Mei and Zarya ultimates are quite similar, with Mei’s Blizzard being a far weaker version: It locks down the enemies in an area, making them easy targets.
But where Zarya’s ultimate has very, very little counterplay - only one being DVA eating it (on individual levels Moira and Reaper can escape it) - Mei’s is alot more fair. Enemies can escape with simple movement if they are at the edge of the Blizzard, or they can escape quite trivially if they have more mobility, which most of the heroes have.
As a Mei player it can be quite disheartening to see what you thought would be a great Blizzard just dissolve into nothing, as people escape with their abilities, those at the edge simply walk out, or people are bubbled out by Zarya.
I definitely believe Blizzard is strong enough, but it pales when compared to Graviton Surge. Blizzard is IMO much more fair, allowing for alot of counterplay and opportunity to escape.
In comparison there is very little you can do against Graviton Surge. You are just locked down for the duration and at the mercy of the enemy team, which IMO makes the ultimate too strong for the game.
Seeing how dominating Graviton Surge is in the meta, I believe a good course of action would be to change Graviton Surge to become more fair. Give more opportunities for counterplay or possibility to escape.
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The biggest difference between grav and blizzard is that players in grav can still defend themselves.
Rein can still hold up a shield, lucio and zen can still ult, etc.
Grav is fine.
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Grav is 100% fine, For the most part its the ult with the most counter play out of them all.
Grav also has a third the range?
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Don’t forget Blizzard disappears midair if Mei dies as it’s travelling. It’s so _____stupid and I can’t believe this dumb bug is still going on for 2+ years now (same for Pharah’s rockets)
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The defense just matters very little. A good enemy team will have a course of action that makes the Rein shield irrelevant, either with shield-ignoring ultimates (Hanzo, Genji, Doomfist, Moira), ordinary shield-ignoring abilities (Rein, Brigitte hammers) or with positioning (f.ex. Pharah ultimate, which can also blow right through the Rein shield).
When in the Graviton, it is hard to see what is going on. You are there with all your teammates also doing stuff, making it a big mess of player models and graphical effects, which often makes it hard to locate and aim at enemies.
Lucio and Zenyatta ultimates can also be used against Blizzard.
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Graviton didn’t always silence movement skills in addition to holding people. Translocator, two blinks, guardian angel, etc could be used to escape it.
Then one day during an internal playtest a senior dev landed a sick 6-man grav on a team of interns, but 3 of them escaped it and laughed. The senior dev was so salty that he went straight into the code and hammered in some arbitrary rules to make sure enemies can never escape grav.
PS: that story may or may not be made up.
PPS: Luckily for us it was one of those interns who did the code for Moira’s fade and Reaper’s wraith form.
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Blizzard is one of, if not the best zoning ult in the game. Its not meant to secure kills but secure the objective. You dont need any major follow up in the form of an ult if the blizzard is good enough because the enemy is legit unable to move or retaliate. Its countered by movement but most tanks arent mobile and using it in tandem with wall can even cut off certain heros mobility depending on map geometry.
Grav on the otherhand is a highly aggressive ult and while it may seem like thier isnt much counterplay it can be out positioned (aka dont clump up) and can fire still be retaliated while inside. Other ult combos are countered by various defensive ults like beat drop beats most burst ults and trance for sustain dps ults.
Both are balanced. Both have a place in the game.
I think you are remembering the blizzards that didn’t work and forgetting the surges that flopped.
I’m sorry you are frustrated.
Mei’s a great hero and I’m glad you play her.
Alot of people find her frustrating to play against and ask for her to be nerfed but I don’t.
I don’t doubt this honestly.
Graviton Surge was fine when you could escape it with mobility, if anything trading a single ultimate for half the enemy team’s cooldown abilities (and a kill if the Zarya was intelligent enough to actually use it on immobile targets or AFTER the targets used their mobility like a Mei would) usually guaranteed a wipe.
1 Like
Um nope, that’s the start up time. All hero’s have a delay for ults that can be quickly cancelled.
You can even stun or kill Ana before her Nano boots gers to someone and its cancelled.
Zarya ult is one-time use thing with nerfed radius, while Mei ult covers entire objective for a decent amount of time. And Mei ult builds faster (especially if you land headshots and heal yourself).
It is not a bug.
The same will happen to alot of other heroes (playing Tracer I have had my fair share of bombs disappear after the “click” was heard, followed by my immediate death).
Originally ults didn’t disappear even if you died, but they changed it some time back.
That is definitely a fairy tale you put up there 
With OWL going on, they can’t just make random stuff like that.
You think that is unfair ?
compare Mercy´s ult with other supports ults
Well, Winston and DVA is mobile enough. Rein can also escape with his charge if he is fast enough and isn’t too far from edge. Zarya can escape with her personal bubble and help another target. Orisa can use her Fortify ability to not be affected.
I can’t see how the tanks are so helpless as you claim.
Sure, Blizzard is a zoning ult as well and of course has value in that - but don’t forget that so is Graviton Surge. People will be scared to go anywhere near, as it is hard to gauge the exact range when you are playing.
Listen, Im not out to buff Blizzard, I want Graviton Surge to have more counterplay. For my sake they could even restore Graviton’s old range if there was more counterplay to it.
“Depending on map geometry”. All tanks barring Winston and Dva (Hammond as well depending) can be walled into a Blizzard if it permits. I never said they were helpless.
Im telling Grav has plenty of counterplay (just Grav no comboing and even still). Dont clump together, admittedly hard to do in the current Goats meta but thats more a product of the playstyle of the involved heros. Dva is a soft check to it and grav requires follow up. Grav by itself isnt normally scary or threatening its when you add other things to it.
There is no way Mei’s ult builds faster. Remember, they increased the rate on Graviton when they nerfed the radius.
I saw a game yesterday with XQC where the enemy Zarya used Graviton. The very next fight, maybe one or 1½ minute later, she had Graviton up again. Mei can’t do that.
If they made more counterplay to Graviton, the old range could even be restored.
Genji can deflect the grav. He can also deflect blizzard but that is really hard.
Dont clump together is of course a valid tactics, but often really hard in practice.
At higher levels a team fight can be decided if as little as one enemy is killed. And at those levels, it is rare, even when a team spreads out, that a graviton catches less than two people, and three I would say is the norm.
With a range of 6 meters it is also alot to ask that people can’t be within 12 meters of each other.