Overwatch has lost its magic

General Discussion
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I dont understand how they manage to do it, but almost every single balance patch makes Overwatch a worse version of itself.

This most recent patch has ruined the game for me. Its just a joke at this point.

I dont know what or why this is a thing. I think its just broken at the core. The basic philosophy around heroes and balance is broken.

Maybe its because they listen to too many OWL players/streamers? Maybe they dont listen to them enough? Maybe they balance for OWL too much? Maybe not enough? Maybe there are too many fingers in the pot?

Maybe its because its the first FPS they have ever made and they aren’t sure of themselves.

I dont know. All I know is that the hero balance is terrible. Half the cast is considered niche and hardly viable.

This isn’t a case of burnout. I have played other games for longer and its never been this bad. Overwatch has lost its magic. Its hard to have fun in the game.

Its sad. I want the game to feel good and for every hero to be worth picking, but I honestly think its beyong repair at this point. I think they would need to rework the game from the ground up and that will never happen.

The devs seem out of touch and I think the fact that they just pushed this last patch through proves that. Nothing is more important to them than making money with OWL and trying to make sure GOATS isn’t a thing.

Literally sitting on a pile of gold and no clue what to do with it.

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It feels like with about less than 10 things changed or implemented, they could bring back the magic tho.

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Quite possibly. Also, how are you always like the first person to reply to me? I love it. haha :slight_smile:

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Because I spend more time on the forums than in-game recently :confused: mostly cause of some temporary IRL stuff right now.

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Same here. :frowning:

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I think that the OWL is one of, if not, the biggest issue that plagues the game.

Balance changes are no longer about what is fun, or what seems like a fair balance amongst all of the ranks. It is about what will make the biggest spectacle, what will be interesting for people to watch on their computers, TVs, and other devices. It is no longer about the majority who play the game, just those that will continue to give them money.

From a business sense, it’s pretty sound logic. From a gameplay sense, it is destructive and could very well bring the end of the game if not balanced.

(EDIT: Jesus, didn’t expect this comment to blow up like this)

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I think this is a big part of it. Ultimately, Blizzard should be balancing for the people who play the game, not for the top 1% of the top 1%. But, that’s not where the money is.

Honestly, I feel like Overwatch would’ve been a great game, but Blizzard’s kinda had its soul sucked out by Activision, and I think you can really see that in OW with how many things could be great about it but just aren’t.

Overwatch was a wildly successful experiment. But, I think due to mishandling, it’s also a failed one.

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I am impressed the OP managed to type a bunch of words and say absolutely nothing firm. He is disappointed in the current balance patch is all I have gathered.

Why? Who knows. Maybe he thinks it nerfed tanks too much (it really didnt, GOATS is still king). Maybe he thinks it didnt go far enough. Maybe he wanted a Bastion buff. I cannot say because the OP took 40 lines to say “I wish Overwatch were better and I dislike it and the changes for reasons I wont say.”

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Game is no longer for the gamers. Only the shareholder’s.

Overwatch has gone downhill since the League began.

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Tanks and supports are still good. You guys are too funny how OP do you need to be?

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You balance top down because they are the only ones who know HOW to play the game. If you are in plat or gold or even diamond, balance has no real effect on you. Balance is not the reason you cannot climb. You likely are fundamentally missing several elements needed to be good at the game and if you blame balance instead of trying to improve you will never get those abilities.

If you are in the higher leagues then you reach a point where there is nothing more you can do but play the meta and for those people the balance patches are needed.

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Well, look at it this way.

If they reverted the Reaper buff and did a ShadowStep buff instead. This would be a pretty good patch.

Also the armor changes want such otherwise are mostly a “rapidfire hero” buff.

If anything, for the Reaper buff, I think they mostly just want to lock that into OWL patch. Then maybe dumb it down to something reasonable.

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I assume that the OP mostly refers to the recent Reaper buff, and let me just say:

It may be one of the worst considered buffs in the history of the game.

It has a few positives. With Roadhog almost back to where he used to be, having something that can challenge him in the flanking path is welcomed to most people (and as a Roadhog player myself, means I need to be smarter with 'em)

But the Reaper changes hurt the tanks in nearly every other meta that isn’t the top 1%. And that’s what the people in here are saying. Most of us aren’t at the pro level, and most of us won’t ever be. Why are they making changes that only benefit the smallest group of people, but not the rest?

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Every event people post complaints.

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Ergo, let’s buff Orisa and Junkrat, who are trash at the top. Let’s totally ignore that for most of the playerbase, they’re both relatively strong already, and instead make them brokenly powerful to serve the wants of the top 1%. That’s atrocious balancing.

This is baloney. Barring a select few examples (i.e. Jjonak nerf to Zenyatta), most balance changes have cascading effects up and down the ladder. There’s a reason, for example, that Brigitte has fallen pretty far out of favor in low ranks–because they’ve felt the effects of balance patches meant to address her in high ranks and in GOATS. And, lo and behold, she’s being nerfed again because of high ranks.

This is completely irrelevant to anything I stated. Climbing has nothing to do with whether or not it’s healthy for the game to be balanced around pros vs balanced around the bulk of the playerbase.

This will always be the case. High tiers will always find a meta. So, instead of trying to force meta changes that adversely affect the other 85%+ of the playerbase that doesn’t typically play with the meta, focus on making the game balanced and enjoyable for those folks, and let the top tiers develop the meta as they will.

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If you’re replying to me I made an observation, no argument was made.

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At this point they need to accept that the game that OWL plays (and brings in paying audiences) is not the game that Overwatch’s actual playerbase wants to play.

I’m not sure how to fix this problem. Maybe there should be rank-specific balance, or maybe there should be an entirely separate mode and balance patch for “casuals”. Maybe there should be an item system that lets people customize hero kits to be as noob-friendly or hardcore as they like.

I don’t know.

But Blizzard had better figure this out, and fast.

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Reaper still sucks any stun and he is dead

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I think this would be the better route. Let pro play be balanced for pro play, and let the rest of us have balance for the game we play.

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It’s a good thing i already bought anthem, at least i still have a nice game to play next month.

1 Like