This is one of the only games where you can change your character mid match. The game is literally designed around swapping characters to gain advantage.
Heroes are only allowed to have such interesting and unique designs because you’re able to swap them if they don’t work, otherwise, all their designs would be boring generalists closest to soldier 76
The problem is that some beta refuses to play their main just because I am a Reinhardt Crusader and they just swap to Rammatra. I just have to play against him 24/7. If there were no hero swapping, I would only play against Rammatra mains or people who felt like using him instead of… Literally every garbagio player.
I’d rather not play than play some of the heroes I’m expected to
inb4 “don’t play, then”
way ahead of you
The game should be balanced enough to not require instant swapping to win.
It’s fine if it doesn’t turn into like 5-6 switches per game and the one who doesn’t switch looses
Well, I don’t play chess and only main the rook
Effort vs Value
One hero switch can shut down another. It’s uninteresting and frustrating especially as tank. I’d rather have a consistent chance to out-skill my unfavorable matchups.
Nothing wrong at first, but they since OW2 made changes so idiotic that swapping feels like an obligation like an unfair rock paper scisor game that forces you now to swap to a specific character to counter an other instead of having choices between a fewpossible options.
Plus, you have uncounterable kits that puts some characters to an unfair advantage
I can’t really be helped because some of the Unique designs of certain heroes. Roahog and sombra will inherently counter ball simply because of how he is designed.
We would need less specified and unique hero, designs for them, not countered
And literally no one has a problem with soft counters.
Many people, however, have a problem with hard counters.
Huh? Nuance?
I can’t say there is anything “wrong” with it, but it can be a frustrating mechanic when some of the counters take noticeably less effort than the character which they counter. A prime example of this was Sombra vs Ball for instance, although I’d say this isn’t as bad anymore.
I think you can really stem it down to if the character which counters another can do any of the following
A. The counter completely invalidates the “flow” of a character with how that specific player is utilizing them. Think with how dive tanks have to be much more cautious to avoid getting chain CC’d, or with how Pharah completely dominates the matchup vs Junkrat for instance. If you notice the devs language, they have wanted to fulfill hero fantasies and make tanks more “enjoyable” and counterswapping is what often makes it so these tanks can’t be enjoyed.
B. The counter requires comparatively less effort to undo what the character they are “countering” is doing as mentioned before. Whether it be just how the character is played, or if one of their abilities can completely invalidate another character.
End of the day, most people have a main or a few characters they do main. Especially given how diverse the playstyles of each character are in Overwatch. I am only speaking for myself but I often load into a round hoping to play a certain character either before even seeing the map or upon seeing the map. For some people, Overwatch is playing tracer. For other people, Overwatch is playing Mercy. Unfortunately not everyone gets to have their cake and eat it as well, and when the match devolves into counter swapping nobody is happy sometimes.
heroes only has 2 to 3 abilities because they’re meant to be a tool for specific purpose and when they don’t fit, you’re supposed to change to a different tool which is why we’re able to swap mid match
Swapping is definitely a positive of Overwatch. Losing at hero select happens in MOBAs so it’s great that it’s not a thing in Overwatch.
The issue is how effective hero swapping is in OW2. The D.Va vs. Zarya matchup highlights the swapping issue well.
In OW1 playing D.Va into Zarya you were at a disadvantage, but if I could get her to waste barrier I could get in her face and actually kill her pretty reliably. It was a 40/60 or so Zarya favored matchup.
Comparatively, In OW2 its nearly impossible for D.Va to kill Zarya. Her barrier up time is much higher, she has no clear downtime to exploit, and her damage is higher. This matchup is probably 20/80 in Zarya’s favor in OW2.
Similar super polarized matchups exist all across the tank roster now. The payoff for counter swapping is simply super high in OW2.
Also, given the relative power and impact of the tank role the cost of not countering the enemy tank greatly increases your chance of losing.
“What’s wrong with counterswapping?”
Mauga utterly shreds Ramattra. You as the Ramattra cannot do a single thing against him except pray that your team can kill him before your Nemesis form runs out and you can no longer block.
There is no way to outplay this matchup no matter how good you are, you are 100% reliant on your team. Nothing is fair about this matchup or enjoyable.
Pretty self-explanatory what’s wrong with swapping to Mauga cause you’re getting diffed by Ram or picking Mauga off the bat because you know the enemy tank plays Ram.
A lot of those counters can’t be fixed due to the heroes inherent design. And the most hard countered of characters would be unstoppable if they didn’t have something that stopped them.
If Sombra didn’t stop ball in his tracks, ball would get significant nerfs.
The problem isnt counterswapping, its hard countering. If you hard counter someone, you’ll be more reliably successful with the same skill level.
Tanks sometimes get stuck in a rock paper scissors loop of counters, stuck in spawn constantly swapping in the hope of a most reliable pick.
If characters are hard counters then they’re not well designed and need reworks, simples
Not necessarily. Ball gets hard countered with cc but when he’s not, he can do whatever he pleases.
It might be the reverse actually where is certain characters didn’t have such crazy abilities they wouldn’t need something powerful to stop them
Ball only gets hard countered when there is multiple CCs present, he has no true hard counters outside of the team just dogpiling on him, unlike Doom into Sombra or Ram into Mauga where it’s an instant hard counter.
Hard disagree there.