Smurfing and blizzard's insanely slow updates ruined this game

General Discussion
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Like the title says.

Smurfs are the reason competitive is actual garbage. Its boosting a new account, boosting is cheating.

I’m not sure what kind of things are lacking in a persons life that they feel the need to curb stomp people who aren’t as good as them… I’d pity them, but they ruined my favorite game.

Before anyone claims that “I play x hero and this level and then y hero at this level.” That may be true, but your game knowledge trumps everyone else at lower levels. As well as the game is designed around counter’s and swaps. So if you’re maining a hero you’re also being toxic and not a team player. Almost every smurf I’ve seen that made a new account for a new hero/role, will swap to their main if the team is begins to lose. And if they don’t swap, they’re actively throwing for their team mates.

It’s toxic, it ruined competitive and its why overwatch is a joke game now.

Blizzard updating the game or adding new content twice a year also has a huge hand to play in the games decline. I can’t think of another game company that moves THIS slowly in a competitive game.

GG NORE

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So if they swap, they are boosting, if they don’t, they are throwing? Neat.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple accounts. I don’t see the appeal myself, but it seems to me like you just assume if you lose to someone low level, that they are secretly a top 500 player who decided to drop another 20 bucks just to make you lose.

Despite what the forums think, it is possible to have a really good match where you feel like you are landing every shot.

Despite what the forums think, losing to a lower level doesn’t make them a smurf.

This is pure hyperbole. I understand you are probably upset and not wanting a rational discussion right now, but to say they add content and patch bi-annually is just flat out silly.

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If you’re under level 100, and hard carrying as a high mechanical hero. I HIGHLY doubt you’re just having a good game.

And yes, creating another account you’re either smurfing or throwing. If you’re not doing either of those things, why not play on your original account? It’s because you’re getting off on stomping lower skilled players.

If you’re against a Smurf, you lose without learning anything. If a Smurf is on your team, you win without learning anything. How is that beneficial to the game?

Im not sure where you think content is coming from? We haven’t had a lore update in a year. Brig was broken for almost a year, and tracer the year before that. What other competitive game patches this slow?!

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Slow updates and the fact that each one arguably worsened the game

I dont think theres anything more insulting

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It is not unusual for players to buy new accounts to hard reset their MMR, believing they are “stuck” below where they deserve to be. While it would be wrong to state that no one has ever bought a new account to pick on lower ranks, I do believe they are the minority.

Think so?
Hook 1.0 was better for the game’s life?
No limits in QP and Comp?
Zenyatta having 150 max health?
Comp mode ending tie matches with a literal coin flip to determine the winner?
Reaper’s healing orbs instead of vampiric damage?
Widow one shotting 150 hp heroes with a body shot?
Hog’s infinite stun?
Rein’s staggering amount of charge bugs?

Those were all better for the game, eh?

Are we in the same game? Assuming you don’t include a new character and their backstory as lore, we had ‘Bastet’, which came out early January.

Huh… Tracer was broken? Good thing they nerfed her ult damage, eh? Unless you are saying Brig is the reason she is now balanced? That opens up a whole new can of worms, because only bad Tracers lose to Brig.

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I’ll present a list as well

Roadhogs nerfs that have since left him F-tier, despite a few buffs.

D.VAs Micro missiles being added, resulting in her getting constantly nerfed since she didn’t need anymore damage with her overbloated kit.

Anas several nerfs that made Mercy the only better choice

Mercys nerfs because Ana was in f-tier.

Mercys rework.

The 14 nerfs after Mercys rework.

Adding falloff to Roadhogs right click.

Sombras hack nerf in under a week without a PTT, leaving her a bugged mess.

Bastions rework that ended up making him a unkillable machine, only to be nerfed in under a week and left to rot in F-tier, worse than before.

Syms first rework.

Syms second rework.

Reducing Junkrats nade hitbox size.

Hanzo becoming a almost carbon copy of McCree with an obnoxiously overpowered rework.

The report system autobanning people for mundane things.

Brigitte being made to counter an entire comp.

I could go on, but these all have had a butterfly effect in the game while some are just personal nitpicks of mine.

The ones you listed were all bad, but fixed eventually. The ones I’ve listed continue to affect the game and, arguably, the playability of these heroes and the state of the game itself. You’re lying to yourself if you think the game has a good balance team.

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the slow balancing is a strategy often used in moba games.

Drastically changing the meta after long periods of time, in order to add some excitement to the game. So that every 6~7 months or so, we get a new meta, new viable heroes, etc.

However blizzard royally screwed this up by ignoring one major major thing.

Which is to keep broken heroes in check and fix them faster.

They ignored mercy’s unbelievably broken state for months. They ignored brig for MONTHS.

They just don’t seem to be able to realize when fast fixes are necessary and when you should take it slow.

Other than that, Generally speaking, slow changes aren’t too bad.

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Smurfs are definitely a problem. Whether they’re boosting or throwing or even playing vaguely normally, how can the MMR system hope to cope and create balanced matches when there are so many and so all over the place.

I mean this evening there seemed to be more smurfs playing than main accounts.

Like, what is so horrible with the game that it’s so ubiquitous and normalised to have multiple accounts? Clearly people are very, very bored and very unhappy with the state of the game if that’s what they feel driven to in order to continue to derive some enjoyment from it.

Patches are too slow, and too ineffective. Seasons are too long and too meaningless. Not enough new content is being created and added to keep players occupied through their main account.

These are very big issues.

Rolling a bunch of alts is what players did in WoW during that end of expansion lull. People must be in a perpetual state of feeling that’s where the game is now.