6v6.

Remove all passives or none, preferably all.

3 Likes
19

bla bla bla bla, we know when 6vs6 test is over ow2 will keep being a terrible game no worth playing, they mention nothing of the story, not interested on their empty promises,

all their excuses for keeping 5vs5 when they deleted 6vs6 and made a lot of people leave without asking.

oh yes aaron you should, like you did with the pve

nobody likes open queue, they didnt care to fragment ow1 players

all the new ow2 characters work on 6vs6, junker queen is literally designed to be an offtank because being a solo tank is awfull

faster means they will have less time to think and see the effects of what they are doing which means bad balance

jajaj acting like is new when is what players have been asking for years and what ow1 already had, again using hype for ow1 features

yes aaron thats why you were quit for two years and didnt wanted to be asked about the topic on interviews

well the 6vs6 test is cooked, if they are going to keep this crap dont even bother

literally no, is what kills the game, they have nothing to update, just forcing balance patches nobody ask for for the sake of having something, quality of cosmetics are awfull, no events, no story, nothing

aaron keller is very close to reinvent the pve skill tree he canceled, lol, this person should be fired

no way aaron, tell me more, maybe some sort of story mode

yes aaron that happens when you uber buff a role and make it not fun for the rest of the roles

lol this guy dont even know it own game, 5vs5 dont let you space to breath, if you screw once is game over

20

after reading all of this, wow, i can 100% tell these devs have no clue what the hell they are talking about, how you can be this inept at a game you have been balancing for 4-8 years (i have no clue how long aarron has been working there)

1 Like