Game Director Aaron Keller’s latest blog gives an upcoming glance at hero balance changes coming in Season 8.
I hope there is a typo in the Sombra EMP changes. In the article it says “reduce the amount of damage it does from 30% to 25% of maximum health” sombra EMP deals damage based on current health right? Please tell me it will still be based on current health…
It is current health, so I imagine this is just a small slip when writing it.
Rest of the changes all seem pretty fair (even if I would have nerfed Hog slightly).
Thanks for addressing the leaver policy and explaining it to the broader public. I agree that it’s still too lenient as I still see frequent leavers (though less) but at least it’s something. On the other end I understand that the lenient nature of the policy gives the players who treat it like in-between/casual games some slack which is nice for them.
Not for a bit surprised by this, not a single bit. It’s what people like me and others who advocate for harsher leavers policies saw and felt the last couple of months when the leaver plague was getting so out of control. It’s truly pathetic and mostly sad that players with such a weak mental exist out there.
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There was a line where they said that they’ll look at adjusting hog at mid season, after they see how well mauga deals with him.
“There’s been a lot of feedback around his kit, but we’re going to hold off from making any changes at the start of Season 8. Mauga has a lot of answers to Roadhog and we’d like to see where the meta settles a bit before aiming at the midseason patch for any balance adjustments.”
Not sure how to feel about ramattra’s damage and hp adjustment. At least in my games he’s been a rather trustworthy pick as long as a support occasionally glances at him.
I feel like doomfist just becomes harder to counter with his change, there will be no respite to go for his team while he runs for a healthpack now.
Which is fair enough. Although, they should be able to already see how obnoxious Hog is.
That being said, in the trial weekend, Hog was the only tank that Mauga was actually better than. So I doubt Mauga is going to make much of an impact.
I thought that was an odd change. If came with nerfs to the cooldowns on his shield or punching form, it would be spot on. Without it, feels a little like power creep.
Yeah doom is just an irritant rather than a good tank.
For the three modes suggestion, I have always wanted QP to have more of a “practice for ranked” feel. All I play is QP now days cause I’m an old casual but I still want the feeling of playing the full map out. It makes for a more competitive and team connected experience. So if it could have full Offense/Defense then it could just be called Unranked. But have essentially ranked rules but slightly more lax on leavers. And then you could have a QP mode called Casual where spawn times are reduced and there are no leaver penalties so you can go mess around in a truly casual mode. But you would have to make both of them on the home screen or I feel like most people would just pick one or the other. Probably with Casual as the first option to make it seem the most inviting and then Unranked next to Ranked with a description that says essentially that it is ranked practice. I personally would spend most of my time in Unranked with some time in Casual in the late nights when my brain is sleepy. It would be cool to have those options as long as it wouldn’t spread the player base out too much.
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An issue I could see is that Casual might turn into what skirmish essentially is where people just pop in and out and troll around the map. But since it would become the only way to get in a quick game and with shortened spawn times I do think it would bring its own value that people would appreciate. And it was made as the default mode that new players play that would be rather helpful for encouraging a proper gameplay experience. Now that I think about it, this three mode thing could be a pretty solid systematic roadmap for new players to ease their way into the ranked experience.
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This is a joke.
The leaver penalty didn’t fix the problem, it made it worse. The amount of people who constantly throw, dance at spawn, feed, do just enough to make it seem like they’re trying but really don’t care has increased by larger margins than having leavers ever did.
You still have not addressed that the leaver penalty still gets applied before/during the defeat/victory screen and players are forced to wait until the character pose screen. After having a match of people throwing, it adds even more wasted time.
The buffs are nice, but the sombra/ram changes aren’t good.
Bumping the lock out to 3 seconds means nothing when you drop the base damage to a sliver that gets erased by any aoe basic healer. Moira and lucio nullify 25% too easily and the ult takes way too long to build compared to other dps and supports (looking at Illari specifically, who can team wipe with her ult if played well)
Her kit is great, and is a good place, but good lord is Sombras emp the weakest part about her and it just got worse.
I don’t understand the ram change when you also buffed winstons main attack to pierce armor… anyone that plays ram will just get a winston counter right off the bat and he will melt when in skinnybot form.
Ps: Please do something about Pharahs ult still being non-moveable in a grossly oversaturated hitscan field. DPS in general have seen their ults surpassed by nearly every new character that has joined this game.
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In their defence, it did make the LEAVER problem better. Notice they mention nothing other than people leaving games. Not what their behaviour is in game.
Because ultimately, if someone wants to queue up for quick play and dance… who are we to stop them.
It uses the same time windows as ranked. So I guess you’d have to change both (they aren’t going to have 2 systems, they aren’t that good).
Leaver penalties are attempting to fix the SYMPTOM, not the CAUSE. Why is this so hard to understand?
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QP matchmaking quality is almost entirely dependent upon skill range, both within and between teams
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Low quality matches are NOT FUN… and their prevalence is increasing. This is not about wining or losing.
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Give us a slider (or presets) that trades queue time for matchmaking tightness (quality).
>>>THIS IS THE SOLUTION<<<. No 3rd queue necessary, which would only further divide the player pool. Let the players decide what they want for themselves.
It’s not a perfect solution but its a whole lot better than what we have now. Anecdotally I have about 5k hours in QP, have always been a staunch non-leaver (feel free to verify devs if you keep records), and only recently AFTER the penalties, has the situation deteriorated below my threshold to the point where I’ve stopped caring and started leaving when its just not worth it. I have many examples of situations that manifest directly as a result of these issues. Will list upon request.
I believe that skill within teams is much more critical than average gap between teams. A linear increase in individual skill range results in an exponential increase in effective team skill variation, and subsequently game outcome variation. The average outcome is irrelevant here and not the stat to be focusing on.
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All i want is for the arcade map pools to actually change. I play for fun but am forced to only play qp because of this. Yes i leave constantly because i hate 95% of the map pools. I just want control maps. But since that option is never allowed im forced to only play qp and leave 90% of the time. Allow access to all the different map pools in arcade. I am 100% ok with longer queue times if it means i can play the map pools i want. Instead of this it has only been assault maps for over 3 months.
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I still think the reason behind your penalties for QP is ridiculous. There should be no penalties in QP, period.
Regards,
Wolfebear.
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i leave matches on maps that I dont want to play. there should be a way to strike maps in QP that I dont like. I cant stand flash point maps.
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Eh… the part about Brig??
Who said she’s a must pick? where? i barely see her in QP cause she works only in specific team and against specific enemies. (dunno about comp, don’t play it)
Cause is both teams for example full of Pharas, widows, genji and balls you just can’t keep with those
And still leaver penalty - does it work “as intended”? I am quite a leaver myself, but that still didn’t change my behavior, only made me soft throw on Lucio when i understand that after 10 mins ban (wich i take by drawing something in that interval) i get 30 mins, so i just pick lucio and go brrrrr
Master and above.
If Ana is strong, Brig is a must pick in high elos to be her body guard.
a yeah heard it
but only in duo with that exact hero in particular rank ( not in qp, not till gold), not alone…
Works the same when Zen is “meta”. Same with Bap
Only time she isn’t really considered is if a Mercy is played. Other wise she’s strong with every option.
eh… well in qp and arcade she’s underperforming, comp i really don’t care. I see her maybe once every 10-15 matches.
That’s fair.
They don’t look at qp for balance though. Most just the highest elos, then a quick glance further down just to make sure.