First off Thanks, for bringing this idea to Live.
Even if it’s just Live Experimental.
But really though, you should keep Mei in the Tank role.
Here’s why:
It gets you more people into the Tank Role, by approximating 1-3-2, which should lower queue times
Mei Players: “Oooh, gimme those 30sec queue times, thank you please!”
DPS Players: “I get to play a budget Hanzo with 30sec queue times, that has selfhealing? Sign me up!”
If Mei is an OffTank, she’d be to only Not-BarrierTank that could reliable block an Earthshatter or D.va bomb for her whole team.
While it approximates 1-3-2, Mei can do a lot of work as an OffTank.
A lot of people HEAVILY underestimate how flexible and powerful Icewall can be as a tool to both deny enemy positioning, and provide safe positioning for your team.
Heck, if can even reposition teammate to locations they otherwise might not be able to get to.
Angled Icewalls across chokepoints (ideally with a Lucio speedboost) can bypass virtually any chokepoint.
Part of the biggest paradox when it comes to Tank design is how difficult it is to make them more valuable, without causing “High Durability Compositions” (i.e. DoubleBarrier, GOATs, and Mei/Reaper Rush etc).
By moving Mei to the Tank role, it puts a hard limitation on how durable Brawl compositions can be. Because they can no longer approximate “TripleTank” compositions.
By removing an AntiDive bodyguard who isn’t in the Tank role. This makes DoubleBarrier balancing easier. And you must be fully aware how making DoubleBarrier balancing would be supremely beneficial to the game.
It disconnects Mei balancing from her OWL/GM usage. For the vast majority of the playerbase, Mei sucks. And for high tier, she can be game-breakingly strong. This puts Mei into a similar position as Sombra, where she’s basically gotta be horrible on Ladder to not destroy high tier play. By moving Mei to the Tank role, she can actually be balanced based on how people play her in Ranked. Not on how she’s only useful with world class coordination.
Tanks oddly don’t have a direct Mei counter, and picking Mei would be that.
Tanks don’t have to suffer as much for lack of a Pharah counter. 150 headshot on a Pharah, can really take the wind out of Pharah-Mercy combo. In a way that feels rewarding and deserved, and not unfair to the Pharah player.
Devs have already committed to the idea that Tanks should have damage. So Mei having a bit more burst potential, but otherwise less raw firepower than a Mercy blaster, shouldn’t be an issue.
Mei walls actually offer a pretty strong anti-bastion counter, if people are able to figure it out. Both by lifting a bastion up, allowing an easy approach towards an enemy payload, and her ultimate can cause a bunker to get unbunkered.
Even if Mei sucks, she’s a C tier tank, not meta. It’s fine.
Because being a C tier Tank is better than being an F tier DPS for all but the top 2% (and only when the meta suits it)
Because most of all of those benefits above are gained, even if she isn’t GM tier viable.
Really, I’ve been looking for this change for 2 years.
And it seems like there’s a possibility that I know what I’m talking about with Mei design.
Just trust me. It’s a really good idea to keep Mei as a Tank.
Honestly, I always thought she’d need bigger changes to be functional, but though I’d still rather more tweaks and her not being scaled up, she works just fine as is.
Without a doubt, Tank is the correct role for her.
I hope to keep her as dps and have separate balancing for OWL. If Mei does become an off tank then I hope she becomes a proper off tank. Yes her wall is versatile but I still think she would need off tank level of lethality like Zarya and Hog to be a threat and push to make space.
By mixing together genuinely good but radical changes and meme changes, they are avoiding setting the expectations that all of those changes will go Live.
So they can actually test stuff, without the hard commitment.
As opposed to ONLY ever testing marginal tiny “number tweak” changes.
Mei does this really well, especially with the buffs
Give your team a positioning advantage
Mei can do this both defensively and offensively with Icewall and her Primary fire.
Defensively by blocking incoming damage
By cutting off retreat paths of enemies she can destroy enemy positioning advantages, just as much as Roadhog hook would.
She can block EarthShatter and D.va Bomb, for a whole team. Roadhog/Ball/D.va can’t do that. And Zarya would struggle to do that for much more than herself or 1 other teammate.
Add to that
She improves queue times, by approximating 1-3-2, without slacking on her offtanking potential.
She can’t be used for “TripleTank Brawl” or Bodyguarding DoubleBarrier against Dive.
She can actually be balanced as a worthwhile hero on ladder, instead of being nearly worthless except for when she’s extremely strong during certain metas for the top 2% of players.
Mei enables brawl, and is lackluster in every other aspect. That is fine, that is called a niche and those belong in this game. But to enable brawl, that means she needs to SUPPORT the brawl heroes, in this instance, it is the tanks. That means if you remove one of the tanks, and put mei in that position, it is no longer brawl, and mei is back to lackluster. Which is even worse as you are now down a tank because mei does not function as a god damn tank in any aspect of her kit.
Which is a problem, because devs want to avoid any compositions that are high durability.
So it prevents them from balancing Tanks and prevents them from balancing Mei.
Her wall, which is used in a very high variety of positioning advantages
Her secondary fire, which specifically makes Tracers need to not get too comfortable at any range. And can chunk down 200hp heroes to a very uncomfortable 50hp left.
Her primary fire, which is a very strong zoning tool. Because “positioning” is basically defined by your capability to retreat. If you are heavily slowed, or frozen, you’re gonna have a hard time doing that, and need to play closer to your retreat paths.
Her iceblock, which not only makes her INVINCIBLE, huge stall potential, but also can block large ultimates and damage, just as standing behind a friendly bubbled Zarya would. In addition to giving her quasi 600hp equivalent on this patch.
Her Ult, which is a giant “This positioning is mine now, go away or die”
Her secondary fire does not output the damage a tank needs
Her primary fire does not have the scope a tank needs
Her iceblock turns her into a sitting duck, not exactly a reliable way to hold space
Her ultimate is also tank like, but unlike Rein’s or Zarya’s who have the most comparable ults, it is relatively easy to escape from. The effect is not instant, nor does the ultimate last long like Hammond’s does.