Many complain about the balance of Overwatch . However, Jeff Kaplan is satisfied, even if some heroes are out of line.
Jeff Kaplan is one of the few developers from Blizzard who regularly hangs out in the official Overwatch forum and comments on many topics. Periodically, there is an outcry in the forum that the “current meta” is far too boring and that Blizzard should do something about it.
Kaplan addressed this in a very long post and explained when and why balancing occurs and why it sometimes does not.
In general, Kaplan believes that Overwatch is currently balanced. By this, he means that there are no heroes who are too strong or too weak. However, this does not mean that all heroes are in a perfect situation. A current example is Roadhog. The elimination of the one-shot combo was necessary, but now Roadhog is not in the position where they would like him to be.
Another issue is Mercy’s resurrection. Currently, it’s not fun for anyone, neither for Mercy nor for the opposing team. However, this is not a “game breaker”, so they could take their time here until a solid solution is found.
Furthermore, balance is also heavily dependent on the perception of the players. For example, Symmetra and Torbjörn are considered too good, as their win rates are significantly above average. However, there is no major outcry in the community that Torbjörn and Symmetra need to be nerfed urgently.
The perception of balance is often much more important than the actual balance. This also explains why Symmetra is hardly played, despite her win rate being particularly high.
However, Kaplan is also proud that the team stands by their decisions and defends them sometimes against community protests. For example, after D.Va’s nerf, there was a lot of hatred directed at the developers, and a large part of the players claimed that this character is now “ruined”.
“There were megathreads after megathreads demanding that she be buffed. But we stood by our decision and believed it was good. We did not touch her. And now she is one of the dominant heroes in the current ‘Dive Meta’ – and obviously does not need a buff.”
How do you like the current balance in Overwatch? Is the game okay or is something radically too strong or too weak?
You can find the complete, very extensive post by Jeff Kaplan in our sources.
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