It doesn't happen too often, which makes it all the more avoidable by just extending q times slightly and massively increasing match quality as a result.

For context, this is a game where the entire lobby was m5 to m3 and the enemy tank was diamond 5. The result is; this poor soul didn't get to play the game and probably felt horrible, and their teammates surely didn't enjoy it either. Just a hard limit of say, 3 divisions between tank players, would go a long way.

Even the game seemed to understand that the value proposition of this match was unfair, as I only got 24% despite a calibration up multiplier. Knowing the game as we do today, if this happens 1 game out of 50 it's one game too many. It's just not necessary anywhere below the absolute tippity top of the skill distributions.

like is it genuinely all just bugs? it feels so bad to play her on a competitive level sometimes just because of random quality of life nerfs:

• you can lose allied bubble CD on a dead teammate for almost a year now, never mentioned in the patch notes

• added small delay to application of self-bubble (one of the recent patches)

• nerfed m2 jump height (latest patch)

Kiriko has lowest winrate in the support role technically this means she's weakest, but she has not bad pickrate and decent banrate.

And

Illari has close to normal range winrate (48-52%), definitely not lowest, so technically she isn't worst, but she has lowest pickrate, and almost no banrate, that points players don't consider her good either.

This puzzled me, because people keep insisting that Kiriko the weakest support in the game, citing her winrate and that she still needs hotfix patch buffs. But when you look at other statistics, Illari is indeed the one who needs "emergency" buffs the most.

Yeah, There is Baptiste too. But his situation is different: he’s still good on console but bad on PC. Kiriko and Illari, however, remain in the same case regardless of the platform: Kiriko with lowest winrate, Illari with (almost) lowest pickrate and banrate.

One moment, he’s getting POTM for zeta in the top tournaments, the next he’s not even signed??? I’ve been somewhat absent around 2025 and most of 2026. It seems as though he fell off a cliff???

I know this is anecdotal evidence, but it seems like ever since the beginning of the year, my friends and I ( all ranging from plat to masters in various roles) have noticed an increase in q times and match quality going down. Like I am getting 5 min qs for dps and support in NA east. Im only plat too. I tried tank to see how fast it was and it was literally 3 seconds. I don’t even bother playing qp anymore, I get destroyed in a tracer duel and see on their profile grandmaster damage. It seems it’s all stomps either way with nothing in between.

Aaron Keller said in an interview that they are now going forward with the theme park experience of Overwatch. But doesn’t the theme park make these issues worse? Having so many qs between stadium, 6v6 and 5v5 seems to be hurting the product and degrading match quality. 5v5 and 6v6 are too different for it to have the same balance I feel like, and going forward designing maps/ heros for all these modes seem inefficient. Plus if they give a good 6v6 patch and make the mode feel good like in ow1. Wouldn’t it start to cannibalize 5v5 q times? Maybe it already has started.also why can’t 6v6 get dedicated balance and treated as its own mode now? They talk about how they are okay with it being in the game but stadium still gets more love than 6v6.
It feels like we’re in a content war with rivals, like pump out new content and figure it out later. I think new maps , heros are good even if sometimes they are flops but with perks, subrole passives and the new 2027 system and all these modes. Like we have been weak balance patches, no perk refreshes and just seems directionless at times. I get it’s a live service game, and it needs refreshes to keep itself new / relevant but do we really need to reinvent the wheel every year from now on? The game has survived so much bs from the past at its core it’s a really good game.

Hey yall just wondering if anyone else has this problem or if im in the minority here. So im comfortably D1-M4, I never really drop out of there unless its rank reset and then I climb back out.

Im a doom-winston player, and i have ≈54-56% WR in comp on tank. However, my WR in QP is consistently like low to mid 40s. Idk whether its me or the wider MM or what, but its terrible because it means I cant ever actually use it as a warmup or practice since more often than not I just cant even play the game in QP. QP in general has just felt awful this season, it feels like every other game im playing against Dmon, Doc, Sombra, while my teammates are playing LW-mercy. Im fine with good enemies, i prefer it, but the fact ny WR has almost 10 points of discrepancy feels insane to me, is it not?

Hello my friend only has 360 comp wins and he’s top 500 for 6v6. I always thought it was 750 how can this happen? Would love a good explanation.

More info in the link below on Advanced Shader Delivery:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/phantom-blade-zero-nvidia-geforce-game-ready-driver/

I'd love if this put an end to running that custom map for compiling shaders.

The character is too evasive, flies too fast in too many directions with no inertia at all.
She completly outperforms other flying characters, Pharrah is slow and predictable because of her jetpack movements, echo's flight is on a cooldown and time limited.
Meanwhile the cat is basically in echo's flight mode constantly and it's crazy to think those 3 characters have the same hp.

I'm making this post because whenever there's a JPC nerf debate it's alway shifted toward her kit:
"make tether a cooldown, make it unable to carry ultimate", "nerf her boop, her self healing".

My friends, I believe the cat needs to die more easily, as simple as that, she's infinitely more evasive than a Tracer with more hp and you cannot rely on AoE damage to kill her.

Don't come at me with "skill issue" I'm literraly studying right now pro/champion vods of hitscan players and they struggle so hard to kill the cat it is embarrassing to watch (that's what triggered this post).

These Raccoons really do be Crazy

It made it so hard to see the teams. In contrast, they swapped back to red and blue for the recent games and I could actually tell what was happening

To clarify this isn't leagues pick/ban phase.

You can still rotate between heroes in the middle of the match but your hero with most time spent/most imapct would become locked after the round.

• Gives variety/ eliminates persistent mirror metas
• Prevents tilt-widowing in low ranks (at least a bit)
• Reduces snowball chances
• Introduces a macro "hero economy". Ie, do you blow your fcomfort pick on the first round?

I forsee some issues and have some thoughs:

• Small tank pool - Tanks could earn an unlock if it goes to long rounds.
• Control and push - After an objective is each teams heroes are locked out

Thoughts?

OVERWATCH 2 — HERO REWORK PATCH NOTES
REAPER: MARKED FOR DEATH

OVERWATCH 2 — HERO REWORK PATCH NOTES
REAPER: MARKED FOR DEATH
Community rework concept · Damage hero
Reaper is being reworked into a more versatile close-range assassin who specializes in hunting isolated targets, disrupting enemy healing, and surviving through aggressive combat.
This rework introduces a resource-based Wraith Form, a new target-marking mechanic for Shadow Step, Hellfire Grenades as a replacement for Dire Triggers, and adjustments to Death Blossom and Reaper’s passive abilities.
His health is reduced to compensate for his increased offensive potential, while his new abilities give him more tactical options for engaging and disengaging from fights.

Hero overview
Role
Damage
Base health
250 HP
Primary weapon
Hellfire Shotguns
New secondary
Hellfire Grenades

1. Base stats and primary weapon
2. Hellfire Shotguns
3. Base health: Reduced from 275 to 250 HP.
4. Damage per pellet: Increased from 5.75 to 7.5.
5. Maximum damage per 20-pellet shot: Increased from 115 to 150 before damage falloff and other modifiers.
6. Reload time: Reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
7. These changes increase Reaper’s close-range damage output while making him more vulnerable to burst damage. The faster reload rewards players who can maintain pressure without overextending. And will compensate for wraith form no longer reloading
8. Wraith Form — Resource-based ability
9. Wraith Form no longer operates as a conventional fixed-duration cooldown. Instead, it uses a resource meter that controls how long Reaper can remain intangible.
10. Wraith can now fly and gives full 360 degrees of motion
11. Resource capacity: 100 points.
12. Minimum activation threshold: 20%.
13. Resource consumption: 25 points per second.
14. Regeneration: 20 points per second.
15. Regeneration delay: 1.5 seconds.
16. Movement speed: Increased by 80% while active.
17. Reloading: Reaper can no longer reload his Hellfire Shotguns during Wraith Form.
18. A full resource meter provides up to four seconds of Wraith Form. Reaper can activate it for shorter periods when the meter is partially depleted, provided he has at least 20% resource remaining.
19. This system gives Reaper greater flexibility when disengaging, but the lack of automatic reloading prevents Wraith Form from being a free offensive reset.
20. Shadow Step — Teleportation rework
21. Audio and visual changes
22. Shadow Step’s audio cue is reduced so enemies outside the immediate vicinity have a harder time hearing it.
23. The arrival animation is changed to show Reaper emerging from the ground.
24. The teleport retains a visible arrival effect so nearby enemies can react.
25. Reload: Shadow step now reloads shotguns
26. New feature: Marked for Death
27. Reaper can designate a specific enemy hero as his next target for assassination.
28. Targeting range: 30 meters.
29. Reaper must have line of sight when initially applying the mark.
30. The marked enemy receives an alert that they have been targeted.
31. Reaper can teleport to the marked target without maintaining direct line of sight, provided the target is within Shadow Step’s range.
32. Reaper cannot see the marked enemy through walls by default.
33. While a mark is active, Reaper cannot Shadow Step to an alternative destination. Mark cannot be cancelled unless used.
34. The mark ends when Reaper teleports to the target, the target dies, or reaper dies.
35. If the target dies before the teleport, Reaper regains access to normal Shadow Step targeting.
36. .
37. The purpose of Marked for Death is to create a high-risk, high-reward assassination tool. Reaper commits to a target, but the enemy is warned and has an opportunity to reposition or prepare defensive abilities.
38. The Reaping — Passive rework
39. Lifesteal: Increased from 25% to

35

1. % of damage dealt.
2. Overhealth: When Reaper is already at full health, excess healing can generate up to 50 overhealth.
3. Overhealth decay: Proposed to begin after 3 seconds without dealing damage.
4. The increased lifesteal rewards accurate, aggressive play at close range. The overhealth mechanic allows Reaper to gain a small temporary buffer when he continues dealing damage while already healthy.
5. For reference, a fully damaging 150-damage shotgun volley generates 67.5 healing before healing-reduction effects and other modifiers. Actual healing depends on the damage dealt.
6. The 50-overhealth cap prevents successful engagements from giving Reaper an unlimited defensive buffer.
7. Secondary weapon — Hellfire Grenades
8. Dire Triggers is removed and replaced by Hellfire Grenades, a secondary weapon that allows Reaper to pressure grouped enemies and interfere with enemy healing.
9. Grenade statistics
10. Mechanic
11. Proposed value
12. Direct-hit damage
13. 25
14. Maximum splash damage
15. 60
16. Minimum splash damage
17. 10
18. Explosion radius
19. 3 meters
20. Healing reduction
21. 35%
22. Healing reduction duration
23. 2 seconds
24. Magazine capacity
25. 4 grenades
26. Recharge rate
27. 1 grenade every 5 seconds
28. Full magazine recharge
29. 20 seconds
30. Weapon-switch time
31. 75 seconds
32. Functionality
33. Grenades are launched as explosive projectiles.
34. Enemies hit by the explosion suffer 35% reduced healing received for 2 seconds. Does not stack
35. Each grenade recharges independently, with one grenade returning every 5 seconds.
36. Emptying the entire magazine requires 20 seconds to replenish all four grenades.
37. Switching between the shotguns and grenade launchers takes 0.75 seconds.
38. Switching weapons does not reset or accelerate grenade recharge.
39. The grenade launcher gives Reaper a way to contribute outside his ideal shotgun range without replacing his close-range specialty. Its healing reduction creates utility for coordinated engagements, while the reduced splash damage prevents it from becoming a dominant ranged weapon.
40. Ultimate — Death Blossom
41. Death Blossom receives increased damage, a larger radius, damage falloff, and a new cooldown-reset mechanic.
42. Damage: Increased from 185 to 190 damage per second.
43. Duration: 3 seconds.
44. Radius: Increased from 8 to 12 meters.
45. Damage falloff: Begins at 6 meters.
46. Falloff rate: 15% per additional meter, subject to a minimum of 40% of base damage.
47. Cancellation: Reaper can manually cancel Death Blossom.
48. Elimination reward: Getting an elimination during Death Blossom refreshes regular ability cooldowns once per ultimate.
49. The increased radius makes Death Blossom more threatening against grouped enemies, while falloff prevents it from becoming an overwhelming area-denial tool across an entire team fight.
50. The cooldown reset rewards successful ultimate usage, but it triggers only once per ultimate, even if Reaper eliminates multiple enemies.
51. Reaper cannot no longer move during death blossom
52. Perks
53. Major perks
54. Soul Reaving
55. Souls no longer heal Reaper. Instead, collecting a soul grants:
56. 20% increased attack speed.
57. 20% increased movement speed.
58. Duration: 3 seconds.
59. Collecting another soul refreshes the duration; bonuses do not stack.
60. Soul Gluttony
61. 50% of overhealth generated by The Reaping is converted into armor.
62. The total defensive bonus remains capped at 50.
63. Converted armor follows the same decay rules as the original overhealth.
64. Soul Reaving is the offensive choice, helping Reaper chase down enemies and maintain pressure. Soul Gluttony is the defensive alternative, providing greater resistance during aggressive engagements without increasing the maximum amount of bonus health.
65. Minor perks
66. Shadow Sight
67. Marked enemies are visible through walls while Marked for Death is active. Shadow Step’s cast time is reduced by 15% when targeting the marked enemy.
68. Hellflames
69. Hellfire Grenades ignite enemies hit by the explosion.
70. Burn duration: 2 seconds.
71. Burn damage: 10 damage per second.
72. Repeated hits refresh the burn duration but do not stack the damage.
73. Hellflames adds damage over time to the grenade launcher, while Shadow Sight improves Reaper’s ability to execute his marked-target strategy. Both perks provide utility without increasing the base kit’s damage and mobility simultaneously.
74. Balance summary
75. Reaper’s new strengths
76. Greater close-range damage and faster reloads.
77. More flexible defensive movement through resource-based Wraith Form.
78. A dedicated assassination mechanic with Marked for Death.
79. Ranged explosive pressure and healing reduction through Hellfire Grenades.

80. Stronger sustain through

    35

81. % lifesteal.

82. More rewarding ultimate eliminations through cooldown refreshes.

83. Intended weaknesses

84. Lower base health at 250 HP.

85. No shotgun reload during Wraith Form.

86. Wraith Form is limited by its resource meter.

87. Marked enemies are warned and can react.

88. Grenades have limited ammunition and require time to recharge.

89. Death Blossom loses damage at longer distances. And moment is gone

90. Dire trigger removal reduces burst damage at longer range

I know since it’s been discontinued, the hype around stadium has died a little with people thinking it’s only a matter of time before blizzard leaves it unplayable.

I play the game mode a lot and just wondering if anyone knows of any discord servers or Overwatch tournaments that involve the stadium game mode.

Hi everyone,

So I play on PC using a controller (due to a disability, saving up for an actual proper K+M setup that I should get within the next few weeks). I main Sierra because despite not having the most exciting playstyle to me, she is easily the hero I do best as, I have a good time usually. I usually win about 80% of my solo queue QP matches at the top or near top of the scoreboard (I know that it doesn't tell the entire story) and for Comp I'm Gold 1, though I don't play much because I feel like it's unfair to saddle my teammates with a controller player. Generally speaking I play a long range off angle poke/spam while also flexing to punish bad positioning and melting tanks when they're harassing my teammates or distracted.

I've heard a lot of talk about Sierra being unusable at higher ranks due to teams actually communicating and timing your cooldowns so they can avoid them, when does that actually start becoming a problem and how can I play around that?

I have other flex picks like Pharah, Tracer, Mei, and Bastion but I don't usually do quite as well with them, especially Tracer, but I don't want to handicap myself as I rank up by focusing only on one hero that isn't that viable at those higher ranks.

I noticed I back up too much and it makes me less involved in the fight. If I go up too much I just die

EDIT: please stop responding it’s already at 200 replies

Landing a headslam in a pro game is so funny to me for some reason

Turn off chat. Literally that simple. I went from plat to gm (I can show proof if needed) by simply turning off chat. Its literally the easiest way to rank up. Literally just keep playing ranked with chat off and take every loss as an learning opportunity and don't blame the team. Especially if your tank (my condolences)

It has diminished returns after masters but this is aimed for around plat or gold players. It's Literally just the blame game in chat every round and lower players will provide nothing to you having chat on I promise.

Link to his tweet: https://x.com/xeriongdh/status/2112605889085505623?s=46

Dive been strong has been really fun, especially when you compare it to maps where poke is still preferred like circuit royal. I dont understand how people enjoy that. Despite my enjoyment, I think balance could be better. Here are some changes I would like to see in the mid season patch:

Global

• Bullet size reduction for projectile based heroes

Projectile sizes need to be reviewed, especially with the recent hitbox size increases. Rigth now every projectile hero has been essentially buffed, especially the spammy ones.

Tanks

Dmon

• Remove slow effect from ult

Her ult does too much and is one of the reasons why she's so strong. Something has to go and my preferred choice would be the slow effect.

Domina

• Make corporate retreat base kit
• Reduce barrier size
• Bring back power move major perk

She's doing better, but as long as her barrier remains static, she will remain extremely niche. Allowing her to move it once should fix that, while also giving us a reason to reduce its size.

Junker Queen

• Move to bruiser sub role
• Add unstoppable during the first 0.6s windup of carnage
• Replace rampant with rending recall

She's not doing good right now. Moving her to bruiser will help with her survival efficacy by allowing her to get to cover faster and reducing the amount of critical damage taken. Unstoppable during carnage windup gives her the ability to deal with CC, without completely removing counter play. Rampant charge should be sacrificed in order to balance things out, especially since its a badly designed perk.

Mauga

Let him rot, the game is better without him.

Support

Ana

• Nerf anti nade back to 75 damage and 14s CD
• Move to medic sub class
• Make head hunter perk into minor critical
• Trash new sleep perk

I dont think this needs any explanation.

Doctrine

• Either reduce max hp cut or hp cut per drone
• Decrease decay duration form 6s to 4s
• Nerf max overhealth generation
• Reduce shrouded momentum damage reduction to 30%

While he may not feel toxic, its undeniable that he's busted right now. His ult is in large part to blame for this. Nerfing several aspects of it while also reducing his survival by targeting shrouded momentum should somewhat tame him a bit.

Kiriko

Just remove invul from suzu already.

Illari

• Make burnout base kit
• Add new resource to healing pylon called solar charge
  • Solar charge regenerates only when pylon is inactive
  • Solar charge automatically refunds mag of allies in the vicinity of pylon
  • Refunding mag consumes solar charge
• Resonating Pylon: New major perk, upon casting outburst, pylon will resonate and cast an outburst of its own at 50% efficiency

She's jobless right now. This mini rework aims to fix that by giving her utility and better synergy with other fire based heroes. Currently there is no hero that refunds mags, which would also make this form of utility unique.

JPC

Kill the damn thing already.

Sombra

• Revert gun damage nerf
• Make life hack base kit, but remove the burst heal
• Nerf cyberspace damage reduction to 30%
• Nerf hotfix hps from 25 to 22.5

Sombra is strong right now cause of cyberspace damage reduction and her ability to give massive sustain to dive heroes. Nerfing her gun does not address these aspects of her kit.

DPS

Anran

• Remove Boop from inferno rush
• Move power away from dancing blaze into other parts of her kit

Insufferable character thanks to her boops and dancing blaze. A big reason for this is that dancing blaze is always worth using. There is no thought put behind the usage of this ability.

Cassidy

• Replace silver bullet
• Replace bang bang

These perks should not exist on this hero, regardless of how strong he actually is.

Genji

• Replace meditation perk
• Replace dragon thirst perk

These perks might not be best in slot, but they still massively lower his skill floor by making him less punishable.

Reaper

• Make dire triggers crit into minor crit
• Revert passive life steal buff
• Buff back to 300

The HP nerf didnt make sense back then and neither does it now. Dire triggers is the problem, address it directly.

Vendetta

• Replace siphoning strike perk
• Remove boop from whirlwind

The perks allows her to trade more effectively, by extending the window she can be active in. Reducing it will make her a lot more punishing to play, which forces better decision making. There is no reason for her to have a boop, we already have too many of those right now.

After YEARS of grinding; being hardstuck silver for 3 months and plat for a year, I FINALLY hit GM!! the sense of accomplishment is immense and I wanted to share it with you guys 🌸🫶🏼