So the MEI changes are in, and well I’m not exactly a fan.
Their is a bit of spice, that I will touch on in a minute.
Be it right off the back, her damage pressure on primary fire is now gone. And this really just sucks. It was the most engaging part of her OW2 kit. And now she mostly can just be out healed.
basically we losing the flame thrower niche she had. Which is something no other hero provides at the moment. (Also hint hint I’d rather this on mei then on another hero, we really don’t need a hero that is a hard punish to tanks without barriers)
Secondly theirs some miscommunication going on. Does the slow scale from 30% to 50%?
Or does it go to 75%? Is their an addition 25% slow added to such while directly connected to the enemy? If so why did they specify that bit after the point where it sticks for 1.5 seconds?
Is this a typo? Does it mean that you can only go up to 75% when stacking other slows. Like it’s the cap on much you can be slowed all at once.
And regarding the bit of spice, their is now an extra damage modifier on her primary fire. That adds an additional 40 damage to targets that are slowed.
Which is ok in a vacum, however landing the secondary fire was never really a majorly effective part of her kit. Even with the freeze it was common for her P to S fire combo to be interrupted. On top of that the status that can be easily cleansed by a dozen different effects. Be it suzu, zarya bubble, wraith, rewind and more. and ignored completely by tools like dash, blinks, teleports, leaps, etc.
This is kind of just going to dumpster her effectiveness the moment people figure out they just need to block/deflect the projectile in some way.
The added damage is cool, but like that’s not the part of the kit people really want to engage with outside of long range poke.
Nor will it really effect mobile heroes, as most of those will completely ignore the slow effect anyway. While if it does slow up to 75% this is going to basically shut down something like ball and d.va. Who’s mobility are directly tide to their speed boosts.
or in lucio case will just need a rien barrier to ignore the effect completely.
I really don’t understand the devs logic here, especially when Cassidy’s nade basically covers that anti-mobility niche perfectly. That acts as a solid follow up tool to something like a tracer that’s already taken a body shot.
As she is now a hyper specific counter to low mobility hero’s that can’t cleanse or TP/blink out of a situation. And also against ball/d.va specifically. that are doing more then a hit and run tactic. Doom should be fine as his punch and jump isn’t tide to slows from my understanding. ( I could be wrong on the latter part)
Altogether that extra slow and rare potential to land an extra 40 damage. Isn’t worth loosing the consistent 45 dps you got with the beam. And it really won’t help against mobile heroes, as the vast majority of those will just cleanse the effect outright before ever getting a chance to shoot the icicle.
I really don’t understand the point of all this, it’s just a flat nerf agianst anything that isn’t already mobility challenged like Cassidy, soldier, bastion or hog.