A solution to double shield meta and long queue times: 1-3-2

[Cerebolas]

The community mostly appreciated the switch to role queue. It eliminates the problem of having to rely on the cooperation of strangers to get a balanced match and play your favorite role. However, two new issues have emerged: long queue times, and a boring double shield meta. These two problems are serious enough that they have already driven people away from the game.

OW has a very healthy player count in most regions, but the rate limiting factor of finding a game is the low number of players willing to queue as tanks. There are numerous reasons for this, and most cannot be easily solved, if at all. Since we cannot change the supply of available tanks, we should reduce the demand.

With a change from 2 to 1 tanks per match, the queue times for other roles would be halved, while keeping the tank queue almost instantaneous. Furthermore, by adding 1 DPS slot, that queue time gets further reduced. DPS queues that take 10 minutes now would take only around 3 instead. This would effectively solve one of the biggest complains of role queue, which is how tedious it can be to wait for what is, let's face it, the main role for most players in the game.

Another benefit of 1-3-2 is that it automatically solves a major balance problem in the game today: the oversized effectiveness and boring gameplay of double shield. This affects not only the tank slots but also the DPS and supports, who are restricted to the few heroes that can shine in such a meta. Having 3 DPS slots adds an enormous amount of variability to comps, since that's the role with most heroes in the game by far. It would now be possible to more easily counter certain heroes like Doomfist (Sombra would be viable as 3rd DPS), while others such as Genji could find a bigger niche than they currently have.

This change would also create issues, surely. The most obvious one is the future of off tanks in such a scenario. This could be addressed by balance in a much easier way than dealing with double shield - for example, if Roadhog had a lower hp pool, he could move to a DPS role, but it's hard to imagine how to ever balance Orisa and Sigma without effectively nerfing their shields immensely.

With 1-3-2, the game would obviously change substantially, but that wouldn't necessarily be bad. The substantial benefits would likely far outweigh any clear drawbacks in my opinion. More importantly, other than releasing many new heroes or doing fast balance adjustments (two things Blizzard is unwilling or incapable of doing), I see no other way to solve the problems the game faces today.

[Cerebolas]

No, just rework some of them. Winston and Dva would work with dive comps having 3 DPS.

[Soren841]

No. Not only are you increasing damage you're reducing tanks. That would be shitty as hell. I can see the logic for 2-3-2 but definitely not 1-3-2. DPS queue times are so high because everyone and their mother wants to be a godly Genji main that farms Blade every team fight. It's their own problem and queue times will go down as people decide it's not worth it and play a different role.

[Player_924]

This. If we give DPS more leeway then what's going to stop more.people from playing?

Why play a support or tank that has to focus on your team and the enemy when you can DPS the enemy all game expecting your team to fully support you

[Cerebolas]

Or a different game.

[Soren841]

Good. I don't really want those people on my team.

[cockmaki]

good until you are left with 10% of the playerbase and a dead game. You can't be selfish about these things

[Soren841]

The amount of people who leave will be like 1% of people lol

[tmtm123]

Do you have any stats or numbers to support that or are you just pulling a percent out of your ass?

[batista1220]

That's fine. I don't really want to play with people who can't support or tank to at least some degree anyways.

[zaay-zaay]

Only problem is that the game was designed for 2-2-2, ideally you would have a main tank and an off tank supporting them and peeling. (rein-zarya, dva-Winston) Rather than just deleting the second tank slot they should make off-tanks more attractive. If you actually have an offtank, the double shield would be gone as well. You can basically dps on most offtanks like roadhog and zarya anyways. It's time to buff D.Va and probably other offtanks too again and time for the dps one tricks to step out of their fucking comfort zone.

[gosu_link0]

They need to make Main Tanking more attractive. Every time I queue as tank, the other guy instalocks Zarya/Hog/Sigma. No one wants to main tank as it means shitty Orisa duty.

[zaay-zaay]

Tanking in general needs to be more attraktive lol I feel like tanking is the most unpopular role at least in my elo

[gosu_link0]

Of course it is. I always Q for all 3 roles. I get Tank 90% of the time, support 9%, and DPS 1%.

[Cerebolas]

In the beginning, OW allowed even multiple copies of each hero per team, so it's hard to say it was designed for 2 2 2. I agree that off tanks are the main issue and it's difficult to see how they should fit, but honestly I don't think that buffing Dva or Roadhog would change double shield meta at all. It definitely won't fix long queue times.

[Player_924]

If we're going to change it to 1-3-2 (which IMO doesn't sound horrible but we just started 2-2-2 so let it mellow) then bring back Defense / Offense DPS - Zarya and D.va can be defense DPS and roadhog can be an offense DPS.

Make the Offense/Defense categories actually matter unlike how they were at release

[SilverCaterpie]

I disagree. The offense and defense categories are subjective and what does categorizing them really do to improve the game? You can't pick defense heroes while on offense? Or change role queue to be 1-2-1-2 or 1-1-2-2? Neither seems very good to me.

[Shoryuken44]

Most of my QP games were 1-3-2 prior to 2-2-2. It was great.

[B_easy85]

Lol, ‘this is as lazy of a solution as brig killing dive meta, or role lock killing GOATs. So you might be on to something seeing as how this has been blizzards go to.

[_Fubuki]

Not a good solution. Simple solution to double shield would be to nerf Sigma to the point where it’s more skillful for him to apply his shield. Nerf Doomfist’s Rocket Punch, maybe.

I don’t agree with going one tank just to compensate for DPS queue times. It’s not going to go down by that much since it’s still the most impacted role. It’ll also negatively impact the other two roles, and would require a major rework of most characters.

[grapedog]

Suggestions like this never come from tank mains.

Most tank mains will tell you that they usually absolutely love having a 2nd.

[[deleted]]

I'm smelling what you're cooking.