OW should never add new characters

General Discussion
1

Before I start I’m looking at this as a purely competitive viewpoint.
The biggest mistake in my opinion is that OW kept adding more and more characters.

If you disagree then fine, I mean rn I believe OW is in a bad state, not its WORST state, but just a bad one. I’m not trying to shed the game in a negative light, just what I believe what could’ve been done to avoid its current state.

30 is well over enough, I would of been happy with Ana and Sombra thats it. The only purpose they serve is to give attention to the game, but they upset the balance of the game.

Take CSGO for example, I’m not comparing skill, but in terms of content CSGO hasn’t had a lot of official content added to it. A few official maps here and there, but only 2 weapons. And even when they released the R8 they got it wrong too.

I’d be happier if OW was still just release characters and nothing more. The games already over saturated with a range of abilities. I wouldn’t mind but each new character brings nothing new to the table, its either some way of CC, sustain to bring around another meta.

I get the OW universe is big, but I just don’t see the need to make most of the characters to be actually playable in game. Did we need Doomfist? No, he’d of been better as a tyrant lurking in the lore and I’d argue he’d be more intimidating and interesting than actually being a character in the game.

The only reason I give the year 1 characters a break is because they brought something new to the table and Ana was probably in the works before OW even released. Sombra was slow and we had to wait a while, but her hack brought something we hadn’t seen before.

These days all the characters that a brought out just feel like recycled idea’s from other characters abilities. And they just make the game an absolute annoyance to play. Brig WAS the worst release imo.

I get people get bored of no new characters, but again with my point about CS, its got a way bigger playerbase (even before it was free) than OW has. Not to say OW is dying, but you can’t look at the numbers and lie to yourself, OW has a smaller community than CS and it wasn’t always that way. There had to be reason people stopped playing. And I think that over the past few years, the games just been on this decline. EVERYONE I’ve ever played with on OW no longer plays it, they’ve gone to other games like Apex, back to CS, or I guess Valorant now. Something is very wrong with this game, and I think new characters are partially to blame.

If you’re someone who looks forward to new hero releases, I get it, it can be exciting to wait for months for something new to come out of the game. But I guarantee thats because OW devs starve us from content in other mean too. The same recycled events each year, the lack of maps. I’d rather them ditch hero design and put their creative effort into more maps (that aren’t like Paris).

I’d even argue in a casual state the games not fun to play for the majority of players.

1 Like
2

Not until the pool of tanks and supports is as big as that of DPS.
Then sure, they can stop making new heroes.

10 Likes
3

yeah, it kinda sucks that they didn’t take a break to balance things just so, and THEN add new heroes.
symm been here since beta and still hasn’t been balanced properly.

2 Likes
4

How about no? New characters keep the game fresh and provides more variety of comps and choices for people.

4 Likes
5

that’ll never happen lmao, but I wish it did

6

TL;DR

But I agree. I kept constantly saying this.

7

i disagree , they should have kept adding them, but they also should have changed maps already, and faster balance.
Or, a group of heroes added at once, like an expansion, that would involve like 5-6 heroes, 4-5 maps, game modes etc and all that once a year. while balancing thigs along the way.
year 2 comes, again, 5-6 new heroes, maps game modes… and evolve the game that way.
the game kept maps the same, and thats the problem, heroes changed alot, and maps and game modes stayed the same, huge problem, maps should have evolved too. and they should have did that yearly

2 Likes
8

Except the people who design and create maps aren’t the same people who design and create new heroes. They’d have to replace/get rid of people and that’s not good.

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I’d say specifically the 3D artists could be put into the level design team. The workflow is pretty similar. In terms of the others on the character design team, yeah I can see them issues.

10

Agreed, because all blizzard knows how to do is make broken heroes with over bloated kits. Nearly every new hero we’ve had only screwed up balance even further.

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Mmmmm, technically. 3D artists often specialize in different things and going from creating humans to creating foliage or buildings is a huge leap.

12

Given the general state of extremes Blizzard has given us with new heroes since launch, of either being completely worthless or game breaking good…

perhaps Blizzard really should stop with new heroes.

And new maps while they are at it. Bad enough the new maps are awful, but they seem to have skewed the map pool to put new maps on higher rotation. I get 5 Paris for every 1 Hollywood.

I counted, that wasnt hyperbole.

1 Like
13

I get that, you get hard-surface modelling, soft-surface and even texture artists that work on materials that range from anything between regular textures, normal maps and procedural. I mean they could work on skins instead in that case. But I get that could be a boring job for them.

Its just I don’t see how adding new characters benefits the balance of the game.

1 Like
14

Before anyone says we need as many Supports and Tanks as Damage has…look at how many of them are actually useful in most cases, with most compositions and maps.

Now, are you sure about that?

If anything I could stand to lose a good chunk of Damage heroes for better ones.

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15

Because we don’t have enough Tanks/Supports, the compositions are limited, that’s why Supports and Tanks rule the meta and not DPS characters.

They shouldn’t stop, the game will become stale with only the same events and a few more different maps to play.

1 Like
16

maybe is just op and me, but i do not consider the game better with new characters. I understand that the new content offered was focused on new heroes so peopel could find new games of play that for them are really fun.

The issue is that many of the new heroes added were amazing to play them, not to play against them. Mei mains would love the freeze and ice headshot, ana nade denying healing, moira soft lock and evasion, Doomfist the bouncing and one shot… it made everyone feel powerful at first, been a brawler a melee fighter…a bouncing ball etc… but the rest of the players, even winning, had to cope with the cc the abilities, the mobility, the soft locks, the lack of balance…the I put this character to switch the meta and then buff or create another to destroy the meta i forced before…

Right now theres no new people, the game lost its charm and I have a hard time even persuading some friends to play it. They play the game as casuals once… do not want to return to it but, as much, in small doses to not end frustrated.

So yes, new heroes where needed, new ways of playing were needed, but like someone said before…adding more variables without even findind a balance with the ones you had…just add more and more issues. The game do not feel fresh with a new character, even less fresh if a new release make the game frustrating for everyone else that does not play the new one.

But again…is subjective, I wish the game was not in the state it is right now. I do nto hate any character, even less users of such characters, but yes i DO believe the game is more frustrating now than it was at launch.

17

The more we have the less likely you are to get a good comp and team together, it also means people will inevitably find a playstyle they prefer, and get more and more frustrated that they can’t play what they like.

More is not a good thing, the phrase less is more really works here.

They are struggling as it is to balance this game with so many heroes, how would adding more solve any problems?

We need more well designed heroes, ones that can work well regardless of the map, or heck even comp because of what they bring to the table. Heroes like Ashe, Ana, Rein for example all work well because they are so over specialized.

1 Like
18

Tbh,

DPS balance is pretty good, except Sym/Bastion could use a bit more, Doom/Echo could use better counterplay, and Mei/Sombra are OP in Pro tier but bad on ladder.

Support balance is pretty good, but Baptiste could use a little buff of some sort.

And Tank balance could easily be fixed if BarrierTanks had more Fun like OffTanks. Without making DoubleBarrier too strong.
✅ Fixing BarrierTanks and OffTanks

Those sorts of problems exist, but they are very solvable.

19

Blizzard should have added more standard gamemodes. Don’t know why they waited for OW2 to add another.