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Overwatch Getting 2-2-2 Role Lock Soon

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Solidsnakejej

Solidsnakejej

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,765
Fort Lauderdale



The worst kept secret in OW, Its been heavily rumored/leaked up til now but we have official confirmation by way of OWL's Watchpoint which is supposed to air tomorrow but went live on the website early. The announcement is likely to happen 2 PM EST tomorrow and go up on PTR tomorrow around the same time then it should go live around 26-27 days from now with the 18th season given that they shorten the current competitive season. Not sure if this will affect Quick Play. This will be the biggest change to the game since 1 hero limits were introduced.



Edit:
Since the seems to be some confusion there will likely be a role queue coming as well, you're not gonna be rushed at the start of a game to choose which role you want to play.

These are OWL rules

Watchpoint video: https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/videos?v=X5zXAvpjx5R

The 2 rules that seem like they will affect the game are

- All Compositions are: 2 dps, 2 tanks, 2 Supports
- Cannot change roles during a map.


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Solidsnakejej said:
Quick Summary
Patch Notes
Jeff Kaplan Interview
News Post
Developer Update


- 2-2-2 Roll Queue coming to Competitive and Quick Play
- Arcade getting a Quick Play Classic 1 hero limit
- You can queue up for the 3 roles separately, all 3 together, or a mix like DPS and Tank

- Patch live roll out details
Role Queue is currently available on the public test region on PC, and will be coming to live servers starting with a Role Queue Beta Season in Patch 1.39. In an effort to give time for additional testing and feedback, we'll be running the two-week Role Queue Beta Season from August 13 to September 1. Players can earn Competitive Points similar to other competitive mini seasons and qualify for Top 500 Leaderboards during the beta season. However, beta season stats will only be available for a limited time and will not count toward a player's permanent Competitive Season stats. (Note: Competitive Season 17 will be shortened by approximately two weeks in order to accommodate the Role Queue Beta Season.)

Role Queue will be fully available for Quick Play and Competitive Play beginning on September 1 for the start of Competitive Season 18.
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- SR decay has been removed
- 4 top 500 leaderboards coming, one for each rank and a combined average
- There will be rewards for selecting certain roles which will rotate
- There will be no MMR reset, the game has been tracking MMR on each role for months now

- Zenyatta Lore coming Blizzard soon™

-New Hero leaked, Sigma expected by the end of the summer
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LowParry

LowParry

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Oct 26, 2017
5,735
Sounds like I'll reinstall the game. Been waiting for this feature for quite a while.
 
Obi

Obi

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Oct 27, 2017
601
As long as they keep it out of quick play I'm okay with it. But I'd prob drop the game if everything was enforced 2-2-2. I like being able to try out and learn fun heroes like Sombra and Symetra without having to hear whining about stealing someone's DPS spot. Also I'm not the best DPS, but man you just can't tank all the time. It gets pretty frustrating. So it's nice to chill and play a DPS match sometimes. But getting yelled at for taking a spot is gonna ruin that.
 
Neoxon

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I'd imagine that this will be incorporated into Ranked sooner rather than later.
 
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Solidsnakejej

Solidsnakejej

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13,765
Fort Lauderdale
Obi said:
As long as they keep it out of quick play I'm okay with it. But I'd prob drop the game if everything was enforced 2-2-2. I like being able to try out and learn fun heroes like Sombra and Symetra without having to hear whining about stealing someone's DPS spot.
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You'd be queuing for one of the 2 DPS slots then, Its not going to be whoever gets a certain role first.
 
GooZ

GooZ

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Oct 25, 2017
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This will get me to reinstall the game. Summer Genji skin was putting me on edge to install just to obtain it.
 
Red Arremer

Red Arremer

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Obi said:
As long as they keep it out of quick play I'm okay with it. But I'd prob drop the game if everything was enforced 2-2-2. I like being able to try out and learn fun heroes like Sombra and Symetra without having to hear whining about stealing someone's DPS spot. Also I'm not the best DPS, but man you just can't tank all the time. It gets pretty frustrating. So it's nice to chill and play a DPS match sometimes. But getting yelled at for taking a spot is gonna ruin that.
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I mean, on the other hand, as a tank/support player, it's also kind of shitty to want to practice those roles and then you end up having to solo tank/heal because you have a Widow, Hanzo and Ashe, and after you and another tank/support player picks, the 6th who doesn't pick until everyone's already loaded in thinks Junkrat or Genji is the best option to go for.

The only times I get to play DPS heroes or compositions with less than 3 DPS characters is mystery heroes.
 
Acidote

Acidote

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Oct 26, 2017
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This effectively destroys certain characters. I think we can expect a juggernaut of a character rework patch along with this change.
 

Deleted member 31817

Nov 7, 2017
30,876
Meh, I'd prefer them to balance so this isn't even needed. I like unconventional comps, maybe just have it so you need 1 healer (and maybe 1 tank) and the other 5/4 slots are open?
 
IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

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Psychoward said:
Meh, I'd prefer them to balance so this isn't even needed. I like unconventional comps, maybe just have it so you need 1 healer (and maybe 1 tank) and the other 5/4 slots are open?
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if this effects quick play, I think some people will leave the game. From my own personal experience with friends such as Kaelan on Overwatch, the amount of times we've played it and people would refuse to lock in tank or healers was pretty fucking high. I see people going frustrated by not being able to instant lock in their heroes if the role gets fulfilled quickly in the beginning of matches.

I play SMITE, so I'm absolutely all for unconventional comps that happen to work (such as some Mages being able to play in the ADC role etc). I just wonder how this will effect heroes and if there's gonna be a big change to the categorization of them.

Like, I wonder if heroes will now be labeled with two different role tags such as DPS/Tank etc or something like that to allow certain heroes to be played in different positions?
 
Nome

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Can anyone explain why players can't change roles within a map?
 
MCD

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I like this. While I won many games solo healing 5 dps or some god forsaken comp, I don't find it fun in that "OW" fun sense.

Hopefully they balance heroes like Brig for this and we see less stalling as a result in 2cp maps. No more everyone going hyper pepega heroes just to stall. So fucking annoying. And no more three flankers up my ass. Game can br frustrating with these nasty comps.
 
Acidote

Acidote

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Nome said:
Can anyone explain why players can't change roles within a map?
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Right now they can, but for a while the meta has gone for a composition people called GOATS, after the name of the team first used it in a competition. It's pretty much a specific composition of only tanks and healers.

No matter how much Blizzard tries to balance those characters, GOATS still reigns as it's success comes from a base design problem that rised when more characters were added to the roster. They're trying to correct it with these changes.

Static said:
Like... trade roles? Perhaps just because it would be unnecessarily convoluted?
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Yeah, if he means this, it would be convoluted for a matchmaking system.
 
IDontBeatGames

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Nome said:
Can anyone explain why players can't change roles within a map?
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I obviously have no knowledge for this decision, but it's the same way in most MOBAs. It's probably to get people use to having to create a composition for the team and having to stick with it. In most MOBAs, you make that pick for your hero/god etc, you're stuck with it the whole match. At least during sets, you can switch it up per-map but it's kind of good getting players used to the fact that they have to stick with a composition and their pick for an entire map.

I'd also like to hopefully assume or dream for role-queuing in Overwatch. SMITE's recently added this and it's had more of a positive than negative effect for people. It's allowed people to select two roles (one main, one secondary) to queue up for in the lobby and they label the role you get once you get into the lobby for god selection. More often than not, you get your role from the two you selected to queue for.
 
SubvertedTrope

SubvertedTrope

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Sep 14, 2018
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How bad have things gotten with goats they have to do this...

Personally I watched and liked owl last year, this trashfire of a season I tune in like once every stage, and it's just so boring and forced and kind of exposed a lot of cracks in ow's design.

As extreme as this is in the middle of the season, I think another stage of goats would see viewers flee in droves.
 
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Solidsnakejej

Solidsnakejej

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SubvertedTrope said:
How bad have things gotten with goats they have to do this...

Personally I watched and liked owl last year, this trashfire of a season I tune in like once every stage, and it's just so boring and forced and kind of exposed a lot of cracks in ow's design.

As extreme as this is in the middle of the season, I think another stage of goats would see viewers flee in droves.
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Its not goats being dominate in OWL that brought on this decision its that the retail game will be getting it soon and they want parity between OWL and retail or as close to it as they can get, They're doing it early so that teams have time to play it in a regular game environment before playoffs.
 
LordofPwn

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Needs a flex slot I think. I don't think any team needs three healers but triple DPS and triple tank seem fine. The problem right now though is having to solo tank or solo heal and it just sucks to deal with. Like I can solo tank as Orisa but that doesn't work on all maps. Solo healing is very difficult so having 2 always would be nice and making it so you don't have 4 DPS sounds fantastic to me.

My biggest issue I have as is, is that my hero picks are very map dependent. Control maps I like Lucio. Some maps I'd rather tank, others I'd rather play DPS on. If we're queuing for roles I could end up getting stuck playing a role on a map I'm not as good at. A solution could be preferences so if I queue for healer I could limit it to control game modes only. Or maybe just have a map preference setting so like pick 2 maps you really like and 2 maps you'd like to avoid. Would help me at least.
 
Buttchin-n-Bones

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Let's go dude!

SubvertedTrope said:
How bad have things gotten with goats they have to do this...

Personally I watched and liked owl last year, this trashfire of a season I tune in like once every stage, and it's just so boring and forced and kind of exposed a lot of cracks in ow's design.

As extreme as this is in the middle of the season, I think another stage of goats would see viewers flee in droves.
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GOATS is just a symptom. Fact is, without role limits, Blizzard simply can't foresee every possible broken combo of heroes that can occur without role limits. We've had at least three or four different metas with 3+ heroes of the same role, all exploiting overlapping roles due to the nature of OW encouraging kills for most heroes. The problem right now is Goats, but before that it was Triple Tank, and it would've been Triple DPS before long. 2/2/2 limits endless creativity, but provides for an environment of much more stable balancing.

And you can still get creative with 2/2/2 comps.
 
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Solidsnakejej

Solidsnakejej

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Morgan Park said:
As someone not plugged into the Ranked/Competitive scene, who does this affect the most?
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Brigitte would be the most notable one, then Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog.

The said in a leaked conference call with OWL teams that changes to those characters are in the works
2-2-2 role lock

During the call, teams also made it clear they had not been given many details about the 2-2-2 role lock for Stage 4 of the 2019 Overwatch League Season. Teams asked when they could expect a new balance patch to practice with, and league officials said teams will play on the current PTR patch for Stage 4 without further changes based around the role lock. No one mentioned specifically when heroes such as Brigitte or Roadhog would get changes to compensate for the role lock, but they are in the works according to officials.
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ReginaldXIV

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2:2:2 locked is not a good idea without huge character changes in the more specialized DPS roles that do less damage but have a lot of utility like Sombra. Also forced 2:2:2 will make pirate ships harder to deal with since those tend to be countered by a bunch of tanks.

Not having the option to clutch out a random team composition might mean Overwatch is over for people like me who like to be flexible given what's happening in a match.
 
kinoki

kinoki

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I don't like it. I always loved playing asymmetric teams. I didn't like when people just went for DPS.

Isn't going to affect me much. Always playing tank or healer anyway. Mostly healer.
 

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I'm really looking forward to this, I think it'll be more fun in the long run. There will be teething pains at first with people playing roles they have no clue how to play, but then again that's sort of what plat/diamond is like already.
 

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IDontBeatGames said:
if this effects quick play, I think some people will leave the game. From my own personal experience with friends such as Kaelan on Overwatch, the amount of times we've played it and people would refuse to lock in tank or healers was pretty fucking high. I see people going frustrated by not being able to instant lock in their heroes if the role gets fulfilled quickly in the beginning of matches.

I play SMITE, so I'm absolutely all for unconventional comps that happen to work (such as some Mages being able to play in the ADC role etc). I just wonder how this will effect heroes and if there's gonna be a big change to the categorization of them.

Like, I wonder if heroes will now be labeled with two different role tags such as DPS/Tank etc or something like that to allow certain heroes to be played in different positions?
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I fully expect folks will quit games left and right, and when they get a quitter penalty, they'll quit the game. This is like telling someone they can't pick a shoto in a fighting game- people want to play who they want to play.

That said, having heroes have three "grooves" for Healer/DPS/Tank- that would be interesting- though I don't know how you could do say, a healer Junkrat.
 
Zomba13

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If it comes to quick play then I can see that turning out horrible. Gonna have a looooooot of games with the insta locked 2 snipers on DPS who refuse to change off widow and hanzo and are terrible at them.
 
Richietto

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Its clear that balancing the game as is isn't possible for them, and I can see why. So many characters, new ones mean needing to balance a ton of other characters, and switching on the fly means even more balance adjustments. Its not like a Moba where you're stuck with whatever character you pick, thats easier to balance regardless of how many characters you add. Is it all ideal? Not with the original mission statement being what it was, but maybe balancing around a 2-2-2 setup will make for a better game. And frankly the game needs something.
 
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Solidsnakejej

Solidsnakejej

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crazyfunster said:
I fully expect folks will quit games left and right, and when they get a quitter penalty, they'll quit the game. This is like telling someone they can't pick a shoto in a fighting game- people want to play who they want to play.

That said, having heroes have three "grooves" for Healer/DPS/Tank- that would be interesting- though I don't know how you could do say, a healer Junkrat.
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Other then the other person in your role taking your character which already happens I don't see a way to not get your character, if anything you get a better shot at it because there is only 1 other person vying for it. You'll be queuing for a specific role.
 
Zackat

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crazyfunster said:
I fully expect folks will quit games left and right, and when they get a quitter penalty, they'll quit the game. This is like telling someone they can't pick a shoto in a fighting game- people want to play who they want to play.

That said, having heroes have three "grooves" for Healer/DPS/Tank- that would be interesting- though I don't know how you could do say, a healer Junkrat.
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Won't they just make it so you queue from the outset as the role you want? Tanks and supports will just have shorter queues.

Maybe I'm just misguided, but that's how it works in every other blizzard game.
 
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