Why devs dont communite with "US" part 300

General Discussion
90

They do balance for OWL only. We don’t see buffed Reaper, Bastion or Hanzo because they are “unfun to play [in/for higher ranks/OWL]”. This is exactly why we don’t see them there, and why Orisa and Brig get nerfed every other patch despite them being non-existent on ladder. And it’s also why they were quick to buff Genji (4 buffs at once btw) and so hesitant to nerf Lucio despite him being a meta hero for 4 years.

Conspiracy theory or not, these are objective facts. They allow certain heroes reign in OWL for literal years and pull out a nerf hammer immediately when other heroes peek their head out of “unviable” pit.

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91

I don’t think the devs consider lower ranks or If they do they are kinda bad at it.

They certainly didn’t say thay do, not directly anyways. And that’s fine, But please don’t sugarcoat it.

92

People think balancing for OWL hurts lower ranks but it rarely does. Meta is non-existent in pretty much any rank below GM, people just play whatever they like to play. It doesn’t matter if they nerf Orisa and Sigma because Rein/Zarya is the default tank combo for almost every rank. Even during the peak of dive Rein/Zarya remained the most popular tank duo in every rank but high GM.

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93

100% wrong. The reason Reaper and Bastion especially can’t be buffed is that if you make them viable in high ranks, you make them unstoppable monsters in low ranks. You counter Bastion with good coordination, and you counter Reaper with a lot of awareness and target focus. Those aren’t things that happen in low ranks much.

When they buffed Reaper’s lifesteal to 50%, that made him a complete monster on ladder in everything plat and below. Buffing Bastion is an even more dangerous proposition, and not for high ranks, let alone OWL, but for low ranks. :man_shrugging:

Reaper is a pretty fun hero to watch, no one was complaining about that when he was meta for a short while in OWL. Same with Hanzo. He’s a “sniper”, spectators love watching snipers. Some people don’t like watching Pirate Ship, but even that was always popular back in season 1 when it was meta exclusively on Junkertown, so even Bastion could be much more popular and people wouldn’t mind.

94

Hear what they want to hear? The devs themselves say that they balance the game around the OWL. No ifs, ands or buts about it. There’s no interpretating those words any other way.

And Jeff himself saying that he wants OW to go more in an FPS direction than a MOBA one, just further cements where Blizzard’s priority is, the minority of players. Catering to them is why the game is a DPS-biased mess now & the only way to fix it is for Blizzard to put Tanks & Healers out of their misery already.

So how is all feedback important to them, when all they care about is the 1% of the playerbase?

Its the truth. Straight from the devs’ mouths.

The DPS buffs are already constant. You think they wouldnt do those things down the line? Reaper had a lifesteal biff before, he’d get that back at this rate. Bastion surprisingly had a buff at all. Rework Hanzo is already more broken than the original ever was.

Meanwhile, Tanks & Healers get nerfed again & again.

95

i take it this is your version of jeffs quote:

96

You cross out everyone’s feedback, but how does Blizzard put the whole playerbase into account, when only the OWL(in turn, Master/GM players) are prioritized?

If Blizzard listened to the majority of players, then Comp would be seperate from the rest of the game, Comp would have all its DPS buffs, while the rest of us get to play
Tanks & Healers that are not suffering a slow death, and QP & the rest get their own changes if need be.

Look at how Experimental works, its gets balance changes that the rest of the game doesnt have. Comp should be that.

97

Actions speak louder, than words. It’s rather hypocritical of devs to claim, that they listen to everyone, and then do some weird stuff no one besides top 1% asked for.

Still, they are pretty much deaf to 99%, and require a lot of screaming into their ears to actually do something, that favors most players.

98

i invite you to check out this (evergrowing) list of changes that were due entirely to OWL/TOP 500/GM/Masters players…

99

It is VERY apparent that Blizzard went from “Fan base” income to signing with sponsors that are companies that hand out money to “sponsor” league.

It has an issue where if this game is NOT popular to watch. Sponsors are going to soon discover that their investments were worth NOTHING and find another platform to sponsor.

Mountain Dew did GAME FUEL with Horde and Alliance (on wow). I will admit, the stuff was VERY good. Red and BLUE flavored Mt. Dew soda was really good for a night of gaming and keeping the “IV DRIP” of caffeine, while raiding Goldshire or Stormwind’s Auction house, PK’ing people.

Blizzard wants and has to have MORE money. Since bootloxes don’t make much money after the whole GAMBLING SCANDAL.

I really think blizzard should have went the route of Paid-for cosmetics, but didn’t. So league was their only avenue to generate revenue. BUT it comes with the cost of them “Fixing matches” and constantly changing the game for content.

The problem is, the popularity won’t remain, when nobody cares about the game anymore. Which League could FLOP overnight.

IMO I really think the first year opened really well with league and was something to Celebrate. But at the same time, It shows Blizzard uncages their old demons of wrecking characters, spot-patching and nerfing characters like MERCY, just to make for a “good show”.

The other day I picked up Link to the past, re-ran it for fun, to see how quickly I could power through the game. I can still appreciate the game since the day it launched, because the devs aren’t actively trying to “Hot fix” the game. So yes, I can do the Darkworld 3 skip for the Big Treasure Chest, and obtain the flame-rod faster, and that would make any dev MAD. But the reality is. I get to enjoy the same exact title I bought over 20+ years ago and it is still fun to play.

Today’s games lose value fast. Especially when they FIX MATCHES and PATCH absurd things.

100

More like they are intended to lose value fast, so you could sell new games.

Remember Korean situation with StarCraft 1? Blizzard literally had to bribe people to make players change to StarCraft 2.

Selling DLCs is same thing, just covered up a bit.

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101

You can say “because of da community” all you want, but if they were professionals, they’d be communicating with their overall playerbase regardless of how toxic they might consider it.

102

Jeff please no read forums. so much… sorry cant say.

103

Look at this from this perspective, in the OWL dps players tend to be a hitscan player (Ashe, Mcree, Widow) and a projectile player (Genji, Phara, Hanzo, very situationally Junkrat), apart from that there’s usually a Tracer speciallist, or a Widow speciallist and such. When they’re not meta they flex onto other stuff, sure, but they never hired a Reaper main to play Reaper when he was meta, nor a Mei main, they make the DPS players the team already has play that stuff until they get nerfed. And they know they’ll get nerfed because, as I showed you, the OWL pro-scene is an echo-chamber. They may play whatever is meta, but as long as the meta DPS are not the “right ones” they’ll be complaining all the way.

For OWL Ashe, Mcree, Widow, Genji, Tracer are the “correct” DPS that should be meta.
Phara, Sombra, Hanzo maybe Junkrat are the situational DPS.
All of them can do flashy stuff that make people go whooo, and all of them are already mained by a DPS player in the team.

The rest of the DPS are boring stuff that pros have to suck it up and play because they happen to be exploitable at that specific moment. Pros never want Mei or Reaper or Sym to be meta, so devs don’t want it either. And it’s very clear that the Devs strategy around balancing it’s about forcing metas taking turns to wathever is OP at the moment to make the OWL flashy and not repetitive.

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104

Lol, no, this are your thoughts about why did this changes were implemented and nothing more.

Genji was nerfed and now he is more or less in a balanced state (on his own).

Nerf lucio? U srs?

They exist in master+ and don’t tell me about balance for majority bs, you want to nerf lucio after all.

Who the hell thinks that about Bastion and Hanzo?

105

That was the case originally, in the first season of OWL… right now it’s really not the case, no teams really have projectile specialists as part of their main roster anymore (though some still have them on the bench just in case something unforeseen happens, like the buffs to Genji this year, making them worth having in your back pocket).

Most DPS players in OWL right now are fully flex players, and can play both hitscan as well as projectile heroes, though there are still a few hitscan specialists in main rosters, because there’s almost always at least one meta hitscan.

Not really true… there’s a lot of players in the OWL right now famous for their Reaper or Mei gameplay from their Contenders days, especially some that were signed to OWL this year, since the last Contenders season before this season of OWL saw plenty of Mei and Reaper gameplay.

I agree that OWL can be an echo chamber, but I disagree with your reasoning why. Players are naturally predisposed to a desire of having control of the game. If every team plays something different, it’s super hard to prepare for, because you effectively have to know how to play against 10 different compositions at a peak level. You have to know when to stick to your own preferred composition, when you have to switch to something else, how to counter specific strategy from the opponent, and you have to be able to do it all at peak efficiency, if you don’t want to leave things to chance and luck. But if there’s a composition that’s just a bit better than the rest, everyone will be playing that, because it lets you fully perfect how to play that comp and how to play against it, so the team that has the most talented players and the smartest coaches will win.

106

thats the problem they only listen to those guys while leaving regular recreational players in the dust like i feel Tracer is in the shape she is in due to OWL…which in my opinion was the worst thing added but input from us rec players should be taken seriously or even isolate changes made to certain characters only apply to owl and gm’s…i wish Jeff and the dev team would see this and realize where mistakes have been made

107

Sorry for the late reply but when it comes to the Match Making system(MM), you have to relies people are really and I mean really inconsistent.

And as such a logic based algorithm that can only evaluate a players ability by their past performance, can only do so much in determining where they should be placed in a particular match.

that and your complaining that Quick Play the mode specifically designed to fine you a game Quickly, is not giving you the “Highest Quality games” I mean really we have a game mode for that M8 and its called competitive.

108

I’m afraid you’re in error, even the description of QP shows you’re in error with your assumption that the mode is only to find a “quick match”. The description simply say “Jump into a game against other players of your skill level”. It doesn’t say “Jump into a quick match that may or may not flatten you out of spawn”.

If a skill system is so difficult as you proclaim, then by your logic, SR isn’t actually a skill rating then, is it? The thing is, it is possible to make a skill based system that is a lot better than what is currently used in QP.

Though there are more problems with QP than just a bad MM system. A lot of player’s attitude towards the game mode, contributes as well towards its dismal state. Competitive isn’t for everyone, some just want to spend 10-15 minutes playing Overwatch, or doesn’t want to deal with the toxic nature of competitive which I have to say, is the main reason I as well just stay a mile away from it. For them QP is the only game mode. Aren’t they allowed then by your logic, to enjoy the game? Just because some players have decided to treat QP as a garbage mode?

109

Ok dude sorry that that QP doesn’t have 10 minute long ques just to get you in a match that would be slightly more even skill wise.

Like it litterially is called Quick Play. As in this mode will get you into a state of play quickly.

Yes it also does try put you on an even skill level. But I hate to brake it to you that most players don’t go all out in a QP enviroment.

Meaning a good chunk of players their are not going to be play up to their actual skill level.

Like I said we have a mode for that already, theirs no point in putting it at the same standard as Comp.

Especially considering that most casual players would just prefer to get into games quicker.