Bastion Thoughts

General Discussion
1

I feel like nobody’s really talking about Bastion recently. I feel like he’s pretty niche considering that he’s really only played in junkertown for the pirateship comp. He’s also the lowest picked character based on overbuff, there was something Jeff said about a day or so ago talking about torbjorn & symmetra, but he also said that they’re also working on someone else. I feel like it might be Bastion.

Any thoughts?

4 Likes
2

He’s been talked about but not by anyone official.

7 Likes
3

It better be. I’ve been begging for changes to Bastion for over a year now.

2 Likes
4

They probably won’t be the changes you want. I expect they’ll increase recon range and decrease sentry range, or find some other way to encourage playing in recon. I doubt they’ll increase the emphasis on sentry.

5

A 50cal to 3 shot the tracers head in recon.

A heavy burstrifle would be required in order to maintain the viability in such a bulky form.

A dangerous walking killing machine. Sounds cool, but when you hear “bastion” u see a turret probably behind a shield or somewhere in the corner not a mobile bunny hoping robot boi.

6

Bastion needs some slight buffs, but not too much, we don’t want another 35% ironclad situation…

7

Thats why we all want our dmg back, who cares about survivability if you cant even 1v1 right.

8

As a bastion main, I would love to have his spread reduced and headshots back :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
9

Sentry Mode was nerfed, Recon Mode was buffed, but not far enough to balance the change

Previously, Bastion could use his Sentry Gun to reliably deal with anyone at long range. A Pharah could destroy Bastion if she saw him first, but a Bastion could destroy a Pharah if it saw her first, so both were in good positions to each other. Bastion had a similar balance against Soldier, Zenyatta, McCree, Widowmaker, and Hanzo. Bastion could destroy a Roadhog at range but would be absolutely destroyed by a Roadhog at middle or close range.

The Sentry Gun is no longer reliable even at medium range, and the Recon Rifle was improved, but not improved enough for a Bastion to cause any appreciable damage at any range, not even close range. At all ranges, Bastion’s enormous hit box and lack of mobility make duels extremely one-sided.

A D.Va is just as dangerous to a Bastion outside of her mecha as in it, because she’s a much smaller target with much higher fire rate and accuracy. I once failed to kill a D.Va with Sentry Mode at medium range because she walked backwards and the Random Number Generator hated me.

Tank Mode is extremely unintuitive, and the nerfs made it worse

  • It completely lost any ability to function as a panic button since Ironclad kicks in too late, and it renders him completely helpless for 2 seconds both ways.
  • Its projectiles aren’t as big as you would think (only the size of normal bullets, and thus have no effect on targets the animated projectile clips) and the reticle is also deceptively big and imprecise.
  • Its cannon works best at close range but inflicts self-damage that Bastion can’t avoid. It works even better from high places that Bastion cannot reliably reach
  • Rocket jumping is an advanced skill which is completely useless to a Bastion player most of the time; the fact that it compounds the problems with self-damage and losing precious time to get back into the fight only make this worse
  • Tank Mode completely changes his target priorities – he loses the ability to break the barriers of the Tank Heroes he can’t reliably counter anyway, and gains burst AOE damage which might let him counter squishies, except he gains no real ability to chase after them, and they run and hide and wait for the 2 seconds of complete vulnerability when the Ultimate ends. His treads were made louder to make their hiding easier.
  • Bastion is meant to operate as an ambush predator, not a pursuit predator. He is meant to find a position to wait and attack enemies who come his way. Tank Mode’s inability to be activated in the middle of a fight without dying, its lack of speed, and its short-duration prevent Bastion from using it to properly guard locations and ambush invaders.

LIST OF IDEAS FOR BUFFS OR CHANGES

To showcase the sheer number of possible buffs or changes that do not involve reverting the minigun of Sentry Mode to its former glory.

Some of ideas listed below ideas are powerful enough alone, but some would need to be included with or or two others from this list:

  • Apply Ironclad as soon as transformation begins; increase Ironclad for tank mode
  • Remove Ironclad, bring back bonus armor that applies as soon as transformation begins; apply lesser bonus to Sentry
  • Give Bastion’s Sentry Mode a short-duration E ability shield that does not let him fire, still allows him to heal, and can protect him from the front against burst damage, Charges, Hooks, and explosives like Pulse Bombs.
  • As a cool-down E ability in Recon Mode, Bastion climbs walls at half the speed of Genji or Hanzo
  • As a cool-down E ability with short duration in Sentry Mode, Bastion applies anchors to the ground which prevent him from being moved from that position or knocked out of Sentry form
  • Combining the two items above: As a cool-down E ability, Bastion in Recon Mode applies grappling lines that can slowly haul him into the air to reach sniping positions for Sentry Mode; in Sentry Mode, these anchors prevent movement or being removed from Sentry Mode; in tank mode, the grappling anchors move Bastion as per Recon Mode, but faster.
  • Increase the size of Bastion’s tank projectiles to something much larger than a bullet, such that clipping someone with the animated projectile will trigger its explosion
  • Remove self-damage from Tank Mode shots
  • Change the duration of Tank Mode so that the Ultimate does not end until Bastion has fired a certain number of shots, so that Bastion may continue to behave like an ambush predator by laying in wait for prey
  • Allow Bastion to end Tank Mode prematurely by pressing Shift to enter Sentry Mode
  • Give Bastion’s Ultimate an additional Artillery Mode as an analogue to Sentry Mode, which fires the explosive shells in an arc that can clear walls and land on roofs.
  • Remove Tank Mode, make old Sentry Mode into Bastion’s Ultimate, replace current Sentry Mode with an Artillery Mode that arcs explosive shots over walls and onto roofs
  • Reduce the speed at which the Recon Rifle’s bloom expands
2 Likes
10

When bastion is good, he is very very good and when he is bad he is horrid. I think if people got over the stigma of playing bastion and just embraced him as a cheeky suprise a lot of enemy formations would fall. If nothing else he tilts the enemy into oblivion and you can switch off him as fast as they can change to some nonsense panic comp to deal with him.

11

I would hope for a buff to Recon, but a defensive one. Maybe a slight damage resistance. Sentry, on the other, needs a range buff. The spread is ridiculous.

As long as there is some catch to any buffs to Bastion, he’ll be in bad shape. He needs a straight buff. Not a DPS buff, but a defensive or mobility buff. Sentry does 525 DPS, which is something that certainly needs to stay, but Tank on the other hand, nothing is off the table for that terrible ultimate.

12

I have been posting everyday for the last three days trying to get him noticed. :slight_smile: I honestly plan to continue until we get something.

1 Like
13

I wish we could at least get a message saying:

“…”

from any dev.

ITS SOMETHING yes :white_check_mark: