So many threads about hero balance. Really hero balance doesn’t apply to us as much as we think unless it comes to rage inducing mechanics like scatter, or hook 1.0, or 4 rez valk mercy.
People have climbed to gm one tricking every hero in the game. Some take longer to get good at than others, but look at it this way:
If we complain, we’re usually complaining that it’s not easy enough to 1 trick a hero or something
If pros complain then it’s because at the current skill ceiling, particular heroes that the pros don’t think are skillful enough are dominating the meta
And like rage inducing mechanics, overhaul/rework threads are exempt because they are just creative suggestions. Not cancer posts
TL;DR: You don’t have a problem until you hit the skill ceiling because everyone hero in the game can hit grandmaster
Yes/no.
The overall pace of the game matters to us. This means the power creep too. DIve may not be ran in gold, but the counters being added and buffed certainly effect gold.
I’m in diamond and don’t play anymore, but even I’m fed up with the balance. Dva is used in every situation, and her counters perform less because of her.
That’s a problem.
I agree that balance shouldn’t be based around casual since I’d rather listen to a pro rather than a gold player. TO put it like this:
This is precisely why counters are bad for balancing.
No, counters are good. The problem is that
A) there’s a lot of generalists that mean counters are kinda irrelevent
B) they keep 1 hero from dominating/carrying games.
C) the power creep makes current counters irrelevant.
Counters are fine IF you can do it right. Like having each character have the same or similar amount of counters. This is not the case in Overwatch however. Symmetra has so much more and harder counters than Tracer for example. Rock Paper Scissors isn’t very balanced if they add Gun now is it?
They are adding counters to counter a meta that is only really oppressive at high ranks. But to counter that meta, they have to add oppressive heroes and as you said they are countering pretty hard in Gold which is a place that doesn’t need that counter. This is a prime example of them not doing counters right. I just don’t believe Blizzard has it in them to balance a game around counters properly.
And Blizzard hasn’t…
That’s why balance sucks.
I probably should have worded my original comment better. It would have been more clear to say it is bad for balancing as it is difficult to balance. Typically what I see is characters who just happen to soft counter another but in Overwatch it seems that this game is built around one hero hard countering another. This is a recipe for disaster unless the developer has exceptional skill in balancing and Blizzard is not known for their amazing balance.
which doesn’t need to happen. That’s more of the power creep than balance itself.
Brigitte is an example of this, whereas Soldier, McCree, Widow all have a natural advantage against Pharah.
This is the crux of the problem. This is what needs fixing in order to fix the game.
Competitive Play isn’t a good measurement of hero balance. Team coordination is extremely important at high levels and it’s not possible to get this with randomly matched players. Coordinated teams that practice routinely with the same players is where hero viability starts to become relevant.
Overwatch League pros and Overwatch Contenders are the only real source for hero viability since these are organized teams.