OW2 cannot avoid being a rock paper scissor game, its not something you can “fix”, and it never has, since the first year people have been making team compositions and strategies. Its not a game issue, the game just makes characters with a certain playstyle and set of mechanics, and the playerbase will gravitate towards them. People in any game, will minmax and optimise, and OW is no different.
At the current moment in time, the game generally recognises 3 playstyles/team comps, Dive, Rush/Brawl and Poke.
The main reason for this is a general approach when it comes to how you fight an enemy team.
Dive is usually about displacement, and it typically good against Poke.
Rush is about coordinated movement, usually moving as a unit, and focusing on burning down 1 target, usually good on Dive where enemy teams are often more seperated.
Poke is largely very defensive, based on longer range engagement, and keep away, typically good against Rush.
But heres the issue, and it starts with Tanks, which are as follows:
- Rush
Their playstyle fits a “Push Forward” combat mentality, being aggressive and closing the gap. For the Tanks you have;
Rein, J.Queen, Ramattra, Zarya.
- Dive
Their playstyle is more focused on pouncing, to create openings and weakness by displacing an enemy, usually with a fast method of escaping. For the Tanks you have;
Doomfist, DV.A, Ball, and Winston
- Poke
They’re more focused on keeping enemies away and denying engagements, but ultimately are at their BEST (key wording here), while engaging at their optimal distance. The Tank for this are;
Sigma…
You have one Poke Tank.
Now before people say, “What about Orisa and Hog”.
Orisa in theory shares alot of what a Poke Tank would want. With a lot of shutdown tools, but her design isnt not consistent with that, she does more damage up close, and generally, can be seen as an “all-rounder” which is both her strength and weakness.
For Hog (pre-rework), again in concept the groundwork is there as a Poke Tank. Keeps people away by respecting his Hook distance, and his alt-fire has a sweet spot which shreds anything that gets too close. In execution… no. Doesnt need to be said why, and a rework is coming, but frankly, i would be shocked if Hog actually played into a Poke comp, and will probably just be another Rush Tank.
Fundamentally, you have ONE SINGLE POKE TANK, that being Sigma, and this is where the cracks in the game start to show.
Now to be fair, its not a black and white situation, and especially with OW2, part of the design and intention when moving to 5v5, was allowing every character to be more versatile, especially out of their preferred playstyle and team composition. Some Dive tanks like Winston, do great against other Dive characters like Genji.
But the issue is that you have this massive gap, and ultimately the ONLY way to off-set it, is with things people generally regard as “broken” design.
On one hand, the versatility of Poke characters is completely inconsistent. Some characters like Hanzo or Ashe can generally shift to more aggressive playstyles, by playing off angles with Hanzo, or denying dive with Dynamite and Coach Gun.
When you look at characters in Rush/Dive, its much the same. Cassidy does better at Rush, but can still take more defensive positions with high ground, and use of his grenade. Same with Mei, despite her design being best used to trap people as part of a Rush comp, she can good at denying people in both Dive and Poke. Genji and Tracer are Dive but work in Rush. 76 is a more all-rounder. Ect.
But when you start to look at characters that are still built with Poke in mind, complaints come in. The never-ending conversation on Widowmaker and her one-shots ignores the fact that she is one of the least flexible characters in the game, outside of people with exceptional skill.
Zenyatta and Mercy are also very Poke heavy support, who are also up for constant discussion on their balance, whether its how unenjoyable Discord Orb or Damage Boost is, abilities so strong they can essentially FORCE themselves out of their preferred playstyle due to massive powercreeping abilities, but once you start to take those, let be honest, a little broken aspects of the character… they have nothing left.
Characters like Baptise exist and generally fit the same flexibility Hanzo and Ashe do, being able to deny Dive quite well despite being better at range and high ground, in a defensive Poke comp, but without Discord or Damage Boost… Zen and Mercy would be awful.
But at the same time, you have characters like Pharah who might as well not exist unless theres a Mercy on the team. How many Poke characters are balanced entirely around the concept of damage boost? If Ashe, Widow and Hanzo are spending their time in Poke comps tethers to a Mercy, surely it wouldnt matter if you added, lets say, a Dive character who can be invisible and kill you in half a second.
And the core issue again, lies in the Tank problem. Lack of options.
Despite the fact Rein and Zarya are BOTH Rush Tanks, they dont play the same. Zarya can defend more aggressive Rush characters like Reaper or Moira, while Rein plays into Cassidy and Lucio much better.
Sigma might be a great Tank… but not every Poke character plays well into Sigma.
The fact that characters like Ana, a SNIPER, who fits the bill for the most Poke leaning support character, is better in DIVE, the complete opposite of what her playstyle is. And much like Discord Orb and Damage Boost, what does Ana have that is in constant debate for being far too strong? Anti-nade.
You have a game where Poke is so underdeveloped, literally, you have developed zero new Poke Tanks, that Poke characters HAVE to exist with power creep on their design, which in turn needs its own answers, hence Kiriko and her Suzu, hence Sombra just hard deleting Ashe, Hanzo and Widow unless they have a Mercy pocket.
Again, Hog is probably not going to be a Poke character, much as he should entirely be about “Keep Away” mechanics, but you need to give the game more creative and team synergistic Poke characters especially Tank, and then start making these “knife-edge” balanced characters like Widow, Zen and Mercy, and their aggressive counters, more reigned in but versatile now they have more characters to play WITH.