htt ps://youtu.be/3d-lavfQSXs?t=507
The author of this video is absolutely right when he says that Blizzard are hellbent on FORCING a performance out of certain heroes on higher ranks.
They just increase their damage/hp/healing, decrease cooldowns to make them viable on the highest level, but it makes those same heroes overpowered on lower levels (where the vast majority of players are).
Moira, Reaper, Mei, Hanzo, Junkrat, Torborn, Symmetra, McCree, Roadhog and so on are such heroes.
My opinion is that it’s a fundamental design problem. You can’t make those heroes viable on high level without making them OP on all other levels. And if you keep them reasonable for lower level, they’ll be useless for extremely skilled players.
The problem here is with extremely low skill requirements of those heroes, but low potential in relation to other heroes. IMO, a well-designed hero is a hero that requires skills that players gradually develop. i.e. NOT a junkrat riptire/reaper ult aka “press Q to win anywhere below diamond”, NOT Hanzo’s storm arrows which are genuinely harder to miss with than hit etc etc.
For example, hitscan heroes - they require aim, and it’s a skill that will naturally put hitscan players on levels where they belong. Or, say, Reinhardt and Hammond require a lot of spefic mechanical skills and gamesense, and it’s very easy to tell a good one from a bad one. Same for supports like Ana, Bap, Zen and even Mercy.
And now, to Moira as a prime example of poorly designed heroes.
Moira is just a crazy amalgamation of no-skill abilities, all extremely effective and extremely easy:
- aimlock primary fire (YES, I know it’s techincally not aimlock, but it’s effectively the same)
- infinite ammo
- AOE healing
- healing and damage orbs
There’s no room for growth as Moira in terms of mechanical skill. You can only improve on your gamesense (positioning, timing of abilities etc).
And she just so happens to not be perfectly balanced to have exactly the same impact on pro and casual levels (just like every other low-skill hero. (coincidence?)).
She’s :
- either viable on pro level and OP on casual level
- or useless on pro level and alright on casual level.
Right now it’s not rare to have players with 250 hours on Widow/Tracer/Genji on the same level as players with >50 hours on Reaper/Junkrat/Moira etc, and it’s just ridiculous.
I think the SOLUTION to that would be making heroes like Moira, Reaper, Mei, Hanzo, Junkrat, Torborn, Symmetra, McCree, Roadhog less easy to play in exachange for much higher potential.
FOR EXAMPLE, remove Moira’s aimlock and infinite “ammo”, but give her higher damage. Remove the damage orbs or make them harder to use in exchange for more damage/more healing juice gain from them.
Just do that and you will have a hero that is suddenly less OP on lower level, but stronger on higher level. Because these simple changes will give her more potential, but players will need skill to realize that potential.