People want to play other tanks, I get it. But what happens when snipers inevitably become too strong? Widow, Hanzo, Ashe, McCree (not a sniper but he might as well be) are already played a tonne and are considered some of the best DPS in their class.
With the current state of D.Va (and how WB/Winston can be countered by every stun, especially newly buffed Hog), the only real way to avoid snipers is… unsurprisingly, double shield. Something needs to protect the supports, as none of them can really do anything against snipers on their own.
So no matter what, no matter how hard the game guts shielding, it’ll always be meta just to avoid a Widow Ashe Hanzo meta.
Solution? Either 1-3-2 (and rebuff the tanks), OR force 1 main 1 off tank (AND rebuff the tanks). Simple.
It solves the problem of double shield being the forced comp
It actually forces you to play other tanks, allowing for the tank meta to be flexible outside of the same “best” stuff each month
Oh and it could reinforce the usage of proper grouping and teamwork, rather than just spamming shields (Essentially, Sig and Orisa’s shields are much more critical in terms of placement. You no longer have the reassurance of being able to hide behind another shield if yours is misplaced)
So it gets to the point you question the system:
If people complain about barriers and they get nerfed, the only counter measure left is to play snipers yourself. So why do we have to get 2 slots locked for tanks that won’t play effective characters?
Better make it 132 or Open Queue, so we don’t have to rely in 2 random strangers to play snipers for us, especially when they are performing bad, we get more than 2 slots to swap and play them on our own.
They should nerf snipers/hitscan. I’ve seen a lot of GM players and streamers agreeing that damage is too high and nerfing barrier tanks will amplify this further.
McCree and Ashe specifically need to be toned down.
I personally would like to see snipers gutted of all major mobility.
Widow’s grapple no longer leaps up ridiculous heights
Hanzo’s wall climb is on a meter, allowing him to climb up high but it has one hell of a recharge time.
Ashe’s coach gun’s fine tbh, perhaps half the damage. Nobody rly uses it for the 90 damage shot point blank.
Oh, and probably reduce Widow’s health to 150-170. She has no true counter, so making Ashe + dmg boosted hitscans/some projectiles capable of a 1-2 shot headshot would be a viable solution to the sheer oppressiveness of her kit.
What they actually need to do is rework Sigma so he doesn’t synergize with Orisa. Until they rework Sigma, he’ll always need another shield. I say make him more like a main tank and try to combat his synergy with Orisa. Rein and Orisa while at times can work has never been that great which is why double barrier wasn’t an issue in the past.
The other issues is wanting to nerf damage, the problem with this is you would also need to nerf or rework heals. Damage went up because of healing creep. So the devs would need to figure that crap out as well. You can’t nerf the damage without nerfing the sustain that caused that high damage to begin with.
Nerf the damage of the tanks. The damage is too high right now. That’s the reason why double barrier is still meta and only supports that can heal fast and stay alive are good.
We don’t need fat DPS.
Snipers should never have amazing mobility to begin with. No matter how much they nerf Widow grapple’s cooldown, it won’t change the fact that is it one of the best mobility options in the game.
The same tanks that offer the barriers are the ones that spam mid-long ranged damage from behind barrier-safety.
When Off-Tanks mostly have mid-close range and limited defenses, they have few chances to break the barriers or go across them before their defensive resources are already spent and they gotta deal with all the healing, CC and debuffs they are gonna get before barriers are back again. So you feel like you need a escort-like barrier to assist you to save up your limited defensive resources and get into your ideal range.
Of course not only ranged barrier tanks are the spammers, but they contribute to reinforce barrier usage too.
I think this would be easier to solve than the snipers. Off tanks like D.Va and Zarya can benefit fairly heavily from spam heroes (especially Zarya) in return for greater damage. Junkrat players usually do swap when put against Zarya, as she’s able to exploit the lack of aim needed to play him.
As for the spam tanks? I think they did that with Orisa when they nerfed her damage from 10 per shot to 9. It’s a small change, but it does slow down barrier breakage for her. Sigma too (120 to 110 I believe. Or it’s the rock damage that was nerfed, one or the other)
Can we all just talk about how Gengu got nerfed in 6 weeks because he could destroy someone in 1.5 seconds but McCree’s ridiculous fire rate equal to that of a machine gun has been left untouched for like, what? A year? Love being two tapped before I even know where I’m being shot from.
Much Better This, but se have only One problem: too much less Tanks in the roster. Se need a more variety for having more players to play This role. (Same the main/off support.
And why not: make again the differenze between defensor and attacker characters in dps role. More opportunities for Who Is more “niche” in the game.
or am I being silly?