"We're reluctant to add hero bans"

I’d prefer player picked hero bans on a game to game basis, but this has promise as well.

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Still updating and bringing new content? Debatable.

The heropool change is equivalent to making SC2 turn-based, or Hearthstone real-time. It reclassifies the entire game type. That kind of alienation isn’t something you do in a game with a live active playerbase.

If changes like this are on the table, what can we expect next? Randomly taking all the servers offline and denying us any gameplay at all?

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I’ve never been actually mad about anything that blizzard does to their game. Most times I honestly understand it. But this just seems like Activision is trying to tank all their games so they can absorb them into Activision. Like the wc3 launch and this back to back. They just want to kill their properties it seems like and start from scratch.

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To add to this if they ban out a character and nothing changes then it’s safe to say that hero is fine. If the ban a hero and the entire meta shifts in a day or two then they know changes must be made.

This should make it more clear which characters are problems and which arent.

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I’m not convinced that the playerbase won’t do that here too. One could soft throw in comp under the pretense that their main is banned, then essentially smurf their way back up a week later. And this could happen regardless of if their main is actually banned or not, or if the player is even doing this intentionally, they may not even notice. I’m particularly worried about the latter at scale.

I hate this, OW2 is confirmed to be bringing many new heroes and maps for free! Yes the game is still updating and bringing new content. The release schedule has just changed.

People wanted something done, so Blizzard is answering. If it is the correct choice, we will have to wait and see.

At least these changes are on the table. I would rather Blizzard be open to experimenting and get stuff wrong sometimes, than be unwilling to change and die

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I’m not sure what the exact definition of a hero pool is. Could you enlighten me please?

I was good with bans but I like this system way better.

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I’m not gonna lie, as I was reading Jeff’s forum post, I didn’t think that his main focus was on the player-controlled aspect of hero bans. I thought he just wasn’t in favor of banning heroes presently. This one surprised me quite a bit, and frankly seemed a little logically inconsistent with his post.

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You still have all the game to enjoy in every mode besides competitive, if you’re really that worried about it

Yep! Pretty much. It’s just another reason to leave the game.

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Oh my God this.

I constantly marvel at how every time the devs made another tool available to enable freedom and creativity it was either weaponized into an unfun mess (see No Limits) or entirely abandoned by the community (LFG).

The healthiest changes have generally been when the devs have said ‘okay, here’s some limits, show us what you can do’.

Hero bans=players choose who is unpickable
Hero pools=JEFF chooses who is unpickable

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TBH I trust Jeff more than the forum/streamer/meta minds so, yeah, an absolute win

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“Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.” That’s basically how it goes. The same is true with metas like double shield or Goats.

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Lol. I want to say you’re wrong but you’re not

You clearly don’t know what hero bans is so why even bother making this post?

As would I…
This feels like some elitist crap.

“Oh kids we know you want pick and ban, but you aren’t smart enough to not hurt yourselves with it. Let the ADULTS help you pick your heroes for you. We know what’s best for you on each map so we will decide.”

Honestly is feel rediculously condescending they would make this move instead of giving power to their players. I seriously doubt this will not back fire on them in the long run.

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Why is that? An apple is an apple

They specifically said in the Sigma release streams that they were looking at hero pools and Jeff said PLAYERS shouldn’t have that responsibility. No one wanted hero bans because players had control of them. Hero pools is actually fair.

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