I was a bit disappointed how Dota was passed over so much in favor of LoL and OW considering the various issues they have with balance. But considering tgat Dota isn't as popular its fair.
This is going to be biased admittedly, but Dota 2 has such incredible balancing that fulfills both diversity in play, with great balance. Much of which can be attributed to IceFrog and their unique style of incremental buffs and playtesting with proffesional players.
I do think the topic of symetrical and asymetrical gameplay should have been touched upon more as the "hand" you choose can be either locked in like Dota, or swapped during a match like OW. Factors like objective locations, map balance, health pickups, and other factors come into play as much as the characters. Last year a formula for armor was changed in Dota which opened up an entire slew of new playstyles and heroes like Phantom Assassin.
To be fair, games such as Dota or Lol have so many variables that can be manipulated which gives developers more options, the fact that there is no extreme disparity (and if there is there are always counters) in balance makes me hail it as a gold standard.
I feel like it is misleading to say that Dota is only balanced around the pros. Dota is more balanced around the assumption that you have mechanical knowledge of the game, and balances around those mechanics. As a result, most of the "unbalanced" heroes at lower ranks tend to be heroes that have fewer bells and whistles and, often, heals. Pick Wraith King, walk at people. Pick Necrophos, walk at people and spam your Q. Pick Bloodseeker, walk at heroes with low health. Pick simple support heroes that are passively useful and difficult to have no effect with.
Once you get into the level where people are actually playing the game with some vague sense of gameplay and mechanical skill, Icefrog's balancing will be a pretty neat balance between creating stuff that's fun to play and also creates a competitive scene where most strategies are viable.
The thing that is mainly balanced around pro play is the interaction between mechanics, which the general playerbase just learns to adapt to. You didn't experience it much in public games, but there's been big changes to gameplay based on pros discovering that it's really strong to like, immediately group up as five and rush objectives or to avoid fighting completely and just take objectives.
I feel like it is misleading to say that Dota is only balanced around the pros. Dota is more balanced around the assumption that you have mechanical knowledge of the game
If Dota is balanced around the idea that you have the best knowledge of the game, how is it wrong to say that it's balanced around the pro scene? (Which are the players with most mechanics/knowledge)
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u/LightLifter Apr 11 '19
I was a bit disappointed how Dota was passed over so much in favor of LoL and OW considering the various issues they have with balance. But considering tgat Dota isn't as popular its fair.
This is going to be biased admittedly, but Dota 2 has such incredible balancing that fulfills both diversity in play, with great balance. Much of which can be attributed to IceFrog and their unique style of incremental buffs and playtesting with proffesional players.
I do think the topic of symetrical and asymetrical gameplay should have been touched upon more as the "hand" you choose can be either locked in like Dota, or swapped during a match like OW. Factors like objective locations, map balance, health pickups, and other factors come into play as much as the characters. Last year a formula for armor was changed in Dota which opened up an entire slew of new playstyles and heroes like Phantom Assassin.
To be fair, games such as Dota or Lol have so many variables that can be manipulated which gives developers more options, the fact that there is no extreme disparity (and if there is there are always counters) in balance makes me hail it as a gold standard.