Let's talk "Talent Trees"

General Discussion
1

Hello Blizzard, hello Overwatch community, I’ve had an idea that I wanted to share for quite some time and hopefully it will not just drop on deaf ears…

Since I saw the first game cinematic, before even knowing its actual core and with a former World of Warcraft experience I had a certain expectation that a part of it would be to improve certain skills for heroes throughout time. Now I know this is not your average MMORPG or MOBA type, it’s an actual fps but please do hear me out…

Let’s consider the “Archives” event which is the according to a big part of the community the most if not the only awaited one:

As a sample hero we will go with Soldier:76 if only we could test something that can actually enable upgrading his set in a fashion similar to vanilla WoW (aka Talent tree) where you can earn experience point which you spend on abilities such as: “Increased movement speed bonus of sprint by 1% for each point, or increase the amount of rockets in Helix ability by 1 but reduce the damage of each rocket by x%” and so on…
Starting by giving him diminished abilities compared to live and building him up till he reaches his current live state then surpasses it ie: Helix Rocket: Shoots 2 rockets each dealing 50 damage each (Tier 1) - Helix Rocket : Shoots 3 rockets dealing 45 damage each (Tier 2) - Helix Rocket: Shoots 4 rockets dealing 42 damage each (Tier 3) and so on till it caps.

Now am I aware of the balances required for something like that considering all the abilities and their subsequent interactions? Yes I am and it requires a lot of work which I completely understand, however the archives event is usually about 4 characters and vs PvE so that would serve as the perfect testing grounds for any game iterations that might or might not occurs in the future.

What I have to say is simply: I love this game, it’s by far my best way to spend my free time, and it’s always nice to voice any suggestion or idea any member of this community has, so in case it was decent enough Blizzard could actually look at it and save it in their Idea bank for future reference.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much with this wall of text, but maybe it’s time forums were filled with constructive ideas that might benefit the game instead of random cries for buffs and nerfs.

1 Like
2

Please no.
This is 100% not a game that needs a talent tree.

8 Likes
3

This is something that should be in a single player game, and right now there isn’t one in Overwatch.

1 Like
4

no thanks

that would make the game pretty bad

5

Let’s not. It does not belong here.

6

I think that full on customisation to characters could definitely work tbh. Idk if I’d go so far as to go with numerical percentage trees like that, but like, if we could swap between a rectangular and a curved shield on Rein and stuff like that it could be cool.

Giving gameplay elements sidegrades can add a lot of depth without making it unintuitive or complicated.

7

I would support this in a single player version of OW, where we start with a “baseline” S76 style character and then “build your own super soldier” our way to the end of the story.

But in OW as it is right now? No please.

1 Like
8

Well I did specify Archives event mate… that is PvE which is Player Versus Environment and does not include other players. it’s like the mini-story that we play each year on Archives

9

The dev team has mentioned they already tried something like this back in the Overwatch alpha and quickly realized it would be horrible for the game.

Having to guess who has what talents in the heat of a match would turn things into a chaotic mess (and not the fun kind).

It was a nice try, but no. This entire concept was already considered, tested, and scrapped long before any of us even knew this game existed.

1 Like
10

Using Archives to Consider the idea, You didnt specify only that type of mode.

and you used it for a testing ground … For … ?

11

Future PvE content… Some kind of coop or single player mode/event.

Ah well, I think back when it was project titan or something like that? Yeah heard of it but didn’t know they actually brought it up, thanks for the info mate :slight_smile:

12

" Chu said that its success was encouraging for the Overwatch team, who sought further opportunities to get players exposed to the game’s story. … In the end, it’s a multiplayer shooter, one without any campaign mode or overt story-based component. There are no plans to change that any time soon"

13

Nope. Project Titan was already scrapped by that point.

They’d played around with stuff like having a talent for Reaper that made him heal to full HP whenever he used Wraith Form, but realized that anyone that fought him wouldn’t know if he’d chosen that talent or a different one, meaning their decision making would be so much more complicated and inconsistent.

Basically, they concluded that adding a guessing game to the mix probably wasn’t a good idea.

14

They should make one for each character that can only be used on Private Servers (if enabled) or during PvE maps (Junkenstein, Omnic Crisis, Retribution).

After all, the PvE mobs have auto-aim galore. May as well give the players some advantage.

Like all Heroes can get +50 hp, +10% movement speed, 10% defense, 20% higher/faster jumps. Basic stuff every Hero can utilize somehow that’s not directly tied to damage.

Like… Mercy:

  1. Beam Booster (+60hps total, +40% dmg boost total, and beam lingers 1.5 seconds longer)
  2. Swift Wings (+20% movement speed to hover, Guardian Angel, Valk flight)
  3. Harmacist (+10 damage to damage, +5 ammo, self-heals 0.2hp for every 1 damage dealt with gun or dmg booster)

Mei:

  1. Chill Out! (25% faster freeze, faster projectile speed, and longer range)
  2. Winter Wonderland (-20% cooldown to abilities and -10% Ult Charge requirement)
  3. Coldsnap (Deal +50% extra damage to slowed or frozen targets)

Reaper:

  1. You’re Too Slow (+50% speed boost to Wraith Form and Death Blossom, +10% to default movement speed)
  2. Backup Ammo (+2 to ammo, +3 extra pellets fired per shot, +10% damage to Death Blossom)
  3. The Reaper (self heal is 10% stronger, 10% faster Ult charge, and 15% less cooldown duration)

Wrecking Ball:

  1. Hamster Bunker (-1 second cooldown to Adaptive Barriers, +1 second duration, -20% damage taken when moving with maximum momentum).
  2. Mine The Gap (deploys an extra ring of mines in a tighter circle to have less distance between the mines but cover the same distance, +15% faster charging Ult)
  3. Like A Wrecking Ball (-2 seconds to all Piledriver/Hook, easier momentum building, +20% stronger KB, +20% stronger abilities/bump damage)

Total playtime is what’s needed to unlock each skill.

Blizz pls. Give us a reason to spend 10293424 hours on each Hero ok thnx.

15

Let’s get the current core game play fixed and core features it needs implemented before adding what would further divert resources and focus.

16

Paladins has something similar to what you want, though it’s more of a card system. It does make the game play a lot more fun and interesting. I would be interesting to see something like this in Overwatch since it’s no longer about switching like TF2 and more on the level of a MOBA.

17

After playing things like WoW, HotS, and Diablo … one of the things that attracted me to OW was the fact that there WERE NO talent trees.

I absolutely HATE having to stop combat in HotS and quickly place a point somewhere. But that nuisance aside, I just … I don’t know, I like having a very straightforward brute force game for once?

Strategy is fine, but OW is less of a “think” game and more of a “Do.” Well, as far as Blizz games are concerned, anyway.

So yeah, I’d really rather not deal with micromanaging and minmaxing numbers and specs in a game that just lets me chill and shoot things in the face, ty. XD