I’ve always encouraged players to learn good game sense. It teaches players how to work together and maximize their potential every game regardless of role. If you play tank or support learning game sense isn’t that hard. It’s built into the roles.
I don’t believe the same can be said for DPS. Looking back on balance shifts in the game, it appears Blizzard has actively removed required game sense of DPS heroes. Giving the role more power and less thought needed to succeed.
Look at how any hero, ability, ultimate or team comp that’s an obstacle for DPS heroes gets nerfed. There’s quite a long list at this point:
- Damage nerfs to Hog, Orisa and Zarya
- Hook cool down nerf to Hog
- DM nerf to D.Va
- Mass Rez
- Earth shatter nerf to Rein
- Zen charge shot nerf
- Numerous Brigitte nerfs
- Zarya grav nerf
- Ana’s damage nerf
These are just few I could think of off the top of my head…
Meanwhile DPS heroes continued to get buff after buff. Since launch DPS heroes have been getting more damage, mobility and utility. Combine that with net nerfs to the support and tank roles and you get a significant power disparity.
DPS heroes have incredibly self reliant kits. While tanks and support need teamwork and grouping to get value. The same does not apply to DPS right now. They have many tools to do their job completely independent from the team. This is a major issue in a team based game environment.
I know many will try and point to the 3-3 meta and disregard this post. I’ll address those issues here:
The current 3-3 meta was born out of this power imbalance. Tanks can’t do their jobs in 2-2-2 with the current power disparity. The sheer value from using CC/silence on tanks makes them very frustrating to play. If DPS can’t beat the enemy DPS the only way to win is use more coordinated, team based comps like 3-3 that stifles DPS.
This should be an option. Sadly, Blizzard has poorly balanced OW for a long time now. As a result we’re stuck in a sticky situation where DPS rules all 2-2-2 comps but tanks and supports dominate the meta in 3-3 comps.
If Blizzard announced forced 2-2-2 comps tomorrow this disparity between DPS and the other roles would kill the game. No one would be willing to tank in those comps and supports would lack the little space and safety tanks provide for them to do their jobs effectively.
We need Blizzard to keep some things that are obstacles to DPS in particular. These things should be used to push DPS players to learn and use proper game sense. This will make players who don’t play tank and support better teammates without them needing to see the perspective of tank and support players.
We need more mechanics in game to promote teamwork and game sense. Better balance would go a long way in helping these problems. A system to encourage flexibility would be nice but I doubt this community would appreciate it. For now I’d settle for mechanics that push DPS players to play around the team more.