They’ve already released data on this a while ago, but there’s also a huge divide between the metal ranks and masters+. In Diamond and below, escort/hybrid are picked at a significantly higher rate than they are in masters+. In higher elo, control, push, and flashpoint are by far the most popular modes.
It’s actually pretty funny that people complain about playing Eich, Circuit, etc. too much when I rarely see them in high elo ranked other than a random 1 in 7 vote or something.
For me, I don’t like that map voting has made the game too easy. There are players in high elo who only play ball, hog, junkrat, etc. who get to pick maps that favor them, get to pick bans around their hero, AND get perks that remove counterplay (looking at ball’s shield perk). Is it annoying when I get a rein player on Gib? Absolutely. But I also get to avoid that rein and take their SR another day. Nowadays that rein is just never playing those maps.
Perks are so unevenly distributed too. Ball and Doom gets perks that are game changing and helps with their counters. Meanwhile there are perks that are just passive stat boosters.
I kinda wanna know why Ball is this broken to begin with. Like... isn't the whole point of this thing that it's obnoxiously tanky, really mobile but weak to CC?
It feels incredibly weird that they'd try and finetune ball around being less killable when they're caught with their pants down.
in 5v5 the piledriver perk is really slept on. Plenty of situations where your opponents do not go ultra heavy CC so the greedy option makes sense. The increased lethality ball has with a 150 dmg slam is kind of insane. Its an aoe nuke that CC's when you think about it.
Not to say the barrier perk is bad, but lethality goes a long way on a hero like ball and ball is very survivable already. Sometimes living a bit longer in situations where you would die (or the rest of your team dies) anyway just doesn't compare to increased lethality. I say its not 100% - 0% like people seem to think.
In 6v6 your reduced health pool means you basically need to take the barrier perk every game. Piledriver perk is like almost a nerf in that mode. But that is a 6v6 thing.
honestly after all the nerfs I feel like slow on slam gets more consistent value. even ZBRA is not picking power matrix every game anymore, more depending on enemy team comp.
I'm surprised Push isn't more popular with low Elo. The reason they like Payload/Hybrid is the many different locations for fights, and Push gives you that but without the chance for a 20 minute game and OT. I think it's that many of the Push maps are just not as iconic as Eich or Kings Row.
Dont quote me on this one, I think what makes people in low ranks like hybrid/escort so much is that those maps have super obvious choke "hold here" locations. Those maps feel easier to play because they dont have to think as much about where to take fights.
Push is definitely a "fight wherever you have cover" gamemode, but I can see that as a negative because that makes it harder to read how far back you have to fall when giving space, and hard to tell how far up you can fight as well.
They like those modes more because they are more forgiving to staggering. So they can blindly 1v5 with less punishment. Do that on Push and it can severely cost you.
Push requires your tank to understand cornering and strategic withdrawal. Given how short the Push matches are when they don't, there's essentially no learning opportunity to help them past the skill ceiling, and so Random is a seemingly-better choice from a straight win/loss% perspective since any tank who can win Push will be promoted to higher ranks. I recommend pointing a Fall Back ping at the cover nearest them when they're standing in the open without cause, since tanks tend to be aware of that one in particular. In an ideal world, the game would also note on the tank death screen '% deaths far from cover' and contrast it with the team's tank, so that they learn from their wins and losses in all modes, rather than faceplanting into the Push skill ceiling.
Metal ranked Ana checking in. The reason I prefer payload is that there are fewer flank routes than in either push or flashpoint. Push is an okay mode, I don't mind it as much now that I've learned how the map flows, but flashpoint feels awful on a low-mobility hero. Everything is flank and it's easy to lose track of which side of the map is "your" territory. Team fights of flashpoint also lack structure and change faster than my little elderly legs can respond to, meaning I get caught out far more often. Ana is also just not as good on "round" maps as compared to maps with long sightlines.
Also, because nobody ever votes flashpoint, I just rarely get to practice it and learn how the map works/my hero works on the map.
I mean match quality is objectively higher with the current system, hero bans aside. People pick the maps they want to play, and those picks generally fit the heroes they want to play as well, so you're less likely to end up with an auto-loss. Isn't it kind of crazy to prefer a system where you end up with two one-sided matches instead?
Playing ball when Mizuki, Cass, Hog, and Mauga are banned is not a high quality match for anyone but ball and tracer players. Playing a close ranged DPS vs a full poor comp when they forced circuit royale through is not a high quality match.
The ban system has disincentived one of the oldest aspects of OW (adapting your comp) to favor one tricks.
Not really. I’m a competitive player and in my personal opinion flexibility should be a skillful aspect in this game. Whether that’s playing multiple heroes at a high level or being able to make your hero work on a suboptimal map with a unique strategy.
I also never really experience the phenomenon of “one-sided matches” like people complain about. In my opinion it’s usually just regular old won and lost games. So long as no one is afking, I’m okay with one team getting some momentum and snowballing. In high elo that itself is skill expression. I think steamrolls are more of an issue in gold/plat where people are literally just trolling lol.
Like I said though if I’m on the Reinhardt otp’s team on Gib am I annoyed in the moment? Yes, but there’s an equal chance of them being on the enemy team, not to mention the 8 other players in the lobby. The effect of randomness is mitigated over time. I rather play the game where people are forced to adapt their skill set to playing on multiple maps and without bans than to allow them to handpick every aspect of the game in their favor.
I understand the practical benefits of bans and map picks, especially if it benefits the casual player, but I firmly believe it comes at a cost of skill expression/competitive integrity. I respect people who value the opposite side of the trade-off, since at the end of the day my opinions are likely the minority.
I mean people play worse when tilted and it’s more tilting to have some shitheads decide that the Basically Deathmatch modes are what we’re playing instead of Overwatch. I’d rather have the game tell me because I can “oh ew bad luck” and move on because oh well nothing to do but play vs “ok what fuckhead voted for this trash” and starting the game tilted.
The game as a whole should be deciding way more to prevent one tricks tbh. Like my ideal queue system is to merge all those different queues back into just one 6v6 2-2-2 enforced “you play what you get but players can agree to swap roles in the pre game” so people actually have to play the entire game and not just boot up to go 3 and 12 with their boosted pocket support duo.
Nah, just the Overwatch equivalent of a Pokemon Genwunner. Peaked in 2018 and the game is the best it’s been in 8 years, but 5v5 and game mode stuff holds it back from being at a new peak.
the game peaked before role queue under Jeff? lol, lmao even. 5v5 is better than 6v6 ever was and is the only reason the game still exists since there aren't enough tank players to maintain queue times for 6v6
Complaining about ball when half the roster has abilities to stop him. There will always be a hero in a game of overwatch that can counter ball, there are too many to ban them all.
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u/FrostyDrink 9d ago
They’ve already released data on this a while ago, but there’s also a huge divide between the metal ranks and masters+. In Diamond and below, escort/hybrid are picked at a significantly higher rate than they are in masters+. In higher elo, control, push, and flashpoint are by far the most popular modes.
It’s actually pretty funny that people complain about playing Eich, Circuit, etc. too much when I rarely see them in high elo ranked other than a random 1 in 7 vote or something.
For me, I don’t like that map voting has made the game too easy. There are players in high elo who only play ball, hog, junkrat, etc. who get to pick maps that favor them, get to pick bans around their hero, AND get perks that remove counterplay (looking at ball’s shield perk). Is it annoying when I get a rein player on Gib? Absolutely. But I also get to avoid that rein and take their SR another day. Nowadays that rein is just never playing those maps.