From the content creator’s summit with the devs, Spilo essentially said, without saying, that the devs’ attitude towards tanks is that tank players need to get over it and it’s fine.
The same devs who, by the way, said that 5v5 was implemented because no one wants to play tank, and for basically no other reason.
Gee, I wonder how we got to the point where the role that takes 50% less people is STILL bottlenecking queues. Maybe the devs should actually start caring about the experience, because people aren’t going to “get over it”. They’re going to keep leaving the role.
Tbh yall do absolutely suck at working around your tank. like I don’t need Mercy Lucio when im on queen into Zarya Im sorry I don’t care if it “Can work” or to do this and that.
Ive had soooo many games that once my supports got off lifeweaver entire game turned around, you either learn how to play that hero correctly and weave in damage or you dont play him at all.
I agree the experince is terrible, I hate the counter swap game, but I see what the devs are saying in regarfs to the players, I call my own team out on this crap all the time regardless of the role Im on.
Were on Zen lucio, pre season 9 I’m begging you to stop throwing.
Honestly I don’t know what the devs think anymore. You’d think that since DPS is the most popular role, they would prioritise their experience even at the cost of other two roles. But for most seasons, they’ve been favoring supports instead.
At one point, they mega buffed the tanks but that didn’t last for long. Now they’re doing the opposite and favoring the DPS’s experience. They just keep going in circles making one role strong, than switching to the next one. There’s no consistency in what they do.
Tbh, I’d think they’d prioritize whatever role is bottlenecking queues. That’s the most sustainable approach, you don’t want the most popular role to be SO popular that it takes 10 minutes to queue for it.
I think they already solved the queue problem by widening the matchmaking pool (at the cost of matchmaker quality). If they wanted to, they could probably go back to 6v6 and still maintain relatively fast queue times. I don’t think removing tank was the only reason we have faster DPS queues now.
They probably priorise which role to make strong based on overall gameplay experience for everyone. At least that’s what I’m hoping they’re doing. So maybe the reason why they keep flip flopping in buffing one role then next is because they still haven’t figured out how to properly balance the game yet for 5v5.
I mean it makes perfect sense but i have a nasty feeling their attitude will change as the role keeps losing more and more players. Daily logins are dropping off a cliff, day by day. Unless they do as we say, it’ll continue on that downward trajectory until they hit the bottom. Only DPS players will remain.
Do remember devs (I know you’re watching so do take note). We fund you. You do us wrong, we take our money elsewhere. You want our money, get off your high horses, forget about making the loud minorities happy and revert everything. Take us back to a better balanced game where all three roles are equally impactful
you have to ask yourself, what exactly could they do quickly to actually make 5v5 tank better?
they explode with the dps passive and they explode without the dps passive
as it turns out when you remove the 2nd tank, the one whose entire job is to help hold space and mitigate dmg, the only surviving tank explodes when focus fired
modern tank is basically 1 person being pumped with healing and then they are expected to carry
this is why the tanks are even more upset this season, the amount of healing going onto them is lower while the healing on their targets could be the same as before
so you either buff the tanks self mitigation (very important it only effects them) or you buff their dmg and make them glass canons
the tankier version wont secure kills as easily but they’d rarely die (healing would need to be nerfed on tanks so they wernt immortal)
but neither option is quick
id bet they are probably working on something to help tanks long term but that might take months to release
-Make it so the healing passive is a percentage of max health, or else is just flat much higher on tanks than other roles to account for big HP bar.
-Nerf discord/anti, or else make them much less effective on tanks
-Actually just flat buff tanks who need help, which is a lot of them (why they refused to buff Hog’s healing is beyond me.)
-Nerf the DPS passive
-Give tanks a lower headshot multiplier.
-Tune heroes who are specifically designed to melt tanks to not be as good at melting tanks.
I’d prefer hearing this from the devs themselves rather than a secondhand account from some Ultra Trustworthy internet celebrity, but… yeah it does kind of feel true.
I just wonder what the devs are going to do when the tank population has become too low to sustain even solo tanking. Cut the role altogether?
Of course they don’t care about the tank experience. Why do you think Life Grip was added? Why do you think we moved to 5v5?
The solution to tank has never been to make it better according to the devs. The solution to them was to halve the players required, and then use that extra leeway to make it even worse.
You either unbind grip or you don’t play him.
And then they were surprised when it went from 50% to 80% and the queue times are now just as bad, despite having the same amount of flex players as before (which helps the queue times).
This is about as close as you can get. The devs have lied too much to be trustworthy on words. Their actions are their only form of communication.
Just the fact that 5v5 was added should already tell you their attitude.
Instead of fixing the tanks and make them more desirable they decided to remove them.
The problem wasn’t the lack of tank players. The problem was that tanking is so bad that even existing tank mains didn’t want to play them (which still continues to be the issue in 5v5)
I call it a disunion between what people try to force upon each other. Both between developers and players.
If you follow the popular trends without any developer intent at all. You are just out there to make money, make big numbers go up, and ultimately have no real game you seek to design, you’ll be chasing popular opinion. You won’t develop a game with a specific vision you want to make.
Most players want to feel like they are on a powertrip. Many people escape from real life into video games to have some semblance of power and such. Tanks in OW offer that power trip and many people want to be some unstoppable behemoth. Worthy opponents, but they want to be able to effectively roll over other players.
My thought is the developers of OW want tanks to have a particular design to make them distinct from supports and DPS. DPS are primarily meant to help solidify the kills. Supports are meant to buff/debuff teams and heal with damage to help 2v1. While tanks are meant to mitigate damage and absorb attention.
However, players want to think of tanks as battle tanks phenomenal killing power and feeling like you can bust through walls feeling impenetrable. Despite the fact that real tanks are anything like that. Most tanks are a hindrance, bulky, expensive, and rely upon a crap ton of support infantry.
Of course, devs only care about the DPS experience. They want them to feel like the main heroes because they complain otherwise.
Honestly, people should just quit if they’re not happy with the state of the game. I know I did. As long as people keep playing, they don’t have any reason to make changes.