You can’t afford to lose the low ranked players, so you can’t “it’s a skill issue” out of bad balance in low ranks.
Or for long term health of their game.
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Which is just another way of saying “long term profitability”.
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I would’ve balanced these “support” players by forcing them to play dps, then they maybe realize how strong is their preferred role. Which I’ve done, and stick to support role in the end.
I moved to DPS, I don’t think it would go the way you think it would.
Clicking that button and suddenly I didn’t have to fight off flankers 24/7
The gameplay experience of the majority doesn’t depend on the meta.
I said before, Reinhardt & Ana were the two most popular heroes in the game in the average ranks even when they were some of the worst picks in the game at a high level.
That just goes to show that the strength of heroes does not affect what people do and don’t play at low ranks.
The idea that Support is a worse role than DPS and that’s why it’s less popular is simply untrue.
The long term health of the game depends on the balance at the highest level.
We’ve seen through all of Overwatch 1 what happens to the game when they try to balance for the majority instead of top-down.
We’ve also seen in OW2’s most recent patches what happens when they try to balance for the majority instead of top-down. The game took a nosedive the moment they started doing this.
Citation needed.
The things you hated in OW1 was for high ranked play. OG_Brig was put in for high ranked play.
Dive wasn’t a low ranked problem at the time 
Ow2 will be more casual focused, since, that is where the money is. They are not trying to make a game for OWL to make them cash.
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What makes you think the hero usage variety by 1% of the playerbase is more important than preventing 20-50% of the playerbase from quitting.
Also, would you say that League of Legends is not a competitive videogame?
Since you know how League of Legends fixed their lack of Support players problem?
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/wi8jq0/comment/ijai98j/
By cutting the upgrade costs in almost all the Support items. So Support are much stronger in earlygame-midgame.
They literally buffed all Supports for the majority of the match.
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Brigitte was poor execution of an already bad idea.
The game has very rarely been balanced for high level play.
People are calling this season of ranked the most unenjoyable one yet and that’s coming fresh off the heels of a balance patch designed for the average player.
If they were balancing for high level play they wouldn’t have taken so long to nerf Sojourn and they certainly wouldn’t have buffed Tracer back to 6dmg per pellet.
Because the idea that 20-50% of the playerbase will quit if the game is balanced for high ranks is simply untrue.
Overwatch Support has infinitely more individual impact than League of Legends support. You cannot compare the two.
Man the irony is pretty thick here.
For high ranked play. - she was there FOR HIGH RANKED PLAY.
Yes, they have moved to having to deal with low ranked balancing because keeping their playerbase there is more important than keeping the high ranked playerbase.
The have changed their balancing view. OW1 was for high ranked play, OW2 is balancing for mid ranks.
Because that is where their new players and money is.
Genji is like he is, because they can’t afford for him to be stronger. It is why I don’t think he will be buffed, even though he is weak in high ranks.
Now, having the supports fleeing in low / mid ranks, you SERIOUSLY think they will just stand by and do nothing?
As you note they ARE balancing for here, and they have a serious problem there.
Since they WILL fix it, how do you want it fixed? because I am SURE you don’t want BrigV2 and that is what we are staring down the barrel of.
But sure, say “we should keep the problems there” until BrigV2 ends up as the option.
Or maybe get a clue and try to work out how to fix it before that is what we get.
You can throw as many tantrums as you like saying “they shouldn’t balance for there” but since we have pretty well established that is what is happening, and what is likely to keep happening, maybe you should - you know, join the actual useful conversation of what the future will be.
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It certainly was not.
That’s exactly why it’s so egregious that they’re still not doing it.
We’ve already seen just how bad the game becomes when they balance it for the casual playerbase, but they’re making the same mistake in OW2.
If Blizzard makes the same mistake they made with OW1 a second time, that’s unfortunate.
The trajectory the game is on right now is the one it will stay on if they continue to balance for the average player / casuals.
It absolutely was.
I mean, you didn’t see patchnotes like Sojourns in OW1.
What making a crazy amount of money, and having the high ranked players upset over it?
Having a high player churn, with the new players buying a bunch of skins and watchpoint packs?
Overwatch will be making eye watering amounts of cash right now.
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Buffing McCree to 225hp, never actually nerfing Tracer, lack of D.Va, Baptiste, Zenyatta and Brigitte nerfs when they were problematic characters.
etc.
OW1 had very few changes targeted at high level play and the majority of them were to do with Widowmaker.
I’ve been seeing players of all ranks and roles saying this season of ranked is the least enjoyable one ever.
McCree’s win rate was garbage, and they were wanting him to keep Tracer in check, because high ranked players didn’t want her nerfed.
They didn’t want her nerfed.
They did get them.
Which is why you will see them do more to get supports playing in low / mid ranks.
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If players of all ranks and roles are calling this season the worst one ever, how does bringing more Support players in fix that?
I’ve seen complaints from both low and high ranked players of all 3 roles.
The best thing they could do to make Support more appealing is nerf Kiriko, which breaks the roster wide open and allows Zenyatta, Baptiste, Ana & Brigitte to be played.
They need to focus on nerfing right now instead of buffing, that applies to all roles, even Support.
I’d like to see 3-4 patches of nothing but nerfs for the top performing heroes on each role.
Sojourn/Tracer nerfs, followed by Junkrat/Torbjorn/Ashe/Reaper/Widow nerfs, etc.
Kiriko nerfs followed by Baptiste nerfs, Lucio nerfs, etc.
Winston, Roadhog, Orisa & Sigma nerfs.
The game isn’t anywhere near a position where they can start buffing everything to match the top performers yet.
Cool idea.
Not in low / mid ranks.
hey we agree on something.
Unless you are going to put a bullet in Genji, Torb etc won’t be touched. He is acting as the counter, Sym too. It is why they buffed her turrets.
Torbjorn is problematic right now because he’s one of the only DPS in the game that hasn’t been significantly nerfed from their OW1 version, infact he’s been buffed.
Junkrat is in a similar boat right now, as are Ashe & Widowmaker.
Well, bad news, they are not going to nerf him while Genji is a problem in low and mid ranks.
You want to put a bullet in him, Genji has to take another one too.
If lack of a coherent front line is a problem, nerfing Torb isn’t going to be part of your solution set. He is one of the only heroes able to even define a front / back line right now.
Genji has already been nerfed harder than he needed to be.
The fact there are more Junkrat players and more Torbjorn players in Top 500 right now than Genji players tells you all you need to know.
If the best Genji players in the world are struggling to make him work in their own rank, how can he be a major problem in the hands of a significantly worse player who cannot escape the average ranks?
Especially when significantly easier & lower skill ceiling characters like Junkrat & Torbjorn are so strong in the high ranks right now?