We’re back with another Experimental mode focused on increasing consistency with shotgun-style weapons (Patch Notes). As with all Experimental modes, these changes are not guaranteed to reach the live version of the game.
What are we trying to address?
Heroes with shotgun-style weapons currently experience an amount of randomness in their shots which can affect the reliability of some heroes’ weapons. We want to experiment with changes that will allow these weapons to behave more consistently.
What are we testing?
We’re looking to increase the consistency of shotgun weapons by removing the random rotation of bullets. It’s important to note that individual pellets within the shot will still have a tiny amount of variance to their firing angle so the weapon still feels like a shotgun. These changes will affect the following heroes:
Ashe
Doomfist
D.Va
Reaper
Roadhog
Torbjörn
Paired with these changes to shotguns, we’re also testing with some additional adjustments to Roadhog’s and Torbjörn’s weapons. Recent changes to Roadhog has made him too powerful against high health pool targets. We’re reducing Roadhog’s Scrap Gun damage to address his effectiveness against high HP targets, but keeping his Chain Hook combo consistency with this experimental change. We’re also making some adjustments to Torbjörn’s Secondary Fire; these changes will decrease the overall damage-per-second but will increase the impact of landing a good shot.
We hope you check out the new Experimental mode and provide us with your feedback! Science will reveal the truth – And all great science requires data! As always, this is an Experiment, so the changes in this test may not reach the live game.
Here are the changes btw: HERO UPDATES (ONLY IN EXPERIMENTAL)
General
Shotgun patterns no longer apply random rotation. This will affect the following heroes:
Ashe
Doomfist
D.Va
Reaper
Roadhog
Torbjörn
Developer Comments: We’re making weapons that utilize shotgun patterns more reliable by removing the random rotation applied to each shot. Individual pellets within the shot will still have a tiny amount of variance to their firing angle for the sake of the shotgun weapon feel, but this change will provide significantly more control over aiming these weapons.
Roadhog
Scrap Gun
(General) Projectile damage reduced from 7 to 6 (150 total per shot)
Developer Comments: When combined with the changes to shotgun patterns, we’re looking to keep Roadhog’s Chain Hook combo reliable, but not overly powerful against heroes with higher health pools.
Torbjörn
Rivet Gun
(Secondary Fire) Recovery increased from 0.6 to 0.8 seconds
(Secondary Fire) Damage increased from 10.5 to 12.5 per projectile (125 total per shot)
Developer Comments: This change to Torbjörn’s secondary fire is aimed at giving it a stronger role at close range. We’re hoping this change allows each shot to feel more impactful, since it has a larger burst. To keep this change in line, we’ve also reduced the damage-per-second.
Still no Mei nerf reverts or buff compensations?
She is the worst hero in the game… people who played 500h+ on a hero only to have it dumpstered months later don’t deserve this treatment.
Look on her primary ammo consumption, on her cryo, on her alternate fire, on her ultimate travel time and consistency.
There is so much to fix on her.
In the proper forum tradition of whining without actually trying the changes, I’mma say that there’s no substitute for a fixed or Gaussian spread pattern with a guaranteed center pellet.
