The Gatekeepers

General Discussion
1

Bap
Brig
Cass
Sig
Hog

Any time a combination of these heroes enter a strong state of play, they gatekeep the rest of the roster.

If Sig is the best off-tank in the game, you’re going to see a grotesque dose of Double Shield. If Brig is the best main support, Lucio, Mercy, and Zen are taking a backseat and with them Brawl and Dive. Why play Moira when Bap exists? Why play any DPS when the “do it all cowboy” exists? Teamwork is rapidly declining, why play anything other than Hog?

These gatekeepers create wild imbalances within teams if not mirrored, which leads to the classic toxic Overwatch experience where everyone blame the “non-meta” picks on their team (and rightfully so).

Bap, Brig and Sig have long tortured the roster with their bloated, overtuned kits. And as long as these heroes (and the others mentioned) persist as the best in the game, the game will continue hemorrhaging players. It will not be long before supports are given the tank treatment and nerfed into the ground, thus driving supports mains everywhere from the game, and creating another bottleneck.

I don’t know about you, but I did not pick up Overwatch to play COD Lite or CSGO2. I picked it up because the idea of tanks, shields and healers being part of a team and not just a bunch of shooter-Magoos running the match was incredibly appealing. However the game is rapidly approaching the latter, and is one of the chief reason so many of us tank mains have abandoned Overwatch.

Support mains, you’ve been warned…

5 Likes
2

Double shield crutchers, ShieldWatch.

3

Have you not heard? Ow2 will be all about pew pew, there will be less shield, less heal, more pew pew. Ow1 is trying to get there too

4

Wait what are you warning me about? I play all the roles, does this apply to me?

1 Like
5

As a DPS I am also feeling apprehensive. I don’t like the idea of DPS queue times blowing out so very much.

But that is the future I can see.

6

Aw, I like playing Soldier 76 in the support category. Guess I’ll play Default 76. :pensive:

7

That after they’re done nerfing the tanks to oblivion, they’re coming for the supports. We’ll enter OW2 and the community is going to whine about any hero that disrupts or dichotmizes the DPS role.

Supports will be given the tank treatment, nerfed into the ground, and supports will become the new bottleneck. Supports will also experience the bulk of the toxicity and blame tank players currently shoulder. Players who do not fundamentally understand how the role is intended to operate are going to be hard exposed with the shift to 5v5.

I’ve talked about how supports frequently throw matches now, often time not even realizing they are doing such, but in 5v5 where every player must pull more weight and every mistake is more amplified, this is going to become a more pronounced issue in the community.