How much time is reasonable to balance 5v5

General Discussion
1

Obviously a major format change like 5v5 would take a long time to balance, especially with the decent influx of new heroes and totally reworked heroes that came with it. Should the 1.5 years they had so far (over 2 if you count betas) been enough to get the game balanced, and if not then how much is reasonable in your opinion?

Personally, I’m willing to give them around another year to get it right. But if it’s spring next year and the tank role is still miserable to play and they’re still desperately changing role passives every other patch to duct tape the game together, then I’d consider 5v5 a total failure that was not worth the few upsides it had

2 Likes
2

Considering it took them 4 years to get to the fabled “October patch”, I think that should be the benchmark :wink:

3

more like 1 or 1,5 years. Do not forget that the games needs a different Balance with Openqueue vs Role Lock. and Considering rolelock was introduced in 2019 and the October Patch was in 2020: 1-1,5 years should be the benchmark.
So basically, they already had as much time, if not more, to get 5v5 in a very good spot.

2 Likes
4

It really shouldn’t take that long to fix considering most tanks either got health changes or an extra ability.

First, axe the tank, DPS, AND support passive. Cut health values back to what they were months ago. Reduce hitbox sizes again.

For the tanks…

For Rein, remove the extra firestrike. Remove cancel-able charge, buff damage to 300. Give him back his steadfast passive (Which is basically current tank passive.) Boom, done.

For Zarya, remove the extra charge for her barrier, make it so energy decays at 1.8 seconds rather than 2.0. Done.

Winston can literally stay as he is and it wouldn’t change anything.

D.VA: Reduce matrix length, increase cooldown. Buff boop damage on mech again. Done.

Mauga. Scrap armor, give him back the 25% increase firerate when firing both guns, increase spread. Buff overhealth conversion from 150 to 200. Done and done.

Wrecking Ball. Personally don’t think he needs any changes. Remove giving shields to teammates.

Junkerqueen. Make it so commanding shout only applies to herself.

Roadhog. Get rid of damage mitigation and ability to walk with take a breather. Increase health it provides. Buff damage on scrap gun, but also make it so hooked in targets are further away from him. Done.

Sigma. Scrap his barrier ability, give him a vortex ability that can “reflect” bullets like Ion from Titanfall 2, all in one big burst. Done.

Doomfist. I’ll be quite frank, I’m not sure how to change him…

Ramattra: Add slow back to his nemesis form; increase height and duration of vortex. Done and done.

Orisa. Honestly all she’d need is just cooldown increases. Otherwise, shes fine.

And for support…

Revert Zen completely before OW2; 5v5 screwed him over so hard.

Lucio is fine.

Anas nade should be 50% healing reduction rather than completely. Buff duration back to 4 seconds. Increase damage to 75. Done

Lifeweaver. Replace most health with barriers (Since he won’t be able to self heal due to support passive going away.) Done n done.

Kiriko. New passive: Gives her a self heal meter that works like old support passive depending on how much you’ve healed your team. Only kicks in when she hasn’t taken damage for more than a few seconds.

And thats just bare bones basic number changes. It honestly wouldn’t take them very long to change it back if they actually put in the time and effort. But, they’re most likely more focused on what slop to add to the shop than actually giving the game updates it needs.

5

Reasonable - 2025 we get a hint for new OW3

Possibility - 2026. new game. NVDA release it new architecture late 2024 Blackwell so I would imagine games would need to be built around it.

6

That’s definitely one way of looking at it.

The other way of looking at it is that the introduction of Role Queue was part of an ongoing attempt to balance 6v6 Overwatch and that it took them 3 years to do even that.

After all, OP was very clearly asking about balancing 5v5 (team size) not 1-2-2 (team composition).

7

It does feel like the devs are more willing to try big changes since/including Season 9. That gives me some hope they’ll address things more quickly than in the past, but that comes with the caveat that I personally do not like the health pool changes.

If they’re continuing to make clear efforts every 0.5-1.5 seasons to try and make the tank role enjoyable (without making everyone else miserable), it’s reasonable to at least keep an eye on what changes are going live for another 6 seasons or so. Don’t force yourself to keep grinding out the game if you really aren’t enjoying it though.

The nature of what Tank is in a 1-2-2 setup, and really Tanks just existing in any sort of PvP with other roles, is probably not a trivial situation to balance (particularly while trying to retain diversity in Tank mechanics/design). It wouldn’t shock me if we ultimately end up oscillating between patches Tanks making other roles miserable and Tank not being attractive enough to keep players queuing Tank.

I also do wonder if the Devs have data suggesting to them that counterswapping in particular isn’t as big of an issue as the community perception believes it to be.