I’ve been pondering how to best write this topic for longer than I like to admit. Truth be told, my usual tone is a lot more acidic. No apologies though, I don’t mince words with my praise either (1 2 3).
AndyB has been cultivating an olive branch to this small set of the community and I aim to be a mirror, so I will hold back the venom and salt but I do want to put my finger on something that is wrong with this whole situation.
Here’s the rub then: Exp Card kind blows. Yep, it just does, I’ll get on specifics later on, but that’s not the major issue. “Balance Changes aren’t good” is a slow morning around these parts, doesn’t even make the headlines. Let’s face it this isn’t even the worst balance pass of the last 12 months, last October Brig was buffed to 225 HP and Bap’s Ultimate to 9m which was like a defibrillator to a dying double shield’s heart, that was crazier than this.
The major issue is actually that we just had a nice AMA and everything sounded great. When asked about the tank busting Josh Noh just flat out said those things would be toned down in OW2. Peachy, sunshine and puppies, we held hands and sang Kumbaya.
Which is why this Exp feels like a big punch in the guts. A week later Torb gets his shotty buffed and Junk gets Storm Arrows on primary fire. Seriously? When you see content creators flabbergasted at the balance changes (1 2 3), that’s why. There’s a contrast between the words, actions and what the game actually plays like. Remember aggressive balancing? Remember over 2 years ago when CC was to be dealt with? Well, neither of those happened to any satisfying degree.
Why are these problematic things, which are hopefully being toned down for OW2, still being added and made even more problematic to Overwatch 1? It’s clear that, at least some of the devs, sees them as issues for OW2 but in fact those are issues for right now - and have been so for far too many months. But then again Storm Arrows were buffed in January, because you know, “Balance Changes aren’t good” is a slow morning.
Once again, there’s nothing incredibly bad about the Exp itself, they wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow if the game were in a good spot, run of the mill stuff. Junk is akin to a rework but Moira, Cassidy and Torb changes are fairly small.
See, that’s part of the problem, why are we receiving small changes to heroes that arguably don’t need them when we have major issues for so long? We had 8 Experimental patches in 2021 so far and none addressed any major issue, yet here we are Experimenting with the fine tuning of Cassidy and Moira.
If It’s not clear, by major issues I mean tank-busting CDs and excessive CC, both things planned to be toned down for OW2, which is great but makes one wonder why are they being buffed even further right now? Let me paint the picture: There was a massive multiple car crash and you’re spending the Emergency Room on the kid with a running nose. It’s sad to have to repeat the rhetoric it once again but that is obliviousness. From pros to metal ranks, from GOATS to now, we’ve been saying “devs don’t get the game” and that’s venomous but what else are we supposed to think when stuff like current Exp happens repeatedly?
We can’t trust devs that everything is gonna be good in OW2 or 3 or 6 or 12 months from now, it’s not how this works and those issues (excessive CC, tank busting stuff) are long-standing, they’re not new, you made them worse just this year, so what else is there but lack of awareness? If there’s a plan on the horizon then it’s very much delayed, this stuff should have been patched over a year ago.
Right after the AMA and 2 months without an Exp card… We were hopeful for a big patch that finally acknowledged the issues - didn’t need to fix them outright, just give us a nod that “you got it” - some small CC tone down, some burst damage nerf, it’s fine to go slow as long as we’re going somewhere. But that didn’t happen. What happened was not only a disappointment but a bad-but-mild patch that seems completely unaware of the issues. Can’t keep doing that, it’s where the mistrust and vitriol come from.
In conclusion, the Exp card isn’t great but it wouldn’t have amassed this reaction from me some months ago. I disliked every patch of 2021 you didn’t see me making a thread like this before, that much is for sure. There’s something off in the message here and devs need to action changes to reduce excessive CC and tank busting cooldowns for Overwatch 1 right now and not just talk about it for the future, a future that looks more gloomy and doubtful by the minute if the same philosophy is to be had by the dev team.
Now, for the changes themselves, there’s nothing inherently bad about them actually.
Moira changes? Don’t care. Fine tuning, no muss, no fuss.
Cassidy buffs? They’re odd, particularly because Cass is a tad problematic right now thanks to his Fan The Hammer and Flashbang, Cowboy here being a part of both excessive CC and tank busting cooldowns major issues, both remain unaddressed. FTH still retains its GOATS-era buff, so does Deadeye, and now Cassidy gets more buffs atop of all that - and BOTH of them would be fine even with 225 HP if FTH wasn’t such a huge spike of burst damage.
Torb in my opinion is quite the strong character already. Nevertheless, Torb change, much like Cassidy’s, would have been perfectly fine if we weren’t already neck deep in tank busting non-sense. Again, feels disconnected to buff more tank busting right after the AMA.
Now Junkrat… His changes were more extensive and I’m not a Junk player in the slightest. So I can’t speak too deeply about it. What I can speak about is how that hero relates to tanks and that doesn’t paint a pretty picture. You see, decreasing Junk’s effective range for a massive damage increase sounds fine and dandy, but in Overwatch range is the one think tanks don’t have. This is Mei and Reaper all over again “just keep your distance”. Yeah right, lets both stand 30m away looking at each other while the other DPS and supports play the game, lol. That’s not how Overwatch works, tanks can barely interact with the enemy from a far and we would like to play the game as well.
Even the tanks with the most range are about ~20m. To make Junkrat a lot more powerful in that range but ineffective everywhere else isn’t a compromise from a tank’s perspective, it’s just another tank buster being added to the game.
Now if this is an Experimental like the others, it’s gonna go live with small tweaks. There’s plenty of dials to turn to balance it out, whether you think it’s buff/nerf/mix of both doesn’t matter, might even take a few patches, no problem whatsoever… But why make Junk another tank buster? This is where I got force myself to not rage and spew the venom.
Tanks are stressful, unrewarding chores, it’s a tiring 9 to 5 and it kept getting worse in late 2020 and worse every patch of 2021 and now it’s worse again this Exp… We need some tank busting and CC reductions ASAP otherwise the whole situation is just disheartening and the AMA was just blowing smoke up our keysters.
. I’m just a messenger lol