Make Illari a DPS

General Discussion
1

Illari is a support that’s never felt like one.

Why?

She was obviously not designed to be a support. Every other support has abilities, gameplay, lore, and character design traits that fit a support character. Illari is the only one lacking this.

Her weapon: Her weapon is a giant Inca sword that’s also a rifle.

Her ultimate: Arguably one of the best DPS ultimates in the game

Her lore: Raised to be a warrior and accidentally nuked her people.

Her gameplay: Illari is a hitscan DPS with a random healing turret attached to her kit

This turret is controversial and problematic to Illari, her teammates, and the enemy team.

When Pylon is destroyed Illari cannot provide any support to her team for the duration of its cool down.

This is stressful for Illari and her teammates.

When facing against her if Pylon is in a good spot it’s providing free heals to the enemy team with no effort which can feel opressive.

This seems to be well known as Pylon is often the thing that’s getting changed thr most whenever she’s in a patch.

Now that the cool down is back to 14 secs which means Illari cannot provide any support for this duration.

Instead of forcing this obvious dps character into the support role and being either bad or extremely opressive move her back to the role she was designed for.

I don’t think losing Illari as a support would matter because she was never genuinely one to begin with.

Many good Illari’s that are able to get constant picks also play selfishly and keep Pylon for themselves and simply delete the other team from a distance.

Making some teams 1 tank, 3 dps, and 1 support.

Some pro streamers Believe Illari has to be bad for the health of the game but I’d rather she prosper or be decent in the role she was obviously made for instead of a trashed support

3 Likes
2

No, she’s a support hero.

3 Likes
3

You mean a DPS hero in a support role

2 Likes
4

No, you’re being ridiculous.

5

People should finaly accept the fact, that supports are not “submisive healbots” anymore.

3 Likes
6

They still are. There are simply flavors of supports which buck the standard. A supports primary and highest stat is always healing. Their effects are almost always supportive for the team. The bulk of their features are not enemy focused.

Though some have a few more tools than others at times to go go more DPS centric.

7

They left Sym as a DPS after she was reworked, even though her kit feels like a disguised support in the DPS role.
So no, I guess they won’t change Illari

8

No. In 5v5, there is no “safe backline” as before, everyone has to fight.

9

How is she not a support hero?

She has CC in both her ult and her outburst, she has 2 forms of healing, turret and alt fire.

How does that not make her a support?

2 Likes
10

Symmetra is honestly one of the only supportive DPS. Which to me is a huge L from the developers to have not developed more supportive DPS hybrids. A hallmark of supports are healing. DPS do not really have that at all

This does not mean DPS cannot gain more supportive effects such as debuffing the enemy team in some way which help the whole team set-up for kills. Symmetra aids in slowing and team transportation. Mei slows and isolates targets. Sombra can apply hacks. Cassidy can apply a hinder/debuff.

Even tanks have more supportive utility in their kit indirectly many times through LoS blocking. Even if they are using defensive abilities or hard CC for themselves, its still supportive.

A key reason why DPS suck so much power level wise is because they have so few ways to enable their team beyond single target damage. They have next to no additional utility. The DPS passive was finally a way in which DPS could gain a long needed identity of a team enhancer in some way.

11

Exactly and Illari has none of this.

Illari doesn’t support her team Pylon does. When Pylon is out Illari can’t support her team in any capacity besides elims.

Zen, Bap, Kiri, and Moira are high dps supports but actively engage in supporting their teammates and unless they are dead there’s no period where they can’t do this.

This is why Illari feels awful to play with and as when Pylon is destroyed.

Even lore wise every support has a story that fits them as a support. Illari’s story is she was raised to be a WARRIOR

The giant sword wielding sun warrior that can nuke people is a… support?

12

Illari does have her primary healing up to 15m. That’s not to be ignored. Blizzard said early on her pylon did about 50/50 healing, so a good portion of her utility is still in that primary heal.

The knockback itself is a little selfish, but the knockback is as much for her benefit as those near her as well when used correctly.

Her ultimate fires off a shot which anyone on the team can make use of to aid in their damage. Half the time I never land a burst and activate it myself to detonate someone. The team does that. A large portion of her kit is still very team focused.

What you are mostly upset about is simply how limiting her primary healing is as a resource compared to other supports. Which its biggest limitation is primarily range.

2 Likes
13

Her purpose is to be a DPS-feeling hero in the Support roster, specifically for the purpose of drawing DPS players into the Support queue.

It’s important that characters like this exist to at least try to level out relative population between the roles.

She’s exactly what she’s supposed to be and exactly where she belongs.

14

That’s a fine purpose there’s other supports that fill this position and do it better tbh.

However if the intent is for her to be a good support she needs a rework.

Pylon has been a controversial part of her kit since release and when it’s destroyed especially with a 14 sec cool down Illari is not of any use to her team.

And if Pylon is positioned correctly and her team plays around it while she’s also assisting with DPS it’s oppressive

Illari doesn’t need to be feast or famine and if they’re going to keep struggling to balance Pylon I’d rather she be a DPS as that’s where she excels :person_shrugging:t4:

1 Like
15

Illari’s no less a support than Zen is. Or Moira.

She has healing on a secondary fire mode.

1 Like
16

No she is a Support in a Support role.

2 Likes
17

Is the support hero in the room with us?

18

Only if you are playing Illari or one of the other Support heroes. Otherwise no.

19

Not always. Even on Kiri I may have more damage than heals. It depends on if your team sucks and takes up your resources or not. I’ve had games where I had 8 k damage and only 2k heals on her. Healing wasn’t needed as much.

Her right click has good burst healing. You’re just not aware of what Ilari is doing.

20

I play Illari and Kiri almost exclusively on support.

The burst healing is good but it’s not really good enough to keep up with the team when Pylon is down imo.

Playing Illari feels absolutely awful if Pylon is down AND has a long cooldown.

She needs a rework to make her a more efficient support imo or just delete Pylon and right click and toss her in the DPS category.