But in many of my games (with randos), they aren’t holding up their part of the social contract. So why don’t they take advantage of that impact/power?
TL:DR: Why are rando DPS like this?
I’m admittedly coming from a mildly ranty place after a game I just had, but it made me realize (or re-realize) that a ton of DPS play the role because they want to be void of responsibility, and often refuse to take any within a match. Often, they don’t switch, they don’t do enough to help the team, they’re just there to post numbers, and just want to (try and) click heads. But they won’t queue Arcade or solo/custom modes with those intentions. They rarely help the objectives. They generally behave like or seem like they only want to pew pew while the tanks and supports hold their hands and babysits them in a more structured format. And I’m not trying to stoke the class war, but:
Why is this/what can be done other than going next?
The issue with going next is if I stupidly queue flex again (which you need for efficient BP progress) you’ll just get more of these people in your games. Wins aren’t more crucially important to me than good gameplay and teamwork, but 5v5 is often enough void of that with the loose MM being what it is. So what is the solution within the scope of still playing OW?
Please read if you think I just hate DPS, or caveats and couching from the above:
I’m technically a flex player and play DPS often (T:35% D:45% S:19%)
I’m aware the DPS class isn’t a monolith (not all the same)
I’m also aware I’m posting this from a weekend queue
I understand 5v5 isn’t 6v6, but it’s still OW and the only format we can quickly play (for XP rewards, but this isn’t my main goal when playing).
I’ve been playing since spring 2016, I self-identify as a tank player at heart, and would love to be able to play that most of the time (in a good team+even matchmaking), with a bit of relax time on flex. But it’s impossible to do that and keep a good mental as most flex/tank players are aware from the game these days. What’s more, observing people play like this while you pour more than you should into the match kind of inspires you to play like them on DPS/OQ in your future games, which I would identify as a toxicity spiral the devs refuse to address (and is part of the tank drought, imo).
So again, how do we feel on this and what can be done?
Damage dealers are a protected class. I understand this is an Overwatch forum; however, the game is broken on Ps5 and the Valorant beta is great.
That game has the same problem. There are 4 roles. Duelist (DPS), controller (they are kind of partial tanks because they control the map), initiator (also partial tanks because they take space), and sentinel (the anchor, kind of support). The problem? I am afraid to play controller and do a bad smoke that hurts my team more than it helps. I am afraid to play an initiator because I do not know where to push and do not want anyone reliant on my utility. I am afraid to play sentinel because I do not want to be last alive and have everyone scrutinize my every move.
So guess what? I do what literally all the trash players are doing and instalock duelist. No responsibility whatsoever. And it is designed that way. They want us casual scrubs to not be intimidated and actually queue for matches.
How do you fix it? Quite frankly they NEED to stop designing the coolest (for an edgy 13 year old weeb) characters as DPS. These games ALL do that. They make the lamest tanks and girliest supports imaginable. All of these awesome DPS ideas should be shared among the other roles. And pure roles. Omen is the Reaper knock off and he only has one smoke. He is more of a duelist hybrid. They NEED to stop that too.
The idea is that a duelist main is more likely to play controller if Omen exists, but in reality the pure controllers are not going to appeal to normies. The Genji and McCree of the world need to be in other roles because generic DPS players would play Mei if she was overpowered. Let’s be real. You do not NEED to cater to them. They will want to shoot things regardless. You have to persuade me to try something else. I am not going to start supporting because Mercy uwu. You have the Mercy uwu crowd. Time to get another group. And no, scientists and angry young adults are not good enough. Let’s expand our horizons just a touch, please!
DPS in the upper ranks was always the flexible swiss army knife for the most part. The relationship between tank and support is far too interlocked while DPS is very free to do almost whatever they want.
They really lack any tools which directly enable others on their team which means you simply pick a tool of DPS that can match with support or tanks or let them run solo.
As a support main who also plays DPS and tank, I wish they’d learn how to take cover. I hate healing so much. I also have to keep tank alive. They ask for heals when tank is critical and complain about it. I hate the S8 changes. It’s terrible.
The DPS meta in high ranks has been a mix of hitscans for years. But in high ranks the DPS meta is extremely minmaxed and some heroes have had it in a chokehold for years.
And when heroes not approved by corporate get SOME kind of usage, they get instantly nerfed.
I have gotten harassed too many times in high ranks for playing Symmetra.
And really tank and support are not really interlocked as much as they aim both at dealing with what is the meta DPS.
And weak DPS heroes get trampled underneath.
There were DPS that could and still can do that.
They have been mostly nerfed out of viability in high ranks.
This. Whenever I tell someone that DPS is the easiest role, this is what I mean. They have the least responsibility out of all the members of the team.
A lot don’t want to think about anything other than “Hold W+M1 at red team. If win, say GG EZ, if lose, blame random teammate(s).”, although this slowly becomes less true as you climb, dps still have the least amount of responsibility and things they should be tracking compared to the other roles.
Because the dps players you are getting, assuming this is QP or low ranks, arent the type to think about how they can have a big impact/get a lot of value. Most of them are the “CoD DM, run around and shoot at any red guys you see” type. They get an elim and run towards the next one, or get eliminated and respawn to do it again. Everything else is just irrelevant.
Thank you so far for all the thoughtful responses! I would love to hear from autopilot DPS players, if they even bother to use the forums, or get a perspective I perhaps haven’t considered before.
This is true.
I’ll never fully understand why the devs have recently (since OW2) taken the stance of: it’s fine there’s first and second-class DPS or “some heroes are ok to be niche”. The content creator community also parrot this ideal and I frankly think that is a scourge on the spirit and health of the game. All heroes deserve their time in the sun, no matter how frustrating you (or even most) feel it is to play against them (because literally all heroes can be seen as frustrating to play against as humans are subjective beings and we don’t all like the same things… I thought that was literally the strength/brand of Overwatch but I guess I was mistaken).
Get a PC, babyweeb, it’s a way better investment long-term than a console But also I appreciate your comparison to other games (that I will probably never play) as well as how you plainly explain them for us, here. (As always) Thanks for your input!
It’s not every game/tier, but here’s kind of the thing. I have a ton of respect for a lot of DPS players up in high ranks because I know how difficult the job is, especially if you’re just worse than your enemy DPS opponents, if your skillset doesn’t counter theirs, or if your roster is narrow in role compared to them. You just lose, it feels awful, you are the reason your team loses, and it sucks because you’re expected to fill the expanded DPS skill ceilings compared to the other roles. It’s a ton of pressure and I’d much rather chose where the fight will be and how it initiates compared to have to execute to the upper echelons of skill through the middle of it.
I mean now they all apply the passive (unevenly), but this wasn’t always the case. “Utility DPS” (which is a term I want to shudder at) have always been able to shape the fight or provide value or enabling/leveraging engagements. Ah, I just saw Ranulf also responded in this way, above.
Sad and true. I miss OW1 that actually had decent (solo) matchmaking at least some of the time.
I mean 6v6 would help so, at least, I could (hopefully) get another tank-minded person in the lobby.
But also I appreciate your comparison to other games (that I will probably never play) as well as how you plainly explain them for us, here. (As always) Thanks for your input!