There is no other transformation or channeling Ultimate in the game as bad as Tank Mode.
It has a uniquely super-long and super-vulnerable transformation time, which cannot be aborted like McCree’s High Noon. Then, if you manage to survive, you have to deal with the same thing in reverse.
It completely reverses Bastion’s playstyle, turning him from a barrier-buster who is countered by tanks into a squishy-killer who lacks the agility to chase squishies, who run and hide at the sound of the whistle and wait for the vulnerable de-transformation they know is coming.
Achieving any kind of mobility requires mastering rocket-jumping. What other ultimate in the game relies on you learning an advanced skill which is useless to the character the rest of the time?
That extends to his cannon, which behaves completely different from his standard weapons and which you never have enough time to truly practice.
The vulnerable transformation, no longer getting extra damage protection at the start of the transformation, and the self-damage from close-range explosions make it impossible to use Bastion’s ultimate as a panic button against flankers, too.
Solution:
Tank Mode doesn’t end until you shoot a certain number of shells, and you can abort the Ultimate at any time by pressing Left Shift to Reconfigure into Turret Mode.
Bastion players can play more unpredictably, introducing far more counterplay. They can exercise the same patience in Tank Mode that they use for Turret Mode, seeking out positions from which to ambush attackers with surprise fire.
I would add his shield from Beta back, with ~200 HP. People would immediately shoot it down, saying he would be OP again but the reality is that beta players f***ing sucked.
Just like at launch, people struggled against bastion because you can’t W+M1 him like some characters. If you add his shield back, limit his turn angle to 180°, and slow his transformation again, you can create a shield-breaking frontliner that’s rightly vulnerable to flanking and Junkrat spam.
200 HP shields would help prevent Genjis from outdamaging him at range, and it would lessen his dependence on Orisa/Reinhardt shields making his competitive experience more independent.
I’d rather he become sturdier rather than tougher.
If no one could take him out of Turret Mode or change his position while he’s in turret mode, that defeats most of the tricks that tanks are using to defeat the robot who is ALLEGEDLY supposed to counter them.
Why does Hog need the ability to pull Bastion down from a balcony when Pharah can fly up and hammer him with rockets; D.Va can fly up into his face while shielding herself and pelting him with rockets; Soldier, Widowmaker, Hanzo, and Orisa can shoot him dead; Somba can hack him from the ground or after translocating behind him; Genji can deflect from below or flank and spank from behind…
Bastion doesn’t need to be countered by Hooks, Halts, Reinhardt Charges, or preemptive attacks by Doomfist (which counter incomplete transformations), because he already has so many other counters!
If you want to buff turret mode and not make it oppressive you can’t give it its head shot back. Sooo here we go
Recon mode same
Turret mode, 10 second cool down, can’t reload, keeps iron clad, 20% reduction of spread.
New tank mode: 50% movement speed reduction, shells deal 120 damage, fire slower then ult mode (about 20% slower). 6 shells. Keeps standard ironclad. No reload 15 second cool down
Ult: hunter killer mode: buffs each mode duration drains meter at different rates depending on mode vastly reduces time it takes to change forms (.5ish seconds)
Recon - targets that remain in line of site for 2 second (pending balance) are “marked” and are revealed through walls just like widow ult or hanzo sonic arrow (get it he is in recon mode he’s doing reconasance for his team) gains iron clad for 30% drains meter at 5% per second
Turret mode - gains the ability to reload, reload cut in half compared to live, when curser is over a “marked” target spread is reduced by a further 20% buffs iron clad to 40% drains meter at 7.5%
Tank mode - still standard 6 shots with no reload, missles home in on targets if they are marked, buff to speed, fire rate, and damage to live values iron clad buffed to 50% drains meter at 10% a second
We most certainly can. I don’t know if you remember but he was still underpowered before. People are blowing headshots out of proportion. It’s like they don’t have object permanence with that type of thing yet. Once it’s out of sight they only look at it on paper, not in practice.
Not to be mean and shoot your idea down but I think making sentry even less usable is a bad idea.
I remember bastion sucked to play and play against when he had head shots. He was inconsistent and was better against squishies then he was against tanks. His burst was abusable and more often then not it felt like he got lucky rather then actually outplaying his opponent.
The core identity of bastion was never just his turret it was changing forms.
The problem I see with bastion is he doesn’t have a follow up after he breaks a shield, that’s why introducing a tank mode on demand that isn’t quite as powerful as his current ult allows him to follow up and take advantage of exposed squishies.
I can confidently say they will never give bastion head shots back so we need to look at ways to give him power in other areas of his kit. If they did give him head shots they would need to take remove a ton of power from his kit that was given other places. Have you heard of power economy?
By introducing a cool down you give the ability a draw back so we can stop stupid “pirate ship” pushes in low lieges while allowing us to give bastion a higher skill ceiling by introducing power in other areas of his kit.
He doesn’t need too much, just a few tweaks and that major bug fix. Maybe bump Ironclad by 5%, increase transformation speeds for Tank mode, let his Healing boost his speed by 20%, and I’d wreck house with him.
Yes exactly, those 2 nerfs no where justify giving back head shots. Remember they also gave him moving heal and an improved primary when they took away head shots. If you want to revert to old bastion he needs power taken away from his kit in areas you’d probably balk at.
Effective 60 HP and 100 ammo for a reduction in spread and reinstating head shots is an insane buff.
I agree bastion needs more ability to follow up on when he bursts down a tanks shield, that’s why I suggested a tank mode that allows him to target squishies in the back line more consistently than only when he has ult. Place turret on cool down also means we get rid of the pub stompy pirate ship comps that are really just cheese while maintaining his ability to surprise! Bastion the other team. 300 turret Ammo on a 10 second CD means his turret can be used for what it’s meant to be used for breaking shields and yanks (20% reduction on spread could be too much of a buff as is even with a CD).
Not really. It was an insane nerf for changing it in the first place, you have to keep that in mind. Sentrymode was considered just about fine before but recon sucked completely so you were forced to only use sentry, which meant you were always vulnerable no matter what. If self heal and recon don’t suck and sentry is what it was before he can use sentry just fine with the ability to fight back in recon too so he’s only vulnerable in sentry. With the effective damage it pumped about before that means short bursts of using sentry are actually useful because you can fit more damage in that little window. You don’t need the extra 60 effective HP if you’re doing a hit 'n run type style with sentry.
Simply put blizzard will not revert head shots on turret mode. Jeff said it himself, head shots countered squishies more then tanks and bastion’s turret mode was always intended to break Tanks.
Bastion’s range is may be decent but the damage drops a lot , bastion does need a spread reduction and infact the reduction is making him work more for kills than before , what just standing on balcony just to spray them from far away with the big spread is more skill ?
What if Bastion received the ability to headshot in sentry mode, but only in intervals.
Ex. Every 10th shot fired is capable of a critical shot. If Bastion stops firing, the 10 round interval restarts.
This will help give Bastion a bit of a damage buff in sentry but only for those who aim for headshots. This will help increase Bastions skill ceiling, yet not make him oppressive in lower tiers.
I’m all for Bastion buffs but that’s kind of weird. It would only add about 90 damage per second assuming Bastion even hits his target. The pure size of his spread will not allow this to happen in any consistent form.
Just change Bastions spread in turret form back to how it was before his remake and let him move at shield raised Reinhardt speed in turret form and he should be good again.