Issues I still have with Wrecking Ball

General Discussion
1

I love this hero, this is not a post meant to bash him, I just want to see him improve in the future. Here are some noteable issues I have with him:

  • Activating adaptive shields forces you into mech mode. Maybe this is intentional? but it doesn’t feel very good in practice. makes his kit feel less fluid at times. If it is intentional design to penalize him for using the ability in ball mode, could we instead reduce the AOE range of the ability?
  • Accidental grapples. Sometimes, be it because i was adjusting my mouse, or i missed the target I was actually aiming for, or I just messed up and clicked it by accident, the ability still goes on the full cooldown no matter what. Could we implement a change that makes the cooldown reset if you let go before 0.5 seconds have passed? its a very short time window, but it would almost entirely get rid of slipups with grapple that dont feel like the players fault
  • “HULL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED” As a player who has mained support for many seasons, the word “heal” has become a magic trigger word that i can hear over the loudest chaos possible. This healing request line from WB however blends with the chaos and healers, myself included, miss it a lot of the time. can we simply just remove this line?

As for some more minor issues:

  • Voice line delay: Every hero in the game has trash talking voice lines, WB is no exception, but WB has this unique delay in which Hammond squeaks and then WB follows up with a translation. I dont want this removed because it adds charm to his character, but the time between the two should be shortened. so many times you try to say something funny or vengeful to an enemy you just killed, ans they miss it before Hammond stops squeaking because they go to the kill cam
  • “hello” and “thank you” bug: I think this has something to do with the double voiceline gimmick where both the hamster and the mech speak, but sometimes saying hellow or thank you will just get you squeaks and no words

All in all he’s my 2nd favorite hero in the game, and my favorite tank. he’s extremely solid and fun to play, but good things can always get even better

1 Like
2

There’s no way that shields taking him out of ball form isn’t intentional at this point. My guess is he’s already frustrating (albeit for people who won’t switch to obvious counters) to some people just rolling around the objective to stall, and allowing him to put up a massive shield without losing momentum would make that even more frustrating.

I agree the hook could be a little more forgiving. Sometimes I think it didn’t latch onto anything and I let go only to get no swing and go on full cool down. If you go next to no where with the grapple a refund of some sort on the CD would be greatly appreciated.

3

This is entirely intentional. It goes against the character’s flow, but it’s done so that wrecking ball has a weakness. Check here Hammond balance ideas for more.