Very good changes! I was very skeptic on whether the 5% reduction would make a big enough change for the tanks to not explode to Discord+Burst combos, but at the same time tuning Zen’s primary/secondary fires might be too much for the hero. This way we can preserve those while giving tanks more leeway with their animations so that a Rein dropping his shield down for a Firestrike/swing or Hog midst his Hook animation won’t explode as fast as they currently are exploding. Very good and shift answers to the Zen meta!
As for the Tracer change, I’m sure you’re being cautious because the current Ball/Zen meta basically begs her to dash around the meta which might change once the meta shifts towards something else, which is why it wasn’t reverted to the 10m distance it used to be down at, and instead is going to be looked at one step at a time. A very fair change for her overall
As for the Echo change, I don’t see the ammo changes doing much to her nor the beam change for that matter, but they are relevant exactly against barriers and tanks in general. It’s very rare that you spend all her ammo without blasting them into a barrier/tank and same goes for the beam. It’s very rare to use the whole duration of the beam unless you’re targeting a barrier and the tank behind it, with probably the only exception being when you try to chase down someone that’s escaping from you and it takes a while to catch them. These changes are very good too
I’m very certain that all these changes will make it to live servers, as they’re subtle and address almost entirely those areas in which these heroes are being a bit problematic
Echo: Feels reasonable, although weird that she once again is one which gets the fastest slap in the face.
Tracer: Excuse me, that sounds like a literal version of, oh look we nerfed her, but actually it wont change anything at all!!! … like seriously, why not straight reverting it, rather then … hell, this cant be even called a nerf!
Zen: Oh well, we saw it all coming. 2 QoL nerfs, weird one but okay, and the projectile speed nerf is gonna pretty much make him way less lethal i think.
Once again, Tracer makes it out with barely a scratch with being S-tier pickrate since months. In comparison, Echo had never suceeded till this week a pickrate over 2.5% in GM…but she gets 2 nerfs while postergirl gets off with a little buzz once again.
Only 25% as a Nerf for discord orb? The fact that he can easily place an orb, no cooldowns, no aim needed, only shields (which are non existant) to block it… That discord orb is like a Mercy Valk/Orisa Ult, where you got 6 people making damage over 30% all the time, with not way to counter it, except for looking for natural cover for 3 secs or a Zarya placing a bubble, which again the Zen can place it on you bc there’s no cooldown or just killing the Zen. The orb didn’t need a speed reduction, neither harmony one. What you need to do is reduced its damage amp from 30% to 15-10% for everyone, except for Zen since it’s fine that he could keep doing the 30%+ damage amp since he has no ability to survive but doing damage.
Zen has the same problem as Bap. Having abilities that act like an ultimate is really a problem and the only reason why Zen now has become a little bit problematic, is bc shields does not exist anymore.
The only thing that I want to know is they should be buffing character in need that isn’t being played by anyone. Like Sombra, Bastion, Mei those people need a buff. The person that I think needs a buff the most is Sombra her gun and her ult needs a change.
I mean I’m ok with some of this, but are you gonna tone down Hanzo or buff Winston anytime soon?
I think it’ll definitely have an effect. Something like Ashe’s ammo going from 15 to 12 or Genji’s shurikens from 24 to 30 does play a role in their damage output when reloading is factored in.
That’s because that’s literally her designed weakness. Her reload is so slow that having less ammo pre-loaded before enemies push in is a real drawback. In Genji’s case it’s not that considerable at all. If anything it made poke damage + dash + combo harder to pull off if you basically miss 6 shots and then fail to execute the combo with your first shurikens, so nope on that one.
Thanks blizz for ruining more heroes. Did you ever think that maybe tanks were getting shredded because of the insane power creed of dps heroes and not zen?
okay so this has me whirling
last experimental mode (jan 7) was pushed live jan 12 with kanezaka
last year the general schedule was experimental mode -> it deactivates on tuesday of the next week -> it goes live on thursday of that week -> we wait another week -> another experimental 2 weeks total after the last one went lvie
but the cycle just now was experimental (jan 7) -> deactivated on monday (jan 11) -> pushed live next day with a tuesday patch (jan 12) -> we get this experimental on the thursday of the week after (today, jan 21) -> it deactivates next monday.
which was a one week wait less than i expected
3 week patch cycle last year -> 2 slash 2 1/2 week patch cycle this year, at least until OW2?
But you still have 2 extra shots (as Genji throws his shurikens in 3’s) as compared to before. So you spent less time reloading but when do you get back more ammo then you would without the buff.
“For Tracer we want her to be close range but not really close range as other close range characters, but not enough to be mid ranged. So basically we still want her to be good at close range while not being mid ranged but without the drawbacks of close range”
I really don’t understand why zen got a nerf like that, if anything the discord orb should be tweaked not his projectile speed I feel it just hinders him useless at that point not being able to protect himself nor heal as efficiently as other healers
For real I think you are killing a few heroes here mostly zen and sigma. What do you guys want a full DPS team, of course, there is a lot of time in queue for DPS Tanks and Supports are almost unplayable now…
Really disliking all of those changes to Zen. Why would anyone play a slow, non-mobile support character who can only affect one character at a time with such a wide hitbox with these current experimental changes? There has to be some good to balance all the bad he has.
You cannot ignore the tank problem in the game, please be vocal about this. We are not having fun, we are freakin scared to play. Turn Roadhog into a dps and revert all tank changes, I want the MOBA experience back again, not purely FPS.
