Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

Here are some ball POTGs I've recorded. The most recent one was last night when I somehow managed to get mines before my other mines disappeared.

Hi all,

Would it be OK if my 12 year old son and I joined the group. We just downloaded the Overwatch free trial and are having a lot of fun. If it's an "adult only" group I totally understand but he's well behaved and pretty mature for his age.

jdzappa wrote:

Hi all,

Would it be OK if my 12 year old son and I joined the group. We just downloaded the Overwatch free trial and are having a lot of fun. If it's an "adult only" group I totally understand but he's well behaved and pretty mature for his age.

Should be good! I think just setting the expectation that there’s a kid in the group chat will help all of us moderate ourselves. Late Friday and Saturday evenings very rarely veer off into the drunk and disorderly category but there shouldn’t be a problem keeping our chats PG

staygold wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

Hi all,

Would it be OK if my 12 year old son and I joined the group. We just downloaded the Overwatch free trial and are having a lot of fun. If it's an "adult only" group I totally understand but he's well behaved and pretty mature for his age.

Late Friday and Saturday evenings very rarely veer off into the drunk and disorderly category but there shouldn’t be a problem keeping our chats PG

Love this. Bolding mine.

Some Total Mayhem Doomfist.

Am I missing something, or is the new "priority pass" thing completely bonkers?

The idea is that when you fill as unpopular roles, it rewards you with "passes" for faster DPS queues. But the system gives 3-5 passes each time you fill, and queueing as DPS only uses one. So it encourages everyone to queue as DPS 75% of the time, ensuring longer queues than with no priority system.

Blizzard can't be this dumb. What am I not seeing?

fenomas wrote:

Am I missing something, or is the new "priority pass" thing completely bonkers?

The idea is that when you fill as unpopular roles, it rewards you with "passes" for faster DPS queues. But the system gives 3-5 passes each time you fill, and queueing as DPS only uses one. So it encourages everyone to queue as DPS 75% of the time, ensuring longer queues than with no priority system.

Blizzard can't be this dumb. What am I not seeing?

No, it seems they messed it up. I saw a couple articles about that and that people were basically throwing games or ending up in positions they had no idea how to play.

I saw some articles like that, but didn't pay much attention - people throw regardless, and lots of players blame every loss on their teammates throwing, etc.

What I don't get is the system itself. The more people that use it, the longer dps queues will get, even if nobody throws and everyone plays as intended. It's utterly bonkers.

fenomas wrote:

I saw some articles like that, but didn't pay much attention - people throw regardless, and lots of players blame every loss on their teammates throwing, etc.

What I don't get is the system itself. The more people that use it, the longer dps queues will get, even if nobody throws and everyone plays as intended. It's utterly bonkers.

Maybe people will enjoy the totally not often thankless roles of healing and tanking more?

And as a tank/support person I can now play more dps games that I probably wouldn't have played before. I understand the idea but it should be 1-1 at best. Still, I think they are trying even if they aren't addressing the actual problems (making the other roles more enjoyable, more characters in the other roles, nerfing the f*ck out of any support that can have a direct impact, etc.)

EvilHomer3k wrote:

And as a tank/support person I can now play more dps games that I probably wouldn't have played before.

How so? For me dps queues are longer than before, and tank/heal queues are naturally unaffected.

With the pass the queues are cut in half (roughly). So I'll play as dps more than I would have before. Without the pass, yes, they're longer.

Also, did anyone lose passes? I had 39/40 yesterday and today I have 16. I haven't played since yesterday.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

With the pass the queues are cut in half (roughly).

I'm not talking about how fast queues are with and without the pass, I'm talking about with and without the pass system generally.

Are the queues longer with a pass than they were pre-pass? I don't think they are. I think the queues may be a little bit longer but definitely shorter using the pass.

I mean, if everyone actively used the pass system, and queued dps often enough to use all their passes, then absolutely queues would be longer than before. Mathematically they'd have to be.

But presumably people's tolerance for queueing hasn't changed, so in practice some won't use up their passes and the steady state will be whatever it was before.

If the people accepting the priority queue to get passes are composed proportionally more of the damage players then it would reduce the queue length for the damage queue in two ways. Firstly the people diverted to other roles are not in the damage queue while they are playing those roles and secondly they are allowing more games to start also reducing the damage queue.

This would be offset by players who would otherwise play tank and support using the priority system to play more damage.

The net effect would really depend on the proportionate behaviour of the different player groups.

From my anecdotal experience it doesn’t seem to have changed the estimated wait time on the non-priority damage queue much.

As for my own behaviour, I usually play tank or support and while I’ve been racking up priority passes I haven’t actually used that many.

Interesting tip I learned and have been trying out to great effect: Sigma's melee does not impact his fire rate. Therefore a combo of fire-fire-melee effectively gives you 20% more damage for free if the enemy is in melee range. Combo that with some shield dancing (especially against a Lucio or Reaper) and it's really helped elevate my kill ratio.

This is a rule that applies to every hero (to varying degrees of success and level of value) but it's something I think more GWJ folks could consider adding to their kit. Melee is definitely an under rated component of the overall damage kit of most heroes.

Hey! I did Zen kick a Reinhardt to death tonight!

The two least painful tanks each get a nerf in the latest beta card. Ball gets less shield on his E ability, and Sigma has a much longer cooldown after canceling his barrier until he can redeploy it.

Blizzard: DPS queue times are a real problem and we are actively looking for solutions.

Also Blizzard: So anyway, here's the latest round of tank nerfs....

The fact that there's far more DPS characters than Tanks or Healers and Blizzard still can't figure out why people all want to play DPS all the time is BAFFLING to me.

I'd be seriously interested in comparing the ratio of DPS : Tank : Support characters in the game to DPS : Tank : Support main players playing the game.

Not that correlation necessarily implies causation, but I also don't think it should be surprising that when Blizzard communicates to its player base that this is the fun category with all the variety, that its player base is drawn to it.

hbi2k wrote:

I'd be seriously interested in comparing the ratio of DPS : Tank : Support characters in the game to DPS : Tank : Support main players playing the game.

Not that correlation necessarily implies causation, but I also don't think it should be surprising that when Blizzard communicates to its player base that this is the fun category with all the variety, that its player base is drawn to it.

Also snipers and grief causing characters.

hbi2k wrote:

Not that correlation necessarily implies causation, but I also don't think it should be surprising that when Blizzard communicates to its player base that this is the fun category with all the variety, that its player base is drawn to it.

For me, the big issue is that more characters means more variety in play. It's easier to get bored playing a tank or a healer because you have a much more limited number of ways to play. As a DPS I can do all KINDS of crazy things..

[CORRESPONDENCE] POST FOR TOSHIRO YAMAGAM

And so the speculation runs rampant. Just some lore flavor for the recently released map? Hints for a new hero? Setting the stage for the next Archives event, or for Overwatch 2?

The pre-loaded update was pretty darn big.

Valmorian wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Not that correlation necessarily implies causation, but I also don't think it should be surprising that when Blizzard communicates to its player base that this is the fun category with all the variety, that its player base is drawn to it.

For me, the big issue is that more characters means more variety in play. It's easier to get bored playing a tank or a healer because you have a much more limited number of ways to play. As a DPS I can do all KINDS of crazy things..

To each there own. I freaking love playing both Tanks and Support. My regret is that I don't play them all. Supports have more impact on the game than any other class. Not even close, IMO. I LOVE DPS who do all sorts of crazy things when they are against me. Any class really that does "crazy things" as it means they are a solo player that is not in sync with there team, more often than not. OW, at its core, is a team coordinated game. Unfortunately, a high percentage continue to play it as a k/d ratio shooter and ignore maps, corners, team comp synergy, etc. When a 6 stack, communicative, hero swapping game of OW goes your way, it is there with the satisfaction of when I played college soccer back in the day and we just clicked.

bhchrist wrote:

To each there own. I freaking love playing both Tanks and Support.

I like tanks and support too, I just wish there were more to choose from.

Valmorian wrote:
bhchrist wrote:

To each there own. I freaking love playing both Tanks and Support.

I like tanks and support too, I just wish there were more to choose from.

Exactly.