You compare two heroes, that perform same role. Like Mercy and Ana are healers, Wrecking Ball and Reinhardt are tanks. So, repeating question from Titanium: why it’s ok for less demanding in mechanical skill tank to be better, than more demanding one? And why it’s not ok for healers?
As for Widowmaker being best hero - if your rule “more mechanical skill = stronger hero” applied, then she indeed strongest hero, and should be capable to outmatch any other DPS.
Because we have such few tanks and healers to choose from when compared to DPS heroes, that each of those heroes are intentionally supposed to be unique and situational. Reinhardt is a hard-tank, he has a huge shield his teammates can stay behind when pushing forward or trying to hold a point. Hammond has zero shield his teammates can use, so he honestly is a worse tank than Roadhog, because at least Roadhog can body block and then use his inhaler.
They just serve difference purposes, and sometimes one is picked over the other for their specific utility. You may pick Lucio over Zenyatta for his speed boost, or you may pick Brigitte over Lucio for her armor and peeling capabilities. We don’t want them to be the same, otherwise it would be super stale. Every game with healers and tanks all are super unique. Even in WoW, all the tanks and healers are used for different reasons that revolve around their strengths and weaknesses.
It’s good game design. Trust me, you don’t want everyone to be the same. Additionally, you also don’t want only one of those people to be far superior in literally every aspect due to how overtuned they are, because that also makes it very stale.
Almost like overbuff only has data on 12% of the playerbase because 88% uses private profiles.
Overbuff data is NOT correct
Then balancing around winrates/pickrates goes out of window, since other than meta and personal preference, healers and tanks can’t be replaced by one another without repicking whole team.
If you have multiple tanks, you use Moira/Ana, right?. Not because they are best healers, even if they have nearly 99% pickrate - just because they are good at healing multiple tanks.
Eh…Blizzard has access to better analytics than ourselves, especially now that private profiles has made websites like Overbuff have skewed data. I would imagine the data is a fraction of what the real data actually is.
I feel like balancing around winrates and pickrates every single time is not good balancing because sometimes things are situational. Reinhardt had really, really low pickrates when Dive was popular for multiple months, but nothing changed on him. Blizzard didn’t want to change him because they know that a truly balanced hero will shift in the meta depending on who they synergize with.
I think it’s mostly about strengths and weaknesses, as well as chemistry between other heroes. An example of when a change may be needed is on a hero like Orisa, because she only synergizes with really weak heroes at the moment, like Roadhog, Torbjorn, and Bastion. So looking at that, we need to consider they all need some tweaking, which anyone who pays attention in this game knows all of those heroes definitely need some minor buffs (and yes, I know Torbjorn is getting a rework).
They won’t be getting anything significant, however, or it will end in lots of adjustments later.
As for why Mercy was repeatedly nerfed - devs claimed it’s because of high pick rate, which, in turn, explained simply: she is best for poorly coordinated teams, where no one sticks together, making most healers ineffective.
Now I am waiting, what will they do, if Mercy somehow ends as top pick again(since uncoordinated teams are more rule, than exception).
3 words for you;
She also was overly popular for over a year and was undermining multiple other healers. That is the issue. We saw a variety of meta changes and hero popularity through the course of that and Mercy was at the center every single time. Her pickrates showed us that she was in every single game.
That goes back to my comment about things feeling stale. If you make one person significantly better than the rest, why would anyone want to pick anyone else? We want people to synergize with specific people, not EVERYONE to the point they’re elite in every single way. That isn’t healthy for a game that has countering and swapping in mind.
How could she not be in every single game? You don’t rebalance already dedicated healer with focus on healing and mobility, and expect them to not become best pick.
And changing heroes isn’t answer: different heroes require different mindsets/skillsets. Mercy wasn’t best choice for tank meta, but is versatile enough to pick in any meta.
If you don’t see anything wrong with a hero undermining other heroes in that same role, I don’t know what to tell you.
It’s like the Hanzo fiasco. He was replacing DPS’s role because he did 90% of it on his own. Why get a Reaper for tank busting when Hanzo is better. Why get a Junkrat for barrier breaking when Hanzo is better. Why get McCree for hitscan when somehow even Hanzo was doing a better job.
Same difference.
Hanzo wasn’t issue, until new storm arrows ability. Mercy wasn’t issue, until resurrect became ability.
As for undermining - I already said, that Mercy wasn’t best for tank meta. She could be picked, but it’s not best choice. She was best for everything right after rework, but consecutive nerfs returned her pretty much to same spot she was at pre-rework, minus fun factor.
Overwatch is one word but yeah they also balance for the OWL, much like, as I said, they balance for everyone. They do take pro opinions more critically and discuss things with the pros, but that makes… a lot of sense. I mean they play this game way more actively, way more intensely, and way more intelligently than any average player by a long shot. Not taking in their perspectives and opinions would be a disservice, they’re the best players of the game and know what’s going on.
And much like some changes are more directed to affect their level of play, some changes are more focused on the middle or bottom ends. That’s just part of trying to balance for everybody.
got goofed by the abbreviation being OWL
are we pretending they take in anyone elses opinions for real? i understand they MUST and they do, but it’s not to a fair extent. it’s a repeat of LoL,
A rework isnt succesfull after 11 nerfs and 2 “bug fixes” and only now, almost a year later is she “balanced” i put that in quotes, because while she is, she lacks impact or reward, that she had in Mercy 1.0 (pre invulnerability patch (ana release))
kets not forget this is a competitive game that makes a lot of it’s money from Esports and sponsorships, they are only striving for “balance” but its balance excluding fun.
agian, i understand they have tried to achieve balance in all levels of play, but it’s clear that most changes are directed at proffesional/high play and that’s undeniable. saying that it’s incorrect to gain stats from the top tiers of play (which imo makes it more valid because it’s the best vs the best) is just wrong.
Unfortunately for us, indeed, their version of balance excludes fun. But, unfortunately for them, players aren’t computers, and have preferred heroes.
This makes using statistics for balance unreliable, as you can’t say for sure, what caused player’s choice: was it best hero, or did they simply stick to hero they know and enjoy most? Even OWL isn’t free from that: OWL players also have main heroes, which they prefer to choose.