My Thoughts on the Experimental Changes

General Discussion
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Since the patch recommended we post our thoughts, I’m just going to throw mine out there. To preface: I am not an amazing player, this is all coming from someone who rarely ever plays comp, and only placed low gold on dps. (Flame me for my rank, I could really care less.)

Tanks

  • Reinhardt:

Keep Charge Cancel.
Buff Rein’s damage.

It now takes 4 swings to kill a Tracer. I don’t really enjoy that.

Charge Cancel should stay. It’s been included in the last two experimental creator patches and a majority of players have been begging for it since the first patch.

I don’t have an opinion on the other Reinhardt changes.

  • Orisa

Revert Halt.

From messing around a bit with Orisa’s Halt! ability, I think that you have to be insanely close to someone to use it. It may be circumstantial but by the time I was able to use it, I was already practically on top of the enemy. I personally like the projectile more, and I think it has more uses than it’s current state in the experimental patch.

I don’t have an opinion on the other Orisa changes.

  • Zarya:

I don’t have any opinions on Zarya’s changes. I don’t play her.

  • Sigma:

Keep Hyperspheres.
Keep Shield Speed.

I absolutely love the changes for his hyperspheres. As someone who is not the best player, it makes his character a bit easier to manage and play. I would personally consider keeping this change.

I also love the changed speeds for his shield. It makes the need to use Kinetic Grasp every time I drop shield practically disappear.

I don’t have an opinion on the other changes, but I would definitely keep the changes for him.

  • Wrecking Ball

I don’t really mind most of his changes, I don’t play him enough to really have an opinion.

  • Roadhog

Revert Whole Hog’s Knockback Change

I like the changed hook speed.

I don’t like the change to Take A Breather when I play Hog, but playing against him, it’s amazing. I would personally find a middle ground where it does just enough healing to make a difference on Hog but not make so much of a difference that it’s hard to kill him.

I would not keep the knockback change to Whole Hog. I enjoy being able to cancel it, but most people that I know use Whole Hog for it’s knockback.

  • D.Va

Keep Slow Falling.

I really like the slow falling with her mech. Combining that with the short cooldown speed of boosters gives her a bit of a speed buff.

I like the idea of granting 30% Ult charge if you eat another enemy’s ult with matrix, but as a character who’s Ult is as devastating in low ranks / qp , I don’t think that buff would be fun.

I don’t have an opinion on the other changes.

  • Winston

Buff Winston’s primary.

Currently, you can gain more Ult charge using melee. The 50% dmg nerf completely made his primary fire useless.

I enjoy the power punch in Primal.

I don’t have an opinion on the rest of his changes.

Damage

  • Genji

I don’t play Genji, so I don’t really have much of an opinion.

  • Doomfist

I don’t play Doomfist, so I don’t really have much of an opinion.

  • Echo

I like the fact that Echo can now self-heal by getting final blows. It’s minimal enough that it shouldn’t cause problems.

I like the change to her Glide.

  • Mei

Keep the change to Wall.

I love how wall now launches people in the air, I think it’s fun to play with and even against.

I think her ice block being bigger is a bit silly. Not really a necessary, needed change.

  • Pharah

Keep the change to Enemy movement speed.

I love the change to enemy movement speed after being hit by a rocket. It makes aiming as her a bit easier, and less unpredictable.

I don’t really have much of an opinion on her other changes.

  • Junkrat

Keep Rip-Tire’s buff

First off, it is incredibly cursed to open patch notes and read " Junkrat: no longer has audible footsteps. " I also think that it makes no sense, seeing as he has a pegleg, he’s very clunky, and he’s not a flanking character. He would be loud when he walks. It has no point.

I love Riptire’s change. It makes wall riding with the tire a lot easier.

  • Sombra

Keep Machine Pistol Buff

Before this patch, I would NEVER play Sombra. I couldn’t do enough damage as her. With the buff to her Machine Pistol, it makes it so much easier to get use out of her.

I don’t like the stealth duration. I like to be able to run to point in Stealth as a distraction, and with the 8 second duration, that is incredibly hard.

  • Bastion

I just think bastion is annoying. I would keep the changes, having lack of sentry form is absolutely amazing.

  • Hanzo

PLEASE revert changes to Storm Arrow.

These changes to Storm Arrow make him incredibly boring to play. I understand that Storm Arrow is OP, but a nerf this massive is just annoying and unfun. Hanzo was my main for the longest time but if this change goes live I probably will never touch his character again.

  • Torbjorn

I don’t play Torb, so I don’t really have an opinion on his changes.

  • Ashe

PLEASE keep the reload speed for Ashe.
Keep lack of self-damage from dynamite.

I absolutely LOVE the new reload speed. I no longer have to hide for what seems like ages while Ashe reloads bullet by bullet.

Lack of self damage makes getting out of sticky situations easier, as you could throw dynamite close and shoot it, causing whomever is flanking you to take damage.

  • Cassidy

Revert every. single. change.

First change: Bring back Fan the Hammer. It’s an integral part of Cass’s character that’s been showcased in comics, and even his Reunion animatic. Completely removing it just because Flash + Fan can be a bit op is completely ridiculous and not necessary.

Bring back air-roll. I personally use air roll to get out of a lot of sticky situations, so completely removing it sucks.

  • Reaper

I personally love being able to TP while in Wraith, but it could definitely be abused.

I don’t have an opinion on the other changes.

  • Soldier 76

I don’t really have any opinion on his changes.

  • Widowmaker

I don’t really like her changes. I never really get to use all three mines, so the only thing that is remotely noticeable is the grappling hook change, which was already long enough.

  • Tracer

I like all of her changes, but the ultimate charge is a bit OP.

Support

  • Ana

PLEASE KEEP ALL OF ANA’S CHANGES. IF I HAD TO CHOOSE ONE CHARACTER’S CHANGES TO FULLY KEEP, IT WOULD BE ANA.

Ana’s changes are legendary.

Sleep showing up in kill feed and having an icon, being able to sleep a turret, being able to stop dva’s mech from flying in, all of the sleep changes are worthy of keeping.

The reload speed really helps me get more heals out.

The healing when nanoed helps keep nano w/ ult down, and more Ana players are using it to help out tanks. I personally like that.

  • Baptiste

The jump is a bit silly. I don’t hate it but I wouldn’t keep it.

The immortality change is hit or miss. I mainly save immortality for ults, and with it’s decreased time, it’s going to make staying alive during those ults 10x harder.

I personally just wish I could heal with biotic launcher all of the time, and not just while amplification matrix is active.

  • Brigitte

I don’t play Brigitte, so I do not have an opinion on her changes.

  • Lucio

I love the change to Sound Barrier. The knockback is very helpful.

  • Mercy

Revert the ultimate change.

Giving Mercy mass rez back puts a LARGE target on her. If the other team even SUSPECTS you’re going in for an ult, they hard focus you. That, combined with how easily cancellable it is and how slow it’s ult charge is, it’s horrible. It’s hard to use and it’s very clunky.

I like having Valk as a means to escape but I would prefer it to just be the ult.

  • Moira

Keep Orb changes.

I enjoy the changes to her orbs. Having a choice on it’s speed is nice.

I like being able to lift focused targets with Coalescence.

I don’t really have an opinion on her other changes.

  • Zenyatta

I think Zen’s jump is a bit silly, but it’s nice to use and very useful in combat.

I like the changes to his orbs. Having the role-specific effects with harmony is very nice and fun to use.

  • Symmetra.

Keep her in Support.

Her change will take some getting used to, but she’s just meant to be a support character. Her turrets are amazing as healing turrets instead of damage turrets, her shield ultimate is more support oriented, and her teleporter supports team movement. She is meant for support.

TLDR

Keep: Charge Cancel, HYPERSPHERES, Sigma Shield, D.Va’s slow falling, Mei’s wall, Pharah’s enemy movement speed, rip-tire’s buff, SOMBRA’S MACHINE PISTOL, Ashe’s reload speed + lack of self damage, ALL OF ANA’S CHANGES, Moira’s Orb, Symmetra in support.

Remove: Tank Damage nerf, Orisa Halt, Whole Hog Knockback, STORM ARROW CHANGES, EVERY CASS CHANGE, Mercy’s Ult Change.

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heavily agree with most of this, would love to see what others have to say

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Reinhardt is in a pretty good spot actually. His damage may be a little low, especially with his hammer swings, but his healing reduction and multi pin are doing him wonders. The only problem I have with him is that his charge cancel doesn’t throw the enemy forward, unlike the Reinhardt charge in OW2 footage. So if you cancel it your enemies actually end up behind you.

Orisa is pretty damn strong in every way except raw damage and her ultimate. Her damage is fine, but the ultimate change sucks major donkey. Her Halt tether is actually extremely powerful when used with good timing and situation. You can also drag enemies by moving backwards. I’d like the activation range to be a little longer while maintaining the 6m maximum distance the enemy can pull away from you but other than that it’s pretty fantastic actually. Rein and Orisa are my favorites to play because of their changes.

Zarya is just bad. Her flimsy conditional speed boosting does nothing to make up for her absence of viable damage for her game plan. For Reinhardt and Orisa the damage reduction isn’t the end of the world. But for Zarya it is. She shouldn’t even have her damage reduced by 25% across the board, much less 50%.

I don’t play Sigma but his changes seem overall pretty alright.

I don’t play Hammond but the only interesting additions are the piledriver reducing adaptive shields cooldown and his mines blinding. Not much other reason to play him.

Roadhog’s damage is now a bit lacking but his team oriented healing sounds nice on paper. Only problem is if he needs to heal when his teammates are literally dead. Disincentivizes selfish play but at drastic cost when nearby allies drop like flies before you can pop a heal. I’m not sure how much the damage reduction is hurting his ult because I’ve yet to fight someone who massacred with its absence of knockback yet.

D.va sucks. She does too little damage for her game plan with not enough compensation in other areas. Being floaty and getting bulk ultimate charge for eating a graviton surge, Mei Blizzard, or Pulse Bomb doesn’t make up for it.

Winston sucks for anything besides greater knockback in ult. And even then he can still be shut down.

Barely anyone played Genji in my matches but he seemed alright.

Doomfist is Doomfist except he feels more fluid when you miss targets or are just trying to get around the map and that quality of life change to seismic slam is a super welcome change.

Echo got flat buffs, of course she’s good.

Mei’s Ice Wall is fun as hell and good for getting high ground by her Cryo-Freeze usually body blocks allies more than enemies.

I don’t recall a single person playing Pharah in any of the games I played. If they did she probably just doesn’t feel that different. But the slow on a direct rocket hit is probably pretty good.

Junkrat hasn’t changed much. He can sneak up on you more easily but that’s about it. I can’t even tell if the Rip-Tire speed increase upon detaching from walls even works.

Sombra’s stealth actually hasn’t changed much because of its conditional nature of a full 8 seconds to unstealth quietly. Her hack is more tolerable and her damage output is better. She’s great fun still.

Can this version of Bastion go live until we get OW2 Bastion? Please?

I’d probably prefer this version of Hanzo honestly. Though it scares me to think what high level Hanzos could do to teams lacking in shields. Probably unsettling to watch.

Torbjorn’s primary fire buff is neat. But it probably invalidates his right click if you land headshots consistently enough.

Ashe’s reload actually makes animation canceling with quick melee a viable strategy. Add to that holding down ADS and you actually easily pop a non-ADS and an ADS shot one after the other without much need for practice.

Cassidy feels a bit naked without right click but having his busted firerate back is fun as hell I can’t lie.

Reaper isn’t dominating as hard as I and probably several others anticipated. He can still be annoying with such short cooldowns but he’s not busted.

Soldier changes are boring as sin.

Widowmaker’s grapple hook cooldown being shorter sucks major donkey but the multi venom mines is neat for watching several flank paths up to you.

Tracer sounds okay on paper when going after squishies, but now she has no way to effectively hurt tanks anymore. Her change is just whatever.

Ana just got hilariously buffed. She’s my main support and I appreciate they’re having fun but practically zero reload is busted as balls. The quality of life sleep dart change in the kill feed should go live though. Probably not the icon above an enemy’s head though. That’s just too easy to spot and react to. Also stopping self-destruct from continuing its flight path is neat as hell.

Bap’s immortality field changes exist solely to address his power in high ranks. His other changes are fun and neat.

Brigitte hasn’t changed much beyond a meme whip shot in her ultimate leaving a questionably long cooldown afterward. Maybe ditch the 4 seconds added so a normal one is ready when the ultimate ends?

Lucio doing more damage while wall riding sounds busted. I’ve yet to encounter someone making monstrous use of it but it sounds scary if you can aim effectively while wallriding. His ultimate change is negligible and effectively worthless. Bring back Beat drop kills!

Mercy is a neat change that borders on what I wish would go live. It borders on it solely because of how underpowered this version of Valkerie is for its duration and agonizingly long 20 second cooldown. If they didn’t slow down Valk speed to a crawl and changed the cooldown to 15 seconds I think we’re looking at a much more acceptable and live realistic version of Mercy. However it’s ruined by the fact that most of the Mercys in my matches, shockingly, were waiting for the big rez. Since it’s not nearly as busted as it used to be it baffles me that they’re still trying this. Tempo rez is still king and Mercys losing their ult charge to attempting fat rezzes, especially without Valk active, is heartbreaking.

Moira’s quick melee passive is whatever because she mainly uses her quick melee to try to finish off targets, as most heroes who regularly incorporate it into their game plan do. Maximum resource increase isn’t really necessary but it makes it easier for people with poor management of resource I think. Biotic Orb changes are confusing. I can appreciate two different speeds if they bring back Symmetra deployed barrier, but it just doesn’t really seem to work with Moira. You’re going to want the slow ones most of the time and the fast damage orb only if you’re pretty sure it won’t bounce out of a hallway or room. Just seems like a bad change all around. The Coalescence change is so extra and I love it. Rewarded for good tracking by screwing over your enemy with a life. I can’t lie, that’s just fun.

Zenyatta is so much fun. But damn his Harmony Orb passive for tanks is overpowered as balls. His balls. His floating psychically thrown balls. 20% damage reduction from all sources? Just constantly up so long as he doesn’t change targets and maintains the orb on a tank for at least 2 seconds? Wack. Fun, but wack.

I knew from the moment I saw Symmetra’s numbers that she would be underpowered. With her turrets having zero prioritization and players being at the mercy of whomever they latch onto her healing output leaves a lot to be desired and can be shut down too easily for too long. If they want her like this her raw healing numbers need to be a bit higher, turret targeting needs to be smarter, and she needs some better form of utility. Her teleporter by itself is still great though. I don’t know why someone said it doesn’t fit a support. It’s moving the entire team to a more optimal position. (Or less optimal if you miscalculate or get calculated.) That’s pretty supportive. Absolutely unnecessary damage reduction in her current state. I wouldn’t mind it if her turrets were more effective. Her ultimate also didn’t need a nerf being moved to the support category. It’s already basically a support ult. The numbers didn’t need to be decreased there. 9% reduction of ultimate cost is nice and all, but not worth it.

So yeah, overall I’d call this a pretty positive fun new direction. Just with a few heroes badly underperforming due to a lack of forethought. And while it confuses me why Echo and Ana of all heroes just got flat buffs and not power shifts; I can’t say I’m not having fun with them. I mean I guess in Echo’s case it does compensate somewhat for her duplicating tanks not being quite as potentially godly.

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Haven’t played yet but in theory I love the Tracer ult cost but think the dmg is too high. I actually wanted pulse to be a low dmg CD ability but I’d settle for this concept instead.

150 dmg might be more reasonable; requires more work on her part to secure a squishy kill and gives the squishy more of a chance to survive.

Tracer surviving her own bomb is pretty big, because she can now overlap explosive burst dmg with close range gunfire, whereas in live she has to blink or recall away after a sticky, which momentarily degrades DPS. Don’t know if I’d keep this change. Was all explosive self dmg removed?

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look, i gotta disagree on most of these things. i know in higher levels these changes are probably better but most of the player base including myself is lower level.

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I’m just a gold player though … My profile isn’t private either. I mean I’m flattered at the thought that I’m thinking six parallel universes ahead of most of the playerbase but I’m an average player as well and these are just my honest thoughts.

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These changes suck.

And i’m high-masters.

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still, a lot of the things that were taken out (that you enjoy being gone ) are things that are almost detrimental to low level gameplay. i’m talking low low gold down to bronze / qp.

i’m not trying to say you can’t have those opinions, i just don’t agree. :man_shrugging:

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I thought I was going to love this too until I played her. It feels really sluggish and throws me off. Especially when I throw dynamite mid reload and realize I have to start the reload animation all over again. Perhaps it’s because I’m so used to her current reload tho. Coach gun having a slightly longer cooldown isn’t fun either >.<

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yeah, things like that will have to take some getting used to, but in the end it’s so much better than current, live reload.

i also don’t really like the coach gun but i don’t play her enough to have a say in that specific area, i never really use coach when i play her

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I normally use coach gun as an escape as it’s her only mobility, tho having it on a longer cooldown you’d have to be more wary of when to use it. Would take some getting used to as well :stuck_out_tongue:

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I haven’t tried it yet, but I still think I prefer her reload on live. I never spend the time to fully reload midfight, only a few shots while repositioning. Maybe I’m just use to it after maining her, but it feels fine the way it is. But maybe my opinion will change… Whenever the card comes back.

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I used to main Ashe and I always forget to reload so I get stuck in a loop where I’m firing one shot and then immediately reloading one bullet and firing again. Being able to fully reload in 2 seconds flat is almost a godsend.

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