Was OW Better At Launch?

Competitive Discussion
1

At launch, the game was a lot of fun. There wasn’t much crowd control, other than a couple of heroes. The fights were fast paced, but not frustrating.

So, i was trying to figure out why i simply can’t enjoy the game any more. And it came down to the idea that there’s just too many abilities that cause you to lose control of your character. Stuns and CC, even DOTS are the exact opposite of fun. Back when Jeff was working on WoW, much of the uproar about class balance had to do with those exact things. Bottom line is… no one likes losing control of their character.

Now, let’s look at the heroes they’ve added since launch.

Ana - Sleep (you get to lay there and do nothing, many heroes ults ruined)
Sombra - Hack (can’t use your abilities)
Orisa - Halt (yanks you from your position)
Doomfist - 3 different abilities that either stun you or move you.
Moira - No CC, but a random orb that is straight up annoying
Brigitte - Whip knocks back. Shield Bash stuns. TWO CCs.
Wrecking Ball - Pile Driver launches, Hook/Roll knocks back.
Ashe - Pretty great hero, actually. Except for the dot. No one’s called for more dots since that Onyxia fight way back when… whole different game. NO more dots!

I count them up, and since launch, they added…

TEN

10 abilities that make you lose control of your character in some way or another.

I have no idea why they though that would be fun, because it’s not. It’s ruined the game, if you ask me.

I try to play the game now, and i just have this sinking feeling. What used to be my absolute favorite online shooter has become frustrating and downright infuriating in every single way.

Also, Jeff did a video about when they launched COMP and said they’d keep an eye on things and change it up if people didn’t like it. Guess what. People find it to be the most frustrating experience around. And they don’t change it.

It seems to me like the devs should concentrate on MAKING THE GAME LESS FRUSTRATING. Listen to the players, rather than mock them. I don’t care about new heroes, or maps. I want to actually control my character. I want a comp system where i don’t lose SR because some jerk is throwing.

5 Likes
2

I wasn’t around when it first started, but I’ve gotta day I complete agree with you in terms of cc and just anything that prevents you from controlling your hero and using abilities, especially if the skill threshold is low and the reward threshold is high. Remove armor and CC from overwatch. Please. I’m ok with sleep dart kind of, I know that’s a contradiction but it is a absolutely skilled ability and not OP if you ask me.

2 Likes
3

the rose tinted glasses are in effect here. remember when bastion was a tank? no I mean when bastion actually was a tank with a stronger shield than orisa.

10 Likes
4

Hell to the yes. I’d take old OW ANY DAY over this.

4 Likes
5

If I knew then what I know now, yes, I’d say it was better at launch. The balancing felt on point. They didn’t pander to whiners.

The rank system was just as messed up as it is now, probably worse, but hey.

Gameplay wise, I feel the game was better. At least, I enjoyed it more.

2 Likes
6

6 monkey comp hey there cancer

1 Like
7

Yes, definitely. I‘d even take back the dive meta instead of all the CC.

2 Likes
8

Ash has a CC in her shotgun too js.

9

That never made it to the launch so your point is what exactly?

I do miss player 2 of the same character in a team

3 Likes
10

So wait: We have characters with insane mobility and small hitboxes (Tracer, Doomfist, Genji) which are insanely annoying to duell as most of their targets are larger hitbox lower mobility characters and you want to remove CC? Are you serious?
Take Ana for example: She needs to predict the movement of the enemy with a delayed projectile that has an insane cooldown but can give her the chance to survive the flank from a tracer or genji and you want to remove that so she has to hit consecutive shots on said person without any ability to counter their movement?

Wow genius idea. Enjoy the 6 DPS metas incoming if you remove CC from the game

1 Like
11

too much cc is bad, also cant stand, cheap, low skill spam damage.
syms turrents never seem to be off cooldown, they also slow you down which is more cc.
dynamite does too much damage, bulds her ult too fast then you have the auto aim spam bot appearing.
also torbs dropping level 2 turrets everywhere.
all makes spam rat and spamzo look high skill.

CC, OP healing/armor, burst damage, spam damage. no wonder the only logical conclusion is goats meta.

seriously blizzard need to fire the game designer, they obviously dont have a clue what they are doing.

12

Yea double or even 6 stacks of one character we’re fun in competitive. I know you can do that in arcade mode but I don’t play that.

13

I miss the old bastion. He would actually be viable with that shield today. His aim movement was locked to 180 degrees in that shield/sentry mode though. They should just give him his shield back and make his movement 360 degrees. It would be a pub stopper but oh well. It might make people actually learn to play the game correctly. The problem is with all this heal stacking and amor/shield stacking he might actually be op. If they did something about that and brigs true problem (inspire was the true problem along with her ulti. Shield bash after the first nerf was never the true problem) it might actually be ok.

14

depends on your definition, it was in the beta.
there was also no character limit, roles extremely lacking in choices, etc etc.

15

Nah, it really wasn’t. Half of the characters were essentially invalidated by a few select brokenly OP ones.

3 Likes
16

With no limits, this game would’ve devolved to a six Tracer or a six sniper McCree match.

Maybe throw in one Lucio instead of a McCree, for the 30 meter radius heals and mobility.

17

I agree, taking points was much more difficult but way more fun, it actually forced you to work as a team, for the player initiating the “stun” moves sure it is fun on a personal level, but from a game level it is infuriating for players. There are games where I have gotten slept, bashed, and reinhart ulted all at the same time. It makes for a funny youtube video, but it caused more headaches than they fixed.

18

It’s almost like you’d have to work together instead of relying on some bs CC to save you. Genius idea. Right.

19

It definitly feels like OW was better at Launch, it is as if every buff/nerf, new character is intended to make the game a frag&respawn fest for the majority of us.
Every patch will make you die faster every time
D.va : less shield,
Hanzo : more Arrows,
pharah : need more damage on direct hits,
mcree : need to double fan of the hammer everyone,
Mercy: less rezes
Bastion: less armor
etc…

i am not saying that some char dont need rework or balancing change, jsut that i don’t really enjoy the overall direction the game is taking:
Shooter instead of team fight
and again this is for the majority of us ( < than plat )

20

I played this game since before the seasons were released. I can promise you the game was more fun before.

one tricks used to not matter. Now if you one trick you will dive a game into a loss and blizzard refuses to add any sort of system to prevent solo queue nightmares. Theyre letting all of the blizzard games die. I.E. heroes of the storm.