Don’t know if you can answer, but when you playtest OW2, is the performance better than OW1?
Performance, min-specs, etc is not something we’re talking about yet. We’ll certainly have more information on that in the future.
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I’m not sure what you are exactly able to do, but wouldn’t it be better to have a beta of some sort or have an exp patch with what’s currently being run, that way more of the community could give feedback
also, will 6v6 still be a playable mode? idk I think its kindof a waste to just completely trash what has been used for the past 4-5 years
Tbh, the way I’d deal with that is leave Brig/Sombra mostly as-is.
- Mei Freeze+Headshot, gone
- McCree Flash+Fan, gone. (Replaced with a brief Hack or Sleep equivalent)
- Sleep Dart minimum duration, 0.5sec, instead of 1.5sec
- AntiHeal 50% effective
- Hack, blocked by current offtank defence abilities
- EMP doesn’t destroy shieldhealth
- Tanks get some sort of anti cc passive, (perhaps including all forms of CC except grapples/roots/slows.)
Avoids the whole can-of-worms of needing to nerf flankers a lot.
Additionally, Brig/Sombra don’t really affect much besides the highest skill tiers. So they are only really relevant at skill tiers where flankers are dominant.
Mei/McCree by comparison, are “annoying CC” that affects all ELOs, and they have kill combos off of it.
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What if role lock was removed, in a way? Instead of locking in ur role be4 the match, u would have to fill in each role at the character-picking start of the match. There would be 2 slots for DPS and Healer with 1 Tank slot. Everyone would have to fill in each of these slots. This would keep the 2-2-1 lock, however remove long queue times. The main issue with this idea is u can easily have the role u wanted taken away. Otherwise, this would remove the queue times and keep the 2-2-1 that the team wants. I’m honestly not too sure of this idea, but u can at least take this into consideration.
Thanks for this in-depth post and your many other responses, sorry to ask more of you but I do have a big question for someone with 5v5 experience:
Do tanks in 5v5 still feel like the tanks in 6v6?
I find tank gameplay very enjoyable but also unique, possibly even main thing that sets OW apart from it’s competition. Tanks dynamic defensive power, disruptive threat and raw combat presence is why I play the game. As a result I’m concerned that 5v5 fundamentally changes the general feel of tank gameplay. Even if it’s a fun change I don’t want to lose what we’ve got.
Does 5v5 reworked Dva, for example, feel like a reworked Dva or more like a whole new hero? With utility, defenses and combat power shifting around have the heroes lost some of their core character and style? Are main stay strats like Rein deathball fundamentally changed or even destroyed when you lose the Zarya? In fact how can Zarya work as a solo tank while still being Zarya? While I have no doubt the role is still fun has it fundamentally shifted in playstyle and tempo?
Ultimately what are we looking at here, a recognizable rework, a whole new role or something in-between? How different does it feel?
edit: grammar
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The recent communication is much appreciated, please hang around!
Can you comment on this in relation to the common complaint about the matchmaker where players are matched against vastly stronger individual opponents? I think it’s a valid concern that this change raises the risk of steamrolling.
Sounds like heal slaves, lol.
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Can you confirm whether burst damage is being addressed in order to make this possible? In the current environment, we’ve got videos of a Rein dropping his shield for firestrike (from full health) and dying in the time he finishes the fire strike animation.
With burst damage being able to chunk so much, even if you have 2 healers, my guess is the concentrated fire of the enemy team would mow you down pretty quick, especially with things like Hanzo storm arrow, Mcree fan the hammer, Widow headshot, etc.
Can you talk to us at all about what’s being done to make it so burst damage is more in-line?
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This concerns me slightly. The way it’s emphasized, like “Doom, Ball, and MAYBE Tracer”
If anyone is an issue with hypermobility, it is Tracer first and foremost. Doom and ball are Mobile, sure, but Tracer has the added bonus of dealing extreme chunk damage and having a tiny stick-thin hitbox.
She’s been DPS meta for literal years. So it’s troubling to me that she only MIGHT be a problem of hypermobility.
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Just got back from a movie, was shocked to see this thread having more activity. While you are right that I am apprehensive about this change, I do thank you for taking to time to properly explain the philosophy behind it. 
They’ll be deleting it, lol.
Flexing that OW2 playtester status 
. I’m jealous and sad now…
I’ve always argued its the dps’s job to peel since flanks are needed on the frontline brawl. This will be even more true in 5v5.
so happy we’re hearing things again. and excited for OW2 dva. plz don’t make her unplayable tho, she was unplayable for way too long in OW1 (cause of doubleshield till recently) 
i’m looking forward to people not doing doubleshield anymore, by law, haha. even tho i can usually beat it, i just hate the comp and what it did to the game for way too long
Caveat: not a designer
I believe this is more in regard to the fact that Doom and Wrecking Ball have both great mobility and strong cc abilities like Knockup and Knockback.
Evaluating Tracer’s mobility is a part of process, but in a different way than the former.
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So basically tanks as we know it are done. From what I’m reading you guys don’t really want tanks to mitigate damage as much as they do right now but then really what’s the point? Tanks are just going to become more beefier dps then I mean sure they will still be tanky in some way but seems like this is the transition straight from the horses mouth
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Thanks for sharing, AndyB.
Much appreciated. +1
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Somehow I don’t buy what the Company representative is saying in this thread.
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Remember a long time ago… in a galaxy far away… When they were balancing the game under the idea that people were going be change heroes whenever was needed?
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The idea of “one tricks” or of people that want to play their main character most of the time was a shocker to them?
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When instead of nerfing dive, they released a behemoth to “shake” up the meta?
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And of course the Good-In-All situations Sigma.
I don’t know if 5v5 is going to be good or bad, what I do know is that most of people don’t want responsibilities. Current tank role (6v6) is a responsibility, a shared responsibility.
Shifting to 5v5 is going to change that, and I don’t know if it’s going to be negative or positive: Solo tanking is going to be rough for the person tanking. I can easily imagine people blaming the tank whenever a fight or match is lost, among other things.
They can repeat all the time they want that Tanks are going to be a “bruiser” (which to me sounds like fat dps) or whatever they want to call it, the reality is that they have condition us to believe that the tanks are the center piece of the team (In this game and others), they defend and make space.
It’s easier to spot when a tank is bad, and that will be more notorious if there is only one. I don’t envy what tank mains are going to be put through. But I can easily see myself muting every communication channel before queuing as tank.
People are going to be mistreated because they choose to play tank in 5v5 whenever something, anything goes wrong. That will have the biggest impact on the player base if you ask me. Why would I want to play tank if people are going to insult me or tell me I’m bad for doing so?
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Ow 5 roles:
2 supports
2 thin dps
1 fat dps
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