As I stated earlier today, I think the game balance has been improving over the past several months and am becoming quite happy with it. That being said, it’s still not perfect and probably never will be. Here are a few tweaks that I’d make.
Bastion:
Bastion can now reload while repairing and vice versa in both recon and sentry configurations.
Bastion can now repair while switching configurations.
Bastion now has 5 more ammo in Recon Mode.
Bastion has not had the flexibility necessary to really shine despite his powerful damage potential partly because of the downtime created by reloading, repairing, and switching configurations. This often meant that once Bastion had to repair, reload, or both he became an easy target. These changes should make Bastion able to adapt to changing circumstances faster and create less downtime where he cannot be a sufficient threat to defend himself.
Brigitte:
Brigitte’s shield health is now lowered to 400 from 500 health.
The cooldown on Brigitte’s Shield regeneration is increased to 4 seconds from 3 after being broken.
The regen rate on Brigitte’s shield is reduced from 100 per second to 75 per second.
Though Brigitte’s recent changes have made her less oppressive, she is still a little too difficult to kill even when focused. These changes to Brigitte’s shield should make her somewhat more vulnerable if her shield is focused down.
Hanzo:
Storm arrow now only has 5 arrows instead of 6.
Hanzo’s changes have brought him more in line with where he needs to be, but he is still able to output a bit too much damage with Storm Arrows. This change will leave Storm Arrows as a powerful ability, but will bring the maximum damage down to a more reasonable level.
Reaper:
Shadow Step cast time reduced to 2 seconds from 2.5.
Reaper now transfers to his destination after 0.75 seconds from activation.
Shadow Step can now be cast in air.
Shadow Step has long been the weak point in Reapers kit. While we don’t want Shadow Step to be used to immediately surprise attack enemies, these changes should let it at least be used as an escape in certain circumstances.
Torbjorn:
Shotgun damage per shot reduced 10%.
Right now, Torbjorn can do a bit too much damage up close. He should be scary in a close range fight, but he should not be able to 1v1 a tank quite so easily.
Wrecking Ball:
Wrecking Ball’s grapple will now attach to surfaces more reliably, especially payloads.
Okay, but Brigithe is not oppressive because she is a tank hybrid and if you are focusing her, she melts relative to the tanks. That is not her problem and the last change made her win-rate go up, just as the MCree and Soldier buffs made their win-rate go down, in other words, the changes were so negligible that they did not influence natural rising and falling.
She doesn’t melt though. Not when she is ulting (which is frequently), is self-healing, may be being healed by someone else, and sometimes shielding. She can be quite the pain to kill if she is being supported by her team. I don’t think she’s too dangerous in terms of damage, just too hard to kill. This should make her more vulnerable without making her too easy to kill.
This will mean that there’s a good strat to take advantage of. Wear down her shield so that she has to put it away or let it break and the consewuences for Brig’s shield being worn down are increased somewhat.
What’s more, if you are right, no harm done. Brig won’t be affected. If you’re wrong then she’s brought more into balance. So there’s no reason not to try it.
Her ult and self healing do not matter if you play one of her counters. Pharah, Junk, Hanzo, or Widow. Even a pocketed Brig is not going to be able to sustain that burst. I mean… Widow one-shots her. Hanzo and a sneeze will do her in under normal circumstances, and even when being pocketed while ulting, you just need slight burst. In other words, she literally melts. And those are under ideal conditions. Brighter should NOT be balance around being pocketed while ulting, and again, even if she were, her counters are so hard that it does not matter.
Saying Widow can one-shot her would be more meaningful if she didn’t have a personal shield that could easily stop that. And Pharah is now less of a counter for her because of the splash reduction, even though I think Pharah’s changes were a buff overall. That’s probably why Brig’s numbers went up. Junk is alright under certain circumstances, but I wouldn’t consider him a hard counter. Same for Hanzo. He is definitely a threat to her, but that can largely be mitigated by a shield tank and good positioning.
Bastion, Hanzo, and WB I’m totally okay with. I don’t have a comment on Torb (because I just don’t know yet. I want to see more comp of him before making changes.) I mainly agree with Reaper’s changes minus shadow step in the air (because realistically he shouldn’t be in the air much or at all unless if he is dropping down to kill people.)
And then Brig, which I have to say I am opposed to all of these changes. I don’t know the kind of heroes ya play or your current rank, but from my plat and plethora of heroes I play, she really isn’t that oppressive anymore. Her recent barrier nerf can really be felt as it is, and making it so the regen on it is even worse will really hurt her. I understand some don’t like her, but like come on…this seems to be quiet a bit overkill.
(Added note since I saw the pharah thing) There might be less splash damage, but she shoots more rockets which can break her (now weaker) barrier faster. Plus she has her boop thing (forget the actual name) which can put Brig out of position, which is something she really doesn’t want to happen to her.
If Reaper can Shadow Step in air, he can use the fact that some enemies knock him into the air as an opportunity for escape. Think Junkrat, Hammond, Doomfist, etc. Also, he could jump off ledges to buy himself a second and then teleport while falling.
As for Brig, I don’t think she’s that oppressive anymore either which is why I went the route I did. It’s not meant to hurt her ability to do damage, or stun, or anything like that. It just makes it harder for her to hang out in the open using her shield for long periods of time. It will make her a bit more reliant on good positioning and using a main tank. Other than that she should be about the same. Her winrate is still to high so she needs tweaking, but I don’t want to cripple her.
Btw, I know some people don’t like Brigitte but I’ve never been one of those people. I think this is a good way to bring down her win rate a bit and make her more vulnerable without ruining her.