I mean, its a several second long ability to “freeze”(stun) someone, the level off cc probably would not be too high as she will also have to catch someone and then start freezing(and lost of range heroes of some form off cc or mobility) and her heal will take her out of the fight for its duration, meaning her team also does not have a tank present during it(outside of blizzard). So she might not be too problematic in a moba setting.
This, pretty much 100% straight, is the reason why Mei hasn’t been made into a tank in overwatch the primary reason people oppose it:
When you look at mei, you don’t see an upfront character, most people just see a Moe shrinking violet anime girl: The stereotype of a tank is someone who’s incredibly confident and gungho and charges into the thick of battle to lead their team and protect their allies: Like Rheindhart or Muradin.
On the other hand, Mei’s personality is characterized by uneasiness/newness to her role and a kind of self doubt that she’s shown having to overcome and fight against in her origin video and her general self in cutscenes. Her personality screams “Support” in most people’s minds.
THAT BEING SAID, her abilities all point to a defensive style: In cutscenes her contributions are things like creating defensive structures or bracing objects together to prevent either damage or things falling apart.
Moreover, this is HOTS, NOT overwatch, and hence they have alot more leeway to make people play how they best make the game FUN and not for how they fit lore: Kharazim is a healer and Zarya is a support for example.
I think this is the PERFECT opportunity to cut lose, say “Screw it!” and go with a more defensive Tank mei. The MOBA style even lends itself better to her kit than an FPS IMO.
I’d post my old Character concept suggestion for a tank mei, but I don’t want to clutter this thread up XD
(That being said, I WILL suggest that her Iceblock needs to be an ult, not a basic ability due to the massive difference in how a MOBA and overwatch play: An ability that puts you in stasis to avoid damage while also self healing is HUGE in this game, freaking huge. Look at Kerrigan’s chrysalis and how it has the counterplay of being killable. Now imagine a chrysalis that DOESN’T take damage)
put it on 60 second CD as well even AS an ult)
I think you could still keep them very unique: arthas is a Root based tank with a Bruiser feel to him. Mei, by contrast, could be more of a hard CC/low damage hero, that is squishier and with less self healing than arthas.
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Before the Role Rework in Overwatch, Mei was classified as defense Character like Torbjörn, Symmetra and Bastion.
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I don’t think it should be an Ult, because her not getting it til 10 would be bad if that is her only form of sustain. I think putting it on the D key with a 60 second cooldown would work fine… Or maybe making it have to charge like Tracer’s Pulse bomb? Dealing X amount of cold damage to heroes lets you use it?
I would suggest them giving her an alternate form of sustain as well in her level 1 talents to compensate for this: There’s no reason they can’t tweak her in her tree to give her some Non-overwatch kit stuff IMO.
Make her level 1 her “sustain” level, and give her a few options to pick for how she’s going to have self sustain, with several options aimed more towards certain maps or enemy comps (like something like Goblin repairs for maps like Tomb of the spider queen, or another talent that causes her to regen health based on the amount of slowing stacks she has on an enemy, or HP regen when she freezes an enemy)
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I completely agree with this. People saying “She can’t do something because she can’t do it in Overwatch” aren’t taking into account the talent system that HotS has.
If you do take her Iceblock away from her, you will probably need to give her another Basic Ability though:
AA: Endothermic Blaster
Q: Icicle (skillshot)
W: ???
E: Ice Wall
R1: Blizzard (Yes, I know, same name as Jaina’s ability 
)
R2: Cryo-Freeze
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IMO, I’d change her freezing ability to be a skillshot;
Have her AA abilities apply a stack of something that slows (call it frost or something), but then she has to use another skillshot that will freeze the enemy if they’re above a certain level of this debuff (Or if they want, have it stun for a short period baseline, but only stun for the full period if they’re above a certain level of this debuff).
I’d actually put that as her Q, and have Icecicle be a 1 or a D key button, and have her W be using her Icespray to create an area to skate on like in a couple of cutscenes (When she makes a ramp for her and rheinhart to escape in 2 for example) to give her a movement skill.
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Yes! Exactly why I don’t take anything away from the devs because I still get a good laugh whenever I play an Overwatch character and I’m thinking…Jeff Kaplan must despise AZJackson because he keeps taking his characters like “you call that a Tracer? Nah, this is a Tracer!”
that guy is cool I want him more than the snow one