Let’s talk about Baptiste.
Baptiste, in my opinion, is kinda like Bastion: It either works or it dosen’t.
Baptiste relies a lot on Shields. If you’re not planning to play Double Shield or Pirate Ship, don’t play Baptiste.
The reason is his whole kit is based around AoE Heals, which is not good. Either it’s op in previously said compositions, either it’s totally useless. And let’s not mention that actual Meta is Double Shield Tanks + Dive DPS, so Baptiste is only good at Healing his Tanks.
I like the idea of making all Tanks “Off-Tanks”, even if the Reinhardt Players probably won’t be happy about this. But what if we made all Supports Off-Healers instead ?
People complain that there is too much Healing in the game, that Healing Creep is a problem, and that some Heroes do not provide enough if not zero utility. This is why, today, we will talk about Baptiste specifically and what kind of changes he could use to become an Off-Healer.
The point will be to treat each points with Baptiste’s Kit and then suggest a potential Rework to make it less AoE’ish. On the end, the point will be to make Baptiste an Off-Support.
Primary & Secondary Fires
So, in my opinion, Baptiste’s Primary Fire is fine. Deals consistent damage, needs some aim to control the recoil, balanced in general. However, for his Secondary Fire, that’s where the problem is, as it is AoE Heals, which is something people does not like.
- Healing Grenades now works like that: No more AoE Heals. Instead, when a grenade is threw, if an Ally is near it, the grenade’s trajectory will be modified in order to follow and hit the Ally. If it hits a surface or the ground, it will work like Pharah’s Concussive Blast but way less stronger, pushing enemies very VERY slightly away.
- Here is how it exactly works: When you throw a grenade out, you’ll need to aim for your allies, instead of the ground. What it will do is if the grenade passes within a certain radius around one of your Teammate, the grenade will change it’s own trajectory in order to hit the Ally. No AoE at all, works like Ana’s Primary. Obviously, the Projectile Speed would be increased to make it easier to Aim, but the grenade will not go in a straight direction.
Ability 1 - Healing Burst 2.0
- When Secondary Fire is pressed, it will apply an HoT on the targetted Ally. If no Allies are targetted, it will apply the HoT on Baptiste.
- This is basically the new Healing Burst. Since it is an AoE Heals, I decided to make it his Secondary Fire with a targetting feature, like Ana’s Nanoboost. The Cooldown would be shortened to 12-15 Seconds, and this would be Baptiste’s new Self-Healing capacity.
Ability 2 - ???
For the Immortality Field Rework, as a lot of people find it frustrating, OP, or stuff like that, there really are many possibilities. I’ll share some of the ideas I’ve got:
- Deploys a device on the ground that creates a circular Shield.
- If you remember, there is an item that you can pick up in Overwatch 2, and when it is deployed, it creates a sort of cylindric shield. This is basically the same. 10 Seconds Cooldown, 375 HP.
- Deploys an Immortality Drone above the Targetted Ally’s Head, making them Immortal for 5 Seconds.
- This ablity can be applied to Allies through walls. Baptiste’s Immortality now works as a single-target ability, instead of a whole AoE Field that can make your whole Team Immortal. Maybe there could be 2 Charges. 13 Seconds cooldown, Drone is destructible. If nobody is Targetted, it’ll be applied on Baptiste.
Ultimate - Amplification Matrix
This Ultimate. The Amplification Matrix is really really niche. Either you place it perfectly but your Teammate does not use it because they decided to push, either you did place it perfectly AND your Teammate are using it and you deal a ton of Damage, or you screwed up and it’s totally useless, which happens almost all the time.
Really hard to get any value out of the Matrix, which is why it’s always better to keep it for yourself.
- Amplification Matrix now deploys for Baptiste only. It is deployed in front of him, projected by his Mechanical Arm, and only him can use it.
- When Baptiste throws his Grenade through the Amplification Matrix, they become the AoE Grenades again he used to have. However, it only Amplify their Healing by 50%. Finally, their trajectory becomes fully straight, instead of having a fall-off.
- When Amplification Matrix is used, Baptiste’s Primary Fire becomes a semi-automatic weapon (3.75 shots per second if you spam click). However, there is no recoil applied at all, making it extremely easy to aim. Damage increased by 55%.
- Amplification Matrix halves the cooldown of Healing Burst.
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The point here is to make Baptiste more self-reliable, which is how most Off-Supports works. Obviously, it sounds like a Nerf since having twice as much Healing/Damage Output can be very strong, it’s still really hard to use. So, now, it makes it easier to use but you can get a bit less value out of it.
Though it is great to be more agressive. If there is that one Widow who keeps putting pressure on your Team, using the Matrix will make it really easy for you to kill her. Also, I made the Matrix bring back his old AoE Grenades, because although I know the point was to remove his AoE Heals, this is an Ultimate, meaning it has to increase his Healing Potential. That’s why I made them go in a straight Trajectory.
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Well, that’s it. I reduced Baptiste’s maximum Healing Output as well as reducing his kind of too strong Utility. Both his Abilities are Single-Targetted. Point here is to make him less reliant on his Team. You can now Heal your Flankers, Pharah/Echo, etc…
I must admit, he dosen’t sound that much of an Off-Support like that, but personally, I’d really love Baptiste with these Abilities. I did not change his Passive at all, I really like it, and yeah, don’t know what to say. People wants the AoE Heals to dissapear, and that’s what I tried to do for Baptiste. Only AoE Healer that should be kept as it is is Lucio in my opinion.
Again, I am in no position to say what should and should not be done for Baptiste’s Kit, I am not a Developper, I am definitely not the one you should listen to. I do not specifically want this to be in the game (Even if I think this new kit would be extremely fun to play) and yeah.
So, what do you think ? Should we go towards a game where Supports are all Off-Healers ? That’d be great ! Off-Supports are much more fun than Main-Supports, bringing all kind of utilities sure is much more fun than just being behind Shields and… Heal.
So yeah ! I tried my best ! What do you think about all of these suggestions ?