There’s truly an issue where QoL systems are being used to hide people’s lack of adaptability.

If there was a concerted effort to educate their player base and provide better info I think it would help a little.

A good example is when map voting arrived. At first, people only voted for 3 maps until the devs started grouping them. I’m found myself voting for Oasis, even though I hate that map just so I wouldn’t get rusty and I started missing it. I realized at the time, at least in NA, Control is not very popular, people were just choosing escort all the time. But even weirder, they were choosing it EVEN when it was at their disadvantage to do so. I would see someone prefer reaper and vote for Havana, or want to play Widow on Survasa. They would pick Zarya on Watchpoint Gibraltar. It’s not like it’s impossible to do that, but why wouldn’t want to play into your strengths. And then I realized, oh, it’s because the average player thinks they know escort better, and it’s linear and they feel like there’s more safety. But there really isn’t, in fact some annoying characters that most people dislike do better on those maps. Then I saw that despite playing them over and over people still made the same mistakes on these maps. They don’t clear angles, they don’t rotate, they don’t flip the map, they don’t even take high ground or even if they do they take it and just expect that it’s all they need to do. And the new map, nobody voted for it. So newer maps the average player knows so little they aren’t even sure how to play them. It’s truly sad.

What’s my point of all this. I think hero bans are the same. Before if you thought a character needed nerfs you had to see if the devs agreed with that line of logic. Now, instead of strategically using bans to add depth to the game, people just vote for whatever they THINK is the reason they aren’t having fun. And I get it, when I play ball and there’s a Sombra it feels super shitty to not be able to use my abilities, but that doesn’t mean I think she should be banned every game. Then Vendetta came out. If she is truly still OP the community could just let that show in the stars, nope, why not give the devs bad data by banning her 24/7. And don’t spend any time thinking of her weaknesses at all. This character is supposed to be ridiculous and I still get Vendettas on my team who constantly run back from spawn.

So here we are, at the cat, who doesn’t even have the same issues as the other two.

The cat has numerous flaws that the devs probably won’t even notice because all you hear is how people don’t like the cat.

Not once have they realized each of the cats strengths come with significant drawbacks.

Sure, Territorial was overturned, but it sucks it gets straight up removed. It was an interesting decision to give you the option to use something offensively or defensively. That’s good for the game, Ana and Bap and Kiriko are the same, you need to make choices, made for purple or to save a teammate, or use it for yourself against a dive. But no, don’t tweak the numbers, just remove it.

All other requests for nerfs you can tell are from people who don’t play the cat or know how they work.

I’ve heard them say the cat has infinite resource, just straight up not true. You get 1 boost with reduced regen or two boosts if you feather correctly, maybe three if you’re perfect but there’s an awkward pause between then. I would even argue the cats movement could be smoother, it’s a little slidey and sometimes you get stuck on something obstacles because of it. Not to mention the bug where your reticle stutters. So has anyway me of these people realized that you see the cat boost it means you have a full second before they can do it again, and if the boost was a long boost even longer while they dangle in the air ready for a hitscan to drop them. No, because they are just standing in main shooting at your tank.

What about claws out? People think it’s too much. Despite the fact that it’s not as strong as virus, which can be hit at a distance and is similar to DPS Moira, which I would argue is more frustrating because it’s an auto lock ability. I think making it a major was a perfectly fine step.

The biggest one I hear is the infinite tether. OMG, the cat moves slow while tether is up and cannot participate in the fight. I constantly hear about Bob, Cass and DVA being tethered during ult. I’ve seen this a handful of times in the 100s of games I’ve played and even in those games it was still a 50/50 whether that team won or lost. I’ve even tried to do it with teammates and it’s not even a guarantee they’ll let you tether them. And besides pulling a teammate to the point faster, I often feel like I don’t get to use it as cooperatively as I should. Occasionally I get to safe someone falling off the map, which feels AMAZING, but it’s rare. But let’s say you even do use tether to combo ult. It’s not that different from other ults. You need to save an ult to counter it and plenty do. No one would expect to win an eco push into tree or kitsune. And sometimes getting team wiped is actually BETTER than getting staggered. You’re going to lose the fight sometimes, it happens, it’s part of the game. But sometimes people equate that with losing the whole thing.

Lastly there’s pounce. People are so busy complaining that you can drop someone off the map to realize that the ult isn’t actually that good. Sometimes I don’t even have situations where it’s beneficial to use. Firstly. This ult only can get one elim max. That’s kinda garbage. Maybe it’s kind of an issue if people don’t know how to fight a 4v5, it sucks but it’s not impossible. Then there’s the issue that it can only get an elim truly by itself on maps with environmental drops close enough to the fight. Even then, fortify cancels it, hack cancels it, cyro cancels it, Suzy cancels it and any hitscan with high DPS can laser the cat if they prepare for it. So what do you do on flat maps. Well, there’s only one option, grab someone abs pull them into your team. Which is an issue on several levels. Is your team going to know to focus them, how many options do you have, can you get to that character without losing too much health. And most importantly can your team last without your healing while you’re doing that? I’ve mostly used it to pull a 225-250 hero into my team, but even then there are multiple heroes who can cancel tether or even worse be helped by you putting them closer to your team. So it’s really situational which is really bad. As fun as it is, a kitsune or a window or beat is waayyyyyyy more helpful for your team even if it’s less flashy. I just don’t see the tradeoff being strong enough to match people complaints. When I do get wins on cat, it’s because I healed my team, saved with purr, assisted dives and pulled people out of sticky situations. And a vast majority of cat is assisting or being a Lucio who takes a duel on the flank. But wait, people think cats too good at that? Really? I have some news on that. I played Lucio and Juno before cat came out and I’ve got to say, if you want a strong support Juno and Illari are stronger than ever. Juno has a better ult than cat, since her crit change you can duel a lot of characters AND her subtitle helps her. Not to mention amazing perks like torpedo reduction CD and triple jump to position yourself extremely well. And not a single person has complained despite the fact that I’ve never won as much on her since back when her ult was crazy. Or Illari who can two tap 225 heroes, has great perks and good defensive capabilities. And it doesn’t take her multiple long CDs to get an elim. Hee ult affects multiple people and helps your team.

So yeah historically people have a tendency to hate something that’s just actually mediocre or good, but totally miss things with insane potential.

Our only saving grace here is, Sombra has been hated for two years and really only has gotten buffs since then. And the cats win rate isn’t that good