2 2 2 is not the biggest issue, THIS is

General Discussion
1

It has been long time coming where we get to enjoy the game we want with role queue system, I first want to thank blizzard for listening to the community, and this is by no means a complaint but a feedback to hopefully help the devs understand what could be improved going forward.

Role Lock is great at preventing another GOATS Meta and reducing only the "social aspect" of player frustration

Jeff mentioned role queue will reduce a lot of unnecessary social tension during pregame hero selection. Based on my personal experience on PTR, I can confirm this is definitely a great improvement. However, I'd argue that although that tension is removed, there's going to be a lot of people still having to make that compromise on whether or not you have to wait 15 min for a sometimes less than 15 min KOTH game just to play dps heroes. I myself have personally queue for tank roles more often on ptr even I enjoy playing tank as much as dps because tanks get way shorter queue.

The Overwatch Community is better than what people made out to be. People don't really like playing "dps role" more than "tank role"

I'd argue that on average people don't enjoy playing "dps roles" more. It's the fact we have more dps heroes than healers and tanks combined make it easier for players to be tired of the lesser two roles. Having those games where you get multiple dps with no healers or tanks on your team is just the byproduct of uneven amount of hero selection across 3 roles.

Deep dive into numbers - statistical problem of playtime on all heroes

Imagine you are just a player who enjoys Overwatch overall and you have only 30 hours to play Overwatch per month. Since Overwatch is a game advertising on its variety of hero selections. It's only natural you want to play each and every hero for like an hour per month. Currently we have 7 tank heroes, 16 for dps, 7 for healers, so statistically speaking you want to spend 7 hours on tanks, 16 hours on dps, 7 hours on healers to enjoy this game to its fullest. Therefore, it's very reasonable to expect people spend on average 16/30 of their playtime on dps role. However, with the expectation of 2 2 2, player are asked to spend 10 hour on 7 tank heroes, 10 hours on 16 dps heroes, 10 hours on 7 healers. This is not rocket science, of course people get tired of playing tanks and healers quicker than dps. Remember all these games you think "my teammates are Axxholes, they only want to play dps not trying to work with the team", not only I think they are not Axxholes, I think the system of this game makes them look like Axxholes, they are just as frustrated as me and you.

Misconception of "tanking is just not as fun"

Some might argue that statistically supports get way higher playing time than tanks, so it shows that tanks might just be more unfun to play.

I’d argue part of it is because people don’t have incentive to play tanks when you already have 4 dps on the team.

Giving higher rewards to people who play tanks and supports won't solve the problem

When I hear the community and Jeff (implicitly) encourage a sort of reward system for us to play HIGH DEMAND role like tanks and supports, I wholeheartedly disagree, the role is NOT on HIGH DEMAND because no one want to play tanks. it's because the number of hero selections are not balanced across the board.

Nightmare for game developer

Let's say we do have a reward system and somehow we get to this utopia where tanks and healers get the same amount of play time as dps because of a so called reward system. For example, 112 hours are played on tanks, 112 hours are played on healers, 112 hours are played on dps by the entire community in a day. Statistically what does that mean? It means Zarya get played 16 hours on average, while McCree is 7 hours. As a small time web/game dev myself, I can only see this as a nightmare for the company because you put same amount of resources to develop every heroes, but the return on investment is completely in disarray depending on the roles.

Really, stop adding new dps heroes, more tanks and supports

If we don't get to a point where we get closer amount of selections across all three roles, any system we put in place won't completely solve the problem.

Blizzard and Jeff, we believe in you

I love Overwatch and this game will always have special place in my heart. Role queue is awesome and I believe we all change for the better one step at a time. I hope devs find this feedback helpful. p.s. not apologizing for the clickbait
2

Might also want to consider reworking some heroes to become tanks/supports to reduce the time it’ll take to fill up the support/tank roster.
I.E, reduce doom’s damage by 60% but give him like 100 more hp and increase his passive shield gain. As well as remove the need to reload his handgun, and maybe turn it into more of a single projectile weapon. He’d be a legitimate off tank.

3

That’s an awesome idea, though it could potentially upset some doom players (chipsa lol). But really, Blizzard ought to know what is the bigger picture they have to insist on accomplishing in order to make the game better for broad audience.
I’ve always considered Mei’s dmg to be quite low for dps, but her crowd control (blizzard, primary freeze, wall) seems more like a main tank helper kit, maybe she could be rework to more health, longer cooldown or shorter duration on abilities.

4

But its not good enaught to prevent dive anyway.
Cant wait for it to be back and be stale meta for another year. Who dont like being foced into heroes they dont play am i right?

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I think the good part of the role lock is that at least they have an constraint for developer and designer to follow, knowing it’s only gotta be play in 2 2 2, it will be easier to predict how the changes affect the entire meta. I personally still think role lock brings more pros than cons overall.

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Welp, i belive that if i gona play this game is still gona be only placement, and qp, but the old one without role lock.

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People you know sometimes play tanks like dps or healers like dps. But 2-2-2 is here to stay so we just gotta work with it.

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Playing on the PTR, I think it is the case that people don’t like playing tanks as much as the other roles. Damage and Healer have both always had <10 minute queue times, while Tank has been <5 every time I’ve logged in and looked. So, despite the difference in the number of DPS and Healers, the same number of people seem to be queuing for those two roles. So I think your premise that people people don’t like dps more than tank is off.

I do agree that the game needs more tanks and supports. As a tank, I find I often just have nothing to switch to if things are going poorly for my team.

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9

I see where you are coming from. I guess the more correct way to say is that people don’t want to “like playing dps” more (I believe in people lol), but because there are 16 of them, you don’t get tired easily since there are so many of them within this “role”. Whereas only 7 tanks, I can see myself prefer playing tanks initially, but as time went on I get tired of them quick because choices are limited to 7.

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That is certainly a factor, I just think that since the healing role seems to be as popular as the damage role that it shows tanking is a play style that most people don’t like.

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Good point, I think it’s a mix between that and the incentive to play tanks when you already have 4 dps on the team. Like if I see 4 or 3 dps getting picked on my team, my incentive to play healer is a bit higher than playing tank, coz why would I play a tank with no healers. Whereas I could still enjoy right click on zen while apply healing to my dps teammates.

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I did the stats on this. assuming a 2/2/2 set up and therefore each role should have a ~33% pick rate, DPS were taking the missing tank roles, while supports were right on the nose of the ~33.34% pick rate. If I remember my numbers, tanks had a 24% pickrate. DPS had about a 42% pickrate.

I do agree that if i saw 4 or 5 dps, i felt more motivated to play support over tank, because tanking with 4dps stinks wicked bad.

edit: quick redo of maths show that in comp this month, support pickrate is actually at 34.61, tanks have 31.58, and dps have just 33.88. Bunker meta lol. QP is the clown fiesta where supports sit at 31.46%, tanks have 23.24%, while dps have the lions share of 45.3%.

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13

Been there, done that. Never again in my life lol

edit:
I see you updating the stats, thanks. Very interesting, yeah I think qp is where people show their true color regardless of the meta, it does kinda prove my point across the board. People play all heroes (regardless of role), but since dps roles has too many heroes, naturally the dps role gets more playing time. And since people don’t have incentive to play tank on a no-healer team, support pick out number tank’s. Bro we should start a nerdy stats group lol

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14

After all the reworks, do I really?

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For me, I’m switching from tank to dps. Mainly hanzo or mccree. And I focus on duels against the other 2 dps. Just need to get them and the enemy has no bite just ult charges for the team.

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This is why role lock is awesome, it allows people to play any role any time they want without worrying about dragging their teammate down. As a healer main I find games more consistent when I play healer, occasionally i want to play tanks I will get placed in lower rank competing with people who are at the same skill level which also make the game fair and fun.

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lol i prefer to use the stats to back up my points abt the game easy as its just. how it is.

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