Before we consider a nerf to Hammond

[Poytheon-1466]

@fonebone-1549

Have we considered the fact that blizzard has intentionally made a few of the tanks OP because tank players are such wusses that they wont play if they dont have a massive advantage?

Funnily enough, there are those on the forums who think we should make tanks even more OP, somehow thinking that would be good for the game

[Aven-21626]

@Scylaceus-1123

Let’s consider buffing his counters

Blizzard has had this approach to balance for the last 4 years, and all it’s led to is power creep.

Buffing a hero’s counters instead of nerfing the hero itself is the wrong way to balance the game because you are not addressing the problem at its source. You are creating an environment where the baseline for power in the game is ever increasing, which in turn makes the pace of the game faster and faster, and balance decisions boil down to making an OP hero get 1-upped by other heroes who then become OP instead.

[CornNooblet-1592]

If Sigma and Orisa were the problem…

And you nerfed Orisa to be almost unplayable without Sigma…

And now Sigma Hammond is supposedly a problem…

Why is nerfing Hammond the solution?

PS if you keep nerfing whatever tank is meta soon you’ll be back at Rein/Zarya, and it will be that way across all ranks.

You think the tank class wants a single main tank option?

You think DPS players would be happy with only two of the 17 heroes in their lineup being meta? You think Supports only having one choice for main and off heals in comp is what they want?

Use your heads for more than a fuzzy hatrack, I implore you.

[windz-11527]

But genji did need buffs. They just, for some reason, gave him 4 huge buffs pretty much at once. He kept the spread and deflect buffs after all.

Also, same balance team that gave doomfist a self stun on uppercut. Lots of questionable decisions.

Ball is fine

Zen is fine

Nerf tracer falloff please

[Quasar-12629]

Buffing stuns is basically out of the question at this point, Blizzard has made is very clear they don’t want stuns to be as prominent. The only real choice we have is nerfing Hammond. This is his issue before and even now. They nerfed all the stun heroes that countered him because they were too “oppressive” and didn’t nerf him of any of the other mobility heroes.

[sneezy-11284]

Cc is an integral part and a very important one. Cc is definately required in this game, just because a hero is cancerous to play against does not mean they should be under performing because of opinions.

CC heroes need buffs but extremely minor ones nothing significant. Doom literally only needs 0.2s uppercut recovery and bug fixes while mei prob needs a nerf to wall and buff to ammo like 15 or 20.

[Ryan-111758]

@sneezy-11284

CC heroes need buffs but extremely minor ones nothing significant.

Nah

@windz-11527

Ball is fine

Apparently not bc he just got nerfed

@windz-11527

Nerf tracer falloff please

Agreeed

[Kūhaku-21240]

I get Sigma became oppressive but friend… 2.5 sec to deploy shield again is hella ridicolous… then what? add him some chains to stop him floating?

[MiguelRivera-11892]

Funny… I keep seeing post saying Hammond is a throw pick, Wrecking Balls don’t do anything but FEED, I hate having Hammond on my team. Then you see whinny posts about HaMmOnD iS aNnOyInG tO pLaY AgAiNsT HeS sO StRoNg… well WHICH is it?
Almost as if… as with EVERY other hero, he’s fine, and it depends on who is playing as him and against him.

People crying about how oppressive he is, as if he isn’t like THE BIGGEST hitbox in the game, as if spinning in a CIRCLE isn’t the most PREDICTABLE movement in the game.
He can be frozen, hacked, trapped, punched, booped, stunned, slept, and hooked with EASE.

Nevermind other heroes can fly, be invisible as long as they want, fade away, blink away, one shot punch you, instant headshot you, have auto aiming turrets, have a giant robot they can call as an autoaiming 7th player…
complaints about a giant target that can swing in a circle (oh my!) are such a joke.

[DRUNKINJEDI-11320]

@Healbot-21860

he also gets so much value very easily with little to no risk of dying.

yep kinda like roadhog did before they reverted his buffs. i dont know if he will still be meta tho we have to wait late in the season and see i he is flooding the comp tank leaderboards

[windz-11527]

@Ryan-111758

Apparently not bc he just got nerfed

I have to admit they nerfed ball the right way if they insist! It’s one of those nerfs where you won’t be quite as effective, but it won’t feel terrible. Nicely done.

That sigma nerf is really really nasty though, wow.

[Ph4yte-1757]

Try playing a tank then you can speak… and no zarya is barely a tank

[Ryan-111758]

@windz-11527

That sigma nerf is really really nasty though, wow.

Yeah should have nerfed his shield HP and damage or something

[DRUNKINJEDI-11320]

@windz-11527

I have to admit they nerfed ball the right way if they insist! It’s one of those nerfs where you won’t be quite as effective, but it won’t feel terrible. Nicely done.

That sigma nerf is really really nasty though, wow.

i actually wish it was the other way around. hammond nerfed HARSHLY and simga getting a slap on the wrist

just personal bias tho

[Devils-1895]

@Scylaceus-1123

Let’s consider buffing his counters

Now I won’t deny that Sigma and Hammond are starting to have oppressive pickrates in GM atm, Sigma is at 13.83% (Means he’s played 82.98% of the time) and Hammond is at 11.33% (67.98% of the time), in the last week. Now I won’t argue that Sigma could do with a tuning, but Hammond, I don’t think he needs balance changes

Right now the problem is, his counters are just worthless to play. Sombra is the main counter at shutting him down and she has an abysmal pickrate across the board, 0.17% pickrate in the last week, she has maintained this pickrate for a long time and it’s honestly ridiculous she hasn’t had a balance change since 12th of March 2020 (I believe) which was just to decrease her spread by 10%

The other counter to him is Mei, she also has a whopping pickrate of 0.45% in GM, even lower rank players aren’t even bothering to play her, while she has had balance changes in recent times, none of them have been impactful and moreso just minor tweaks.

Doomfist is another character that can be surprisingly good at Hammond (If Hammond dares go near him) at times and even he’s sitting at a 0.9% pickrate, his last balance change was the 19th of May 2020 (don’t quote me)

So it’s no wonder that Hammond is performing so well of late, because his counters are just garbage, so lets try and make other heroes viable before we just knee-jerk nerf a character (like Blizzard normally do when characters hit this level of pickrate) that may not even have an impact on him (Like I seriously think you’d have to give Hammond a major nerf to actually cull his pickrate at this point)

Sombra cannot be buffed for the same reason you cannot really buff Bastion, Sym, Mei, Pharah, and Reaper and that is that at a certain level of play those heroes are very good at buffs would absolutely break them.

[LTNine-11402]

Buffing his counters makes things worse for everyone else. I don’t think anyone wants that. The Hamond nerf is a slap on the wrist.

[Carrot-11107]

@NoireA2-1421

Hammond is one of the few heros in the game that gets value from just being played

bad take you actually have to do things unlike brig

[Scylaceus-1123]

@Ryan-111758

Is a flat out lie rofl, someone wasn’t here a year ago

Mei, Doom, Brig, Ana, Rein, Orisa, etc. have all had their CC nerfed

Woa, slight CC nerfs doesn’t reject the fact that the only heroes released without CC have been Moira, Baptise and Echo, the balance state between a year ago and now is negligible compared to what the game was like in the early days, sorry I didn’t specifically say “it’s slightly less then it was a year ago”

[sneezy-11284]

Nice argument my guy.

[Krotoan-1841]

@Ryan-111758

Balance Dev Josh Noh already admitted Hammond is the epitome of powercreep/mobility creep

=/=

@JoshuaNoh-1358

I’m aware there are distinct increases in power across several aspects of the game such as raw healing output, the introduction of new heroes and mechanics, or things like Wrecking Ball’s extreme mobility.

… so while they are saying balls extreme mobility is one of the problems… it’s not the worst offender or the biggest problem.