Strengths (Things that only Mei can do):
-Slow and stop an enemy.
-Divide an enemy from the rest of the team.
-Elevate teammates to higher places.
-Good in 1v1.
Weakness:
-No mobility.
-Low dps.
-Only reliable ability to survive in long 12s cd, with bugs. Most used to deny an ability that will kill her (Zen right click, Mccree flashbang, Roadhog hook) (Abilities with lower cd).
-Wall requires your teammates to follow-up.
-Enemies can camp around cryo so It let you vulnerable.
-Ult takes too much time to deploy, freeze and dont reach places behind cover.
-Wall can be destroyed.
Getting hooked out of Cryo-Freeze by Roadhog and seeing an already thrown ultimate dissappear because you were stunned after the throw animation is just maddening.
As soon if these issues are fixed do I think Mei is in a balanced state, despite her low pickrate.
I don’t think Mei is unbalanced or underpowered, but her weaknesses are just too frustrating, If you play Brigitte I’m probably the one who give you the “Stop an ult” achivement, jeez. (BTW last night I threw an ult on the payload and didn’t freeze a Roadhog just next to it feelsbadman)
Roadhog gun is a projectile and has dmg falloff. Plus nobody wants to eat 150 dmg from a stray icicle that was shot from across the map as they walk out of the spawn.
1- Enemies can camp around you. (Multiple targets)
2- You need to use cryo to bait enemies abilities so if you stay too much time in cryo it can be bad since enemies can run away. (1 target)
Mei is quite similar to a Paladins Champion called Inara. Their kit is reasonably similar (wall, slow effect, durability ability, poor damage to compensate), but Inara is quite viable because she’s a true tank.
The key difference is Inara is built around her durability, whereas it seems Mei is built around her stun gimmick.
I think that might be the main issue Mei has. The focus is on the wrong parts of her kit. They keep buffing up her stun and such, where they should be focusing more on her durability and ability to fight objectives.
But they haven’t buffed her Cryo-Freeze at all.
If you’re talking about it removing Ana’s anti-heal, that was a fix to a year old bug. It was part of the game so long that many players thought it was intentional.
And they buffed the ammo usage of her secondary fire and the piercing effect of her primary fire. They definitely tried buffing her to fight on objectives longer.
Speaking of cryofreeze buffs they should’ve kept the floating ice from the FFA glitch. It helped to reduce the camping and added a new level of mobility to her.