I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like a bunch of support players in lower ranks are kinda zoned out. It’s a recurring issue to witness supports being flanked without reacting to the threat. Additionally, they often appear oblivious to anything happening outside their immediate line of sight.
There are so many times where I’m practically standing next to my support – whether I’m behind them, beside them, or up on some platform – and I’m not getting any healing. As a DPS, I always try to have my support’s back when they’re in trouble. I’m all about putting their safety first, even if it means I die. But it gets a little frustrating when I’m basically glued to my support and still not getting healed. When that happens, I just stop peeking, find cover and patiently wait my turn. Mind you, this happens when I play support too, my other healer can sometimes be a little spaced out.
Just to throw it out there, I play support too. I might be a bit a little washed and I definitely don’t play as often as I used to, but I hit diamond support in Overwatch 1, and now I’m making my way back up the ranks. When I’m on support, I try my best not to get tunnel vision and I try my best to stay hyper aware to what’s going on around me – almost to the point of being paranoid.
I’ve been in way too many situations where I’m getting flanked by Sombra, Genji, Winton, or Tracer. It’s a two-way street – either I’m a support left hanging without DPS backup or a DPS getting flanked with zero support. But I usually cut the support players some slack in these moments, cause its not uncommon for supports to be left hanging.
But seriously, it’s a bit ridiculous. Seven years this game has been out and still these players wouldn’t know game sense and awareness even if it slapped them in the face.
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Idk what rank you are, but yes this is probably true for some ranks. It’s not good to generalize because there’s definitely people that are more aware, but yes situational awareness is a skill that people get better at as you climb the ranks. Unless you have a partner or someone that’s decided to pocket you, it’s best to play self-sustaining heroes if you find that your supports aren’t healing you when you need it. Soldier can be great at self-sustaining on an off-angle if you’re a little patient. Sombra/Tracer can run for health packs with not much downtime for it. Mei in certain comps is really strong.
Don’t forget tons of players are new to OW as a whole since the launch of OW2. Someone who’s new to OW in the same rank as you versus someone who’s a veteran from OW1 but in the same rank as you are going to play wholly different. They’re both the same rank but how they got there and how they play have stark differences.
I for one am a new player to OW2, starting S2 and am currently in Diamond on all roles.
Didn’t read all this coz I’m just on a quick break at work, but I’ve been that support that appears like they’re tunnel visioning, and it’s usually coz players (usually the tank) at low ranks take so much damage and just expect the support to keep them alive without them even helping by using cover and los etc.
Yes it’s normal for supports to get a train ran on them by flankers while being expected to defend themselves and keep the team alive at the same time.
And people wonder why support power creep happened…
Edit: all without peel now.
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Oblivious people are present in all ranks.
Object permanence is generally low in lower ranks but it isn’t great even in higher ranks.
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Yes, this is common in lower ranks. People play this game under the influence of a wide variety of substances. Or they play to relax, or they’re new. Or a wide variety of things. Some are legitimately hard of hearing, or half blind.
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I mean there’s a reason why they’re low rank. You have to temper your expectations.
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Im currently Gold 2 on DPS! The climb’s slow but im getting there.
Unless you have a partner or someone that’s decided to pocket you, it’s best to play self-sustaining heroes if you find that your supports aren’t healing you when you need it.
Im a solo player, always have been. Playing self sustaining heros has its benefits but I prefer to play heros like Ashe, Hanzo, Cassidy, occasionally Soldier, and Bastion 
if the situation calls for it.
Don’t forget tons of players are new to OW as a whole since the launch of OW2.
I totally understand this as a returning player, things have changed and there’s a bit of a learning curve to OW. But man is it exhausting, I know i’ll be out of gold soon but man do I lose games that I shouldn’t be losing because of this issue alone. 
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Stick to hanzo, if there’s zero support for you then maybe soldier, add a flanker like tracer or genji to the collection to shake things up at times.
I would say sombra cause of her current avatar but I don’t think she will be good for long, it’s better to sink time in to solid core heroes.
True. I think the solution might just be to play self sustaining hero’s until I reach my desired rank or a rank high enough to have ‘kinda’ aware supports as someone else suggested.
At the lowest ranks, players have no or little experience, the mental load is maximum, if they tunnel vision there is a perfectly logical explanation for that.
This attitude is forgivable at low ranks because these players are incapable of acting otherwise, unless they are a high level smurf or have acquired experience similar to that required by Overwatch in another game.
It is when we move up the ranks that it actually becomes a problem because we are supposed to know how to manage our mental load better thanks to the acquisition of unconscious automatic reflexes, ultimately staying in tunnel vision is more of a deliberate choice than imposed by a lack of experience.
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Yeah there are times where you’ll lose because of someone else on your team. This definitely sucks but always remember, if you’re getting bad teammates so are the enemy. You just need to play better than the entire lobby.
Also, spoiler alert, but being frustrated about other’s performances is an issue you’ll have as long as you’re playing to rank up. I prefer to play Dive or Brawl comps, but I always get a Mercy on my team who is very bad in such comps. So in those scenarios I just have to play for myself and play selfishly.
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It is low elo for a reason.
With that sad the game needs a special rank for new accounts only or at least another rank below bronze.
This would be so funny lmao. Hopefully adding a new rank above GM and then redistributing everyone is going to help
Seems like the goal is to make everyone feel good about themselves even though it is just going to trivialize the upper ranks in a long run.
Highly doubt it. The need to redistribute because of the new rank above GM. Trying to make people feel good ended pretty badly with the current ranked system we have
Dang, respect for getting to Diamond on all roles after playing the game since only Season 2.
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Im happy everyone is receiving this well and engaging with the thread positively. 
You just need to play better than the entire lobby.
The crazy thing is, I actually DO— and pretty consistently at that. But at the end of the day Overwatch is a team-based games and you can only do so much… It’s like that analogy; you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
Not everyone is going to capitalize off my plays. With that being said, I play Valorant off and on too— Im Diamond and im able to actually play competitively with ascendant and even some immortal players. I know don’t have the mechanics or gamesense of a low elo OW player, and im going to climb regardless because of that. But man, having to deal with newbies and hardstuck golds is exhausting.
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Well ofc. It is Blizzard that we are talking about. Bad decisions is their specialty.
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What is happening here is you are encountering players with ‘tunnel vision’. They are getting fixated on doing one thing in a game where you are having your attention pulled in five different directions at once.
Multi-tasking is a skill, which is pretty difficult for a creature that has evolved to be a cursorial persistance hunter (i.e. ‘chase one target until it dies.’) So it makes sense that people who have not learned this skill will fall into a habit that comes naturally to them when placed in a ‘high-stress’ environment.
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I peaked M3 on Support during Illari’s launch 
But yes, I am not new to competitive shooters. I played CSGO since 2017(I think), and Valorant since 2020 or so. I even peaked somewhere around rank Immortal ~#3,500 in my region. But I’ve kind of plateaued in Diamond so there’s that.
Yep, it’s a slog to get through the lower ranks. I wish there was a way around it but it is what it is I guess. Hopefully the game thinks you are a smurf and starts boosting you hard haha