If we were to balance for plat we would have to have a 600 health Brig, and they would still complain that she can’t frontline. No thank you
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Because they can’t be bothered to design a good ban system, so balancing around the top is the only way hero usage gets rotated at high tier.
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Because OWL players are the best and can play heros at their highest skill level.
People in low ranks complain about Phara because they can’t aim. Or hog because they don’t have game sense. Even Bastion because they can’t work as a team.
Why would Blizzard make the balance around people who are bad at the game?
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This is why I fail to understand it.
What is the top?
Top of the ladder? Owl? Both?
Like I said, the changes seems to more often than not target the esport scene, but I don’t think THIS is healthy for the game.
It’s a complete different environment where players have good teamwork, good communication and can do research before matches.
This is not possible in gm. You can’t have a 6-stack so you will always be playing with randoms and it’s always a guess if there will be good teamwork and communication. Heck, you can’t even see the profiles of the enemies.
This is why there is always a different meta and different hero viability in these environments.
So how exactly is it healthy to have hero balancing more often than not focus the esport scene if those changes can have a negative impact on ladder?
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Honestly don’t think at this point it’s 100% balanced around the top
Some of these buffs/nerfs to heroes in the past year is quiet questionable lol
Like maybe 90% of the time, but then they do something like the reaper mini rework which made him even worse lol
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You balance around the top because that’s true balance. Heroes are played at their potential.
Also, it gives less skilled players something to strive towards.
If you balance around players who play the game improperly, you aren’t really “balancing” the game, at least not properly. Also, there’s no incentive to dedicate more time to the game if your skill & time isn’t rewarded. If balance doesn’t get better as you climb, you’ll stop playing.
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At lower ranks the players skill is more impactful that the strength of a hero.
At higher ranks if hero become must picks or throw picks it’s more down to hero balance than player skill.
In other words it’s near impossible to balance the game at lower ranks.
Is it healthy? Yes and no. It’s more how they balance a hero than at what rank they balance for.
Alright, I get that.
But what is the top?
OWL primarily, followed by Top 500/GM. Anything below GM you can get away with pretty much whatever if you’re good. It isn’t until you’re playing with the best that a 1% difference in power between heroes matters
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Well, OWL players are always top 10 in the ladder and sometimes players like Viol2t, Colourhex or Smurf have multiple accounts in top 10. Players like Danteh have top 10 in every role even if he plays dps only in OWL.
So, maybe both… but I would say GM because top 500 are just 500 players (well, less than 500 for the alt accounts).
GM or Masters on onwards they have patched occasionally based off owl as well.
Because we dont balance around less skilled players or youre essentially babying them and ultimately destroying or breaking heroes the higher you go.
By default, higher ranks are where the fewest mistakes are committed:
- Players that commit mistakes are more likely to be punished at higher ranks;
- Players that are frequently punished for mistakes will not rise to the highest ranks because they will lose more often against teams that do not commit mistakes.
Balancing is for heroes, not players, and the higher ranks are where the heroes are played properly (least mistakes committed); ergo, the most relevant data is from the higher ranks.
How could you balance around people that don’t understand how to play the game? You’d have no sense of any hero’s true power level because none of the players would come close to maxing out the hero’s potential.
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Ngl don’t think it has been since owl started, just beforehand they put out a trash change and since then they’ve all been pretty poor and not reflective of high end play
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The reality is that something is always going to be the strongest at high tier.
And they there’s going to be a ton of off-meta picks.
The idea that GM or OWL can be balanced to have no offmeta picks, or only “barely offmeta” picks is ridiculous.
What’s the point of hero usage variety at high tier if 95% of the heroes picked are the same 6-8 heroes?
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Is it really ridiculous? Idk, in this tournament in the OWL, they play so many heros… it is not about the heros anymore, it is about the maps and the team. Maybe the balance is better now, even if we don’t like it.
Not true at all in OWL. They play almost every hero -sometimes even Genji and Phara-
6 gm randoms will roll a six stack of players below masters any day of the week.
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Ah yes, the one part of the game that actually has hero bans.
Also the idea that “Hey a hero was picked for 30seconds on a rollout means they aren’t offmeta”.
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There’s no bans this stage and outside of I don’t think any heroes are just used for rollouts
Because OWL is a very small percentage of people and most will never be at that level.
Why would Blizzard balance around people who make up the smallest percentag?