Hey guys! I’m recently returned to OW after a long long break (I think the last time I’ve played was in S5 or something before Role queue existed).
So I’ve gotta say I’m having a blast so far and quickly remembered why I used to really like this game. There is just this one single thing I can’t really wrap my head around and makes me question why the Devs decided to implement it the way they did and the thing I’m talking about is the Priority Pass.
Don’t get me wrong - given how long DPS Queues are (I’m maining Tank/Support so Idc that much) it certainly can be a nice feature.
Over my last few matches I’ve noticed a certain behavior and I’d even call it abuse of the system.
Now with the mixture of Role Q, Specific Role SR and Priority Pass existing in the same context, many Tanks I’ve encountered in my games (around 2.1k SR) just instapick an off tank not caring about the game at all. They’re even blatantly saying “lol idc, Off tank = DPS Priority Q” or something along those lines.
So they’re pretty much implying that they’re queueing for the Tank role (because of the low waiting time) to gain the Priority Pass Token so they can queue up on their DPS main and get fast Queues.
Which theoretically is absolutely fine and I don’t mind that BUT those players also often just don’t care about the games they’re playing as Tanks and goofing around because the SR of every role is separate.
I’m pretty sure almost everybody on these forums are aware of that issue and there already area a few topics about it but I just wanted to give my insight (of a freshly returned player) and I also wanted to ask you guys what your thoughts about this issues are.
Are you fine with that? Does it disturb you? What could possible solutions be?
I myself find it quite annoying because I’m basically stuck to always playing Reinhardt whenever I get to play Tank and my Off Tank just yolos around the field like there’s no tomorrow not caring about his team at all because he’s just here for the Pass.
Experienced high rank players and most coaches will tell you that team composition and meta does not matter in solo queue in the metal ranks. Even in Diamond you still can get away with playing whatever.
Play the hero you think you have the most impact with, be selfish. In solo queue, that’s unfortunately the only thing that matters and helps you climb. Once you’re in Diamond or Master, you can think about team compositions and expect some teamplay.
As an alternative, you can join a team and play scrims. Yes, there are gold teams scrimming each other, and it’s closer to the experience you’re expecting. There team composition matters.
tl;dr: don’t focus on what your teammates are doing, play whatever you think will allow you to have the most impact (without any of your teammates helping you). Rein is usually a bad choice because he’s quite team dependent (but of course, if you’re comfortable with him, he’s still a valid choice). If you want to have more organized games and don’t want to grind to Diamond+, find a team.
Good advice and I’ll take that to heart for my own gameplay. Maybe I really need to be more selfish and I shouldn’t focus too much about compositions below a certain rank.
Main point of this topic was the abuse of the Priority Pass/Role Q system though. What are your thoughts on that?
If someone picks an off-tank before me, I pick a main one, same the other way too, I enjoy playing Rein and enjoy playing Zarya so either way, I’m good.
The only way to get DPS queue times down is to have enough Tank (or Support) players in the pool. The priority pass is an incentive to do so.
Of course, there are players who just queue to get their passes, but they still result in the other DPS players getting a match quicker. Losing a match is also disincentivized by only getting 1 (vs 6) tickets after a loss. One ticket will maybe reduce queue times by 5-6 minutes, while it took 20 minutes to get.
The question whether it is better to get a match at all vs. a match with stupid tank players is probably personal preference. I imagine a high ranked DPS would prefer playing with sub par tanks if it means (s)he only has to wait 40 minutes for a match vs. 4 hours.
Furthermore, if the players continue to intentionally throw, they will lose SR and get matches with lower and lower players, so in the end, after a few months even those fillers will be approximately where they belong.
Having a feeding Roadhog in your team sucks, sometimes they are worse than a leaver (my team once turned a lost match around 5v6 because our feeding Hog left and the enemy team couldn’t farm ult charge on him anymore), but the opponent will also get one from time to time. And if you play tank, the chance of your team getting the feeding hog (assuming there is only one), is 1/3 for your team vs 2/3 for the opponent (unless you are the feeding Hog of course).
Welcome back OP, glad to see old timers coming back to Overwatch.
Well, in short, yes I have noticed that flexQ, and also less people in vc. And usually the off tank not communicating and doing their own silly flanks far away from the team are 99% Hog players. There’s been plenty of times this season that I (politely) tell the Hog player on our team to stop doing that unnecessary flanks all alone by themselves because 9/10 they end up dead and leave us 5v6.
but honestly, it’s not that big of a problem because most players do seem to play properly in flexQ and the off tank issue of them just doing their own thing is a rare issue, doesn’t happen that much.
I’m an off tank man myself and I take flexQ just as serious as regular comp.
I don’t mind that too much since I like playing tank/support. But my experience was that I always had to either play Rein or play Mercy and go full solo tank/support because everybody else would be insta locking hanzo, widow, tracer and reaper/mcree/soldier.
So basically every match was 1/4/1 or even 1/5/0 or 0/5/1 which just felt really bad to play. At some point I just cba anymore and quit.
Could I’ve pushed to Diamond/higher and get good matches there? Sure, if I would be talented enough and invest enough time but I just couldn’t be bothered.
