đź‘Ž Baptiste is the worst "new" hero to join Overwatch (long read)

General Discussion
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I have never seen the forum so dead after a hero launch regarding said hero. Some might say it’s cause Overwatch’s gamer population is down or it’s cause Overwatch is nearing 3 years but I really dont think that’s the case at all here. I think he’s just a bad hero. I give my thought feel free to crucify me at the end if you enjoy the new hero.

  1. The look of Baptiste
    His character design looks like something you’d expect from the Overwatch Beta or some sort of event. He really does not stand out in a crowd and watching him move around he looks like a blob with legs, it’s hard to headshot him cause his design is so bland its hard to tell his head from his chest lol. This design is super weak, he looks like something from Mass Effect: Andromeda with a single coat of polish over him, even his dialog is so tasteless from all I’ve heard. Omnics have more humanity and personality then Baptiste. His whole design is on giant pun to Supports who try to DPS in game.

  2. The Immortality Field
    Sucks. It’s either doing way to much, or so exposed it gets picked off and it accomplishes nothing. One thing you can guarantee though it’s annoying 100% of the time to somebody. Forces you to direct aim up instead of dealing damage, and if you were in a chase on a low health target its a bad feeling when you finally land the killing blow and the health doesn’t go down and now your on the killfeed dying to baby dva as reaper. This skill sucks the very soul and fun out of Overwatch. Taking all our focus to killing the disk in the sky every 20 seconds and not focusing on the action. Not to mention the amount of people who get the Ult robbed that they been farming for 5 minutes and get so demoralized they say screw it and just turn overwatch off mid-match (already seen it twice today) or make that their last match of the day (or ever). It’s a soul crushing skill. Immortality should NEVER be in an FPS unless it’s some sort of neutral map pick up, even if there’s a bot-killing loop hole around it when its being used by a team.

  3. Ultimate
    Needs toning down. I get it’s a SMALL stationary square, but on maps like Anubis or Illios that is plenty big to shut down these maps that have a center lane. Idk what but it needs a nerf somewhere cause I have no idea what to do when enemy baptiste drops his ult in front of his team except run away cause there are some many things: pharah rocket, Ashe, widow, hanzo, junkrat anything thats"burst" damage can just 1-shot you without any sort of counter play. You cant even stand behind rein’s shield and attempt a stand to fight back, because oh yeah the immortality field, and by the time you kill that they have killed all of you or at least crippled you to the point of unwinnable. I dont know exactly what nerfs it needs but it’s not good in the current state for the other heroes in the game. Mccree could just fan the hammer and each bullet is like a mini pharah rocket, will two land and kill you, who knows but he’s got 6 shots in that chamber so odds are highly in his favor. Double Damage and Immortality on a single hero is just asinine.

  4. The gun
    I know Blizzard said that wanted guns to “feel” good and with Ashe they 110% hit that nail on the head. The Viper is an amazing gun. Baptiste gun looks like something NERF toy guns developed for the military and feels pretty much just like that example I dont even know whats it’s called and frankly I dont care given the choice between Baptiste weapon and ANY other weapon in overwatch I would never take Baptiste’s it is very comfortably at the bottom of the weapon list. Even Orisa’s arm mounted Fusion Driver feel alot more fun to shoot then Baptiste’s weapon. The heal grenades Sound effect feels off and the radius is awful. Heal output is good though. The SMG part of it, well there’s no other words for it feels weird and uncomfortable, like sitting between two fat people on a plane with gas problems but the air condition feels good in that seat so you sit there anyways. The damage output seems right but just the way it shoots feels very cartoony and underwhelming. I land 2 full burst on someone it doesnt feel like I did alot of damage but they’re pretty much dead or near one shot. While im playing Baptiste it really seems like I’m not contributing but the results are there not the sense of accomplishment that come with those results.

  5. Initial effects on community
    I know he’s new and it takes 2-4 weeks for comps to settle down. But it seems like the winning answer to beat a Baptiste comp is multiple snipers or hitscans. Now i Mostly play hitscans so you’d think i’d like this, but I’ve been around since Sombra launch and I remember the Double Snipers once Hanzo got his rework. Nothing sucks the fun out of a game more then having to spend 50% of match staring at nothing or walls because you have no open sightlines. Im seeing alot of boopy stuff too which is always hell-i-mean-fun.

  6. Fan respose.
    Baptiste who? Besides being forced into our gaming lives now no one really seems to care about Baptiste as a hero. His lore is ex-talon and thats about it I know, but it seems the mass majority are with me in that regard and just dont care cause how bland he is overall. Everyone seems to be more on the “how do I kill him and remove him from my game” train more then the “how do we use this hero” boat.

In conclusion this is not the Hero we were looking for. Blizzard did a 10/10 with Ashe and the patch changes gave hope for change, but if Baptiste is the futures I’m so ready for anything other then him. Pulling out my fingernails one at time seems like a more fun activity then dealing with a “pro-baptiste” in the future. That’s the kinda cancer you just want the pain to end and you pull the plug and you give up hope. Once the dedicated few people get over his underwhelming design and very good at his kit, he is gonna be one of the top 3 most annoying people to fight I think in just about any mode in the game.

Baptiste is the kinda hero you’d have expected back in 2016 when overwatch first launched and there was mass rez, shield gens, and such. A hero that people would (will) hate and the developers would have reworked with the other unpopular heroes.

I know you have like 4-6 heroes on standby at the office Blizzard. You might want to speed up production on the next one cause Baptiste really isn’t doing the game any favors. Baptiste stinks 3/10 :-1:

But that just my opinion, crucify me now if you want or pitch in your thoughts.

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Best new hero since ana imo :man_shrugging:

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I just think its because he’s pretty balanced off the rip. Most heroes need some tuning on PTR or just after hitting live but he’s just, fine. Not bad, not great. Solid main heal. Good, interesting abilities with good team synergy. Ways to deal with flankers if you have the mechanics. I can see why he would feel off on a controller, though.

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I think it’s largely because people hyped him up like he was going to be stupidly OP on release, and so far that doesn’t seem to be the case. Also, I think people are just slowly getting burnt out on Overwatch and new heroes. The receptions to Ashe and Hammond both were also pretty mild compared to the other new heroes.

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maybe playing on controller has alot to do with the feel of weapon. Using a controller with Baptiste is awkward. I’ve tried moving abilities to new button and messing with crosshairs and sensitivity and I cant seem to find that comfort zone using him, even though the damage/heal output is there. It’s goofy to use him on controller to say the least.

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Baptiste is like Ana on launch. He’s a bit too difficult to use and has a bit too little payoff.

In other words, there’s no real incentive to play Baptiste because he’s undertuned probably because the Devs assumed people would complain about Immortality Field.

Also, 12 second hack cooldown launch Sombra was pretty comparable to Baptiste too not just Ana

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I disagree. I think he is good if you want to play an FPS healer. Anyone that plays a lot of Lucio, Zen, Ana will enjoy him in the same way that McCree, Soldier, Widow mains enjoyed learning Ashe. He just fullfills a different role. I’m going to play him loads.

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im mostly “meh” about him as hes very lackluster. there is nothing special about him that stands out, that makes me want to play him. i typically can pick first whenever i enter a game and i just dont even want to bother to learn him. from what ive seen so far, jut not impressed. i was expecting to see something a bit more from the intended male version of mercy …

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He’s a healer with a hitscan assault rifle who heals by shooting grenades at people.

That’s pretty special and new and makes me want to play him. Especially since my only option for hitscan when I’m on support was Ana before him, and she’s a sniper, so I tend not to pick her when my team inevitably locks at least two of the three other snipers.

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At least it’s not some auto-aim garbage like moira, torb, sym or cheap aim brig

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I like him. He’s got good healing, decent damage, and what amounts to a defensive ult on a cooldown. He’s a little clunky but that mostly just means he takes skill to play.

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I for one feel he was a decent hero start to finish.

I like his primary.

I like his forms of healing.

I like IF, playing with and against it.

I like the idea of his ult.

shrug

Good hero in my books. Feels like he could use some tweaks in some areas- and some qol uopdates in regards to his introduction, but solid start.

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I think the biggest practical limitation is he needs highground to heal effectively, but this is just asking to take a sniper bullet.

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Skipped reading the nonsense, he is great and I enjoy him.

GLHF

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I agree, is the worst new hero
The Sombra/Ashe hype was real :ok_hand:

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This one is enough to make me not that eager to play him.

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So why even click on the thread then if you planned to skip it?

Anyways my only gripe with Baptiste is how weak his gun feels. Totally agree that it feels like a Nerf gun. It just doesn’t have a satisfying bang like other guns.

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Skimmed it. I also am not psychic and did not know the level of nonsense before I clicked. Duh.

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I freaking hate his design he looks like a damn Fortnite default skin
Other than that i don’t have any other problems with him

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I fall in this category and I do really enjoy playing him, but I still agree with most of OP’s points except the ult, and even that could use tweaking. On the gameplay side his entire design focuses on obnoxious delays and other clunk to balance high impact abilities, and this wasn’t the best idea.

I still think he’s lowkey overpowered though.

1 Like