Quick history / about me:
- I’m a Reaper onetrick* and long time whiner. I’ve argued for Reaper reworks since 2018, we got some in OW1 yay, then he was nerfed & reverted in OW2.
- Am I biased? Yea probably.
- Is reaper bad? Kinda sometimes, depends on the meta, rank, and platform.
- Is he outdated and his overly simplistic kit design limits player potential? Absolutely. Let’s get started.
To summarize my thoughts based on a few hundred hours on Reaper:
Reaper’s abilities and weapons as a DPS hero are too simple, this lack of skilled mastery holds back a damage player.
Why should a higher skill damage player play Reaper when other heroes do his job, and more jobs, and also more effectively? I don’t think it’s fair for a hero to only be good in the lower skill half of the game.
But we can’t buff Reaper directly, because he’s a noob shredder. THEN at the same time he is one of the easiest heroes to counter.
Hopefully Reaper is still getting that upcoming rework. I think it needs to be approached from a position of raising Reaper’s overall skill requirement, and giving him more things to master.
Basically, Reaper’s too easy, blizz plz make him harder.
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Ok Let’s Go Over All His Abilities, Why They’re Bad, and maybe some new ideas
Shotguns, and their quick history in order
- ow1 launch, big damage, big spread
- pellets made more consistent and less random
- spread shrunken, damage reduced
- ow2, spread increased, damage reduced
- Reaper’s shotguns currently are at their literal weakest state. Least range, least accuracy required, least damage. While healthpools are literally bigger than ever
(Oh also Reaper lost his oneshot and didn’t get any compensating buffs in s9)
When the hellfire shotguns got a damage and spread reduction in OW1, that’s a PERFECT example of the kind of rework Reaper needs. Smaller spread encourages better positioning, staying close enough to deal max damage but far enough to outrange closerange heroes like tanks. It adds that tiny bit of mastery to shooting instead of barrelstuffing.
What about the bigger bullets in season 9?
Yeah that did help, it helped everybody of course. It’s difficult to quantify though since shotguns already shot a big circle of damage, now the circle is slightly bigger, and the inner pellets might land headshots a little easier?
Shotguns are tricky with this big bullet thing. Since you don’t really need to track accurately with a slower firerate, and shotguns are lower aim requirement anyways, plus targets should be close anyways. So… yeah I don’t have an answer for bigger bullets, it helped a little I guess but not as much as say long range hitscan heroes (who just so happen to hard counter Reaper! Wow! Crazy.)
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WraithForm
Wraith is unarguably the best. This ability is kinda stacked.
- Reload
- Invincibility
- Cleanse
- Small speed boost
- Cancellable
(Also it’s had a small bug or ghost nerf since Season 4 everyone seems to ignore that you have to click differently to insta-cancel on a fast wraith reload now:)
Last second add on, btw. Wraith should cancel negative momentum. Making it a reliable anti knockback tool since Reaper’s so countered by range. This doesn’t fully flow with the “anti-all-in” change I think he needs but it would be nice.
The issue with Wraith being so dang amazing is that it’s such an all in ability which is an issue with Reaper’s kit. Other heroes have speed or defense (rein, genji, soldier, etc). Reaper’s got all of it in one. So when he needs just one of those things he burns the cooldown. Obviously there’s skill in choosing when to wraith for what purpose but still, this stacked ability comes into issue when dealing with…
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ShadowStep
Reaper has wraith which is an amazingly powerful ability, but once it’s used he’s left near defenseless because shadowstep is a damn waste of space. If you are within shotgun range, it is risky, borderline suicidal to use this teleport.
(My favorite analogy for why shadowstep sucks is this. “Genji swinging a short sword covers the same distance, faster than Reaper teleporting. Also it does damage” ).
Do you understand how oxymoronic the term “SLOW TELEPORT” is?
Especially on a close range hero who should by all means feel snappier to use.
Shadowstep is so outdated. The game has gotten faster. And one of Reaper’s 2 abilities is borderline useless in a proper teamfight.
yeah out of fight it’s amazing, vertical movement setup is nice. But I argue this vertical dependence combined with short range weapons only exacerbates Reaper’s issue of being niche on specific maps for example. As teleporting upwards into shotgun range is usually a risky idea.
This committment of both his abilities leaning to an “all in” playstyle simply doesn’t work anymore. Reaper is not a solo backline flanker anymore, and this can be proven. Whenever Reaper is meta in high level play, a pocket is usually with him because solo playstyle with his abilities isn’t good anymore. (YKnw, the solo playstyle a FLANKER usually needs to have).
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Death Blossom
I think all of death blossom’s issues can be solved incredibly simply. Let it be cancellable like Deadeye.
Again, this commitment to “all in” doesn’t work anymore. Choosing targets, not wasting time, getting back to shotguns all are a bit higher skill when you can decide when to stop spinning and get back to aiming. A good Reaper can quickly pick off a squishy and rejoin the teamfight without wasting a full 3 seconds spinning outside of range. Yes good blossoming is a skill but man is it weak, way too situational, and like all of Reaper is extremely easily countered by skilled play.
Also death blossom’s damage is really low for the newly inflated health pools. It just takes longer to kill with now and it’s already debatably one of the worst ults.
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The Reaping
Or self heal, I forget the exact name of the passive.
This took a MAJOR hit in season 9. Both DPS on any team now directly counter Reaper’s passive which is a major part of his kit, since again shotguns is all he has to hit with. This makes Reaper a less effective dueler against dps heroes. Yes the enemy DPS also take less healing but most dps kits don’t rely on self healing like Reaper.
I can’t think of a good idea for a rework honestly other than just buffing it since it’s worse now. A lore accurate change would make ‘Reaper applies 100% anti heal, when all 20 pellets hit the target (in the back?)’ this comes from the Bastet comic in the lore. Reaper shot soldier in the back point blank and Ana couldn’t heal it properly. But I think that’s a bad ideas since all dps have soft anti heal anyways.
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Ok quick summary.
This post might’ve been rambly / unhinged ranting. I just wanted to say things I think are issues and list some possible ideas. Alec made it sound like only wraith and shadowstep are being looked at. And I heard a rumor it’s now only just shadowstep. A new ability would be cool especially if it had team utility which Reaper has zero of. (give him smoke bombs cmon).
TLDR: Reaper should be harder to play and master. The “all-in” playstyle Reaper’s abilities encourage does not work anymore. Also he’s been hard nerfed since ow2’s launch and hasn’t received any compensation.