Overwatch Meta-Game
With the end of an era comes a new one to take it’s place. The so-called “Holy Trinity of Twos” (2 Offence, 2 Tanks, 2 Support) strategy was the staple in competitive Overwatch for a majority of the game’s short, but influential lifespan. With the meta-game ever changing with each patch, character nerfs, buffs, and map changes all dictate how the game’s evolution proceeds. These changes led to the slow demise of one of the game’s most well known strategies and in it’s wake spawned a new, unorthodox take on the traditional team composition. Triple tank, triple support, otherwise known to the community as the “Double Triple,” this strategy basically abuses the high health pool and destructive capabilities of tanks coupled with the elderly Egyptian, Ana’s ultimate ability “Nano-Boost” which grants the recipient a brief, but all too effective boost to durability, speed, and damage output which can make quick work of your opponent and potentially turn the tides of a match. For those who are unaware, the meta-game is a term used in a wide variety of games, in Overwatch, however, the meta-game consists of the most used heroes, strategies, team compositions, and hero combinations (i.e Ana & Reinhardt, Pharah & Mercy, and Zarya with pretty much everyone). Overwatch’s meta is very unique considering it is a hybrid shooter with heavy team-based elements found in games like Team Fortress 2 and many of today’s MOBA’s (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Relying heavily on the idea that you should be constantly thinking of ways to counter your opponent’s team composition, the importance of the meta is prominent in even the lowest levels of play, however in different tiers of gameplay results may vary.
Public Test Region
That is where the latest PTR (Public Test Region) comes into play. The PTR is used to test out a patch before they release it to the general population in order to tweak any changes they made or further the changes they hope to make. With the latest PTR, Blizzard has been very busy tweaking some characters to make them more viable during higher levels of play, while simultaneously decreasing the overall effectiveness of others. Widowmaker, the French assassin who has seen a nerf in the past, is getting her ADS (Aim Down Sights) speed increased from 0.5 seconds to 0.3 seconds. While that might not look significant on paper, it is a much needed buff to her rifle which will make her overall viability improve tremendously making her more effective in fast paced situations which previously felt too sluggish when trying to use the pale blue sniper. Other notable changes made in this PTR is the speed in which the animation for Junkrat’s ultimate ability “RIP-Tire” comes out, reducing the animation’s start up speed from 4 seconds to 3 seconds, making his ultimate fall in line with some of the other similar abilities, as well as a change to how frequent Ana’s ultimate ability charges increasing the cost of the Nano-Boost by 20% while also making her Biotic Grenade’s blast radius larger by 1 meter from 3 to 4. You can find all of the patch notes here.
New Beginnings?
The buff to Widowmaker spells potential trouble for the new triple tank, triple support meta we’re just now getting used to as the assassin, in the right hands, can easily pick off an enemy Ana cowering in the back lines trying to charge her ultimate ability. Ana is essential to the team comp to break enemy lines and force teams to scatter as a nano-boosted Reinhardt or Roadhog marches towards them wielding certain death. With Ana out of the equation, non-self sustaining tanks like Reinhardt or Winston will have a hard time pushing objectives and, frankly, could make the whole composition fall apart. This is especially dangerous for me as I primarily play tanks and my team usually builds around my choice of either Roadhog or Reinhardt respectively. Usually opting in for Roadhog on mutual objective maps like Nepal and Ilios and Reinhardt for payload maps like King’s Row and Eichenwalde. With the introduction of these changes, it may be detrimental to the way I’ve had to adjust to the latest change of the meta-game and force another change in both team composition and overall play style. Time would tell, but it looks like Blizzard is actively trying to nudge the meta-game in the right direction so the game doesn’t become stale or unappealing to those who are on the receiving end of a blue-aura’d smack to the head with a gigantic hammer.