Blizzard’s first experimental mode addition is a big statement and puts a real emphasis on the idea of experimental. Triple damage dealers are a massive shake-up for Overwatch in the sense of it not being the norm. Triple DPS has been used throughout Overwatch but has never really stuck as the meta to play for both competitive ranked play as well as the highest level of Overwatch. For the longest time, players in competitive specifically, wanted compositions to be based on having two tanks, two DPS and two supports as it is the most balanced for the game. This, however often forced players to play off roles and thus perform at a worse capacity to their normal role, hence the implementation of role queue in the latter half of 2019.

The change towards having one tank, three DPS and two supports makes sense for the overall player base and the number of heroes per role. The number of players that play DPS far outweighs the rest of the roles and as such has caused longer queue times for DPS players with the implementation of role queue, something that Blizzard wants to fix and they feel will be fixed by having triple damage replace 2-2-2. In this sense the change is good, however, there could be some fundamental.

However, for the game itself, it does not seem to make sense. When 2-2-2 was implemented there were no major balance changes to heroes except for Brigitte to make her work in a composition with two healers instead of being played as a third support like she was in GOATS meta. Now with the proposition of triple damage or 1-3-2, we’re seeing several changes to heroes just to make them viable in this new setup. Main tank heroes like Reinhardt, Orisa, and Winston have all become tankier to allow them to function by themselves without another tank. In the same breath, off tank heroes like Zarya, Roadhog and D.Va have received buffs to allow them to function as a solo tank as opposed to needing a main tank to be effective. While I do not mind heroes getting major changes, having this many heroes changed just to allow for a setup to work seems to me that the game is being fundamentally changed too much.

Another issue is that some supports would probably need to be changed as well. However, if it becomes a scenario where all tanks are viable as a solo tank then we could see every support viable regardless. With this change then we could see each support share relatively equal playtime. For the current meta before hero pools having the supports of Lucio and Ana otherwise it was seen as throwing.

The next big issue is that even with these changes it does not seem like most tanks will be viable as a solo tank. Just like in the GOATS meta where teams played 1-3-2, Wrecking Ball on control and most attack points and Orisa on most defenses will be the most played since they both have the best survivability as a solo tank. Zarya, Roadhog, and D.Va do not seem to give enough support and space to the rest of the team, while Reinhardt lacks a lot of support not having that second tank and Winston does the same job as Wrecking ball but far worse.

While I may not be happy with this change and that it is not something that should be included in the game it is still encouraging that Blizzard is looking to make radical changes to the game. As with hero pools, it shows that Blizzard does care about the longevity of Overwatch and want to make sure they are trying everything they can to ensure that. I do want to see what other changes they will make going forward to try and make 1-3-2 viable as well as the other experimental changes they have planned.