Let’s get right into it ladies and gentleman.
Tanks: I feel like they contribute NOTHING to a fight. The damage reduction, while I understand why it’s there, is not the kind of thing you want in a game like Overwatch.
Overwatch in itself is already almost impossible to solo carry, with how much of a team based game it is, so who is going to want to play tank after this patch? They have almost 0 value in a fight, and if you’re dps aren’t doing they’re job, well guess what, you can no longer switch to someone like RoadHog and try to take over for them. For example, I had a game yesterday where my dps just constantly died, so I went Zarya to farm off their Dva and Hog. At the end of the game I had an average energy of 65% and couldn’t even steal silver damage.
I don’t personally disagree with any of the specific tank changes, but they’re reduced damage needs to be dropped quite a bit if not removed. I really don’t mind the cc difference, but if they keep they’re normal damage, they need to not be made as tanky.
Rein: Love all of this, as a tank who has fallen out of the meta, all changes are welcome, though I am unsure about the decreased healing, I would need to see it in a competitive game.
Orisa: Thank you for not giving her a mini Grav anymore, I really like what you did with her, though Supercharger will be dearly missed.
Zarya: No complaints here, I love the fact that you are rewarding skill.
Sigma: I really don’t believe this game needs MORE cc, and giving him more of his easiest ability to hit, is straying away from rewarding skill, and moving towards, rewarding unga bunga play the meta hero. This hero also already has way too much survivability, if he’s not smart enough to play away from cc while using grasp, he should be punished for that, again we should be rewarding skill, not unga bunga meta heroes. I would also decrease his shield health by about 10% to try and get rid of double shield.
Wrecking Ball: No complaints, I really like how you changed grapple.
Roadhog: While his current playstyle leans more towards flanking, I really like that you’re encouraging team play here, great decision making on your end.
D.va: 100% uptime might be a bit much for boosters. but she is really fun to play now. I also love that she gets ult charge for eating ultimates. Again, rewarding skill is moving in the right direction.
Winston: I like this, I do wish he had a secondary fire like it looks like he will in OW2, but I don’t dislike these changes.
DPS: I think Blizzard is so close to moving in the right direction with a lot of these changes (except for moving Symmetra to the support role… just no).
Genji has more mobility and can’t win an entire game with his ult.
Doomfist can now consistently do rollouts more quickly to make him slightly more meta.
Echo… did not need buffs, please look at hero pick rates. or just listen to any popular streamer, the hero is broken out the wazoo, nerfs are needed NOT buffs.
Mei: The wall is funny, which I like, her self heal is now really good at blocking things like D.Va bomb (maybe too good). But what in the heck is the melee damage for? I could understand if you said 20% more to headshots while frozen… but why melee, it doesn’t really match her playstyle.
Phara: better at displacing enemies and doing her job at area control, I don’t disagree with this, but if she’s that good at one thing, I think she should be a little less good at doing damage, you already decreased Junkrats damage and all the tank damage, so why only buff Phara with 0 draw backs?
Junkrat: So… you made him good at flanking, that’s cool, but that’s not his playstyle, I’m confused what this buff is supposed to do for him? The tire buff is nice as it can be really hard to get value out of tire against double hitscan. But seriously, did he really change, I feel like Junkrat got left in the dust, only 2 bullet points compared to others who have upwards of 10. Here’s a couple fixes I think should be added to Junkrat.
*Give his trap a larger catch hitbox so genji and tracer can’t just dash and blink right past it, and so Winston/Ball will get caught inside of it instead of somehow destroying it while landing directly on top of it.
*Make his mines more directional, if they’re below someone, send them upwards. If they’re above someone, send them downwards. If they’re to the side of someone, send them to the side, not up or down. This will make Junk more consistent and allow people who enjoy Junkrat at higher ranks to get more value out of him using their brains and mechanics and instead of being forced to spam.
Sombra: Aside from the reduced stealth time, I love this change, but her being in stealth indefinitely feels fine, she can’t do anything while in stealth, so why not let her run around the map for scouting purposes?
Bastion:…Why remove his shift? Bastion isn’t meant to be a necessarily versatile hero, he’s made for bunker and sitting down, being vulnerable, but dealing BUTT LOADS of damage. I think healing while shooting is fine.
Hanzo: Yes, just yes, idk why but I love how they changed hanzo, it just seems more… natural
Torb: Hey look at that blizzard, you actually buffed someone to be good at their intended playstyle, I’m genuinely proud of you for this, good job.
Ashe: I enjoy overwatch because of it’s uniqueness, were that many people really complaining about Ashe’s reload? I think it should stay as one bullet at a time, with MAYBE increasing the speed of the reload by 10-25%. No self damage is actually a good change IMO.
Cassidy: People can do midair flips, I don’t see why he shouldn’t be able to use roll midair (especially with his health buff being reverted, which is a good thing). I am indifferent about his secondary fire, I’m glad he requires more skill, but also… why not, right?
Reaper: This one is interesting, I haven’t been able to test him much, but I think I like how they changed him, maybe change his achievement since you can’t reload with wraith anymore.
Soldier 76: The loss of self damage on these abilities is fine with me, especially since he can still rocket jump.
Widowmaker: I think this might make widow too easy, you no longer need game sense or awareness, just place venom mines everywhere and never get flanked, maybe leave it at 1 charge but decrease the cooldown so she can consistently check one flank, without having every flank covered.
Tracer: This one is interesting, I think I like it, but also Grav/Pulse no longer can make big plays. I might reduce it’s cost by 25% instead of 50% but leave the damage at 200.
Support: They nerfed Brig and Bap? Well hey now, why don’t I take you out to dinner? (Just don’t move Sym to the support role)
Ana: I think all of these changes are great, Ana was being outshined by so many of the new supports due to power creep, but these small changes are definitely a good start to even out the balance.
Baptiste: Thank you for nerfing Immortality, but why is it still Immortality, wouldn’t it still make sense as a damage reduction field, or an umbrella type barrier similar to winston to help block damage? I just don’t believe team immortality as an ability is good for this game. Otherwise, good changes.
Brig: I like what they did, here, probably could have done more, but I have very little experience on Brig so I will not try to put my opinion where it doesn’t belong.
Lucio: Being rewarded for skill is exactly what I like to see, and his ultimate having cc just makes sense, great changes.
Mercy: I’m just scared people are going to hoard and waste mercy’s ultimate, but I really like this change.
Moira: Very creative, and honestly, I like it, no complaints here.
Zenyatta: I love the new tech, you guys are doing a great job at adding some really creative stuff to the game.
Symmetra: If you want to change Symmetra, leave her as a dps, don’t use any of these changes EXCEPT the movement speed buff after coming out of Teleporter, I really like that.