✅ What if Damage Boosts didn't

General Discussion
1

Was thinking about some rather fundamental mechanics issues with Overwatch.

And how a lot of the problems with barriers stem from coverage from snipers, and sniperish heroes.

And just in general the mismatch in power from burst damage, versus sustain damage.

It occurred to me. There is one mechanic that greatly greatly benefits snipers, but is less beneficial to sustain damage.

Damage Boost

  • No longer amplifies the damage for critical headshots.

Would be kinda game-changing if they tinkered with it.

2

Meh, that would literally only have a noticeable effect on Ashe and McCree to a lesser extent

3

I figure it would cut a lot of Widow’s anti-tank and charge speed

4

Would make them pretty useless.

5

Not really, a lot of Dive isn’t headshot based. Nanoblade or NanoRein isn’t headshot based.
Amped Pharah rockets don’t use headshots.

And from the “Mercy pocketing a sniper” perspective, that was boring anyways, and limiting her capability to get other buffs.

6

I would hardly consider Widow anti-tank

Big meaty targets that snipers can’t one-shot are already halfway countering the snipers, being able to combat them directly is the next step.

7

Mercy pocketing can be boring anyway, but that’s a more philosophical discussion about Mercy herself.

It does make a big difference for heroes like 76, Ashe, Tracer and even Sombra, as it would I presume also apply to Orisa and Baptiste, maybe Discord?

8

That’s the thing, I’d argue Sniping kinda warps the entire game around it.

A large part of the barrier tank, doubleofftank and DPS queue times issue, is warped around the issue of having proper coverage from instakills, and nearinstakills.

9

I dunno… that doesn’t really make much sense…
You don’t get rewarded for hitting a good shot?

also, this would mean mercy could basically never dmg boost snipers since it would do hardly anything.

10

Even without snipers, there’s a ton of near instakills in the game already. In many ways, Hanzo and Widow actually benefit the least from damage boosting.

2 Likes
11

Yeah, it’s just ashe that would be heavily affected.

Hanzo and widow don’t need dmg boost that much tbh.

12

What you’re looking for is called “heath gate” mehcanic.

I would gladly turn shield and armor HP into health gates.

1 Like
13

And Ashe who needs the nerf the least…

14

Specifically ranged instant kills, that can’t be retroactively peeled for.

15

I’d argue that they still benefit from damage boosts quite a bit, because they can play very safe and still do tons of damage. When they’re bodyshotting targets or attacking tanks, damage boosts can still accomplish a lot.

16

But sniping is part of the fun of playing DPS heroes, anything that disturbs it will make DPS crowd complain, “It’s a skill shot, why does it have to be this way” and stuff…

17

Yup, it doesn’t affect their peak damage much, but it strongly affects their uptime and in some cases their exposure.

Like the difference between Acceleration and Speed

19

Diminishing returns is usually a Balancing cornerstone in every game I’ve played except this one.

Real mysterious that one of the other problems people are always complaining about in this game is how “nobody ever dies” because of all the healing. Hmmmmmmm.

But I digress: Even if it doesn’t affect Widow and other one-hitters “that much”, it should be in the game anyway, because if you have heroes balanced around the capability to deal a ton of damage, they don’t need to be doing much more damage than they already are.

20

Sure, they don’t get nothing from it, but if I’m getting a damage boost I feel like I’ll get a lot more out of it on Echo, Pharah, 76 or Ashe.

Hanzo and Widow are likely getting a ton of overdamage, and their lower rates of fire mean there’s chance for a miss on the follow up, or escape to cover or shielding.

21

Still wouldn’t change how oppressive Pharmercy would be. Only difference you would see is AsheMercy.