Think about it, how many dps can heal teammates well? How many tanks? Not many
How many dps can protect their teammates well? How many healers? Not many
Now how many tanks can kill well? How many healers? All of them
The reason dps can be supplanted so easily is because there’s not a large enough difference in their killing ability as compared to the other classes. Not nearly as large as the differences between the classes on healing and protecting teammates.
In short, tanks and supports are better at doing the dps job than the dps are at doing the tank and support jobs. This makes dps have a less exclusive class role than the other two.
Of course dps are better at killing, but are they sufficiently better to warrant their complete lack of healing capability and relatively small health pools and utility? Apparently not. The fact is that dps really can’t perform the other roles well, but the other roles can perform the dps role adequately even if it’s not as well. And those other classes can bring other advantages to the table.
And yet, the only support that does more dps is zen.
Because, surprise surprise, they do more damage.
Saying a DPS is bad because they can’t take or heal is stupid, because that’s not what they were meant to do.
Mercy has a 1 second TTK with the largest non-explosive primary fire projectiles in the game. It’s actually pretty easy to destroy someone at close range if you actually take your pistol out.
How are you not getting this? Yes you lose dps when you choose a different role, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good trade when you can still kill fairly well and gain the advantages of the other role too.
Mercy’s projectiles are slow, for example, mcree has a ttk of .75 (I belive) but thats more beliveable because he only needs to hit a headshot and a body, mercy has to hit multiple chain headshots
Okay, dont try to say that supports are better at killing than other things…
Zen- He has a lot of damage but has to take time to figure out what to discord and he has to take a second to heal his teamates, ZEN CANNOT PROTECT HIMSLEF.
Ana- Ana has nade and 70 damage shots. Now, thats 70 dps per shot right? really not that high, not to mention that she has to spend more time healing, ana also cannot protect herslef reliably
Mercy- yes mercy has a TTK of 1 second… but then you realize that widowmaker has a ttk of .0(repeating)1. Widowmaker also only needs to shoot once.
Lucio- Lucio also has a ttk of one second. But hitting those is HARD, and not reliable.
Brig- Birg has no range, and low damage. Shes not bad at killing things but is worse than dps.
Moira- Moira has 50 dps… really? thats less than even winston. moira also has to take time to heal.
You see the pattern? all healers… HAVE TO HEAL.
Dps are deticated to doing damage, healers have to do other things.
And can you please tell me where I said that Mercy is better than DPS?
Looking at your posts and summarizing what you said is a thing, you know.
You are implying that other people can do the job of DPS better than actual DPS.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the problem is fixable without giving several tanks significant reworks.
Over half the tank roster has their entire “tanking” built around being huge threats… That is, being such a danger that you have to focus them first before they go on a killing rampage.
Roadhog and Hammond are designed from the ground up to be fat dps. Zarya is designed to snowball into one. Dva was reworked into a fat dps after pro dps mains complained that it was annoying to play against a good Dva (who was a low-damage, highly defensive tank at the time).
Overwatch’s tank design is fatally flawed. GOATS is the product of this design.
You aren’t summarizing, you are making a straw man. And I said you made it up because I certainly didn’t. I am NOT implying that other people can do the job of DPS better than actual DPS. I’m implying that everyone can do it adequately well while bringing other benefits that DPS can’t.
you’re right, there’s too little utility in dps characters, they can’t do anything but shoot or do damage.
or is there other types of dps characters hmm…
Let’s pretend that all Overwatch heroes are groundskeepers.
By category:
DPS trims hedges and creates topiary animals.
Tanking mows the lawns and keeps the grounds free of litter.
Healing maintains the gardens.
Why hire a groundskeeper who will only trim hedges, when you can hire that other guy who’s willing to trim hedges and mow all the lawns and pick up all the litter for the same salary?
Sure, the first guy makes some amazing topiary. But it’s so much more cost effective to hire the multitasker.
Out of the three off-tanks, D.Va’s damage is the least offensive to me. She is the only off-tank that actually functions as a tank in top-level play instead of just a bruiser (which, in a game with speed boost and close range objectives that you have to eventually contest and fight around, just make them DPS+). 4 second DM that instantly deleted projectiles was just objectively broken.
Hog is defined by his damage though he does almost nothing else. GOATs allows Zarya to be permanently 100 charge, which is where her design kind of falls apart, because I don’t think Blizzard accounted for a meta where 80 average charge games are the norm when designing her kit.
So you mean that DPS are needed, because they do their job better than others?
I’d rather have one person who does their job well than three that do a job poorly.
Sombra and Soldier can heal.
Therefor, we don’t need any actual support characters, because they can heal and damage.
no, that’s a very bad analogy,
dps mows the lawn
tanking can mow the lawn somewhat but does it at half the speed but does keep the ground free of litter.
healing can mow the lawn but can’t really do it as effectively as the other 2
but he does trim the hedges really well.
and they all take the same price.
but all you really do need is just a good mowing even though you have hedges that needs trimming and grounds that are riddled with litter.