If the devs claim that they use data to bring certain changes with balances, how is it that sojourn, who is arguably still one of the highest picked dps heroes in the game, now with the mercy healing buff that makes her harder to kill, not been addressed since the past “nerfs” to her?
How can they implement such damning changes to a hero like mercy who can’t one shot across the map, but not the same type of changes to a hero like sojourn? Also PLEASE, the fact power slide still has the ability to just magically levitate back onto the map after being booped off is so silly. why is that still even a thing.
There’s a huge difference between “using the data”, “using the correct data” and “using the data correctly”. One can draw absolutely wrong conclusions from the same data.
Further read:
h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
and a good old
h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance
Because the data they use is sales data, viewership counts, sentiment analysis, and engagement metrics.
They’re not simulating ttk breakpoints for different accuracy% and micro-mechanical combinatorics and interactions upto depth=k, to decide what % of humans can get away with what level of tuning. They’re doing this indirectly with some player data, but that’s so readily spoofed and context-centric…it’s just not in the same league as simulated playouts and raw (data free) structural or model-theoretic analysis.
There is math out there which will give you ‘objective’ balance design, but it ignores all the feels, all the subjectivity, all the stupid out-of-touch content creator takes, and all the results and data that players put up. It is very strong math, that most normies wouldn’t be ready for or like to see.
Also, they can change params mid-match “applying patch” → to force closeness and fun and pop-off moments. They use other rigging layers as well.
So there really is no discussion of “balance”, when your lobbies are forced towards 50-50 balance no matter what. That’s why they need layoffs and new hires who will approach things with a few more brain cells.
I do not care what anyone says about the data of Sojourn specifically’s unmirrored winrate. It doesn’t matter because she’s picked 99% of the games she’s in diamond-masters+ “the stats don’t lie” yeah there is other numbers to look at like her damage numbers? You know the ones that break every metric in the game right now? Without a mercy pocket you two tap a squishy by pressing M2 and M1 very quickly together and with a mercy it only takes M2. Let’s also mention how she has crowd control and one of the best dps movement abilities in the game!
I agree that SJ in particular has been an issue. Data doesn’t tell the whole story, but when a hero is so profoundly above the rest then it’s an issue. But solving that issue isn’t simple. Bringing it back ‘into balance’ takes modelling and testing (as mentioned in my post above), with nuances towards not hurting muscle memory, alienating hero mains and otps, and understanding the effects on the meta.
That said, I think they just force meta changes for freshness. Moving stuff deliberately into the over/under powered is how they spin fresh content for a fresh season. Instead of, you know, getting things dialed in to some globally satisficing conditions.
As a one trick pony of Genji I can assure you that regardless of how upsetting it is, if you truly like a hero you’ll keep playing them. That leads to the next point, I truly don’t believe that people actually enjoy playing against or as Sojourn, the fact you can die to a fast projectile that leads into a hitscan railgun shot just feels cheap, oh and remember her movement
precisely why so many characters have been nerfed into oblivion for no valid reason. which backfired: imgur.com/a/Mv9i9Tu
for example: devs nerf immort do to “initial” gripes about it, when the gripes were honestly due to unfamiliarity. now immort is melted instantly endlessly usually. devs nerfed exo jump, simply bc a very few jumped frequently, now who jumps much at all? devs nerfed bap damage. due to exceptionalism of exceptionals, but devs failed to factor lengthy of match along with hero hours played with bap. mindlessness. historically, the average elims with bap, per 10 minutes is, 10 elims. proving impulsive invalidity of nerfs. which is why bap is rarely seen on the battlefield of either team.
Oh my god it’s the shakespeare guy! How u been man.
However though, immortality field was and is still an objectively broken ability. This just shows you do not know how to play Baptiste because true Baptiste players or “exceptionals” as you like to refer them to know how to position it to keep people alive and not have it break.
His jump should be mainly used to reposition not to have a spammable tool. Also his damage is ridiculous, like absolutely insane. A 3 round burst on a 25 damage hitscan gun, (he does a whole 2 less damage as Genji per bullet, but the tradeoff is he’s hitscan) with a giant mag and he can heal and has lamp. He is a very good pick still.
To be honest with the way they balance the game I wouldn’t be surprised if what they really mean under “we use the data” is something like
– Hey, that was a nice party yesterday …
– Yeah, no kidding, I’m still hungover… btw, care to pass me that disk over?
– Sure thing, here you go
– Oh, nice… I lost my coffee pad… was too drunk… now I can place my coffer cup safely on this disk
– Yeah, btw, we got to deploy a new patch tonight
– Yeah… on it
OW game designers demonstrating exactly what happens when you balance purely around out of context statistics
there’s a reason why OW is notorious for having some of the worst balancing in PvP game history, and why “Do the devs even play their own game?” is a common sentiment amongst the player base
But then this just brings the question of who the HECK are they listening to? Bc we already know theyre not listening to their players, and never have been.
These new Mercy changes prove that 100% bc they managed to make EVERYONE upset with them. I don’t even think they test these changes, nor do they know anything about this game in essence to understand how it plays.
All the talent leaving the team really shows. Even the way they speak about reasonings behind certain balance changes AND in the dev streams is just embarrassing. This game is run by
its broken alright. broken as in useless. it sounds like, historically immort has always given you a hard time, fragile or not.
dummy, ppl aren’t often clustered where it would need to be positioned for its fragility NOT TO break. see how dumb and desperate you are? i get it. fearful of actual immort resiliency and usefulness, bc you’re an excessive ineffective.
well ow own logs reveal that is was mainly used to reposition, dummy. if you’re gonna debate, be good at it.
fiction. you’re just ***. so anything is ridiculous to you.
genji and bap are both underpowered dummy. therefore invalid example. think harder. i get it. you rather we forget genji got nerfed not too long ago.
so good that he’s rarely seen on the battlefield of either team. you were born stupid. i get it: imgur.com/a/Mv9i9Tu
you’re scared of an unnerfed bap. as any ineffective would be. we get it.
Well, here is the deal. Sojourn doesn’t do that well for most of the playerbase.
They have said so many times, and have given stats showing it.
She is however a problem in the very high ranks, but that is now the place which Blizzard will just accept things break down in.
It is perfect? no. But no balancing system is.
I think people have this weird idea that they can make a balancing system which works perfectly for all ranks, and it just isn’t going to be like that - so they are in tradeoff territory.
Personally, I think they should treat her like Tracer, balance her for high ranked play, and just accept she won’t be all that good below that.
There are basic rules which I follow.
It is ok for a hero to be bad in some ranks - people will complain, but it is better than breaking the game.
It is not ok for a hero to be brokenly good in SOME ranks - aka, don’t break the game even if it is only for a subset of your players.
It is not ok for a hero to be bad in all ranks - aka, all heroes should have a place where they are good, or you should buff them until they are.
Given those restrictions, you want to spread a heroes “heroes they are viable” to as many ranks as you can.
As it happens I think she is falling out of meta now, so they may have fixed her high ranked play issues.
Literally Genji didn’t need nerfs bc hes a high skill ceiling hero and was fine even in the lower ranks bc it was easy to pick off a genji that didn’t know what he was doing. I started as gold 3 in season 1 when he got nerfed and ended that season in masters so I saw how he performed in all of those ranks and he was not a highly picked dps player bc of his skill ceiling so really, he’s also one of the most popular heroes in the game. So honestly, it just doesn’t make sense with these balance changes.
Not to mention these “nerfs” that theyve given to sojourn were more buffs to her. Even the mercy healing buff is a buff to sojourn in itself. Them claiming these last patch change she’s gotten as “nerfs” when they actually turned out to be more buffs than anything else proves to me they just dont understand this game or the hero designs and how they actually work?
I don’t like what happened to Genji, but I think Blizzard is painted into a corner here.
They can’t break low ranked play.
They don’t want to change Genji to not be a noob stomper, because the changes (likely a double jump nerf) would make him feel bad to play for a lot of players.
And the Genji players are feeling understandably upset that he isn’t as viable in high ranked play.
Totally, Genji get REAL hard to play in higher ranks, and the skill the Genji mains bring there is amazing to behold.
Yeah, they were trying to make her stronger in low ranked play, and weaker in high ranked play. I understand why they have done the changes they did, but it’s been a dogs breakfast getting to this stage, that is for sure.
Blizzard is painted into a corner here though, and I think it is worth understanding that.
Putting a one second cooldown on DB, and giving back their damage, and making blade good outside of nano would be the technically right thing to do, but look at the Mercy changes, technically right changes can be hated if they make the hero “feel worse” to play.
ok but who were these changes aimed towards??? No one had issues with her mobility people around all ranks didn’t like her damage boost and specifically her rez which went untouched? People didn’t like the pocketing playstyle across all ranks, and instead, they just further pushed that with her new kit? Let’s not forget her pistol buffs???
edit: I will say no one had as much issue with her mobility AS MUCH as they had an issue with her rez and damage boost, and even lower ranked mercy players mobility wasn’t that big of an issue that people were complaining about.
I just really don’t find the logic or INTENTION behind changes like that to Mercy let alone to Genji. They feel thoughtless.
