yeah this is what I complained about it before when people said that 3 dps was valid, it was a true statement, but what they didn’t mention was that 3 dps was valid on attack but almost always throwing on defense. in general 2/2/2 is necessary or the tank’s decisions on defense become far more important than anything the dps are doing.
if they implement this system, I would expect wrecking ball, reinhardt and orisa to be valid on offense, but ball probably will be unfavored if you continue to play him on defense.
anyway I mentioned to blizzard that this was an option before role queue almost a year ago, but it seems like we are moving in this direction due to the lack of people wanting to play tank. But honestly this just makes me want to play tank less, so I would expect tank players to decrease under this system. However, with a 3:1 ratio to the tank I expect queue times will still improve drastically even if many people are not willing to play tank.
I expect that eventually they will have to use auto-fill to some extent like in league of legends. People just don’t want to play the roles that aren’t good at carrying. and low damage main tanks are probably the worst in the game at carrying unless you queue with a good player (off tank or dps) to function as your reliable damage. too much teamwork is required. But maybe I’m biased as I’m a player that played off tank 3 times as many hours as main tank because I felt that off tank was stronger as long as someone played main tank for you.
as off tank I can carry so hard. as a 3200 max tank, you can put me in a ranked game below 2600 and tape my W button down and I will still carry as zarya. With roadhog I grab so many targets (no one dodges even up till diamond. they don’t believe any hog can aim I guess) that even if my dps are killing nothing, they eventually run out of cooldowns to block my hook and we push. dva is a free win if the enemy isolate themselves or if a healer doesn’t respect my ability to dive them when they move to heal.
the main reason off tank carries better than main tank is that off tanks typically get 3 times (my guess based off of comparing reinhardt and zarya killing blows) as many kills as main tanks, and this carries games.
However, a team with a main tank is favored to win against a team without a main tank. why? It is because the damage to shield doesn’t contribute to ults.
the enemy team probably gets 3-4 less ults over the course of the game and this makes a huge difference. Another interesting effect of this is that this typically helps the team with a shield tank even more on 2cp and escort than on koth maps.
it especially helps the team on defense. But on offense if the main tank is getting only a couple kills here and there, it isn’t enough to make up for dps getting no kills outside of their ult.
Off tank can make up for that lack of dps. wrecking ball is probably the solo exception with the potential to get enough solo kills to carry even if your dps don’t hit anything. (I honestly think all main tanks should be brought up to this level of strength).
but basically the strength of shields makes main tanks difficult to balance. if you buff them then they are too strong at defending, but as they are they can’t contribute to offense enough. Don’t get me wrong I know they can get kills, but statistically they are getting far far fewer than the off tank role.
Tank balance is probably the current biggest issue in overwatch, which is why so few people want to play it. an absolutely necessary position that people want someone else to play. That is what main tank is.
Anyway I think this is a good idea probably. I think it was either this or force fill, but I think they will end up having to do both. We will see.
If you allow off tanks to stay balanced as they are and remain unchanged then 2/2/2 will completely destroy the ladder while stomping the 1/3/2 people.
However, I think blizz already knows that the off tanks have to either be moved to dps or tank. I think moving them to dps is easier, but that would require a total change. just dropping their hp to 200 would make them trash tier, so it would require a lot of reworks.
However, if they are moved to dps there won’t be many tanks, and then meta considerations will dictate very few tanks get played anyway. With only 1 person on the role having the correct tank will matter a huge amount
I’m kind of excited and curious about this change. Though I don’t think I will play tank much in the new system except to see how the off tanks have changed. But maybe the occasional game as wrecking ball at least. If wrecking ball is top tier then I will probably queue only tank, but otherwise I would find most of the other characters to spend too little time actually aiming to have much fun.
fast skilled movement can also be fun, but in my opinion this is also something only wrecking ball has.
In terms of fun,
wrecking ball >> zarya/roadhog/sigma > dva >>>>> orisa/winston > reinhardt.
though I feel a little bad for rating winston so low, he’s pretty much something I only want to play when I am eating/relaxing and don’t want to focus and practically play one handed. no mechanics required, basic game sense and you get value, but very easily countered.
I still think main tanks need major buffs that aren’t related to their shield strength (in particular winston needs more damage, reinhardt needs to be able to fire strike and get kills more often. I recommend dropping the ult charge rate of fire strike and then dropping its cooldown to every 4 sec. orisa could use another projectile speed increase if there is no longer an option for double shield.
wrecking ball is probably fine… what a great character. damage + mobility + disruption = fun