He was fine after armor buffs. They just nerfed him for shut low elo complainers.
39 Likes
Basically.
17 Likes
But I thought devs only listened to gmers, according to some around here
5 Likes
Low elos contain most of the players, I don’t see the nerf as a bad thing.
36 Likes
The nerf was needed for low bracket who didn’t understand that they shouldn’t be close to reaper.
I hope we see some buffs with shadow step (by that I mean, replace shadow step with anything else)
2 Likes
You sure? They said that they wont balance around lower levers bud.
And -10% aint even that much. Have you even tried the ptr nerf before complaining about it?
Cause I highly doubt that. I can say that I played him pretty fine when I tested him on ptr.
2 Likes
More like -25%. It only has 75% of its previous effectiveness
2 Likes
And yet right now he is the least picked hero with the lowest win rate other than Bastion in high ranks. If they balanced him around high ranks, they actually would’ve buffed him.
5 Likes
And where you get those winrates from?
Just cause overbuff says something doesnt mean it’s true. I see reaper being played daily but just cause he aint meta doesnt mean that people doesnt play offmeta heroes at all regardless what the rank is.
They never said that. They said that they will primarily balance around high levels, but if something is really bad in low levels then they will balance for them.
They felt that Reaper was very excessive in lower ranks stll, so they changed him. It’s as blatant as when they went way overboard with Symmetra.
Can you link me where ever they say this btw?
Nothing will change for Reaper. The HP drain wasn’t his strength.
Its his ability to flank and get out. Teleport behind, kill the healer or DPS, do as much damage as you can to the rest of the team, fade out and get back to your team. And during the heat of battle its easy to Shadow step behind the enemy and repeat.
2 Likes
There you go. Actually used him as their example of too weak in higher and too strong in lower, and next thing you know,
he’s nerfed.
5 Likes
Eh this nerf is fine, seeing as he still has his really good CDs. Tanks needing nerfing before healing could be nerfed and healing needed nerfing before they could nerf DPS. First 2 just happened, now you see what’s coming
He absolutely needs it. It’s far too easy to get value out of him in lower ranks and disproportionately hard to counter him in lower ranks.
I hate to break it to you, but people below diamond matter too
2 Likes
reapers needs a massive change… he is to low effort / high rewards. especially on lowe ranks.
He will be easier to kill, so I’ll take it.
The lifesteal buff was bad by design. A buff should ideally increase a hero’s opportunities for skill expression and not reduce them. Giving a hero an easier victory for the same amount of effort is warranted in some circumstances, but not for Reaper whose kit has always been hindered by its low skill cap.
With 40% lifesteal, Reaper won too many of his interactions not because he earned them, but because he was essentially programmed to. A wide variety of heroes don’t have the features in their kits to avoid being shot by Reaper’s spread and therefore often have little control over the health they feed him. The lifesteal nerf makes things a lot more fair.
This doesn’t mean Reaper is balanced either though. He’ll probably need compensation buffs in the near future, but these buffs should facilitate Reaper’s ability to legitimately outplay his opponents rather than out-sustain them.
7 Likes
While normally I’m all for balancing heroes around pro play, Reaper was definitely an exception.
3 Likes
Low elos usually arent factored into decisions about balance but on occasion blizzard does adjust heroes that are particularly obnoxious at low levels.
I think it’s a fair concession for a game that’s typically much more focused on its pro scene.