The thing is that a bad S76 will almost never outright kill you. You might die to a bad situation if solo ult’d, but his time to kill and reliability of time to kill is kind of hard to pull off. The fastest you’d die is a direct helix rocket and 2 shots to the noggin’. That’s landing a direct projectile shot and multiple headshots. Most people will never do that on a random flick or fluke. Its even worse on 250 hp heroes where you have more health.
Unlike a bad hanzo who might miss more shots might still randomly get a head shot an completely change up the match dynamic for your team. Similar to doomfist. Many doomfist are likely to only ever gets KOs on punch and never his regular abilities.
I absolutely agree with you. Not only is he less frustrating to play against, because the enemy soldier had to have consistently tracked you for 6-11 bullets to kill you, he is also less oppressive. If the enemies have a capable widow or pocketed ashe, you can’t move into sight lines even a fraction of a second or you will get deleted. With soldiers you can almost always react.
I don’t understand the fuzz, while he is obviously stronger before, he is in no way OP. He was made to be more skill based where you can get more value the better you aim and recoil control is. This is a fair design for everyone, soldier players and those who play against him.
His TTK is actually higher than it used to be, but his reliability went up massively.
Seriously, before the changes, a good soldier could 5-tap Helix you and you were dead. The problem was that if he missed any of the first 5 shots, he couldn’t finish and has to wait to reset. Now he doesn’t have to reset (but lower damage means certain characters need an extra shot), but he has to constantly manage his aim.
Against 200hp units, he’s the same. Against Pharah, he’s better. Against tanks, he got a sidegrade. He now deals less damage per shot, but he’s less likely to have to reload at a bad moment. He’s still completely useless against shields, though.
Also, his ult is still one of the worst in the game.
I really don’t like the recoil still so I’ve stopped playing S76. Yes, it’s a definite buff for many situations but I can’t contest an enemy marksman at longer ranges any more with the (console) sensitivity I use as it’s just not accurate enough anymore in those situations (helix poke is fine but vs a good Ashe or similar you’re toast).
Mid to close range however he’s a damn monster, even if it’s a lower skill floor than before as you now mash the primary fire and track. I just don’t find it engaging to play vs how the old spread worked. Sym mains should rejoice because he is like a higher damage primary that can headshot with even more range.
Not directly with balance, but with game design. Heroes ike doom and mei are extremely hard to balance, because their game design is crap. They are either broken or a throw pick while allways being unfun to play against.
I agree he feels fine. He has burst damage potential but not one shot ability and that is healthier in my opinion. I can understand widows one shot but Hanzo is so cheap with how inconsistent the hit box is. Plus fan the bow is such a cheap ability as well. Aside from that your success with soldier relies heavily on your ability to aim track.
Console player here. My accuracy shot up immensely after the changes, at pretty much all ranges. I’ve been significantly outperforming my average in pretty much every meaningful stat as a result.
I have a personal vendetta against hitscans but even I feel like Soldier is fair. You still have time to react to his damage, and ADAD spam is much more effective than it is against one shots.
Perhaps the helix cooldown reduction buff could be reverted because he doesn’t need it anymore. But other than that, he’s fine.
