if people are happy at high elo, anyone should be happy at low elo as long as they are good, bad players will never be happy
Balancing the game exclusively around low/mid ranks (such as Platinum as you’re suggesting) would be as destructive for the game as exclusive balance around the highest levels of play would be as well.
For a Competitive game like Overwatch, the ideal philosophy would be balancing the game mainly around the highest levels of play, while at the same time paying very close attention to the impact of each and every change on all the other levels of play as well.
And well… That’s almost exactly the way Jeff described the development team’s philosophy in an official Dev Update a few months ago… Too bad though that after so many recent changes we can see that’s clearly not the case… 
Often it’s “as long as their teammates are good”.
I am sick of hearing “but tanks & supports are most impactful roles”. They are, at higher tiers, where DPS already reached their peak and no longer have much difference. Everywhere else, DPS are actual most impactful role.
Nobody wants to tank, because you are at mercy of your team, and if they aren’t great, you are screwed with little you can do to fix that. Similar for supports. And then we have nerfs justified by “but %hero_name% is too OP in high tiers”, that only make things harder for those, who still dared to pick tank/support in lower tiers.
I knew since beginning, that nerfing support buffs, for example, is awful idea - if buff is balanced on GM/top500 player, it would be pathetic on your average gold/platinum player.
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Or just rework reaper? Make reaper a hero with high skills ceilling, where he can get good value on higher ranks and not destroy lower ranks with low erfort
the issue we have is they are trying to somehow balance for high and low tier of play all at once
Balance is best done top-down. Everyone can look at the best, see what they are doing and learn in order to climb. Just keep in mind that gm tactics works when you get high masters, but might be crap for plat. But you can always learn the best way to play and improve all the way to the top.
If we would listen to this thread and balance for the middle, then the game would get worse and worse the better you are. So then, where is the incentive to get better? You would have an increasingly worse experience the better you are, which is really bad for a game.
Im in plat. But I also know some stuff that are my problem areas since I can watch top500 players and how they play. So if I wanted to climb I know what to focus on to climb quickest. Middle of the balancing would make that impossible.
the game shouldn’t adapt for the players who can’t play it well
they should adapt for the game
And they adapt, by picking DPS instead. At least as DPS, you are more in control of your own impact, as it doesn’t rely on others that much.
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No the game should be balanced around OWL as they are playing it the way it is meant to be played. Ranked ladder play is not team play and should also be ignored at all levels.
like it or not
supports are basically dps heroes with healing and utility put into their kit
tanks are kinda the same but they have even more powerful abilities than supports with a bit of a less bursty kinda playstyle
also congratulation on 15k posts lol
But majority of the playerbase is in plat/gold so screw everyone else I guess
Not really
i don’t think games should be balanced around gm
but around the really high gm players and owl
No, the issue is how they balance. Both how they balance between high and low tiers and just balance in general.
u tell me that sym , zen and pharah buffs were meant for higher tiers ? come on
What?
no one that is gm+ asked for pharah or sym to get buffed
and zen was already doing well on some maps if played decently
everyone at the high tiers were asking for orisa nerfs specifically halt
In short.
The game doesnt get balanced around one specific rank.
The game gets balanced with all ranks in mind, but taking pro player, coach, etc opinions into accord more than casual players, because they know more about the game.
Its not specifically to GM, a lot of coaches for example are masters, or even diamond.
If they only balanced at GM, you wouldnt see the changes to moira, since moira is already in a good state in GM, you wouldntve seen half of the brig or mercy nerfs back when they happened because both of them were okay in GM before they were okay in lower ranks.
Ok, and?
Balance with GM and Top500 as a more heavily weighted consideration is imperative. I think that’s a good thing.
Focusing only on them and ignoring the rest of the playerbase is just shafting 99% of the playerbase. That’s where I’m not thrilled and I feel frustrated.
you want the devs to balance the game based on people that don’t know how to play… cool