I Trust the OW2 Devs Balance Philosophy Than Most - Hot Takes #9

[@idesofjune]

Hot take: At lower ranks, preventing your team from turning on each other and keeping up team morale is argueably more important than actually being skilled at the game

[@Noctua8]

I kinda agree, in the lower ranks ppl throw by giving up so much. But it's also the other way around, being good keeps their mentals up

[@healbot9000]

True, very true.

[@psyjinx]

Competitive games are a rogue-like. Sometimes you get clapped early, sometimes it's a god run. Babysitting 4 people you're never going to see again isn't worth your time. Farm ults safely, and if you die, ask yourself why you died. Giving up and feeding happens in every game. Focus on yourself.

[@aeloh6921]

It's all smiles and emotes in the spawn room, but after one lost fight it turns into lord of the flies smh

[@samash.32]

wait actually you're right

[@Fi4z]

For the map voting thing i could see the wheel system from Guild Wars 2 being implemented. Basically you queue up normally. When you join the game a pie chart appears with maps of one type. (So like a pie chart in OW2 would have all push maps OR all control maps, etc) Each map automatically starts with one vote so it cant be fully removed from the pie chart. Then players vote on the map they want to play which increases its size proportionally on the pie chart. You end up with a wheel spin to determine the map you play. Which means your vote makes it more likely that you play the map you like, but not impossible to play the map you hate (Basically you limit the RNG)

[@kendricklaw6748]

w take bc i got shamboli 6 times in a course of 2 days

[@orionlucas3272]

​@kendricklaw6748 I play shambali like 4 times a day😂😂

[@oniozoni7878]

I used to play R6 siege but stopped right before they introduced map bans. But I've always thought their ban system was a great model. Once you find a game and are in a lobby, 3 random maps will appear. Teams will take turns banning a map; Team 1 will vote on a map to ban. Then Team 2 will vote between the 2 remaining choices. The last map standing will be the one played. *Voting will be anonymous so nobody will see what name voted for what map to help reduce harassment in case someone does not vote for the same map as others.

[@orionlucas3272]

@oniozoni7878 now it's 5 maps both team vote at the same time and it rolls the remaining 3 randomly

[@TheRealSorav]

No one will play Flashpoint though with that system, which is understandable because that mode sucks@@oniozoni7878

[@NemesisRavebane]

Hot take: They should fix up some of the hitboxes for the environment to help against randomly hitting the corner of a wall with an ability when your crosshair isn't even touching the wall. This would also be helpful for Lucio because of some of the weird places you just get stuck while wallriding, be it random signs, lamps hanging off the side, etc. stuff that visually looks good, but shouldn't impede movement/make it feel super janky. If you wanted to keep a hitbox in for bullets that's one thing, but hopefully I'm trying to make my point clear enough. Just random lips on walls/ceilings that you should be able to pass over your model gets clipped on and it just halts all movement. I've noticed it a couple times throwing Sombra's translocator past a wall and then it stops at the wall.

[@wowiepowie1691]

Honestly, as someone who plays a lot of Lucio all of the newer maps feel like ass to wall ride compared to older maps. My main example is like Circuit Royal with all of the windows and pretty architecture that looks good, but just feel terrible to wall ride.

[@Sn0v1]

Hot take, Merys Rez should be on LOS base, the whole argument over Rez is that it’s a risk which leaves you vulnerable. However you can still rez behind walls or under objects as long as you are in the circle, this prevents counter play most of the time.

[@lukasg4807]

It also adds skill expression and nuance.

[@tinytimonfire]

This would just kill the rez at mid-high ranks when people can aim Los matters a LOT more.

[@MefoWho]

@@tinytimonfire lmao good mercy will be a spin bot while res-ing so idk aim would be a problem

[@D4rkW4ri0]

But spinning its fun

[@MrSonictheOtter]

Hot Take: To extend on the map selection take, it could be like Call of Duty's old multiplayer queue. There would be 2 random maps to vote and the whole lobby would be in VC together to vote for what map they wanted. It was an awesome way to get votes for the map and talk with other players. Of course a lot of toxicity would ensue but it made for spicy and heated games. Such was the life of Xbox live chat.

[@AwesomeWookiee]

Hot Take: Illari should deal 60 on a fully charged shot, but set them on fire for 5 ticks of 3 as well. If we have niche interactions, we should make them less niche.

[@ShetlandShanty]

cold take: we need a pirate hero.

[@salinaember9527]

junkrat

[@samash.32]

water based*. NOT MEI. I MEAN FLOWING, VERY NICE WATER!!!

[@jahkareramkissoon419]

@@salinaember9527 he's a robber and he don't have a ship or nothing. L response.

[@salinaember9527]

@@jahkareramkissoon419 he got a peg leg and shoots cannons

[@whatsupwitdat45]

We should implement a map vote system like in Halo 3; it presents you two options and a "neither" option that randomly picks a third different map. The maps could even be the same type (payload, escort, whatever) so one game mode doesn't become the predominant pick. There are so many maps now that I practically never see some maps. This would also be good to implement if they were serious about adding hero bans in later seasons. Helps to know what map you're getting before you pick bans.

[@DanteGarcia0221]

hot take: dps create space through damage dealing and tanks take space through damage mitigation support are there to literally support other people’s jobs and make it easier for everyone

[@whatsupwitdat45]

Tank is boring now. It's just Counterwatch, especially since there is only one tank per team. The only time that doesn't happen is when both tanks have a gentleman's agreement to both play the same hero (which I've seen happen a few times because they're both so tired of countering). 5v5 was a good idea, but the majority of the tanks are all so niche in their playstyle that you're basically throwing unless you counterpick.

[@EBM324]

Hot Take: Until Blizz implements a clan or guild system, competitive will always feel bad. Overwatch is a team game that does not want you to be a team until 2 mins before the match starts(for que times). People then have expectations of a team that they just met 2 minutes ago and get salty AF when they don't live up to them. The whole thing just seems crazy to me, if you ask anyone who has played in a full stack they often say things like “this is how the game is supposed to be played” but there is no will in the company or community to add clans or guilds, hell we still don't have LFG back.

[@madara992]

the game asks for unrealistic amounts of teamwork from randoms I think they should bring back the pre-made teams of 5v5 as a solid core mode 5v5 pre-made hen Role que and Open que

[@timothybaer6552]

Hot Take: DPS passive should be tied to respawn. Either reduced respawn for DPS players or if DPS gets a kill any teammate waiting to respawn gets respawned immediately.

[@toons4934]

I actually kinda fucking like this

[@erti84]

Hot Take: You should be able to pick the game mode(s) you want to play in QP. This would also reduce the pre round-start leavers in a game and makes the leaver penalty almost neglible. In Ranked on the other hand, you need to play whatever you get. That way you can avoid game modes you don't like. And QP should be about the "fun".

[@addazarmy6826]

I think queue times would be the perpetual issue for this

[@erti84]

@@addazarmy6826 it would probably increase the queue times for push and flashpoint where a lot of people quit before the round starts. but then i can play maps like kings row maybe more than 2 or 3 times a week.

[@turtwigproductions9928]

I think the point mikesnyder1280 was trying to make was they like the idea of elemental combos and not elemental matchups. I think they were proposing more character should work better with other characters such as ash + mauga and no have characters be better against other characters like you said with mei - mauga. Hope that makes sense

[@revenantcode7633]

Exactly - "Burning" makes Mauga crit with his secondary fire and builds Ult for Ashe... maybe Freeze (new hero looks to have some icy theme?) prevents **jumping** which would make agile characters easier to kill (particularly a harder counter against Genji), and perhaps poison can be consumed by Widow's full-charged sniper shots to boost their damage (as a way to enable the one-shot without it being as "instant")... the ideas are definitely interesting but I feel like too much of those interactions with debuffs makes a lot of extra mechanics to keep track off, so it needs some sort of "consistency" across the roster rather than everyone having their own unique interactions.

[@caterback]

Hot take: Mauga is overpowered, but his most overpowered feature he has is the sound of his guns. They are so low in bass and loud it masks a lot of the sounds of the other characters, reducing the enemy team overall awareness.

[@mochdediazua4311]

Hot Take: Def is better than attack.

[@coalman188]

I wanted to toss in a hot take. Kar Q can get it. Smash. But for real. My real hot take is He absolutely can. But in all seriousness my real hot take is on the upcoming hero ban system Why not implement it as a setting you turn on before you queue. You can set one hero in each role for your team and one hero in each role for the enemy team. Then have the match maker queue you with players who aren’t likely to switch to that hero. The hero isn’t banned per se but the enemy DPS is less likely to switch to say Sombra cause she isn’t in their hero pool. The way you would determine if the player is likely to play that hero is based on play time. This setting would have to come with a warning that it may increase queue times. Also final note Kar Q = Smash

[@jacklesser6902]

Hot take: heros such as ball, doomfist, mercy, and junkrat, ruin competitive integrity by being too different from other heros. While fun and unique if you get a doom or ball on your team if they get shut down more often than not they are a 1 trick and refuse to swap due to their heros being extremely specialized who’s skillset does not transfer well to other heros

[@shadowpho3nix228]

Mercy Res should obey LOS rules, because you can res someone on high ground and just fall behind it to secure the res, which is BS

[@i_fuze_hostages6]

Yes

[@samash.32]

i love this cuz it encourages you to rez BEHIND SHEILDS i love it!!!

[@K1NGJAY42]

I think swapping heroes mid match should be allowed but limited per rank. Ranks are already fairly separated by grouping (specially with the new ultimate rank). So allowing teams metal ranks 3 swaps per game, then 2 for plat to masters, then 1 for gm to top 500 (or some variety like this) would allow for more strategic thinking and would control the flow of the game. This and higher consequences for people leaving comp games, would heavily improve the games’ overall performance in my opinion.

[@Pyrocreeperking]

Hot Take: Pharah is the worst hero in the game. She hard counters half of the roster while the other half can just tickle her. Theres like 5 heroes that can actually deal with her effectively and all of them are an archetype im not good at. Im fine with swapping if my hero gets countered but when all of the heroes I play get countered what am I supposed to do? Swap to a hitscan and throw because I dont have amazing aim? All the Pharah needs to do is loosely aim towards me and fly around, especially when she has a Mercy pocket.

[@arnoldlee4911]

Flame take: hero in a wheelchair would be the most popular hero in overwatch history.

[@MOZH_23]

They should’ve buffed ramattra’s void accelerator travel speed instead of the hitbox (not hitscan level). Ramattra weapon problem was that it wasn’t consistent from medium range and much worse from far away. That makes his ” no fall off damage” worthless. But with the travel speed buff it rewards players who are skilled with his void accelerator

[@ncrest4365]

3:33 funny how people said that about Rein, but as far as I remember back in OW1, everyone hate playing Rein and hate fighting against Rein with a passion because it's practically shooting at the wall simulator, doesn't help when we had the double shield meta. Also, for a hero whose group of players hate CC, Rein himself has plenty of CC, and a oneshot charge at the same time. So yeah, every hero indeed has a hated group, there's no exception.

[@hatiaim]

Hot Take: I think in *professional* matches adding character drafting/banning could be very interesting for games and make comps more interesting. Sure it would be nice being tampered with but it would be very interesting to see how teams at the highest level adapt/

[@DiscoFlye]

This is my hot take since ow1: Add a color pad system to the skins. Let US decide and customize the colors of every hero skin, including all the cosmetic pieces, outfits, items, and weapons. Players can even create their own characters with it. Having us coloring the skins the way we want will boost the content of this game, as well as solving the issue of the devs not having time to make enough skins cuz they will only need to create models for us. Nobody cares about their recolored skins and they shouldn't have done that in the first place. The color pad could cost 5000 credits (or 250 coins in ow2) for each hero. Then I saw them releasing mythic skins in ow2 that only have a few options to customize, plus more and more recolored shit, I kinda lost hope this day will never come. But I think one of the best ways to get new content in a game is adding more customizable stuff, like see how many cool things we came up with using the workshop. Don't ever underestimate the community's imagination!

[@Zathren]

I think the common hate group is for Orisa right now. Which I genuinely find amusing because she gets melted in my bronze lobbies.

[@gsoma4022]

That was before she got nerfed. Now I honestly don't think any tank can get hated, other than probly doom not cause he's OP just cause you have to change your whole playstyle

[@Zathren]

​@@gsoma4022didn't even know she was nerfed 😅

[@lukasg4807]

​@@gsoma4022orisa was never even good. Her "buff" made her worse than she had been right beforehand

[@kasshern]

@@lukasg4807 hell naw she was top 2 on release with Zayra

[@DiegoRodriguez-lc5bn]

Hot Take: I think having multiple passives for all roles is a great way to selective boost certain heroes without throwing the entire role out of wack. I think the movement boost was great for tracer genji but not widow or sym, but having faster reload can help other certain heroes. Having supp heal themseleves for 10% no matter what and having a passive that increases the self heal to 20% or healing increased by 5%. Passives would be situational (overtime with only 2 ticks knowing healing output to stay alive outweighs being able to heal faster) making the game more interactive for each role. I’m masters 1 for DPS and Master 5 for supp and tank. Love the vids KarQ!!!

[@jakelimotta9509]

Hot Take: Circuit Royale and Shambali Monestary are the same map. Both have high ground in the same spot for the defending team to take on point 1. Both have those rooms/buildings on the left and right of where the cart spawns. The cart moves in the same route on the first point and part of the second point. The second point both have high ground in the same spot for the defending team to take. Same map, just a reskin.

[@marveler8994]

A primarily melee dps would be so crazy

[@moicacho]

Rip doomfist

[@Merui021]

The Lucio one being a distraction is so true. I got caught in a corner (In the oasis map with the square-ish indoor point) while wallriding and it happened to be right where the enemy kitsune rush was facing. The enemy kiriko and hanzo got too fixated on trying to hit me while i kinda panic wallstrafe and that won us the teamfight. Three of their teammates rushed in point and got rolled.

[@Ionzilla]

Zenyatta should have mobility, similar to Hanzo’s jump. I think it would make him a little more fun to play. I don’t care if Discord is nerfed, his health bar is nerfed, or even his boop kick is nerfed/removed in order to compensate if needed

[@thesighingdutchman1827]

Hot Take: Sombra was the most fun to play in her 1.0 form; before her first rework that gave her the infinite translocator. The stealth was very fun to use (time-limited and much higher movement speed), and the possibility of your translocator expiring after 15-20s added a sense of urgency to every engagement. She was definitely weak power-level wise, and the way hack worked was a problem - but the other parts of her kit were much more interesting and had much more depth than they do currently.

[@dermegger7733]

Idk why nobody said this in the chat but in Mario Kart online you get to vote between 3 random maps or choose a "random" option after loading into the lobby. Then, the game will randomly pick one of the 12 players' votes. This leads to popular maps being more likely to be played but it's not impossible to get a less popular one if you vote for it, and if you don't wanna drive any of the three chosen ones, you just pick "random". It's a good system for Mario Kart, not sure about OW though. I feel like getting King's Row all the time would make it less special.

[@Lucas-og3of]

Hot take: Damage and Healing would be easier to balance if there was more HP across the whole cast of Heroes. With the switch to 5v5 we lost an entire ~500hp from the team. Some of that was given to the other tank, but there's still a pool of a few hundred HP that healers **don't** have to heal, and DPSs **don't** have to deal. Which makes it feel like we have "too much healing" to counter "too much damage" when the third part of that equation, the HP itself, could be tweaked to fix both.

[@Xokzu]

Elaborating on the sword based hero idea: Blizzard could add the Talon assassin. They’ve added pretty much all of the other special variants already!

[@BrolysShadow_]

For the synergizing abilities, I think it's fine as long as it's the tank that's doing the synergizing, since there's only one.

[@M.A.R.S.]

Overwatch is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: Overwatch was released in 2016, and Overwatch 2 was released in 2022.

[@spacecowboy7193]

Lucio is good in the metal ranks. Supports don’t pay attention down there, so to have a little traveling heal station is great. If I’m a tank, a good Lucio is amazing. If I’m DPS, a bad Lucio will keep me topped up. If I’m Ana, Lucio handles the chip damage. Playing with lucio is usually fine.

[@steel2572]

Hot take ana nade shouldnt prevent self healing abilities only outside healing. Eg Maugas cardiac overdrive, jq bleed heals, roadhog vape still work but their supports cant heal them. This helps the problem of no barrier tanks getting completely shut down from anti. Rein, dva etc have some counterplay to nade already with their defensive tools so I think this would fix some of the issues with anti.

[@fawnleif]

As a plat player I enjoy having Lucio in my games since I play a lot of Kiriko and Ana. The hero I don’t like seeing in my games are Lifeweaver and Mercy. The reason I say this is because whenever people play these heroes all they do is heal. They don’t use the rest of the kit to their advantage. I play a lot of mercy and watch mercy creators and know that dmg boosting is priority over healing for the most part. However, people in plat and below don’t prioritize dmg boost at all and it’s super annoying to play when you’re Ana and your mercy is just healing the tank the entire time and ignoring your dps. I’ve learned that a lot of people don’t know how to play mercy in the lower ranks and I often find myself telling people to dmg boost more so I can take care of the heals. Healbotting also happens a lot with LW. You rarely see people using his petal platform for any play making abilities or for team coordination and sometimes I’ve seen people go a whole game without using life grip.

[@plantlover4508]

Hot take: They should make hamster's shields work similar to queen's shout to give him more team utility since he only has knockback and his ult. It shld give maybe 25 or 50 overhealth to teammates in a radius and hopefully it would give ball more utility in dive comps. I think ball doesn't get much play because winston bubble, dva matrix and doom stuns offer teammates a lot more utility than ball. Obviously the overhealth for teammates shouldn't multiply like balls own shields. I think this could be it's own cooldown alongside balls shields, or be a passive with balls current cooldown. If this was implemented you wouldn't have to change balls playstyle at all and give him the utility he needs

[@exocake7811]

Hot Take: Hammond under the thought process of rework / changes. Try making him not get boned over by nearly every other single tank interaction. Rein hammer or charge / orisa abilities / doom punch ( on a way to quick cd ). Just a few examples. Feel a big gap in his kit as a dive tank that basically has to avoid any other tank unless they are low/running. Make the minor interactions equal. Doom punch / rein charge vs fireball = both stunned. Also the hog rework added a 2nd screw over ball ability in that match up. Which also makes me cry myself to sleep.

[@texdoc89]

I think something that would be cool for maps and modes is a voting system but not before every map but every 24hrs. Each 24 hrs when you log in you get a prompt to vote for 2 maps per mode, 1 you'd like to play for sure and one you don't along with one mode you don't want to play as well. But catch is you can't vote on the same mode in consecutive 24hr periods and you can't vote maps more than two days in a row. This would not would not only allow players to have more autonomy with how they play the game, but data on which maps players dislike the most and maybe give devs hints that hey we prob need to address this mode and or map. Now obviously this would hinder match making and could increase queue times but it's at least a thought on how voting COULD work.

[@tcdoesstuff]

I agree that that the game needs to have a top-down approach (as a gold/plat player). Some heroes should be weak in the lower ranks and strong with skill. I also think having heroes that are strong at lower ranks and relevantly not that strong in higher ranks is ok. Not every character needs to be able to be played in GM, for example: Moria. And stop buffing Bastion. Using the Pokemon analogy, Caterpie evolves early into Butterfree and is free strong in lower levels; Dragonite needs a lot of levels and also more experience to get there. One is stronger than the other even though have both been brought to professional matches.

[@Entropied]

The ability to pick game modes and maps based like in cod would be cool. You get 3 random options and the lobby picks. I’m so tired of playing the annoying new maps and game modes. Can’t stand push.

[@thegloatingstorm8323]

Hot take: Anti nade is the biggest lynchpin in the healing creep problem. Healing keeps getting buffed to try and offset the fact there is an ability that sets all incoming heals to 0. Especially now with Junker Queen, Roadhog, and the new Mauga all basically being hard countered by the granny. Theres only one other ability that antis and that is Junker Queen ult. Of course there are more contributing factors than this, but Anti is the biggest issue by far.

[@andrewmartinez4224]

My ideas for a little better balancing for each role. Tank: Tanks abilities need to be defined in creating more opportunities for creating space. They should be the only role with CC period. Any character that has is that is not a tank needs a different ability that suits that role better. I have ideas if you need more clarity. Supports: THEY ARE SUPPORTS. They heal and help the team do THEIR job. They are not meant to do the others roles job for them. Lower all damage across every support to the point where its rewarding playing them but they aren’t dominating dps. They need to have an OP aspect such as immortality, nano, or rez, and a escape option because they are fragile. Remove the passive as well. Dps: They need to do Damage, theyre supposed to be the fraggers and make the winning team fight plays. As boring as that sounds for the other roles thats what they are supposed to do. They are the more popular characters in the game for a reason, they shouldnt have cc unless its an ultimate and they shouldnt have stupidly high health pools like bastion and reaper do. Glass cannon play styles arent always fun; tracer isnt everyones cup of tea, so i suggest giving them the current support passive on a longer cooldown and the healing ramp up more slowly so they step away from the fight and give their SUPPORTS breathing room. Supports shouldnt have to deal with every team member this change would benefit them both. Make mei a tank and give Cassidy an EMP grenade that increases the cooldown of the abilities of the hero, not disables it. Its not fucking hard balancing a game and keeping the hero fantasy. I have a sheet of every hero including Mauga. Hes strong right now but he can be tuned back without being weak

[@Lichtboys]

“It’s not hard balancing a game” bro do you hear yourself

[@vinnt_tnniv]

I think people should listen to high level tanks for balancing advice. They're the main focus of both teams, being (or at least should be) the ones dictating where the fights take place Supports have game changing abilities, dps exceed at eliminations with their own unique style (mei brawl, genji dive, ashe poke), so having the power to choose where the fights take place should be in the tank's hands Tanks suffer from support's abilities, they easily win or loose to DPS specific interactions, so they are the ones that always know when they're exceeding in a fight, or having no impact, therefore, they're the best ones for balancing I'm a genji main, and I've been a diamond/master player since goats was a thing. I have 3 tank PTSD, so I've been through a lot. 5v5 should be focused on the tank, as the role that one change can make them useless or very OP

[@andrewmartinez4224]

Im a tank main so i can testify to this. No. Giving us control of balancing all roles like that will predominantly lean it more on our favor and actually hurt you guys (DPS) more. Tanks are meant to create space and doing so is the balancing act we need to accomplish as a team. 5v5 was a mistake for this reason alone simply because one tank cannot do that job well no matter who it is. I like Roadhog because hes a brawl heavy character but he should never be a must pick because of brawl when other players on my team like dive instead. Balancing the game is not hard the devs just have no idea what theyre doing and us as a community dont know what we want

[@vinnt_tnniv]

@@andrewmartinez4224 I've played against masters back on goats, which made me play a lot of tank. I just call myself a genji main because he's the one I have the most fun with, but I am a better tank player overall Back when role queue wasn't a thing, I played a lot of tank, and after role queue, tank became my most played role, but it was evenly distributed between tanks, while the DPS is almost always genji I am not saying that tanks should be the strongest role, I'm saying that high level top 500 tank players should be heard more often than not, have their opinion into consideration, but not the whole balancing Most tank players I've met myself, content creators and strangers I've met were chill and comprehend their role Tanks are like the thermometers of matches. My roles are around the same skill tier of high diamond to low masters, so I believe I have a decent perspective about it All players should have their opinions mentioned. If a player says their role needs buffs, take it with a pinch of salt. If they say they need nerfs, you know something is wrong I just noticed that a lot of high level tanks take more care on their takes. I see this with many people, but a more famous example is flats. not everything he says I agree, but there are some takes that are decent from him, like discord orb, which he complained for a long time

[@ckamo10]

tiktok is not a real place,i seen someone say that they have balancing changes way to often. I knew then and there people will complain about anything

[@theclownery8394]

Hot take: mercys movement shouldve been reverted back to the original 1.5 ga a long time ago im really happy to see that tanks and dps (especially the flank fraction) are getting a bit stronger this season however as a mercy player i already can feel how much harder this seasons games will be to have impact in. With the other supports having been such a hot topic for the last couple of months, mercy has kind of been forgotten. Everyone hated her slippery movement back in season 2 which got her ultimately nerferd in season 3( to be fair she was pretty strong in said season but very boring to play cause of the heal bot identity she had). I understand that mercy is primarily played in poke or dive time to time( even do since the movement changes that is not really possible anymore) she does not stand any chance against dive her self. Some will say this can be fixed by positioning better and stample it off as a skill issue but even high elo t500 mercy players have an extremly hard time staying alive against dive compared to any other support even do survivablity is a core part of her impact/ hero fantasy. This will probably worsen in current season 8. for a character that has only one way to reliable defend her self to be sooo clunky just heavily restricts her skill curve, making perfect game play often very unrewarding and unintuitive. We couldve just skipped all of this fiasco in season 3 and straight forwardly approached the real problems people had with her kit. Rez and dmg boost. But here we are 5 seasons later with no change to rez and 5% down tune on dmg boost. She is in her worst state as of now and should be given her old movement back asap. If her survivability would end to sky rocketing u could cut her sympathetic recovery passive or reduce her hp as compensation .

[@TheRoyal30]

For reference, Im a high Plat/low Diamond support. I disagree with KarQ to a certain point when he talked about balancing from the top down. Have no problem with there being certain heroes that have a higher floor and high ceiling, ex Kiriko. At low ranks its hard to max her dps value and you basically become a heal bot. At high ranks though, she gets really good value. That being said, there have to be heroes with a low floor who probably won't have a high enough ceiling to become the true meta at GM, ex Rein. If they increased Rein's HP or Shield HP to where he could be meta at GM, he would become an absolute raid boss in levels like Bronze and Silver. Perhaps even Gold. Keeping the easier to use heros like Soldier, Reaper, Sym, Rein, Moira and LW. You could say that Brig falls into a low floor category but she has to be used properly to be good. A lot of lower level players use her too aggressively and die on cool down. Not saying that any of those heroes CAN'T be played at high levels but they aren't at a position where they are meta per sey.

[@ItsASleepySheepy]

As a medal rank support player, I can play around most other supports that the other person picks, but my "accept loss at character select" heroes are Ball and Doom. Nobody knows how to play them down here, they just constantly rush in and die trying to 1v5 and refuse to swap even when the entire enemy team counters them. Then they'll get one lucky punch or pile driver kill and feel validated to keep trying. This only applies to the ones on my team though, somehow whenever the enemy team has Doom or Ball they're always completely diffing ours in the mirror and getting team kills every fight.

[@geerakindeathrider5693]

Hot take: Mei should be a tank "no changes needed" her kit as is, would work fine as a tank she just needs to be a tad beefier. Up her whole model size by like 10-15% to make her about the same size as Junker Queen and Zarya, you can say she got a bigger coat for the lore explanation. Then for the balance part up her heath to 450 with 100 (ice) armor and 350 hp. Ice Wall can stay as is, and Cryo-Freeze just needs its healing caped at 250 but is otherwise fine as is. Primary and Secondary of Endothermic Blaster damage would need to be nerfed, I would start at around Winston's damage so 60 damage per-second with primary, and 50 damage per-shot with secondary. She still has a 30% slow and can headshot with Endothermic Blaster. Blizzard remains the same. And I say "no changes needed" because you dont need to add anything new, its really just some number tweaks. I think all of this can be done in the workshop which I would love to try out!

[@dragonviggo]

Hot takes : I wonder why everyone complains about matchmaking. Especially in QP (maybe in rank, but I don't feel the stomp at my elo mid-gold, IMO). Everyone complains the matchmaking because they want to fight against their elo (gold for example). Not diamond or bronze. In QP, all elo are here and everyone can fight each others to see how improve and be better. Not crying and ragequit just after. Maybe it's just a louder minority, because I don't feel the matckmaking is bad. Just play and be better, or accept to lose and go next

[@SuperSnivMatt]

Hot Take: I love Jeffery Kaplan, rest his soul, but I ain't gonna lie. I think I prefer Aaron Keller. The communication and the straight up transparency for development choices Aaron has been providing makes me feel hopeful for positive changes. I feel like recently this is the best OW has felt for me. There are not great changes at times still, but a lot of them I find both intuitive and good. Sombra's rework as a main of her shocked me, 5v5 is much better, and they aren't afraid to backpedal changes like Mei's primary. Just wish Blizzard helped T4 out more. Also, Aaron helped make Kings Row SO

[@soucaco]

Elo hell is somewhat real, specially for people with a small hero pool. My wife was stuck on silver for the longest time. I went into her account (sorry) and climbed up to high gold. She never went back to silver and even got to high plat where she is right now. I think there's multiple reasons for this. The main reason is probably because, as a mercy player, she gets the most value from damage boosting. And we all know that silver players aren't known for hitting shots. But I also think that the games are so bad in silver that one can't even improve their skills while in there. Bad habits aren't often punished and playing "correctly" doesn't improve your chances of winning that much because everything is so chaotic. And you wouldn't believe how often people leave winnable games in low ranks. It is very easy to get out of lower ranks if you're already diamond or even plat. The real struggle is trying to learn and improve while in there.

[@Skele_Rat]

To this day the best nerfing take was the decreasing strength of some ccs the longer they stay on. So discord will exponentially decrease it's value the longer it stays on target, people burn for longer so Mauga can get more life out of them but the burning itself does less and less damage, Mei M2 slows a lot initially but then the effect becomes less strong over time, that kind of stuff

[@MasterMemo]

I like the fun fire interactions, especially Torb's molten core. Plus as a Sombra player, i liked when EMP destroyed shield health too, made it feel like it had some good power. I like elemental stuff, but yeah, no rps. Fire shouldn't affect ice, etc.

[@May-o]

I am not a console player, but I play with them often. ximming is such a large problem, it is no doubt a cheat. Blizzard should add kbm support to console, and add input pools instead of the current platform pools. This would not only fix the problem with ximming, but keep accessibility support.

[@Lonrok]

Hot take: Elo hell is real... Not as it is said though I'll go to a really fast tangent. In High School, algebra is hard for many people, being a complex subject for most people who's in it, yet when we go to college, most people from High School who were really good at it still have problems in college because of calculus and analytical geometry. I think this is a problem that also happens in overwatch. When you go from bronze to silver, silver to gold, gold to plat, the difference between skill levels is not that big, you can still see it, but it is shadowed by how different Diamond and Platinum play is. The jump from platinum to diamond is too steep, making most people not able to go any higher. This is not me saying anything should change as this is not the dev's faults, but it is still something that is real in my opinion

[@chrisperry4014]

7:50 also, balancing top-down makes players have to learn the higher-level skills required for them to be effective, overall improving the skills of the entire player base if they want to try that hero.

[@BuffGenji]

My hot take: Genji should be a hero that is always strong at least at a higher level like tracer because he requires both really good mechanics and game sense to be used well, and he has lots of counterplay, with many heroes just being hard to deal with on genji. The only problem with his kit currently is nanoblade being such a strong win condition, and the devs are trying to rework it currently. If nanoblade no longer becomes a strong combo, he should get a giga buffed neutral game, definitely getting his 3 head melee combo back, and maybe even reloading on eliminations to lean into the kill chaining hero fantasy

[@geerakindeathrider5693]

Hot take: Moira's Necrotic orb should be combined with her current orb. Take the smaller hit box, speed, and the Necrotic effect add it to current orb so what your left with is a small fast orb its still a skill shot as u still need it to pass thru the enemy for the Necrotic effect to work. If you miss it still has a AOE damage and bounces off walls and stuff, though I would have after the first 15m or after it first bounces the orb slows down and the Necrotic affect can no longer be applied. You can keep skill orbs and give Moira some utility you will most likely need to nerf her orbs damage some to balance out the new affect

[@MrSonictheOtter]

I like Tim's take about CC. I think a CC immunity or reduction should be the tank passive. If a Hog gets slept, he then shouldn't be hacked on top of that. Or if a Doom is Hacked, he shouldn't be able to be charged or hooked on top of that. It makes so many barriers and counters that the receiving tank would be forced to swap.

[@ypob2007]

I have floated between silver 1 and gold 3 as a support player for a long time, and let me tell ya, getting an Ana or lifeweaver is usually an insta loss for my team. Weavers usually are trolls or don’t know how to play him, oftentimes advancing too aggressively and dying almost instantly, while the anas just don’t have the aim and awareness to make her work, so they just get killed a lot and don’t do much

[@juliorrodriguez7914]

Have a buddy who used to only play comp and just recently got back into it playing a bit more qp and he said a very cool thing. Let's say it's route 66. When it's over they should let everybody vote to play the other half where the teams switch sides and if there's enough, anybody who wants to stay can requeue right then and there and it'll autofill anybody who left. Would maybe have to change the way the game's matchmaker is structured but i thought it was an awesome idea.

[@t.g.v8889]

Hot take: Ball needs his adaptive shields to literally build a spherical shield around him instead of giving him overhealth. This would make him more resistant to cc and give him an ability that could help his team in some situations, which are the 2 main complaints about wrecking ball. And make him like DVa so that Hammond lives when his mech is destroyed!!1!!11!

[@kaialsh4321]

Console players are used to smurfs for 6+ years now. But its still annoying.

[@ramones1314]

i kinda like that zen suggestion but then it would make 1 clipping him at spawn so much easier lmfao

[@geerakindeathrider5693]

Hot take: Only tanks should have cc and, only supports should have team based buffs and debuffs. This should also be parried with damage of both tanks and supports being nerfed, tanks I would nerf by 10% and supports by 20-10% depending on the support. Only exceptions I would make are for boops, like Lucio's Soundwave I think are fine for any hero to have, and for protective team buffs on tanks like Junker Queen's Commanding Shout's overhealth is fine but I would remove the team speed boost part of Commanding Shout and keep the self speed boost. I think they should have done this at the lunch of OW2 it would make each role more unique. Tanks are now the protectors/shut down role there job it so shut down enemy ults/abilities with your cc while protecting your team. DPS well there still just DPS but now because the other roles damage is nerfed you get to be the only high damage dealers. And support's are the battlefield controllers debuffing the enemies when they try to advance and buffing allies when pushing in and of course healing there team along the way. Each role has its own unique game play style if you want the normal fps style play DPS if you want to be more of a strategist play support and, if you want to lead the charge and shut down the enemies plan you play tank.

[@GargoylePrincess]

I think the support role fundamentally needs to be the “weakest” role. The ability to heal yourself or make your teammates invincible should be hard to pull off. Their abilities are too strong to not have big drawbacks. Support used to be on the lower end of pick rates and i think it’s okay that way. Most people just want to get kills and win. The support role shouldn’t give you that. It’s basically babysitting and that’s kinda the point. It works that way in pretty much every other game. It just makes sense

[@Slayed-q3m]

REALLL

[@judopunch2672]

I don't think that's really it. I think that it's the dps feeling the tank problem. Tanks feel not great a lot because they eat all cc and need support. DPS feels not great because supports erase their damage and prevent them from securing their kills.

[@Sebboebbo]

Hey king the title is missing the word "more" between philosophy and than

[@MrSonictheOtter]

Hot take: One shots are fair in OW2. Despite what people think about one shots, OW2 is still an FPS game. OW2 should be a skilled shooter based game where both abilities and aim are important. I believe OW is doing a good job on keeping this philosophy. Yes Hanzo can get lucky one shots but, that's the nature of projectile based heroes. If you get one shot often, it's probably your fault anyway.

[@nesquicc626]

Chuck knows wth is UP. YES we need to be able to pick maps!!

[@andrewmartinez4224]

Take: Every hero has an “OP” mechanic that will guarantee irritate someone when its supposed to be that way. The strong heroes have mulitple (i.e. Ana)

[@PoeticMistakes]

I really think Mauga should have a melee that does extra damage but ends the fire effect on the target hit. like the axtinguisher from TF2. for the purpose of increasing skill ceiling and allowing combo kills

[@davidbrown2704]

There should be a game mode in between QP and ranked for people who want to olay competitively without a rank tied to their wins/losses. For competitive, your goal isnt just to win. The goal is to win and move up in rank. So many players are upset when they win but dont rank up; There's so much more that you're playing for. I also think there should be a mode thats just for fun, or to try out new heroes, etc, and thats what QP is for. But there should be a competitive QP mode where i can be sweaty and try hard, and expect my teammates to try as well, but no rank tied to it. I juat want to compete for wins/losses and thats it.

[@Mega738]

Hot take: Illari’s Blind should’ve stayed in, either as a regular ability or ultimate. As in stands right now, she doesn’t feel as engaging as a support as she has no buff/debuff outside of the ultimate

[@mylesv1393]

To add on to the zen take, what if he had one physical orb of each in the game, and if he applies it to another player he loses the orb attached to him. So if he put a a heal orb on an ally, he would lose the orb on him. And he'd benefit the 30 hp healing when it's not on an ally. This also makes the zen want to put discord on someone at all times

[@toons4934]

Bro wants tank zen

[@orionlucas3272]

The doom change is a nerf, that's extra 15% charge is up to 2 extra slam cycles from before, and you still die when you land because the burst damage on landing is ridiculous. So, you still don't slam on the enemy and just use the ult to get out of jail and reposition with a free empowered punch... more downtime is great:)))

[@tigerfalco]

13:48 diminishing returns. Its a mechanic Smite has. Some other Mobas may have something similar

[@QuestTaker]

The rammatra buffs were too much and were applied to the wrong areas of his kit. As a ram main I already thought that his staff was pretty strong if you could land your shots(so a buff to the projectile speed rather then the damage would have been much better) and that his health pool was reasonable. Buffing both of those parts of his kit do not adress the root issues of ram which are his long cooldowns(not nemesis) and his susceptibility to cc. Now I am powerful and have a lot of health, but still get bent over and plowed by any form of cc. His shield lasts 4 seconds and has a long ass cool down and his vortex is just like me, pulls nothing and lasts 3 seconds. I love Ram, but they should have really looked at different parts of his kit for the buffs.

[@Manicboy8]

As a fellow ram main, i mostly agree, however i slso think he needed a damage up, it is very hard to get headshots mid range, and getting just body shots does nothing these days. I think ram only needed projectile speed buff and a damage buff, he didnt need a health buff nor a projectile size buff, i think if they just gave ram a projectile speed buff and a damage buff on staff he would be pretty much perfect, hell if thats too much they could also revert his nemeis cooldown back to 8 (never knew why it changed) One thing i wont agree on however is that ram is "too strong" from the looks of it, winston and mauga are about to be meta, and the existence of mauga himself completely stops your ability to use nemesis form, you will get shredded, and even if you dont get shredded, your punches will still do nothing since he can literally get more overhealth than your punches while shooting your big form. And i fear that with the new winston change, winston with a dive team will treat ram like the opposite of orisa, before a dive team would ignore orisa, with ram i think they would actually all focus ram and kill him, if the ram blocks, you would still deny value from nemesis, before a winston on a dive team couldnt do that because there would be no point in winston in trying to damage ram through nemesis. So yea, i mostly agree, however i wouldnt say ram is "too strong" but he is most definitely better now. Ram only needed a projectile speed buff on his staff and a damage buff on his staff.

[@QuestTaker]

@DavionGlass I think that the ram staff at 4.5 damage already destroyed people if you were able to land the shots, which was hard because of the slow speed of the projectiles. If we only buffed the projectile speed then we would no longer need a damage buff because overall we would land more shots more consistently at all ranges. When I said that ram is too strong I more of meant as a character in a vacuum. When mauga gets nerfed in 2 weeks back down to earth ram will still retain his buffs. And in the coming seasons if ram continues to be over shadowed in the meta he will slowly become a problem if his current changes stay as they are. This is the same kind of thing that happened with Road Hog at the end of OW1 and the start of OW2. He was really good, but flew under the radar due to metas like double shield. When OW2 came around he quickly became a menace because all the comp that was holding him back could no longer be played. What I am trying to say is ram will become a problem in the coming seasons and will be nerfed without blizzard ever addressing his main problems. Also they need to nerf genji.

[@Manicboy8]

@@QuestTaker yes yes, they need to nerf genji, however, I still think ram would need a small damage buff, something like a 0.3 damage buff, because even with mostly headshots, it gets outhealed a lot of the time.

[@QuestTaker]

@DavionGlass I guess we gotta agree to disagree. It is weird to see another ram main. I barely see any of us anymore.

[@Manicboy8]

@@QuestTaker yea, it's fine, and also yea I barely see ram mains, I hate road hog.

[@swagglesworth33]

they should consider adding a new round of hero achievements to give players that have already unlocked everything a new thing to work towards. for example i think lifeweaver should get one for trapping an enemy in a room with his tree and solo killing them, ana should get one for getting a final blow with her nade from across the map, rein should get one for squishing his pinned target into another charge, sombra should get one for hacking someone off of a cliff, dva should get one for 2+ remech kills. there are a lot of fun silly challenges they could add to the game

[@markpancake4220]

I think the easiest way to "fix" ana is to allow anti nade to cancel each other. Like if your team is purple you can use your CD to counter it

[@redpandagamer4332]

That would just make Anna a more hard required pick. Honestly a rework to anti is the only way you can do anything

[@madara992]

atp Ana nade should just reduce heavily the amount of healing you receive maybe like 80% or 90%

[@lukasg4807]

​@@madara992ana nade is fine as is. You people just love to complain about anything.

[@conchadeconchos]

⁠@@madara992ayeee finally a good take this sounds like a good muiddle ground

[@ShroomSage]

@@lukasg4807fine as it is like it doesn’t completely change the outcome of a battle on a cooldown

[@joelubin7811]

CC resistance for tanks COULD be a good idea but for certain heroes like orisa who already have a limited punishment window around all her damage mitigation cooldowns could make them impossible to kill. Giving the resistance to only certain tanks doesn't seem like a solution either, however

[@josephreynolds2401]

Orisa needs a rework. Her whole playstyle could be active and with tons of zone control. But right now her value is natively passive with no room for skill expression. She's the "shoot me instead you dumb idiot" hero, never forcing herself to be shot at because her kit doesnt allow it. People like shooting the big target to pad their stats instead of playing their role. Legitimately you're relying on the enemy team to not shoot your team. She has javelin I guess?! Some Orisa players don't even realize they're winning because the enemy team is hard focusing her: the most efficient dmg mitigation utility in the game with most of it oriented completely for herself instead of her team. Bad Design, rushed hero and tabula rasa characterization which Bastion already represents. Bastion is also told better with interesting cross hero interactions, not the "I beat doomfist one time" off-screen nonsense.

[@FancyDakota]

"I like the balance philosophy of the devs, and I trust them way more than people give them credit for." They have Ana, an entire character who has 2 mini ultimates as her abilities, and the only excuse is because she has no mobility. Her Sleep Dart literally breaks the balance philosophy of "tanks only have cc" and many other characters, like Cassidy, have broken this philosophy as well. They switch constantly between what they wanna do for heroes and balance. It is not consistent nor trustworthy. The only thing consistent about their balancing is their inconsistency with it.

[@MasterMemo]

Also yeah, tanks being too resistant to cc makes the mobile tanks too strong. Or, flip it, make the tanks super tanky and cc resistant, but do less dmg over. Gives the roles more identity

[@junebuggo9111]

I respect your opinion but I’m gonna have to disagree with you there because that would make everyone not want to play tank anymore

[@healbot9000]

My hot take on support and power creep as a bored support main. Globally nerf damage and healing output. Ana - remove the anti heal on nade & reduce the cool down. Bap - reduce lamp uptime to 1.5s, increase deployment speed and reduce the cooldown. Illari - give pylon a time limit and remove its ability to target players actively being healed. Kiriko - remove ability to tp to teammates that have recently taken damage & remove invincibility from suzu. Lifeweaver - remove ability to life grip players trapped in ults. Mercy - change damage boost to an attack speed increase that doesn't stack. Zen - change orb of discord to target a teammate giving then a slight attack speed increase that doesn't stack.

[@aeni13]

Changing Kiriko's tp would make her unfun to play as, and she would still be a awful support to duo against. I prefer reducing the damage of her headshot and remove invincibility entirely from suzu, maybe make it heal more or give it another effect. Most people complain about the strength Kiriko have on 1v1 and her invincibility. Her tp is just fine, if it needs a nerf that much, just reduce the distance.

[@healbot9000]

@@aeni13 My first statement was global damage and healing nerf which would include Kiriko. Kiriko being able to tp from spawn to single handily win a team fight is almost as bad as Mercy's original ult. There needs to be some restrictions put on tp.

[@aeni13]

@@healbot9000 I completely forgot about the first one. I still prefer a reducing on distance. This condition to teammates that received damage would make much harder to use it on combat, and without the Suzu, it would be her only way out, which I think is better.

[@healbot9000]

@@aeni13 A range nerf might not be a bad idea. I think you misunderstood I wasn't suggesting to remove Suzu entirely just the invincibility, it would still cleanse and burst heal. I do see your point though a better idea might be to add a small cooldown to suzu after tp and remove her ability to tp from spawn.

[@ArkusAutomaton]

Hot take: Zenyatta lacks alot of healing compared to the rest of the supports, so why not tie in his orbs of destruction with a healing type passive? Would healing orb do increased heals per second on a hit? Or perhaps getting an assist heals the final blow dealer for a certain percent of health. As of now, the singluar healing orb is not worth that much.

[@justinedwards5299]

I swap heroes to try something new, or if my aim just isn’t good on a particular character, not to counter something on their team. Unless they go bastion, then I try and counter.

[@judopunch2672]

Example: kiriko was changed because Mauga was released and they wanted more counterclaim to both his fire and Ana nade on him and hog.

[@o0_VanYsH_0o]

@KarQ Archives With Dive Meta being so ridiculously strong and getting buffed, I think Widow needs a Movement ability buff, or Rework her Grapple hook. She has the longest Cooldown on a movement ability for Hitscan DPS. Hanzo has Wall climb and jumps around every 4 to 5 seconds, BOTH of Reaper's abilities have a faster Cooldown than Widow, Ashe is faster, Widow is SO DAMN SLOW compared to the rest of the roster.

[@tradingtitan9586]

90% of the community : Elo hell is real. top 10% that stacked to climb or mains support: nuh uh

[@jayebeeson9372]

Hot take: there should be a balance (heh) of top down/bottom up balance. Only bottom up kills the pro game, as was mentioned, only top down kills the game in general, as the game becomes worse for people with less time investment, thus you risk playerbase decay.

[@kietwilams3529]

Honestly with mangas fire shouldn’t ball catch someone on fire if he hits at full speed? Or would that be to broken?

[@kingoverseas9052]

Kiriko is so dependent on her team. Suzu - She can use this on herself in high pressure situations, but feels like a waste a lot of the time. The healing on it is definitely needed as she can't really burst heal due to travel time + Reload on her heals. Healing Ofuda - Need your team present for this to work, you also have to aim it, and highly mobile heroes it can be a nightmare to track them in critical moments. You can also miss with this ability or a highly mobile hero can dive/ quickly move away from it. Swift step- Need your team, and you better pray that during a critical moment you have some on high ground and close enough. It's never guaranteed. Kunai - Strong for sure, but people aren't giving you free headshots in higher ranks so its effectiveness decreases a lot. It was also nerfed. Kiriko feels just okay, like every hero she has her moments, and she often feels map dependent, smaller maps with a lot of corners or obstacles to block your Ofuda lessen your contribution significantly. You can find off angles, but good luck if Genji, Tracer and Sombra are hounding you. Keeping Magua alive with her is a nightmare, but fun, oddly. If they nerf her more she will be awful to play, which is why they tweaked her Suzu. It flashes so fast now and it's very noticeable so the increased heal is nice.

[@TraceOneso]

Hot take: one tricking till the point you can only do good on 1 hero shouldn’t give you Gm-top 500 no matter the hero, defeats the purpose of being Gm-top 500

[@sweatinblood7400]

If you can boop people out of position or off of highground, isolate supports, and hit a couple good beats -- you're doing a ton to make the game easier. All that stuff is easier in the metal ranks. If you know how to safely duel dps, you're gonna put out a ton of value even if the raw damage and healing don't look great.

[@sparklybudz3453]

As a hot take i think mauga is to over powered in a 1v1 situation as a squishy however i do agree this is how tanks should be but as a mercy main if you dont see him coming he will melt you alive in under 0.5 seconds. You dont even have to time to get away and if u do you still die due to the fire damge affect i dont think its a skill issue i just think his fire damage affect should be reduced slightly but keep his health and everything else the same