I heard that shotguns were being changed (again), along with Roadhog being nerfed & Torbjorn being buffed. Ashe, Doomfist, D.Va, Reaper, Roadhog & Torbjorn are affected by the shotgun changes, so I tested the changes myself to give my thoughts about them. I tested these changes in the practice range for a more controlled environment & all of my tests are assuming that Ashe, Doomfist, D.Va, Reaper, Torbjorn & Roadhog don’t have any damage boosts.
Ashe, Doomfist, D.Va, Reaper & Roadhog have 6 pointed stars, while Torbjorn has a 5 pointed star. The shotgun patterns are a lot more clearer without the random spread applied to each shot. Roadhog’s projectile damage was decreased & Torbjorn’s shotgun projectile damage was increased, along with an increased recovery time.
Apparently, Roadhog is dealing too much damage against tanks but, not enough damage against everyone else. So he got a damage nerf on top of the shotgun pattern change.
Torbjorn’s shotgun damage was increased on top of the shotgun pattern changes to make him better at close range. The recovery time increase for him was to not deal too much damage to, most likely, tanks. Ashe, Doomfist, D.Va & Reaper only had the shotgun pattern change.
After testing all the heroes who had changes, I can say that the shotgun pattern changes are all buffs due to them having a clear pattern, making them more consistent. The random spread felt like the heroes weren’t dealing enough damage, especially for Roadhog, who has been trash for a long time, even after the shotgun spread reduction from a long time ago.
There’s other things I’ve found with these changes:
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Reaper deals a lot more damage against everyone & it takes almost all of his ammo to kill tanks.
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Doomfist & D.Va deal more damage to everyone.
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Ashe’s unscoped shots deal more damage & she can get tanks at very low health, if all of her shots hit them.
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Torbjorn’s shotgun deals more damage to everyone & it takes almost all of his ammo to kill tanks.
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Roadhog can do his hook combo more consistently against everyone, who isn’t a tank & it takes all of his ammo against tanks to kill them.
I’m glad that shotguns are a lot better, Torbjorn is more dangerous at close range in general & Roadhog is still good against all heroes (& barriers) without losing too much of his damage. My biggest concern was for Roadhog, since his was bad for a long time until the most recent changes. Roadhog was bad 'cause he wasn’t dealing enough damage, in case you were wondering. I can’t wait for these changes to go live! 