The quickplay passives are a step in the right direction. Choosing passives fits closer into the idea of making Overwatch into more of a MOBA than an FPS, and I think that’s a good thing. The game has always been about a balance of your ability to shoot and your ability to utilize abilities. Creating variable and pickable passives can add a layer of depth and strategy that you currently only get from counterpicking. Who knows? Maybe it makes one tricks more bearable.
I’m seeing a lot of red herrings discussing problems with these passives though.
THIS IS CLEARLY NOT A FINISHED PRODUCT
It’s an idea. Wow, Hanzo doesn’t benefit from the more ammo passive? That’s crazy. It’s almost like he was designed not to need ammo. Not that he really benefits from the 20% healing reduction either. The passives aren’t balanced? No. The heroes aren’t balances. Specifically, they aren’t balanced with passives in mind. I’m skeptical of the developers’ ability to balance the passives, but as long as the devs are willing to hot fix certain passive/hero interactions, we could get some neat ideas. Sigma with armor is nuts. Sombra with 20% more ammo is very lethal. Kiriko with more tsuzus is broken.
There are (at least) three things that we would need with passives.
1: We need the ability to see what passive the other player is currently using and the ability to hover it to see what it does. League of Legends has a similar mechanic. Press tab, there’s an icon for what passives the enemy is using, hover over it for info on what it does. Very easy to implement without breaking the game.
2: Rolls need to be split up. Obviously, DPS shouldn’t have 20 heroes picking from the same 3 passives. That’s impossible to balance. We also can’t go back to “Defensive vs Offensive” DPS. They would need to be categorized based on what they do. Snipers get the sniper passives (ashe, hanzo widow), flankers get the flanker passives (genji, sombra, tracer). Tanks and supports should be split up this way too. What might be good for Reinhardt is probably game breaking for Doomfist.
3: Re-balancing of heroes with passives in mind. Yes. Hanzo doesn’t really benefit from passives as they are. Yes. Doomfist and Zarya are VERY hard to kill with the current passives. They all would need some tweaking with any new passive ideas.
I’ve seen a lot of talk about each individual hero having their own passive, and I think this is a fun idea. The problem I foresee is that everyone who plays Overwatch now needs to learn every hero’s passive. 60% of players plat and below don’t even know what the current hero passives are. I also see a lot of new players being afraid of all the new things they would need to learn to start the game.
I think the passives as they are now are a good idea, but I think they have the potential to really change up the game in a fun way. I hope blizzard really explores this idea.