What is actually really nice about hero bans is the data it gives the company. At the moment, Blizzard only has win rate and play rate statistics for heroes. With this data, they were able to come to the conclusion that Genji and Soldier were fairly balanced.
Hero bans provide a third-dimensional statistic to indicate the real power levels of characters. As of the moment, Iâd assume Hanzo and Mei would be banned the most, which would show that they are slightly too powerful and need to be toned down.
Hero bans are good for balancing on way too many levels. Itâd be a shame for Blizzard to not take advantage of that.
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OWL doesnât need to be limiting anything right now, tbh. They need to do whatever they can to get money coming in or else bye-bye OWL and then bye-bye OW support ala Heroes of the Storm.
Thatâs only true to a certain extent, though. No other tank can really fill the same niche as Anubâarak, ETC or Johanna, and no other healer can really fill the same niche as Uther, Anduin, Lt. Morales, or Abathur. If any of the more specialized characters are banned during the draft phase, then you need to shift your team composition accordingly. That only serves to add depth to the game, not break it.
We have more than enough characters to introduce hero bans. Itâs high time we bit the bullet and introduced them.
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Hero bans are actually a very good thing bc it allows the community to balance the game.
Most games with hero bansâŠ
Players always ban the most broken hero. Almost always⊠If you donât ban the most broken hero and the other team is allowed to play it⊠You loose
Thing is, HOTS is now better off without the esports scene
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If hero bans are introduced, Iâll probably never play the game again. OW is just one game in a big rotation of games that I usually play, so it wouldnât be a big deal, but still⊠I like my OW time.
This game has a unique quality to it. The developers demonstrated so much creativity in game design. I hope it will remain popular for a long time with the release of OW2.
If hero bans come to Overwatch, I will very likely reconsider my priorities and end my participation in this game.
12 Likes
Hero bans would be great!
If each category had enough characters in it that it wouldnât be harmful as all hell to the game, and if the characters in said categories were balanced well enough that you would still have a balanced and fun game with a few heroes banned.
We need at least 3 more tanks and 3 more healers before they can even consider doing this. Heros like Zen, D.va, Brigitte, Hammond, need to be looked at as well.
Paladinsâ ban system works because each side can ban 2 heroes of their choice, and the heroes left to choose from are still fun to play, impactful in their own way, and useful.
Hero bans has to be the worst idea Iâve ever heard.
Maybe it could work in the Overwatch League where people are paid to play whatever their team tells them to. Thatâs fair, there is a lot of different strategies that they can come up with before the matchup.
Even then theyâd have to have a flat ban on the hero. If one team bans Orisa, neither team can pick her.
But this would be awful for competitive. Not only are you taking away the freedom of choice and flexibility in hero choices, but youâre also hurting one-tricks. Iâd rather have someone who one-tricks to play their OTP hero over a hero they suck with. Thereâs already enough randomness game by game with how our teammates are. Stop adding onto the frustration.
Think it was Jeff who would talk about how great it is to be able to switch comps when itâs not working or to counter the other team. I wish Blizzard would stop listening to the streamers who complain about every meta hero.
You canât look at rainbow6 and say âWeâre going to balance like them!â Itâs not the same. Balance your own way, itâs your own game.
tho if we do get hero bans, please ban hammond every game.
If itâs for OWL then I say itâs worth a try. Mirror matchups are pretty much hero bans already at that level, except they effectively ban the majority of the roster. It really couldnât hurt. Iâm 100% on board.
As for the rest of the ladder, Iâm still onboard. I think this is a great change.
Well maybe the fear of getting their main banned will encourage one-tricks to pick up another hero and learn to play Overwatch the way it was meant to be played like everyone else.
Or it would encourage them to leave instead.
Do you really want to compete with the likes of LoL and Dota 2 for most toxic community in the world?
If hero bans comes, I am gonna three stack private profile and we ban mei EZ clapps ez wins
except thatâs only assuming that thereâs always only 1 problem hero at a time and not to mention the fact that people would also likely just ban heroes they donât want as a teammate (itâs been a meme over at paladins for a long time, itâs highly likely to happen here too given somehow false reporting witch-hunting of certain hero players did).
itâs simply sweeping 1 problem under the rug while thereâs plenty of others still around. or even make more issues prominent, e.g ban orisa, now rein will probably be a must pick if you want a barrier anchor tank or vice versa.
everyoneâs got different priorities on problems, not everyoneâs informed, not will want to ban the âOPâ hero(ES). Itâll likely be the luck of the draw that the ban target is the one most prominent to you if itâs implemented to need any teammate input (which itâd likely would).
bans arenât solutions to inherent hero imbalance across various heroes.
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Do you know why hanzo and mei specifically would be perma banned?
Because they are useful everywhere!!
Hanzo can get to the high ground, Win 1v1 duels on said high ground and spam the living daylights out of you from every angle in every map that exists in this game.
Mei because wellâŠmeiâŠ
I am OK with them in comp, but not in QP or arcade.
Iâve seen hero bans in other games. What basically happens is that players constantly ban the newest hero or whoever is meta.
Hero bans would be another nail in the coffin of this game. The has THIRTY-ONE characters. You already limited the choices for new players by making them choose a role without knowing whoâs in that role and now you want to further limit it? This isnât Heroes of the Storm with close to 90 characters.
All this is gonna lead to is the meta drones banning whatsever âmetaâ at the moment and getting mega salty when you ban something else. Canât wait for all the DF mains ragequitting cause DF got banned, have fun going back to your 10-min queue. Either that or troll bans on Bastion because ârelax, it doesnât matterâ. Gosh, remember when this game was about freedom to stack four Torbs and two Mercies until it became all about OWL?
The only way hero bans could work is what my friend would like to happen - hero bans being there only for GM games in comp. But I know better than to think Jeff wonât shove this âfeatureâ into QP as well. If that happens, I donât think even if Jeff gives me 5 legendary lootboxes for playing a tank Iâd play QP (and definitely not comp).
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It seems like most people are okay with hero bans in OWL but not in ladder. Hopefully if they do decide to implement this itâll just be for the pros. I donât think there is enough heroes in the game for it to really work on ladder but for the pros it would be a nice change to give more variety for the viewers and the players.
Except we all are fully aware, that ladder is intended merely as giant filter for future OWL stars. So if hero bans will be in OWL, they will be at ladder as well.
We are talking about company, that sincerely believes, that your random 6 players group and organized e-sport team can be balanced in same way.
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Yaa Iâm just thinking optimistically xD Itâs hard to really say what new changes will happen to the game. If this was in the past I wouldnât put it past them not to put it on ladder too but with new additions to the dev team I have some hope.
I think it can work.
Eventually, hero bans would have become a requirement anyway. The players need some control over characters that are overpowered or oppressive.
But it feels too soon with only 7 supports and 8 tanks.
Letâs just hope OW 2 and the subsequent new hero releases will fix that.
Assuming the new hero releases wonât be as awful as most past ones.