Overwatch players can rest happy knowing that someone over at Blizzard is still thinking of bringing in some content. The latest experimental patch brought some sort of freshness to the game, and players have enjoyed the over-the-top changes. The only problem is that these changes are only experimental. None of the exciting new takes on the roles are only available in the non-competitive queue. That is why they won’t be considered in the 2021 Overwatch December Tier List.
So despite a small addition to the game, there haven’t been any meaningful changes to the competitive meta. Currently, it doesn’t look like any of the experimental changes are heading to live. Even some of the more tame adjustments could be just left in the Experimental card. If that is indeed the case, players may have to wait until after the New Year to finally have some true gameplay adjustments.
It is somewhat mind-boggling that some of the same heroes that received nerfs long ago can creep back up into the top tier. That could be one of the downsides of never releasing new heroes. Even worse, without any buffs to characters that have had issues in the past, eventually the same core characters will rise to the top. Case and point being Sigma and Orisa. The tank pair was undoubtedly one of the most oppressive compositions in Overwatch and had to receive nerfs to tone them down. But without anything new to keep them in lower tiers, they slowly crept back up.
The same idea goes with Baptiste and Brigitte. Despite any and all changes, they are just strong at their core. Players have countless hours on these characters and will oftentimes opt to play them even if they aren’t tier one. Without any other support to take their place, players find that they find the best success with these perennial powerhouses.
This list just continues to grow as players find more ways to play each hero in any situation. Each hero has a role, and truly there are several different ones that can serve that role well. This parity is good for gameplay, and as a whole is good for the game. Players can feel good about playing what they want, and there is a good chance that hero will be fine on any given map. Sure some heroes like Pharah and Reinhardt need a little bit of extra planning to utilize correctly, but overall the second tier is filled to the brim with solid heroes.
Widowmaker gets a bump up to the third tier because there are still some cases where a sniper is playable. In long-range maps, Widow is totally fine. The problem always comes down to failing to swap when the strategy crumbles to bits. Solo-queue players are often quick to criticize the high-risk, high-reward gameplay of Widowmaker, but that shouldn’t stop teams from trying her out on maps like Gibraltar or Havana.
It’s shocking that the Overwatch team hasn’t decided to implement the Overwatch 2 version of Bastion into the main game yet. Right now, Bastion is not only unfun to play against, but the turret character is just boring to play. Sitting in one spot to surprise the opponents is fun for a few moments, but realistically it just isn’t great gameplay. Players have solved Bastion as a character, and only the professional players have found a way to adjust Bastion’s playstyle into something more dynamic. Despite everything, Bastion still sits at the bottom of the tier list.
Featured image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
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