If you’re familiar with the way the OW team works, almost every playtest or change (buffs or nerfs) released on the PTR are to go live very soon.
Blizzard doesn’t waste resources or their time working on stuff just to backpedal in the end, even if some of the tweaks or reworks are not conclusive.
As far as I’m concerned, I won’t get my hopes up anymore after seeing that kind of statement from the OW team (it’s deja vu). It’s gonna be a harsh nerf that will put Baptiste (just like many other heroes in the past, especially supports) in a pretty bad spot again.
If some of you are Baptiste mains, better play him as much as possible 'cause your fun and usefulness won’t last that long (a few weeks tops).
Jeff says in the post he missed the playtest for the baptiste nerf. He was too busy working on that trash waste of time ow2 I bet he’s missed all the ow1 playtests since they started working on that garbage pve.
Ow1 is probably being handled by junior developers and interns at this point, they don’t care about the game anymore at all, and they won’t until ow2 comes out. Pathetic
You don’t need a game changing, team saving ability… on cooldown… to be a useful Support. Immortality Feild is ridiculously unneeded in this game as is.
This game’s powercreep dictates we need abilities like immortality field.
It’s a requirement for high ranked matches so tanks don’t get obliterated and they can hold a position. The reason why baptiste is a must pick in high ranks because immortality field is not just a bonus, it’s a necessity.
People on my team be calling me stupid for using Drone frequently when not needed. I said Drone last 8 seconds and when it’s gone. I’ll get it right back again in the next 12 seconds instead of 20 seconds. They were like Pikachu Shocked faces.
Plus Moira getting toned down and barriers losing some strength. Plus it helps he can work within double barrier. It’s very rarely one thing.
Hitting his ult charge could be another alternative. It’d keep his healing and damage scaled down by removing some strength from his ult. Which is what Blizzard is trying to do with newer kits at least.
First they nerf Moira cause of forum whiners. Back when barriers where overpowered and she was the only good COUNTER against barriers.
Now they nerf Baptist, cause you know, now that barriers and Moira are shiet. One shot heroes like Widow, Hanzo and Doomfist are running rampant. Yet again, Baptist being the only really viable COUNTER versus one-shots.
But hey, like I’ve said before. Better nerf the only remaining viable support I guess. After Brig, Mercy, and Moira being nerfed to the ground thanks to forum whiners.
Baptiste doesn’t counter one shots, I’d say that his IF and the spammy high healing output he provides facilitates the need for one shots. What do you think a Bap player will react faster to, a Tracer or Soldier tickling him from a far or a Widow or Hanzo shot to the head? Which one of these 2 hero groups does Baptiste shut down in your opinion?
I’m not saying burst damage isn’t obnoxious but sustain is what gatekeeps damage over time heroes, most damage over time heroes are more flexible, consistent and not as punishing when missing compared to one shot heroes.
Edit: Just an addition, IF should’ve never passed initial playtesting. We don’t need the hurdle of baiting out IF before making plays, we have that with ultimates. IF doesn’t require much skill from the Bap user and negates so much and makes flankers more irrelevant. It’s a horribly unhealthy game mechanic, makes the game so unsatisfying to play.
Widowmaker and Hanzo have been and will be played a lot regardless if baptiste existed in this game or not. Bap has nothing to do with oneshots being far too good in this game. Why bother playing other hitscan dps when widow and hanzo exist? This has been true in high ranks since forever and got worse when Hanzo was buffed in season 10, so there’s no weakness to even running doublesniper after season 10, because Hanzo is jack of all trades, master of all.
The only reason people started running reaper and mei and doom because doublebarrier hindered snipers from doing work. Now barriers are demolished and Hanzo is again, 1# dps.
Immortality field gives baptiste’s team a chance to fight back however and not instantly get gibbed.
This may very well get buried but here’s my two cents on immortality field. First off, I think its fine as is. If you don’t like its effect, shoot it when its up or wait until its been used but if its going to be nerfed anyway, a reasonable way to do it would be to limit the amount of total damage it can prevent. Set it to something like 800 damage total.
It would be enough to save any single individual from an ult like pulse bomb or being one shot, but it wouldn’t replace something like trans or sound barrier when it came to blocking ultimate damage.
Again for the record though, there is a reason why tank and support queue times are short and dps queues are long. Why not take a look at why no one wants to play those roles? Perhaps because if you’re playing tank, you’re deleted instantly by burst damage that just keeps getting buffed across dps heroes, and if you’re support, you’re just being juggled by a doomfist or dashed through 90 times by genji.
No it doesn’t. Learn to position better. Manage shield hp. Use terrain to mitigate damage, or kill the enemy team first to reduce opponent damage.
The reason why baptiste is a must pick at high rank is the reason why any must pick is a must pick at high rank. They are the best, and that usually means op. Or does that only apply to dps heroes?
Then why do top 500 tank players play doublebarrier and why do they always gotta have bap there as well?
One might think top 500 know how to position so well that they wouldn’t need immortality field. :’)
Things don’t become meta just because people felt like swapping from moira to bap. Most top players don’t play character just for fun and giggles, they play to win.