Since the launch of OW2 the level of support players has dropped. Any OW1 player who was at least masters on 1 role would absolutely destroy any gm support 1 trick right now. I used to be just a casual gm player in OW1 but have had no trouble getting well in top 500 on support in OW2.
This also might be the reason why people pick on support players so much, they are just way worse than the rest of the lobby. It’s not their fault but most support players are just in a rank where they don’t belong nowadays. Which is weird since dps or tank don’t seem to have the same problem.
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Say this is the case, it implies a lot of support players leaving and you being left with what is left.
All of the ranks are bell curved, if you lose the high end support players because the game isn’t fun any more, this is what you would see.
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Let’s just say that your mileage may vary.
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i highlighted this problem a couple of weeks into ow2. there is an influx of terrible low skilled players in dia-masters. Players who should never escape gold but bliz overbuffed sups so its by far the easiest role. support passive makes up for mistakes and almost every sup hero has tools to escape, fight back and win(!) duels with dps etc.
The moment they swap from their comfort role (usually mercy) you are set for a 5v4.
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In the past, I primarily played as a support in Overwatch. However, my experience with ranked play has led me to reduce my support role participation. There are several reasons for this decision:
Firstly, the issue of rank decay has been a significant concern for me. The pressure to maintain my rank and avoid decay became overwhelming, leading to a loss of enjoyment in playing support in a competitive environment.
Secondly, I encountered an unfortunate incident where my account was impacted by a rank reset or some similar issue. As a result, my rank plummeted from gold pushing diamond to bronze, bypassing even the silver tier. This demoralizing experience discouraged me from playing any ranked games this season.
Furthermore, the identity of the support role seems to have become blurred in recent times. It is disheartening to witness other support heroes, such as Ana, Moira, and Brig, adopting a more damage-oriented playstyle. This leaves me as the sole support responsible for keeping the team alive, which often feels draining and unrewarding. I am forced to switch from my main hero, Lucio, to other less proficient choices simply to fulfill the team’s survival needs.
Lastly, the lack of awareness from tanks and DPS players regarding the backline support is a constant frustration. It is disheartening to find myself constantly targeted and focused by tanks, Sombra, or Tracer, with little to no protection or assistance. This lack of support from teammates only adds to the overall dissatisfaction and weariness I experience as a support player.
Overall, these challenges have significantly impacted my motivation and enjoyment as a support player in Overwatch. The combination of rank decay, rank reset issues, the blurred role identity, and the lack of awareness from teammates has led me to reevaluate my role choices in ranked play.
tell me why i should be back playing my main role again ?!
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I used to be around mid-Diamond when I stopped playing OW because I hated the changes in general and in particular how supports felt at the launch of the game. I suppose I’ve been replaced by someone new, still learning the game. So, that’s what you get when you make a lot of changes that drives away the loyal players - worse match making among other things.
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This did almost certainly happen in season 1 and does explain what we’re now seeing.
I do think that it was primarily driven from support in OW1 simply not demanding anywhere near the same skill as the other roles outside of the very very top. So when a 5v5 hit with flankers being very strong a lot of supports just couldn’t deal with it at the rank the believed they were supposed to be in. Which yes, is unfun, so they left.
That isn’t how a bell curve works, it doesn’t matter how easy the role it, it doesn’t push the people lower up, since they will come in the same place since it is easier for everyone right?
If they are ending up in higher ranks, it is because you are losing the support players playing above them.
Dive meta is pretty awful to play as support, so I am not shocked if they did leave. It doesn’t matter if you are good or not, it just sucks.
It would be like a Mei / Sombra / Ana / Zen meta, and wondering why the Tank players want to quit.
There are some metas which drive some roles out of the game.
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I was constantly plat dps in ow1, now im masters 1…
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No they definitely do. This is happening because blizzard is boosting players to fill out the pop in high rank to retain fast queues. Look at profiles and you will find half your lobby was gold pre season 3 and got mega boosted in season 3 or 4 moving from gold to GM for winning 7 Games.
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I agree that it’s a bad meta for support. I disagree that skill didn’t impact it. I’m saying that the skill situation made it even worse and is why so many left that Blizzard stepped in with buffs. Despite supports being objectively extremely strong.
Tl;dr it turned a bad situation into a disaster.
It isn’t a deliberate boosting on their part. It is just how bell curves work. (sorry, forgot the negation for a bit)
I think making the flankers way stronger without balancing the game made it worse.
It doesn’t matter, again, if the flankers were not made a whole lot stronger, then nothing would have changed.
Saying “well we made the flankers stronger, and the support quit because of it” isn’t a skill issue, it is them bailing on a bad game, since the supports wouldn’t move ranks so it wasn’t a “drop in rank pushing them out” - again… bell curve.
It is just straight up, you make the game less fun, people won’t play it.
They wouldn’t change where they were relative to each other, since everyone would be facing the same issues.
What could make a big difference from here is I think a lot of supports were waiting for PvE. I know I was planning to support for PvE, but I’m currently on a break from the game.
Buffing supports because flankers were made MUCH stronger isn’t a disaster. Yes, a better answer would have been to nerf the flankers enough that it wasn’t awful to play, but here we are.
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I was reaching GM1 as support in OW2, but unlike a lot of the current GM supports in OW2, I was also GM in OW1, not plat or diamond.
The balance was just not very good and neither was the matchmaker. So, I’d need a break from OW now and then.
I was just about to return to playing from one of those breaks when the news about the canceling gutting of PvE dropped. Now, Im wondering whether I’ll even play this season or ever again if they dont deliver all of the PvE that was supposed to happen.
1 Like
Dive meta was in 2018, there hasn’t been one since. So it’s impossible that dive meta has had impact on this.
OW2 came out of the gates with a dive meta. Remember Genji being stupidly OP? What do you think happened?
It wasn’t classic dive, but it was dive. Both sides bypassing the other team, and targeting the supports before going on to the rest of the team.
That is the essence of dive right there.
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I don’t think the flank situation was a necessary piece of why support players left but was just the worst possible meta to happen. Regardless of what the meta was the support skill floors in OW2 are significantly higher than in OW2 and we’d have seen a loss of supports no matter what. Yes, dive made that worse.
It does matter if a role is buffed in response to 1 meta. As soon as that meta goes away you’re left with a role that is fundamentally overpowered.
It’s both. Flankers made the skill floor shock even worse. Which made the game even less fun.
You’re misunderstanding what I meant. I was saying that significantly raising the skill floors for supports with 5v5 at the same time as a dive meta hitting turned the bad situation (skill floors) into a disaster due to dive.
It was such a large loss of support players due to both issues combining.
Probably more accurate to call it a flank meta.
I can’t say that I’m in the know but weren’t the most-played tanks in T500 before the JQ buffs came along ones like WB and Winston? I imagine that those tanks weren’t always playing with and against snipers due to Tracer being all over T500 too.
And let’s be real, playing into double one-shot as a support is just as bad, if not worse, than dive. Beta 2’s Widow + Sojourn pairings were such a bad time, gosh damn.
It wasn’t, they were buffed in response to flankers being a LOT stronger. Removing stun, and the off tank gives people a MUCH easier time bypassing the front lines.
The loss of stuns, and removal of the off tank wasn’t going away.
If you want to know why flankers could basically just bypass the front lines and constantly be in the supports face, this is why.
But, you don’t get that they were the same thing. Making flankers MUCH easier is why you had a dive meta.
It is the same thing. Dive / Bunker / Poke are your 3 bases… Flanking is just Dive by another name.
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Not really though. Even if it was poke supports need to do a lot more than they did in OW1. Gone are the days of shoving your gun into your tank and hiding behind 2 shields, stuns etc while being pretty much untouchable by anything. The skill floors (at least before unnecessary buffs) were significantly higher even when heroes such as Genji weren’t in the game.
Flanking isn’t the same as dive. Dive is a coordinated jump onto the enemy team with a tank and dps which blows up squishie targets. Bypassing defenses with high pressure at the cost of being a fragile comp.
That’s not the same thing as 1 or 2 dps flanking. It’s nowhere near the same thing.
Supports DIDN’T hide behind the shields. They never had to, because they didn’t need to face the enemy. They used cover, because Cover didn’t drop when the Tank decided to do so, and without having the face the enemies, they didn’t have to be out of cover.
It wasn’t the loss of a shield, it was having heroes be able to get to the back lines without a fight which did it.
Except without the pushback from trying to pass defenses, it became dive all the time.
If the enemy team can bypass the front lines without restriction, it is a dive meta you are in.
Because the winning strategy is jump the supports, the only reason you didn’t was if the supports were a LOT more dangerous (see how supports are built now) or that there was a real fight to be had to get to the supports. Which… with the loss of the off tank…
So you get this weird “The supports don’t know how to use cover, they are used to hiding behind 2 shields” bull being said, when supports were using cover, but flanking bypasses it… so…
You remove the difficulty in getting to the supports, and instantly, you end up with a dive meta and the support players leaving.
That was not going to go away without either weakening everything which was bypassing the front lines, or making the supports a LOT more dangerous.
So Blizzard (given basically EVERYTHING could just walk though the front lines) made the supports stronger in fighting back.
Because it was that or lose even more of the high end support players, and it wasn’t a skill issue GIVEN IT WAS THE HIGH END LEAVING…
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