After reading the latest dev blog, I’ve been feeling a little bit perplexed by the hero ban rate stats. I just don’t really understand the frustrations people have with some of the most frequently banned heroes. To be totally clear, I’m not saying people are somehow wrong for finding those heroes frustrating, I just personally don’t really get the hate, and I’d like to understand why people dislike these heroes as much as they do.
Sombra:
Now, I do actually kind of get the hate for her, and I’ve been frustrated when playing against Sombras myself before, but what I don’t really get is just how overwhelming the hate for Sombra is. The most frequently banned hero by a very wide margin… really? Is Sombra really that many people’s most hated hero? I feel like there’s at least a few heroes that are more annoying, but I guess most people just don’t feel that way?
Zarya:
This one in particular I really don’t get. I assumed that maybe she’s just very strong in the meta right now, but I don’t think she’d have such a high ban rate if it were just that. The only thing I can think of is maybe people find grav frustrating, because it locks you in place for a bit? Other than that, I really don’t get what people find frustrating about her kit. I will admit, I have always enjoyed playing Zarya and have over 100 hours on her, so maybe I have some bias preventing me from really seeing what people are annoyed by in her kit.
Freja:
Similar to Zarya, I assumed her high ban rate was just because of her being strong atm, but would she really be banned this often if that’s the case? Funnily enough, I would 100% understand her ranking very low, if not the lowest on a list of people’s least favorite characters story- & personality-wise, but in terms of gameplay, I don’t feel like there’s anything egregious about her kit that really stands out as particularly rage-inducing.
Mercy:
2nd most banned support on PC, and the most banned support on console… why? I don’t follow the competitive side of the game very closely, but my impression was that she hasn’t been very strong in a very long time, so why is she banned so much? Is resurrect really that annoying to most people?
Moira:
This one probably confuses me the most. 3rd most banned support on PC, and 2nd most on console. I don’t mean to throw the guy under the bus like this, cause I like him, but like, isn’t Baptiste just strictly better than Moira in like almost every regard? How is he near the bottom of the list, while Moira is at the top?
Feel free to educate me on why I should actually hate all these heroes :p
Only kidding of course, I doubt anything would convince me to suddenly start hating them, but as I said, I would at least like to understand a bit more why other people find them frustrating.
Thanks for stopping by, hope y’all have a wonderful day
This one is pretty simple, I would’ve thought. Mostly banned in lower ranks, barely in higher ranks. Because she is OP in lower ranks due to not requiring any aim whatsoever.
A Bronze 5 Moira will kill a Bronze 5 Genji every single time. 100 out of 100 times the Genji will die. So yeah of course people hate that. They die to someone who doesn’t have to put any effort whatsoever into killing you. I’ve said for years that Moira’s design is a huge problem in lower ranks.
I am not going to lie, I do not fully understand either. 93% banrate is insane and the worst I have ever seen in any game ever. I know I have a personal problem with her. She is literally the only character that can consistently kill me. I can outplay everyone else and always feel in control at my pisslow rank. A bad player can get a pick on me with Sombra. That will never not be annoying.
I have died to some cheese before, such as a Junkrat combo. But once it happens, I can adapt and it does not happen again. Not only that, but the Junkrat player had to be vaguely coherent to pull it off. And I typically had to mess up. Sombra breaks those rules.
A Sombra player half asleep paying attention to a conversation with someone else while playing could duel me. That’s nonsense. She is wildly overpowered in a 1v1. And I prove it myself by abusing her. The community cannot gaslight me on this. They are free kills.
Zarya hate is simple; they don’t like how she can charge her damage up and hold W into the enemy. Most people underestimate her barriers; they think you’re supposed to stop shooting her entirely 100% of the time, or people will shoot her, and then begin to ignore her to shoot some other target.
The winning strategy against her is to shoot her, kill her bubble, and then kill her or force her to press S. Even at 100% charge, she does not have enough damage to tank an entire team shooting at her; it takes the most basic amount of coordination and teamwork to stop her push, unless she’s being massively supported or something. But even then, you could shoot her team first, and shoot kill their bubbles to get to them too.
The issue is asking for Teamwork in Overwatch is foolish. People here are massively selfish and outright decry teamwork; its why they hate pocketing and thing ONE person should get to solo Mercy and the person she’s pocketing.
There’s a common theme with all the hero bans, people are banning the ones they personally find frustrating to play against. It’s not as much about win rate or place in the meta, the only thing that matters is annoyance on a personal level.
And this was always the case from day one. All the “Nerf this character because they’re bad for the game” stuff was a lie. I prefer bans because its fair to ban a hero exclusively because they’re annoying. If everyone shakes hands and agrees, why not? The problem with nerfs is how nerfing character A can effect character B through Z, so nerfing them on a lie is exclusively destructive; you can’t tell me you like Overwatch if you tolerate that.
lol nah, cause people aren’t banning heroes based on how they play, it’s how they are to play against.
I think the ban system is kinda bad to be honest, people ban sombra over and over because they want the devs to nerf or change the hero despite sombra being really well designed. Oh no you have to adjust your playstyle to a hero on their team’s comp. That’s so bad! We have to play differently against a different team!
Yeah. Hero bans are just against the design and point of overwatch. Really just sucks. None of the heroes I really want to play get banned but it is annoying regardless and I don’t like what it might do to the game’s balance overall. After sombra gets “fixed” to the community’s standard, who will be the next one we choose to nerf or rework with “democracy”? Because if this works and sombra is changed due to the bans, then she’s no longer going to be the permabanned hero. How democratic should the game’s balance be?
Exactly, I don’t want to dictate how others play, I just want Blizzard to take players’ feedback & rework (not necessarily nerf/buff) the heroes voted most annoying so they can become more fun to play against. I’m a diehard Mercy because I love helping my team, I never wanted to annoy anyone by playing the way I have the most fun on…
The meme lives on.
