A tank is a better tank buster than Reaper

General Discussion
1

Hey kids, did you know that Zarya has more DPS output than Reaper against tanks?

Ah yes, your beloved Russian lesbian that has been meta for over 5 months now statistically can melt tanks better than the man described as the “Tank Buster.”

Ahem, let’s do the math

Zarya’s particle cannon does 95 damage per second without any energy points. Now to compensate, her beam radius is about the size of Hammond’s head hitbox and unless you’re geguri you’re not going to consistently be keeping your beams locked on DPS.

BUT ON TANKS, it’s much easier to keep your beam locked, therefore you already have the higher advantage with Zarya, especially if you’re someone who can barely aim

But now we also have to account for the energy points affecting the power of the beam, each point is 1% added to the DPS of the beam.

1% of 95 = .95 DPS added per percentage

Now on a small scale that does not sound like a lot, but let’s comtinue to grab more of those lovely statistics

Please note I am using overbuff for this, and I know some white knights in the comments are gonna be like “ITS AN UNRELIABLE SOURCE!1!1!” Okay mate, this is assuming that every single other website that people look on the internet is 100% accurate, calm down.

Also keep in mind that even if your profile is privated, overbuff still grabs statistics from the matches players have, and you can’t private those.

Anyways, back to my BS rant.

I decided to grab the average energy of each platform and apply them here. First I had to grab the average from each rank, including quickplay stats, and then mean those as well.

Pc: 57%
Xbox: 46%
PS4: 48%

(Incoming Lol Pc master race joke that makes you look more like an idiot)

Now doing some more easy calculations that you could’ve done yourself with a 7th grade education, we can deduce that the average DPS for zaryas in each platform follow as such:

(Rounded to neatest integer)
PC: 57% of 95 = 54 + 95 = 149 DPS
Xbox: 46% of 95 = 44 + 95= 138 DPS
PS4: 48% of 95 = 46 + 95 = 140 DPS

Now if you want to go even FURTHER BEYOND, you can average those out too:

149 + 138 + 140 = 427/3 = 142 DPS

Let’s draw out the feasible conclusion (which you have every right to take with a grain of salt) that zarya’s average DPS, if you are to consistently track it on a tank, would be 142 Damage per second.

This is not even counting towards aim assist on console and her already high survivability (which I should also add is significantly more than reaper’s), but we’re not going to go into that.

Now let’s talk about Reaper:

Reaper fires 7-8 pellets with each shotgun shot with each pellete dealing 20 damage each. It has an 11 meter range with the damage fall-off by 8% every meter it stretches out of that, before reaching 20 meters where the damage is just nulled entirely.

Reaper fires approximately 2 shots per second, which if you try to math that it comes out to a “WHOPPING” 280-300 DPS.

But there’s a twist.

For Reaper to CONSISTENTLY hit that amount of damage like Zarya, he would need to plant Every. Single. Pellet. In the enemy’s thick skulls. Since we did it before we’ll completely ignore how this already screws him over for various DPSes, since we’re only looking at Tanks.

According to oVeRbUfF, Reapers mostly tend to hit around 4-5 pellets per shot, so that should give us a wider spread idea of what we’re dealing with.

Now, repeating as we did before, now it is time to calculate the average accuracies of all platforms judging by the means of ranks and Quickplay. KEEP IN MIND that I will not averaging out all three platforms this time because there is a broader difference between Pc reapers and console reapers.

PC: 39%
Xbox: 34%
PS4: 41%

I guess there’s something about the DualShock controllers, huh. But I digress. LETS DO SOME ADDITION! OUR FAVORITE!

All the averages are below 50%, and since 4-5 pellets per shot equals to about 80-100 damage, you can say that reaper players are struggling to even lay enough damage to carry through as a viable pick. ESPECIALLY COMPARED TO ZARYA.

You can argue that reaper’s lifesteal can keep him in the fight for long enough, except it can’t. With the constant application of CC, Snipers, Goats, shields, and flat out Zarya herself, he ends up getting screwed before he can even enter the fight promptly.

(Side note: SpiritOW made it to #1 in NA one tricking reaper. I honestly declare him to currently be the greatest Overwatch player right now with that skill set. Go check him out)

Speaking of spirit, even he is smart enough to acknowledge reaper’s crappiness, saying you shouldn’t even try to use him against characters like Brigitte and Reinhardt, as well as that Q is just another respawn button. If you’re not going to listen to me, at least listen to someone who matters like him.

But anyways, that’s all I have to say. Keep in mind that some of this may be inaccurate, but reaper’s accuracy HAS to be top notch to match character’s like Zarya. And for someone who is meant to be a tank buster…THE STATS DONT SHOW IT

2

Well, Reaper needs small buffs.

3

I just want a tighter spread on Reaper and a better Shadow Step. Please.

2 Likes
4

Still think he needs a passive where his shotgun pullets ignore armor and treat it like normal health.

5

Reaper needs buffs but this is a really silly comparison you’re making. It’s a lot of math just to say “Reaper sure is weak,” and it doesn’t really get to the heart of Reaper’s actual problems – which certainly isn’t his DPS. Just because Reaper, on average, doesn’t get a lot of damage doesn’t mean he isn’t succeeding where he’s supposed to, which is close-ranged headshot damage. Reaper’s statistics here are going to be off because when Reaper has nothing better to do, you better bet he’s just firing weak shots at a more distant target, because applying chip damage is better than just doing nothing in a lot of these circumstances.

Reaper in general doesn’t look for consistent damage output, he looks for opportunities to put 280 damage onto someone’s health bar. And since that’s a lethal amount of damage, the opportunities in which he can get that DPS and keep it up are far and few in between – most tanks are going to be felled if Reaper gets just a couple of those juicy shots, and then his DPS is over.

It’s why looking at these nuances statistics in Overwatch doesn’t really say anything. Context is a hundred times more important, deconstructing engagement situations and broader scenarios is way more vital to look at. So saying “Zarya is a better tank buster than Reaper” because her DPS across the board is higher is the wrong way to look at it.

Again, absolutely, Reaper could use some buffs. Comparing him to Zarya, though, especially in the narrative that “she’s been meta for over five months now,” paints a different picture than I think you intend.

Not the buff he needs. People think Reaper’s damage is really terrible against armor, but for one, he isn’t the one that’s supposed to chip off armor, and for two, his damage actually isn’t that terrible if you’re going for his ideal shots. Letting him ignore armor would just make having armor feel less safe than it’s supposed to, and a hero like Rein – who I think has enough troubles as it is, according to the community – wouldn’t like that a hero could just walk through his shield and grab an easy 280 damage that also knocks off his armor.

6

It’s a faulty calculation. You assume 100% accuracy on Zarya, but only 40% on Reaper. You also aren’t including Reapers ability to headshot, which takes his potential DPS to 560. According to Overbuff Zarya’s average energy is also roughly at 37% on average in comp and lower in QP, which puts her avg. DPS at 130.

2 Likes
7

Because

  1. Zarya doesn’t have spread
  2. Her accuracy does not heavily contribute to her damage output like reaper

Also critical hit accuracy is lower than 10% on all platforms for Reaper so ye good luck having that happen

8

Against a tank sized target reaper is outputting 280 DPS inside his effective range. Which exceeds the maximum Zarya can achieve. Any armor less tank that is not on the small size he can mulch in 2 seconds flat.

Even if you take armor into consideration 140 DPS is not that bad and will strip the armor layer off of any tank by his third shot. If he is against a target with a significant critbox then he winds up doing a pretty massive amount of damage even on the armor layer.

Damage is not his issue, its everywhere outside of tank busting and getting into tank busting range.

2 Likes
9

So? That does not mean she’s got 100% accuracy. And if Reaper can’t put a shotgun-blast into a tank at point-blank range, he shouldn’t play that character. Assuming 40% accuracy against tanks as Reaper is madness, he should have 90%+.

10

I take it you’re more of a Zarya main defending her than a reaper player

11

Assume that all you will, it doesn’t make your premise any less faulty. Overbuff doesn’t show a characters accuracy against a certain class, and I can guarantee any Reaper worth his salt has way higher accuracy and critical hits versus tanks. If you can’t hit what is the gameplay equivalent of the broadside of a barn as Reaper, you’re doing it wrong.

12

So in essence, what will make him an actual tank buster without him being OP, isn’t the buff he needs.

Uh ok.

13

So you assume a perfect accuracy with Zarya because tanks are big, but you don’t do the same for Reaper?

Sure mate.

Btw, Widow is the best tank buster, she can kill almost all of them with just 2 shots!

1 Like
14

Zarya is pretty poor tankbuster (except against D.va due to her beam ignoring DM). Armor affects her damage quite significantly and she can’t score crits which is a big deal against tanks with their huge critboxes. Hog and D.va are better against tanks.

15

Actually it would make him OP, as the reason why armor works the way it does was to reign in the damage output of characters like Reaper, Roadhog, D.Va, and Tracer.

If you did want to give him armor ignore, it has to come at the cost of crits. As crits reduce the effectiveness of armor (which is why D.Va originally had 400 armor).

16

Because he’s already good at tank busting, it’s everything else around him that is unfavorable, which is what I explained in that post. He has an escape and a quick reload, but since they’re attached, it’s often too precious of a resource to use. He has a mobility to be into drop points, but it’s so sluggish and telegraphed that you won’t surprise anyone.

But the problem is absolutely not his damage. He deals enough damage and I don’t think we want a game where Reaper can decimate people too freely, unless we all really enjoy being mowed like lawn by a hero that would just have to hold left click.

17

It wouldn’t. It would actually make him be able to bust tanks A.K.A tank buster.

It’s called “I have to respect Reaper now”.

He wouldn’t decimate people freely. He’d decimate tanks, which is what his job is.

1 Like
18

Reaper would literally be able to one shot a Reinhardt or Winston unless crits were removed to allow for armor ignore.

That is OP. As it would lead to the death of tanking. He would have to recieve extreme weaknesses for such an extreme strength. Just like how Bastion had to turn completely immobile for his firepower and be completely dependent on his team to function.

Which is why they will never give it to him. It would necessitate a rework or again, removing his ability to crit at all.

19

How come this argument doesn’t work for Brigitte and her Shield Bash then? Why not just “respect her?”

You could make this argument for virtually any overpowered mechanic if you’re willing to defend it. If Widowmaker could shoot through barriers, would that just be something we have to “respect?”

And again – he already does that very well. He doesn’t need more tank busting power, he needs utilities that are meaningful for the context of Overwatch. Reaper’s damage is fine, even against armored characters where he’s still able to knock off said armor in just one to two clean shots. It’s getting to those tanks and then dealing with every non-tank hero that the other two-thirds of the team makes up that his problems become severe, and ignoring armor doesn’t solve those problems.

It would make his one niche even better, better than it needs to be, without fixing the real things that hold him back.

20

I wonder if op even play Zarya at all to even think that Reaper deals less dps than Zarya.