Too many DPS characters

General Discussion
1

It seems to me a lot of problem with queue times, role queue, and balance are caused by a simple issue:
Too many DPS characters.
Not only do people like the DPS role, but if each player “mains” a character, there is just going to be straight up more DPS players.

Blizzard hasn’t done enough to change this in my opinion and keeps releasing DPS characters regularly.

Meanwhile tanks and healers have to freakishly morph to be able to deal with the vast array of bull **** DPS characters have because they all have something different and there are so many of them. Adequate counters in the Tank/Support role are limited.

For OW2…please make more support and tanks. The DPS roster is good enough.

15 Likes
2

There could be 15 tanks and 15 supports and only 10 dps heroes and the DPS heroes would still be the most popular role.
Nothing will ever change that.

8 Likes
3

Never said they could make tanks/support more popular than DPS
If anything that proves the point I am making - the problem is only exacerbated due the number imbalance we have now.

12 Likes
4

The roles used to be pretty even before they combined two into a single role.

4 Likes
5

Defense was never really a real role. It was just an artificial separation of the Damage heroes and gave the community (especially newer players) a warped perspective of when and where certain heroes should be played.

15 Likes
6

That is fair, but they haven’t corrected course - they are still out here releasing DPS characters regularly.

2 Likes
7

Yeah, because DPS is the most popular role, of course they are going to still make them.

8

Exacerbated by constantly releasing dps.

They save all the good abilities for them. Hyper mobility, burst, flight, etc. Of course everyone wants to hard main the fun stuff.

6 Likes
9

Sir… Blizzard hasn’t done anything on a regular basis besides nerf the non-hitscan DPS that shows up in tourney.

EDIT: Also, for the record. “New characters”
Sigma
Wrecking Ball
Orisa

Ashe
Doomfist
Echo
Sombra

Ana
Bap
Brig
Moira

I don’t know about you, but to me… it looks like DPS aren’t getting that many new characters compared to others.

3 Likes
10

Tbh, while I’m still all for more Tank heroes, it really isn’t an issue anymore with 5v5. The Tanks all feel pretty good rn, and there’s ample choice when they’re no longer split into sub-roles and you have the pool solely to yourself. Just one more Tank hero for OW2’s launch would honestly be fine.

Support is now the only seriously imbalanced role. If Blizzard would just prioritize them and give them bulk of OW2 launch releases (and hopefully Sym), the rosters could easily be gotten pretty balanced now.

11

In Overwatch 1 they nerfed the fun out of the tanks then never balanced them for 222.

It made tanking team dependent. It made the tank mains either leave the role or the game.

I left tank for support cause for me it’s not a fun nor a consistent experience to have to rely on my tank partner or other teammates to support me when my abilities on cooldown or my barrier breaks.

But the lesson here is nerfing things in your game too much make people want to play them less.

6 Likes
12

It’s a lot easier to create a Damage base hero than Support or Tank overall. Especially in OW1 format. Look what Sigma did to the game when released minus role queue(but this about the current subject please ignore)(RQ). Depends on how a hero or heroes create will it fit somebody’s play style or interest a player to try it out overall.

13

After zen’s buff, I got insta-queues on dps even on EU yesterday. Like literally had no time to make a tea or go to kitchen.

14

If you add Sojourn 72 in there and swap doom, thats 4 tanks, 4 DPS, 4 healers.
What I am saying is it should have looked like this:
5 new tanks, 2 DPS, 5 healers

15

They aren’t released. And even if you do and it’s 4/4/4, that isn’t “keeps releasing DPS characters regularly.” That’s releasing all classes evenly.

16

I invite you to analyze the rosters of many other video games with MOBA ratings: LoL, Heroes of the storm, Smite … they all have very few tank and support heroes (or their equivalents, if you consider bruisers and healers). we have to admit that Ow isn’t the only team video game where there is a lot more variety of attacking heroes. if you don’t believe me, go check out any other games with heroes, champions, agents etc. .they are games considered balanced, but still influenced by the Meta in each favorable or unfavorable patch.

Overwatch just simplified these classifications, because it would only complicate things more than it should. maybe the fault is also the queues, but this happens because unlike other team video games … overwatch can change heroes at any time of the match. In League this selection happens before the match is loaded, the same Valorant, or Smite, or Apex … and you won’t be able to change them afterwards if something goes bad or good during the match. in Overwatch you can do it, that’s why there is a queue of roles.

but let’s analyze it numerically: 9 tanks, 7 support and 17 dps. OBVIOUSLY with just one tank slot it will be easy to please the variety type of that class right away. But for supports we have less variety of heroes and two slots to fill. the solution I would propose is to incentivize the introduction of a lot more support in Overwatch so that there is a lot more variety of tanks BUT not the same dps variety. so hypothetically 9-17-12?

yes, there are still some details that don’t work. does this mean that we should expect 5 new support heroes from Ow2? no, it doesn’t work, because the “support” classification is penalized by healing. Symmetra, Sombra, Torb, Mei and Echo originally (during their development) had the support function in MOBA terms, and we know how it ended.

I think Overwatch in its simplification has a serious problem in defining hybrids: it cannot define them because it would risk having too many types of queues, but it cannot disassemble a specific feature of the three classes (currently in “can heal others”, "it can damage enormously “and” can survive for a long time "). what can or should he give up?

  • the hero switch? that would be simple, but it would kill Ow’s sense of countering in ultimate loading.
  • create two other types of queues like “support” or “defenser”? it would take too long to rework the whole roster again.
  • only introduce support heroes? it would be ideal, but impossible not to accidentally re-create more useful heroes in other non-healing roles (see sombra, Echo or Symmetra who started as a support in the heads of the devs).

I don’t think there is a correct choice, but DEFINITELY having the same number of dps in the other classes will never solve the problem 100%.

17

Ok but the character has been announced…right?

They should not have released DPS regularly
Like they have release Tanks regularly,
and they released Healers regularly
they should have been less regular. DPS should have not been released at the same rate.

Maybe meaning is off due to language difference.

reg·u·lar·ly
/ˈreɡyələrlē/
adverb
With a constant or definite pattern, especially with the same space between individual items.
“regularly spaced buildings”

18

I would play more tank and support if there were more heroes in those roles that I liked.

4 Likes
19

They don’t ‘release DPS regularly’ then. They ‘release characters regularly’. Making it out like it’s just DPS is kind of disingenuous of the real events.

20

there should be an equal number of supports and dps as two people play in the role per game. There only needs to be half as many tanks for 1 person per team.