Reminder that Defense used to be a thing

[LFBoyfriendǃ-2185]

It does though

as defense and offense were separated

Defense heroes were 100% more suitable for defense
the only one that worked majorly on both most times, was Mccree,

Torb, widow, bastion, and symm in their previous state before the reworks some of them got, were super stationary, since torbs gun was slow, and a majority of his damage came from his turret, he was stuck sitting on the turret

bastion didnt have ironclad thus was more vulnerable, so he had to stay behind shields 90% of the time, just like now most of the time. Widow still majorly sticks to one spot, but since grapple was on an EVEN longer cooldown, no one tried to be hugely mobile with it.

The classes were divided by how effective they would be in defense or offense

Of course there were times offense heroes worked better on defense and defense heroes better on offense. But the same way some healers were better off doing damage, same with tanks. Its all situational.

But the lines got blurred with the reworks and buffs/changes. Torb is now far far far more mobile, same with symm, symm no longer needs to babysit a corner with turrets, because her beam is so short.

Yes they were all designed to do damage, but most at that time, in a different way. if the game had 12 supports, there would be an overbearing amount of supports, meaning there would be a support who countered every single dps hero, and every single tank, well, if the supports were all different.

With dps, its easier to do different kinds of damage, while still staying relatively balanced. With healing youve seen whats happened. Every single healer that has been added post release has been OP at some point. Brig, ana, bap, and moira.

The reason is, most of the responsibility in a game is on supports, and tanks. Not dps, Knowing supports can kill, and so can tanks. They also have a job, in tanking and supporting, the only job dps have, is killing.

a lot of dps heroes have been op too, sure. But most of them, not at launch. Ashe wasnt, neither was Doomfist, sombra is still one of the worst heroes in the game. the only one that was CLOSE to being OP was doomfist, but only got to that OP state after the meta changed, and he got BUFFED.

The state of the game would not allow another 5-8 supports being added without most of them taking over the game. Destroying the entire balance of the game.

[Meowjoker-1311]

@Noxgarm-2253

Which is why either her walling capabilities or her sustain needs to be toned down

Didn’t her wall just get a nerf?

[MegaLopunny-11165]

Defense heroes were still DPS though. Just more niche.

[Yin-1797]

@Eupathia-1738

Sym wasn’t enough to grant the community the understanding that supports didn’t need to heal? She was—able to grant shields almost at will when she was defined as a support.

It seems the community believed it was easier to heal through damage than to preemptively prevent it. Perhaps it was but preventing it outright is more effective than hoping any incoming damage can be survived long enough for Healing to take.

It wasn’t healing or damage prevention that forced Symmetra into the Support role, as Blizzard had also considered Torbjorn would fit in there too as he gave out armor. The main qualifier for why Symmetra was placed into Support was her ultimate, Teleporter, allowed the team to significantly bypass the downtime from traveling from spawn back to the objective.

Symmetra’s ability to provide 25 shields to allies wasn’t the main qualifier, as Torbjorn could also do the same thing, but Torbjorn’s ultimate turned him into a durable little wrecking ball with a level 3 turret, while Symmetra quietly placed a teleport to the team to get back if they died.

Back then, TTK was pretty low, ultimates were pretty overpowering and there wasn’t too much counterplay. A lot of ult charge changes and ult duration changes, damage reductions and more healing ended up slowing the pace of the game, and Teleporter became less useful. Part of this was because of Mercy’s revive, but overall players didn’t really use Symmetra beyond the first objective, so they ended up changing Symmetra in order to streamline her builder-theme and turn her more into a defensive unit with two ultimates. Shield Generator and Teleporter.

Her original kit did allow her to grant shields to the team, but the shields were permanent, so if no one was dying, the ability became less useful. Armor was always available thanks to kills, but armor was more perishable over shields.

[RobotWizard-116887]

@JackisWack-1292

But if we take that into consideration then we can’t make our arguments as strong for demanding more supports!

I don’t see DPS complaining that the defense or offence queue is too long, nor being restricted to playing defense or offense.

If you REALLY want to go down that path… 1-1-2-2 waits for you.

[JackisWack-1292]

@RobotWizard-116887

If you REALLY want to go down that path… 1-1-2-2 waits for you.

It was a critique of how most people make their arguments about this topic.

I myself choose not to have an opinion on the matter.

[RobotWizard-116887]

It is why the supports have a pretty strong case. Like the heroes after they combined the roles have been a mess.

[JackisWack-1292]

Why are they a mess? You have clarified no point here.