Nobody is Playing Support in Overwatch 2's Beta

Nobody is Playing Support in Overwatch 2's Beta

The Overwatch 2 Beta is here and of course, it is my pleasure to deliver the finest Zenyatta Gameplay you have ever seen! So long that you haven't seen anyone else play him.

For today's video, I really wanted to dig deep into the Overwatch 2 Support Changes and why it seems like nobody wants to play Support anymore. Many Overwatch 2 Tier Lists see supports like Moira and Lucio at the top while the beta makes the life of Zenyatta and Ana mains a lot more difficult.

But why is that? Are supports bad now? Is there any hope for people that still enjoy the support playstyle? We'll discuss that.. And more.

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[CliffTerios]

How do you feel about playing Support in OW2?

[funkmonkmonk]

In my opinion there's also the issue of choices, or lack there of for support. 9 Tanks for 1 player to pick, 17 DPS characters for the 2 players that are in that role and 7 support characters for the other 2 players to pick between.

[dayDawn]

I disagree that supports werent touched bc of that reason. I genuinely think they have no idea how to make them work in the 5v5 comps. I think theyre struggling on coming up with compensation for the amount of EXTREMELY mobile and fast paced heroes theyve put in the game ie: sojourn, echo, etc. Supports are still built for 6v6 comps and thats why its miserable to play. They cant keep up with team fights bc of lack of mobility and the fact that everything is so spread out. they need to do SOMETHING.

[JasmineChee]

Echoing what the other comments have mentioned, support in ow2 beta feels like a neglected role. I loved playing support in ow1 esp on Ana as that felt rewarding. Now I'm mostly fodder if enemy runs dive comp (winston/doom & tracer/sombra/ genji). It's no fun when you KNOW that you'll be focused down and you don't have much in the toolkit for survivability. So when you get two or three enemies diving you on and on, it just becomes a frustrating experience.

[SmileyMikee]

I think the problem with saying 'supports need to do more than heal' is that the VAST majority of support heroes kits is focused 100% on healing. There are very few actual support utility abilities on support heroes in OW2. Most of their kit is either healing or damage, and if you take away the healing you are left with low damage, less survivable dps who have less escape abilities. Look at baptiste, his secondary fire and shift ability are ONLY HEALING, plus immortality which is on a 25 second CD. Outside of that his only other ability is his primary fire, which is way less consistent than ANY dps in the game.

OW2 has increased the skill floor of support, but it has also drastically lowered the skill floor of DPS because they are next to impossible to punish due to their pretty easy to use escape abilities, high burst damage and insane mobility without supports having stuns and a lack of an off tank.


Playing the beta for a few days I've found I actually have to focus on healing more than I did in OW1 because tanks/DPS don't know how to position without 2 tanks and feel like supports can just out heal any damage thrown at them. If a DPS decides they want to kill me there's not much I can do about it considering pretty much across the board they have better mobility, higher damage, better escape options, better engage options AND faster reloads.

They need to move supports away from healing and give them actual support abilities like the ones that are on DPS. Things like hack, ice wall, ice block, teleporter, infrasights, deflect, sonic arrow, Sojourns grav ball, junkrat trap do not belong on DPS. They belong on support because they are SUPPORT ABILITIES.

[lazymutt]

I'll be honest I really feel that the issue is with zenyatta specifically. I've had luck playing all of the supps except him, even brig and I was worried for her after stun removal. Ana too i think is still relatively strong. But zen with no mobility, no cc, and nothing to keep himself alive means you need to land headshots on their flankers every time or just die. He really needs help

[dutssz]

5v5 is way too different from 6v6, and every hero besides Orisa, Sombra, Bastion and Sojorn were designed thinking of 6 players. You can't remove a tank in a way that the heroes can continue the same, so that's why for me support has been so bad for the players, its like playing chess with checkers pieces

[DarthCookieOW]

I don't agree with your statement about Support healbotting and making plays in the slightest. While it's kinda true, it's also borderline impossible. Support heroes simply can't outduel enemy duelist/flanker heroes consistently. That's not how Supports are designed. Healing is basically useless, hard DPSing is the only way to go in 5v5. There is no balance between the two. But if I wanted to play DPS, I'd queue for DPS. Those heroes are designed for that and are far superior to Support heroes in that regard. It's neither fun, nor reasonable to be forced into 24/7 respawn simulator the second a DPS decides to focus you and your DPS isn't marking them. Supports in OW2 are even more reliant on their team to help them out when there are fewer tools to actually do so at the same time.
There's a reason Moira Lucio is hard meta in pro play so far - it's not because pro Support players are healbots or bad at the game. It's because per design, Support heroes don't stand a chance against any other hero. In OW1, it was possible and needed to use the full kit of any Support to get enough value. In the OW2 beta it's straight up only DPSing and praying to god no one decides to go on a free flank on you. It actually takes away the viability of half the heroes kits.

[Vanti_veros]

I just wanna point out the point you made about being in the fight and getting elims in 5v5 is more rewarding than just healing is the exact reason why main tanks like Rein and Winston are suffering in the OW2 beta. That's why everyone on tank is 90% of the time playing the off tanks its not about the team play anymore its more about who gets the first pick so why would you pick a tank that does less damage when you can just pick Orisa or Hog.

[maximamasmac]

''feels more fair'' -> is immediately punished for ever stepping foot out of spawn as a healer. what about mercy then? she has a healing focused build, she can just whip out a pistol mid fight to casually help the team when her backline and fellow healer are being destroyed, to no fault of her own for 'not healing enough'. idk what kinda shit doomfist players you've come around, but people who were doomfist mains in the 1st game, are probably getting into you backline, destroying your healers and then everyone else that dared open that game.

personally, the 2nd game is incredibly unfair to the majority of the support players, who now see it as a punishment for playing supports, and the que time screams that fact, it being a more difficult role now is not a great thing. ow 2 healers have the same issue as ow1 tanks, and that's not some great thing to boast about. if the tank/dps/support roles aren't equally as fun to play, and one role has to heal, protect, deal damage and take care of the flankers, while the other 2 roles just get to brainlessly shoot, why even play the more exhausting role??. get rid of the support role, and just have tanks and dps with more health-packs in stead. would be more fair that way

[StoicScape]

They probably avoid playing support because they’re neutered dps with healing ability. Let’s be honest, less protection and cc gives dps more impact. They do more damage than supports and many of them have better escape tools. A genji/soldier/Cassidy/pharah etc focusing you is far more threatening than any of the supports in the game. And now Blizzard gives them free reign on top of tank reworks and people respond with “no more heal botting get better positioning” when the majority of the complaints in game are “I need healing!” Lol okay.

[sharkkitty]

Definitely still think that Overwatch 2 feels more like a team death match where everybody just does what they want and there’s a severe lack of team play/synergy.
But maybe I’m just not used to it yet; who knows. It’s definitely fun but not yet set in my heart unlike Overwatch 1. Yes I won’t miss fighting double shield but I will miss the synergy between supports and tanks. This new play style for support is definitely not really my cup of tea, but maybe I just need to find a comfortable spot in it. 🤷‍♀️

[jelruv]

Knowing that Sombra and Symmetra were initially intended to be support is disappointing. They could've been good utility support in OW2 that focus less on healing. Honestly, Sombra played like a support to me in OW1 anyway. She could literally claim health packs for the team and disrupt players abilities. Even Mei could've been a good utility support in OW2 by freezing enemies and making ice walls (or something new) for the team.

[daxterkiddo]

I love playing a class that is entirely dependent on others to do well

[atavax]

The most frustrating thing about playing support is like, the tank is on the other side of the map dieing, and there is nothing you can do about it. you're pushing the cart by yourself and you know you're going to get flanked, but there is nothing you can do about it. I mean, support still requires you to work with your team and if your team's positioning is poor, you can't have good positioning. Then you try to friendly correct your team's poor positioning and a DPS mentions your negative kdr even though you have more heals than anyone else and it's no wonder support queues are bad. Maybe when tanks and dps get better at positioning, it will be more pleasant for the average support.

[Blue.Diesel]

If my heals are so weak that i can spam heals and the person i am supporting still dies immediately then support feels useless and like a worse dps.

[ratchetstv]

OW1 doesn't tell you how ANY role is "supposed to be played;" you figure it out from your own experience, which is wildly different. Sometimes your game is won by keeping your team alive as tank/support, sometimes you win by going for playmaking and ignoring your team.
Switching to OW2, it gets frustrating watching team mates die, either on their own where none of us can help them, or literally nothing I do will save the tank getting focus fired so I have to go for kills. Dpsing when 2-3 people are dead/dying feels... weird. Once again there is nothing in game telling you that playmaking > healbotting (or just trying to keep them alive); going through that learning process WHILE you have dps/tanks screaming at you to heal bot is beyond stressful and frustrating.
I largely agree with what you said, but bear in mind, the game being balanced means nothing if it isn't enjoyable and the playerbase ruins it.

[_V.Va_]

Really left Supports to live in fear even more than ever.
With DPS being fast as shit now and Supports getting a regen ability that's ultimately useless when you get melted instantly once targeted, they really aren't left with much since half the Supports aren't super mobile.

[g_vost]

i've been playing mercy. if you can get a handle on her mobility you can just fly around and wait for your teammates to deal with people dog-piling you, all while improving their own pick potential with damage boost

[ANGRYYYYYYYYY]

I want to see the dev team add more mobility for every support hero, or a new supporting way to kill enemies, that would be great honestly, for me at least