Exactly. It makes no sense design-wise and it’s unfair.
Pretty much. But that would make them must-picks in a sense. Can you imagine community outroar if you needed a Sym for attack point A 2CP maps? Riots!
That’s why they have to reduce the “niche-ness” of heroes. It just doesn’t work for people on multiple levels. There would need to be a drastic game overhaul (group selector, map selector, map-weighted SR, etc. etc.) to actually have niche heroes be an acceptable choice.
In some games, it’s perfectly accepted that some characters suck and maining them implies doing it for the memes. In others, trash tier niche characters are accepted because they are tools for the flex player or solely exist to stop an oppressive meta from spiraling out of control. And their communities don’t see it as a particularly pressing issue, at all.
I’m really not sure how much of this is actually the devs fault, or if it’s intrinsically a bad thing. They’ve def screwed up with predicting roles but I certainly don’t fault them for not foreseeing mains being this entrenched and to such exclusionary degrees- it is legitimately rare.
No, the game would be terrible if you could reliably main everything. All that would mean is that the heroes were practically interchangeable. Drastically different play styles and tools are what makes this game unique. Let’s not make it Call of Duty where you can pretty much use any gun anywhere.
The game is fair in that both teams have access to all the same tools (heroes) at all times. Fair in the way you’re describing would be fair in the way that everyone getting an equally bland sandwich for free is fair.
Really wish Sym had been made a big sweaty dude instead. Then nobody would be complaining about him having a niche. Her aesthetic design and 1.0 easy play style has grabbed her lifelong fans that are willing to ignore the integrity of the game’s design to be able to use her all the time.
That’s just called balance though. Like Protoss/Terran/Zerg. They’re interchangeable, but not “interchangeable”. They work very differently, but you can and should (when they’re not messing up the balance), get the same total value no matter which of the three playstyles you choose.
This niche hero thing in overwatch has made it more like a card game, and it has led to a stifling metaslavery that is the main fundamental problem that’s making everything so boring. In the tank lineup, tanks like Dva are just not fun or playable enough to allow some people to say “no, I’m not going to play meta, we’re still gonna win”. That soul of overwatch for those who mained heroes has kind of been flickering down lately.
I feel like the requirement for mirror comps is more punishing now, and I’ve never felt so forced not to play D.Va. Pick the right deck of cards or lose hundreds of SR. Real fun and balanced.
Why did you ever buy the game then? Upon launch and every year since launch Kaplan and the Dev team said there will ALWAYS be niche hero’s in the game and not every hero will be always good or playable. They never lied to you about that. If you got attached to one of these niche hero’s that’s fine but there not going to rework the entire game so there is no longer niche hero’s when the game upon design is suppose to have niche hero’s. If you can’t accept that then I don’t know what to tell you since this is a game of constant changing metas where hero’s come and go and niche hero’s will always be a thing.
Do carefully read the last paragraph. They know and understand people want to main heroes and aren’t fighting to keep heroes niche.
“Niche” is just an argument to say “It’s okay for this character to be terrible”. If a character that isn’t considered niche was changed in a way that made them so, players would be up in arms for gutting them. Why should one character be usable in every map, but others be throw picks in most situations?
And they succeeded with everything Jeff just said in what you posted. They made her more viable to the point she sees actually play time in OWL and isn’t seen as a throw pick from the select screen. They made sym into a more viable hero. They never said they were going to make Sym into Tracer where you can play her every game on every map.
Jeff also has stated forever that people should learn more than one hero. While one tricking is not punishable Jeff said he encourages you as a player to play several hero’s as certain hero’s will not be good in every situation. Part of this game is switching it’s actually a massive part.
Sym was never and will never be designed to be a must pick hero. You can’t accept that then uninstall. Also it’s been stated she will never ever see a buff because low ranks are so attached to her turrets that as long as they exist she will never be compensated with something better.
I keep seeing we don’t OW to be COD but if every hero was interchangeable in any and every situation with no consequence where ever hero can be a must pick then you’ve lost OW and created COD. That’s the point of the game switching hero’s to give your team an advantage over another team.
Nobody wants her to be a mustpick and don’t tell me to uninstall you literal nobody lmao
Then why are you making whinny Sym posts multiple times a day? Either accept it or don’t. Clearly you can’t handle it.
We want our hero viable, not a must pick. It’s not a heavy ask but plebs foam at the mouth at the thought of a Sym that’s not garbage on more than two maps.
If you can play hero X on every map and can’t play hero Y on more than two maps that’s objectively not fair.
If you can main hero X and you’re “not supposed” to main hero Y that’s objectively not fair.
Why have playtime scores? Why make artwork showing my most played hero? Why let us buy cosmetics / golden guns for some heroes? After all, they’re not the right ones to play the most so clearly these things just shouldn’t exist right?
It’s absolutely hilarious to think they honestly believed this. Even in Final Fantasy XIV, where you can switch classes on the fly and technically be all of them, people one trick certain ones that fit their style best.
I’m not sure how WoW works on that front, but considering the original intent for Project Titan was to make a new MMO before that was scrapped and they moved the character designs to an FPS hero shooter… Surely they know that one tricks will always exist? And making the characters have personality and backstories would only increase that potential for people to WANT to one trick their favorite?
All characters are largely intended to be used on all maps. If they weren’t, they would be disabled as options on maps they aren’t meant to be used on. A lot of games do this. But with characters selectable on any maps, there should be no reason you can’t pick Sym, or Mei, or Bastion, Sombra, or whoever else. But for some reason, if you pick characters on the “wrong map” you’re accused of throwing. Why is this?
You’re supposed to “know” you were being naughty by picking one of the no-no heroes on one of the civilized maps. It’s a trap to enable your wise team to report you for picking a character you like in a video game. You should have known better. You go to overbuff right now and only pick from the top 4 heroes used in any given category in GM or you get a whippin!
She is viable though. She went from dumpster fire to being viable on almost all 2CP and King of the Hill maps, and maps with close range encounters. That is viable more viable then several other dps.
Also life isn’t fair so you’re arguing because you feel a video game is unfair due to imaginary attachment? Honest question but have you played any competitive game before? Not to assume but I feel you haven’t because every competitive game weather it’s Fighting Games, FPS, 3rd Person, or MOBAs there are metas and niche hero’s and characters you only pick in certain situations. It exists in Valorant as well. This is literally every competitive game ever made. That’s why the player base is given so many options to be able to adapt, adjust, and change.
If want Sym to be even more viable in big open maps then you completely need to rework abilities and remove her turrets. But whining multiple times a day is laughable when she has gotten so much attention since launch and in a far better place.
Also funny you bring up Mei since until recently she was played and picked on every single map at every level of the game. Mei had must pick status. You’re accused of throwing because at the end of the day this is a team game. All objective but in my opinion Sombra is balanced overall but is considered bad because you need a lot of coordination to find her value. Sombra gets little value alone. If you can coordinate with a regular team or friends she can be very useful. Hence why she has a high pick rate in OWL because they spend hundreds of hours practicing where if play solo ladder Sombra finds no value even at gm level. So in a team game again certain hero’s require certain things. It’s why rein/Zarya is always popular on ladder because it takes little to no coms to make it work where dive does.
Everyone can hit gm on any hero, your losing because of your abilities not sym
Thanks for the stupid and irrelevant comment. Please take a seat in the clown booth.
Haha he’s not wrong you know. Plenty of Sym one tricks who place top 500 every season. Kabaji took soldier in a meta where he was a throw and unplayable and made top 500. If you’re skilled enough you can one trick anything it’s just basically playing the game on hard mode so to speak.
Sorry you’re an idiot because you think buying an account from someone else is somehow gonna give money to the charity pink mercy was for 
I can see the IQ level I’m dealing with here so I’m not gonna waste any more time on you.
RIght, as long as a person can get top500 on a given hero balance discussions mean nothing. Do you know how stupid that line of thinking is?
There are players of EVERY hero in EVERY rank. So… your conclusion is that we never need balance patches, right?
Tell me outright. We don’t need balance patches by your own logic.