I love Zen and he’s one of my favorite supports, but I have to wonder if perhaps there’s something off about him. Like, obviously he’s the only support without some form of mobility so he’s always the most susceptible to getting jumped, but I mean something beyond that
Orb of Harmony is an amazing DPS healing ability, not because it heals your target to 100% really fast but because it makes it take way longer for them to fall to 0%
Orb of Discord is probably one of the single most powerful, useful abilities in the game assuming people actually follow up on it
Transcendence though? Kinda… Not sure about this one, it’s not the worst ult and can be super clutch but when people talk about “outdated” kits or abilities, this one comes to mind. It’s just mega high AoE HPS for a few seconds, and Zen can’t take damage during it. All the pieces are there for it to be a great ultimate, except there’s an entire everything else in the game that prevents it from being that awesome. Zen can be hit with CC, it requires people to stand by him to get value (which is weird because his whole thing is being kinda far away from the fight so you have to break your position to ult and then get back safely after), and Ana exists. You know it’s gonna be a fun round when you just wanna be Zen and one of the supports immediately swaps to Ana after their first death just so they can anti your ult
And despite his limitations… Zen is easily the best carry support in the game, at least for me. I basically just play like I don’t have an ult unless we desperately need it and pewpew, and wins happen. What’s the deal with Zen? What’s his overall power level? Does he even need some kind of a buff or update or is he good?
I don’t think power creep is necessarily a bad thing…? I mean the pace of the game should change, considering it’s been out for 4 years now. Problem is, the devs haven’t bothered buffing certain heroes to make them more on par with the others (Zenyatta, Bastion, Symmetra, Sombra). He either needs his current kit buffed, or he just needs some survivability added. I’d be fine with either.
Yeah, he is missing from out backline quite often for some reason. I recall seeing some flashes of opponents back there, but it takes me a second or two to find a proper spot where I can turn around so I haven’t been able to really figure out what happens back there
zen isn’t being recognized for his value in the team because he doesn’t provide a lot of healing outside of his ult and he doesn’t provide utility in forms of crowd control.
that’s about it i’d say.
but if you were to ask me, no i don’t think he’s in a bad spot, he’s just not what everybody wants right now.
Zen isnt played because hes high risk. Hes designed as a glass cannon and if you cant kill the enemy fast, then he just dies. Sustain and surviviability is very strong right now and safe to play.
In lower ELOs, his team don’t have the coordination skill to utilise Zenyatta correctly and he’s also left extremely vulnerable to attacks because of the lack of coordination which comes with a lack of promise for protection. His ultimate is the real reason to use him in lower ELOs.
In higher ELOs, his team can utilise discord but because the enemy is just as competent, they will try to bait out Trans. When trans is used, most heroes can gain their ultimates much quicker than Zen. Meaning that the enemy can more safely attack because there wont be a fear of Trans.
Imo, Zen could use with a charge time reduction to make him more a threat and maybe a passive that makes his walk speed faster if an enemy get within a certain radius of him, so he has a chance to maneuver himself especially since his best attack literally slows him down and makes him even more vulnerable
Maybe they could tighten up his hitbox a bit or something.
It doesn’t help that Brig’s good at helping out her co-support, but Zen’s low, single target HPS means that he doesn’t really work well with her, at least down here where I play. If they added another peeling support that played better alongside him, he’d be better off.
It often feels like I’m strong armed off of him because my team plays like they expect 2 main healers. Though I guess I can’t blame it on them knowing how much burst damage there is flying all over the place and how much overall sustain has been nerfed so it’s no wonder large healing numbers are looked up to and that’s not really what Zen provides.
If you ask me, I still think that his charge up on his ultimate takes too long though - especially in the direction that Blizzard is taking Overwatch, where everything is meant to be faster, more mobile and etc. The only support to have aged well throughout the four years (Out of the original 3), is Lucio and that’s because what he does is literally what the game is turning into.
Mercy had to go through several changes, and im not saying that Zen has to lose anything about himself, but i think he needs to become more modernised for what the game is currently if anyone wants him to actually be meta
as far as i see it, zen, mercy and lucio represents 3 basic archetypes.
just because zen isn’t relative right now doesn’t mean he won’t be later on.
so if you want to make zen stronger or “modernized” i think it could backfire quite harshly,
as when he becomes what’s desired, he’d be a lot stronger than he needs to be.
so giving him anything right now is quite pointless because it probably won’t make him relevant now, but when he does become relevant it would cause a lot more unecessary problems.
