Ok, before I get into what makes Ana OP, the major glaring issue that gives her the appearance of being OP is the fact there is only one tank on both teams. Usually, in 6v6, if your other tank got anti’d, the other tank could peel and “swap” places momentarily like a baton pass, which promoted healthy strategy to act accordingly. If both tanks got anti’d, they can peel for each other so they don’t get melted.
But, in 5v5… Ana gets a LOT more value by just anti’ing the singular tank, over and over again because DPS don’t have CC abilities to help peel the tank. That was the purpose of the partner tank.
And without a second tank, it means one less giant health pool to manage, which means a LOT more healing is channeled into everyone else. Its why supports seem so “OP” right now. It would be like taking a cookie and trying to give it to 6 kids. Take one kid out and suddenly there is a lot more cookie going around. Makes sense, right?
My point is Ana can get insane value just cc’ing the one tank over and over again since there isn’t another tank to help offset the targeting. If Ana did this in a 6v6, it would be throwing since she wouldn’t accomplish anything. This same issue stems with Zens discord, pocket Mercy, Baptiste pocket…5v5 is inherently unhealthy for the game. And because of the universal support passive that grants healing when out of combat, Ana doesn’t have to sacrifice her nade at all to heal herself in a pinch; she can use it a lot more offensively. That should also be looked at for Ana specifically.
The only way this game will get remotely decent balancing is if we return to 6v6. 5v5 was a fun little experiment, but its outstayed its welcome.
Everyone knows this. The only people who prefer 5 v 5 are DPS mains, so they’ll stomp their feet and boo. All they want is the fight to be over in less than 5 seconds so they don’t have to pay attention to cooldowns.
Well, should only take a few more years to balance the classic cast for the move from 6v6 to 5v5. They might finish the maps updates for 5v5 by then too.
Agreed. Ana was always fine. In 6v6, a second tank acted as mobile cover to spread out the overall damage done to the team, which meant all the focus fire wasn’t entirely on the tank who got naded. And don’t come at me saying get gud and play more smart/tactical. This is Overwatch where movement and aggression makes it fun. Ana’s always been fine and till this day remains one of the most fun kits in OW. 5v5 is the problem.
Lets not pretend for a second that any of these characters got well and truly reworked for 5v5. A lot of them were given terribly thought out changes, tanks especially. Overwatch 2’s PvP was a rush job, we literally have the confirmation of this, and its changes were and are just as poorly planned as this sequel was from the beginning.
It wont happen, because Blizzard doesnt admit to mistakes, but we just need 6v6 back. They at least had 7 years of live development going for that game, and those heroes. We still have those old numbers and it would be easier to fix the game and its characters from that point than it would be to give every last hero a truly comprehensive and well thought out numbers rework.
Overwatch 2’s PvP was a rush job forced out the door to feed the community they starved for 3 years just so Blizzard could work more on the “super cool” PvE they cancelled. At this point I think we all know this “sequel” is just an excuse to change the business model to be as predatory and downright illegal in some countries as possible in the name of money, and a big shiny “2” and lighting gels stuck to our cameras was just a way to pull us back in.
5v5 was rushed because Jeff wanted to waste time neglecting PvP for PvM, sure. But it remains true that the playerbase has nowhere near enough players willing to play tank to enable 6v6. We barely have enough to cover 1 tank per 2 supports as is, and that’ll certainly remain true until tanks get higher agency gameplay, which would involve fixing heroes like Ana anyhow.
Never. 5v5 is fundamentally bad for the game and many, many others agree. Either they keep going the 5v5 route and keep ruining hero identities, or have somewhat of a decent game with 6v6.
And that doesn’t solve the inherent issue with other heroes. Just look what they did to Zen to try and make him “fit” in 5v5. Whos to say they won’t destroy other supports? Tanks need a partner, otherwise this long tired game of rock paper scissors is going to continue.
And with that you kind of prove the point I go around screaming on this forum. 5v5 was solely implemented because Blizzard was so inept at tank balance and game design that in order to get queue times down they:
A. Remove a tank slot to half the required tanks that needed to be found
and
B. Be able to justify buffing tanks to kingdom come so they can be very overpowered power fantasies, offsetting even slightly how bad it feels to play the role (once again thanks to their ineptitude)
Making it a 5v5 didnt solve their problem. Tanks are still not fun to play, and they still cant get players to queue the role. Their problems are still there and still need to be addressed. You cant just massively alter the game in a way that invalidates 7+ years of worth of changes and data to hide your failures and expect people to jump and clap for you when you do.
5v5 was a mistake and if Blizzard would drop the ego for a second they’d give us 6v6 back and revert just about all they reasonably could from overwatch 2. That way only 5 (counting mauga) heroes need fixing instead of 35.
And even this isnt a perfect thing because the new maps we’re designed around 5v5, same as the new heroes. Blizzard has backed themselves into a corner with their poor planning and both decisions need immense amounts of work to make right. 6v6 is still the right route, and instead of begrudgingly accepting my shafting, im gonna cry about it. Maybe people follow my lead and something happens, maybe not.
Im not saying Ana isn’t OP. I’m saying shes indirectly insanely good right now because of 5v5 giving her all these benefits that negate her negatives almost entirely.
Sure they would fix Ana and remove the support passive for her which would solve some issues, but it wouldn’t solve the inherent issue that only one tank means she gets a lot more value from targeting them. This can go for literally any other hero in the game. Ex: Bastion destroying Rein/Winston since you can’t have D.VA to offset bullet rain compositions.
5v5 is like a hydra. Fix one problem, two others spring up in their place. 5v5 isn’t working.
Mate it doesn’t matter how many people agree with you. 5v5 is here to stay and that’s what we call reality. The change to 5v5 wasn’t done lightly and if there was any chance that they’ed ever revert in the future they probably wouldn’t have made the move.
Yo you got some insider knowledge, or did I just miss the memo where God decreed Overwatch a perma 5v5. You legit know nothing about whether or not its here to stay. Get enough people behind the change and itll happen at some percentage or another.
Is it likely? God no, but instead of taking the shafting like a good little boy we’re genuinely trying to make the game better just like anyone voicing an opinion on the forum.
Tell me what in a vacuum has a better chance at success, a game that started development in 2014 built around and added upon for 6v6 all the way up until 2022, or a bunch of CONFIRMED TO BE rush job changes to try and address a sudden 5v5.
