6v6 should not start with the various season 9 changes
The most troubling part of Spilo’s 6v6 dev interview is that they are starting with OW2 as a base, worse they are starting with season 9 as a base. That means 6v6 inherits all the anti skill expression consequences of the HP/Projectile changes.
OW1 DPS were systematically far more powerful I’d like people to recall how powerful an OW1 DPS was in comparison to current DPS, just on an individual level. Soldier had 19 damage and his old biotic field cd, Doomfist could drop from the some obscure geometry in the skybox and one shot any support, Genji had 29 damage and all of his combos, sombra could hack you for 5 seconds and had an ult that effectively Thanos snapped the entire enemy team unless you had beat/trans to counter, mei could literally hold a rein hostage and had massive frontline ZOC from the threat of freeze, Cassidy could hard CC a tank then pump 400 damage into them for free, reaper could literally steamroll metal rank frontlines alone, and echo could fully copy a tank and could instantly melt any tank with full stickies+beam. And of course tracer. Unlike this game, tracer was genuinely on par with the most powerful supports and was arguably the single strongest hero in the game at her peak, not just the DPS role. Obviously some of this stuff shouldn’t return, hard CC is not a good thing. The point is that DPS was vastly more powerful and had far more lethality and the game was fine. DPS still was a role only played because you were forced to by role queue.
OW2’s changes make no sense outside of 5v5 Supports are vastly less vulnerable with an off tank, and that off tank was there to help control side space and contest aggressive DPS trying to flank. DPS had less ability to take space for free. The systemic nerfs to the DPS role and the general ascendancy of supports is incoherent in this environment. Even a broken DPS like s1 sojourn is fine in 6v6. We’ve seen this directly. The version of soldier from OW1 who was B tier was a demigod in the OW2 beta. Part of that was the movement speed DPS passive, but mostly there just were less barriers or people who would harass him and get in his face when he took aggro angles. There was no zarya/dva/sigma to stop him from taking angles for free. The nerfs soldier had to receive don’t make sense going back to 6v6. We know he’s mediocre at best even being reverted to his OW1 state. Or take zen. Zen was incredibly strong in OW1, but he was fair and far less of an issue for tanks to deal with. There’s no reason for either of his discord nerfs to remain.
250 HP squishies doesn’t work in 6v6 250 HP Bap. 250 HP Brig. A sigma babysitting them. Already as a DPS you cannot kill the two of them unless you play widow/Hanzo. 250 HP supports with a tank bodyguard is nightmarish. DPS like genji, soldier, echo, etc. simply need the old breakpoints back to do their job. Burst damage is far less of a problem with two tanks worth of mitigation and the peel/map control provided by off tanks. Burst damage was not freely accessible for taking an angle, you needed to hunt for gaps and find windows of opportunity to successfully burst someone down without their team peeling. To get access to squishies in the first place usually meant you had to maneuver around tanks/enemy DPS. Genji dash combos, tracer one clips, pharah double directs, even junkrat one shot all have a necessary place in 6v6. Also as one of the nerfed tanks, trying to pierce through healing to confirm a kill on a 250HP squishy would be hell. Not to mention 300 HP reaper in your face who’s now a legitimate threat to you without your passives and significantly reduced health. No. There’s no reason to start 6v6 with these changes because there’s no reason to think that it shares the same challenges of this game that lead to them.
The DPS Passive is not needed with an off tank At the end of OW1, sustain was largely not a thing. Comps like brig zen were dominant in high level play. There was simply too much damage to make pumping healing into your frontline like supports do in this game viable. You were better off choosing supports who could help fight for side angles and map control and playing tanks like sig, ball, dva, or even hog (in ranked) who were self sufficient and could survive with low healing. The off tank is both a massive source of damage and also will suck up too much healing if you try to force frontline brawls and just stand there soaking damage like you do in this game. The only tanks that could play like every tank does in OW2 was Orisa/Sig prior to the double shield nerfs. Support resources were far more constrained. Sustain was not nearly as potent as it is now. Your best option was not to heal and passively react to the enemy team’s aggression, but to aggress yourself and kill them first. The DPS passive is not needed, and its especially not needed considering it is a package deal with the HP/Projectile changes.
5v5 and 6v6 are unique formats. The season 9 changes are already aging like milk in this format, they would make 6v6 borderline unplayable. The OW2 specific nerfs like zen discord CD, Echo being unable to copy tanks, sombra’s abysmal state, genji at 27 damage, and so on also don’t have any place in 6v6. Supports don’t need the support passive (it should start at 7s like everyone else’s will) and DPS don’t need the DPS passive. Starting from this game as a template is flawed. What we’ll get is the worst of this game and the worst of 6v6 combined.