Many people know that Reaper is incapable of receiving buffs to his damage because it is directly tethered to his lifesteal. Too much would make him basically unkillable as long as he’s shooting at something (like a tank). He’s also in a state, however, where he does so little damage outside of point blank range, that there is really no reason to pick him over any other DPS.
I propose a solution that unbinds him from his lifesteal. Make it so that the lower his target is on HP, the more healing he receives in return. This way he will no longer need to focus on fat juicy tanks to live, but instead can prioritize squishies like every other DPS.
It also thematically fits his story since he only finds relief when killing. Obviously this is just something I thought about for a little bit, so if there are any holes in this idea, please point them out. I think this could be a better alternative to what we have currenly.
I have an even cooler idea. What if once you killed someone they lost their soul. You could collect this by stealing it and it will heal you. This rewards killing people which is what Reaper loves to do. I think this idea is very awesome and fits his design.
Ehh, I’m not a fan of Reaper’s old passive. Knowing how poorly his mobility is, it would be quite a pain to constantly have to risk Wraith just for a few bread crumbs of HP. He’d probably also just die a lot more since the few chunks of health he does steal can break a few… well break points.
This would just make him more reliant on tank busting which is his worst playstyle. The whole reason (or at least what they’re pretending to claim is the reason) for Reaper not receiving buffs is because of how much it impacts his ability to tank bust.
That’s why the solution I proposed would focus more on dueling other DPS and supports, rather than tanks.
They replaced his shadowstep with an air dash like mirrorwatch echos (but he cant shoot during it)
They lowered damage per pellet but tightened spread.
They made him instead of have lifesteal store 50% of the damage he deals (up to 200 for ex) and when he presses wraith form he heals for all the stored damage
Something like a Jett dash from Valorant except prolonged? Maybe if he takes reduced damage or is immune like how he is in Wraith form. Otherwise, I think it would be incredibly easy to dink him to death. I do like the concept of having a dash to use though.
As for the stored damage in Wraith form, I believe it could work, but it would need to have a reduced cooldown. Something like 4-6 seconds would make it viable since he’d no longer be able to self-sustain otherwise.
Yes, you are. TP forces you to stand still for 3 seconds. The average human reaction time is 250 ms.
Speed boost in Wraith form is nice, but can be easily followed up by chasing him down. Any medium to long range hero can simply dink him to death after he exits it. Meanwhile he has no way to defend himself since he’s both short ranged and lacking other forms of mobility.
On echo, I would agree, but Reaper has a much fatter hitbox. It would have to either be insanely fast or have some form of DR to prevent being peppered to death. Maybe even just a cooldown reduction would be sufficient.
honestly i had a lifeweaver end up pulling me into a hanzo ult i dont know if they intended that but if i hadnt used meis ability that shields her from it i probably would of died from the ult
A flat number, a certain amount of hp received per shot. But it would have to have a caveat of some form, like range.
Otherwise one could just be a sniper reaper and heal to full really easily.
The lifesteal target would need to be closeby enough to work, but with that a flat number of health received would be pretty good.
Either make it so that there’s no difference between shooting a tank or a squishy, or make the tank passive nerf reaper’s health received a littlebit.
That way it would still be encouraged to shoot squishies first.
When I made custom games, I had to meticulously adjust his healing/lifesteal to get it right. He needed adjustments for how much healing he got from healers too.
I’m beginning to lose faith in this whole thing, tbh.
He would be useless at that point. The only way he can even contest is because of his sustain keeping him alive. His hitbox is to big and his damage is too little for it to be a positive trade.
I feel like that would be worse than what we currently have. With the current version it only heals the amount of damage you do, so if you’re bad at aiming you wont be rewarded. With the idea you proposed, it would guarantee the free HP regardless of mechanical skill and it would punish Reaper’s built-in problems like getting in close with his minimal mobility.
As I don’t believe Reaper needs anymore nerfs (if there’s anything even left to nerf), I think that giving him more benefits for shooting squishies would be the better way to go about it.
I don’t think anyone ever complained about Reaper’s life steal or felt like he couldn’t be buffed because of it. He can’t really be buffed because he already does a lot of damage… so the best way to buff a hero like Reaper would be through utility or specific changes to his kit – like having a more consistent weapon that does more consistent damage throughout the game. That would be a great start. It doesn’t require a damage buff and makes Reaper playable again. Basically how his shotguns were at the cusp of Overwatch 1. The only caveat there is that most game developers are afraid to buff shotguns or make them strong… so they almost always make them inherently weak, unless you’re rubbing shoulders with your enemy.
They did back in OW1. He went from 50% down to 40% down to 30% then back up to 35%. Since his damage is tethered to his lifesteal, they refuse to buff it even though it’s incredibly weak for what it should be.
