Bastion Megathread On His Current Situation *Bug Fixed!*

General Discussion
1

The Bastion tank mode first shot bug is being fixed!

This is a continuation of an old thread and It had 58 upvotes at the time of the forum switch

I rewrote the old post but only so I could add the drop downs and make reading it more managable

This took forever to write so if you see any problems please tell me so I can fix them.

This is a gigantic thread about Bastion that was made about a month ago with 1017 replies, 7.4k views, and 190 likes!

I highly suggest checking it out and reading through some of it.

click on the little arrows to read it bit by bit without a wall of text

Tankmode first shot bug: Sometimes, when you transform into tankmode, you can't fire your first shot for a full second.

The Tankmode bug has been fixed! It should be rolling out soon!

Demonstration by Kolorblind:

This is from another post about the bug and the video explains what causes the bug to trigger.

Somewhat recent Bastion threads (still on his current form) with thread creator name, upvotes/downvotes, and thread info

PharahHǝntoi; This is a thread about how Bastion is being forgotten. At the time of adding this this thread has 1017 posts and 7.4k views with 190 likes.

Terranguard (me); This one is about reverting sentrymode and tank. 260 upvotes, 37 downvotes

GameksTastik;
This one includes Kolorblinds thoughts about Bastion’s self heal and tankmode. 35 upvotes, 14 downvotes.

Both twitch clips from this thread on Kolorblind’s opinion:

Twitch

Zirkel; This one is a radical change but it’d be awesome. 138 upvotes, 18 downvotes.

Kolorblind; This one is about His tankmode first shot bug. 67 upvotes, 0 downvotes.

Pachimari; This thread is about how he’s meant to be primarily in sentrymode, not recon. 51 upvotes, 11 downvotes.

This post is from ArcticGator on Bastion’s problems and a possible fix.

GameksTastik; This thread is about how the rework didn’t change his stats and that Bastion is worse off than before:

https://www.overbuff.com/blog/2017-02-08-overwatch-hero-tier-list-and-meta-report-the-meta-that-was-promised

https://www.overbuff.com/blog/2017-05-25-overwatch-hero-tier-list-and-meta-report-anniversary-time-capsule

in fact, they appear to have gone down after the rework, and that Bastion is worse in stats than before.

go through all the tiers with it set to competative and the only places he breaks over 1% pickrate is in bronze and silver, everywhere else he doesn’t even have 1%. In Anywhere but bronze and silver he is the least played out of every hero.

It also doesn’t help that he only works in Pirateship. It goes without saying that most people don’t like this comp. I really like Bastion and I still don’t like this comp. Both playing with or against it. It is incredibly powerful but that is the only place Bastion works. He works in it way too well, but is trash anywhere else. That causes a false sense that he is balanced/too powerful. He works in one extremely specific comp only on payload maps and is too good in it. It requires almost all of your teamates to pick barrier tanks or healers to sit on top of him with Mercy’s staff up his butt in order for him to survive and be able to use sentrymode effectivly. The over abundance of shields makes it hard to get at him and with Mercy’s damage boost and incredible healing he is hard to kill even after you get around the barriers. Everywhere else, he just sucks. And as I mentioned, requires 5 other players to play around you. That’s not Bastion being good, that’s 5 people doing 83% of the job for him. (5/6 them make it a %)

His major issues
Sentrymode

  • Sentrymode was originally built to be a damage dealing mode.

  • He lost all mobility in exchange for high damage.

He was a “glass cannon”. With the nerfs, they took away the cannon, and only took away a tiny bit of glass. He is now the “less glassy barrier killer”. Basically, it went from a usable mode for all 'round high damage in exchange for mobility, to a super niche, only shoot barriers, kind of mode that still has no mobility. They took away a minimum of 2x his damage and anywhere past point blank or at small targets, way more, in exchange for +60 effective HP

Self-Repair
  • Self-Repair activates too slow to be used to save himself.

It can be used under damage but a lot of the time it kicks in too late and he dies anyways. It can’t be used while transforming which leads to situations where you’re just stuck sitting there in sentry, unable to move or fight, and just wait for the meter to run out and you die

Iron-Clad
  • Iron-Clad is just a problem. It makes healing more efficient making pocketing powerful, which just premotes a pocket Mercy, and the resistence is hard to quantify. 50% damage resistance is easy to figure out like with Roadhog, 20% is a little odd. You can’t tell if something will kill you or not. It kind of seems like it’s either UP or if it’s buffed, OP. There doesn’t appear to be a middleground

Iron-Clad only takes effect after a transformation is complete.
This means tankmode doesn’t get it 'till the end of it’s long transformation time whereas it got the 150 armor instantly before.
Tankmode lost 150 armor for ironclad, that used to be ok because he had 35% resist then. With Iron-Clad nerfed, Tankmode lost 150 armor and gained +60 effective HP. It is not tanky enough anymore as well as Iron-Clad isn’t armor so it doesn’t give you the benefits of armor vs pellets.

Most tanks counter him

  • Bastion is supposed to counter tanks and yet:

  • Roadhog has hook which stuns him and tanks him out of sentrymode

  • Reinhardt can charge him which gets him to about 5 HP which Rein can then smash out of him. With the current sentry he can’t kill Rein fast enough

  • Orisa can pull him off ledges and from around corners, just pulling him in a super bad position or forcing him to reposition meaning he doesn’t have his “tank busting mode” for busting the tank

  • Zarya, just gets a ton of charge off of him because his best bet is to melt through her barriers and get her but that hardly happens because she’s has a relativly small size for a tank.

  • D.va can eat all of his bullets while using her boost and missiles. She flies into his face with high damage and invulnerability to him and he can’t do much. She can kill him in one single combo of this.

  • Winston is the only tank he truly counters.

Tankmode

  • “Footstep” sound was increased a ton during the omnic crisis event

  • It’s not tanky enough after it lost it’s armor and Iron-Clad got nerfed

  • Self damage.

it is a close-mid range ultimate except he kills himself if someone gets too close (coupled with no armor/nerfed damage reduction)

Some suggested changes
Self-Repair

  • reduce/remove Self-Repair startup delay

  • Allow healing while transforming

Bastion will be able to activate Self-Repair sooner allowing it to be used in reaction to burst damage instead of after the burst damage as well as making his whole kit work a little smoother

Ultimate

  • reduce ultimate transformation time

  • allow reduced movement during ultimate startup

  • reduce ultimate “footstep” sound

  • remove ultimate self damage while maintaining self knockback (he’s landbound like Junkrat and rocket jumps alot)

  • increase ironclad to 35% while ulting (or for an alternative, see: Rework\new ultimate)

  • apply ironclad the second you start ulting instead of after you finish the transformation

He is usually on the ground and in your face with his ult and sometimes that leads to his death, similar to how Junkrat worked before. With the increased survivability and the removal of self damage he will be able to fight like he’s supposed to instead of just melting

Sentry

  • remove 100 ammo

  • remove Iron-Clad

  • reduce the transform time to what it was before (this one can maybe stay)

  • revert the 50% spread increase

  • revert to being able to headshot

Sentrymode needs to be a damage dealing mode again instead of a “tank/barrier busting” one. It busted both just fine before. It used to be damage for mobility with no strings attached. Now it’s damage and an inability to hit almost anything for mobility with +60 effective HP

Possible Rework
General Changes

  • Sentry: remove Iron-Clad

  • Sentry: revert spread nerf

  • revert headshot nerf

E ability: Tankmode

  • you transform into a weaker tankmode

  • 120 damage per shot

  • “footstep” sound decreased to normal audio instead of the echoing ultimate sound

  • configure time 1 second down from 1.5

  • 5-6 ammo in a clip

  • 2 second reload time

  • no self damage

This will give him some vertical mobility as well as a way of dealing with fast, flighty heroes. It has less damage potential than recon and sentry but has a higher burst with a splash radius.

New ultimate: Overclock

  • boosts and gives 150 armor in any mode

  • You can change modes during the duration at twice the speed

This will allow rapid switching between modes so you can adapt to the situation at hand vastly increasing his ability to change his specialization in a fight

Overclocked Recon

  • 30% bonus speed (7.1 meters per second)

  • double reload speed

This will double down on the main point of recon, movement while making his gun not suck during his ultimate

Overclocked Sentry

  • immune to CC (like Orisa’s fortify)

  • gains infinite ammo

This will increase his effectiveness as an immovable defensive structure while ulting, much like Torb’s level 3 turret

Overclocked Tankmode

  • damage restored to 205 damage per shot

  • infinite ammo

This will just be old tank so you can still assault with higher burst like normal but you don’t get the damage of sentry like Overclocked Sentry or the mobility of Overclocked Recon

Thanks to Zirkel for the rework suggestion. I made some adjustments to either clarify or to change some things to be more balanced. (Such as 150 armor instead of 200 and solidified unboosted tankmode’s damage)

ArcticGator's Suggestions
Summary

This will add an enormous amount of versatility to his kit. He can change his modes at any given time, especially while ulting, to change his niche to fit the situation. Each mode still has its downsides but is good in its own niche. He will be one niche to rule them all!

TL:DR
  • I recommend you read the whole thing… Plz…
  • Ironclad is only a problem, it promotes protect the president comps (which most people don’t like) and without those comps it’s not enough. It also reduced the survivability of tankmode after it’s damage reduction was reduced
  • Sentry is too niche now as it can’t be used as an all 'round damage mode in exchange for movement
  • Healing takes too long to activate
  • Some suggested changes: Check that section because there’s too much to summarize here without making it look terrible
Golden Weapon Fix Bastion needs his golden weapons fixed. His tank cannon isn't golden (Genji's dragon blade is) and his welder isn't golden (Genji's short sword is gold too and it's a secondary item as well, like the welder.) IDK why they weren't golden to begin with.
67 Likes
2

I love some of these suggested Changes, Bastion Really does need to be A
“Raw Damage” Type of character… Like before.

I am ALL FOR A Sentry Revert. Bastion just has No range at the moment, When even Zenyatta, Junkrat, And GENJI. Can out Damage you at Range, Sometimes without Warning, With Large Burst Damage.

In my opinion, Bastion used to Reward good aim. Like, Really Reward better aim.
Now? No matter how good of aim you have, You will still die more often to Burst damage, And Ability Spam.

Bastion’s Damage just isn’t “Fast enough” As in, Higher Damage per second is needed. Headshots in sentry? Lower spread?
All of the above?

Something Needs to happen.

As a Console Bastion main, I personally feel like i have been left in the dust.
;-;

-ChibiFox :fox_face:

9 Likes
3

What if Bastion had an E ability that helped him counter tanks, but not counter squishies?
I can’t think of anything that doesn’t also counter squishies. For example, I think giving him headshots back would be very effective vs tanks since getting headshots on them would be easier than getting them on other heroes. It also makes him super effective at close range though.
I really think he just needs more damage in sentry to counter tanks more effectively.

4 Likes
4

In a way, Bastion needs to be CRAZY At close range.

A machine gun is a Machine gun.
And should act, like a machine gun.

Would you stand in front of a Machine gun? No?
Then why should Tracer be able to, for Any Amount of time?

At Point blank Range?

-ChibiFox :robot:

9 Likes
5

That’s what sentry is supposed to do and that’s why I suggest reverting it.

1 Like
6

Reduce self damage in tank form.

Increase damage of weapon in tank form

End update

1 Like
7

Well, I wish they would just try something like that, but unfortunately, I don’t think they think bastion’s in a bad spot. That, or they don’t have time to look at him.

2 Likes
8

A sentry turret/gatlin gun is not supposed to be long range. Zen is supposed to counter bastion. The discord orb removes most of the damage reduction from armor and the charged secondary fire melts you. He charges it and only has a certain amount of distance

1 Like
9

A minigun is actually incredibly accurate if mounted properly, such as on a giant war machine rooted to the ground. Reality aside, he really can’t hit anything properly atm. Zen still would still counter him, and even more so due to no ironclad if it were reverted, but Bastion would also be able to punish tanks the way he was built to.

3 Likes
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I played like 30 minutes of him the other day and I still melted tanks. I don’t know what this perception that he isn’t able to defeat them is.

You can out dps a roadhog heal so I think your okay

4 Likes
11

Sometimes i wish people would Compare bastion to a Real Minigun.

They Can be Very accurate, And Bastion’s Current spread is a Trumpet. X3

8 Likes
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I don’t like console shaming but you have almost no time on the PC version. There’s a world of difference between console and PC as well as QP is entirely different then comp. Simply put, you don’t have enough experience on PC in comp to see what’s going on here. Tracer and Genji becomes 10x harder to deal with and way more past that.

BTW ArcticGator I friended you on the blizzard app.

6 Likes
13

Hmm… i have played over 100 hours.

and if a Roadhog Let you get close without hooking you, That must have been a pretty lucky turn of Events.

Bastion is in a pretty Bad place right now. Trust us Bastion Mains.

5 Likes
14

These are some great suggestions. It seem like you put a lot of thought into this. It’s awesome😂

5 Likes
15

You can not out dps hog in general if he hits you with hook. A good roadhog is not going to miss a hook on a target like bastion. You simply have to adad strafe and hope his hook doesn’t auto attach to you anyway.

3 Likes
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AS most know my personal opinion just reduce the spread in sentry mode, I want to kill airborne threats again instead of becoming their target.

6 Likes
17

Huh, funny you would say that. I have very little time on Pc. X3

And i still think that Bastion is “Barely Playable” On either Platform…

But, Having over 500 Hours in total, on Console… I can tell you that bastion is HARD Countered right now. Ability spam, And High damage bursts just… Delete you.

2 Likes
18

well considering a junkrat can turn a bastion into swiss cheese it probally needs a overhaul

2 Likes
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Okay? So you lost the arguement at the console shaming. Good job.

He doesn’t need a spread reduction when his best angles are all top angles.

Your asking to be handed kills versus working for them and to not have to play around teammates when he is the biggest character to play around teammate positioning and his own.

He has a decent range because that is how I play him. I play from top right balcony as far back as possible on the balcony and angle downwards and forward. To push back the enemy team which has worked on tons of occasions.

Bastion some golden ticket. You still have to play around his strengths which you are asking to eliminate.

At max bastion needs a damage reduction to explosive self damage maybe even none. And a increase of damage in tank for. Because his ult
Can barely kill off a roadhog on the occasions I have attmepted

20

lol i just noticed i said swiss cheese as in ala mercy

1 Like