He could, for the top 2% of the playerbase.
But between the high coordination requirement, the nerfs to mobility heroes they would need to do, the cc resistance passive on Tanks, and generally just running away from his team almost the entire duration of the match.
He could work as a Tank for the top 2%.
But he would be a hard throw pick for the bottom 95% of players.
I still really like him and now you need more skill to pull off value which isnât a bad thing.
Heâs just not always viable like some heroes
He was originally designed to have flame throwers If I remember? I can imagine these not being hitscan but some slow firing projectile like Mei primary. Maybe that could lower the skill floor for the rest of the player base.
Heâs in line with widow. GG
Nope - the last thing OW needs is more booping and thankfully the devs have realised that.
The skill issue is more that lower skill tiers arenât able to have an entire team capitalize on less than half a second of bad enemy positioning.
Much less have all of them recognize even it happens.
Okay, so Iâll not post the long list of nerfs over the last 2 years. There have been a lot of them. Energy decays more, her max damage was reduced, her beam width was reduced, her ult range was reducedâŚ
ACTUALLY, D.vaâs mostly gotten partial reverts to her previous nerfs, from around 2 years ago when they really gutted her kit. DM down to 1s is a revert, armor buff is a revert⌠The only thing that isnât a revert is the movement changes, which are barely anything, and the weird call mech buff which is⌠idk, itâs a cheese thing and thatâs about it. BTW, her DM is still worse than it used to be, missles still do less damage, normal attack still does less damage, flight still does less damage. She is most definitely much worse, even if sheâs better than she was at her lowest.
Very much the same case with Orisa. Her barrier nerf hurt a lot, her fortify is still worse than it was, her HALT! is still much worse than it was, even if itâs on a lower cd, the only real benefit is that her attack is slightly easier to aim at range.
You arenât following it back long enough. Yes, both of these tanks have been getting slight buffs recently, but they VERY MUCH pale in comparison to the massive nerfs they got before.
Armor buff, Barrier HP buff, barrier duration buff. But the big thing is, he got 0 nerfs. So he is better, even though nothing was huge.
Yes⌠to offset past nerfs. They nerfed his hook so it takes longer to pull people, they increased his knockback on Whole Hog twice (which is actually somewhat bad, it means it does a lot less damage and is a lot less lethal, making him a lot more vulnerable while using it), they nerfed his ammo, they nerfed his fire rate. The hook changes of pulling a target closer werenât really a buffâthey were done because when they âfixedâ his spread pattern, he lost his 1-shot. The only real buff is his damage buff, which is good, but again, on-net, he is worse than he used to be.
And I didnât talk about Sigma because he was broken on release, but yes, he has been nerfed over and over and over.
So you either acknowledge that EVERY TANK except rein/Winston were SUPER OP BROKEN, or you recognize that tanks as a class have been reduced in power over time. Honestly, just read the patch notes here: https://www.esportstales.com/overwatch/list-all-hero-updates-and-balance-changes
It becomes fairly obvious that tanks are less powerful than they used to be.
I am a dps hitscan and hammond didnât need that hitscan nerf. Was just stupid.
As a hamster main, I honestly disagree. He is a sub-par pick for people who donât main him because his entry requirements are pretty steep for effective play.
But the thing is, in lower-coordinated environments, itâs harder to kill him, so he can get away with more. Ball can just groundpound/kill a support in the backline and people wonât deal with it very well. Even if he doesnât confirm the kill, he sows chaos, and thatâs an easy thing to capitalize on.
Like, heâs never going to be a generally good pick for people, but that doesnât mean heâs âthrowâ for below the top ladder. His kit really does lend itself to disorganized play too.
Okay, how would things be if he had 100 health and 200 armor?
Assuming hack, stuns, freeze were heavily nerfed.
His shields and damage are fine, as well as the pile drive thing. Removing the tech was fine as well because it was one of those stupid ones that did too much.
Overall, Hammond is still most certainly playable and good, but he remains the most difficult tank to play correctly.
Blizzard shouldâve gotten sued for removing crab Hammond
Lmao no? Itâs because all the other tanks have been systematically nerfed down as well. Doesnât mean he feels good to play at all.
At all
man, its almost like every single aspect of his kit was overpowered and unfairâŚ
I wonder why they nerfed himâŚ
They nerfed Hammond (and will continue to nerf him) so that Overwatch 2 will look much better. This will increase sales for Overwatch 2.
In what world (especially in this 5v5 new world) would a tank only have 300 HP? ESPECIALLY a dive tank? Like, I just donât get this argument. Youâre saying, âNope, if he wants to stay a tank, weâd need to cut his HP in half.â This is honestly a nonsense point.
Freeze doesnât bother Hammy much, so nerfing that⌠meh. Itâs meiâs ice wall that gives him more grief anyway. Sombra basically deletes him from the game, even the pros will switch out of a decent Sombra, so itâs not like thatâs actually much of a difference since, realistically, he doesnât really try to play around her. Weâre left with stuns, but even if you ânerfâ a stun, it still abruptly stops momentum, which is what he struggles with. Nerf it all you want, even a .1 second stun has about the same effect on him. Boops are arguably just as bad as stuns too, and donât forget, weâre keeping sleep dart and, likely, junkâs trap.
So in this new 5v5 world, Hammy is a bit more powerful, but this is more than compensated by the fact that your team now has 0 defense for picking him. Like, claiming heâd be so broken OP that youâd have to cut his hp in half is silly. Heâs still a giant circle who moves in predictable patterns and has to get in melee range of enemies in order to be effective.
Thatâs basically the kind of nerf youâd need to keep him in check, with a lack of hard CC options against him.
As well as a knockback resistance passive for Tanks.
That said, that kind of Tank would basically be hard throwing below Masters.
So I figure they are better off retrofitting him into the DPS role.
I literally deconstructed the changes theyâve showed theyâre making and showed how he still has pretty decent counters and the things theyâre nerfing donât actually affect him much. Every thing we know about their changes leads to the conclusion that he will be slightly stronger in 5v5, but there will also be severe drawbacks to having him as the only tank on the team.
And please, pray tell⌠how does moving him to DPS solve any of this? Heâs still mobile, and on top of that, DPS in the new system arenât supposed to have much CC, and thatâs literally most of his kit. Youâd have to reduce his hitbox which makes him harder to hit and exacerbates the issue of a lot of mobility.
As a tank, his mobility makes him problematic, sure. As a DPS, his mobility AND his CC would make him problematic, meaning that almost nothing from his original kit would make any sort of sense.
Let alone, your whole âWe need to make tanks more fun to playâ, and now youâre advocating removing a tank option?
Sorry, but this just doesnât make any logistical or balance sense.
Knockbacks wonât really be troubling Tanks much, with a 50% knockback passive for Tanks.
And almost all of his CC would be reduced to annoyances, rather than deadly displacement.
Additionally, 5v5 is going to have a sniper problem. And Hammond is quite well suited at hunting down snipers. Assuming he doesnât have to steal away an entire teamâs worth of tanking to do it.
Additionally the main problem with Tank synergy was overly durable compositions. And Hammond in the DPS role, would allow some semblance of Tank synergy, without it being the overly durable kind.
Also the devs arenât just wholesale removing CC, it seems like itâs more of a focus on removing âexcessively annoying CCâ.
For instance, Sleep Dart and Lucio Boop are staying. Where as my guess is Mei freeze is gone, and Flashbang/Hack are removed, and brig stun either gets removed or reworked into something different entirely.
Doom, I could see them just making out all the enemy can still use their primary/secondary while cced.
So basically, âYes, he can keep his CC, but weâll make it suck and be worthless.â Not a great way to balance the kit.
You still didnât answer why hypermobility is suddenly okay for DPS players instead of tanks⌠if anything itâs worse on them because a tank is balanced out by their massive hitbox. Tracer is a MUCH bigger balancing nightmare in this new system.
You still are arguing for the removal of a tank when the role has less than half the number of DPS.
You still havenât given reasonable arguments to show that Hamster would be SO problematic theyâd have to literally cut his HP in halfâespecially since all indications point to there still being ways to deal with his mobility and stop his momentum (wall, trap, dart, for example).
Hunting down snipers would be a death sentence for a Hammy with 200 or even 250 hp. The only reason heâs good at it now is because heâs bulky. Itâs why dive tanks are one of the better counters to snipersâbecause they can eat focus fire for long enough to distract/kill them.
Look, youâre normally a person who at least advocates for making the tanking experience better, but all of this is VERY MUCH a slap in the face to tank mains.