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Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Hey y'all! Will be hosting a Q&A about #Overwatch2 Hero Design and Hero Balance till 1PM PT. Drop any questions you have in the comments below and I'll jump on them after the Twitter Spaces conversation on @PlayOverwatch. See you soon! https://t.co/wMfiLlrYtI

Hey y'all! Will be hosting a Q&A about #Overwatch2 Hero Design and Hero Balance till 1PM PT. Drop any questions you have in the comments below and I'll jump on them after the Twitter Spaces conversation on @PlayOverwatch. See you soon! https://t.co/wMfiLlrYtI

  • HS_Alec
    Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
    Hey y'all! Will be hosting a Q&A about #Overwatch2 Hero Design and Hero Balance till 1PM PT. Drop any questions you have in the comments below and I'll jump on them after the Twitter Spaces conversation on @PlayOverwatch. See you soon! https://t.co/wMfiLlrYtI

    • FU4FREEHS
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @GallonHS @PlayOverwatch Are there any plans to buff the weaker tanks? Wrecking ball, Doom fist, and Junker Queen all feel very weak and impossible to play in a 1 tank format

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @FU4FREEHS @GallonHS @PlayOverwatch For sure! Hinted at the changes to Doomfist in Season 2 (enabling more empowered punches). Actively looking at Junker Queen and Wrecking Ball. Queen buffs would look at her self-efficiency vs. providing sustain for whole team. Ball is a bit trickier, knife's edge for balance.

    • Rock_Skull__
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch How do you go about balancing ow2? Do you listen more to the top levels of play, or do you mostly just look at general win rates and balance off of that?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @Rock_Skull__ @PlayOverwatch Would love to cover this in a blog post, lots to say. But in short it's a combination of Intuition, Feedback, and Data. We try to look at changes that account for how that character is being played across ranks (that can differ greatly!) and retain character identity.

    • TreeckoRalts
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch How do you guys feel about Tank diversity, particularly in terms of tanks who share composition style (Rein/JQ/Zarya/Orisa all brawl, for example)? How much of improving that plays into hero design vs balance vs map design? Also, any Symmetra beam change updates?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @TreeckoRalts @PlayOverwatch Plays a significant role! At the outset of a new Hero, we establish what archetype they fit into for game needs. Goal here is to have more diversity for different Tank playstyles and finding new spaces for the role in general. Shooting barriers will be good for you again :)

    • aw8um
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Can we expect Sojourn nerfs? I’ve seen her in almost every comp game I’ve played this season (around 315 at this point) and her kit is just too strong compared to other dps :/

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @aw8um @PlayOverwatch She's top of mind for Season 2 changes. Particularly looking at her one-shot capability without losing hero identity too much.

    • raphadias05
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Can we expect any buffs to Mercy? Her movement feels great, but it seems like she lacks the playmaking impact that other supports have.

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @raphadias05 @PlayOverwatch Overall players are still learning and adjusting to her new movement capabilities. We want to give that a little bit of time and see how those learnings translate to winrate. May see some small tweaks through that timeframe though.

    • Recall_OW
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hello Alec, what are your thoughts about Tracer at the moment. She feels weak because she can no longer go all out on her target and recall since she lacks the damage to do so. Should Tracer players find a better way to utilize the hero, or is she underperfoming overall?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @Recall_OW @PlayOverwatch She's been overshadowed by some of the other flankers in the Hero lineup so far (due to meta and other hero strength). Believe she will find a home/composition with these changes and others coming. If she doesn't we'll be taking a closer look at her.

    • mfpow1
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch So if a hero is over performing in high elo but under performing in low elo, they don’t receive immediate nerfs? Shouldn’t the game be balanced from top down?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @mfpow1 @PlayOverwatch We mainly nerf heroes due to their performance in high elo, so yes the game is primarily balanced from top down. When it comes to changes we do our best to find changes that hit that top level efficiency without butchering the Hero at lower ranks. Hard to do but it's the goal.

    • DoesBoKnow
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch I may have missed this earlier in spaces, but why is it going to take until November 15th to implement the changes shown in the blog post? That seems like a long time for value tweaking, and maybe an if/then statement or two, while also stating it will be ready in 2 days for OWL.

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @DoesBoKnow @PlayOverwatch For full transparency we did want this patch to come out earlier for the playerbase at large, but had some issues on our side. You can expect future mid-season balance updates to happen about 4 weeks after a season start.

    • samhinton22
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Can you comment on where Symmetra is in development. Is there any plans to buff or change her kit? What is her identity in Overwatch 2 since she can do a little bit of everything.

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @samhinton22 @PlayOverwatch Symmetra is doing quite well across most of our ranks! In the right hands, we've seen players find great usage with her current kit. She does however have a low pickrate and we hear a lot of feedback about her. Expect to see some small tweaks to her kit in Season 2.

    • AllTrashNoBag
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hello, and thank you for the opportunity! With the current state that Bastion is in, is there any tweaks or reworks in the pipeline atm? Bastion feels significantly weaker compared to the rest of the dps cast and performs worse than the overwatch 1 counterpart for the hero.

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @AllTrashNoBag @PlayOverwatch So the Bastion bug with tons of artillery fire was actually quite eye-opening, players still avoided it! A few changes in mind but we want to shorten the window before the projectile drops so players can feel more effective during Configuration Artillery.

    • mustardman66
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Why balance patches every month and not every 2 weeks? Is it because of crossplay and issues with consoles requiring confirmation on updates? Or something else?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @mustardman66 @PlayOverwatch Believe this cadence is good. Allows metas to develop and gives us enough time to have changes we are confident in (gathering data, coming up with changes, playtesting changes). Will note that these are our scheduled changes, if anything were very out of line we'd step in asap.

    • Kyyndle
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hi @GW_Alec! With future heroes unlocked via the battle pass, do you have any concerns gathering enough in-game data from players to make effective balance decisions? Thanks for all your hard work. ♥

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @Kyyndle @PlayOverwatch Hey! No concerns, tons of feedback and data comes in immediately with a new Hero release. One of the more interesting moments for us to evaluate is when that Hero enters Competitive. There we see how coordinated teams take advantage of the Hero's kit, especially at a high level.

    • Th3BurgerClub
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hey Alec, is there a metric to track which heroes fall below average pick rate? Does the balance team see it as a major concern if there is a certain hero(es) that are played at a low outlier rate? Would that be territory for a buff or a wait and see approach?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @Th3BurgerClub @PlayOverwatch It's ok to have niche Heroes but it raises questions. Is the kit lacking? Are players tired of the kit? Outside of winrate changes: Players enjoy hero but low pickrate = less likely to do something. Players do not enjoy hero with low pickrate = more likely to do something.

    • DrCrazy51
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Are you considering to look at the dps passive due to how the speed boost that gets provided from it benefits certain heroes like flankers a lot more than other dps? Also would you rebalance heroes like genji if the dps passive does get changed?

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @DrCrazy51 @PlayOverwatch Yes, DPS Passive is at the top for changes in Season 2. For reasons you bring up but also sentiment that it is hard to aim with on certain Heroes. We'd want to see how Heroes like Genji perform with the passive changes first, then evaluate from there. Open to readjusting though.

    • PsychoAryll
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hi! Do you have plans on reworking Symmetra or Moira? I think you guys mentioned it in the past, but we haven't heard about that for a while now. Thanks for the amazing work btw! ♥

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @PsychoAryll @PlayOverwatch Mentioned in a few spots but some small tweaks to Symmetra coming in Season 2. For Moira, want to make sure we get it right. Tons of people love her playstyle, so we want any added utility to not break her flow and approachability. Have some ideas, but down the road a bit.

    • Keanuwastaken
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Any plans for making new support characters, they desperately need more characters.

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @Keanuwastaken @PlayOverwatch Yes, it's one of our long-term focuses. Right now the pool is quite small for two players to choose from. May see more new supports than other roles to bolster that pool. Also, there's still lots of interesting space for us to explore as designers when making supports!

    • _MackEZ
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Hey Alec, I wanted to ask if the balance team or other parts of the dev team are planning on being more vocal through the overwatch official channels moving forward? even a 'we hear you' kinda thing it was great to hear you guys officially talk about the Doomfist issues

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @_MackEZ @PlayOverwatch Yes and you'll find us trying that through a variety of platforms. Today went rather well, hopefully we can make that a scheduled chat. From the design side, we want to share as much as possible. Will probably see some blog posts that dive into our philosophies.

    • derpingtoast
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch How do you guys feel about Roadhog right now? Common sentiment is that he's pretty weak and I've had people complain when I pick him, but he's honestly felt pretty strong and his competition is getting nerfed too

      • HS_Alec
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @derpingtoast @PlayOverwatch These recent changes could be big for Roadhog, we know he also pairs pretty well with Kiriko as she can take care of a lot of his weaknesses. So in the wait and see phase, but we have tinkered with some changes to his kit. Nothing we love just yet.

    • HS_Alec
      Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
      @PlayOverwatch Alright I know plenty of you had questions but I gotta go eat lunch! If there are any critical ones I missed, hopefully we can get to them next time. Until then, thank you and see y'all again soon!

      • Qwik
        Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
        @GW_Alec @PlayOverwatch Great job, Alec! Thanks to all who joined.

        • HS_Alec
          Posted 3 years, 2 months ago (Source)
          @Qwik @PlayOverwatch Thanks Mike!
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