what would happen if there weren’t any shields? Let’s be honest no Dpses (mainly hitscans) like to play against shields. Personally every time I play I always hope to play against a roadhog or a d.va, hammond, or a non shield tank. why? well, because of the pew pew? am i right? yeah i know, it might be because i’m an ashe main, every snipers hate shields, (probably except hanzo) but this post is not about “I hAtE ShIeLDs!” but it’s about making the gameplay more “interactive?” (idk if it’s the right word) let’s face it, shields are just… just boring for dpses, yeah I know I said only for dpses. shields give the opportunity for tanks to rest while healers do their job and many other things.
this post is not about nerfing barriers and things… it’s just a “what if” post. without shields and increasing max tanks health and increasing, even more, ult rate charge, things might be interesting. people complain that healing in this game are too strong, well without barriers things might match up. Also, we could say that tanks are basically fat dpses, and we always tried to deny this thing to tanks, but instead, without barriers, we should try to embrace it. I know, without shields, snipers would be a must pick and tanks like Reinhardt might not be such a huge threat anymore, and probably winston is going to be useless. and there are other consequences as well. but nothing preveting them to performe some “mini-rework” to those tanks, am i right?
I’m quite sure that so many dpses, in general, not only hitscans, hate to play against Rein/zarya. (probably for the huge amount of damage they can absorb) As a support I would say it’s the opposite. Having shields is always a good thing to play with.
With Ow2 and new things, so many people got scared about this 5 v 5 and it’s going to “solve” half of the things i wrote here. but personally I still not like the idea to play 5 v 5 manily because of the number of people I would like to pew pew.
So, what do you think? ow without shields might be a good thing with some huge tweak here and there?
How is it interactive if there’s no counterplay? The tank just gets shot and does nothing back. End of story. Healers may or may not keep him from getting blown up, probably not if there’s any focus fire at all.
With shield you have to fight from off angles. How is Rein supposed to defend against the main bulk of enemy players and an Ashe off to the side taking shots? Orisa has less flexibility on that front so she can’t even decide to block team one moment and you the next.
Even in the middle of your team, you can explode dynamite over the shield and still damage behind it.
That’s actual interaction. They do a thing, so you do a different thing to get around it and they counter again until eventually someone is dead.
Refreshing to see a DPS player who is just up front about their desire to turn off their brain and just click on the red team. Respect the honesty, if nothing else.
The bad news is that it will always be more tactics involved in hiding behind your shield and shooting the enemy. Just walking around and pressing M1 is dramatically less interesting even if you add abilities that allow you to, uh, walk around and shoot enemies anyway.
Take tracer for example. Her skills are “move forward. shoot”.
That depends on map design. You can replace shields with more strategic areas of cover. Instead of relying on barriers use map knowledge and some creative maneuvering depending on game situations.
I’ll give the benefit of the doubt here and assume your being hyperbolic.
they would 100% have to rebalance the maps. but this idea of “snipers” being op is funny because there is only ONE DPS sniper.
hanzo is spam dmg, ashe is an ADS hitscan, mccree is hipfire hitscan. the only other sniper in game is ana, whom is the healing sniper.
having scope/1 shot potential doesnt make a hero a sniper. you cant snipe anyone as hanzo, and ashes range was never that amazing…its literally the same as soldier
which actually begs the question, everyones saying soldier 76 is going to be meta after the hitscan nerf…yet ashe’s range is as long with bob. im not seeing pharah+echo being the only meta picks
some combo of ashe, soldier, pharah and echo. best case senario, worst case. ashe+echo
It would be a significantly different game. Barriers have a major role in controlling the pacing & flow of a match, and many maps were designed with barriers in mind. Their absence would mean a radical shift in the game as characters & maps would need to be rebalanced to accommodate for their loss, and the game’s flow would feel quite different.
