As a player, I enjoy the quick charge rates of ultimates in the game as it brings about a faster paced game and makes players feel rewarded for their damage/heals more often. However, given how fast ultimates charge and the large amount of impact many ultimates have, it does lead to some problems. This was echoed by the 14 Nov, 2016 patch where ultimate costs was globally increased by a flat 25%, with the comment given "Game-changing ultimate abilities were coming up a bit too frequently. This change helps keep them in check while still allowing them to be powerful." It wasn't too descriptive, but this was an opinion shared by some if not many of the professional players as well.
Ultimates at their current state do hurt the spectating aspect of the game to some extent. Given how high value some ultimates are and their relatively short build times, it can get quite repetitive seeing the games dwell around the same few ultimate combos to secure team wipes. Fights can end in as quickly as mere seconds, proceeding to waste about half a minute before action occurs again. Not to mention, some ultimates provide so much visual clutter, especially on maximum graphic settings. It's not uncommon for newer viewers to lose track of what happens around the battle ground when both teams engage on an ultimate-infested fight. Despite the appreciation for the underlying ultimate economy management, the current iteration of ultimates do have quite the drawbacks. There has even been argument for there to be less ultimates in the game so that more emphasis can be placed on flashy individual plays rather than on ultimates themselves. That makes it more fun for some players and for spectators.
Without doubt, there is some valid opinions that ultimates should be toned down even further. The 25% ultimate cost increase barely affected anything since the patch. However, there are two popular ways in which ultimates could be toned down by.
1. Increasing Ultimate Costs Further
The most straightforward option, though probably not the easiest to balance. Ultimate cost could be increased significantly further by 50-75% or even more.
Advantages of Increasing Ultimate Costs
- Reduced messiness that occurs in team fights by reducing the occurrence of ultimates, mostly from visual clutter.
- Team fights more likely to occur as dry fights that do not develop into full on ultimates fest.
Disadvantages of Increasing Ultimate Costs
- Not so much of a disadvantage per se but given a large increase in ultimate costs, ultimates need to be individually retuned or the percentage increase in cost should not be equal for all heroes. For example, Symmetra would probably be useless if she couldn't reliably get her ultimate up quickly or when an early death occurs.
- Increased ultimate cost could ironically place an even larger emphasis on ultimates. Whiffing a single Graviton Surge would be more likely to cost the game. Offensive-defensive ultimate interaction would be further emphasized if players could build strong offensive ultimates such as Dragonblade before a defensive Sound Barrier/Transcendence. By using the offensive ultimate early, a good advantage can be sought by largely increasing the opportunity cost of defensive ultimates if they are used before the offensive ultimate is online again. This could mean that defensive ultimates will either inherently never be built before the offensive ultimate, or increase the level of commitment to use a defensive ultimate in an offensive manner. Ultimate economy would likely be significantly different where we get to see different interactions between ultimates that we currently don't. The above examples are not exhaustive.
- Some maps or game modes could be even harder to break through without the use of ultimates. 2CP is always going to be a bad example. Aside from that, some defense favored maps such as Eichenwalde, Numbani, could be tougher nuts to crack. Ultimate initiations are less likely to be relied on, and slows down the pace of game, especially when defense has the advantage.
2. Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates
This is completely arbitrary and ultimates could be reduced in effectiveness by say 50% or some other value. The manner in which this could be done can include, reducing attributes such as damage, range, duration, or reworking some ultimates that don't fit into such categories.
Advantages of Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates
- Ultimates essentially become 'super skills', where they supposedly have less potential to influence the outcome of the entire team fight, but instead used to influence a specific individual fight. For example, if Dragonblade was reduced to last only 3s, you can realistically kill up to two 200HP heroes with it, at max 3. This means that ultimates are more likely to be used as a throwaway to guarantee kills as if it were a normal ability with a larger albeit variable cool down.
- Depending on how ultimates are weakened, it could still be possible to coordinate a team wipe with more precise execution. For example, if Earth Shatter's stun duration was reduced, the window for follow up is smaller, but still possible if team is quick on the execution and focus fire for a wipe or more accurately time some ultimates. It's still possible for flashy ultimate plays to still exist.
Disadvantages of Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates
- Frequency of ultimates do not decrease. It could still be equally visually disorienting for newer viewers.
- Ultimate oriented fights could still be a large part of the game, just made harder. (Could be a good thing too?)
- Likely to have the same problem with the first option where it doesn't suit well with some map and mode design, though probably to a smaller degree.
Both options have their up and downsides, but do not be fooled by the unequal length in description. I simply decided to elaborate more on some points that I found to be less straightforward.
Would like to hear as to what you think is the better option, whether it is necessary at all, or if you have any other suggestions.
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