Completly unbiased review of 1-3-2 from a long time Overwatch player

General Discussion
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First things first: I have played this game since Junkertown came out.
Main account is gold portrait with 4 stars, I have 3 in total, stopped using 2 after 222 came out.
Played from gold to diamond.
I mostly duo-queue with my partner
I’m a complete flex player - I have at least 24 hours on each hero minimum.
90% of the time since I started playing I have been playing tanks and supports.
I’m also a meta slave - but I never force it on my teammates verbally.
I follow OWL
I watch streams and guides.
I play this game almost every day since I bought it

Here’s my opinion and experience: 1-3-2 is better than 222

The raw truth is that, because I always play for the win, because I always try to play the game properly and put y team above all my needs - I never got to play dps since I got the game.
Most hours on dps heroes come from me playing with LFG and mystery heroes (that I usually enter at the end of playtime before shutting down the game for a day for some pew pew chills)

Long story short - given how people play overwatch 132 is a win for all 3 parties.
In 222 I find tanks completely unplayable unless i’m duo-queuing with my mate.
If I queue Orisa (And I’m talking about high plat-low diamond here) the teamamte Hog is not gonna hook my pulls (unless he’s my mate)
If I play Rein I’m not gonna get matrixed when I firestrike (unless he’s my mate)
if I play D.va and am busy peeling for supports the main tank is not gonna care and take that as a cue to be a lil bit more passive (unless he’s my mate)
Solo queue tanking is horrible in my book, unless the other tank is in voice and cooperating (which is almost never)
95% and I’m serious of tank picked in 222 is Roadhog. Every time I see one both tanks not pick Hog I literally gasp. Because he’s considered the “carry” tank etc etc etc (especially koth maps at which point you know you’re f***ed)

Supports in 222
1 out of 8 matches do they synergise with their team and base their pick on countering something vs just enabling one person.

So basically as someone in plat/diamond, I can only play tank/support due to queue times. I enter match, I press tab… And when I see what the enemy team is running and being the meta slave that I am and deeply invested into overwatch for 3 years I already know how it’s gonna end.

222 playstyle is heavily dependent on team comps and team counters. Unless you’re below plat not playing counters to enemy comp is literally playing the game on ultra hard. People complain about teammates, about snipers, about dps not doing “their job” - but the reality is none of them stood a chance.

We never stood a chance without a tranq/beat/Grav against an enemy nanoblade.
Genji never stood a chance against Winston/Moira/Brig
We never stood a chance on a koth map where the enemy contested HG for free and your tanks were ground tanks.
That’s the reality of 222. It’s punishing af to bad team comps and team comps win games more then teamwork since real teamwork is close to non-existent (in the true sense of the word) until high masters.

The other things is: Nobody plays the meta except the OWL. Back in the day when people said “go goats” - they wouldn’t go goats or play goats. There was eitehr a Lucio missing or Brig or D.va or Rein. The casual palyerbase considered goats any 3 tanks and any 3 supports.
The current meta is Rein, D.va, Mcree, Mei, Ana, Lucio. - I haven’t seen this comp once in any of my comp matches… If I go to twitch and watch top 500 play the game, guess what - they’re not playing the meta that much.
So I never understood people who say “wait until the meta forms for 132” or “Only this is viable” when the reality is your 2 at best meta hero picks didn’t synergise with 4 other non meta picks in the team… All of you, go to your replays and please tell me how non-diverse hero picks and comps are - cuz I haven’t seen a predominant comp in casual play for 3 frekin’ years.

With that out of the way what was 132 like for me.
Tank: Loved it, I got to focus on the match itself exponantionally more vs playing tank and having 55% of your focus on your other tank and what he’s doing and where he is.
I love playing Zarya/Rein, Rein/D.va, Orisa/Sigma etc. but I never get to unless I duo, and if I do the support/dps line-up will not enable me in any way most of the time, it rarely pays off and queue times for tank prove my point.

Support: 132 forced me into a more passive play stile in terms of positioning. Didn’t dislike it at all - mechanics and positioning are now 10x times more rewarding in terms of skill - and I liked that a lot.

Dps: for the first time in my entire overwatch life I got to play dps for extra rounds in row with short queue times and I had the time of my life, like literally playing Overwatch for the first time.
One game we had a Winston we all went dive dps, and just dove whatvere he jumped, or I would hack a target and he would atatck it - fun AF
Once I played Sym with Rein -He just held his shield and moved for me and I just lazered all the enemyes. D.va matrix?- don’t care Sym wins. Enemy shield? don’t care Sym wins - had mega fun.
Literally there was not a dps pick that couldn’t work or was completely useless in any comp imho. Wether it’s just solo holding the choke with Junk or diving with Tank or enabling Tank or peeling for supports - there is always something to do based on your pick - none of them are useless like in most 222 scenarios.

CONCLUSION
in 1-3-2 doesn’t affect the quality of the matches or diminishes them - teamwok is still highly reward-able if not more so, but unlike 222 - less teamowrk is less punishing and match determining, because hero picks are less punishing - there are statistically more viable variations in team synergy than in 222 that forces people to pick B if someone went A or pick C if someone went D.

  • You can play your dps main in 132 and not severely punish your team, you can’t do that in 222.
  • You can play your support main in 132 and not severely punish your team, you can’t in 222. (cuz it always depends on tanks)
  • In 132 you have more agency as a tank, none of them need to be throw picks via balancing, but in 222 if one tanks goes A and you don’t synergise you are soft throwing whether you like it or not.

People who love 222, find it’s strategies fun and deep, and love duo tanking - I believe you, I know where you’re coming from and i respect that and I don’t think 222 is bad. But 222 benefiting everyone is a fantasy. people loving to play tanks in 222 for every match is a fantasy - 222 is amazing on paper but the wast majority is not rewarded by it (no, I’m not talking about dps players, I mean everyone)

The reality of 222 is: Mercys pocket Widows and reins. There always a Hog, 80% of dps picks are hard countered, and you don’t have proper defensive ultimate against what’s coming at you…

132 has no less teamwork than 222 - it just looks like it.

Given how the majority plays the game, 222 does not work for us.
Stable team comps are nothing more than a fantasy all up to GM.

Me and my mate will gladly let go of our duo tank days for what we played yesterday (we know it needs more balancing for tanks) cuz deep down we know whet it comes to fun - the most important aspect of the game - 132 is the way to go.
It doesn’t take skill, teamwok, comms, mechanics or anything away from us - it just gives us more fun, and let’s us finally sometimes play dps.

Also, 132 is simpler to understand and more difficult to master than 222 will ever be - and when Ow2 comes out and new players pour in - Blizz, you’ll want it. I’m no dps main never was, but those queue times will kill the game, and are not worth 222 in the long run.

It would be a tough change, people will lose their minds, they will never forget 222 and will always claim it was better (Just look at Mercy reworks + Sym)
But they are mixing fanatsy and reality. Like romantic couples that are stuck on ideas of each other and don’t want to accept the reality and even see it cuz they’re so in love with the fantasy…

I firmly support 132, sorry for the long read.
Don’t let this game die cuz you had fun on Rein/zarya and likewise once in a blue moon.

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For me, I’ve been playing since season 3.
I’ve played from silver to masters.
I solo queue, or play with some buddis, and I have mostly solo queued expiremental

I feel like it is much worse.
Only two tanks are viable, Rein and zarya, with D.va somewhat decent.

Tanks had to be buffed enough that they can be powerful.

However, most tanks were not buffed enough. They just reverted some changes.

Also, it doesnt matter how powerful Rein is, he can’t shield his team from a sniper, and save his healers from a Doom at the same time.

I played 10 games. I had a good time my first 2 games. Then my third game, the enemy team pulled out Mei Widow Sombra.
Sombra blocked off my teammates, Widow headshot my team, and Sombra kept me perma hacked.

I have never felt more useless.

Before, you had your off tank to support you and the rest of your team, but now, it expects them to do everything.

For supports, I have only seen Lucio, Moira, and Mercy. everyone else gets dived.

In DPS, it feels like “kill everything, no strategy”. they go cancerous characters.

Thats what I am seeing on 1-3-2. People go widow, then noone counters them, and they have free rein. you can no longer have your off tank dive them. If you try diving them as D.va, the other 2 DPS are gong to kill your team, or you get hit from 3 sides.

Shields are still weak, and they fall almost instantly.

I’m on console, so there is never communication, but 1-3-2 still feels worse for me.

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Amen to this, as someone that flexes and ends up being tank/support I rarely had a chance to play dps - even with 2-2-2 I wasn’t playing dps because of those q times. When I do play dps in 2-2-2 I do not feel the ability to try a hero I could be bad at, or if I do I rack up 1 death and swap to something more comfortable because I don’t want to throw for my team.

With 1-3-2 the q was gone and the pressure to not play a particular hero was gone. Granted there were certain comps I needed to switch because the hero I was on was not effective in my hands, I never felt like 100% of the reason we lost a fight was because one of our dps (especially me) wasn’t carrying their weight.

I also didn’t get the “fight’s lost” feeling after a single DPS died.

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You can’t honestly think that the current balance for experimental is the way it’s gonna be
If it were to hit live, these things would drastically change, including dps and supports (whitch didn’t get balanced for 132- keep that in mind)

Sure, but that’s not an argument against 132

He can’t do that in 222 either. He’s not a doom counter, nor a widow counter. But if you were to play against Widow you’d just use his shield to walk for cover A to B (in a coordinated game)
Also what’s your dps doing? You can have 2 snipers to counter her while you’re pushing. or even a Sombra, Lucio, Genji… The list goes on.

She would rule lower ranks though i agree. (Cuz lower ranks don’t have a feeling for sight-lines and space)

If you played Rein or D.va that’s on you - her hack lasts long enough for D.va to turn and just pres M1 or Rein to just turn little. But again dps aren’t balanced for this yet.
That’s why they said “we are just testing queue times and tweaqs to tanks”

It doesn’t - that role now falls on to dps.

I played a ton of Zen- very passive positioning, since I played with friends I was used as “Dive bait” - which then resulted in us killing dps one by one and enemy tanks retreating with supports

Baptiste needs re balancing for this, but with Orisa and Bastion he’s insane.
I do see Anas - but they mostly work if you place a) sym turrets on her position to peel for her or b) a torb turret - and she doesn’t have to move.
Bad Anas chase tanks and bad tanks make Ana chase them including dps- so she’ll be unviable in lower elos for sure (but she’s already trash in 222 cuz no silver/gold players use nades offensively)

And that is not a strategy?

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Blizzard isnt even doing a good job at balancing live, do you expect them to buff/nerf/rework half of the freaking game to make this dumb idea work?

she hacks through shield quite often, especially when you are trying to block damage. Sometimes even a slight turn exposes your healer to an instant death.

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that, and I expect them to continue tweaking it for months and years to come with new heroes and abilities.

It’s a team game - why on earth do you think you’re supposed to do absolutely everything alone as tank? You just have to flick your shield to make sombra’s hack go on cd. A flick for godsakes.
The only time when a Sombra can 100% ealsy hack rein is when he charges given that not a single person out of 5 people was shooting at her or in her general direction.

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That’s such an oversimplification. Healers just feel like “Heal things no strategy”

I found myself in 1-3-2 as dps having to make more decisions than in 2-2-2. In 2-2-2 you basically pick a hero and shoot things that is the only role for you.

In 1-3-2 I found myself having to change my approach based on my teammates playstyles and the enemy comp. Other team diving and harassing the backline too much? There’s no off tank to support them so go something like McCree and be a quasi off-tank killing those flankers and keeping the supports in the fight. Sniper’s destroying your team? Switch to a flanker and harass them so your team isn’t 100% relying on off angles.

If anything DPS felt more engaging… you’re not shooting 2000hp of shields 90% of the fight.

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I’d much rather have them keep working on 2-2-2, since it’s more balanced than 1-3-2.

Yeah, It’s a team game. That’s why I like having a fellow teammate tank.

A 1 second cooldown. And that quick flick gives enemies time to shoot you. Also, lag exists, and it usually favors the shooter, so I can block it but still get hacked.

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There are so many cons I have with it (and pros) but the one thing I cant get behind is taking away all the tank synergies and combos. So much lost creativity and potential and team play. Tank coordination and positioning has always been a fundamental aspect of the game and this is taking so much of that away.

No more Rein/Zarya comps. No more DVA Winston dive. No more Orisa Hog combos, so no more halt hook combos. That’s a perfect example. Thats such a staple ability and hero combination and removing that doesnt seem right. Not to mention the balance implications it has on the game, but this is just too much for me. I think it’s a ton of fun but long term I would not enjoy it. I dont think its healthy for the game and it’s more of just a fresh mode to play for a bit.

I wholeheartedly believe it subtracts from the team play, coordination, positioning, sticking together, and creativity of the game. As well as the identity, as the more the game is just DPS heroes running around killing each other the more overwatch becomes more purely mechanical and more similar to other FPS games. Tanks are a large aspect of what makes Overwatch different. We should not be so eager to remove them and take away all these wonderful duos and synergies just to make DPS queue times shorter.

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It all became very repetitive for me and my tank duo honestly. Not that we hate it…

I agree, but it’s killing the game…

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Unfortunately, I personally completely disagree with the OP, as overall 3/2/1 is absolutely terrible from every aspect if you’re playing Tank and just a tad bit better if you’re playing Support…

Hope this change doesn’t go through and it thankfully won’t, as long as devs act logically and realize that it’s not worth it ruining the experience of so many Tank and even Support players (as if they already weren’t in a bad enough state already) and sacrificing the arguably great overall state Overwatch has been at for the past weeks for the sake of catering to the same old DPS players, due to the behaviors of many of which, systems such as role - lock had to be implemented in the first place so many months ago…

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I feel like - I would absolutely not mind if 222 stayed…
That being said, I would like to see what more can be done in terms of balance for 132, there has to be a balance version of it that supps and especially tanks would love…

But first things first I guess - checking if it affect queue times at all, and today - dps queue for 132 was back to being the highest on my server… So…
You might have nothing to worry about.

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There’s no such thing as a “Completely unbiased reveiw” from a human. You can make it as objective as possible by basing it on actual statistics, nothing more. The title is either clickbait or delusional.

Without tank synergy, there is objectively less teamwork.

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I honestly respect the post.

But I do think bias threads can be just as viable in experimental tests.

That said, I hope 321 stays optional. The feedback, from what I see, looks like a 60-40 negative to positive. But ofc Blizzard doesn’t want to just scrap their work.

And from the amount of people who genuinely enjoy it, I don’t wish that it is deleted.

Sure it will divide the player base even further cries at dps placement queue times but I really don’t know if making 3/2/1 comp or regular quick play is the move here.

I am somewhat bias though. I dislike role lock in general, regardless of how many there are of what

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You still have the same amount of players in match so I don’t understand how it’s less teamwork

As for the synergy part, I literally wrote an essay about it in my main post.
Long story short - Tank synergy is amazing but utilized almost never (or enough) by the playerbase - queue times for tanks prove my point.

I wrote “unbiased” because if I was making a biased post it would sound like: “222 is the superior game format and the playerbase is to stupid to play it’s not worth catering to them to ruin the overall quality of the game”

But this post was me trying to be adult about it and compromise for the betterment of the game, and just flat out honest about how something feels and what i see as problems.

If I’m even more honest I do want 132 to work and I want to love it cuz dps queue times scare me. I don’t wanna play on dead servers.

I meant flick (as in turn around fast) shield in Sombra’s hack direction, not put it down and back up.

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No, I understood. I’m not meaning dropping shield, I meant cancelling her hack with the shield by blocking it.