I started playing Genji a few months ago, and he quickly became one of my main heroes because of how fun he is. However, after a few hundred games with him, I realized he does have some issues, the most glaring ones (to me, at least) being that he definitely lacks wave/camp clear as an Assassin and that he has quite a bunch of severely underpicked talents.
My goal with this rework concept is to grant Genji some quality of life changes and additions that alleviate these issues, without turning him into a macro monster or making him better at certain tasks than more specialized heroes.
I have also tried adding more nuance and complexity to Genji’s talents, and, while the main objective is to rebalance them, they were given some slight buffs overall to help our poor cyber-ninja with his winrate. Some of my ideas might be more extreme than others, and including them in Genji’s kit makes it quite hard to balance, so consider it a work in progress. I am very aware that buffing a hero with a high skill floor/ceiling can make them absolutely broken in the right hands, which is why I would be happy to get some feedback on this concept.
While I think I have enough experience to bring my opinion to the table, I would love to hear from even more experienced Genji players if possible, as there are probably many things I haven’t thought of.
I have included only my versions of affected abilities and talents, you can check out Genji’s wiki to compare with his live version.
Italic means Added Functionality
=> means Value Change
Abilities
Cyber Agility (D)
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Activate to jump to the target area.
Passive: Genji’s Basic Attacks deal 10% bonus damage to enemies in melee range.
Shuriken (Q)
Mana: 20
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Throw 3 Shuriken in a spread pattern, each dealing 65 damage and piercing up to 1 Minion, Mercenary or Monster.
Stores up to 3 charges. Shuriken’s cooldown replenishes all charges at the same time.
Talents
Swift as the Wind (1)
Hitting an enemy Hero with Swift Strike increases Genji’s Movement Speed by 30% => 35% for 3 seconds.
Agile Dismount (1) (Reworked)
Increase the range of Cyber Agility by 20% and reduce its cooldown by 4.5 seconds. This bonus is tripled while mounted.
Pathfinder (1)
Cyber Agility causes Genji to dodge the next 2 Heroic Basic Attacks within 6 seconds, and it also increases his Movement Speed by 25% if used to jump over terrain.
Shuriken Mastery (4) (Reworked)
!Quest: Hitting Heroes with Shuriken increases its damage by 0.4, up to 30.
!Reward: After hitting 75 Heroes, reduce the cooldown between Shuriken uses by 33%, and Cyber Agility now refunds 2 => 1 charge of Shuriken.
Strike At The Heart (4)
Enemies hit by the end of Swift Strike are Slowed by 40% for 0.75 seconds and take an additional 134 => 7% of their maximum Health as damage when the Slow ends.
Dragon Claw (4)
Active
After Genji blocks 330 damage with Deflect, he may activate Dragon Claw to deal 190 damage to all nearby enemies. Damaging a Hero with Dragon Claw increases the damage bonus of Cyber Agility by 0.75%.
Perfect Defense (7)
Deflected damage reduces the cooldown of Deflect by 2 seconds and refunds 4 Mana, up to 5 times per use.
Cyber Shield (7)
Using Cyber Agility or Swift Strike grants 50 Spell Armor for 5 => 2.5 seconds.
Dodge (7)
Removed.
Shingan (13)
Reduce Shuriken’s spread by 10%. Hitting an enemy with all 3 Shuriken deals 115 bonus damage.
Flow Like Water (13) (Reworked)
Hitting a Hero with Swift Strike causes Shuriken’s cooldown to recharge 75% faster for 4 seconds. Hitting a Hero with Shuriken reduces the cooldown of Swift Strike by 1 second.
Way of the Shimada (13)
Increase Basic Attack range by 1. Hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Attack increases Basic Attack damage by 1% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 15%. While at 15% increased Attack damage, gain an additional 0.5 Attack range.
Reflect (16)
Deflect also deals an additional 33% of the damage blocked, and its duration is increased by 0.25 seconds.
Steady Blade (16)
Increase the damage and size of Swift Strike by 15%. Each enemy Hero hit by swift Strike increases the damage bonus by 20% => 15% for the next Swift Strike, stacking up to 3 times.
Sharpened Stars (20)
Shuriken now pierce all enemies hit, and the 3rd throw of each Basic Attack also sends 1 untalented Shuriken on both sides.
Zanshin (20)
Increase the radius of Deflect by 15%.
!Quest: Block 6500 damage with Deflect, including damage blocked so far.
!Reward: Deflect hits all nearby enemy Heroes.