It has potential to be a very controversial move, risky.
It could upset some portion of players, unless they sacrifice it for a different defense cooldown, or they don’t care and risk removing it to please the brawler audience, but I believe they wouldn’t revert its old durability level if they planned on giving her other buffs / changes.
Orisa’s problem was always about when she was meta in high ranks and OWL, cause at that level they mirror match. Mirror matching her means you get to spam the other Orisa’s barrier (or any other double barrier comp), while you’re slow and don’t have a spike-damage combo of your own, which feels slow paced and unappealing for them.
if they replace it with a different defensive ability it should be fine, her shields a bit dodgy in ow1 so maybe having another more frequent ability could be pretty cash money
Did they say they’ll be removing her barrier in the rework? I imagined that running solo tank would ease certain problems that barriers come with.
I want to see what they have in store, but I do think that just making Orisa’s barrier able to be recalled & repositioned (like Sigma, with a resource) would do a lot to force barrier downtime and promote counterplay in Orisa duels.
So long as it’s not an “all or nothing” ability like Rein charge or Hog’s Hook. I like Orisa for her multitasking kit and stackable abilities. Don’t want that to go away.
They’ve always got Orisa wrong with power:cooldown ratios.
We have a terrible barrier, limited by how the CD triggers (no, it doesn’t feel good to fire it into the sky because you want it on the next map!) and how they released Sigma overcooked.
Halt! is useless, because it’s unreliable and only serves to dump a slow maintank up and down every 6 seconds, which is funny for about… 6 seconds! It doesn’t actually stop fast heroes properly–especially if they’re using a movement ability.
The only decent thing she has (in terms of midfight gameplay) is Fortify.
She needs a good shield experience (and possibly the means to ‘redeploy it’ somehow). And she needs a MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better shooting experience. And no movement penalty.
At this point they’d probably would balance solo tanks with mirror matches in mind. They wouldn’t want a “spam the barrier” meta with slow team fights.
I agree that a recall & redeploy barrier for her would go towards that purpose more than a CD based one.
I believe it’s gone (seriously), and I think she will have a shield about a tad large than Brig’s and fire through it while also gaining some kind of Gallop or charge ability. The shield I think will take the place of what she does now when she armors up.
Could you imagine if they made ALL barriers work like Ball’s? That’d be so funny.
Like they can’t make Rein’s but it’d be really hilarious (just as someone who plays tank but gets whined at about barriers every day I play, even if I’m on Winston).
If they want to properly rework Orisa’s Barrier, then they should go for a Destiny 2 Legionnairesque type, where she can plant in with the barrier to block oncoming damage, but cannot move herself.
If they wanted to further improve upon this idea, they’d ditch Halt for a Mortar Strike that can be activated while she is in Barricade Form.
Orisa has always felt the most tank like in the game, I’d prefer they improve upon this and make her an immobile anchor, instead of just giving everyone mobility.
Like she’s the tank you pick when you want to just hard commit to a position. No need to give her movement buffs or try and make her something she’s not. Commit to the anchor.
The fear, at least mine, is that if Blizzard has a problem and 2 different solutions they tend to do both instead of just one. By making 5v5 they make double barrier impossible but knowing them they will also take away Orisa’s and Sigma’s barriers just for reasons.
I mean, with double shield gone you would assume barriers could regain some power and yet both Winston and Rein had reduced barrier health.
Replace it with an offensive ability. Like give her Bob’s charge with a knockup. The hero with horse legs should not be the the slowest just standing on a spot shooting into another barrier, but actually do something and engage into battle. Combo it with a hook or something while someone is airborn and that’s a more fun mechanic that can also be dodged than “pulling main” from afar.
I’m not sure I agree. I think halt is actually Orisa’s best ability, being able to pull players out of cover and/or shields is very useful for a 6 second cd, especially if you have a sniper that can get an easy pick when you pull.
I think they’ll remove it and I don’t think we going to see more barriers on future tanks.
Rein, Sigma and Winston sort of cover the 3 types of barrier you can have. Sigma especially if infinitely better designed for a poke tank barrier then Orisa. That plus the fact they want to shift away from big rectangle fights means that new defensive abilities will probably be seen on future tanks.
I think fortify is a cool ability to focus her kit around, maybe making it a resource like defense matrix or something. Turns her into an unstoppable juggernaut with a machine gun. That’s a much more fun hero to build around then bunker horse.
my guess is that the barrier won’t be immobile anymore, remember tanks are going to be more of a brawler now so having an anchor tank doesn’t seem like it would work, possibly her barrier will work kind of like Sigma’s where she can re deploy almost at will but it’ll still be grounded and stuff
