Im going to keep this short and sweet. As you can tell I don’t post very often on these forums. I just came back to play the game after taking a long break and am absolutely loving these changes! That being said its hard to overlook a glaring issue with the dps roster. Hitscan dps + tracer dominate the role and not picking this small group of heroes destroys your chance of winning games on most maps.
My most played dps by far are genji and pharah and the level of outplay you need to make these two picks work in plat against hs heroes is insane and it just gets worse with a mercy pocket. Im assuming people who play junkrat, reaper, torb, etc probably feel the same way.
I have no idea how the devs can address this issue because buffing the proj dps to hs level just feels like it would break the game. Maybe they just want hs to be the best dps heroes in the game despite them being the most boring/basic heroes on the roster but that might just be my opinion.
If it were up to me all of them would get either dmg or firerate nerfs because I’ve noticed that pretty much all of the Hitscan heroes have better easier to apply damage than proj heroes while also generally having faster fire rates. They can nerf soj but then ashe will just be queen, then can nerf ashe, but then widow will take over again. There is not much this game needs to be in the best state its been in a long time but the hitscan stranglehold on the dps role has just gone unanswered for far too long.
One of these things is not like the others. Reaper is technically hitscan.
But yeah, Mid-to-long range hitscan have dominated the game since the start of OW2 alongside faux-hitscan characters like Sojourn. I just think the power that long-ranged characters have from a distance is no where near as weak as the power short-ranged heroes have up close.
I think fire rate nerfs are the best way to go about it. Removing power via damage makes long-range characters feel pointless in the same way that short-ranged characters feel pointless when they are easily out classed in close quarters by long-range characters.
The unfortunate situation with projectile DPS is the most are genenerally unfun to play against and when theyre strong the game doesnt feel great, hitscans being dominant are really the lesser of two evils, im not saying playing against admin lobbies like Soj or Widow is particularly fun either by any means!
It is a difficult situation and i dont envy the devs having to balance it.
Considering that projectile was hit harder by breakpoint changes than hitscan, and received barely any benefit from projectile size increases while the peos outweighed the cons for hitscan — it was pretty obvious that this would happen from the start.
Considering hitscan is far more consistent, projectile DPS should have their lethality increased to measure up to hitscan. Readjusting the damage of struggling projectile heroes to match pre-S9 TTKs would definitely smooth over the imbalance within the role.
Genji is one of the best dps. Sojourn is better, and that’s about it. Tracer, genji, ashe are all very similar strength, and all represented a good bit on the top500 leaderboard and pro play. Maybe it doesn’t translate down to plat, but it he hero itself is top tier. Better than hitscans like cree, widow outside of a few maps, and certainly soldier.
Tbh id much rather play against hanzo, junkrat, or torbjorn over ashe, widow, or cassidy any day of the week. Proj heroes have much more exploitable weaknesses and are easier to force swaps out of. Theres almost never a reason to swap off of hs.
Personally im the opposite, if i die to a hitscan normally it feels like a fair death, dying to most projectile just feels horrible, peaking and dying to random spam from a pharah/junk/hanzo feels terrible. I think the only real hitscan problem is Widow and the Ashe with a pocket
Venture, echo, pharah, and torb are quite strong rn and have been decent picks for a while. Hitscan is just simple in a ranked environment with 4 random ppl.
Thats the issue though. Think about how easy it is to force someone off of genji or pharah. There are no heroes or comps that will force a dps on hs because they are just the best picks 90% of the time.
Most people complain about the randomness of fighting a proj hero but lets face it, all of the hs heroes are better than their proj counterparts. Widow>>>hanzo Ashe>>>Pharah
Tracer>>>Genji Cass>>>Venture and Reaper. The list goes on and on. I’m just wondering whats the purpose of all these unique dps heroes when ranged hs are just better at range and have cooldowns that make them just as good if not better at cqc.
They need to be more exploitable like their proj counterparts.
I think her whole kit is just busted. Primary fire for tank busting, which contributes to her railgun that she uses for squishy busting. She’s also got her E to clear people out and control space, which she can use to basically force people into LoS (whether that be for her teammates or herself).
Yeah soj is disgustingly overpowered. Her issue is that shes broken on the fundamental level, id argue she should only get rail shots with ult due to how good her kit is.
She’s a projectile hero with a way to confirm kills consistently unlike basically every other projectile hero. She’s just what every projectile hero wishes they were.
Thats actually true asf, genji used to have the best kill confirm in the game but 50 guaranteed dmg isnt as crazy as it used to be with all the power creep
But I think hitscans/tracer who actually can aim are not in plat. Usual plat hitscans are rather in the lower castes imo. It seems you’ve met a smurf duoing with a pocket mercy(perhaps those who left the game long ago and came back recently like you).
250hp definitely slows him down. He still fairs better than most other projectile heroes for what it’s worth, but there’s a reason genji is almost always paired with a hitscan or a tracer; consistent follow up. Projectile heroes have very high potential but lack consistency
I had no real difficulty climbing to mid diamond on mostly phara this season. Unless they have a dva and like 2+ hitscans it’s not really a big deal. But it can be a bit map dependent sometimes
Thing with hitscan is you can just kinda play it pretty much anywhere. There’s really no map a hero like sojourn is bad on. Maybe paraiso?
Just because they aren’t very good doesn’t mean they arent far more effective than the average projectile hero. Thats one of the issues, to beat a hs on a proj hero more often than not you just have to outplay the crap out of them and it’s exhausting
I think if we get 6v6 back spamming chokes with junk, torb, and pharah will be useful again especially for dub shield. If i see a dub barrier i want a junk or a hanzo on my team to shred barriers.