They have all the stats, just butcher the top picks and buff the other mid/trash picks.
Rinse and repeat every few seasons and and suddenly you don’t have to play the same 3 heroes for 9 seasons straight to win a game.
I am so so so tired of seeing the same 2 tanks and same 3 dps and 2-3 supports EVERY SINGLE GAME
In the past 2 years we have had almost every hero be strong/meta at some point. At least 70% or the roster anyways. Meta has shifted so much more in ow2 than it did in ow1.
That was somehow true until s9.
After s9 the meta has been very monotonous.
Every unique character that was even remotely viable after s9 was quickly nerfed out of relevancy.
Heck we reached a point in time, where even Echo received a buff.
Devs have made every interesting character obsolete and we have the same 3 hitscans + Tracer as viable dps and Ana as a most pick yet again.
Because they want all the characters to be good while also not butchering the casual game
The casual game is where most people play
Idk, I’m pretty sure every hero has had their turn in the musical chairs we call the meta. I think the issue isn’t which hero is seen or isn’t seen but changing how the game feels to play with those heroes. It’s basically the same no matter which one gets more armor or damage, cd adjustment, etc. possibly creating that monotonous feeling.
I think it was the same even before S9. Like Zarya having -1 second cd and +50 HP on bubbles in early OW2. She became meta for like a month or so but fundamentally she isn’t that different in playstyle but people hated it anyway. I think if she got those change after S9, it’ll be roughly the deal. I think it’s hero preference and boredom
I think it’s partially because with the game having been around for so long, it’s somewhat “solved”. People know how to dissect a new patch and find whatever the new meta is pretty quickly, and a real shake-up requires more than a handful of slight number tweaks across like, four heroes. If they gave some big buffs to underperformers, that’s definitely start turning thongs around, but I fear that tends to lead to Mauga/Orisa hell.
There’s also a lack of uniqueness in the heroes. The ones that were noticeably different due to their kits were changed in a way that makes them feel like all the others. Specifically, I mean Bastion and Sombra.
Because they want to try to avoid creating obvious severe imbalance.
Sure, they could very easily shake up the meta by nerfing all the top picks through the floor and giving a 1000% boost to all the bottom picks. But that would create an even worse imbalance that we have now. They’re trying to avoid this, and changing the meta without creating serious imbalance is a bit of a fine line to walk.
Don’t do it enough and the meta doesn’t change. Do it too much and you end up with one single hero that singlehandedly obliterates the entire opposing team.
I think they’re errorring on the side of not enough being better than too much.
You also have to remember that they balance around popularity. When they buff an unpopular character and they enter the meta, said character invariably gets nerfed out of the meta quickly.
This is part of the reason we see the same characters being meta repeatedly.
Long story short, meaningful changes will piss off players who main