The changes they’re making definitely appeal to the kinds of players who like playing DPS.
-Increasing mobility for DPS
-Making tanks more like DPS
-Lower TTKs, lower defenses, more emphasis on making picks
The changes DON’T appeal to other kinds of players
-Less team-based strategy
-Less ability to mitigate damage
-Less ability to coordinate + synnergize
-Less impact on healing
Current non-DPS players move to PVE
-Provides a “Play with friends” in a non-deathmatch feel
-More empasis in PVE on supporting than in newer PVP (Hard to tell this, but likely will be the case)
Support to become the new bottleneck
-Supports net-decrease in power (Losing their CC, losing healing power, self-heals decreased in exchange for their new passive)
-Less ability to defend from flankers (Loss of CC + Loss of 1 tank + Flankers now move faster)
-Supports become the more-blamed role for deaths, tanks no longer can occupy this with only 1. Rage at supports increases.
This is my prediction. So much of what they’re doing in OW2 seems to be catering towards the playstyle that DPS players tend to like. This, I think, will result in more DPS players and fewer of everything else.
This was my thought too. You will be scapegoated when the dps diff happens.
They will tell you to stop dying in teamfights (where there’s so much damage and mobility any active positioning will result in you getting ganked). So you start hiding while your own dps ganks the enemy supports and then you pop out and heal. If the enemy team finds your hiding spot, you would get screeched at also.
Basically damned if you do, damned if you don’t. They’re gonna run out of suckers to play supports eventually unless the new supports are just Tracer but they fart out heals whenever they blink lol
only needing to fill 1 tank slot is going to be a drastic difference in queue times though…not to mention new heroes…
maybe in the long run it might be worse but thatll be due to just overall lack of players…but i see like no scenarios under which OW2 will have longer queue times (especially in first year)
I thought the game they showed flowed most like a KoTH - like a team FFA. I hate being support on KoTH and can see that could be the same in push and in 5v5 in general without tank peel. So I agree there is a chance supports move to DPS and become even more of a bottleneck to the queue times than they will be on release.
Even on release, assuming nobody changes role, support is still going to be the bottleneck and DPS queue times might drop 50% for example, but they will still be waiting several minutes. Hoping that queue times will be fixed by 5v5 is a pipe-dream.
The thing that matters most in queue times is “what is the central bottleneck?”
So like let’s say it takes 8 minutes to get the appropriate number of tanks, and 6 minutes to get the appropriate number of supports. Queue time will be 8 minutes. If the appropriate number of supports now only takes 3 minutes, it’s still an 8 minute queue for DPS.
Currently, the support bottleneck is ALMOST as big as the tank one. Maybe 75%. So if the tank one is magically gone, then queue times could only drop by about 25%, now that support is the bottleneck (all things being equal).
All of these things have to do with ratios. The more DPS players there are in comparison to the greatest bottleneck, the longer DPS queues become.
My point is, as much as we will likely reduce tank requirements, supports are still a bottleneck. If we add more DPS players and remove support players, you’re looking at longer queue times even if tanks are substantially less of a bottleneck.
but yeah the problem is and will always be that people dont like playing tank/supports…have said many times that OW’s chief issue (and it has repercussions across the board) is player’s dispositions as far as playing all three roles
I 1000000% agree that past the release hype, the queue times are going to be as long as now if not longer.
Tanks and supports will be less popular while at same time dps will be even more popular. U have 3 factors that further widen the ratio on tank:dps:support -
Less players will play tank and support.
More players will play dps.
Former tank and support will go dps.
Meanwhile the factor that improves queue time is cutting tanks by half, and the weird hope that dps players will go tank/support (omegalul, thats the most delusional thing Ive ever heard in ow). I highly doubt the benefitting factor will even up to those worsening queue times.
I agree. It will be very sad, tbh. But why would I play that role if flankers, hitscans and tanks will be so fun and strong?
I will miss playing support but then again I will be able to play it on pve so it is not that bad
This analysis is way too premature. The fact DPS got a basic speed passive and Supports a basic healing passive does not in any shape or form mean that changes to each character are done, in fact quite the opposite.
Having a constant passive heal is being underestimated too in terms of impact that can have depending on how strong it it is. That being said, unless the do some kind of curtailing of hypermobility its going to be a problem, and some extra CC will return like it or not.
I keep telling people: in OW 2, everyone is now a DPS and I meant it exactly, they are just different “flavors”. Remember when Jeff K. said this very thing, that instead of trying to make new flavors people like it might be better to just make more of the kind of flavor people like? He literally indicated their current design philosophy and approach to OW.
Seriously, if OW2 is going to bring in more players, and players are all proportionately more like to pick dps (as current players are). Wouldn’t that just make the dps lines longer?
There will definitely be an initial surge of people, and a bunch of people trying out all the roles, and queue times will likely be better for around 2-3 months. Absolutely.
Once that has worn off, however, is what I’m concerned about.
Why wouldn’t dps players choose a role that has become more dps oriented? People don’t refuse to play Lifeline in Apex because she can also heal.
I agree that support players who like to healbot may stop playing if supports become more dps-like…but supports are currently supposed to contribute to damage, this is an fps after all.
