Updates to Hero Pools

Does this mean hero pools could come back mid Season 22?

While this seems like a step in the right direction, it really isn’t. Just remove Hero Pools entirely or only keep it in OWL only. Removing player agency in one of the most unique games on the market is unacceptable.

5 Likes

Remove the system. People generally hate it. Let people ban their own heroes. You always talk about “Giving players more control over their play experience” well now this is your chance.

6 Likes

Doesn’t mean they could… they are… just for masters/gm players only.

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I think Hero Pools dont help the actual game, just keep it to OWL and the ESPORT scene like really. It gets super frustrating with having to constantly see if you are going to be playing that week or not. It should just completely be removed. They are annoying and not fun, and whatever happened to “Play What YOU Like without anyone telling you to swap”?

This creates a bigger problem of Smurfing in lower ranks become easier and Masters+ just get shafted.

Overall my thought on Hero Pools they suck and should just get pulled.

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How will it be implemented with “mixed” player queues?
e.g. a 3400sr player is queueing with a 3600sr player?
Will only the master player be affected or will the diamond player also be affected because of his higher queue-partner?

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This just makes hero pools an even better data mine for the dev team since they balance around the top end of players anyway :woman_shrugging:

Weekly hero pools are only a temporary fix to the lackluster balancing this game has. Echo getting released and allowed in competitive play goes on to prove this point.

If anything, lower ranks benefit from smaller hero pools so they learn to play certain heroes quickly. Higher ranks should not have to skip weeks of playing the game because their comfort/counter heroes are banned. Switching between heroes depending on the situation is what makes this game enjoyable in the first place.

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i’m guessing along with the patch the anniversary event might begin?

So I’m assuming the Master and GM only application of Hero Pools applies to the overall team SR and not the individual?

i think it may just be better to get rid of this system as well. map and hero restrictions in this game were never a healthier idea. i would just keep up to speed with balancing and meta will shift that way.

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In the event that teams have both diamond and master players in, how will hero pools be enforced?

Will it be enforced for the entire team based on the average SR of all 6 members, or will it only be enforced to those players that are specifically above 3500 SR?

  • If the answer to the above question is based on the average SR of all 6 members: How will hero pools be enforced if only 1 of the 2 teams has their average SR above 3500?
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Just remove this system. It’s for OWL and should only be for OWL.

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Thank you OW team this is great!!!

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Why unlock the hero pools now instead of the at end of the season???

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It was formerly Masters+ decayed 50 SR after 7 days, no?

Really good question. Wont not affect me as i have never been higher then Plat, but it would impact games hugely if one team could use one banned hero and the other could not.

Oh yeah, that awkward moment when 3% of the entire playerbase is in 70%+ games of the rest of the 97% playerbase…
(How is that even possible though? Statistically?)

what happens when queuing/ queued into a diamond as a master player and the other way round

It was originally stated that hero pools wasn’t the solution, just part of it. The other part was aggressive balancing. Will there be more “aggressive” balance changes to the meta heroes that was promised in the January dev update?

4 Likes