If you only list the strong points, then yeah, you can make every hero sound OP, even heroes such as Mercy, Bastion and Symmetra.
1 Like
I’d made some changes to the icicle, it’s just too much of a sniping ability. Maybe lower it’s projectile speed so it gets less reliable to shoot long distances and more easy to dodge.
I’m not so sure about her health though.
Fall-off being put back seems reasonable tbh. I don’t think she should have got that buff. Before if she wanted good ult charge she had to take risks and that meant she had to make harder decisions about her CDs too.
She had no fall-off, it caused issues, and they added in fall-off for launch. Not sure why they haven’t reverted that decision when it is causing issues all over again.
Now she can just hang back and spam icicles until the enemy comes to her and still charge ult pretty dang fast.
The ability to control space as dps is OP in OW by itself. Mei should be niche like Reaper i.e. playable everywhere but with clear drawbacks. Right now the only drawback is her damage output, which is balanced with the long range pressure she puts on the table if she knows how to aim.
The only thing she doesn’t have is mobility and this is compensated with invulnerability and a wall, plus a deadzone. McCree (another strong hero right now) has a close range deadzone as well (with cooldown), -50 hp, the worst mobility ability in the game and he is deadly in mid range and ineffective in long range. What if I tell you that Mei can give more pressure to a widow right now than a McCree and the reason is the in and out hitting using a much larger projectile without falloff?
They reverted the fall-off to make it consistent with other Projectiles in the game. Reverting the revert would only make it inconsistent again.
If the devs care much about consistency and they do want to give it fallof, then they might as well do it with other projectiles as well, especially those of other close range heroes such as Genji.
Is this not how projectiles are usually used? 
It ain’t point and click like hitscan after all.
I think a better change would be giving it drop-off just like Torbjorn’s and Hanzo’s projectiles. (And I would like to see Genji get the same treatment for the sake of consistency.)
But they had made the change in the first place because she was broken with it. And they prioritized balance over consistency.
She wouldn’t even be the only projectile with fall-off.
It’s time to change for most projectiles. It’s ridiculous to be able to snipe with Lucio and not with Ana.
No. Not really. The old defense category heroes and Symm can mostly still do this to some extent and they vary greatly in strength
See, this is a bit unfair.
You only list the strong points of Mei and the weak points of McCree. Of course would Mei seem a lot stronger.
You don’t mention:
- Mei’s fire rate.
- Mei having projectiles
- Which means it has travel time
- Her wall is a double edged sword that affect both teams.
And:
- McCree being hitscan
- Basically is it point and click
- Faster fire rate
- A near instant stun
- Which can be followed by using FtH
They are different heroes with a different role and playstyle.
Although Symm doesn’t have Mei’s survivability and range. All a Symmetra can do in long range is to zone you out, not realistically kill you. Symmetra has a clear tactic around her: focus her no matter the cost, otherwise she will microwave you. Reaper is more or less the same. Mei’s case is much like Moira’s i.e. force her to pull out her abilities first and then kill her.
I remember the days she was called MeiCree.
But if they care more about balancing, then why was it removed?
My guess is that they wanted Mei to deal more power when the defense class and offense class got nerfed into a damage class.
And to be honest, I don’t think her damage output is the problem players have with Mei. Not to mention that it is statistically not that high.
Who else has fallof damage, other than shotgun projectiles?
I’m really trying to understand why you defend Mei at her current state. It is obvious she is OP. Mei is not widow to say “oh yeah she is a high impact hero if you know how to play her” and she is the only must pick in the current meta along with Reinhardt (which is irrelevant right now) for some reason. There are heroes that are designed to be jacks of all trades and if everything is balanced they get an advantage; these are hanzo, mccree, soldier, ashe. Right now, the only way to play professionally without Mei is Dive with Sombra - Doomfist, so the first provides info about the positioning and then they dive to take a fast pick and go back. All of this just because of Mei’s presence as a hero. Seriously, doesn’t this ring a bell?
I think it was mindless tbh. They were like let’s fix these old inconsistencies without thinking about why they had made her inconsistent in the first place.
I don’t think her damage is the problem most players have with Mei, but players tend to gravitate towards having problems with the things that should be strong or are annoying rather than caring about what is actually imbalanced.
Mei’s projectile change gives her too much ult charge, pick off ability, and pressure at range. It makes her kit too perfect by over softening what should be her greatest drawback.
Mei really only works if she has the risk-reward limitations of a hero whose mostly just good at CQC combat. It’s okay that she isn’t completely defenseless at range but she shouldn’t be so comfortable just hanging back and spamming projectiles like she’s a Hanzo.
I was thinking of Torbjorn’s shotgun.
1 Like
I do think Mei should get a (small) nerf, but I just don’t agree with your way of convincing others of it.
You are basically creating a forum Mei, who is strong at everything, and an underpowered McCree, who is currently a problem in OWL as well.
Hence why I mention drop-off instead of fall-off.
Some other projectile heroes, such as Torbjorn, already has this.
But I would take it a step further and make this the norm for all close range heroes.
I believe Roadhog has it as well.
Drop off isn’t gonna really solve the problem except at the edge, same as it doesn’t really impede Hanzo. It would also just feel clunky.
I also don’t get nerfing the others just for consistency. They have completely different kits. Genji certainly don’t need a nerf.
With 90%+ of DPS picks being any 2 out of Genji, Hanzo, Widow and Ashe? How would that work?
Like I said before.
I don’t consider her damage, and her fall-off, a problem, nor do I think this is the problem players have with Mei.
It’s more her stalling, wall and CC that they dislike.
These are things that should be addressed instead imo.
I agree that Genji doesn’t need a nerf, but I do care for consistency. If one close range hero gets fall-off or drop-off, then all close range heroes should get that treatment.
Right now she doesn’t have to make meaningful choices about her kit, choices that balanced that very same kit when she had the falloff.
People always complain about the things that are supposed to be strong but eliminating those strengths often dumpsters those heroes.
And when you have a hero that is supposed to have a weakness but effectively doesn’t because you have shored up their weaknesses too much, that’s the place you should start with the nerfs.
The reason Mei’s icewall did not cause these problems from launch is because of that fall-off.
She couldn’t use it to wall off tanks 24/7 she needed to help her get into position to get ult charge. Now she hangs back spamming icicles, then uses her kit to frustrate when you get close, and you break through and she’s already got ult.
She shouldn’t be playing like Hanzo.
Fair enough
According to a video from Stylosa, McCree has already got several changes in the PTR (haven’t checked that by myself tho’). If I remember correctly they revert his fire rate (good thing), 250 hp (weird) and he gets a FOV upgrade in deadeye. Anyways, I never said that McCree underpowered; I said that he has some drawbacks that can be exploited. I know that I can pick widow at any time and negate him the high ground, while I keep my range to exploit his falloff. Against Mei I will just get sniped by a projectile (larger) while she pops out momentarily not giving you the time to kill her.
Sorry, but if I watch pros to have the same reaction problem as me against Mei whenever she plays around a corner, then there is a problem and I don’t have a sloth reaction time. 
Torbjorn is similar but it needs a ton of adjustments to hit in first place.
The McCree PTR nerf was cancelled.