Blizzard save your game! go 1/3/2

Oh wow…

Thank you very much for your response Mr.Jeff!

This is an interesting read, and honestly, im very happy with the path you are experimenting with!

However, I have a question:

What would you do with all the utility heroes such as Sombra, Sym, Torb, Mei, etc who rarely get to find their place in the game?

Have you ever thought about adding 1 more slot for “Utility” ?

So there is 1 tank, 3 damage, 2 support, and 1 utility?
Or maybe like 1 tanks, 2 damage, 1 utility, 2 healers?

I realize this sounds a bit crowded and messy, but i cannot help but to be curious about it.

I really wouldn’t like it if they were to be made more DPS-ish as i fear that they will lose their originality and uniqueness.

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Dear Jeff,

Thank you for that very illustrative post!

One thing I personally like is the possibility of always being able to pair up heroes of the same category. If we are left with only one tank, we will lose all the synergies that come from that (Winston-D.Va or Rein-Zarya, for example).

Is there a way we could keep this and add a thirs dps player? Yes. I’m suggesting 2-3-2 (2 tanks, 3 dps. 2 support). I think everybody wins in this scenario.

Is that an actual possibility?

Edit: Just saw you already answered this. Hope you can consider spending the money on that :slight_smile:

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Really interesting insight, but I am glad that you see how severe this change would affect the Tank community.

Always getting the laser focus of the enemy team feels horrible (especially with all the CC in the game) and reworking Off-Tanks either to Main Tanks or DPS seems like a really good idea - if trying to reduce the number of active Tank players is what you are after :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thank you for showing up on the forums :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I would love to see this an experimental arcade mode before putting into the real live game.

In general, I wish you had a “Blizzard Labs” type of game mode, where we could experiment with different ideas like 321 without the stress of having it already balanced or comp.

I know those concerns have to be eventually addressed but I also know that jumping into them right away can really distract from evaulating changes only on their own merits.

For me personally though, I love that Overwatch is a team focused game. And that the carry potential isn’t the end all, be all. Every other shooter is like that, and it gets stressful and encourages smurfing even more than what we have now. So I am very skeptical of undermining that because once you just let the whole match revovle around one player and there is not much the enemy can do about it, you can never go back.

Beyond that, I would also hope in such a system that tanks would actually be able to tank. Reverts to the barriers. Strong self defense. In those MMO games with the lone tank, those players can protect the team from a LOT of damage. And healers, they moreso focus on utility. Buffing their dps players or augmenting their tanks beefiness.

I would hope that would be something you considered as important to this game. Because I certainly don’t want to stand behind a lone tank that a dps can easily take out by himself. If there is gonna be 1 tank against 3 dps, it should require 2 at minimum to take him down. He should be a raid boss that you might be better off killing last.

Just my opinion.

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This. Every time i play classic for weekly loot boxes I CRINGE THE WHOLE TIME thats to others abusing their freedom and have 5-6 dps compositions cringing!!!

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Have you guys tested or thought about the idea of a Competitive Classic system where there is a separate constant ranked game mode that is similar to what QPC is today except with ranks? This could potentialy help queue times by redirecting some of the player base into such system, like DPS, and thus improving queue times as well as giving those that oppose Role Q a place to be.

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Overwatch Cetral / Hitscan do long interview with the Jeff about this!

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Personally, I am for the 3-2-1 idea you and your team have been toying with, but I would actually prefer 2-2-1 (two healers, two damage, one tank), as I think this would still keep the more traditional FPS feel, while reducing the overall damage/chaos being slung around. I think it would generally slow the game pacing down a hair though, which seems counter-intuitive to the recent balance changes you, Geoff, and the rest of your team have made.

Just wanted to throw my opinion (as a grandmaster main tank player who has played since beta) in the ring. Thanks for everything you do, Jeff! I love your game and I appreciate you and your team.

Edit: also worth nothing that 2-2-1 would have, in theory, less of that positive impact on DPS queue times, so that is something else in the con column.

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They already have 12 v 12 with no role queue. It’s called Team Fortress 2.

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This would probably raise the System Requirements of the game - which would be a huge problem not only for consoles, but also for players with older rigs.

I also think that people underestimate the amount of balance issues that would come with this.

You would either have to buff all Tanks and Healers, or nerf all DPS - and both would probably not feel good.

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Thanks man. I just saw he answered. I still hope they keep 2-2-2.

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Thank you so much for this in depth explanation, Papa Jeff.

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I love Jeff’s post because it shows that they work really hard in the background

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First off, Thanks for the detailed post. It is very much appreciated. Would love to see this more consistently (although I understand you are likely on some difficult time tables).

On a related note Jeff,

What are your feelings on how 2-2-2 eliminated much of what made being a flex player fun? Do you have any plans to make flex play possible again?

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How about:

1 Tank
2 Support
2 Dps
1 Flex (2nd tank or 3rd dps)

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I have a feeling that, while player choice is usually a good thing, one of those things would be considered “right” and one would get considered to be “wrong”, and it would just lead to flaming.

Edit: sorry didnt mean to be overly harsh to your idea, I actually like it in theory but I think in practice would be different.

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Thank you for responding to this thread by the way. I’m very glad you guys are trying out different ideas internally. It’s also understandably hard to put out new ideas and defend them against the negativity that this forum can sometimes respond with.

This game is amazingly fun for all the complaining we do here on the forum.

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I say we do 1.3.1 instead. That will reduce the role queue and also make games quicker.

Thanks again for the post!

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I would prefer a system where flex was placed in any given slot based on what the queued for BUT they had the ability to swap with willing teammates into different roles.

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“Widow switch to second tank”

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