I picked up our savant queen with a huge forehead, Echo.
I played her a lot during OW1 and she easily became my favourite hero, because of how much freedom of movement she has, as well as that ability to look down on others, sticky balls and finishing people off with a microwave beam.
I loved and hated the beam. I found it to be a cool ability, an instant delete button for the dirty job you only could get 50% done. Obnoxious tanks can be finished off as soon as they got there, and Echo made it fun being the garbage (wo)man of the team. But nobody liked getting melted, so…
Now, I noticed that Echo overall lacks something, it doesn’t feel like she damage she does is as threatening as it was. But most importantly: Focusing Beam is no longer usable to finish tanks - it’s better used to keep the tanks HP at the same level in face of the huge sustain they could get, as well as their own means of mitigation. I always was sceptical of her beam because tanks shouldn’t just get melted, yet it also shohldn’t just tickle them either.
Echo used to be a much more threatening glass canon, now she feels more like a dull kitchen knife. Where’s her impact?
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I could be wrong but wasn’t Focusing Beam’s damage nerfed a while ago? I know it used to do 200dps but I think it may do 175dps or something now
Like with everything else, this is just another sharp edge that was removed after people refused to learn and adapt and preferred the inconvenience removed through complaining. You get the OHK hating threads regularly every day. So there should be no surprise that what was once a great steak with a spicy seasoning turned into a fruity salad with a vegan soy sauce.
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Which is funny to use as an analogy, because yes it is in fact a matter of taste and preferences.
They nerfed her beam and later buffed her ult charge rate by a whopping 25%
She’s still one of the few heroes that can fly, she’s still one of the few projectile heroes with consistent kill threat, and she still has the most versatile ult in the game.
The difference now is she doesn’t have all that while having a delete beam
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Hp changes on all heros effected her focusing beam the most. While the hitbox changes effected her sticky bombs the most. Not to mention there’s more heroes who can just gain armor, temp health etc with a press of a button nullify her kill combo effectiveness.
Her duplicate is still the best part of her kit being an extra life, access to stronger abilities, a cooldown reset on expire, lockout timer for hero switching (under used but a lot of players) and can make you get some of the strongest ultimates in the game quicker than them.
With the change to 225hp a while ago shooting forehead Eve is even easier with hitbox changes. So she’s just a flying glass cannon with more of a personality than Pharah for the time being.