Blizzard has admitted that Discord Orb is a problem for Overwatch 2, due to the fact that there’s one tank and Discord target priority are tanks (and looking into a rework later on in the game) I believe Mei Wall has the same issue.
First off, a DPS having a crowd control ability that lasts as long as it does is really bad for a single tank format. Mei’s wall main functionality is to wall off the enemy tank that’s frontlining (in a game mode like Push, it feels awful because the tank is usually far up for the team) and usually, only good Mei player will pull this off, but it’s awful to run into as a tank main.
Something else is that she already slows whomever she’s aiming at so trying to get away as a slow tank (Sigma, Roadhog, Junker Queen < who already has bad survivability) makes a big difference. then Wrecking Ball is completely countered by her, too, so he’s not an option if she’s in play.
Either way, the big problem to me, is the wall and I think it should be given to a tank down the road and give Mei a different ability or make Mei a tank (which I don’t see happening because of the size of her model, but reducing her primary fire damage and making her a utility tank with a slow dynamic, a wall and a healing ability would make sense.
I wish I could give rework suggestions for replacement of the wall, but I haven’t given that much thought yet. I just had a game where I got walled off the entire time by a ninja Mei. Popping out of flanks and simply walling me off from my team. Even as Orisa, I just got destroyed because of the wall. Any ideas? How do you guys feel about Mei Wall being a tank counter for most of the roster so far?
actually i dont consider discord and ice wall on the same level as discord orb is honestly way worse and can be spammed to massive levels quickly while her icewall once it has fallen it does have a cooldown
mei should be a tank. her model being small doesn’t matter cause she can have the smallest health pool to compensate for the smallest model.
well he became a tank counter as part of the answer to goats, then blizzard introduced rolequeue and peaced out shortly after and left all the anti-tank nonsense in the game.
make reaper not counter tanks anymore, he should go back to being the flank assassin he was originally intended as.
Reaper isn’t as oppressive, he simply does damage; he doesn’t slow, he doesn’t have a wall. He doesn’t have healing during invulnerability. His fade is used to reposition and get away. Not too sit there and heal. Maybe to reload his gun and continue his sustain based off damage. But it’s not like Mei’s healing block, where she sits there, invulnerable and healing - with also a wall, to get away (usually off cooldown because she sat in her ice block for long enough.
Reaper is fine except being way too strong against Winston, but besides, that, he’s fine.
The problem with having a small health pool is that she won’t be in the fight much. Once she’s used up her sustain ability, she has to hide. Which would not work for a tank. She will have to get her damage reduced and some more health, like 450. So she can stay in the fight but be less oppressive in the damage department.
400, no more. she can’t have a much smaller hitbox than junkerqueen and the same health. the key is to let her have ice up more often, maybe giving it a health bar itself and a chance for enemy team to destroy it to balance the shorter cooldown. let her cycle icicles like dva cycles mechs and hog cycles rebreathers (with her own, unique rythm just as theirs are not the same)
Mei wall has much more counterplay than Discord though. First and foremost you can just shoot a pillar as they got nerfed to 250 HP (Which most DPS heroes can destroy this ALONE within 1.5~2 seconds), let alone the Japanese wallclimbers being able to outright ignore it in most situations. Compared to Discord where it’s a +25% damage received for being within his LoS and you can just put it on the tank for free value with no cooldown or downtime.
Mei damage wise isn’t even really that good and is below average for a DPS hero. Her options are an easily outhealed beam attack and a worse Cassidy M1.
If they ever did change Ice Wall to help her better fit a DPS hero ability though, I hope they’d do something like Skadi’s Permafrost from Smite where she makes a slippery ice field that does some DoT damage and causes them to slide across it. Pretty funny ability and fits Mei’s role of being an area control DPS hero.
Turning her into a tank is a bad idea. She’ll be even more irrelevant than she currently is.
This being said, I’d be all for just straight up trading the ability for something different that compliments her kit. What would that ability be though?
It has to be ice-themed, which narrows down our options significantly, ice abilities are generally tied to restricting movement in some way… or maybe increasing speed? How about a manually placed patch of ice at a targeted location, that slows enemies and speeds up allies for the duration? It retains the area denial type gameplay the wall provides while maybe not being annoying as wall currently is.
They could turn her into a builder and give her an ability similar to Sym, which allows her to place icicle-type stalagtites in doors and chokes that fall on enemies as they walk by.
They could give her an attack speed buff, sort of like Storm Arrow or Torb Overload. Lot’s of interesting options.