DPS Queue is a joke

That’s one of the things they can do but it’s not necessarily their main job and it’s not defined in the game as being their responsibility

so why would this push new players away from being attracted to the role?

It is absolutely their main job. Tanks are specifically designed to be the first in to create space. Be it via defensive abilities such as Rein’s shield or by threat type abilities like Roadhog’s hook.

Tank’s are about controlling and creating space around them as their primary job. Ever see a tank just play “poke at the choke” on attack for the entire game? Where you never get any progress? That is a tank not doing their job.

Because it is far more daunting and intimidating. As a new player it is easier to follow then to lead (tank) and easier to “just shoot things” then it is to try and keep everyone alive.

Plus it is just the nature of gamers to be the ones who get the “frags”. Tank and Support are just generally not attractive because they don’t play like dps.

not really though? Playing the damage role was far more intimidating to me at least. Much more punishing and your die much more quickly. Healing is probably the most welcoming role

yeah I think it’s a multitude of reasons although tank heroes can definitely get kills.

it probably has a lot to do with their lethality or it doesn’t feel like you can get the kill quickly enough as well as lack of options in how you go about securing the kill.

as a reinhardt player I know that landing a charge is enormously satisfying. Problem is it’s on a long cool down and a lack of control means it can often lead to your death

Damage heroes obviously have a lot of options and interesting abilities to secure kills

3 DPS is the 2nd most picked comp and it works as good as 2-2-2 … the thing about 2-2-2 is that it’s basically bull**** for like 90%+ of the player base.

If it doesn’t go well player do so and they do so in roleQ as well. In openQ it sometimes actually works out.

2-2-2 doesn equal organized. Almost every match in roleQ I had tanks and healer who didn’t play their role.

That makes you the exception. Not the rule.

Not really though. Supports are both the primary target and their own team is heavily reliant on them staying alive and prioritizing heal targets.

Damage is perceived as more independent. Thus it attracts more players. Not to mention the preference to killing.

Yeah, any role can get kills. However, the weight of responsibility (at least perception wise) is far more visible on tanks and support. Damage is far less visible when they are failing and far more visible when they are succeeding.

why is it that damage players are usually the first to be blamed by the team then?

And it seems incredibly rare that support players are blamed for anything

but this is of course just my experience

maybe, maybe not

not necessarily

Oooh, that’s a tough one - a teammate screaming “why didnt you heal me?!” from half way across the map is a very common thing. Same with tanks not Tanking enough, whatever that means. I think the blame is equally distributed.

But, if you’re talking perceived responsibility, yeah, i’d say people see tanks (you initiate fights, focus the push, protect your team) and healers (you keep your team alive and everyone tries to kill you) as the more responsible for keeping the team going - you mess up (bad charge, miss a few healing shots etc), its much easier for your entire team to die. DPS have a perceived shared responsibility of killing stuff with everyone else. That’s perception though - reality is, DPS is more likely to hard carry.

On top of that, at a conceptual level, DPS is a simpler idea to understand at a base level - its a FPS, you shoot things, make them dead. Tanks are FAR harder to understand - new players wont have a clue what controlling space even means, which is why you see so many new Rein players stand in the choke with the shield up getting nuked - “i have a shield, right? So i should use it! Why did i die? Screw this i’m playing hanzo”.

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Because they aren’t. Least no more then any other role.

You mean you don’t ever experience the dps player getting killed and spamming the “heal me” voice line over and over?

The very fact that dps is the highest pop role makes this all but a certainty.

Yes. It is. It is perceived as lower stress due to the job being seen as “just kill the other guy”.

This person gets it.

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DPS is the highest population role because it’s a role based on shooting people, in a game about shooting people, in a genre about shooting people (it’s even in the name), in an industry (or market segment at least) dominated by games about shooting people. Not because it’s the most stress-free (it isn’t). If anything, a less stressful DPS role would skew even harder in their favor.

DPS are also perceived as “Carry” heroes. While that tends to be overstated, it creates the notion that if your team is losing, it’s your fault. Which is literally the most stressful thing you can experience in a team-based game.

There are plenty of people who simply won’t play DPS because they can’t frag out hard enough to avoid feeling like they’re failing their team.

Almost like conceptually it is the simplest to understand and act on. Making it the least intimidating to approach and choose.

Where as Support and Tank are not conceptually as simple and require a different mindset. Being far less straight forward. As such they are perceived as more stressful because learning something new (making space and enabling teammates) rather then choosing what is consistently in all shooters (shooting and killing) which is less stressfull

That is only a perception that is acquired over time. By which point most people learn to deflect as “I have no heals!” or “Tanks are not pushing!” or they just don’t care and still would rather not take on the responsibility of learning to tank or support. As they would still find it conceptually more stressful and less fun.

And for each of one of them there are even more who won’t play tank or support because they perceive a higher responsibility or complexity in the tank or support role.

This is demonstrated by the numbers.

Please note I am talking in a general sense. Not in an exclusive one. There are certainly many reasons people avoid tank and support. I am just stating that responsibility and stress are large factors.

Youd have matches pre role q consisting of 5 dps and one support if no one felt like swapping, it created more toxicity cause no one wanted to fill for a tank or healer. Youd have games where dps players who’ve never touched a tank in their life would have to go against rein one tricks or something. Role q is healthier for the game but I do miss the more creative team composition of 1-3-2s or 3-3s goats didn’t really have alot of counter play against it tho so it kinda ruined the system.

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I went over to Quickplay Classic in Arcade. After giving it nearly a year, I just gave up on it.

Too many salty try-hards complaining about how good role jail was since they would finally have 3 classes “needed” to play the game. The vast majority in Role Jail are the people playing Tanks or healers because the line to the DPS rides are LONG. Essentially forcing players to play or learn other roles We only get half. Sure, they play tank or healer. But not because they care.


Arcade has its issues too though. It is sweaty, bossy try-hard premade teams that are CAUSTIC and turn into mobsters.

This game is a lovely mess right now and if Overwatch 2 even MAKES it through the gate. They are going to have one heck of a time even GETTING this game to take for Round 2 after revisions.

You are jumping the gun, forming the conclusion first and assuming an assumption must therefore be true

tank heroes are actually quite independent as well though Given their high health pools. Road hog and wrecking ball are especially independent

Support role is welcoming and low pressure in the sense that you are at the back of the team much of the time behind the other players watching them rather than having your team‘s eyes on you

Although in another sense yes it can be high pressure in trying to keep the rest of your team alive. But if you fail you can always just blame the others for being out of position. nobody would bat an eye

But also the support role more closely resembles human nature in the sense of trying to support others whereas when you play damage you are kind of the bad guy doing naughty things like murdering the other team

At the end of the day if nothing dies then you don’t win. Killing the enemy team is one of the most important jobs and so damage players have a great deal of pressure

I believe that many players are actually attracted to that pressure which is why damage role is so popular. Of course this is just my theory and I may be entirely wrong

No, I am demonstrating by explaining in detail. Where as you are just saying “maybe” as a counter.

Please learn the difference between “perceive” and “are”. The issue is not what they are but what they are perceived to be.

Same as above.

It is perception. Not what you learn later on.

Same as above.

But once again, for every person attracted to those roles there are WAY more who aren’t.

in this case they are but are also perceived to be

why would perception differ from the reality in this way?

You have failed to provide an adequate explanation.

You have also failed to provide substantive reasoning

Just because you did not understand it does not mean I did not provide it.

Let’s breakdown your argument

assumptions? conclusion? which is which?

I already provided my argument. I am not going to repeat it. Feel free to re-read.

I see. you are incapable of breaking it down

you realise it would expose how evidently flawed it is

I broke it down into concise segments. That is what paragraphs are for. Once again, your failure to understand it does not mean I did not say it.