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[thecosmicfly]

Went to disrupt as Genji and came across this Roadhog by a table, joined him and a Junkrat came by as well. We chilled for a soild 20-30 seconds and then went our different ways without murdering each other.

Overwatch is best.

 

[Anne]

After a full night on the PTR myself:

Soldier is too good
Pharah seems nerfed
Sombra is p good but not overwhelming. Has potential to be p good but her damage and fighting ability are pretty whack.
Ult change is hella nice, working as expected
Mixed feelings on D.Va. Seems to have similar problems but fuck 1v1ing the thing now. Could go either way IMO
Lucio nerf is actually p noticeable, but like speedboost exists so whatevs.

Just did some QP with other Gaffers for awhile. Ran into Wolf(pretty sure at least) which was neat. I don't have a lot of time so I tend to just QP with friends when I can play, but I wanna hop on comp again ;_;. After this semester is done my free time is going to change considerably.

 

[Don Draper's Hat]

I'm such a fucking idiot. Ever since they changed the competitive scoring points I thought I needed 6000 points to get a golden gun. Turns out it's still 3000 and, I'm assuming, 6000 is the limit of points at any given time?

Anyway, I have enough points for a golden gun now. Well, I've had enough points since forever I think. Fucking dunderhead. What shall I go for?

I mainly play Lucio and Symmetra, but Lucio's is kind of pointless seeing as how his HippityHop gun is pretty much gold already, and I'm not sure if I want to buy Sym's yet without knowing the changes that will be made to her.

D.Va is my next most played, but gold guns on the mech looks a bit poop.

I prefer Mercy's broomstick. And McCree's American revolver.

Frankly, all the gold guns I've looked at look a bit shit.

 

[TheYanger]

I'm such a fucking idiot. Ever since they changed the competitive scoring points I thought I needed 6000 points to get a golden gun. Turns out it's still 3000 and, I'm assuming, 6000 is the limit of points at any given time?

Anyway, I have enough points for a golden gun now. Well, I've had enough points since forever I think. Fucking dunderhead. What shall I go for?

I mainly play Lucio and Symmetra, but Lucio's is kind of pointless seeing as how his HippityHop gun is pretty much gold already, and I'm not sure if I want to buy Sym's yet without knowing the changes that will be made to her.

D.Va is my next most played, but gold guns on the mech looks a bit poop.

I prefer Mercy's broomstick. And McCree's American revolver.

Frankly, all the gold guns I've looked at look a bit shit.

Get Sombra's day one

 

[Antiwhippy]

After a full night on the PTR myself:

Soldier is too good
Pharah seems nerfed
Sombra is p good but not overwhelming. Has potential to be p good but her damage and fighting ability are pretty whack.
Ult change is hella nice, working as expected
Mixed feelings on D.Va. Seems to have similar problems but fuck 1v1ing the thing now. Could go either way IMO
Lucio nerf is actually p noticeable, but like speedboost exists so whatevs.

Just did some QP with other Gaffers for awhile. Ran into Wolf(pretty sure at least) which was neat. I don't have a lot of time so I tend to just QP with friends when I can play, but I wanna hop on comp again ;_;. After this semester is done my free time is going to change considerably.

Thoughts on mei with the ult charge nerf?

 

[Cappa]

Thoughts on mei with the ult charge nerf?

If overwatch forum is anything to go by, she apparently should be nerfed even further...

 

[Anne]

Thoughts on mei with the ult charge nerf?

The overall gameflow is pretty bad for now compared to before. I mean, all the ults were nerfed so I don't focus on hers specifically too much. The fact there are less all ins and big ult fights in general makes her worse though.

At the same time, wall is better in dragging out longer fights so I dunno. So much is changing and Mei is very strat dependent so I dunno how to call it. Something like Soldier I see the damage I deal and go "lol wtf is this", but with Mei there's a lot more to it.

edit: This one is really hard to call because things are so different ;_; literally I have /zero/ clue what comps are going to be good, I just have a feeling of who is strong in general or in certain roles.

 

[Fancolors]

From what I gathered after watching some pros' opinions on streams about the PTR changes, it seems no one really agrees 100% on what's strong or not. D.va is either super strong or still kinda 'meh' and Soldier could be a secondary DPS to sustain a better defense.

The only constant is that Sombra is good.

 

[Kysen]

A single mei held up 5 of us on Eich 1st point and stalled long enough for her team to wipe us. All this while I was saying over chat to kill her. This was at 3400+. I will never play OW at the weekend ever again. Lost 60 rating yesterday, have 10 days to get into masters

 

[Kuro]

What really needs to happen is that they delete Mei from Overwatch and pretend she never existed.

 

[1871]

Lost 60 rating yesterday

I mean, I'm fairly certain people fluctuate much more than that sometimes. Even with hundreds of games recorded before, I still go on +300 SR or -300 SR streaks at low diamond / high platinum...

 

[cyborg009]

What really needs to happen is that they delete Mei from Overwatch and pretend she never existed.

I rather keep her than Junkrat or hanzo.

 

[Feep]

Community was particularly horrible tonight. Assholes do nothing but complain about people's hero choices/team comp when things go awry, even in Quick Play. Really putting me off.

 

[darklin0]

I rather keep her than Junkrat or Widow.

Fixed.

 

[Anne]

I was thinking of OW roles and how I see them. I think the game is going to move into something a bit different than just DPS/Tank/Heal eventually. Wonder if things like carry DPS and off-carry DPS will eventually be established along with outside-of-healing supports being a thing too. I really hope so anyways, I'm already seeing it taking some sort of form and I want Blizzard to start emphasizing that rather than the really strict roles they tend to throw characters into. Sombra is very promising on that front. I'll be very sad if her tools end up getting nerfed in return for damage or something like that. Blizzard's track record on that end is pretty bad though.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Isn't that pretty much the mei/reaper meta?

Reaper as the main carry damage (especially with nanaboost) and mei as the utility dps?

 

[Anne]

Isn't that pretty much the mei/reaper meta?

Yup! But it was all duct taped together by the magic of Nanoboost more than by base interactions. With such a major overhaul coming I hope people figure out more ways to expand on that without backing it up by overpowered ults.

This history of Overwatch so far has been like "this is a pretty good interaction, but it relies heavily on X ensuring the fight." Let X be (insert OP beta carry here), Mercy rez, Lucio/Zen, Nanoboost, etc. I'm hoping that characters branch out past that and start interacting better without the need of ults or insane tempo/burst.

 

[Blues1990]

Went to disrupt as Genji and came across this Roadhog by a table, joined him and a Junkrat came by as well. We chilled for a soild 20-30 seconds and then went our different ways without murdering each other.

Overwatch is best.

It is when you can chill with the opposing team, no?

When I was playing a comp match, my whole team bailed on me & I was on my own. The opposing team all had sitting emotes, so they let me take the point while we all chilled & talked. They knew that I was stuck on a team that couldn't cooperate, so it was nice that they let me win this one.

After a full night on the PTR myself:

Soldier is too good
Pharah seems nerfed
Sombra is p good but not overwhelming. Has potential to be p good but her damage and fighting ability are pretty whack.
Ult change is hella nice, working as expected
Mixed feelings on D.Va. Seems to have similar problems but fuck 1v1ing the thing now. Could go either way IMO
Lucio nerf is actually p noticeable, but like speedboost exists so whatevs.

Just did some QP with other Gaffers for awhile. Ran into Wolf(pretty sure at least) which was neat. I don't have a lot of time so I tend to just QP with friends when I can play, but I wanna hop on comp again ;_;. After this semester is done my free time is going to change considerably.

Wait, Lucio got another nerf? What is it this time?

 

[Anne]

Wait, Lucio got another nerf? What is it this time?

Amp It Up lost 10% healing. Blizz is basically acknowledging that two healer is a thing and that Lucio is really more of a speedboost bot than anything. Knocking the healing off puts more pressure on the second healing slot, which in turn makes the choice to pick him more interesting since now you're really giving up that health for speed.

It's a good change. Problem is speedboost is still crazy good and is only available to him, so if the meta demands speedboost he'll be more or less mandatory. Also 10% isn't really that much tbh, they're being fairly generous with this for what I would believe is keeping him mad open across all levels.

 

[Cappa]

Wait, Lucio got another nerf? What is it this time?

Nerfed his healing.

I think the community is split and will always be split. There are people who prefer a long drawn out match, with Ults few and far between. And then there are those who prefer a quicker pace and the team that can combine their Ults better wins.

While nerfing Ults like Anas etc are fine because they are essentially huge game changers that do not require much skill besides patience. I think they need to be careful with nerfing to hard. I like this game because of its quick pace... hopefully the game doesnt become much more slow after theyve nerfed pretty much everyones Ult.

 

[Anne]

I mean, wanting a faster game is preference, but when it comes down to it the pacing of ults on live atm are pushing the game in a direction that doesn't look like it will be sustainable over time as far as competitiveness and balancing are concerned. Gotta dial it back just a notch to keep things from going out of control. Just kind of the nature of things. Not really a preference thing when it comes to keeping the game functioning and healthy.

I think the game is still fast and far more well paced now than before though. As far as balance and competitive play are concerned, this is a promising direction that isn't compromising the spirit of the game. Hopefully this current pacing stays healthy before Blizz starts making larger compromises.

I do get the people that wanted a rocketship of super powered bullshit and crazy multi character games and junk are feeling left out though. If one of those players decided this isn't for them anymore, I wouldn't blame them for bailing now. But for the sake of fair play and having a balanced/competitively viable game, this is the way to go.

 

[Red Arremer]

I know a lot of people are like "blizzard balance topkek huehuehuehueh Kappakappakappa", but I think that as a whole, they seem to know pretty well what will work well for competitive and what wouldn't.
I also think their pacing for major character tweaks and such also is pretty well thought out.

In other words, I think Blizzard is doing a good job seeking balance for the characters without compromising on those characters' playstyles too much, and making other options more viable.

Which is why I'm hoping that they realize that this game needs more "proper" tanks that aren't Reinhardt.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I know a lot of people are like "blizzard balance topkek huehuehuehueh Kappakappakappa", but I think that as a whole, they seem to know pretty well what will work well for competitive and what wouldn't.
I also think their pacing for major character tweaks and such also is pretty well thought out.

In other words, I think Blizzard is doing a good job seeking balance for the characters without compromising on those characters' playstyles too much, and making other options more viable.

Which is why I'm hoping that they realize that this game needs more "proper" tanks that aren't Reinhardt.

Symm tho

 

[Red Arremer]

Symm tho

Who is getting a major rework as we speak. What's your point?

 

[Cappa]

I know a lot of people are like "blizzard balance topkek huehuehuehueh Kappakappakappa", but I think that as a whole, they seem to know pretty well what will work well for competitive and what wouldn't.
I also think their pacing for major character tweaks and such also is pretty well thought out.

Agreed with both of you guys points... I just hope that they dont over due it with nerfing. Im not concerned because Ive had lots of fun with Season 2 and I expect big things from Season 3 and adding Sombra to the mix should be fun.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Who is getting a major rework as we speak. What's your point?

My point is that for the longest time Blizz insisted she was totally fine, and thus, serves as a counterpoint to "Blizzard knows what they're doing with competitive."

 

[Blues1990]

Amp It Up lost 10% healing. Blizz is basically acknowledging that two healer is a thing and that Lucio is really more of a speedboost bot than anything. Knocking the healing off puts more pressure on the second healing slot, which in turn makes the choice to pick him more interesting since now you're really giving up that health for speed.

It's a good change. Problem is speedboost is still crazy good and is only available to him, so if the meta demands speedboost he'll be more or less mandatory. Also 10% isn't really that much tbh, they're being fairly generous with this for what I would believe is keeping him mad open across all levels.

It's bad enough that Lucio has more difficulty now with escaping a hairy situation (I miss his original speed boost that can make Lucio really book it), but for him to lose some of his healing potential isn't going to magically make Mercy more viable.

Really, why can't they focus on reworking/buffing Zenyatta & Mercy to make them more viable?

 

[Red Arremer]

My point is that for the longest time Blizz insisted she was totally fine, and thus, serves as a counterpoint to "Blizzard knows what they're doing with competitive."

I wouldn't say a random remark from Jeff Kaplan (and let's be honest, he is right about a lot of people not knowing how to play Symmetra) some time in the early lifespan of the game should be considered "the longest time", let alone "Blizz insisting she was totally fine".

At this point, Blizzard has been aware of and working on changing Symmetra for several months. If Blizzard was insisting she's fine, they would neither have begun reworking her, nor would they have said that Symmetra is not getting played as much as they'd hoped.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I wouldn't say a random remark from Jeff Kaplan (and let's be honest, he is right about a lot of people not knowing how to play Symmetra) some time in the early lifespan of the game should be considered "the longest time", let alone "Blizz insisting she was totally fine".

At this point, Blizzard has been aware of and working on changing Symmetra for several months. If Blizzard was insisting she's fine, they would neither have begun reworking her, nor would they have said that Symmetra is not getting played as much as they'd hoped.

The game came out in May, and literally all we heard from then until, like, late September was "all's well." C'mon, man.

 

[WaffleTaco]

I think that the fact they keep making the same changes for PC & Console is a telling sign that they are just doing whatever they want. I say this because the two are very different from each other, and need to be balanced differently. What works on one, might work better for the other. Which is why a PTR mode probably should be on Console, for their own particular problems.

 

[Red Arremer]

The game came out in May, and literally all we heard from then until, like, late September was "all's well." C'mon, man.

We didn't hear "all's well", though.
But yes, clearly, Jeff Kaplan saying in some forum post that people don't know how to play Symmetra is absolutely clear evidence that Blizzard has no idea how to balance things.

I think that the fact they keep making the same changes for PC & Console is a telling sign that they are just doing whatever they want. I say this because the two are very different from each other, and need to be balanced differently. What works on one, might work better for the other. Which is why a PTR mode probably should be on Console, for their own particular problems.

They are doing slight balance differences to consoles though (e.g. turrets dealing less damage on consoles). Console PTR is NEVER going to happen, and you can blame that entirely on Sony and Microsoft and their evaluation process.

 

[Blues1990]

Quite honestly, I didn't think this would work.

 

[Skii]

It's bad enough that Lucio has more difficulty now with escaping a hairy situation (I miss his original speed boost that can make Lucio really book it), but for him to lose some of his healing potential isn't going to magically make Mercy more viable.

Really, why can't they focus on reworking/buffing Zenyatta & Mercy to make them more viable?

Zenyatta doesn't need a buff. He's already in a pretty good place now. He's great on attack and pairs extremely well with Ana because his ult is defensive.

Mercy definitely needs to be reworked. I absolutely hate the res mechanic. It's ridiculous that you can just come in and restart the team fight again immediately. I'd much rather she have more DPS/disruption potential as well as allowing us to actually stop the res.

 

[Fancolors]

Where's First Strike, Blizzard? It's already mid november and there's no comic in sight.

 

[RecRoulette]

Really interested to see which PTR changes make it to the main server. I'm guessing quite a bit are going to make it if they're fine testing Sombra in that environment.

If Sombra can still hack health packs like she can now. That's going to put a ton of increased pressure on healers. So slight changes like Lucio being mostly speed focused is huge.

Really can't wait for all of this to go live.

Where's First Strike, Blizzard? It's already mid november and there's no comic in sight.

Oh yeah, forgot that was supposed to drop this month.

 

[NeoRaider]

There is no way i can fix Graphics Quality resetting in PTR.
I even deleted settings file from the Overwatch folder but it didn't help. I set it on Epic, and every time i exit the game (restart is required) it goes back to High.

RIP.

 

[Cappa]

Zenyatta doesn't need a buff. He's already in a pretty good place now. He's great on attack and pairs extremely well with Ana because his ult is defensive.

Mercy definitely needs to be reworked. I absolutely hate the res mechanic. It's ridiculous that you can just come in and restart the team fight again immediately. I'd much rather she have more DPS/disruption potential as well as allowing us to actually stop the res.

How do you nerf her rez though? Do you limit the amount of people she can rez? Do you make her have some kind of delay from when she respawns to when she can use her Ult? If so, how long is the delay?

Lots of heroes that if you nerf you might potentially make them useless.

Also, in regards to Symmetra and Kaplans comments, Kaplans right. There are a LOT of heroes that people shit on and have no idea how to use them.

Junkrat is a prime example. Symmetra is of course another although she definitely needs a buff.

 

[zoukka]

Quite honestly, I didn't think this would work.

This just confirms how slimy Mei is.

How do you nerf her rez though? Do you limit the amount of people she can rez? Do you make her have some kind of delay from when she respawns to when she can use her Ult? If so, how long is the delay?

Lots of heroes that if you nerf you might potentially make them useless.

Also, in regards to Symmetra and Kaplans comments, Kaplans right. There are a LOT of heroes that people shit on and have no idea how to use them.

Junkrat is a prime example. Symmetra is of course another although she definitely needs a buff.

Make Mercy's rez so that it can only rez one person at a time and maybe decrease the cooldown.

 

[Azoor]

Where's First Strike, Blizzard? It's already mid november and there's no comic in sight.

If I had to guess, they changed something in the comic, maybe that's not the case, but possible.

 

[NeoRaider]

Quite honestly, I didn't think this would work.

Just saw this... poor Mei.

lmao

 

[Naarmight]

I hate Hanamura, especially on attack. So last night I thought I would have one last QP before calling it. So I get Hanamura attack, and then have 2 Hanzos lock on instantly.

Fine, I'll leave and requeue, one of those things I can handle, but not both together, so of course it puts me straight back into the same game....

alt-F4

 

[Skii]

How do you nerf her rez though? Do you limit the amount of people she can rez? Do you make her have some kind of delay from when she respawns to when she can use her Ult? If so, how long is the delay?

Lots of heroes that if you nerf you might potentially make them useless.

Also, in regards to Symmetra and Kaplans comments, Kaplans right. There are a LOT of heroes that people shit on and have no idea how to use them.

Junkrat is a prime example. Symmetra is of course another although she definitely needs a buff.

My idea is that when she rez, their HP gradually builds up as long as Mercy is alive. If she dies during rez, everyone gets like half HP or something. At least this places some emphasis on Mercy actively doing something instead of pressing Q. And if she was given better offensive capabilities, she could actually stay alive.

You could also change it that if Mercy dies during rez, it doesn't work.

Or that she can only rez 2 people at a time.

The way she works now is just terrible for solo queue. She can only function well with a team that understands to die together and not use ults. But on solo queue at gold level, no one is going to care about that or even trust the Mercy to not die before the rez so everyone just goes about their game as usual and this usually leads to bad rezs.

 

[Ambient80]

So I double dipped and bought on Xbox and was working my way up through the ranks to start competitive, and man, I forgot how bad some folks were when starting out. I mean it's not their fault, and I try to give pointers, but jeez. A Mercy only running her pistol and rezzing one Reaper, a group with four! Hanzo, a different group entirely with four Genji..... will be a long trudge to 25.

 

[antitrop]

I tilted for the first time in QP last night. Normally I don't give a shit what happens in QP, but we were defending Kings Row and our Winston starts the round by jumping their spawn and dying as he hits the ground, then our Rein charged through the choke, hit nothing, and dies as he hit the bus. I'm left as Mercy just "iwanttodie.jpg". I have absolutely never seen anything like it.

 

[Nuno Pinto]

Yep, thank you guys for finally getting me to Diamond, I was forever stuck in 2600s. lol

We had such a good winstreak two days in a row, we all played really well.

I dont think I will ever talk bad about a hero ever again, especially Junkrat who gets a lot of shit especially when hes picked on Attack. Our 6 stack(mostly gaffers) one of our teammates was always Junkrat on Attack and Defense. The guy I dont think is a gaffer, and he speaks little English but man he is easily the best Junkrat Ive seen. He has single handedly saved our team plenty of games with killer Rip-Tire kills.

On attack hes like our main DPS going into positions I never thought a Junkrat could. This is why I never complain about hero picks anymore.

He's just so good. He sent me a message asking if we had problems with him being junkrat all the time and I just said not at all, just keep doing what you're doing. There was a really funny moment on King's Row where there were like four of us trying to catch a Tracer that was flanking and meanwhile the payload reached the 2nd checkpoint because he killed the rest of the team almost by himself lol.

 

[Anne]

Regarding Symm, she was being used in pro play up until very deep in S1. Meta changes, people figure shit out over time, etc. At least she is getting reworked fairly quickly after being deemed a failure by any reasonable game developers standards.

 

[TheLetdown]

Yep, thank you guys for finally getting me to Diamond, I was forever stuck in 2600s. lol

Glad you hit it! Was it the game right after I had to leave? The streak bonus is no joke.

I always feel stronger when playing attack but we had some really solid defensive stands. Going all-in on contesting seems to be the trick for Payload maps when you defend 2nd.

 

[Red Arremer]

Regarding Symm, she was being used in pro play up until very deep in S1. Meta changes, people figure shit out over time, etc. At least she is getting reworked fairly quickly after being deemed a failure by any reasonable game developers standards.

But Jeff Kaplan once said people don't know how to play her! That clearly means Blizzard gives no shits about balancing the game or knows how do it, Anne!

 

[AbaFadi]

I know a lot of people are like "blizzard balance topkek huehuehuehueh Kappakappakappa", but I think that as a whole, they seem to know pretty well what will work well for competitive and what wouldn't.
I also think their pacing for major character tweaks and such also is pretty well thought out.

In other words, I think Blizzard is doing a good job seeking balance for the characters without compromising on those characters' playstyles too much, and making other options more viable.

Which is why I'm hoping that they realize that this game needs more "proper" tanks that aren't Reinhardt.

IMO, the game competitively is not very balanced in terms of hero choice. As you get higher up in rank all you see are the same heroes every game. Look at a Top 500 Leaderboard and you're likely to see these characters mostly.

Genji
McCree
Tracer
Reaper
Mei
Roadhog
Reinhardt
Zarya
Zenyatta
Lucio
Ana

We're near the end of season 2 and not many major tweaks were made at all to other characters not on this list. I'm glad they finally got to heroes like D.Va and Soldier, as I'm looking forward to seeing other heroes be more prominent next season.

 

[Jellie]

First comp game and we have ana and Lucio
Nice. Then somebody picks symmetra and complains ana is rubbish and Lucio isn't needed on defence. When the first point is lost they were asked to change so they left.
Fucking symmetras
Edit: Lucio left too
And lost 30 points.