Baptiste Lamp Rework

General Discussion
1

Bap immortality field is op for an ability and most of us can agree on that. In some cases it can get more value than Zen’s Transcendence ult. For example a grav dragon combo can be easily countered by Trans but will be useless if everyone gets anti-naded in the grav (happens most of the time). The lamp will save your team if its protected and or hidden by the environment. In my opinion one ability to potentially save your whole team from two ults is unbalanced so these are my suggestions:

  • Make it an ultimate ability
    It is definitely strong enough to be an ult but i would say increase the duration and the health of the lamp itself. It may seem op but remember its an ultimate ability. I haven’t thought of an ability to replace the lamp, some people would say Bap wouldn’t need an ability to replace it as he is strong enough already.
  • Change what the lamp does
    So instead of the lamp making you immortal, it could have a damage reduction effect to your teammates inside the area. I think a smaller cool down time and a good amount of dmg reduction would make this a balanced ability for a support hero.
  • Make it harder to use
    Apart from the enemy team destroying it, there is nothing stopping the lamp from being used however if the lamp can be destroyed mid-air, deflected or eaten (e.g Sigma grasp, D.va matrix) then it would make the player think before throwing it without any risk.
    Note: This isn’t a rant i actually play Baptiste from time to time also these suggestions may or may not be balanced but it’s better than what the ability’s current state is now. Some players argue that it’s balanced as it is now but the majority of the player base don’t.
3 Likes
2

If IF becomes an ultimate then I say that lamp needs to be like a Mei ult where once you toss it the ultimate stays for the entire duration and can only be countered in eaten or deflected. Plus I think it would have to be larger in radius too.

I mentioned damage reduction before but people did no like that either saying lamp basically grants fortify for all team mates under it.

5 Likes
3

It is a strong ability with clear counterplay and room for error in the execution of it. It is precisely what all support abilities should aspire to be.

2 Likes
4

Keeping track of cooldowns is an integral part of the game and stuff like lamp and rez are the easiest to keep track with those super long cooldowns.

5

Baptiste having an ult that, once deployed, couldn’t be stopped and made your team unkillable? That would be hands-down the best support ultimate in the game and completely 100% busted.

The cast time on it is way too fast for it to be eaten or deflected as it is currently, plus I just don’t feel like being forced to have Genji or D.Va for a chance to cancel Baptiste’s ult is a good design. Both of them are very meh right now, anyway. All support ults have a reliable hard counter and this shouldn’t be any different.

I can understand giving the bot more health or even armor or something, but it would absolutely still need to be destructable and hackable even as an ultimate. Either that, or the cost would be so stupidly high, he would never have it up in time for it to be useful to stop or stilt a push.

If I was going to put it as his ult, I would literally just move it over the exact way it is now, give the bot more health, and then have it passively heal for like 45hps for everyone in range and it stacks with fist pump for 60hps. That way, unless you’re getting nuked by D.Va or Junkrat, people won’t come out of the bot with like 40 health all the time. You could also adjust the minimum amount of health preserved up to like 50% from 20%.

6

Easy nerf would be to start cooldown, when it is destroyed not when thrown. Now it’s basically a 20 sec cooldown, if you count in 5 secs of uptime.

Okay let’s just say they decide to make it like Mei Blizzard as in can’t be destroyed, but with longer duration and -50% damage reduction. What would happen to amp matrix? Make it a 25 sec cooldown ability too?

7

immortality field is fine, just shoot it or kill bap before you go for one of those 15 team wipe ults. unlike old mass rez bapt always stays with his team using this and lacks escapes overall for easier kills

8

The entire purpose of Immortality Field was to counter Ultimates/Burst Damage without just adding even more Healing to the game, or making the game even more Ultimate-centric than it already is.

9

I don’t think just increasing the lamp hp would be that good since it would be gone is seconds by the enemy team shooting it. Just have the lamp have short duration and the changes I mentioned then I think it would be fine. For genji and Dva they need some positive changes where players are open to using them.

10

What if damage done to players inside IM went towards the drone’s HP as well as the player’s HP?

11

I think a cleanse field with a minor damage reduction could be cooler

12

Then the skill cap is the same as it is now; you use it in ways that it doesn’t get broken before it can fulfill its purpose. Having even a few seconds of unstoppable immortality is still way too much in a game like OW. That’s the difference between McCree not doing anything with his ultimate and getting a teamwipe.

I don’t necessarily think these are really positive changes for Genji and D.Va as much as they are weaknesses with a very small window to actually be successful. Especially considering D.Va would throw her ult and then Baptiste would put the field down… while she was out of her Meka and unable to delete it.

13

Then to me IF should stay the way it is now as an ability and not an ultimate.

14

LOL

I agree, but are we not just speaking in the hypothetical lmao

15

It would have to be buffed in a way that would make it much more oppressive than people think it is.

He would be entirely useless. Useless Regen Burst, unreliable healing, fine damage with the cost of changing aiming positions all the time, and predictable Exo-Boots is enough to keep this character strong? Seriously?

This would make his team fight potential ridiculous. I would throw it out at the start of every fight to have an advantage. Imagine versing a Reinhardt with 1100hp.

You say this as if there is no risk and thought-processing to throwing lamp. It may not be a risk to Bap himself, rather his team. I always think about what ults the enemy has. If I throw this now to my overextended Reinhardt (pretending I throw it at the perfect time and don’t miss), who will stop grav+dragon; if I don’t, we’re down a main tank and at a massive disadvantage. You could make it eatable or block able, but then you’d have to give it a cooldown reduction like nade.

You can say it’s not balanced, but if you’re going to try to rework an ability, make sure it’s still fun to play with. These dumb suggestions from people with no experience playing him, about damage reduction are so boring. In my opinion, it would be a lot cooler if they reworked Regen Burst, before they touch immo. It would be great if they let him use the scout to speed up all rate of fire for you and a selected teammate. And his other ability would slow down the enemy rate of fire, but still aoe and destroy able. That would be sick. Though, you would need something to heal himself with. Crouching? Idk

But to the people that think he’s an unkillable freak, a word of advice: Ball, Dva, Hog, Widow, Ashe, Tracer, Lucio, Ana, and to an extent, McCree are his worst nightmares. Abuse the fact that he has no cc to stop them from running up on him, that he has a harder time shooting further away, that his mobility is slow and telegraphed, so he’ll have to use his cooldowns if he wants to survive.

16

Everyone said it should have been an Ultimate right from the bat, only Blizzard thought its a great idea to put it on E, while his smaller window had less value and there was / is just to much boosts already…

Also feels pretty meh to get body shot and die because…iMax Window.