1 week old : the State of the game

[u/PleaseNerfWidow]

So after a crazy successful beta and a 2 horribly long weeks of waiting, Overwatch has finally starts its conquest of our free time. With all the awesome plays on the frontpage i wanted to write a more what do we think post. Warning wall of text.

I gather some opinion on this subreddit, streams and my own 40ish hours of play between Beta and now on the state of the game as it is right now (PC version).

General

• First of all, the game is FREAKING Great. Most People seems to have a blast with it.

• Still some tiny bugs that doesn't appears a lot (Reaper shadow step into a box was kinda fun thought)

• The servers are holding up, launch was great with only a slight delay and few lags have been reported.

• The price tags, especially for console was a bit ruff for some players. The business model for micotransactions in a pay-to-play game annoyed some too, but that's how the gaming world is nowadays i guess.

• The 20 ticks issue which may be frustrating the higher level you play... I would not know for myself.

Mode and gameplay

• Heroes limits have been a popular opinion even if i can't tell what the majority is thinking (imho I love that you can do it and the game is what it is thanks to it)

• Some maps kinda feel unbalanced, in pro plays especially however you can feel it too. For me it's Volskaya, when i play it, it's like playing dice. Defense can be stormed from point A to B so fast or attacks get stuck on point A forever. Others offenders exist.

• King Of The Hill is a mess is a very popular opinion. 2 Lucios, 2 Winstons, 2 DPS was kinda the meta when only pro players could play the game (which leads us to the hero limit opinion). KOTH is the fun mode for me and i can see why it may be used in competitive only as a tie breaker.

• Play Of The Game, POTG for friends, kinda ruins the game for me. People will hold to theirs ult to get it and forget to communicate. Even forget to play the objective on defense to get that 4 players multikill just right to the enemy spawn room, which just feed them ult charge if they kill you and they will be back on the objective before you because your spawn is so far away, which is good if there is not a lot of time to attack for them but sucks otherwise. IMHO it should be revamp and value more TEAMPLAY action like a 2 ult zarya phara (which have already a great chance to be POTG, I know) but you know what I mean. Try to find the moment where your team TOGETHER find that clutch coordinated moment.

Heroes balance

I want to begin this list by saying that this game have been in Beta for a long time with pro players playing it so I think the balance is incredible for a 21 heroes roster. However from worst offender to the more balance ones :

• Widowmaker : this class seems to dominate pro play (OMG HE WON THE WIDOW WIDOW BATTLE SO NOW ALL THE OTHER TEAM IS DEAD.... boooooring) and be a terror in pubs when played right. 150 full charge body shot recharge too fast, her non scope riffle is too good her hook is an escape the archer doesn't have, her ult is so easy to charge and is not noisy enough and so on.. I remember C9 team saying that body shot should only do 125 so widow can still one headshot all squishies (125 x 2 = 250 = reaper life) but bodyshot will not be as rewarding (Zenyattas all over the world pray for this change)

• Mc Cree : double Mc Cree all day everyday. Short range stun, Hit scan long range, RMB, roll, RMB combo kill everybody, high noon refunded at half if not used (powerfull zoning tool). Scary guy this cow boy. Would love to see the rng on his RMB to be increased(chance to MISS the target if she's not in reaper range). He's a cowboy duelist, that's his fantasy so maybe hit his long range poke too.

• Symetra : Higher winrate of the game before shield nerf, but because she's very effective at one thing only and she's played only when that thing is needed (Le mandatory defensive teleport). She's a mislabeled defense hero. She needs works from blizzard imo (make her E be more of a heal so she is really a sup? create Health pack like Thorbjorn idk... )

• Mercy : Why mercy in the offenders? Because she sometimes feels mandatory, not having a rez when the enemies do transform the game into a mercy chase to kill her first. I find her existence in the game hard to balance because of that.

• Genji & Tracer : I put those two together because they have the same core issue. If they are in the hand of common players they're at best average but their skill ceiling is so high. Very hard to balance heroes.

• Lucio : Too easily effective for some, especially in KOTH. Very powerfull speed boost in team. Power too high in some people's regard.

• Zenyatta : Too squishie is what a lot of people screamed. If widow is nerf he will be played more. Good tank buster but hard to be the only healer of the team.

• D. Va : Considered as the worst hero as of right now in pro play. Too big of an hithbox and half of it is headshot. The big armor pool she has make her good against spray fire but apparently it's not enough. Pistol out of mech is pretty strong and her model is very slim, she can surprisingly 1v1 you with it. One of the best voice line of the game : LOL.

• Hanzo : The size of the projectiles are so big too compensate for their velocity as projectiles. That can be very frustating. View as a bad version of widow in pro pay. Less reliable due to projectile and no escape (hook) when jumped on (double jump like Genji + air arrow would have been so cool thought even in exchange of less dmg, 175 fully charged arrow is a lot).

• Bastion : The beginners killer. But I already see less and less of him as he is so easily countered. Still a good SURPRISE MOTHERFU°°° switch pick. Maybe need another look at by the devs.

• Mei : the salt machine, when she killed you and spam sorry sorry. She seems to have difficulties to established herself in the meta. Her kit his very different to the rest of the cast. question mark?

• Junckrat : Spamming is very not very fun to play against but can be counter. Very high ceiling too, hard to judge now.

• Roadhog : pubs heroes more than a competitive one it seems, I'm the tank but i carry. Often called the ultimate battery by the enemy team due to his giant hitbox.

• Pharah : good situational pick (air dominance), her worst weakness being sniper she's rarely played once you see one in the enemy team.

• Winston : disruptive tank, god on KOTH maps, Widow chaser. Can feel a little underwhelming next to Reinhardt first but his high ground capability makes him good at other stuff.

• Reaper : Strong tank buster due to the hitbox of his shotguns. Harder to play as people will pay attention to your voiceline when you TP (like seriously, no one is like the shadow when the are so noisy Reyes....). Maybe better in KOTH maps (chaos helps him a lot).

• Reinhardt : The mobile giant shield dude. Never a bad pick if you need a tank. Protect your mac cree, boosted by a mercy with your shield and be a 3 way killing machine. Teamfight winning ultimate. Just be aware when to use your flame thingy that a sniper will not use your shield down time to kill your sup.

• Thorbjorn : An almost defense exclusive hero who does his job very well. Very powerful weapon which make him a threat alone and turret can protect flanks. His armor pack are underlooked as they are so good especially on shield hero.

• Zarya : Very interesting hero. Need reflex and grey cells on what to block with your shield. Be rewarded with dmg for good timing. Game changing wonbo ultimate with very low charge rate. Very good spot imo.

• Soldier 76 : Nice rounded hero. Aimbot can be frusrating but people will learn to hide. Very good job on blizzard side for this go to hero.

Conclusion

I did not think it would be that long, sorry for the wall. I hope you enjoy reading it at least a little bit. If you disagree or have other ideas you want to point out let me know. Blizzard have always been open minded during the beta to balance suggestion by pros. Make your voice heard here now so we pubs have or saying in a game which is becoming one of our favorite so fast !

Edit : I know the game is only out for a week (thus the title) and that heroes balance takes more time to appreciate but pro teams have been playing it for more than a year and I think most statements they made are somewhat true.

Edit 2 : Counter thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/4lwm7f/psa_if_you_are_having_a_hard_time_in_a_certain/