New Heroes Always Being Overpowered

yeah, it is a pretty obvious tactic that most games do. But one thing to remember is that the hero is only slightly OP, the bigger reason they are OP is that other players don´t yet know how to counter them.. after a few weeks, players figure it out. So yeah, the devs will tone down the abilities of the new class over time, but at the same time, their counters are just more widely known by the competition.

 

I agree. I try to be more understanding when the character is new because it's not easy to make characters balanced right out the gate 100% of the time and sometimes it just takes mass feedback to figure it all out. There are too many factors such as counters and various other elements in the meta that need to be discovered but I agree that it can get a bit frustrating sometimes.

 

This is a common complaint across many games. Regardless of whether it is true or not whenever a new class, race, or hero is added to a game somebody is going to complain about it being OP. This is always the case though, sometimes they are OP sometimes they aren't. Even when they are it is only slightly and usually done to attract players to try what is new. Things are often balanced after a while in a patch. People get in a jealous huff over nothing.

 

WOW is the perfect example of both cases. Death Knights and Monks. Death Knights started out extremely strong, so much so that many melee (rogues and warriors) felt the need to change mains. Monks started out the opposite, on the weak and blah side, and while many people messed with them, they were always underrepresented.

But I think the debate comes down to whether developers of F2P games purposefully make new cash-shop items OP in order to get extra sales. I do think it is true in many games.

 

You raise some excellent points here. I think in some cases F2P games do try to get more money in that way. STO is a good example.

 

That sucks. I didn't know that. I hate it when developers pull that crap.

 

It really seems to be a pattern that HotS just releases heroes whenever they feel they've got to meet some imaginary deadline.. just look at Tracer's release to suit the Overwatch hype and get on that train. It is just awful to see this happening.

 

It is why I pay either f2p games with cosmetic stuff, or subscription based games seriously. When you have cash-shop items that effect performance, the devs are caught in the middle of making profits with game balance or making fun games. These are multimillion dollar businesses, there is NO way there isn´t some accountant involved with game design when it comes to games like LOL and HOTS.

And as said, the patch notes tell the story that players need to know. Buy a new hero and be OP for a few months.

 

Simply because a new champion gets nerfed in the next patch isn't enough 'evidence' to show that this is a tactic being used. Was Medic extremely OP when she launched? I know people claimed Butcher was, but all you had to do was kite him and he died instantly.

When you make a game, you can test all you want in a closed environment, but when it comes to putting it to the hundreds of thousands of players, you always get more information there. The heroes get nerfed because they might be slightly overtuned, but I've also seen them getting buffed as well.

 

Sorry, but patch notes are enough usually. You just compare the notes or stats on release or addition of a new hero/character with the nerf and you have your answer. If you actually do this you will often find this tactic used in many games, not for every hero/character, but at least with some.

 

No... No they aren't. You know what works better? Actual win statistics, so check out hotslogs instead. And even then, new champions are often seen as OP because everyone has no idea how to play against them. They might be slightly overtuned, but almost never to the point where picking them is pretty much a guaranteed win.

Also, reading through these replies, I don't think you guys know what a pay to win cash shop really is. It's a moba, there is no pay to win. So tracer comes out and you buy her, if you suck at the game then no matter how 'OP' the champion is, you'll still lose again and again.

 

Oh yeah, I'm not saying Tracer wasn't 'OP' at launch. What I'm saying is that there isn't some big conspiracy here. Some champions are strong at launch, others aren't. Was Cho'Gall OP at launch? If you knew how to play him well, then sure he was a good champion, but most people didn't.

Also, as a general rule, most new heroes are highly banned, A) because they aren't tuned enough yet, and B) because people simply don't want to play against heroes they don't know.

Take Butcher for example, he was equally strong and weak at launch.

Statistics matter more than anything else dude, they show actual facts and data.

In the end, some heroes launch OP, some launch weak, but either way they are banned more often than other heroes.

 

To be honest, I feel like it's difficult to make a new hero be balanced the first time it is launched. But for me, it's better if Blizzard launches new heroes that are underpowered rather than overpowered. Why? Here's a few reasons I can think of:

• There's potential for abuse. The first few days or weeks that an OP hero is launched, players might abuse this and take advantage of its abilities. It unbalances the game so much and puts the other players at a disadvantage.

• An overpowered hero is more likely to be bought. And once they tone down that hero's overpower abilities, then they would anger the players.

An underpowered hero won't be as bought as quickly and so the developers can figure out how to balance it without disturbing the gaming system. Yes, it might be bad for business, but it's the most beneficial solution for players.

 

Lunara and Dehaka were not overpowered at launch to name two fairly recently released heroes. I don't think they do it on purpose because it's quite difficult to balance a MOBA. These days we have the ban option in hero league to counter potentially strong heroes though, so it's not that big of a problem anymore. I would prefer to have them make interesting heroes with a cool play style, instead of a perfectly balanced hero that is nearly the same as the ones we already have.

 

Yep, that is definitely my opinion as well. Blizzard balancing, for the most part, is pretty decent, throughout all of their games.

I feel that some heroes that have a ton of mobility seem OP to many people, such as Tracer, but at the same time their also really, really fragile. Rather than a matter of releasing OP heroes, I think its more so that people need to learn how to play against new heroes.