Recently, the experimental changes have been really good. The game has kind of “reset”, with there not being a true “meta” for most people. So from here, will the balance team learn from their mistakes from all those years ago? We might finally have a balance team that balances correctly! (as I say this, the next few patches will give Zarya a 240 dps beam or something)
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They’re getting better, and I appreciate it. There’s still a few kinks for sure, and I hope Blizzard gets to them. They’ve been doing good lately.
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The changes are good. But what I really like is how frequently it changes.
If they can keep up the pace of a small balance patch every 2 weeks, for the next 6-8 months before OW2 launches. People are gonna be a lot less cranky with the lack of content.
Since making unplayable heroes into good heroes, is kind of like adding playable content.
28 Likes
It seems alright, it’s nice to watch streams of top 500 players not always playing the same composition constantly, very exciting. I’m even starting to see Sigma slowly creep in. But of course the struggle comes down to the differences of various ranks. For instance, I think an example would be, a lot of players would complain about the state of Brigitte despite being utilized at higher rank play still to some success. So, I think there will still be a little bit of tweaking here and there to try to satisfy the player base at various levels.
Ironically, I think the lack of a new hero coming in every 4 months has allowed things to really shift then settle between balance patches a bit easier, easier to asses and make changes for the game. So, once we go back to having cycles of new heroes, things are going to be quite crazy again.
5 Likes
It looks like it is getting better. The one thing that could ruin it is when the new hero’s from OW2 launch are introduced they might break the game all over again. Look at how the pattern of new hero’s almost always creates a power rift between most hero’s and a select few that benefit.
Let’s hope blizz is smart about how these hero’s are introduced.
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I’m expecting this to happen to be completely honest.
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I’m under the impression that Blizz is balancing the new heroes as they are balancing OW. Once Blizz feels like we’re in a near perfect balance spot in OW they will dump the new game & new heroes onto us 
My guess, May of 2021
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Honestly I’d say not really. I mean what we have is after almost a solid two years of nothing be added to the game but balance changes… they ignored pretty much all content updates to focus on balance… and it’s still pretty bad.
The other issue is of course it’s not so much as “every hero is viable” as “every hero is trash, it doesn’t matter what you pick”.
Tank and support still suffer from maybe 2 hero’s be useful and the rest being effectively garbage. On top of all that a new hero could easily break the fragile system they have… and if OW 2 ever comes out we are supposed to get 5 new hero’s…
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Same. I have 0 faith in their abilities after the last 4 years. The only reason they are making changes now is due to OWL and if it wasn’t in season now we would be getting nothing right now.
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What’s the difference?
This is just wrong, literally the most tanks and supports are viable rn than from my memory ever in the game (besides goats but that deleted DPS)
1 Like
us sym mains are still waiting for them to fix the mistakes made to her in like the past year (cough infinite tp cough) let alone all the mistakes since OW release.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AlarmingScholarlyFlicker-size_restricted.gif
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Breaking characters that didnt need changes and then fixing them.
Yeah, that is some “age of good balance” right there 
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To me it really feels like we’re in a very good state of balance. Barring the usual common characters on Switch my platform (one of Bastion, Junkrat, or Pharah appear in every game 100% of the time), every character feels relatively viable right now. With the incoming Experimental changes to Orisa (who is the only character in the roster I haven’t found a use for), I think every character in the game can be played and be distinctly useful at most levels of play.
I think right now most people are angry/complaining because the power level of all the characters as a whole feels like it’s gone down. That + the characters people perceive to be overpowered right now (Ana, Zarya, hitscans(?)) seem to be the problem, but I’d bet that they’ll be fixed soon enough.
Quick edit - I also feel like the Overwatch Team is doing a great job right now. All of the changes in the latest Experimental feel very well thought out the more that I think about them, so I applaud them for their job so far.
2 Likes
Nope. The most important plays in any game is tempo and space control – in Overwatch, it used to be the exclusive province of tanks. Nowadays, I only play arcade where I can play DPS heroes which can do space control (torb, pharah, junkrat, symmetra). The few times I play regular QP, I play the traditional DPS (snipers, hitscan, etc.), and tanks seldom play for space these days, it’s always tempo and initiative, which is boring.
Put it in another way, the distribution of function between roles is still unhinged, with snipers being essential to control space and lines of sight, a role which used to be the exclusive province of tanks, and that’s fundamentally unbalanced.
I’m a tank main, and for as long as tanks stink to play, I’ll always consider the game unbalanced, despite the equal distribution of pick rate among all tanks.
I’d say yes but they’re giving Orisa two buffs, might be too much since they nerfed burst damage
Its quite shocking how much gm variety increased since hog got nerfed. Before it was all hog and zarya, all ana and mercy with a bit of zen. And mainly ashe and widow, but dps was still the most diverse. But like 9 heroes were being picked. Now pretty much all tanks are being picked a decent amount outside of sigma and orisa. All supports other than brig and bap. And quite a few dps have decent picks too.
Pretty crazy how much can change from a patch that pretty much only nerfed one OP hero. Opened up so many tank and support options.
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That queue is probably because annoying snipers are STILL dominating the game. Nobody wants to play tank because there’s nothing really to lead, you just end up wanting to play DPS. Most of the time you want to play BETTER or DIFFERENTLY than the DPS you’re dealing with while playing tank.
Headaches and annoyance are a part of playing tank, and this isn’t healthy for any gameplay in any game.
We all know why too. The barriers don’t stop Widowmaker or Ashe. They place at annoying angles and pick off your dps or your healers, which forces you to sit there annoyed that your characters are inferior in general at protection than required. This also makes you want to play BETTER than those healers or dps that failed you.
SO dink dink dink visible head vein.
MY NAMES WIDOWMAKER I play sniper duel then kill everyone after.
MY NAMES ASHE I throw dynamite, headshot everything, then call a running level 3 torbjorn turret.
MY NAMES HANZO, I got nerfed, but I’ll become meta if those two are made inferior.
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If they can keep up this “small balance changes every 2 weeks” when OW2 launches, then whatever problems the new heroes make will mostly be solved by the time the honeymoon period wears off.
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Nah I think that balancing is still being used to manipulate the meta; to give heroes a ‘time out’, and that solutions are often generic and make heroes more similar, and that favouritism exists.
1 Like