Playing Wrecking Ball is fun, but

General Discussion
1

Hammond has taught me a couple of things.

See, normally, I play Sombra. Or a support. Or Symmetra. Some variation of a squishy hero. I would sometimes pick Orisa, just because a tank was probably needed and it was the only one I didn’t completely suck at / not like.

But now I play Hammond. He’s fun. Very fun. I enjoy diving everything, I don’t care if I end up feeding or not. It’s just fun to smash into people and piledrive them and drop mines from above THEN piledrive them so they land in them. It’s fun, he’s fun, and I’m having tons of fun playing him. FUN.

Moving on…

So what did I learn?

I learned why some people complain about the things that they complain about. I used to get it, like “yeah man, that sounds like it sucks, yup. /nod” I was always a squishy hero. The things they complained about would hit me once or twice and I’d be dead anyway.

BUT NOW. I’m Wrecking Ball. Hammond. Whatever.

There are things that I get now.

Lots of beating around the bush. Sorry. Rambling. I think I had too much caffeine, sugar, and fun playing Hammond. Has me going on over nothing.

Stuff I get:

Hanzo really does melt tanks. Melts em. MELTS. Before I’d play squishy people and be like “Hanzo and his OHK stuff is CRAP”, which I still think is the case, but now I’m a tank, and I die so fast I don’t even know what happened, and almost every time there’s a Storm Arrow icon next to my name. Pew pew pew pew pew pew dead. If I see a Reaper I roll out and usually live. If I see a Hanzo my best bet is to try and play wildly around him and pray he’s bad.

Stuns suck. Stuns suck a lot. Reinhardt. Man. Dude. Guy. I get it. Get. It. I’ve been stunned. Frozen. Knocked around. (I see the irony of that bit, considering I’m playing Wrecking Ball) Trapped. Slept more times than I can count. Hacked (albeit not super often. Sombra, who plays her? Psh.). Usually, it’s a combination of all of it together. I have definitely eaten 4 CCs back to back and been totally annihilated. I have also been frozen, double ice picked, frozen, double ice picked, frozen, double ice picked, in that order until I eventually died and there was nothing I could do about it. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Dead. I’ve been shield bashed, flashbanged, and Halt!ed all at once. No chance!

So tanks. Tanks that still tank. I get it now. I get it and I can’t believe you guys haven’t straight up thrown in the towel. The fact that you deal with this junk on a regular basis is admirable. It’s also crazy. You’re crazy. Crazy in the braincase.

https://zippy.gfycat.com/WigglyAggravatingAllensbigearedbat.gif

How is it totally okay to take a big steaming CC dump on people to the point where all of their extra health and armor doesn’t mean diddly? At least if Sombra hacks me I can shoot people and move, so it doesn’t feel too super awful. Every hard stun is like “SHIELD SHIELD SHIELD SHIELD AND ROLL AND ROLL ROLL AND HOPE I GET OUT” while going “WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP” like Curly from the Stooges. Or Zoidberg.

ANYWAY. I’m going back to playing Wrecking Ball!

7 Likes
2

Same thing again!

Stun stun stun stun stun SPAMZO DEATH stun stun stun stun.

It’s bananas.

1 Like
3

I mean, I know that stuns suck, that Hanzo can melt tanks, etc etc, but this has always been the case. Before Brig it was doom, before doom it was McCree or Roadhog. Before storm arrow it was scatter. These aren’t new changes to the game.

4

I have an idea about the stun mechanism. How about, every stun you take in battle, reduces the duration of further stuns? McCree stuns you for 1 second, next stun will last 0.9 seconds, next 0.8 seconds etc until 0.5 seconds (or whatever number you want). This formula was tested on Paladins before (but they removed it about a year ago) and I think it will make the stun meta less powerful. Still, stuns will destroy some abilities (apparently, if our beloved boy Hanzo Balanced Shimada gets stun during Spam Arrows duration he doesn’t loose his ability, and he continues to spam) and some Ultimates like Reaper’s etc.

But returning to WB, I think he is balanced (maybe 20 more ammo will make him better but no op). The bad thing is that he is a magnet without self-healing (like Roadhog), but think it from the good perspective. They stun you, they hit you, they freeze you but your allies are free to wreck them, even if you cant wreck anything! You are a sponge for your team.

5

I know. I think it was a matter of “being aware of them” turning into “WOW I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND NOW”. Like trading out a light bulb for a floodlight.

Also referred to as “diminishing returns”, which I wouldn’t totally mind. Especially after my chain frozen by Mei scenario.

I’m waffling on that. On the one hand, I get why it’s the ammo it is. Piledrive-shoot while falling can kill most squishy heroes if you land enough headshots. It may be too hard to get away from if a player with lower aim can’t confirm a kill because they are hitting mostly body shots and they don’t have to reload. Like me! Body shots, body shots everywhere!

Which is why I slam in to them and bug the heck out! Only to trick them and immediately slam into them again!

Seriously. Having so much fun right now.

I hope they knock a second or two off the shield so I can be even spongier. Wishful thinking, but would be awesome!

6

man the worse feeling as hammond is mei its the most pure bs unfair matchup once she gets you frozen its over your on a one way ticket to getting chain frozen over and over again until your dead or by some miracle a teammate helps you.

7

And then you trade back when you play those heroes who get crushd by the tanks, even if they can stun or melt them.

8

Who is this Wrecking ball character? Is it hero 29?

9

I’ve gotten out of that chain freeze. It’s a pain, don’t get me wrong, but if you can get moving with the grapple you’ll inch out of her range, and the shield will help.

10

ive gotten away from it to from time to time but still god does she suck all the fun of playing him xD

11

NO one likes getting Frozen, it’s just worse for wrecking ball because he has the health to last longer, but still dies to it.

I think it’s fine though. Mei has a hero she’s super good against

12

Man, I reread my OP and you would think I was on crack when I wrote that. Playing Wrecking Ball is a total blast and definitely gets me worked up.

There are a few things that I have seen while playing him that confuse me because of consistency reasons, but the few answers I have seen so far to posited questions about them are usually fairly acceptable.

Still, hats off to the main tanks again that deal with chain CC and sudden deletion on a regular basis. When I have those moments of 600-dead in a second I can only ever sit and stare blankly at the respawn timer wondering what the heck happened.

I’m already excited to get off work and play more Wrecking Ball.