Why are these heroes specifically an issue? Been trying to figure it out recently and here’s my conclusions
Just short explanations don’t want to make the post too long
Multitasking:
The biggest sin of character creation in my opinion, the ability for orisa and sigma to damage and shield, and for brig to pocket, peel and aoe create many problems and a general feeling of unfair interactions
Easy to hit cc:
Don’t really have to explain this
Overlapping kits:
In general these heroes are fairly Frankensteiny and are little bits of other heroes but made to be better which leads into
Jack of all trades master of all:
This imo is the most important issue along with multitasking, why pick DVA or zarya when you can have the damage of zarya with the tanking ability of dva? Having general heroes are fine and they should be good, but not the best at niche heroes jobs, see someone like Ashe who took mccree and soldiers niches completely, not healthy for the game.
Idk this is a 12am post put together quickly so the ideas are a bit messy but just my opinion on what makes a problematic hero
I honestly think three of those heroes wouldn’t be an issue if the fourth hadn’t been released in the state he was. Sigma being an off-tank with a main-tank shield has basically warped the game around him.
Without Sigma enabling Double shields, I’d argue two of those characters could actually use a significant buff or rebalance (Orisa and Brig) and Bap is probably mid-tier at best.
If sigma wasn’t released there’s a good chance orisa would have still been toned back, she’s incredibly good in 222 settings (she was played before sigmas release) so I think she would have had a similar treatment.
Brig wouldn’t be an exclusively dive hero rather than a double shield brawl hero too, but would have still been very strong in those comps and got nerfs.
Bap maybe would have gotten less nerfs, but still a few as he’s the best hero in orisa hog/DVA comps still as he used to throw out so much damage, but maybe wouldn’t have received the nerfs he got early this year
Orisa was played after a series of nerfs to GOATS characters and when armor was still nerfed. She was basically just the last main tank still standing when 222 launched. The armor revert and some other changes to tanks would have probably dropped her from the meta without any other changes.
Most players thought Brig was bad until Violet started climbing with her, and even then, she didn’t become meta until the tail end of Double Shields. I’m not convinced she would have ever gotten much play without DS enabling her.
Bap may have been the best with Orisa comps, but as I noted earlier, pretty confident he would have fallen out of the meta as other tanks were buffed back to playability.
Compare orisa then to orisa now, she was actually nuts and her general style of gameplay suits 222 more than rein as rein needs way more resources, you definitely would have kept seeing orisa for a long time
She was played in D’s because they shut down monkey so hard, but when orisa was banned for example the next comp was brig zen dive so it’s safe to assume brig good, having 75 armour overheal X3 will never be bad
honestly i don’t see nerf as a solution, when another shield tank comes, they will invent some Meta that can fit the overlap of defensive skills the same for the supports
Overwatch is a game based on time and survival,your enemy may even do more damage than you, but you can beat him by resistance easily, double shield is the same as goats just differently.
Solution, remove the stigma that supports are healers and make them more active offensively with utility for the team
reformulation of how shields and harmful resources work
I don’t think the barrier are the issue with the double shield comp in general, I agree without the dumb amounts of healing that gets put out enables the style to flourish, I made a post ages ago on how to make healers into supports and would like something like that on experimental, similar to how they did 321 and buffed the tanks they should try mega nerfing healing and buffing support utility just to see how the game is played
Everyone has launch Brig PTSD, so the moment she gets a buff, people (especially the pros and streamers) have a panic attack. Orisa has had a history of being OP, along with a tricky to balance kit. Sigma? Everyone thinks he’s an off tank with the kit of a main tank from what I’ve seen. Not totally sure though.
The issue isn’t not healing at all, but when brig bap ana and Moira all do so much healing it is an issue, when that’s the majority of their kit and their kits are still almost as good as zen mercy Lucio, imo Moira bap and brig shouldn’t be able to single target heal higher than mercy beam
I mean brig was meta before the buff, reasonable to not want a meta hero to be buffed
it would be literally a dream, but I think it is difficult for that to happen, the DPS mains gm / Top 500, would die in a split second, the rest of the soap opera you know.
so we will always have Goats and double shields: C.
The fundamental concept of the game needs to change.
Then they would instantly be F-tier is my point. Look at Bap as an example, despite the power of his utility he was a no-pick for a long time simply because his healing was subpar. They upped it and suddenly he’s meta again.
I was thinking recently if you removed all heroes from the game what would happen to the support roster, and honestly I think ana would probably be the worst support, obviously mercy zen Lucio would be the best but I don’t think the gap would be that big, give bap 1 damage and his old lamp cd and he’d probably be viable, honestly I think the bap buff was big but his damage/upcoming window change is more impactful than his healing which is dumb considering how good his healing is
Sigma even after amount of nerfs he received is still one the best tanks in the game. He is like a swiss army knife he has something for every situation. He is literally able to counter almost anything when played right.
It’s because Sigma is bad at keeping enemies off of him for a tank. With Brig acting as his off-tank, Sigma is really good. Orisa and Baptiste kinda just double down on the synergy, this is the ideal team core for Baptiste to heal.