Lets not forget OWL is only seeing variety coz of hero pools
Sorry the break the echo chamber in here, but the latest patch literally says it’s balancing around the Top end of ladder specifically.
Just because they’re balancing around the top ladder doesn’t make it a bad thing. I don’t see why it’s considered such a bad thing to begin with.
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This post isnt about a specific patch, its about the entirety of ow, and the recent patches altogether, while this patch might be for the top, theres been multiple patches for the bottom as well
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Past balance doesn’t matter when it will not affect us now. They have very clearly had a change in balancing direction. From looking at GM+ meta, to their creator discord. Again not a bad thing.
Sure, they added Brig and Moira, but they’re also rapidly nerfing them to fit in with the “high skill” heroes. Point being, this title is no longer true and misleading.
Post balance does matter as post balance is what got us to present balance.
Because even right now, if they only balanced around higher ranks they would nerf sigma, nerf ana, nerf rein, and nerf brig.
but theyre not doing it, at least yet. because those heroes arent in as much of an abudance in lower ranks. ashe is barely viable in bronze or silver, and is only decent in plat and gold, while being borderline unstoppable in GM.
If you read the post i say “They take GM and owl more into account than lower ranks, but still listens and balances around lower ranks as well” or something along those lines.
I would argue that the game isn’t balanced for any level. Nerfs/buffs appear to be more to do with popularity and pandering to various groups than anything else.
For example, if the game were balanced exclusively for gm Ana would have been nuked years ago. Equally, F tier heroes such as Sym would have been buffed to compete.
Moira and Brig were added specifically because the groups you listed screamed that dive heroes couldn’t be nerfed despite dominating the meta. They demanded counters instead and, well, got them 
Overall I’d say the game is deliberately imbalanced to keep various vocal groups happy. Nobody can look at a game where Ashe and Sym both exist and claim there’s even an attempt to balance both of them.
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I agree to an extent, i think the game is still balanced not around a specific group of people from a rank, but around all ranks altogether, some ranks just… scream louder
They arent it it, and you know why? Because GM and Masters they play the game how it is supposed to be played.
I mean 90% of my games have a Sigma as a main tank in plat. So yeah.
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Ok. Go and tell that to the devs that said explicitly that they balance for OWL and GM. Call them out on being liars. I am waiting.
And thats how it suppose to be.
Except, this doesn’t appear to be the case. It looks like Blizzard abandoned any attempt to make the heroes equally powerful years ago. Instead, they caved into the skill argument and started “balancing” with counters. We all know how that went.
You cant have all heroes be balanced while also wanting some heroes to be inherently more powerful. The more powerful heroes become the most consistent way to win, get picked more due to this and is just imbalance.
It’s not been about balance for years.
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You can read the patch notes yourself, if you can confidently tell me that every single nerf and buff this year has only catered to GM or t500 or owl with a straight face ill believe you.
But me reading all of the patch notes from this year i can tell you, theyre not.
Some patches are, and majorly those are stated, but not all of them, not even nearly all of them
the Dev team cares way way more about the health of the game in total than what the top 1% cares about in general.
they know 99.99% of their players are casual players who genuinely probably dont care 2 sh— about comp or true balance, but just want to have fun. And i know for a fact they still make patches that cater towards casuals way way more than Professionals.
Hell the ENTIRE idea of the workshop is only for casuals
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Here is what I read from what you said.
“yada yada yada I don’t think they balance for OWL and GM”.
Here is what you need to read. The Developers of this game saying explicitly that they balance primarily for OWL and GM. See I am not the one who is telling you that you are wrong. The developers themselves are telling you straight to your face that they balance for OWL and GM. So if you think they do not balance for OWL and GM then I expect you to call them out on being liars.
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Heres What i read from what you said.
"yada yada yada primarily for owl and gm "
If you read my actual post you would read that i said that owl, t500 and gm are in charge of more balance than lower ranks, and that the value of someone who is from those in the talk of balance is higher.
even if its 90% balanced around the top and 10% around the bottom. It isnt balanced for the top, as long as the game sees balance around the bottom as well, its not balanced only for the top.
“primarily” doesnt mean “always”.
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In which case they’re either terrible at their jobs or lying.
Why are you trying to prove this to me?
I am not the one who said they balance for OWL and GM. The developers said this. I am just relaying their message to you. If you have a problem with this messege take it up with them not the messenger. But as long as their official statement is that they balance for OWL and GM then they balance for OWL and GM and you have absolutely no way of disproving them unless you plan on calling them a bunch of liars which I would never endorse but if that is your stance I cannot fight you on that.
They can also be both but see as long as their official statement is “we balance for OWL and GM” then any issue OP has with their balancing needs to be taken up with the developers themselves. Either call them out on being Liars or call them out on being incompetent but his issue has nothing to do with us anymore.
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I’m seeing a lot of threads regarding “This game should not be balanced around the top 1% of players”.
Ok, I can get behind that…but we should also not balance around the 1, 2, or 3% of OW players who use the Blizzard forums. Considering a majority of the threads are troll, spam, or otherwise non-constructive in nature.
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Im not, im responding to what you said in a comment of my own, if you didnt care for it in the slightest you would not have left a comment or reply in the first place.
My point of the entire post isnt to say that the dev team balances around low ranks, or all ranks majorly, but that its not only around the top, thats all, im not calling out anyone, im not calling the devs liars, they said primarily they balance for higher ranks, thats fine.
but primarily is not always, as i said. Thats all im saying here.
Definitely, im not saying where to balance, how to balance or what to balance. im just giving insight to how the game seems to be balanced right now
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But see this goes against what the devs said that they balance for OWL and GM. Again in theory they balance the game exactly how you want it to, but in practice this is not the case. Any blame you wanted to put on casuals or low ELO players is now moot. If you are unhappy with the way they balance for OWL and GM as is their official stance that is a problem you have with them. Any problem you have with not believing them when they say they balance for OWL and GM is a problem you have with them. It has nothing to do with the rest of us.
on the ama the “team” said they balanced with owl. gm. masters in mind. so your theory that you pretend is reality, isn’t reality.
Maybe people should research stuff before coming up with lies
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