From what I’ve heard, the current lead practically ruined HotS so bad in terms of balance, its league went kaput before they were moved onto the OW team.
I mean, looking at the fact these sym and mercy changes were reviewed and signed off on should indicate enough that something is incredibly wrong over there lol
Hero favouritism exists and is so blatant with how the game moves forward, it’s kind of shocking. Ana, Cassidy etc.
The decisions they make are so out of touch, that it’d take both overwatch subreddits and gaming outlets to express overwhelming dismay for them to check themselves. I mean they’ve said it themselves, the forums don’t matter to them. 
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They nerfed Symmetra. They flipping nerfed Symmetra.
We desperately need a new lead designer.
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I never defend the OW team but you can’t dispute a persons ability to do their job just because they changed/nerfed a character you play.
They have successfully changed a lot of characters for this beta (orissa, doom, when he got made a tank) and even added a new hero, with the general consensus being that she’s fun and has a good kit, I think it’s unfair to disregard all this just because you don’t like two things they’ve done.
I don’t like the mercy changes at all but I’m not gonna say he’s terrible and needs to be sacked. That’s dramatic.
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Uh…yes. Just look at the last 5 years. This beta is still a balance nightmare. Every change they make misses the mark almost every time. Its just a joke at this point.
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I think that sort of selective reasoning can be easily mirrored. People might argue over how successful and more importantly, inspired the changes really were for heroes like doom or sombra. Was bastion successful?
Ow has been moving into a really bland direction for a very long time, with heroes like cassidy favoured seemingly with each balance iteration. New heroes and their abilities seem less unique and more generalist in taking on that cod style of play.
i think with the pretty much global dismay for the sym and mercy changes it’s seemingly indicitive that new people really need to be brought in. So spare me the pearl clutching lol
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Geoff Goodman never worked on HOTS, I don’t think. But also not all decisions are his (and none are made in a vacuum), That said… I really think they’ve missed a trick by not adding Dev notes to some of these changes.
Although it’s still beta, and things will change before 4th Oct, people will understandably be concerned about changes that weaken heroes, that don’t make sense, or that seem downright stupid.
I know comms are busy, but we definitely need them through Beta or **** will kick off.
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How is Dooms recent change a success? Or are you talking about the previous change from dps to tank?
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I don’t think it’s geoff’s fault but rather a philosophy issue, they have always looked for heroes to be fun rather than balanced which is why people loved ow in 2016
However for ow2 they’re heavily influenced by streamers and pro players, so if a hero is “not popular” it “shouldn’t be fun” because it makes the game “less fun”, and if that hero is “not fun” then noone plays that hero, which is a HUGE philosophy issue as your diverse cast basically gets removed to “what do our little pros wanna play”
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I don’t think I’ve heard anyone put it this way and I don’t want anybody losing their jobs regardless but I agree with this. It feels like only some characters are desired to be “good” and “niche” heroes can’t be meta on a lot of maps.
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Yes. They’ve essentially “balanced” the fun out of half the cast for years now. The beta is just more of the same, from what I played, just more extreme because they finally killed off tank synergies.
Whatever style of game they’re trying to turn this into, it isn’t particularly good.
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do you really think there is another one ? it’s the same old guy who gave that disgusting rework to Sym and it’s the same people who have been ruining the game for ever.
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When the population decline is a byproduct of your poor decision making with said product then I’d say there’s grounds.
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I dont play any of the heroes changed in the patch but it’s still got me questioning what’s going on over there at Blizz lol
Like, yeah they’ve had some successes, but it feels like they’re just throwing random changes out and hoping they stick.
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We have to be honest here. They made a ton of questionable changes over the course of the years. This Mercy and Sym debacle is not the first. Maybe it might be a better idea? Have no idea but from the forum user point of view it looks pretty easy to see that some characters suck (Mercy, Sym, DF) and that some are over performing (Ana) and should be changed. I mean its obvious.
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Lets address some things: Geoff Goodman, the lead balance designer, never worked on Heroes of the Storm and Heroes of the Storm did not fail due to bad balance. Heroes of the Storm failed because the core gameplay was fundamentally flawed. It had a lot of interesting game modes and was a good evolution of the MOBA concept BUT cut way too much depth out of the gameplay so it felt simplistic and boring which made the game not fun to master. That is a core gameplay problem, not a balance problem.
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Let me ask the question another way. Would a competent developer, knowing what they know about Symmetra, have changed her in the way that they did?
If the answer is yes, then the conversation is over. If the answer is no, then we can talk about it.
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I just hope Sojourn’s Ultimate being “Gun Shoots Better” isn’t a herald of the “inspired” hero designs to come.
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Mei, Reaper, Bastion, Sym are not successful changes. They are failures.
Orisa could very well be argued that they failed to change her for the better since they haven’t changed her, they literally deleted her and made an entire new hero. Most heroes with CC weren’t changed in any meaningful way, just had CC removed and replaced with pathetic buffs that don’t in anyway make up for the utility they lost like Cree and Brig.
A successful change would be one where a significant portion of both people who play the heroes and play against them are happier overall with the changes without resorting to deleting every single old ability.
Of all changed heroes, only Sombra really falls into this category since she lost alot of annoyance but retained utility and the core of what makes Sombra, Sombra.
Most hero changes in OW2 can be boiled down to removing what’s annoying, adding something that another hero (usually a more popular one) can do better, not address the shortcomings of the hero and call it a day. Or fundamentally overhaul the hero to the point they are a completely different hero.
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The changes overall have been pretty horrific; it’s as if they just blurted out random changes and went with it. Maybe they were picked out of a hat.
And it seems to be a repeated thing, too.
That said, the claim about HotS probably isn’t true.
Yes - what a horrible, immature thing to do.
What do you do for a living?