Can we get a dev to talk about support?

Utility is really hard to balance because it’s not “tangible” as blocking damage, damage or healing. It’s basically feel based on how effective it is.

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Yep, it won’t be easy and I don’t know if and how they will pull it off. However, i am pretty sure that’s the idea for OW2 and if done well, it’s a very good and healthy path for this game, imo.

no, in your blind hatred towards dps heroes you have missed the fact that most of them are incredibly lackluster when compared to a support or a tank and even those who are able to carry are simply made out of paper and things can go wrong for them very easily, so no, giving dps heroes more impact isn’t taking away from any other role, it’s giving them what they deserve after many years of having support and tanks dictating metas

Yes, my blind hatred for DPS is seething. Everyday I wake up and say “what can I do to effective absolutely no change by complaining on the forums”.

And people say supports have a victim complex >.>

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If they dont transform healers to dps, being a support wont make any sense.
" There is only 1 tank so we need less heals"
Well, yeah, then we need less dmg and you are making dmg the only useful thing on the game, so, why do you buff dmg and nerf heals? It just does not make sense. At this point nothing blizzard do has any sense.

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Personal take here, but I don’t usually conflate popularity with efficacy. While tank and support may not be the most popular roles, one could argue that they’re very impactful in any given match.

There was an article I read years ago that summed up a lot of the “why’s” for why folks play DPS roles in class based games. Not everything is applicable (the article was written about MMORPG gameplay), but the fundamental motivations remain true:

  • Players love to see big numbers. The dopamine hit and instant feedback that players get from putting up big damage numbers is an immediate indication of how well you’re doing in game.
  • Clear expectations around what you’re supposed to be doing: You are damage. You’re either flanking, ranged, or melee, but no matter what you know what you’re supposed to do: punch/kick/shoot/blow up the target in front of you.

Damage tends to be a more approachable role because it’s more straight forward, and appeals to a broader set of players.

Tanking and support requires you to have an appreciation for how your actions improve those around you, which is arguably one of the most impactful aspects of the game.

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What does this mean in terms of how they will play in OW2, though? For supports especially, their changes don’t seem like they’re geared towards making feel fun or impactful. Obviously the healing in combat nerf was a test and seemingly not going through, but what do changes like that do to make support players feel impactful and like they’re having fun?

It feels like a change solely made to make DPS feel better, not the supports actually doing the healing.

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Then how about making dps more team dependent or giving the other 2 roles self sustain?

Ofc ppl will prefer dps if you are making it easy only for them.

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But how does making a healer heal worse give the player a sense of pride as appose to a sense of powerlessness when they cant even keep a target they are pumping all their resources into alive?

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Andy, I’m not denying that they have more impact in the current game than DPS. I agree with it. I find it to be an objective reality. And yet the most popular role is still DPS.

What will happen to the game when the already less popular roles also become less impactful? The number of people who want to play them will virtually disappear.

The 2 most common complaints I see in Overwatch are:
1- Queue times are too long. Well it seems to me with the path being taken that problem will become worse in rather short order when nobody is having fun playing tank or support.
2-Complaints about teammates playing badly for one reason or another. With the “increased individual impact” a bad teammate will be significantly larger anchor on the team.

I asked for one thing that will make the game sound equally or more fun, not a justification for making it more DPS focused. So is that your way of telling us that it won’t be?

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thats what overwatch is about? not blatant discrimination going unpunished? weird.

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for starters support being the most impactful role in the game automatically knocks them out of getting even more impact… as for fun, I think the subtext here is that support players don’t need to be bribed into having fun, if you have fun playing support then play support and if you don’t, don’t pick support

either way the change was a preliminary one based solely on balance, which means that they probably had a very specific mindset when implementing it, IF the amount of healing felt right in general that only meant that yes, healing needs to be lowered not necessarily in that way but doing a 25% less healing in combat is a very direct way to test healing as a feeling, it doesn’t mean the change is set in stone it’s just them trying to test how OW feels when there’s less healing in general and not having the time to change ALL supports for an exhibition game

Mind you, Andy isn’t a developer, this is his personal take, don’t sit here and shoot balance questions he doesn’t have the answer to, you know very well that he doesn’t have that kind of impact on the team, instead frame your feedback succinctly and let him communicate it to the appropriate team

This game is such a tank diff, especially with double shield.

Also tanks have some of the best ultimates in the game. The amount of times my tanks switched when all I needed for them to do was press Q.

The key reason why I play and enjoy these roles the most.

This is a good example of why OW 2 needs an updated tutorial. Learning how to play tank and support comes from watching videos on YouTube or having VOD reviews done. Plus, the hero the tutorial shows off is Soldier: 76 who is basically CoD incarnate in OW. So the fact that most new players want to play dps is because that is the only role they know how to play.

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I hear you, and I want you all to know I’m registering and taking note of this sentiment.

To manage expectations: I’m not ready to discuss changes or updates to the Support role in OW2 more deeply than what we’ve already commented on. That said, I do very clearly understand that general anxiety around the expectations of every role is high right now, and ideally we can address that with future content like blogs and dev update videos.

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Andy I want you to tell the devs that Mei has to be moved to the support role u.u, her freeze abilities can be used to soothe wounds

TBH I don’t know our plans for the tutorial in OW2. I can certainly pass this sentiment along to the folks who would make those decisions.

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:hammer_and_wrench:.

Mercy finally getting nerfed? Bout time.

Hope resurrect goes off cooldown. Make it part of Valk or reduce her healing.

Or a rework to remove rez :open_mouth:

Delete " heroes never die"

1 Like

Bah, just shoot the Mercy