Probably because they said it on Reddit that they are balancing for GM/Top500/OWL
If they are really doing that then they deserve all the hate lol
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yeah but think of the alternative, if they balanced around plat or below.
this game would be a mess
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I prefer top down balance but the way things are currently, I honestly don’t think it’s working. There are heroes like brig who are at the bottom of pickrates in other ranks but are pretty good in higher and instead of changing them to make them atleast viable in lower ranks, Dev are just straight out gutting her in the ground just so that she isn’t played in GM because…Lucio !
Between balancing the game around OWL and GM and the occasional smurf muddling things up at the lower ranks, this game has taken more than just a tumble.
The game itself has honestly stopped being fun, I used to play it all the time, but now? I only turn to it when I want to play competitive and even then I stop after 2 or 3 games. When did it stop feeling fun? I’d say sometime after season 13 I think? Around that time I couldn’t play competitively because my internet was crap, so I ended up going a whole year playing only campaign based games. When I returned it was a crap fest.
Heroes I had no trouble using suddenly were impossible for me to get value out of unless I got lucky. At first I thought maybe it was because I was rusty, so for months I kept at it, trying to retrain myself to use these heroes. It didn’t matter, something had changed, I’m not sure what it is but something had definitely changed.
Then I learned that in my absence, Blizzard had gotten the bright idea that they should be balancing the game around the top 1% and the 1% of the 1%.
(Though to this day I still have no idea why I can’t seem to play McCree, Ashe, Hanzo, or Ana like I used to. I have no issues with hitscan or high velocity projectile weapons in any other game.)
That aside, the way they’re treating the game now has ultimately drained the fun out of it. I remember when I used to wake up excited to play Overwatch in my spare time. Now I find myself crawling back to Warframe and spending way more time on Halo.
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Like ScarletRose said they clearly said who are their principal source for balance.
I can post the link but this is the text of discussion.
A guy do this question: “if you were to give percentages, how much do you listen to pros feedback vs the casuals?”
Kaplan answer: "well there are about 200 pros and 50 million casuals… but we both know you’re not asking for that percentage breakdown =]
we listen to everyone’s feedback. it’s all important. when it comes to balance, we primarily balance the game around owl, gm/masters.
Good competitive game do balance in this way, Overwatch is far from to be this(specially for too much shield and cc) but this is the right road for balance.
you’d really prefer they balance around platinum rank?
I’d prefer balance based on OWL play. Ladder play is not team play.
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Overwatch’s balance really isn’t all that bad
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Balancing around higher rank is what need to be done , you can’t balance the game around people who can’t play it AKA low ranks
I think the only issue is balancing it around OWL , GM and top 500 are very diff from OWL , OWL have some of the best coordination and teamwork ectect , this kind of teamwork you don’t actually see it even in very high rated games and thats the main diff between pros and good players
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You see the hero picks and performances stay relatively the same up to Diamond with heroes going in and out as their skill floor/ceiling are reached. When you reach masters tho, the hero rankings have no resemblance to the other ranks, not even the rank directly below it, and even less in GM.
This is diamond, which, even tho is among the top 10%, atleast even the bronze can still relate to and can represent the 96% below masters.
h.t.t.p.s://i.imgur.com/doyeeSs.jpg
Orisa is barely in the game, so she’s obviously not the one holding the other tanks back. Yet she’s the one that got nerfed.
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Yes. The game is largely balanced around owl and top 1%.
Seriously?
Half the roster is useless, or not allowed to be good
Characters are nerfed because of the 0.01% of players using them, and not even if they’re struggling in GM is enough to stop the nerfs or changes
Then it makes what is actually able to be used by players from Diamond downwards smaller and smaller with each patch
Orisa is used as much as Winston in Masters. The 2nd highest rank on Ladder, and Rein/ Zarya is used more. The same tanks that see usage in every rank below. Gm is the ONLY difference
So we nerf Orisa, who already isn’t being used much, with a horrible winrate, because of her higher usage by OWL players and GM? 1.01% of players
Can you give a link to that post?
I’d rather have them revisit their hero design philosophy, that’s what causing bad balancing.
no, the 1% doesnt want the game like this either. They’re balancing for no one and on their own whim. The only group of people killing blizzard is blizzard.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/july-30th-overwatch-reddit-ama-all-developer-responses-here/532633
In the first set of questions answered by Jeff, look at the 6th question
Lower ranks can play the game, they just can’t play it against smurfs and a matchmaking system that is heavily flawed.
My only wish is that they take a better direction on OW2 in terms of game balancing.
With even more heroes + one or more game mode additions, balance will become even more essential.