So how are your games going lately? [megathread]

[Twen]

On the topic of dupes, I initially didn't get much during the event, more toward the end, but after that I've been getting them almost exclusively again. Every box literally full of dupes since then, aside from one item for a couple of times. I checked and I'm still missing stuff on almost every character in every category, aside from blue-quality skin recolors, so it's really not about me having nearly all the things. It feels like I'm right back to the time before the loot box changes were implemented.

[Deleted]

Hey, is the game still kicking around, is it worth picking it up ? Is the population okey for quick matches ? Also is the community toxic ? I am interested on picking this game up. Is it worth to buy now ? Thanks.

[Jessicka]

Hey, is the game still kicking around, is it worth picking it up ? Is the population okey for quick matches ? Also is the community toxic ? I am interested on picking this game up. Is it worth to buy now ? Thanks.

It's still around, has a solid population and good for quick matches. It can be pretty toxic however, but recent announcements and changes are starting to fix that.

[rarhyx]

just play deathmatch and you don't have to deal with toxic team members

[Jessicka]

I have formally established that new D.Va is horrendously bad. And new Mercy is ridiculously OP, and it's basically a game of best or least dead Mercy wins. No more comp until they sort this shit out, because this is inexcusable. On the free weekend as well. Seriously.

[DeadmanWalking]

On the topic of dupes, I initially didn't get much during the event, more toward the end, but after that I've been getting them almost exclusively again. Every box literally full of dupes since then, aside from one item for a couple of times. I checked and I'm still missing stuff on almost every character in every category, aside from blue-quality skin recolors, so it's really not about me having nearly all the things. It feels like I'm right back to the time before the loot box changes were implemented.

As am I, and people are complaining on the OW bug channel. Something happened after the last event.

[Endus]

I have formally established that new D.Va is horrendously bad. And new Mercy is ridiculously OP, and it's basically a game of best or least dead Mercy wins. No more comp until they sort this shit out, because this is inexcusable. On the free weekend as well. Seriously.

D.va needs more survivability. Defensive Matrix was OP because of the defense it provided to the team, but it also protected D.va. She needs like 30% more health/armor or something.

New Mercy is fine. If anything, she just exposes that some of the healers (Zen and Ana) need some love. Ana's been kind of eh since her nerfs; that she can't heal through enemy barriers, that anyone body-blocking prevents her healing, these are massive negatives and she has little to offset it. And Zen, as strong as his base kit is, is very one-dimensional and doesn't bring any real flexibility.

For Ana, I'd want a mobility boost. She needs verticality. Not a grapple like Widowmaker's, but give her a wall-climb like Hanzo/Genji or something, to let her get some height and verticality. She's supposed to be a sniper, and can't get to sniper spots.

For Zen, he also probably needs mobility, that or some kind of defensive tool. Either a move speed boost of some kind, or a deflect (like a low-grade Genji, but without the redirect component, just a purely defensive tool).

Buff the other healers, don't nerf new Mercy. The only change I'd MAYBE say she could use would be changing her Res so it needs 15s to charge when she spawns (since right now you can rez, duck back into spawn, swap heroes, swap back, step out and rez again), and have her lose the personal speed boost in her Ultimate.

[Jessicka]

You're understating Res. It undoes individual errors, it undoes individual outplays, and it costs nothing. Matches are won on those individual events, which are the single most likely thing to kill a player, and Mercy just swoops in and undoes them, it's not tedious, it's not 'unfun', it's not 'oppressive', it's flat out broken. If you don't start with Mercy, you're literally starting a player down, because she can instantly bring players back into the fight. It allows for far too much lax play. A good team doesn't benefit so much, because they don't get those deaths to fix, but they allow a Mercy to paper over an awful lot of cracks in a weaker team.

The main problem people had with fighting her was with how high a priority target she was, this hasn't fixed that, it's made it ten times worse.

[Endus]

You're understating Res. It undoes individual errors, it undoes individual outplays, and it costs nothing. Matches are won on those individual events, which are the single most likely thing to kill a player, and Mercy just swoops in and undoes them, it's not tedious, it's not 'unfun', it's not 'oppressive', it's flat out broken. If you don't start with Mercy, you're literally starting a player down, because she can instantly bring players back into the fight. It allows for far too much lax play. A good team doesn't benefit so much, because they don't get those deaths to fix, but they allow a Mercy to paper over an awful lot of cracks in a weaker team.

The main problem people had with fighting her was with how high a priority target she was, this hasn't fixed that, it's made it ten times worse.

I'm not ignoring that, I don't think it's a problem in the first place. It's her purpose. And if you can't get more than one kill every 30s, you aren't going to win that match anyway. Yes, her rez is strong. But it's a huge part of her kit. It's like saying that Discord orb isn't fair because it makes it so much easier to kill your team, or Bio Grenade isn't balanced because it cancels healing.

The issue with the 'old' Rez was twofold; it allowed your team to deliberately "play badly" and lose a teamfight while forcing the enemy to use ults to secure a win, and then rezzing everyone and turning that around, and it encouraged Mercy to avoid the teamfight so she could get that 5-man rez. Both contributed to "bad gameplay". The new rez, as you said, is about papering over occasional mistakes, that's it.

Nobody had an issue with Mercy being a priority target. It was that she was encouraged to hide and let her team lose the teamfight so she could get the rez, leaving your team with a net ult advantage if the enemy popped 2 or more to win that teamfight. It was the "encouraged to hide and let her team lose" part that was the bad part.

[Jessicka]

I'm not ignoring that, I don't think it's a problem in the first place. It's her purpose. And if you can't get more than one kill every 30s, you aren't going to win that match anyway. Yes, her rez is strong. But it's a huge part of her kit. It's like saying that Discord orb isn't fair because it makes it so much easier to kill your team, or Bio Grenade isn't balanced because it cancels healing.

The issue with the 'old' Rez was twofold; it allowed your team to deliberately "play badly" and lose a teamfight while forcing the enemy to use ults to secure a win, and then rezzing everyone and turning that around, and it encouraged Mercy to avoid the teamfight so she could get that 5-man rez. Both contributed to "bad gameplay". The new rez, as you said, is about papering over occasional mistakes, that's it.

Nobody had an issue with Mercy being a priority target. It was that she was encouraged to hide and let her team lose the teamfight so she could get the rez, leaving your team with a net ult advantage if the enemy popped 2 or more to win that teamfight. It was the "encouraged to hide and let her team lose" part that was the bad part.

The first kill is the most important, it's what opens the floodgates when the match becomes 6v5. 'Push on the first pick' is the oldest strat talked about. But, that pick is just undone and it just serves to draw out stalemates when a team is hard to break down. It's not about getting a kill every 30s, it's about getting the crucial first one that gives you the advantage.

[Woobels]

D.va needs more survivability. Defensive Matrix was OP because of the defense it provided to the team, but it also protected D.va. She needs like 30% more health/armor or something.

New Mercy is fine. If anything, she just exposes that some of the healers (Zen and Ana) need some love. Ana's been kind of eh since her nerfs; that she can't heal through enemy barriers, that anyone body-blocking prevents her healing, these are massive negatives and she has little to offset it. And Zen, as strong as his base kit is, is very one-dimensional and doesn't bring any real flexibility.

For Ana, I'd want a mobility boost. She needs verticality. Not a grapple like Widowmaker's, but give her a wall-climb like Hanzo/Genji or something, to let her get some height and verticality. She's supposed to be a sniper, and can't get to sniper spots.

For Zen, he also probably needs mobility, that or some kind of defensive tool. Either a move speed boost of some kind, or a deflect (like a low-grade Genji, but without the redirect component, just a purely defensive tool).

Buff the other healers, don't nerf new Mercy. The only change I'd MAYBE say she could use would be changing her Res so it needs 15s to charge when she spawns (since right now you can rez, duck back into spawn, swap heroes, swap back, step out and rez again), and have her lose the personal speed boost in her Ultimate.

They're careful with buffing Zen because he tips over to being broken really easily.

I've seen some exchange on a Discord server where a lot of the OWL guys hang out that any Zen buff is likely to be coupled with a decrease in damage or something along those lines.

What they should do (and is imo most likely)is just decrease his hitbox size, he's far too easy to hit for a character without mobility.

If they do buff him I hope do something creative like the have Discord orb + Harmony orb = some kind of defensive buff.

Ana I just want my damage back but I don't Blizz will ever do that ;;

[zito]

I have no motivation to get to grandmaster. I'm fine with master. It's mainly because of how toxic solo queuing is. I go Orisa cause we need a tank and someone immediately goes torb to troll, same thing with symmetra. Orisa is really great in non dive comp and Sym is a good counter against shield stacking but nobody wants to take anything but reddit meta seriously and just trolls the team.

But hey there's a fucking Pharah wrecking havoc so lets switch to reaper 99% of my games

- - - Updated - - -

They're careful with buffing Zen because he tips over to being broken really easily.

He needs 50 more hp imo. He's slow and vulnerable and requires aim and travel time to hit anything so he's pretty much a sitting duck, he needs to be able to take a hit. 200 hp doesn't cut it anymore.

[Very Tired]

Seems like the changes meant to reduce the pickrate of Mercy in comp have backfired... She's being picked more than before.

[Eapoe]

Seems like the changes meant to reduce the pickrate of Mercy in comp have backfired... She's being picked more than before.

It wasn't meant to reduce her pickrate, it was meant to change her playstyle. Move her away from hide and press Q. It's done that. Her pickrate has gone up because she got a change, much like how any character that changes gets picked more until people find they love or hate it.

[Endus]

Seems like the changes meant to reduce the pickrate of Mercy in comp have backfired... She's being picked more than before.

This was never meant to reduce her pick rate. It was primarily meant to remove one specific "bad gameplay" practice that her old design promoted; the idea that Mercy players would hide and not help in a teamfight, hoping that the enemy would blow 2 or more ultimates to secure the win, so she could sweep in and rez and net your team an ult use advantage without sacrificing position (since she's used one ultimate, and if they blew 2, you've got 5 potential ults left to the enemy team's potential 4).

They'd rather have Mercy actively contributing at all times, and that's what these changes provided.

[Eapoe]

Ugh, 2nd game this season with a thrower. Guess I should feeling lucky it hasn't happened more.
Really tired of people instalocking Mercy now and you look at their stats of 10 minutes playtime on her. Guess should feel happy people are trying something new, but I would like to stop losing to dumb things. Get outplayed? Fine. Lose to a thrower or someone wants to try the new shiny hero? Screw that.

[Jester Joe]

I still dislike the new Mercy.

Her ult still feels oddly messy and disorienting. Especially when you use it and then everyone just scatters out and you're left feeling like you're just trying to spam rez people when you can.

New Rez feels too...awful. You need to be too close to rez people, and it's no longer able to really turn the tides. I get that was the point, but when all other healing ults were based off of using them BEFORE the damage goes out, and they take the one that reacted AFTER and torn it out, it's just less diverse now.

I still don't think this was a change that was needed really. If you know the enemy team has a Mercy, and you're blowing all your ults while the Mercy isn't in sight, then it's fine to be punished for that. You misplayed. And it's not like her new ult drastically changes that, she can still sit to the side, swoop in and rez two people in a row.

[Very Tired]

This was never meant to reduce her pick rate. It was primarily meant to remove one specific "bad gameplay" practice that her old design promoted; the idea that Mercy players would hide and not help in a teamfight, hoping that the enemy would blow 2 or more ultimates to secure the win, so she could sweep in and rez and net your team an ult use advantage without sacrificing position (since she's used one ultimate, and if they blew 2, you've got 5 potential ults left to the enemy team's potential 4).

They'd rather have Mercy actively contributing at all times, and that's what these changes provided.

The changes were partially meant to reduce her pick rate. To many Mercy one-tricks getting higher comp ratings than they would have been with any other heroes. Leads to unskilled players if two or more of those Mercy mains are a team.

[Endus]

The changes were partially meant to reduce her pick rate. To many Mercy one-tricks getting higher comp ratings than they would have been with any other heroes. Leads to unskilled players if two or more of those Mercy mains are a team.

"Developer Comments: While resurrecting downed allies is a core part of Mercy’s gameplay, the way her Ultimate functioned was causing a number of problems. It was frustrating to play against, and it incentivized Mercy players to hide away from important battles, instead of taking part in them. This version turns Resurrect into a single target ability. It’s still an important part of Mercy’s kit, but plays much better for both Mercy players and her enemies. Valkyrie, her new Ultimate, gives her the opportunity for big game-making plays and opens a number of new options for her."

Right from the patch notes. No mention of "reducing pick rate" or anything like that.

[Very Tired]

"Developer Comments: While resurrecting downed allies is a core part of Mercy’s gameplay, the way her Ultimate functioned was causing a number of problems. It was frustrating to play against, and it incentivized Mercy players to hide away from important battles, instead of taking part in them. This version turns Resurrect into a single target ability. It’s still an important part of Mercy’s kit, but plays much better for both Mercy players and her enemies. Valkyrie, her new Ultimate, gives her the opportunity for big game-making plays and opens a number of new options for her."

Right from the patch notes. No mention of "reducing pick rate" or anything like that.

So you deny Mercy one-tricks were even a problem simply because they weren't mentioned in a paragraph...?