In general do you guys feel that the game is balanced at all?
Secondly, if not… what group between attackers, healers, and tanks deserve the most buffs or nerfs?
Not quite balanced, but a blanket statement isn’t going to help here. As some heroes are fine, some are weak and others are op in certain matchups.
The heroes would need to be looked at individually instead of making role wide changes.
Dps passive for instance. It unfairly nerfs the healing from supports with low healing, yet barely reins in the supports with higher numbers enough.
This movement based hp nerf that’ll happen, will change a lot of things and might end up throwing many heroes to the dumpster. Alternatively some heroes might become fairer to play against.
Some supports need nerfs, but some just need adjustments.
Same as dps.
Both of which allow changes in the tank balance, without making some tanks op or super weak against certain heroes.
So as a blanket statement.
Because the damage role has the most heroes in it, it needs the most changes over all out of the three. But in both directions which depends on the hero in question.
1 Like
its not the “i can play anybody whenever i feel like it, at whatever skill level, because every hero gets the same amount of value no matter what” version of balance that everybody seems to think the game is supposed to have
but yes its balanced…
this game will only ever go from what unbalanced state to another…that doesnt mean its not balanced
Not a great question tbh. What does that mean? No game is ever truly “balanced”, every game is unbalanced (maybe outside of games that are exact mirrors).
It’s worse than most other games, which I mostly blame on the game itself, not the devs (just partial blame for them), but also not that bad. I guess that’s it.
its better than it was in ow1 but 5v5 will always suck hard.
rn hanzo is trash, dva is busted and pharah is slightly op. all sups are op too but this is ow, sups buy skins, sups will always be op.
1 Like
Hanzo is trash I agree, I feel unless you are a tank buster it’s almost hard to do anything
What’s your definition of balanced?
Could you define what Balance means?
And do you think RoleQueue and PreRoleQueue styles of Balance should be identical?
Balance to me means that each hero has at least a significant impact on the game when played. They aren’t incredibly busted or incredibly niche
Give me an AI recap of that I can’t listen to that voice sorry 
By that definition the game hasn’t been balanced since it launched in 2016
I don’t dabble in that heathen A.I. stuff, but the main takeaways are:
- perfectly balanced games like chess develop fixed strategies over time, and you don’t really get to deviate from said strategies outside the casual and world-class ends of the skill spectrum
- when Starcraft was at its most balanced, the game changed from a strategy game to an action one where tactics took a back seat to actions per minute and micromanagement
- a small amount of imbalance can be used to create balance through rock-paper-scissors interactions that allow moment-to-moment gameplay to remain engaging
- they don’t go over it in this video, but I’m going to mention that incomparable game elements like a dash versus a stun creates a lot of wiggle room for what’s considered “balanced” for a game as you can argue all day about which is better and you’ll never get a concrete answer
1 Like
It’s got roughly 40 different heroes with all unique abilities, gun, and play styles.
It’ll likely never be fully balanced, and thats ok.
Hot take, but fun is more important than balance. While grossly unbalanced heroes ruin fun, i think they’er doing a decent job overall.
1 Like
Shouldn’t be a hot take but it is 
Calculated imbalance can create fun.
absolutely, people complain about counterpicks, but counters are what helps keep the balance. keeps strong heroes in check.
It also allows each game to feel different, even if only by a little.
The game will never be “balanced” if you define it as everything being equally playable in any situation, because every hero has unique strengths and weaknesses. The entire game is built on this fact.
What more concerns me is wether every role and every hero is enjoyable, even if not the best pick in a given situation. Tank is still a mess, there are a few outliers in the DPS and Support role who are struggling hard.
I’d say that just reducing every DPS and Support’s HP by 25, like how they are doing to the mobile heroes, would level the playing field a lot, and that would be a good start. It would not effect the more powerful heroes as much, but it would bring the weaker ones up a little bit, effectively closing the gap some. It’s really mostly a question of breakpoints, and heroes who relied on them simply can’t hit them. It’s either reducing HP or buffing the outliers.
Tank will need a lot of work, but fixing everybody else relative to their own role would go a long way in improving the quality of the game.
Long post incoming, grab some popcorn.
It depends, as there are many factors that go into the term “balanced”.
We’ll start with the heroes; no, they are not balanced. As Shammy once said; “metas in games aren’t created, they’re discovered”. He’s right about this. Overwatch has adapted into a game where metas are forced, and then they are balanced around those metas, which is arguably the most frustrating part about the title as a whole. Balancing would be that every hero has an equal opportunity to win, whether it is a battle or the game itself. The game is heavily designed around counterpicking, which in turn is not balanced as there will always one hero that is slightly better than the one you are playing.
The change to 5v5 has really moved this out of whack considering each role has such significance chained to that role that most heroes have lost their overall identity. All heroes can self-heal now when that used to only be a Support passive, and then only locked to Mercy before that. All Damage character offer healing reduction, when that was only anchored to one hero before that. That is the issue of having three separate roles, but them streamlining those roles down into one lane. Yes, you can Damage as Moira or Zenyatta. but you are then also missing out on the passive that damage’s have simply because you are not in that role.
Now, I could singlehandedly pick out heroes that I personally find that are unbalanced, be it underpowered or overpowered, but then that becomes an option of subjectivity. You’ve seen the forums. Everybody has a completely differing opinion as to what needs changing, and that is the reason why the game will never feel truly balanced.
I personally despise Sombra with a burning passion of my heart, but as an actual DPS character she is not even that great - it is her kit that makes her absolutely infuriating to deal with. That does not necessarily make her broken, it makes her ill-fit for the title. You would not put a fire truck in an F1 game, so do not add a hero that disables abilities and has permanent invisibility in a game where abilities and sightlines are the number one defining feature it has. The same applies to Mercy and how her risk-reward balance is completely obtuse.
Heck, they even locked new heroes behind a paywall up until recently, and those heroes were fundamentally problematic on launch, with the exception of maybe Lifeweaver who was next to useless on his launch - poor guy.
I’m going to make a comparison to Paladins here, which is another titlethat falls under the same umbrella as Overwatch and a game where I have over 800 hours playing. The one defining thing that separate the two is the use of an item shop, and talent loadouts. In Overwatch, heroes are designed around each other’s strengths and weaknesses, however in Paladins every hero is designed around solely their own strengths, and then you are given three talents that can be used to either boost or rework these strengths. In my opinion, I prefer this system. You are unable to swap your character mid-match on Paladins, however you can purchase various items to buff your kit or provide external perks to specifically counter another champion.
For example, if the enemy team has a high amount of CC, you are able to buy an item that, quite literally, grants you Crowd Control Reduction. In Overwatch, you are required to completely swap out a hero that can tackle CC, which there is very few of. So with the item shop, it gives every hero an opportunity to counter and remain in the fight, even if their kit is not optimal. This allows characters in general to have more creative kits, something which Blizzard will have to tread carefully on otherwise it would fundamentally change the game.
Now, is Paladins balanced? Absolutely not. But it is unbalanced in a different way. Overwatch’s primary unbalance comes from heroes and their kits, whereas Paladins unbalance is strictly from items and overtuning. However, Blizzard could take a note or two from Hi-Rez’s book. Instead of balancing around counterplay, they can focus on the fun factor of brining out unique heroes that people actually enjoy using.
How many times have you seen the enemy team swap to a Mauga, or a Sombra, and you’ve physically let out an audible sigh? Again, not because these heroes are broken, but because they are extremely frustrating to deal with.
TLDR; there will always be a hero that does your job better for less effort, or one that will make your entire kit redundant through the express of counterplay - both of which are not balanced.
Now, this leads on to maps and gamemodes furthermore, as these two sort of go hand-in-hand. Some maps are brilliant and fit the gamemode they are designed around very well. Subjectivity of course, but King’s Row and Eichenwalde are some of my favourite maps that Blizzard have created, and they have been around for over 7 years now. There have not been many new style maps that have come close to that design for me. Blizzard stripping resources from the Overwatch team is one factor, but the design philosophy has shifted direction. Now, some of the older maps, especially King’s Row, now feel out of place because they were designed for 6 heroes per side. The strip of 1 tank makes both attacking and defending as a tank as lot more streamlined. Tanks now hold one role and one role only, to face the frontline, and so the various opening that those older maps have make it a nightmare for a 5v5 setting. Again, 5v5 solved nothing and made the power shift problem even more evident, and modern map designs show this.
Push is nearly the same as Payload, except it is a two way system. This mode straight up sucks, and it isn’t even the mode that is the issue, it is the maps that surround it. New Queens Street and Colloseo - complete garbage maps. They benefit only mobile damage heroes because the maps are so linear. The losing team also must win 2/3 consecutive fights before they can even start closing the distance. That is not balance. The reason why Payload does not have this issue is because it is one way. Defence can still hold their ground somewhat without the requirement to focus on too many factor for them to successfully win. For Push, the attacking dominant side will mostly always have the advantage until the sides have been swapped.
2CP had this exact same issue, and that was removed from the game entirely as attacking the second point was a complete chore, to the point that a Draw was the most common result for these sort of gamemodes. Thankfully, it is impossible to Draw on Push due to the nature of the mode, but the same problems apply, just in reverse. Attacking is always easier than Defending.
Do I have to talk about Flashpoint? Alright, fine.
I think this mode is universally hated, and with reason. If, in a HERO SHOOTER, you spend more time walking across the map than actually shooting, then you’ve made a terrible map. Flashpoint maps are just far too big for the naturally fast nature of Overwatch. Condensing the maps down, only offering two spawn locations per team and keep the objectives at an equal distance from both sides would be the easiest way to fix this gamemode - but then you run into the issue of these modes lasting much longer due to the easier ability to stall objectives.
Honestly? Flashpoint doesn’t work in Overwatch. It should just be reworked into something better and more fitting. But again, that is subjective, which is the main issue with attempting to balance a game such as Overwatch.
A lot of comparisons to Marval Rivals came in when that open beta was out, saying that it is the “Overwatch killer”.
First of all, Overwatch is killing itself because of bad decision after bad decision - nerfing weak heroes, buffing already strong heroes, making quality changes that did not necessarily need to be added, constantly PR problems, monetary changes taking priority over the game itself - but if we ignore that, Marval Rivals has some of the same systematic issue that Overwatch has. It is just a new game, so for now, people have their rose-tinted glasses on. I don’t think anybody has looked at Rivals and went “yes, this balanced” - it is not. Metas were already established even during the beta, so Overwatch is not the only title that struggles with the consistent topics of balance changes.
Supports are overtuned, tanks are undertuned.
Healers are also the ones that seemingly go through the least amount of changes, so in Blizzard’s eyes, that seems to be the most balanced role. Whilst I disagree with that, I am also not a game designer, I am a player that wants the best for this game’s success but I am struggling to defend it.
As for tanks, it has been a miserable experience ever since the switch to 5v5. The entire team anchors around you, but as human nature, playing as a team is not always the most optimal way to enjoy the title. Tanks are supposed to be designed around self-sustain and creating clearance, but it seems tank heroes are only designed to do one but not the other. Junker Queen, incredible at making space, terrible as self-sustainability. Then you have the opposite with Zarya, amazing at self-sustainability, but terrible at creating space (with a few exceptions, but even then, you need a support with you), and do bare in mind that these two heroes have similar health pools.
So, to summarise. No, Overwatch is not balanced. It never has been, and unfortunately it never will be as everybody has a different idea to what “balance” is.
My fingers hurt now.