Thoughts of a player who plays mostly competitive around GM/Celestial.

The game is currently in the worst state it's been in since launch and I have reason to believe it's not going to recover anytime soon.
There are multiple characters that have very problematic fundamental designs, that make them very difficult to balance, without completely reworking them. Due to this, the developers seem to have adopted the stance of "If we make everything OP, nothing will be". Right now, there exist somewhere between five and ten (depending on who you ask) heroes that are simply better than the rest, and with there being only up to four bans per game, you're almost guaranteed to have at least one of them in your game.
This results in games that feel incredibly cheap, since it's ultimately gonna come down to "Who is abusing these characters the best?".

Furthermore, they seem to be set on patching out the uniqueness of strategists. Everyone is becoming a healbot with an invincibility-like ultimate ability.
Admittedly, this is not entirely the devs fault, as it was a majority of the playerbase that wrongly declared this the only viable way, but they still listened and gave in, when they should have known better.

Every now and then they make some pretty smart choices, but the poor choices are far more plenty and outweigh them heavily.

I wouldn't say it's a lost cause, but they would have to do some drastic steering in their character design philosophy and fix the mess they've made so far. With what they have shown us so far, my confidence that this will happen is rather low.


[EDIT] One season after the initial review:

Things have worsened. None of the problematic characters have seen any meaningful changes. Most stayed untouched, some have even received buffs.
This game is made for DPS players and screws over everyone else.

Quickplay is an absolute nightmare. No rolequeue, no bans, toxicity galore. Getting your dailies done, farming lords or trying out something new always comes at the cost of your sanity.

Every choice the devs make, they make firstly to manipulate player retention and spending habits. Gameplay comes second at best. It's a masterclass in game psychology.

This game is not made for the player. It was not made by people trying to make a good game. It is the shining star of the game industries capitalistic downside.
There will be many to defend this, having long accepted this as normal, but if you are not that far gone yet, be warned of this.

I genuinely wanted to like this game. I'm a huge fan of the genre, but have never been happy with any game in it in particular, so when rivals came along i was full of hope.
So much so, that I turned a blind eye to its countless problems (most of which I have not even touched in this review) and have spent close to 500 hours in it despite it all.

But now my tank has run dry. Time to wait for another hero shooter to scratch the itch and pray it's not made by soulsucking leeches for once.

Thoughts of a player who plays mostly competitive around GM/Celestial. The game is currently in the worst state it's been in since launch and I have reason to believe it's not going to recover anytime soon. There are multiple characters that have very problematic fundamental designs, that make them very difficult to balance, without completely reworking them. Due to this, the developers seem to have adopted the stance of "If we make everything OP, nothing will be". Right now, there exist somewhere between five and ten (depending on who you ask) heroes that are simply better than the rest, and with there being only up to four bans per game, you're almost guaranteed to have at least one of them in your game. This results in games that feel incredibly cheap, since it's ultimately gonna come down to "Who is abusing these characters the best?". Furthermore, they seem to be set on patching out the uniqueness of strategists. Everyone is becoming a healbot with an invincibility-like ultimate ability. Admittedly, this is not entirely the devs fault, as it was a majority of the playerbase that wrongly declared this the only viable way, but they still listened and gave in, when they should have known better. Every now and then they make some pretty smart choices, but the poor choices are far more plenty and outweigh them heavily. I wouldn't say it's a lost cause, but they would have to do some drastic steering in their character design philosophy and fix the mess they've made so far. With what they have shown us so far, my confidence that this will happen is rather low. [EDIT] One season after the initial review: Things have worsened. None of the problematic characters have seen any meaningful changes. Most stayed untouched, some have even received buffs. This game is made for DPS players and screws over everyone else. Quickplay is an absolute nightmare. No rolequeue, no bans, toxicity galore. Getting your dailies done, farming lords or trying out something new always comes at the cost of your sanity. Every choice the devs make, they make firstly to manipulate player retention and spending habits. Gameplay comes second at best. It's a masterclass in game psychology. This game is not made for the player. It was not made by people trying to make a good game. It is the shining star of the game industries capitalistic downside. There will be many to defend this, having long accepted this as normal, but if you are not that far gone yet, be warned of this. I genuinely wanted to like this game. I'm a huge fan of the genre, but have never been happy with any game in it in particular, so when rivals came along i was full of hope. So much so, that I turned a blind eye to its countless problems (most of which I have not even touched in this review) and have spent close to 500 hours in it despite it all. But now my tank has run dry. Time to wait for another hero shooter to scratch the itch and pray it's not made by soulsucking leeches for once.