Akin to how the new “almost no limit” in PTR functions, anyone that picks either a main or off tank/healer will lock the other person of the role. This way, we can properly balance the roles as it will highlight the weakest of the heroes without accidently making a double barrier meta again.
The Split would look like this:
Rein, Orisa, Sigma, Winston, Wrecking Ball
Roadhog, Dva, Zarya
Mercy, Moira, Ana, Baptiste
Brigitte, Lucio, Zen
We can easily push this to the Experimental page, so we can see how it’ll play out, just as we did for triple damage role. Even maybe pushing Mei and Bastion to the off tank to round out the roles.
I’d prompt if for damage too, but the role is too diverse and overall tricky to differentiate in their own classes. Hitscan and projectile? Far range and close range? Just too many factors to consider.
Makes sense, but with Winston/Wrecking ball on the same side as Dva, that means dive can never be a pairing with those two. Wouldn’t it make more sense for those two to be on the main tank side?
Fine, but when you test this, also be sure to test splitting all hitscan DPS from projectile, while also making sure you can only have either Widowmaker or Hanzo at once. Same goes for Pharah and Junkrat, only one or the other.
Wouldn’t you wanna have the main tanks in the same class tho?
If I were to do damage, I’d split it via close range and far range. This way, Snipers are never a duo, nor are duos like Genji and Tracer to be a thing.
Having to remove duplicate heroes was needed in the beginning of the game because “pro” players only used 3 heroes from a roster of 21.
Role Queue was implemented for multiple reasons, but the fact that Blizzard’s baby, Overwatch League, just went through almost an entire season where Damage heroes were not used, they needed to do something because nerfs to supports and tanks weren’t working.
Blizzard only removes things when there is literally no other option available to them to fix the problem.
Now, I could come up with possible fixes, but I do not work for Blizzard. Most of the fixes for things, like your “fix” for the tank issue is based on you wanting a minimum of 1 “Main Tank” in every game, so you will be happy. That isn’t how balance is obtained.
You say that, but I can’t really say that anyone was happy with double barrier. This counters it indefinitely, and allows for Orisa and SIgma the design space to be buffed to be on par with the viability as Rein. Who lets face it, is the Mercy of tanks.
So does deleting one shot mechanics. You don’t need 2 barriers if you aren’t worried about getting one shot.
Would getting rid of one shots remove the ability to play double barrier?
Obviously not.
But, removing one shots wouldn’t automatically mean selecting Roadhog is an auto loss for your team.
I don’t know if you are a DPS player mainly or not, nor do I really care. Removing things from the game to make things more comfortable for people on one side or the other is what got Blizzard, as far as Overwatch is concerned, in the terrible balance spot it is in today.
Blizzard needs to rework the way damage, healing, and mitigation affects one another.
Today there is too much burst damage, with too few anti burst mechanics.
There is too much healing to counter sustained damage.
And lastly there is too much difference between damage mitigation and health pools.
But I am just some guy who has played many games over the last 25 years, what do I know.
As a flex main, that certainly hurts that you’d put that bias on me lol.
Which is why implementing subclasses help, since we can add/improve on anti burst mechanics without breaking the game.
This follows the same logic as “Deleting Brig will save the game”. It doesn’t, the devs can’t do that, and we have to work with what we already have. Restricting the problematic classes will allow for more creativity with the devs to new and colourful heroes. Cause as of now, the possibility of adding a new barrier tank is slim to none.
That is why I said I didn’t care. As in, if you are a DPS player mainly…cool. If not…that’s cool too.
Or we could expect for Blizzard to WORK. To balance the game they own, and not give us random band-aid fixes.
I didn’t say that. I didn’t say anything like that. My point is, if Blizzard balanced their game correctly between the sub sets of Damage, Healing, and Mitigation, we wouldn’t need to start separating role structure. Nor would we have to get rid of one shot mechanics, or 2 tanks with barriers.
So would balancing their god damned game correctly.
Well true, I can’t argue the devs being a bit lax with balancing. My gripes comes from the fact that heroes like Orisa and Sigma becoming significantly weaker to be “balanced”, meanwhile heroes like Reinhardt give people no quarms, simply cause he’s Reinhardt.
Take Orisa for example. She was readjusted in power by making her overall kit strong, and her shield weaker. Which is fine and all, until the multiple nerfs to her buffed kit, giving her a net nerf. It’s completely unfair, and makes the character weaker, all for the reasoning that double barrier might have a resurgence of popularity with this free reign of options.
The fact is, subclassing the healers and tanks is the best option to consider, since it overtly highlights the least picked heroes in the game, and balances them in small cluster to be on par with the rest of said groupings.
It can even show how Mercy is overtly weaker compared to the other main healers.
Let me give you a run down of what I have learned over 2 and a half decades of video game playing.
Tank.
Mitigation and Crowd Control. Low damage and mobility
Healer/Support.
Sustained and Burst healing. Survival utility.
DPS.
Sustained and Burst damage. Buff and Debuff utility. Hyper mobility.
Any time any of those things overlap you have a problem. In some cases it can be overlooked if you spread it out sparingly and in limited capacity.
Problem children.
Tank.
Zarya - Cleanse and ramped damage.
Roadhog - Burst damage component and DPS ultimate.
Reinhardt - Charge damage output.
Healer/Support.
Ana - Biotic Grenade anti-healing debuff.
Bridgette - Shield Bash stun.
Zenyatta - Alternate fire burst damage.
DPS.
Doomfist - Kit is full of crowd control.
Mei - Kit is full of crowd control.
Soldier 76 - Has the strongest HPS heal in the game.
You could say, what about heroes like Sombra. “Her kit is based off of CC in because she can hack you, which could be considered a form of Crowd Control.” Hack is more of an anti damage debuff then it is CC. We would be able to recognize this more, if Blizzard hadn’t ______ up all the roles and given multiple roles the job of a role they aren’t in.
Other developers have figured the same thing out, multiple times over the years. Somehow though, Blizzard just keeps making the same mistakes, over and over and over again. Then they expect us not to complain when its obviously their fault that balance in the game is such a god awful mess.
Again, no I am not a developer, but if I was I wouldn’t last long. I would quit working there if they continued to think what they are doing is making the game better.
See here’s the thing. The problem with trying to balance these heroes as of now is hard, cause the balance team has put it in such a way where these particular heroes dominate those that are considered “unfun” in their own way. Zarya being the biggest example of removing anti heals and freeze. No other character does that, making her important to most matches.
The goal of this subclass idea isn’t to remove what makes these characters diverse in the whole balancing scheme, but more so opening the avenue to give the devs more options for balancing and give the player base what it needs.
As of now, the devs have balanced their way into a corner. Everything is technically fine, which means that anything new will upset the meta and basically create chaos all around. Hopefully with this concept, it’ll be easier for them to make a more ideal and balanced game.
…That’s not really an issue, since the queue times will be the same. The only difference is that when you pick a main/off role, the opposite side will be blanked out for the other person.
And with Echo being made, I don’t think that’ll be a concern for Overwatch lol.
I am not lying. If all 6 players are damaged and Soldier 76 puts his heal on the ground, and everyone continually takes damage but doesn’t die, it is the singe strongest heal in the game.
Biotic Field Ability
Icon Stats Official Description Healing 40 per second
204 over entire duration
Area of effect 4.5 meter radius
Duration 5 seconds
Cooldown 15 seconds Soldier: 76 plants a biotic emitter on the ground. Its energy projection restores health to 76 and any of his squadmates within the field.
Literally, if all 6 people are in the Biotic Field it is 40 HPS times 6. Moira could technically get to a higher level of healing, but it doesn’t heal her, where Soldier 76, who is a DPS hero, can continue to heal even if he is dead.
This is a very big if, and it isn’t even Soldier’s job to consider this, just like how it isn’t Brigitte’s job to be a tank, or a tanks job to be a damage dealer.
Should there be no flexibility or blend between classes and heroes? Of course not, since that would lose the appeal of the playstyles and uniqueness of the many heroes we have (so far). If it is a big issue, then more heroes will be made that will fit that need, if it even is a big need.
