I don’t come on the forums much anymore, but I pop in every now and again when something new is released to give feedback!
The new mode is rough. Please remember when reading this I am primarily a support player but I do think I am more than reasonable when looking at the game.
The first test was actually quite fun and I would love to see that mode stick around in some way in open queue. This mode however… I am not too excited about.
The issue that has popped up almost instantly is that although the stats are nice? It doesn’t fix a lot of the pain points I feel people have when it comes to playing the game. for example:
Tank:
Honestly feels no different from live when solo Qing and if the enemy has 2 tanks? It feels so much worse. You now have 2 people swapping to make sure your entire kit gets as minimal value as possible and no way to stop it. It can really make you feel stuck in a corner.
This lead to tank somehow feeling worse than 5v5 normal. To be clear I am not a 5v5 hater. I think there is real things that it fixes and things it doesn’t. Unfortunately the Tanks are either insanely over-powered but then no else has fun, or they’re weak and they feel awful. Add on top of that the switching issue and this system doesn’t fix any of it.
Having 2 Tanks feels really good as usual, however. But that I think holds true no matter what the mode c:
DPS:
It feels like some DPS benefit from this more than others. An example would be your Widows and flankers. Characters that were always good get better and ones that were meh become slightly less meh. But I will admit, considering how easy it is the shutdown a tank and support even with these new stats? DPS seems to be the go to role to put the ‘Kingmaker’ on.
Granted this isn’t because the role is particularly ‘strong’ or anything. It’s not even because their passive is that much better than the others either. It mainly feels like it should be the DPS that gets the ‘Kingmaker’ because if they go missing or die? The tanks and supports can supplement the damage. Also a DPS with 2 tanks AND 2 supports is way less likely to die making it easier to get value.
Support:
This is hands down the worst support has ever felt. I’ve played Support in Dive, GOATS, OW2 launch, all the way up to today. Categorically this is the worst the role can feel. Every time the enemy see that icon over your name you are hunted to the ends of the map.
I know the general feedback to this point would be ‘well another tank can peel’ in theory yes, but in reality with the time to kill being so much faster in OW2? You just collapse instantly. Not to mention in a non high level competitive environment people aren’t likely to peel reliably. Leading to more matches spent being hunted all match and getting no value from the passive.
UI/Swapping:
Swapping in this mode has been limited, for good reason I imagine, but dear me does it feel terrible. When playing, there are situations in a semi-open queue environment where moving the roles around a touch would help, this is what the last test did well. This one adds a semi-lock that feels terrible. I think this system alone can lead to such frustration that it makes some upsetting matches.
The new UI is amazing! Despite my general distaste for the new mode I must say the UI is a nice breath of fresh air. I would love to keep it in other modes and even have a live ult charge indicator for each character, so you can know who to combo with at a glance, rather than opening the scoreboard. Genuinely good change. I would ask we have the ability to customise how big it is so that people who want the information without the size can adjust it.
Thank you for reading!