Hey guys I think most of us can all agree bastion isn’t in the best of spots. He performs fine at his primary roll as a shield breaker but with dive being powerful it just seems like going around the shield using mobility is almost always more effective then breaking through it.
Worse when the shield is broken bastions DPS at range is usually less then many popular picks such as junkrat who can follow up by esploding squishies and tanks alike.
I propose a overhaul of bastion so his mono focus of shield breaking is reduced while he gains some much needed flexibility
Bastion changes
Self heal remains unchanged
Recon mode same
Turret mode:
10 second cool down, can’t reload, keeps iron clad the same, 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 is tied to a meter that drains 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
3 Likes
All Bastion needs to become viable is his pre-rework Sentry gun and the bonus armor he used to get in tank mode. Ironclad isn’t even necessary.
Your new tank mode idea is vastly inferior to what Pharah does, with less damage and less mobility. It’s very similar to how Recon mode is an inferior version of Soldier: 76 already. Adding more modes that do the same thing as another hero, but worse, isn’t going to make Bastion better.
Giving Bastion a simple sonar pulse ability like Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow on E might add something to his kit, but what Bastion needs to be viable anywhere besides behind an Orisa shield on Junkertown attack is a stronger Sentry mode.
12 Likes
Please no. The last thing he needs is to force him out of sentry more than it already does. Also how are you supposed to reposition? Maybe I set up a little off and I want to move over, now I can’t for 10 seconds.
8 Likes
Decreasing Sentry spread can help a long way
What happens when soldier mispositions his rockets? He says oh darn and waits the CD. This kit changes the sentry mode to a sit and wait for the enemy to oh the enemy team is set up to push time to reactively use sentry mode. It will get some getting used to but trust me that 20% reduction in spread will be worth it.
Removing power from his sentry mode so he is required to use all three modes gives us the ability to redistribute power throughout his kit
It doesn’t reduce his damage for 10 seconds after using them if he misses.
It’s better than now but way worse than what it used to be. I would never, ever take that change. 10 second cooldown for barely anything.
They already took all the power out of sentry, do not take more. Sentry is in dire need of buffs. If you haven’t noticed that’s basically the #1 problem Bastion mains want fixed. Look at that almost 1k posts thread, the gist of it is sentry needs help.
Hear me out, lets give bastion a helicopter mode.
7 Likes
The idea that no buff however crazy would compensate for reducing power in sentry mode is not good design. You need to be flexible in where a characters power can be focused
Look at the dva changes. People went crazy after they gutted Dmatrix and she’s better off for it some going as far to say she’s OP.
Please don’t be so monofocused that you can’t see adding an entire other mode where he can 2 shot supports on top of a brand new ult that changes up his entire play style could be something cool
The problem is it’s already underpowered, if you tried to make up for nerfing it again you’ve got to make up for what’s missing to begin with too. Recon and tank are nearly fine, the amount of power required to fill that void that screwing over sentry would completely break both tank and sentry by shoving them way past perfect and into “OMG plz nurf!” territory.
It isn’t a “not good design” because it’s already underpowered. Recon and tank need minor changes, sentry needs something big.
I never said that wouldn’t be cool.
the main thing I’m trying to get across is that each mode can only be used one at a time. They should all be powerful enough to be used without being bad either artificially or just through balance. A tankmode on E (which is what I think you’re referring to) would not break anything considering he can’t use any mode at that time either. Recon and tankmode need just a little bit of love, a tankmode on E would be cool and all, but sentry does need to be brought on the same level as recon in usefulness.
Every mode should feel and be powerful
1 Like
I agree currently bastions sentry mode needs help. It promotes a pub stomping play style that relies on allies to create a bastion (pun intended) that is practically unassailable and theoretically infinitely sustainable. The most common form of which is called the pirate ship.
The pirate ship is an unhealthy form of play as it promotes bastion to remain stationary and focus on only a single form his sentry. The only time he is expected to be in recon would be after he dies.
Saying his recon and tank form are close to balanced isn’t really being honest as the only time he uses his recon mode is to look for places to set up in sentry. His tank form is only okay because it can one shot squishies and is still arguably one of the worst ults in the game and got hit with a huge nerfs as a result of the current changes
This change aims to adjust his play style so he is forced into playing all 3 of his forms. Recon, sentry, and yes tank on E.
This rework allows bastion to use his sentry mode to do what it was intended to do, break shields and punish the tanks behind them, after which he can switch to tank mode to mop up squishies and after his bursts of power be relegated for a short period (10 seconds of down time while you use tank mode is hardly any time at all) of recon mode which is meant to be less powerful then his other two modes.
You say each of bastions modes should be powerful, I agree, but letting him stay in each mode indefinitely means that none of them can be powerful
At the very least they should un-nerf Configuration: Tank. It’s so awful now.
2 Likes
Must we all hash this out again… 
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Firstly, Bastion’s “Primary Roll” Was never “Shield Busting” |
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Secondly, Bastion simply needs to be a Glass Canon Again. |
Essentially, This:
Not like i have Many hours on Bastion or anything…
Just stopping by to Help Straighten this out. ^,~
-ChibiFox 
2 Likes
That’s why I want sentry reverted. suddenly pirateship is easier to kill through flankers instead of just having a stare off between two Bastion’s and several shields as well as he’s finally able to do his job properly without babysitting because he can kill people before he has to retreat. Recon will not only be used for retreating because it’s a bad idea to use sentry when there’s a Tracer or something so you can use it for mobile damage.
sentry needs a buff. He does not need any stupid cooldown attached to it. Why don’t we add a cooldown to every single mode to encourage the use of others? Please don’t actually take that into consideration.
that makes no sense. They should all be powerful enough to be fully used without having 1 more powerful than the others in their own situation. Sentry is used vs tanks or for holding a position, recon is used for taking those positions, tank would be used for annoying fast heroes like Tracer while also allowing vertical mobility.
They all would have a use and would be good at it.
please stop trying to nerf sentry into oblivion. I would probably quit Bastion forever if this happened. He would just become Soldier 2.0 which is actually very depressing.
1 Like
You are correct he was not just a shield buster he was relegated to that niche by blizzard. Your suggestion takes into account blizzard doesn’t like creating new assets and I appreciate that.
Problems:
Blizzard hasn’t done a single revert of a change over a month old. (Please correct me if I’m wrong);
Blizzard has stated their intended role for bastion is to break tanks;
Head shots were better vs squishies than tanks;
Your changes leave bastion in a state where he can promote the pirate ship indefinitely
Pretty sure that’s wrong. It was better for tanks because headshots was overkill on small heroes, who also have a small head hitbox so it’s not like you’re getting very many crits, and tanks have a lot of HP, multiplying his damage vs large head hitboxes and health is way more useful than shooting a Tracer.
Oh, Sombra Wants a word with you…
Or was it Junkrat?
Perhaps my memory is failing… And i meant Tracer?
My point is, Pirate ship may be Strong in the hands of an Extremely Well Coordinated team.
But, it has FAR More than just a few counters.
I believe i said: “Bastion needs to be a Glass Canon”
Which means, Extremely high damage output, Aka An Extreme Threat…
With the trade off being, Extremely Weak to Surprise, And Flanking Attacks.
At least, Ones that aren’t predicted.
A Bastion should as well, Stand at least a Chance against flankers.
Perhaps through rewarding Better aim?
Aka, Headshots and Lowered Spread.
I Currently rest my case. ^,~
I would throw around some likes, But Jeff ate all of mine…
Oh, i’m not trying to sound mean with any of this btw…
I’m a bit tired today… 
2 Likes
That was a observation made by Jeff on the original dev update discussing his change, you would be firing down a lane tracer would zip into line of sight and be deleted by head shots, it was unfun.
The problem with making bastion a glass cannon is two fold. 1. His current HP + armor means he isn’t a glass cannon even if you remove his iron clad. 2 he’s never relied on his own tankiness in the first place, he’s always used his tanks barriers and a healer to keep him on the payload.
Neither of your suggested changes prevent pirate ship, in fact both directly buff it as an opposing team has to still shoot through barriers while facing a much more dangerous bastion. Any change that is a buff to pirate ship and it’s toxic tactic tbh I can not support.
In a way, (Especially At Higher Rank) I don’t personally see a Problem with Something Similar to “Pirate Ship” Being Sometimes Viable.
It does bring a Tiny Bit of Diverse Play, And also gets players to Actually switch to try and counter it.
But i still argue that it is less than Oppressive at the moment…
Correct blizzard has decided to Olaf and or gut (choose your preferred term) bastion so he remains an unviable pick because hero choice around him has left him in a state where if he was viable he would be oppressive.
Your suggestion to make him weaker to flankers by 60 HP for a massive increase in damage is further troubled by briggette being a heavy anti flanker that could effectively shut down anyone trying to dislodge a bastion from his pirate ship
Dying is generally unfun in a game. And Tracer could use all the counters she can get right now.
What is it with Jeff and Tracer? She’s basically the only reason Bastion has been nerfed. First it was unfun to die to him, then he got “outplayed” by her so he was nerfed. Seriously, what does “outplayed” even mean here? It’s not like shooting an immobile target is hard or anything. Anyone can look at him hold LMB and spam shift.