My dream patch notes

General Discussion
1

Global Changes

Tank balance is currently out of whack, mostly due to the armor changes. Reeling those in as well as slightly decreasing the headshot passive to make headshots on tanks more rewarding.

  • Armor is nerfed. Don’t care to do the math. Reduce maximum damage mitigation.
  • Tank headshot mitigation reduced from 25% to 20%.

D. Va

The undisputed queen of tanks right now. Mostly because of armor, but also because her buffed burst damage along with the lowering of health pools has made her dive exceptionally strong. Taking her burst down a notch, and giving her more of a fighting chance when playing into her worst matchups.

  • Micro Missiles explosions damage reverted to 4 from 5.5
  • Boosters damage reduced from 25 to 20
  • DM now reduces damage taken from beams by 30%

Junker Queen

Definitely going to be an incredibly strong pick after armor is nerfed. She actually has the highest winrate among tanks. Rampage is a fight deciding ult so I’m scaling back the bleed slightly to give it slightly more counterplay.

  • Rampage bleed damage reduced from 90 to 70.
  • Carnage impact damage reduced from 105 to 95.

Roadhog

Roadhog sucks. Big time. His stats are pathetic. I think its safe to say his rework was a failure at this point. These buffs are more of a mini-rework in themselves to give Roadhog more team utility and a form of mobility, two things he severely lacks. Think of pig pen as Roadhog’s version of a Junkrat concussion mine.

  • Take a Breather now heals nearby allies for 40 health per second
  • Roadhog can now overcharge Pig Pen by briefly holding the button after placing it. Pig Pen will then self-destruct, dealing 60 damage to enemies, and launching Roadhog several meters away from it. If Roadhog is on top of Pig Pen when it activates it will boost him into directly into the air. Self destructing Pig Pen reduces its cooldown by 3 seconds.

Zarya

Just a little something to give Zarya a little more mobility. I feel like we’re finally getting in a decent spot where Counterwatch isn’t AS big of a deal for tanks. This should help her in that regard slightly.

  • Self knockback from secondary fire increased by 50%

Bastion

Bastion needs a little love, in ways other than tank busting.

  • No longer takes self-damage from grenade
  • Self knockback increased from 17.5 meters per second to 22.5
  • 100 health converted to armor

Hanzo

Who really thought Hanzo deserve that health nerf? Who really thought 225 health on Moira and Mercy were justified? I’m reverting the health nerf for Hanzo and a couple other characters. In exchange for Hanzo being able to oneshot less characters with his primary, I’m giving him a new ability that will allow him to oneshot on a resource.

  • Health reverted to 250
  • Hanzo’s reload is now “Heavy Arrows”. Hanzo can store up to 3 charges at a time. Each arrow takes 50% faster to load but deals an additional 30 damage. Hanzo gains a charge every 5 seconds.

Mei

Mei has been feeling a bit lackluster lately, mainly because her primary fire is hard to use effectively now. These changes should make it a bit easier to use and also a bit more effective at letting her stick to slippery targets once she starts blasting them.

  • Endothermic Blaster’s ammo consumption decreased by 20%
  • Endothermic Blaster’s slow duration increased from .6 seconds to .8

Reaper

My idea of a Reaper mini-rework. Nothing too fancy. Very similar to Winston’s new alt fire. He has been performing very well lately as a backline assassin, so the slight nerfs to his lifesteal and shadow step should help make his engages more reactable, while still allowing us to give him more versatility in his kit in areas he struggles.

  • Lifesteal passive reduced from 35% to 30%
  • Shadow Step cast time increased from 1.15 to 1.3
  • Reaper’s secondary fire allows him to charge a shot from both shotguns with decreased spread and fall-off range, but reduced damage and costing twice as much ammo.

Sojourn

Sojourn is struggling even with her last set of buffs. Just making her railgun a bit stronger, especially when it comes to smoothing the transition back to her primary fire after shooting a charged shot off.

  • Railgun alt fire maximum damage increased from 100 to 110
  • Railgun cast time recovery reduced from .65 to .45
  • Railgun projectile radius increased from .08-.15 to .10 to .17

Soldier 76

Soldier was already struggling before the armor changes. With those tuned down he’s back to being somewhat playable. This buff should help him stay a bit more competitive.

  • Biotic Field cooldown reduced from 18 to 16.

Sombra

STOP MESSING WITH SOMBRA’S TTK! Stop making her even more volatile than she was before! Sombra shouldn’t be exploding the backline in half a second, and she shouldn’t be exploding in half a second either. These changes are a total revert, which should help make playing against and with Sombra more stable.

  • Health reverted to 250.
  • Virus impact damage reverted from 35 to 25.
  • Virus damage over time reverted from 75 to 90.
  • Stealth movement speed reverted from 60% to 45%.

Symmetra

Some small Symmetra buffs to make her secondary fire and teleporter a bit better and hopefully allow her to place turrets more easily during a fight. These buffs should more helpful to an “on the move” Symmetra, on maps and game modes where Sym is weakest rather than where she’s already strong.

  • Photon Projector alt fire minimum splash damage increased from 5 to 20.
  • Teleporter shield health increased from 200 to 250.
  • Sentry Turret missile speed increased from 20 meters per second to 30.

Tracer

Tracer is still the undisputed queen of the DPS despite her last nerf. She’s really been cooking since the hitbox changes. Giving her another slap on the wrist to hopefully let the others compete a bit more, and give her a bit more risk if she wants to land those one clip kills.

  • Pulse pistols spread increased by 10%.

Venture

Venture is lowkey one of the strongest characters in the game and has been for a while. The stats don’t lie, and while the health nerfs and rise of dive definitely is to blame for part of it, I believe a slight slap on the wrist couldn’t hurt too.

  • Explorer’s Resolve’s passive shields decreased from 40 per ability to 35.
  • Drill Dash damage over time reduced from 60 to 50.

Lifeweaver

Lifeweaver’s last set of changes were definitely a step in the right direction, finally, but he’s still struggling to keep up. These buffs are to further incentivize him “weaving” between damage and healing when he can.

  • Healing Blossom passive charge rate increased by 20%.
  • Thorn Volley projectile speed increased from 80 meters per second to 85.
  • Weapons now swap 25% faster.
  • Passive reload timers reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds.

Mercy

I don’t understand why we’re making Mercy even more of a pocket bot. Reverting her health back to help with her survivability so she doesn’t have to hide as much.

  • Health reverted to 250 from 225.

Moira

Moira. The support chosen for her easy access to survivability at the cost of utility. The support whose easy-aim primary is often complained about. Yeah, let’s not nerf the reason people pick her and buff the reason people hate her to compensate. Reverted.

  • Health reverted to 250 from 225.
  • Biotic Grasp damage reverted from 65 to 60.

Zenyatta

Zen has been struggling a bit. This buff is to make him more flexible in different comps by giving him a little more healing he desperately lacks.

  • Orb of Harmony healing increased from 30 to 35.
3 Likes
2

Well…

Thank god you have no sway on the actual game. Bad character steps out into the spotlight for half a season after being actual garbage for 11 seasons and this is what the player-base wants.

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3

Was nodding my head with a lot of things until you got to here.
Sombra is a problem.

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4

This is my wish list for Hanzo.

Hanzo

Hanzo has been underperforming since Season 9 with the changes to HP. These changes are to restore his identity, as well as increase his playability.

Storm Bow:

  • Damage increased from 120 damage to 125 damage.
  • Projectile size reduced from 0.175 to 0.1.

Storm Arrows:

  • Damage reduced from 75 to 70.
  • Count reduced from 5 to 4.
  • Projectile size reduced from 0.175 to 0.1.

Alternatively:

Hanzo

Hanzo has been underperforming since Season 9, and he lost his identity with the changes to HP. These changes are to restore his identity and increase his playability, while still reducing the pain points of players on the receiving end compared to Season 8.

Storm Bow:

  • Damage increased from 120 damage to 130 damage.
  • Damage fall-off beyond 30 meters added. 115 damage minimum.
  • Projectile size reduced from 0.175 to 0.125.

*Most one-shot frustrations are due to the OHKs that occur at extreme range. This will reduce those frustrations for all standard HP (250 HP) heroes and and any higher HP targets.
Though the lack of damage fall-off is meant to be an advantage of projectile over hitscan heroes, only having a slight damage fall-off that keeps 225 HP heroes within one-shot threshold maintains a fair advantage over hitscan fall-off.

Storm Arrows:

  • Count reduced from 5 to 4.
  • Damaged reduced from 75 damage to 70 damage.
  • Damage fall-off beyond 30 meters added. 60 damage minimum. Damage fall-off will reset upon collisions with surfaces.
  • Projectile size reduced from 0.175 to 0.125.

These would have been actual effective changes without dumpstering the hero.

5

I can only say that I’m glad you aren’t a dev

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6

finally something we both actually agree on :joy:

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7

I actually don’t think Reaper has been bad for while. He’s been consistently good outside of top 500 for a long time. I also don’t think that adding a secondary fire that gives him a ranged option at the cost of 5% lifesteal and .15 seconds longer on shadow step is a nerf in any way.

I also don’t think a lower skill character like Reaper SHOULD be hard meta at every level of play, the same way I don’t think Mercy should be. They can be viable. They can have a niche. I don’t think they should stay the dominant top tier picks for multiple seasons. That usually means something has gone wrong.

She wasn’t a problem before they went and made a bunch of horrible changes for the sake of their 225 health update. This is literally a revert to before they buffed her TTK, so how she’s been since March. I agree that Sombra has design issues, but addressing those would require a rework. They should have just left her where she was until then.

With feedback like this, same.

8

50-60% damage reduction against beams especially with how strong she’ll remain against projectiles/hitscan seems excessive

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9

Where are my Lifeweaver buffs at tho?

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10

Yeah, this is definitely something I’d have to test out first. Luckily the devs are apparently throwing something similar in the patch on Tuesday so we’ll get to see what their idea is. Hopefully they actually playtested it and are not about to make D. Va even stronger. :pray:

I literally gave him 4 buffs my guy.

11

Ahh my bad I appear to be blind.

12

I wouldn’t want this. That’s too close to how much Zenyatta heals, let alone for a tank that has a lot of sustain and damage.

Given Roadhog’s kit, I also would not want him to have any mobility. If his whole shtick is, “i am bringing you to me” and that results in whether or not positioning being good or bad being relative to where he is, he shouldn’t have mobility on top of it IMO.

Did you mean decreased?

[edit]
I saw you clarify this in a response to someone else. I…wouldn’t want Reaper nerfed at all. He’s not that great. Especially when Shadow Step is so punishable, I don’t think we need to add additional cast time to it.

Her railgun has been why she has been annoying and strong for nearly a year. I would not want any of these, especially the last one. To make it even easier would be so obnoxious to go against.

No, he’s a mid-range hero. He shouldn’t have 275 HP.

Her stealth speed is +60% currently already. Do you mean revert it from 60% to 45%?

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13

This is what I originally though too, before realizing it’s basically 100 potential healing on a 12.5 second cooldown. That’s assuming he used it all at once. Most Roadhogs usually split his healing in half and try to save resources. That would be 50 healing IF you’re close to Hog. In reality, it’s a fairly inconsequential heal you’d have to be close to Roadhog to utilize. Of course, we’d have to see how it plays out, but that’s an easy number adjustment.

The point here is that if he uses Pig Pen for mobility, he no longer has access to his oneshot on 95% of the cast. He is sacrificing his main form of value in order to reposition. It gives him more versatility and allows him to choose to sacrifice his main strength to cover one of his main weaknesses. It’s not like it suddenly makes him a mobile hero, he just isn’t completely immobile now.

I personally think he is pretty great. He’s been consistently good outside of the top levels of play, and now he’s even good there. Not to mention the massive buff he’d be getting in his secondary fire. I think getting a ranged option for Shadow Step taking 10% longer to go off is a worthwhile tradeoff.

Right, and then they gutted it. Making it so her railgun can no longer oneshot, even with damage boost, has been a MASSIVE nerf to the character and her identity. I don’t want railgun to oneshot, so instead we need to bring power back to it in ways that are more fair. Sojourn has been a terrible character with a weak identity for a while now. I’m sorry to say but you HAVE to buff railgun.

Would you rather him get more damage? I’m genuinely asking. I’m just sick of not being able to play Soldier into dive and would rather shore up his weaknesses than lean harder into his strengths.

Yep! I’ll fix that.

14

If you nerf armor/Dva/Winston Soldier goes back to being a pretty effective hero

he was solid B tier before they decided he should do 9 damage against armor

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15

I might just be misremembering then. I thought he was pretty bad even before the armor changes threw him in the gutter.

16

Maybe it’s because I’m an Ana main, but I thought about her grenade + Hog’s healing on top of the other supports’, and that…concerns me a lot to say the least lol

His gun isn’t always the one-shot, though. Giving him mobility on maps where there are pits or places he can hook, and with how Hook interacts with people, that also concerns me. Imagine him launching himself into the air and pulling you, and because of the cast + pull time, you’re now at the edge.

It just makes the whole, “your positioning is bad depending on where I am” even more janky.

He’s only good there because of the current meta. Once that shifts, he’s going back down. :frowning:

If those are the options, I’d rather let her sit where she currently is. Giving her that much burst when she also has mobility is something that’s always going to be a problem when balancing her.

No, but he shouldn’t be played into dive. He’s not effective against it. There are other heroes who aren’t good in dive as well, it’s not just him. Buffing him to be good in a comp that he’s not meant to be good in just means that once we move on from Dive, we now have a hero who’s too strong.

Wouldn’t the armor changes also potentially benefit him?

Ah.

I mean, if they’re removing perma stealth, would you still want only +45% movement speed? Or is this suggestion with perma stealth in mind?

17

Nah man I played a lot of Soldier before they buffed armor to -10 per projectile, he was pretty good. He used to do 14 damage to armor and Dva and Winston weren’t as omnipresent as they are right now.

It’s all about relative power. When the top tanks are slower, more grounded and are easier to poke out before they can close the gap, Soldier/Sojourn (pre-nerf) stocks go way up

Soldier should be losing to dive because he’s the most accessible poke character for poke comps (compared to Widow and Ashe at least) and he’s very good against the slower brawl tanks that can’t jump on his head all game (before armor got gigabuffed anyway)

18

He was pretty good before that, IMO. So much so that they actually nerfed his damage and he was still good. The armor changes just…really, REALLY sucked.

19

Dva doesnt need this because she already has the mobility to play against all her bad match-ups, who are all immobile. Specially the only viable one (Zarya). Thats why Dva is strong and no one uses Sym/Mei to counter her anyways.

All you did was further nerf heroes who are already bad without barely ANY compensation.

Maybe Dva mains should stop playing like they are on Soldier 76 instead of a hero with high mobility uptime lmao

No one is spamming min orbs lol

Just give her back 140 dmg orbs.

3 Likes
20

Yeah I won’t lie, this list seems a bit biased.

If it were up to me i’d revert the health changes patch that happened a while ago.

2 Likes