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.
I disagree. Reaper got the healing buff when Wraith Form and Shadow Step were still terrible, after they got buffed the extra healing was just extra icing on the cake, and it made him near impossible to eliminate in 1v1 situations. This change makes him balanced, as you’ll still be able to flank behind your opponents with Shadow Step, get one or two eliminations, and then Wraith Form away before they can do anything about it. It will make it more difficult for Reaper to fight tanks, but they got nerfed as well.
1 Like
Reaper was a bit if a nightmare as a tank, so it needed to happen. I’d be fine with a compensation buff that is skillbased so higher levels can make work with it.
low ranked tank plahers shut down by lower ranked reaper players, nerf sounds fair 
just land more headshots 
He did the life steal nerf but he definitely needed a compensation buff, specifically to his shadow step since it’s such an awful ability. Giving the ability a small smoke cloud that does damage would discourage people from just standing where repear will be coming in and shooting him point blank and if he escapes he’ll make room around him and not be as vulnerable.
2 Likes
The 30% nerf makes the passive kind of a joke.
They never said that though… What they really did state was that they wouldn’t balance the game mainly around low/mid skill brackets, but would always pay close attention to how balance changes affected those ranks as well…
And really, since balancing for either of the two extremes would be absolutely catastrophical for the game’s overall health, the balance philosophy that the states is pretty much perfect for a game designed like Overwatch…
What to do when the enemy reaper goes with their tank?