With Overwatch 2 comes the possibility of (much-needed) sweeping balance changes. In light of Role Lock many heroes find it hard to carve out a niche in a game that is increasingly stale. Others are unfun to play or unfun to play against. What if there was a way to fix all of that, along with everything else? This is a very long post.
Note: I am proposing reworks for a number of heroes that would change their roles. I am aware that the current state of the heroes do not fit their new roles, which is why changes are needed to implement this.
Goals:
- Reduce the imbalance between the number of Damage heroes and the other two roles.
- Buff underplayed heroes without creating a stale meta.
- Ensure that hero roles are defined by play style, not arbitrarily. Heroes with similar functions should be grouped together.
- Give every hero a more constant theme and purpose, that sets them apart from others.
- Diversify 2-2-2 to help break up the meta, without forcing players into another one.
Step 1: Tanks and Bruisers
The Tank role has 2 sub-roles: “main tank” and “bruiser”. The former absorbs damage for their teammates, the latter has a sustained damage output. Two heroes will be moved to this role: Doomfist and Reaper.
Doomfist already gains shields in a fashion similar to Zarya’s charge, allowing him to perform the role of a Bruiser very effectively despite being classified as a Damage hero. His mobility would be reduced, in exchange his health would be buffed to 300. Currently Doomfist may seem like an oppressive force to some, because he is essentially a second off-tank. By moving him to the tank category his relative strength will be reduced.
Reaper is kinda bad. I suggest increasing his health to 300, allowing his wraith form a degree of vertical flight (with an increased cooldown), and replacing his teleport ability. Additional tweaks may be required for his lifesteal.
In total there will be 10 Tank heroes (5 main, 5 bruiser), up from 8.
Step 2: Healers and Supports
Presently every hero classified in the support role is primarily a healer (with the minor exception of Zenyatta). This is odd, because the role deliberately excludes many heroes who play a more supporting role; such as Mei, Sombra and Symmetra. All three of these heroes have low pick rates, owing to the fact that they are niche picks with lower damage potential than other heroes. By changing them to supports, their unique abilities can be fully explored without becoming dangerously overpowered or oppressive.
Mei is rather out of place among the other damage heroes. Her value comes from her ability to freeze enemies, rather than raw killing potential. Moving her to the support role would require a slight reduction in damage. In exchange her secondary fire should also have a slight slowing effect.
Sombra is well known for being a weak DPS, but is also considered very powerful thanks to her hack and EMP. Moving her to the support role would ensure that she is not a must-pick (a team would need to sacrifice a healer in order to pick Sombra). Opportunist should make weak enemies visible to everyone on Sombra’s team, and hacked enemies should also be visible.
Symmetra has had a lot of reworks, here is yet another one. Her Teleporter will once again share its slot with the Shield Generator. Teleporters can be quite useless, especially on defence, so the shield generator would be a suitable replacement. It also plays into her role as an Architect that she can perform all three roles via machines: her turrets damage, her shield generator protects, and her teleporter supports. Her damage should stay the same against barriers and other static structures, but otherwise be slightly lowered against heroes.
In total there will be 10 Support heroes (6 healer, 4 support), up from 7.
Step 3: Fixing What We Broke
Brigitte and Mercy are two much-maligned support heroes, both of whom are in need of some significant changes to make them more fun and more viable in competition with Ana and Moira.
Brigitte is a hero who provides armour to her allies. This ability should be buffed considerably, with 2 additional charges. In exchange her Inspire passive should no longer provide raw healing. Instead it should provide a 10% damage reduction to allies within range. Her shield’s health should be buffed to 300, and should be destroyed after using Shield Bash.
Mercy really needs Mass Resurrect. Its radius should be reduced to 3 metres (making mass-rez very unlikely outside of a Graviton wipe), and should require line of sight. Allies will be revived without armour or shield health. Her healing should be raised to 60/s, and Valkyrie should be placed on E with significantly reduced horizontal flight speed and duration. I’m of the opinion that she should not have a gun at all (her being a pacifist), but that would be a radical decision for Blizzard to make. Given that her new kit will be vastly more enjoyable to play, however, I think the final end of Battle Mercy might be ok.
Step 4: The Part About Damage Heroes
Ashe is a fusion of McCree and Widowmaker that is less effective than either. So uh… why not let her shots set people on fire? Just a little mind you, a 1 second burn for 20 damage. That might be all the edge she needs to carve out a niche for herself.
Pharah should gain 50 armour, owing to her large hitbox and slow movement speed (to the point of immobility during her ult). Her horizontal movement speed in air should be increased to 6 m/s from 5.5 m/s.
In total there will be 11 Damage heroes, down from 16. There are no sub-roles for damage.
Step 5: How Will Any Of This Help?
One of the biggest ongoing problems with the game is the possibility of using certain heroes together in a way which makes them difficult to deal with. Consider the old Beyblade meta, Dive, or GOATs: each required a synergy of different heroes which are difficult to play against. By moving some heroes to other roles (more fitting their in-game function) the role lock system acts as a natural buffer against game-breaking combinations. In this system you cannot run Doomfist with 2 tanks, which in turn will make him easier to deal with without simply nerfing his damage or cooldowns (which would make the hero less fun). Likewise for Sombra, she no longer reduces her team’s damage output, instead sacrificing a healer to access her powerful abilities.
All of this should be a base line, unmentioned heroes should be left alone until the meta can stabilise, so that these changes have time to take full effect. Obviously the new heroes being released with OW2 may impact this assessment. You may also disagree personally with some decisions, which is good: this is a forum after all!
The acknowledgement of sub-roles allows for a greater diversity of play styles. 2 healers may not be ideal, and players will be able to choose a more appropriate tool for the job.
A significant benefit is that all the reassigned heroes are DPS. DPS players are the majority of the Overwatch playerbase, and by spreading them out (even slightly) across the other roles, it may help to reduce everyone’s queue times, while increasing satisfaction. Doomfist’s high pick rate may solve issues with low tank numbers, for instance.
Weak heroes buffed, powerful heroes constrained fairly, teams balanced, and Talon finally has a semi-acceptable team composition. I’m absolutely sure none of this will ever happen. Thanks for reading though!