OW2 Balance Team new Q&A

HappyTeabag

#1 - Oct. 13, 2021, 11:57 p.m.

See Prett’s link below to see for yourself on Reddit (I can’t post links).

See Baja’s posts for direct quotes free from my misinterpretation/bias

Some quick bullets on what the balance team said:

Zarya is actually seen to be too strong as opposed to weak (opposite feedback from the pros) in their internal play tests as she is always high charge.
Zen/Ana/Mercy seen to be very strong because of offensive capabilities and rez in 5v5
Supports seen to be safer without a second tank with the exception of Sombra or snipers (although good cover use can counter this)
Sombra suggested to be OP currently and has already been nerfed. In the hands of pros, she was far better than their internal playtests.
Bastion has been buffed since the play test (which they were planning to do anyway) as he is seen to be underpowered
Doom as a tank (still just an experiment) would likely have less damage and an extra defensive ability, keeping his cc. They are testing rocket punch knocking back multiple people into walls!
They targeted having less ults with the tank ultimate generation reduction and 5v5 implicitly generating less ult charge.
In internal play tests supports were the most impactful role by a wide margin. The in-combat healing reduction rules is just a balancing short cut for the balance team so they can just turn a single number from play test to play test to find the right amount of healing that should be in the game rather than tuning each hero individually
Current balancing is taking into account unreleased and reworked heroes
New heroes will be discussed closer to launch
Tanks still being tweaked to find the right power level. All changes might have a different impact when it gets to the pro level so all needs to be seen how it holds up.
discord and duplicate always being on a tank is being looked at

AndyB

Community Manager

#100 - Oct. 14, 2021, 5:17 p.m.

Thank you for putting all of this together Baja.

We hope everyone found the contents of yesterday’s AMA informative and useful

AndyB

Community Manager

#110 - Oct. 14, 2021, 5:35 p.m.

For future AMA’s it’s likely.

For this one, we specifically targeted the r/Competitiveoverwatch subreddit with minimal lead up in an effort to garner high quality questions, giving Geoff and Josh the chance to provide meaningful answers to hot questions in the community right now.

AndyB

Community Manager

#112 - Oct. 14, 2021, 5:44 p.m.

We’ll eventually get to the point where we can host a Q&A here in the forums. I still need to spend some more time on the boards, working with all of you, to create an environment that would lead to a productive session for all involved.

Absolutely, however I do want to acknowledge the intrinsic value of us actually responding to player lead conversation. The ultimate goal should always be for us to be a part of the conversation, not necessarily always leading it.

AndyB

Community Manager

#151 - Oct. 14, 2021, 7:16 p.m.

To be transparent with you: it’s challenging to schedule these earlier in the day due to the rigors of day to day development. Later in the afternoon is easier, with folks having more open schedules around then.

That said, it’s a point of feedback that I’m happy to take into consideration.

AndyB

Community Manager

#153 - Oct. 14, 2021, 7:20 p.m.

For those that are interested, I recommend watching Stylosa’s breakdown. It’s a great synopsis of the AMA presented in a format you can have on in the background while listening to.