PLEASE allow players to reselect characters during the character selection phase.
So many games have been 5 damage dealers, versus a Miko and Ambra because everyone locks in at the same time. I would (begrudgingly) rechoose to a healer if I saw everyone just had to pick Rath and Phoebe.
Locking doesn’t seem to serve any purpose other than to give you 70 seconds of increasing rage.
At the very least, I wouldn’t mind the ability to “hover” a character without locking them in, similar to what LoL does. That way I can, say, indicate that I want to play Phoebe, but switch to someone else if I feel it’s what our team needs.
My standard practice has been to wait a little bit to see who else gets locked right away, then pick accordingly. But sometimes there are two other people who haven’t selected anything either, and I don’t know if they’re waiting to see what I lock, or just haven’t decided yet. Being able to hover someone I’m interested in playing, but not lock them in, would help. Obviously, this can also be solved through chat, but a hover or soft lock would still make things easier.
You could wait for everyone to pick a character, but you’ll run the risk of someone else picking your favorite character.
Problem being is sometimes I would actually like to play something that isn’t a healer, like Rath, so I can unlock Ambra, but if I wait till last pick, everyone else locks in a non healer, and it’s the only choice, to pick Miko.
You don’t really need a healer in every match, sure its convenient, but not necessary. Just play you, man. Don’t let other people decisions stop you from achieving your goal. Think about it, those people might pick those characters to unlock other characters, like you. If they don’t bother thinking whats best for the team, why should you? Like I said, having a healer is a good advantage, but not necessary. Having a good team wins matches, not having healers. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
I never really considered BB for its PvP. I’ve been having fun with PvE. However, I am tempted, just as I was with TF2, the only PvP game I’ve played. And that’s the comparison I want to make.
I was always more interested in the team winning than topping the scoreboard (though I did, occasionally 
). I have switched class many, many times, as the team formed, so we had at least one Medic or Engi or an attacker to offset the five snipers 
If I did dip my toe into PvP, I would like the opportunity to do the same for my BB team, making sure there’s a balance. I support this idea.
I don’t know your platform of choice or rank, but on the PC side at Ranked Matches at Rank 22, there is an abundance of Mikos and Ambras. I have never played him and I can safely say that more than half of my games had a Miko in the team (whether the particular player actually acted as a healer is another subject entirely).
In any case, if you pick a character and still have 70 seconds to go, you are doing something wrong. Why pick a character so quickly? Plus, there is the chat function, either via keyboard on the PC or via Microphone on the PS4/X1. Just talk to your teammates.
And, actually, why don’t you find 4 more guys or gals to play with? On these forums or in-game? And talk about team composition and character picking?
I think you misunderstand. I am the only one who doesn’t pick in pretty much every game, and nearly every time, it’s them picking Phoebe, Rath, the pigeon rocket guy and Isic.
A soft lock or a character preview would be a great addition.
I tend to be the last picker and most of the time, I am stuck with either Miko or Reyna since the other players either don’t care or don’t know what a huge advantage a healer brings to the game.
A character preview on what everyone intends to take would be great, if someone just say, right click their hero, atleast you’ll have some knowledge of your team composition and can plan ahead.
PS. Not everyone is comfortable using a mic to communicate with strangers. Also, language barriers. Not all people in the match might be fluent in English, so communicating character picks might not be easy. And sometimes you just want to play a specific character, and need to choose fast or someone else picks that character!
Yeah, I can understand that. Perhaps a preview is a not a bad idea after all.
This would be a great addition! Would love to see it at release
I have to say I didn’t communicate with players while selecting characters, I just picked characters that filled the gaps that seemed to be missing in my team composition. Usually that was Miko. I did have one pretty good game as Montana though. Having a bullet magnet and a good healer on a team helps a lot but I recognise that I need to communicate more to get a good team. For example I found Shayne and Aurox work well with Reyna, but I wouldn’t want to go and Pick Reyna unless we already had Miko on the team since I find Reyna can get caught alone easily if not supported.
Most of the poor team compositions seem to be a lack of communication and I’m aware it’s something I need to work on as well as the community in general. Being able to reverse selection of a character to help the team is a good step towards that.
I wasn’t surprised this wasn’t in the CTT but not being in the beta surprised me quite a bit. Almost every MOBA has it even if this isn’t a true moba I do like filling in holes in my team. Luckily my friends that I play with reduce that. Still would love it when they’re busy so I can still do it.
That is one of the inherent issues with Blind Pick and the selfishness of people. For a team game many don’t play it as such. I feel your pain brother, I typically lock in last since everyone is just going to choose w/e they want, I’ll pick something that will hopefully help salvage the game.
Accidental locking and wanting to change one hero to another to fulfill a different role is warranted. +1 OP.
Totally agree…
Many times I was just waiting for team to finish selecting heroes so I can suplement party composition with correct choice.
Paladins has soft selection too, it works like a charm.
Personally I think a soft select with a reduced character select time (50 seconds?) would work well with the game start timer beginning once both teams have finalized choices. Additionally I believe choosing a loadout should be active until the start of the game. I don’t believe you should be able to counter pick champions against the other team outside of a draft mode, but you should be able to change your loadout if you don’t like what you see prior to the doors opening.
You can do that now, I think. character selection isn’t locked in until you choose a loadout, right? I’m not sure if someone else can choose the same character in the meantime, though.
I have to agree with the OP. I was unable to ‘backup’ and readjust my load out and skin, but wasn’t able to change aharacters. (On Xbox one) I do not see the harm in allowing this option.