(71 likes) Why Reaper s̶u̶c̶k̶s̶ and what he needs - K he still sucks 12/18/2018

General Discussion
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Edit: This thread has been made long before the PTR update of October 23, 2018. I am happy with the new Reaper changes. I think the leech and spread buffs are a huge asset to his kit. I’m keeping the thread active because now all I ask as a passionate Reaper main, is to please look at Shadow Step and give it an animation update (buff its speed), or consider giving him another ability that fits his kit a little better. Thank you, have a nice evening.

Old thread below

We’ve seen triple tank metas so many seasons. Even quad tank is still a strat in some scenarios. So the question is; where’s our favorite edgelord tank bustin’ boi?

Sorry folks, but Reaper’s kit is lame and I’ll explain why. I don’t need to point fingers at Torb’s rework and tie it to Reaper because there is already many threads doing that.

Current Design and why it sucks (in my opinion).
Reaper’s original design of being the shotgun hero is fair and balanced. He does a ton of damage but he can only do it upclose. The problem is – he’s a super easy target to focus and is easily countered with basic play. And with all this ridiculous CC in the game, he can’t catch a break (like a lot of other heroes out there).

The shotgun spread is terrible on smaller targets. Additionally, it’s just not as devastating to shields as everyone makes it out to be. Yeah I’m so glad to be hitting tanks in this triple support, triple tank meta where I can’t kill a tank in time before I have to wraith away (and feed support ult). I’m a terrible asset to my team if I can’t consistently kill anything else.

Wraith Form changes have been made in the right direction. Giving him that speed gain helped with survivability. But these changes haven’t been enough.

Shadow Step: Alright folks here is a huge source of Reaper’s problems is this garbage useless ability right here. Most offensive heros have two abilities to use in team fights. For example; Tracer’s recall / blinks, Genji’s deflect and dash, Soldier’s helix and heal, etc. Reaper only has his wraith form because honestly no Reaper is going to use teleport mid team fight unless the enemy team is throwing or completely braindead. It’s too slow, you can actually kill Reaper before he can move outside of the animation, and it has a sound cue. As if Reaper’s footsteps aren’t loud on their own. I mainly use teleport to get out of spawn faster. Teleporting behind the enemy team is just rolling the dice and hoping they don’t notice before you walk up and map design just makes Reaper’s teleport spots way too predictable anyway.

Deathblossom: Anyone who complains about Reaper ult being overpowered has seriously never played Reaper for a decent time. Death Blossom is probably one of the easiest dps ultimates to get out and counter of despite it’s damage. It’s also one of the easiest ways to kill Reaper. With the addition of Brig into the meta, Reaper is even more heavily countered during his ultimate because of how she can walk up with a shield and stun him out of it. And she’s just one of many heroes who can cancel his ultimate.

Leech: You’re punished for killing a 200 hp hero because shooting them hardly gives you any healing, and even when hitting tanks anything can outheal the amount of leech Reaper does. I’m pretty sure when people read this they might have forgotten Reaper actually has leech anyway since they gave Moira the better version of it. I miss his little soul globes, because they gave more healing on the flank anyway.

Alright enough whining, what does he need?

So, Reaper can go in either two directions. First direction is you can improve more on his flanking capabilities or the second option make him a stronger frontline dps. So here’s my two rework ideas.

Rework Idea #1 (The Flanker)

  • Wraith Form Visual change: Change Reaper’s wraith form to make it visually harder to see him as he moves about. I mean, if I could have it my way he should have been able to move around like a black dust swarm which gives him a small flight / wall climb-ish capabilities like we see in the Sombra animated short. But sadly that would probably be overpowered?

  • Shadow step: Keep this garbage ability I suppose; but actually make it useful and change the animation of it and make it way more faster. And no, he doesn’t need to meme himself and yell out “REPOSITIONING” before being able to move. Reducing the damage he takes during the animation might actually make it a more useful ability in teamfights. He would be a lot harder to hit if he teleported in the same manner as he does in his highlight intro.

  • Leech: I want to believe that they gave Reaper some self-healing option (first with soul globes, now this) because the developers had intended for him to be a flanker in the first place. But, leech is a little underpowered right now so give that some love please. Even the smallest % change will help.

  • Deathblossom: Unpopular opinion here, but I really wouldn’t care if they took away leech from his ult and instead gave him some sort of damage reduction. I was thinking maybe a lingering cloud of smoke to which if Reaper stands in it, it would reduce damage taken by 15% or so. The cloud would last for maybe 4-6 seconds. This would allow him to dominate his little area more.

Rework Idea #2 (Frontline buster)

  • Shadow Step REMOVED.

  • New Ability: Vampiric Embrace: Activate this ability increases Reaper’s rate of fire, and increases leech gain by 25% for 5 seconds. Has a 10 second cooldown.

  • New Ability (right click) Smoke Grenade: Launches a smoke grenade, causing reduced damage taken for your team, lasts a few seconds. 12 second cooldown. Visual effect would look similar to how Reaper’s point of view looks during Wraith form.

  • Deathblossom: Same idea as from Rework #1.

Anyways, those were my ideas and my little rant… I apologize for any spelling mistakes or parts that just didn’t make any sense. I want to just make it clear that yes; he is my favorite hero and with that, naturally, comes bias I won’t deny that. I also think that he’s not super underpowered but it’s definitely more frustrating to play him in this meta than it is fun. I’m the person that will play something stupidly underpowered and off-meta as long as they are fun to play. Reaper is losing the “fun” factor for me and a lot of other people.

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I think it would be neat if they added gaps in walls on maps for his wraithform, kinda like he used in the Sombra animated short. Give him more options to escape.

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I do feel like Reaper needs either a new or reworked kit. For instance I don’t see him played very often, which doesn’t mean he’s not played, but when I do come up against one in a game you don’t really expect much. What I mean by that is that all though he is a threat, as a Mccree main which is a hard counter I know, you don’t have to really worry about what he’s going to do like you have to with some heroes like Genji because there’s literally nothing he can do to surprise you.

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I’ve said it since last November

Replace. ShadowStep. With. Smoke. Bombs.

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So walking through walls or something? That’d be interesting, but I would worry about something like that getting super buggy and glitched.

But I wholeheartedly agree that mobility is a problem with him.

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i’ve been pitching the grenade launchers

also give soldier his pistol already

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Also, patch up the the holes in Reaper’s lore you cowards.

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Frontline buster Reaper. Smoke bombs and vampiric embrace sound like a lot more fun than his current abilities.

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Updated thread title. Glad you like the new abilities idea.

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Whenever I see a buff Reaper thread…I automatically jump on the bandwagon, yes to everything, he needs some love.

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I really like the smoke bomb idea. Would really help his current issues as being a flanker with the mobility of a boulder and the durability of tissue paper if it gave him a defensive buff or his lifesteal came from that instead of just being natural.

I would complain if shadowstep was replaced with a smoke bomb given the game is two years old at this point and Blizzard has yet to fix the numerous issues with the skill’s targeting.

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I like Reaper’s ability to flank. I find it much more fun than his dueling ability. So I would lean toward the flanking Reaper you proposed. Another option for smoke grenades might be to add a slow effect as Reaper thrives up close, slowing would allow him to close distance and more easily land point blank shots. Also could be used to obscure vision or slow people from getting back to the point. Could be used to bamboozle enemies. Fire a smoke grenade on top of them, shadowstep behind them, create chaos

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Make him like doomfist and he gets armor as he damages.

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Ehhh, that would be pretty overpowered, Doomfist is designed the way he is because he gains shields through successfully hitting targets with his abilities. It would be way too easy on Reaper to gain shield by shooting.

However, like I stated before – Reaper’s leech is currently useless.

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Agreed. Reaper is in a bad state, and I’m really liking your ideas.

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I actually think Reaper is the most important character in the lore and we will only get his full story last. In my opinion it’s more important for the audience to understand the setting. Reaper ties so many things together I think that combined with his double/triple agent status and what we learn from his perspective will need to be saved. Because it could change how we feel about what we know.

Try to comb back through Masquerade and Infiltration, If you look carefully you will find some answers.

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Torbs new shotgun is insane.
Yeah and there is Reaper…

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I wouldn’t make such significant changes all around to him, but here goes.

Wraith Form: He heals himself now for 20 HPS throughout its duration.

Shadow Step: can teleport 50% faster and will no longer shout anything whenever he finishes teleporting.

He’ll heal himself for 35% of all damage done instead of 20%.

Finally, maybe an armour penetration mechanic.

I think this is what he needs right now, I wouldn’t rework him entirely or anything, because I think he fulfills the tank buster role well enough. We’d have to see if that’d be enough though.

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I also wonder why Reaper is not used in “pro gaming” to counter goats or other Tank-heavy combos. Of course not only Reaper. Take Reaper, Junkrat and Pharah in your Team and there is no Goat anymore in the other, I’m pretty sure.

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Sadly, but something must be done with Reaper. The last time he had any pick rate increase, was when he got buffed, but even that didn’t last long. Reaper is suffering so much from power creep. I wonder if the GOATS setup will be popular in comp…3 tanks, should be a heaven for Reaper and yet…
Also, I do agree that something must be done with his ultimate, because now that there is CC everywhere, you can be happy if you killed even 2 people before dying with ult.

1 Like