They don’t but, the meta’s still greatly affect the lower ranks even if they don’t play the meta.
This was ladder at the end of last year during double shield meta.
h.t.t.p.s://i.imgur.com/ugilR01.jpg
Good distribution of tank viability, people can play what they want and still work.
This is now
h.t.t.p.s://i.imgur.com/d2Y36OX.jpg
The playerbase is now locked into just two tanks. By balancing for the 1%, and nerfing they effectively forced just two tanks into the population. Right now, Reinhardt’s pick rate is twice that of Orisa’s during double shield.
Someone even posted data they gathered during goats, and showed that tank balance was actually even better back then for the playerbase. And no it wasn’t because people were using goats, the devs already confirmed that goats barely happened on ladder. It’s just because you could combine any tank and it’ll work. Now, it’s either Reinhardt/Zarya or you’re throwing.
So your problem isn’t even related to balance or meta, is just “the perception of balance” as kaplan put it, in lower ranks where people haven’t caught up to the current actual meta and they just play what they know worked 7 months ago so it should still work and are scared to try something else. Also if you play rein dva against something that doesnt directly counter dva you would probably be fine most of the time, you know, if they aren’t playing a highly charged zarya or the sort
She works if the anchor tank is strong enough to protect the team by itself while the dive tank is off chasing down the Pharah.
Even in 2-2-2 we actually have to have anchor tanks strong enough to protect the team solo since they also have to protect the off tank. One tank defends, the other peels. We’re at a point where we need two defenders because the damage tanks are just ult batteries.
If we balanced at Plat or DIamond we could just call it in because the job is done. There are no major outliers in Plat or Diamond and the game has been balanced. Congratulations balance team you have finished your job and go home.
I’d settle for diamond. There’s a big difference between bronze and diamond but it’s still a transition as you go from bronze to gold to diamond, they still seem to atleast represent the players. But the difference between Diamond and Masters is unrecognizable.
This also remind me of an argument I used all the time back when people said Symmetra was a bad hero for lack of pro players picks. I said all the time that Symmetra kit simply do not fit the gameflow of a pro-tier match. She was slow, methodical, and reliant on punishing mistakes. However, that also made her an insane powerhouse on ladder for the simple fact that ladder is chaotic, and she had more than enough time to setup her gizmos and often teams would not clash 6v6, but in smaller skirmishes around the whole match.
I remember being one of the very few Symmetra players that actually called her OP because no matter how niche, not hero should sustain 60% winrate across all ranks. And that picture gets worse when you remember people used to throw matches just because someone in the team picked Symmetra. Ie, her winrate was actually supposed to be higher!
However, aiming at making her playable in pro play, the dev disguised her (necessary) nerf as a rework, changed the scope of how some of her abilities should perform, and made her one of the most teamwork-reliant hero in the game, alongside Sombra. Which, in the process, killed the interest from many Symmetra players that were used with their main being more independent.
All that for what? Around half dozen matches where a team TP-rush a point, and using her to boost-start Control maps and being immediately swapped out. That’s the payoff for the sacrifice of the enjoyment of about half of Symmetra mains. Was it worthy it?
Riot seem to understand some heroes are simply not supposed to shine in pro play, and that’s ok. As long as they shine within a certain player subgroup. It’s perfectly fine to just straight out admit “yeah, this character probably will never see pro play time, and there is nothing wrong with that”.
The game would still be balanced and we could knock off for lunch. The game is unrecognizable multiple times as you play. Silver and low gold is a transition. Low gold and mid plat is a shift. Mid plat and low Diamond. low Diamond to high diamond/low Masters. Low masters to mid masters and then to high masters/low GM.
Basically the game undergoes massive shifts as you rank up and the reason for these is people get better at the basics. The basics are you win games of OW. They are infinitely more important than whatever hero you select. Hero selection is so inconsequential to the result of a low ranked game that you can pick any hero for the job and if you play it well your team will win. That is the kind of balance Blizzard is shooting for.
Masters is a very weird league for OW though. Even the things it has that are similar to other leagues just are different because of the population makeup of it. Masters is made up of legit Masters players trying to rank up, GMs who hit a losing streak, and Diamonds who hit a winning streak for starters. All of those are normal but unlike other leagues the difference is MUCH greater difference in overall skill (encompassing more than just raw ability to play said hero).
However Masters also has that other element that is unique to it and that is GM players who are 1 tricking an off meta hero. You see so many more Zens, and Hogs, and Mercy’s, and Soldier’s etc. there just because it is where you end up if you try to play inferior heroes properly against people playing superior heroes properly which is why it is such a weird league (and the worst league in OW honestly).
Have you considered that Rein Zarya dominates because it’s strong, yet extremely safe and easy combo to perform? All Zarya has to do is bubble Rein whenever he gets damaged and, voila, you got your tank duo. Rein Dva and Rein Sigma is far stronger as proven by pro play, but they’re harder to execute because the synergy has to be constant, not just every 8 seconds.
As for Ana, she’s equally as strong as Bap, and not far away from Moira. She only benefits from being incredibly fun and an amazing hero lore and personality-wise
Nobody’s asking for that. You’re insisting that we balance for another minority as well while we are asking to balance for the majority. Plat and Diamond atleast resembles what the players are actually capable of. Balancing for GM where they’re doing things you’d never find in your normal game is unsustainable.
OW isn’t just balanced around GM. Blizz looks at all heroes in all ranks but it’s hard to buff or nerf heroes for one rank without breaking them in another
How do you buff a hero specifically in one rank without also changing their viability in another?
Widowmaker for example is already a great pick at high ranks, how do you buff her for lower ranked players without making Widow OP?
League of Legends and Overwatch are 2 very different games. Overwatch has dimension to it & a lot more variables to what the game allows
The reason I believe Overwatch needs to be balanced based on the best players is because there’s no incentive for good players to play competitively if heroes are not rewarded based on skill & effort put in. If you aren’t rewarded for being a better player that’s frustrating & not fun
Balancing around gm just makes tanks like orisa unviable in lower elos as a anchor tank people won’t touch characters in low elo like I won’t touch brig now smurfing unless I play with my top 500/gm friends bc you don’t get enough solo value bc no one finishes up that’s why doom fist is fun in gold
So if I understand correctly your point is Blizzard should keep flawed characters because people enjoy them instead of trying to fix them. So they also should’ve kept mercy with the 5 man rez because someone enjoyed it, or the triple rez in combat mercy etc etc, stuff that isn’t fun to play or play against for the most part. I don’t know man seems dumb to me, maybe I didn’t understand, maybe you didn’t understand, im just wasting time trying to explain and I thought it would be unlikely you would change your opinion so it was better with the little previous reply I think
